Tuna el-Gebel (, ) was the

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

of Khmun (

Hermopolis Magna Hermopolis (or ''Hermopolis Magna'') was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. Its Egyptian name ''Khemenu'' derives from the eight deities (the Ogdoad) said to reside in the city. A provincial capi ...

). It is the largest known

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

necropolis in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, dating from the

New Kingdom New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

to the

Roman Period The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

, and seeing heavy use in the

Ptolemaic Period The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a companion of Alexander the Great, and ruled ...

. Tuna el-Gebel is located in

Al Minya Governorate Minya ( ') is one of the governorates of Upper Egypt. Its capital city, Minya, is located on the left bank of the Nile River. Etymology The name originates from the chief city of the governorate, originally known in Sahidic Coptic as ''Tmoone' ...

Middle Egypt Middle Egypt () is the section of land between Lower Egypt (the Nile Delta) and Upper Egypt, stretching upstream from Asyut in the south to Memphis, Egypt, Memphis in the north. At the time, Ancient Egypt was divided into Lower and Upper Egypt, ...

History

Although most tombs and activities are from the Ptolemaic to Roman periods, there is at least one temple dating back to

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

. It may be dedicated to Amenhotep III,

Thoth Thoth (from , borrowed from , , the reflex of " eis like the ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an African sacred ibis, ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine count ...

, and other local gods. There are also a small number of New Kingdom tombs. The necropolis in Tuna el-Gebel during the Late Period was mostly an animal cemetery. The most common burials took place in underground galleries and were of mummies of

ibis The ibis () (collective plural ibises; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...

es and

baboon Baboons are primates comprising the biology, genus ''Papio'', one of the 23 genera of Old World monkeys, in the family Cercopithecidae. There are six species of baboon: the hamadryas baboon, the Guinea baboon, the olive baboon, the yellow ba ...

s representing Thoth, as well as all kinds of bird mummies. These were most likely a result of nearby animal preserves or breeding areas, as well as local Thoth worship.Lembke, p. 232 The Ptolemaic Period saw a rise in use of the necropolis. In at least the late fourth century BC, two brothers and priests of Thoth, Petosiris and Djed-Thoth-iu-ef-ankh built the first large tombs. Petosiris built his tomb 200 meters south of the animal necropolis near a temple of Thoth. Early Ptolemaic tombs were built of large stones with reliefs and smooth surfaces, later stone tombs have smaller stones and intentionally rough surfaces. Though stone tombs would continue to be built throughout the Roman Period, tombs made of

mud brick Mudbrick or mud-brick, also known as unfired brick, is an air-dried brick, made of a mixture of mud (containing loam, clay, sand and water) mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. Mudbricks are known from 9000 BCE. From ...

would also be introduced. While some early tombs are in a T shape, most are rectangular. The stone tombs were generally nicer than mud brick ones, and indicative of a wealthier person’s burial. In addition to more traditional tombs, some tombs consist of either stone or mud brick pillars. They are too narrow to allow a body to be put inside. Many have areas or niches for urns, though some may have their respective bodies buried underneath them. While the early tombs were expensive and showed off wealth, later tombs were more economical. The Roman period came with tombs of cheaper material and multiple stories for fitting multiple people. Some stone tombs were even used as mass graves. Recycling stone tombs was also a trend, usually by placing mummies inside an already existing tombs or constructing second stories on top of tombs. The famous tomb of Petosiris had several secondary burials. While most people buried in Tuna el-Gebel during the Roman Period were of Egyptian origin, the main burial style was Greek, and got increasingly Greek over time. Early burials had mummies hidden in underground galleries, and later mummies were on the floor, until finally mummies were put on full display. However even as time went on, mummification was extremely popular.

Noteworthy Tombs

Tomb of Petosiris

The tomb of Petosiris was one of the earliest full tombs in the necropolis, and the most elaborate. It was constructed of large stone blocks and had high quality reliefs as well as underground galleries. Chemical analysis suggests that the reliefs used red, yellow, black, blue and green pigments, sometimes combined to create new colors. During the third and second centuries BC, Petosiris's tomb became a site of pilgrimage, and many travelers left inscriptions in Greek. However, by the late Ptolemaic period, Petosiris's tomb was being recycled to house other people's mummies.

Tomb and chapel of Isadora

Isadora was a wealthy and beautiful young woman living in

Hermopolis Hermopolis (or ''Hermopolis Magna'') was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. Its Egyptian name ''Khemenu'' derives from the eight deities (the Ogdoad) said to reside in the city. A provincial capi ...

during the time when the Roman emperor

Antoninus Pius Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius (; ; 19 September 86 – 7 March 161) was Roman emperor from AD 138 to 161. He was the fourth of the Five Good Emperors from the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held var ...

(AD 138–161) ruled over

Ægyptus Roman Egypt was an imperial province of the Roman Empire from 30 BC to AD 642. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai. It was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to the west and Judaea, l ...

. She fell in love with a young soldier from

Antinoöpolis Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; ; ''Antinow''; , modern , modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyptian village by the Roman emperor Hadrian to commemorate his deified young belov ...

(current Sheikh ‘Ibada), a love her father disapproved of, and so the two decided to elope. Unfortunately, Isadora drowned while crossing the Nile. Her body was mummified, and her father, overtaken by grief, built an elaborate tomb in her honor; featuring a poem of ten lines inscribed in Greek

elegiac couplets The elegiac couplet or elegiac distich is a poetic form used by Greek lyric poets for a variety of themes usually of smaller scale than the epic. Roman poets, particularly Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and Ovid, adopted the same form in Lat ...

. A cult was established around her tomb. Isadora's mummified remains are still present, encased in glass, in her mausoleum – a prominent building at Tuna el-Gebel.

Recent discoveries

In February 2019, fifty mummy collections wrapped in linen, stone

coffin A coffin or casket is a funerary box used for viewing or keeping a corpse, for burial, entombment or cremation. Coffins are sometimes referred to as caskets, particularly in American English. A distinction is commonly drawn between "coffins" a ...

s or wooden

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek σάρξ ' meaning "flesh", and φ� ...

dated back to the

Ptolemaic Kingdom The Ptolemaic Kingdom (; , ) or Ptolemaic Empire was an ancient Greek polity based in Ancient Egypt, Egypt during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 305 BC by the Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general Ptolemy I Soter, a Diadochi, ...

were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the Tuna El-Gebel site in Minya. Twelve of the graves in four burial chambers 9 m (30 ft) deep, belonged to children. One of the remains was the partly uncovered skull enclosed in linen. Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of the collective graves of senior officials and high clergies of the god Djehuty (

) in January 2020. An archaeological mission headed by Mustafa Waziri reported that twenty sarcophagi and coffins of various shapes and sizes, including five anthropoid sarcophagi made of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and carved with

hieroglyphic Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

texts, as well as sixteen tombs and five well-preserved wooden coffins were unearthed by their team.

References