Archeologists Discover More Than a Dozen Mummies in Egypt

Archaeologists toiling on two separate sites in Egypt have stumbled on a pair of remarkable finds of historic proportions — including more than a dozen mummies as well as their mummified pets, Globe can reveal.

Experts say one find contained a 1,600-year-old mummy dating to Roman times — and that mummy was buried with a passage from Homer’s epic poem the Iliad!

“This is the big development for us,” declares Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a classical philologist at the University of Barcelona, who’s long worked at the site where the mummy was found in the necropolis of Oxyrhynchus near the modern-day town of Al Bahnasa, told CNN.

“Until now, we didn’t know that they would have used literary texts as part of this funerary ritual.”

At the other site, in the area of Dra Abu el-Naga’s necropolis on the Nile’s West Bank near Luxor, scientists uncovered an until-now secret burial shaft with 10 wooden coffins dating to Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, or as long ago as 1550 BC.

One coffin bears the name “Merit” and is believed to contain the preserved corpse of a woman who served as an enchantress of Amun — the supreme God in ancient Egypt’s pantheon. Another entombs the body of Padi-Amun, who was a priest of Amun’s, according to The Jerusalem Post.

At the same site, archeologists also unearthed the remains of more than 30 mummified cats dating to the Ptolemaic period just before the birth of Christ.

Sources say Egyptians from that time were fond of burying animals with their loved ones as a plea to the gods for protection for the deceased’s soul.

This isn’t the first time that either site has produced extraordinary finds.

In late 2024 in Oxyrhynchus, archeologists found 52 mummies — 13 of which had golden amulets left in place of their tongues to help the deceased plead their case to Osiris, Egypt’s god of death.

That discovery also included four fully intact limestone sarcophagi, ritual texts, colorful inscriptions and artwork, scarabs, amulets representing deities and lots of gold treasure, sources say.

At the Dra Abu el-Naga necropolis, scientists previously found a rare funerary garden and tombs of high-level ancient Egyptian officials, according to the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry.

But, according to Egypt Independent, scientists teased the best may be to come with a “great discovery” from the ongoing dig at the Great Pyramid of Giza expected sometime this year. According to renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the until-now secret burial chamber and its contents “will rewrite history!”

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