The Egyptian archaeological mission working at the necropolis of Meir in the city of El-Quseyya, Asyut Governorate, has uncovered ancient buildings and a number of burials dating back to the Byzantine era.
Mostafa Waziry, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, emphasized the importance of the discoveries, which indicate the importance of the Meir site in ancient times.
Waziry said text detailing supplications to ancient deities was found on the walls of one of the buildings, written in black ink in eight horizontal lines in Coptic script, surrounded by shelves of mud and hay that were likely used to store supplies and manuscripts.
Adel Okasha, head of the Central Archaeological Department for Antiquities in Middle Egypt, said the buildings, discovered in Meir’s upper cemetery, consisted of a courtyard and a number of rooms attached to them, storage rooms, and a fireplace.
The burials were uncovered in the lower cemetery, with parts of wooden coffins, human remains, and some funerary furniture found.
Okasha said one of the burials was thought to be a woman, whose coffin was found in a poor state, from which a mask, clay pots, blue and black faience beads and two copper mirrors were recovered.
The necropolis of Meir contains elaborate tomb monuments, with many ancient rulers buried there. It is also the site of a group of rock tombs, which are brightly colored and contain depictions of daily life, including hunts, farming, games and sports, as well as scenes of wine-making and bread production.
In March, the American archaeological mission affiliated with New York University, working in the vicinity of the temple of Rameses II in Abydos, southern Egypt, uncovered more than 2,000 mummified ram heads dating back to the Ptolemaic era, in addition to a huge building from the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt.