Archaeologists have discovered ancient mummies buried with stunning, lifelike portraits of the deceased. Mummies
Its ruins are located approximately 120 kmsouthwest of Cairo in the Fayoum district. The city was founded during the Ptolemaic period (304–30 BC), when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of pharaohs descended from one of the generals of Alexander the Great. At the same time, Philadelphia continued to prosper even after the fall of the dynasty and the capture of Egypt by the Romans.
During excavations in the ancient necropolis, archaeologists discovered two complete portraits of the mummy, as well as half-complete and incomplete portraits. All of them are written on linen shrouds.
One of the newfound mummy portraits shown here is painted on a linen shroud.
Image courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
According to experts, people whoburied in this context in Philadelphia are likely to belong to the upper middle class or elite. Such realistic portraits were very expensive; not everyone could afford them. The authors of the study believe that they were painted by artists from Alexandria, an Egyptian city on the Mediterranean coast.
Archaeologists rarely find portraits of mummies.Until now, they had been found during archaeological excavations in the 1880s. In addition to the mummy portraits, archaeologists found a statue depicting Isis-Aphrodite, an Egyptian-Greek goddess associated with love. They also discovered remains of papyri containing demotic (Egyptian cursive) and Greek writing. The papyri contain information about the social, economic and religious status of the people who lived in the area.
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