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Valley of
the Golden Mummies
Three years ago, an
antiquities guard was riding his donkey. The leg of the donkey fell down and a
hole was discovered because of this event. The Inspectors of Antiquities of
Bahria started an excavation in this area and found the beginning of a cemetery
of mummies.
 In March 1999, I
took a team of archaeologists, architects, restorators, conservators and
engineers and started the largest expedition ever done in Egypt.
We established a large camp in the area which is located about 6 km from the
town of El Bawiti, the capital of Bahria Oasis. We conducted a survey and found
out that the cemetery extended about 6 km square.
We started the excavation in four tombs only and found 105 mummies inside of
them. The mummies are in good condition which shows the richness of the people
in that time.
They are of four kinds:
Mummies which are guided, covered with a very thin layer of gold;
Mummies covered with cartonage and scenes depicted, such as gods and goddesses.
For example, Anubis of the embalment, Osiris, Isis, and the four children of
Horus as well as the god Toth. All these gods are connected with the judgment;
 The third type are mummies inside
anthropoid coffins (these are coffins made of pottery with human faces);
The last style are mummies wrapped with linen.
Lots of artifacts were found near the mummies, such as statues of mourning
ladies made of pottery. Other artifacts, such as different types of pottery in
the shapes of God Bes, the dwarf god of pleasure and fun.
Also, other artifacts including bracelets, earrings and coins were found. The
study of these coins reveal that this find is dated from the Greek Period to the
Roman Period.
The Tombs consist of an entrance, delivery room and two burial chambers. One of
the mummies is a guilded lady with her head turned toward the face of her
husband with love and affection. Others are buried as a family group, with their
children. The mummies of the children were covered with gold. Another woman has
a crown with four decorative rows of red-colored curls. The third and fourth
rows are missing significant pieces. Beneath the crown the hairstyle is similar
to that of Terracotta statues. Behind the ears appears the goddess Isis on one
side and Nephthys on the other - these protect the deceased with their wings.
The decorative scenes
show an abbreviated form of the judgment of the dead. In these scenes we see the
god Osiris on his throne while Anubis weighs the heart of the dead against the
feather of Maat. Meanwhile, Toth records the result of the weighing process and
reports it to Osiris.
Anubis, who is portrayed
on the mummies, played an important role in several ways. First is his well
attested role in the judgment scenes - it is he who operates the scale on which
the heart is weighed against the feather. Second is his performance of the
embalming - a basic condition for rebirth. Anubis protects the body of the
deceased and assists in its revival. Therefore, we find Anubis in the
representations on coffins and mummy masks performing mummification rites.
The Uraeus appears on the head of some of the mummies belonging to non-royal
persons, this probably indicates desire of the deceased to have a
transfiguration similar to that of a king.
In the Roman Period, different elements appear - such as crowns and the use of a
kings or gods beard of Uraeus, were taken from the royal cult and used by the
public.
We expect to find at least 10,000 mummies in this cemetery. We preserved mostly
all the mummies in situ, but we did move only a few to a room in the Bahria
inspectorate to show them to the public.
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