Coloured portraits of mummies unearthed in EgyptArchaeologists Have Unearthed the First Full-Color P

The excavation at Gerza also turned up papyri, pottery, and coffins dating back to the Ptolemaic period.

Vittoria Benzine, December 8, 2022




One of the newly discovered Fayoum mummy portraits. Photo: Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Egyptian archaeologists completing their 10th season of excavations at Gerza, 75 miles southwest of modern day Cairo, have announced the excavation of two full mummy portraits and further fragmentary portraits—the first unique examples of such paintings to meet daylight in more than 115 years. The team also turned up mummies, papyri, pottery, and coffins all dating back to Gerza’s founding as Philadelphia during the Ptolemaic period (305–30 B.C.E.) through the Roman era (30 B.C.E.—390 C.E.).

A release from the Egyptian government explains that King Ptolemy II (309–246 B.C.E.) established Philadelphia as a bucolic central village as part of his agricultural reclamation project to secure food resources for his greater empire. Researchers have been digging at the multicultural site, once inhabited by Greeks and Egyptians alike, since 2016.

According to Adel Okasha, head of Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the mission’s latest season explored a semi-subterranean funerary house “with a floor made of colored lime mortar and decorated with interchangeable tiles.” The building provides access to its own narrow street, and there’s a structure outside its southern facade where archaeologists found the remains of four columns. Inside, the funerary building spans six large-scale mud-brick tombs with “mass graves in the catacomb style.”

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Also named Fayoum portraits for their plentiful numbers in the Fayoum Oasis, these full-color portraits of the wealthy deceased rank among the most detailed ancient paintings known today. Gehad told Artnet News that most of the previously discovered portraits ended up with Viennese art collector, dealer, and carpet entrepreneur Theodor Graf, who counted museums across Europe and America and individuals like Sigmund Freud as his clients.

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https://news.artnet.com/art-world/fayoum-mummy-portraits-gerza-egypt-philadelphia-2225766