A Spanish mission working at the ancient site of Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa, in Minya) has found a Roman tomb containing wooden coffins and a number of mummies, three with gold tongues, and one with a tongue of copper. Some of the mummies were wrapped in bandages decorated with geometric patterns, and had traces of gold leaf on their heads. The team also made a rather surprising discovery: a rare papyrus found inside the abdomen of one of the mummies bore text from the second book of Homer’s Iliad.
Text: Sarah Griffiths / Images: Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, unless otherwise stated
