CAIRO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- An archaeological mission affiliated with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has unearthed a large collection of tombstones, coffins, and funerary amulets at the Tel El-Deir site in Egypt's northern Damietta province, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said on Thursday.
Mohamed Abdel-Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the SCA, said the mission discovered about 20 intricately carved limestone tombstones depicting human figures.
Their sides and backs are decorated with religious symbols, including the griffin, Agathodaemon, and Isis-Thermouthis, reflecting a fusion of ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman traditions, Abdel-Badie added.
The mission also uncovered a variety of pottery incense burners, decorated oil lamps, barrel-shaped anthropoid pottery coffins, and several funerary amulets, he said.
The site, spanning from Egypt's Late Period to the end of the Roman era, serves as a living archaeological record of centuries of social, religious, and funerary evolution in the Nile Delta, the ministry said.
Hisham El-Leithy, secretary-general of the SCA, said the discovery indicates that Tel El-Deir had functioned not merely as a cemetery, but as an integrated funerary center with a distinct social, cultural, and religious identity. ■
