An ancient Greco-Roman cemetery was discovered at the Tel Kom Aziza archaeological site in Beheira Governorate in northern Egypt, the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced last week.
Excavation of the site revealed multiple different types of burial, from simple burial pits where the deceased were directly interred in the soil to those with frames made from mud bricks.
Several painted plaster and barrel-shaped pottery coffin, among those most common coffin types in the Ptolemaic period, were also found at the site.
Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities noted that the burial orientations didn’t only vary in method, but it in position as well.
Orientation of the burials varied between north–south and east–west axis, Leithy explained, adding that the hand positions of the deceased differed between folded or crossed over the pelvis, around the neck, in the distinctive Osirian position with arms crossed over the chest, or straight alongside the thighs.
Additionally, complete burials of wild boars were found at the site - a rare discovery in ancient Egyptian funerary sites given the animal’s association with the deity Set.
Older artifacts found at the site also show the cemetery had been built above older settlement levels, with finds dating back to Egypt’s Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, the Late Period, all the way into the Greek and Roman eras.
Such artifacts included pottery and stone vessels used in daily life, bread molds, multi-purpose stone tools, a collection of ovens and storage vessels, as well as a large quantities of fish, bird, and animal bones.
Mohamed Abdel-Badie, Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the excavations represents a “multi-period archaeological site, that witnessed settlement and habitation activities since the earliest phases of ancient Egyptian history, before transitioning in later periods into an area of intensive funerary activity.”
Further, the site serves as a “comprehensive archaeological record documenting diverse patterns of human interaction with the surrounding environment across successive historical eras,” according to Badie.
“This new archaeological discovery reflects the great importance of the Tel Kom Aziza site as one of the most promising archaeological sites in the Delta region,” said Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy.
Its significance, he noted, is not limited to the discovered funerary remains alone, but alslo provides a comprehensive picture of the evolution of settlement patterns, daily life, and human-environment interaction across thousands of years.
Ancient Egyptian tombs, coffins discovered at Luxor necropolis site
In May, archaeological excavations at a necropolis on the Nile River’s west bank have uncovered a plethora of previously unrecorded individuals and ancient Egyptian artifacts, the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced on Friday.
The excavations, which began in November 2025, are taking place in the area of Draʻ Abu el-Naga’s necropolis, located on the Luxor West Bank in Egypt.
It has been focused on the southeastern part of the tomb of Roy, an 18th Dynasty royal scribe and his wife, which has been covered in debris from archaeological missions from over a century ago.
In the courtyard between the tomb of Roy and the nearby tomb of Baki, archaeologists have discovered a collection of 10 wooden coffins hidden within a burial shaft. All 10 were found to be in good condition, bearing a variety of scenes and texts.
According to preliminary studies, four of the coffins date to the 18th Dynasty, including one bearing the name of Merit, believed to be a chantress of Amun.
A second coffin, dating to the Ramesside period (the 19th and 20th Dynasty periods), bears the name Padi-Amun (“he who Amun gave”), who was a priest in the Temple of Amun.
The remaining coffins dated to the Late Period of Egypt, circa 664–332 BCE, which encompassed the 26th-31st dynasties.