Researchers of the University of Barcelona and Societat Catalana d’Egiptologia (Egyptology Catalan Institute) resume their excavations in Oxyrhynchus
The archaeological mission in the old city of Oxyrhynchus, driven by the University of Barcelona (UB), Societat Catalana de Catalunya (SCE), University of Montpellier and the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, was set in Egypt on November 2 with a new campaign, which will last until December 11. Led by Josep Padró, emeritus professor of the University of Barcelona and president of SCE, the mission aims to continue with the study of the crypt with wall paintings of the first Coptic Christians, as well as the study of the roman house located in the north of the deposit, and mommies from Roman times, located in the south. Also, the votive deposits of Oxyrhynchus fish (sacred fish of Taweret Goddess and names the city) will be studied.
The archaeological mission in the old city of Oxyrhynchus, driven by the University of Barcelona (UB), Societat Catalana de Catalunya (SCE), University of Montpellier and the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, was set in Egypt on November 2 with a new campaign, which will last until December 11. Led by Josep Padró, emeritus professor of the University of Barcelona and president of SCE, the mission aims to continue with the study of the crypt with wall paintings of the first Coptic Christians, as well as the study of the roman house located in the north of the deposit, and mommies from Roman times, located in the south. Also, the votive deposits of Oxyrhynchus fish (sacred fish of Taweret Goddess and names the city) will be studied.
The previous expeditions in Oxyrhynchus allowed digging a crypt located in the middle of a processional passage that joins the river Nile with Osireion Temple, dedicated to Osiris. Getting there required lifting up forty-five tons of stone under the supervision of an architect and an engineer. The walls of this structure had five or six paint layers on the walls, the last of which belongs to the period of the first Coptic Christians. In this new expedition there will be the participation of restorers for the painting treatment.