Golden Mummies Abound at Bahariya Oasis

By Pat McDonnell Twair

“The best discoveries come by surprise,” was certainly an understatement by Dr. Zahi Hawass, director general of antiquities at Giza and Saqqara, as he opened a talk on the accidental find of what may be the largest concentration of mummies in the world.

Speaking to a large audience from the Southern California Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, Dr. Hawass said that three years ago in the oasis town of Bahariya, a donkey stumbled near a temple dedicated to Alexander the Great. The animal’s leg broke through a layer of solid material beneath the sand. It turned out to be the ceiling of an underground tomb.

Dr. Hawass headed an archeological team that began a preliminary study of the site around Alexander’s temple last spring. The ebullient archeologist, who holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, said that Bahariya—which is a three-and-a-half-hour drive southwest of Cairo–was a very important and prosperous oasis center during the Greco-Roman period in Egypt.

“The climate was more temperate than now,” Hawass said. “The people grew wheat and became rich from date wine and grains they exported. The people became so wealthy, they could afford great coffins and elaborate burials, all within the protection of the temple of Alexander the Great.”

Hawass surveyed the site, which probably supported a population of 30,000. Judging by its time frame (323 B.C. to 400 A.D.), he estimates that as many as 10,000 mummies may be buried in a four-square-mile area. What’s more, there was no evidence in the four intact tombs his team opened that grave robbers were aware of this vast cemetery.

Researchers so far have examined 105 mummies. And, except for five of them, all will be reburied.

“We carefully photograph and draw the mummies and have even transported a couple of them to Giza to be X-rayed. But eventually, we will return them to their resting place. I do not believe the remains of the dead should be exposed to the public as a thrill,” he commented.

There is little chance that modern grave robbers will be able to get their hands on the richer burials, inasmuch as Hawass has hired a small army of sentries to guard the site.

The plenitude of coins, pottery, sculptures and other artifacts found in the tombs will, Hawass says, enable archeologists to establish for the first time a chronology differentiating the Greek Ptolemaic period (from 332 B.C. at the time of Alexander’s death to 30 B.C. upon the demise of Cleopatra VII) from the Roman occupation (30 B.C. to 400 A.D.).

“So far, we have not uncovered mummies that could be identified as Greek or Roman,” he continued. “They assimilated and lived just as the Egyptian elite did, but I presume their burials will be much richer than the ones we so far have found.”

Each underground tomb, Hawass reasons, belonged to a single family and mummies were interred over generations.

The first tomb his team entered contained 29 mummies whose heads and torsos were covered by gypsum masks covered with gold leaf.

As his team explored the open tomb, he said, “at high noon, when the sun shown into the tomb, it became ablaze with reflections of the gold.”

The wealthiest people of Bahariya, landowners, administrators, merchants and perhaps priests were buried with these gold-plated masks.

A second category were mummies buried inside human-shaped clay coffins painted with scenes of Egyptian deities. Hawass assumes these sarcophagi held artisans, craftsmen, scholars and scribes.

Workers apparently were wrapped in linen and resemble the bandage-wrapped mummies portrayed in Hollywood thrillers of the 1940s.

A fourth category is child burials, many of which were covered entirely with gold leaf.

All but five of the mummies so far recovered were in remarkably good condition, he disclosed.

Hundreds of gold, silver and copper coins were found in the tombs. Three of the copper specimens bore the profile of Cleopatra VII, who tried to preserve her kingdom by forging alliances with Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. The coins played a role in religious beliefs that the dead could use them to pay a ferryman to take them to the next world.

Twenty-two clay statuettes depict women in various postures of mourning for the dead. Gilded masks, scarabs, jewelry and a sculpture of the dwarf deity, Bes, the god of pregnancy, fun and laughter will be on display when the Egyptian government opens a museum at the restored Temple of Alexander the Great. Some painted tombs also will be opened to the public Nov. 1.

Hawass says he travels the 200 miles from Giza at least twice a month. His team has located a wine factory of the kind that made the ancient Bahariyans so wealthy. He has great expectations of learning more about the people when excavations begin on a palace he believes was the administrative center of the area.

Although each month brings new discoveries in Egypt, Hawass says, he personally is advocating that a moratorium be called on all excavations for three years. This would make it possible to focus all archeological efforts in the country on conservation and salvage projects for existing monuments.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.