Treasure with gold islamic dinars in fayoum

 The Egyptian-Russian archaeological mission working at the archaeological site of Deir Al-Banat in Fayoum has unearthed a collection of 28 gold dinars and five small coins.

They were found wrapped in a linen roll tied to a clay seal bearing unclear symbols.

Osama Talaat, Head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities; describes the discovery as the most important in the area; given that it is the first season of the Egyptian-Russian expedition in the northern part of the archaeological area. This was where a collection of mummies dating back to the Greco-Roman era, were previously found.

This reflects, he added, that the area was used during different historical periods between Greek, Roman, Coptic and the Islamic period.

The discovery consists of 16 golden dinars from the era of the Caliph Al-Muqtadir Billah (295-317 AH / 908-932 AD) as well as five parts of gold dinars from the era of Caliph Al-Muqtadir. This is in addition to 10 dinars from the era of Caliph Al-Radi Billah (322-329 AH / 934-940 CE) and two dinars from the era of Caliph Al-Mu'tasim Billah (218-227 AH / 833-842 AD).

The Russian mission has been working at Deir Al-Banat area since 2003 where they since then unearthed several coffins and mummies.

28 gold dinars, 5 small coins from Abbasid era unearthed in Fayoum

Things from fayoum you don't know about

the goddess Aphrodite and her companion Eros (also known as Cupid). This beautiful bronze statuette of the goddess comes from Karanis, Egypt (KM 10728)

Ancient flip-flop, with knife blade.  ("Knife Blade.  Bronze." and "Sandal. Palm Fiber."  both from "Roman Period (1st-4th century AD).  Karanis, Egypt.")

Bust of Serapis (Furniture Ornament).  Wood, clay, gold leaf.  Roman Period (late 2nd-early 3rd century AD.  Fayum Region, Egypt

Box with Lid.  Wood.  Roman Period (1st-4th century AD).  Karanis, Egypt

Professor Laurel Bestock is one of Sue Alcock's colleagues at Brown University.  I mentioned that Sue interviewed her colleagues about each unit's archaeological topic, allowing us to hear about the differences in doing their work in totally different parts of the world.  Dr. B. works in Abydos, in Egypt.  She told us that almost everything is preserved perfectly in Egypt, with the exception of wood.  There are termites in Egypt which almost always get the wood.

The archaeological site of al-Khalwa area Fayoum

The archaeological site of al-Khalwa area Fayoum  Egypt: Burial well dating back to Middle Kingdom uncovered in the archaeological site of al-Khalwa area, Fayoum.    

    It is worth mentioning that the archaeological mission working in the archaeological site of al-Khalwa area, Fayoum, has uncovered a burial well, located to the east of the Prince Waji’s tomb dating back to the Middle Kingdom, Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday, December 6.    Waziri said that al-Khalwa, located at southern Fayoum, contains a cemetery dating back to the Middle Kingdom era, namely Amenemhat III era (1842-1799 BC).    

He added that the cemetery has the tomb of Prince Waji, the ruler of Fayoum in the Middle Kingdom, as well as the tomb of his mother "Nabat Mout", which lies to the east of it.    Meanwhile, Head of the archaeological mission Ayman Ashmawy referred that the well contains three burial chambers, in which the mission found the upper part of a statue (40 cm height) made from sandstone of a person holding his hand on his chest along with the middle part of a basalt statue (30 cm height).    

The mission also discovered inside the three burial chambers a number of pottery vessels and three heads of Canopian vessels, but some of them were broken into pieces.    
Ashmawy pointed out that these chambers were likely to have been looted in the ancient history and reused for burial in later eras.    
In this regard, Hani Abul Azm, the head of the Central Administration for Antiquities of upper Egypt, remarked that Waji's tomb was carved in rock and was discovered by the Italian mission of the University of Pisa in 1981 through the archaeological survey project in the area.    
He added that the mission found inside the tomb a limestone statue, on which the name of the prince was written, a part of a wooden coffin and a pottery vessel. He explained that the statue is currently kept inside the museum store of Kom Oshim, Fayoum.




“The ceiling of the tomb was completely collapsed, maybe due to a massive earthquake in the ancient history or the weight of the roof stones,” said Sayed Al Shoura, General Director of Antiquities Sector.    He said that Italian mission has built a new ceiling to protect the tomb’s inscriptions under the supervision of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.