A team of archaeologists has excavated over one million mummies in an Egyptian cemetery located about 96 kilometers south of Cairo in the Faiyum region. The remains were believed to be buried when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, which was more than 1,500 years ago.
The team, which discovered the graveyard that contains more than one million mummies, was from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. According to LiveScience, the cemetery is now called Fag el-Gamous, which means "Way of the Water Buffalo," and a title that came from a nearby road.
For almost 30 decades, the American archaeologists have been excavating the cemetery that contains one million mummies, as well as a nearby pyramid. Based on the discovery, many of the mummified bodies date to the time when the Roman or Byzantine Empire governed Egypt, which was from first to seventh century A.D.
In a wriiten paper titled "Studia Antiqua" presented at the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities Scholars Colloquium held in Toronto last month, Project Director Kerry Muhlestein, an associate professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University, said the team is convinced that there are over one million mummies buried within the graveyard, NBC News reported.
"We are fairly certain we have over a million burials within this cemetery. It's large, and it's dense," Muhlestein said.
As unearthed, the mummies seemed to be those of ordinary people, rather than royalties or other important figures. Haaretz reported few were buried with their possessions and were laid without coffins. The bodies were naturally mummified by the hot and dry desert conditions. They were buried in deep shafts cut into limestone rocks, with the depth of some exceeds 75 feet.
The archaeologists have already unearthed over 1,700 mummified bodies, however those leading the exploration believed the graveyard have more than one million mummies. According to The Daily Mail, the bodies were found in mass graves unlike other famous mummified remains found in Egypt.
However, researchers are still mystified about the large number of mummies and its origin. Among the odd range of unearthed mummies include one man who was more than 7 feet tall and an 18-month-old girl with two bracelets on each arm. Fox News said the team also discovered that the remains seemed to be grouped together by hair color, with blonde people buried in one place together while red-headed ones elsewhere.
The tales telling the origin of the one million mummies have appeared to be never-ending. And where the mummified bodies came from remains to be unknown and which archaeologists have yet to solve. Though the excavating daunts challenges, it also provide great opportunities for unravelling one of the world's historical mysteries.
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