By Mahmoud Kassem

Bahriya oasis, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists said on Tuesday that they had uncovered the tomb of a powerful but enigmatic Pharaonic ruler and 102 Greco-Roman mummies, some wearing gold masks.

Gad Khensu Eyuf's 10m-deep tomb will furnish clues about a provincial mayor who dared to represent himself in temples in the same style as kings, said Zahi Hawass, director of the Giza plateau.

He said his team of 20 had discovered the tomb of Eyuf in April, in a tomb complex of nobles discovered in the 1930s, in the town of Bawiti at Bahriya oasis, 400km south-west of Cairo, in the Western Desert.

Archaeologists and restorers battled with ropes, ladders, dust and jagged rock since March inside a 100-square-metre labyrinth, to uncover unique statues, colourful wall reliefs, pottery and jewellery, said Hawass.

Some of the walls are covered in vivid depictions of Eyfu being prepared for the afterlife by Anubis, the god of death. Eyuf's 12 ton sarcophagus is adorned with rock-carved portraits and profiles of the mayor.

One surprise awaited the archaeologists in Eyuf's tomb.

"We found large quantities of hematite (a valuable iron ore)," said Hawass.

"When I entered the tomb, I felt the hematite prickle my chest like thorns. Perhaps Eyuf put the yellow powder to protect his tomb from unwelcome visitors."

Hawass said archaeologists had searched in vain for almost a century over the exact location of the burial place of Eyuf, the mayor of Bahriyah in the 26th dynasty in the reign of Pharaoh Apris (598-570 BC) who built a temple called Apris in the oasis.

"So many archaeologists have sought to find the tomb of Eyuf because he was so influential," said Hawass. "They also wanted to find out more information on why he was so influential."

He said that pioneering Egyptian archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry had in the 1930s discovered the burial complex of nobles who served Eyuf and were buried beside him. But Fakhry failed to uncover the tomb of the mysterious mayor himself, said Hawass.

More than a decade after Fakhry's discoveries, villagers built houses over Eyuf's suspected resting place. It was only in March that Hawass and his team were given permission to destroy the houses and continue the search for the tomb.

Hawass's team also uncovered 102 mummies in seven tombs dating to the later Greco-Roman period, in a six-square-kilometre necropolis about 10km away from Eyuf's tomb.

Packed tightly in small caves carved into rock, many mummies still bore colourful scenes painted by mortuary artists. Others had shed their 2 000-year-old wrappings to reveal rusty-coloured skin and bone.

One female mummy carried a child mummy on her stomach, while another mummy bore a mask showing people bearing offerings to ancient Egyptian gods. No intricate paintings adorned the walls like those on the tomb of Eyuf.

"We were able to date the mummies mainly by the way they had been mummified," said archaeologist Khaled Salah.

"During the Roman period, the intestines of the deceased were left inside the body and masks were plastered on to their faces before the bodies were sealed in their tombs."

Last year, archaeologists discovered 105 mummies of high-ranking Roman Egyptians in four tombs at the same site. The necropolis was dubbed "The Valley of the Mummies", after a survey last year suggested that up to 10 000 mummies could be lying under the soft sandstone.

"The main difference in the mummies we found this year from last year is that some date to the Greek period (332-30BC)," said Salah as he pointed out a mummy of a man wearing a Greek-style beard.

"Also this year, we were able to bring an x-ray machine on site, which will help us do more check ups on the mummies and find out why they died," he added.

The site became a cemetery under 26th Dynasty ruler Ankkaenre, who ruled from 526 to 525BC, but at least two thirds of the finds in the area are from the Roman period (30 BC-AD 395).

Not much was known about Bahriyah oasis until a town developed there in the sixth century BC. Its population grew under Greek rule. Alexander the Great built a temple there, after he entered Egypt in 332BC, but the town's heyday was in Roman times when wine was the chief export.

Today, Bahriya is a tranquil oasis of date groves and hot springs, off the tourist track. Its population had shrunk since Roman times and there are few foreign visitors.

"It was thanks to the wine trade that locals in Bahriya grew rich," said Hawass.

"That's why they were able to afford such lavish burials. But I think the water here was rich in iron and that killed off many of the town's inhabitants at a young age." - Reuters

Published on the Web by IOL on 2000-05-23 20:19:01