Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities officially announced an extraordinary find on Saturday, April 18, 2026. A joint Spanish archaeological mission digging in the El Bahnasa site in the Minya Governorate uncovered a rare Roman-era tomb. This isn’t just another burial site. It holds mummies with golden tongues and a hidden literary treasure that connects ancient Egyptian rituals directly to classical Greek epics.
The excavation team is co-directed by Dr. Maite Mascort and Dr. Esther Pons Melado from the University of Barcelona and the Ancient Near East Institute. They dug a new trench just east of Ptolemaic Tomb 67, a site they originally found during their 2024 season. What they pulled out of the earth is shifting our understanding of how deeply Hellenistic culture penetrated daily Egyptian life.
The Mummies and the Iliad Papyrus
Inside three newly revealed limestone chambers, excavators found several mummies. Some were wrapped in intricate linens covered in geometric patterns. They rested inside wooden coffins. The archaeologists discovered three golden tongues and one copper tongue placed inside the mouths of the deceased. This was a known Roman-era funerary practice. The ancients believed the metal tongues would allow the dead to speak clearly to Osiris in the afterlife.
But the most shocking artifact was hidden inside one of the mummies.
The researchers retrieved a rare papyrus containing text from Book II of Homer’s Iliad. Specifically, the fragment details the “Catalogue of Ships,” which lists the Greek forces deployed against Troy. This is a massive literary discovery. It proves that classical Greek literature was physically buried alongside Egyptian citizens. If you want to dive deeper into the physical evidence, a detailed report by Al-Masry Al-Youm confirms the official government announcement regarding the Homeric text and the golden tongues.
Ritual Offerings and Feline Remains
The tomb contained much more than just human remains and poetry. The chambers held large jars packed with burnt human remains and infant bones. The team also found a heavily wrapped feline head.
Scattered among the burials were bronze and terracotta statuettes. These included depictions of Cupid and the deity Harpocrates riding a horse. The sheer variety of goods shows a complex mixing of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian spiritual beliefs happening in one single location.
How the El Bahnasa Discovery Rewrites Hellenistic Integration
Finding a copy of the Iliad tucked inside an Egyptian mummy forces historians to look differently at the late ancient world. This physically links classical Greek educational traditions directly with the sacred Egyptian burial customs. It shows that Greek epics were not just academic texts read by elites. They held enough spiritual or personal weight to accompany a person into the afterlife.
This 2026 excavation builds directly on the Spanish mission’s previous breakthroughs. The team made global headlines in 2021 and 2024 when they found the first golden tongues in the region. El Bahnasa is now firmly established as a critical hub for Graeco-Roman archaeological study. The intersection of science and history here continues to yield artifacts that defy standard expectations.