PRESS RELEASE - JANUARY 2008

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), announced that a Russian-American archaeological mission has discovered a group of well-preserved Graeco-Roman mummies covered in cartonnage, during their routine excavation work at the Deir el-Banat necropolis in Faiyum.

Hawass added that the mission uncovered three coffins decorated with religious texts from the Book of the Dead. A mummy in a bad state of preservation was found in one of these coffins with her face covered by a gilded mask. Bracelets, jewelry, and forty textile fragments decorated with an anchor crossed with key signs were also unearthed.

Galina Belova, the director of the Russian mission, asserted that a facial reconstruction will be done on the female mummy next season. She also explained that the restoration of ceramic and faience vessels excavated during previous seasons has been completed.

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