QUEISNA [639]

Several areas have been excavated by the SCA, including a brick-built Ptolemaic/Late Period Mausoleum comprising a large number of rooms with arched ceilings and doorways. The brick vaulted tombs contain stone sarcophagi both finely and roughly finished.  Some mummified remains lie within these sarcophagi. Five units of this mausoleum have been fully excavated already but the extent of the mausoleum has not yet been established, with unit six being incompletely cleared. A second area contains Roman burials in various types of pottery coffin; some are lying on the surface in the area where they were originally excavated, with the possibility that further coffins lie below. The types of coffin are 'purpose-made' slipper coffins, two-piece vessel coffins and flat 'purpose-made' coffins with lids. The bodies found inside these coffins by the SCA investigation had not been mummified. The third area is a Bird Mausoleum, marked by badly eroded walls where a burial area for mummified falcons was excavated by the SCA. Falcon statuettes and statuettes of Osiris and Isis were found within this area together with jugs containing falcon eggs. There were no human burials in this area. Unexcavated areas There remains a large area to the northeast and south of the excavated area that has not been excavated or surveyed. Some badly worn sherds were noted, including some that appeared to be pieces of the Roman coffins. The EES survey also visited the nearby sand geziras at Kafr Ibnahs (30 34 21N 30 08 22E), Minshet Damalu (30 31 19N 31 10 20E and Sharannis (30 32 57N 31 09 30E). Some sherds of Roman and, possibly, Prehistoric date were noted at the lattter two. The survey was continued in 2006 with magnetometer mapping (see J. Rowland, Minufiyeh: "The Geophysical Survey at Quesna", Egyptian Archaeology 30 (Spring 2007), 33--5, Excavations began at the site in 2007.

Photographs by J. Rowland, 2005: