Fag el-Gamous

Fagg El Gamous (translated Way of the Buffalo) is an ancient Egyptian cemetery located in the Faiyum Governorate dating from the 1st to the 7th century AD, the period of Roman rule in Egypt.

The cemetery was discovered by a team of archeologists from Brigham Young University in 1980. They were given sole responsibility for the excavation in 1981.

The excavations are done under time-pressure due to threat of incursion by local farmers who wish to expand their fields across the cemetery.[1]

The skeletons and natural mummies (i.e. not the result of a professional mummification as used for royalty), seem to be common people; "The bodies have been well preserved, so the organs and remains are virtually complete. The preservation results from sealing in the moisture and the atmosphere of the burial spot."[2] By 2014, roughly 1,000 bodies had been excavated at the site.[2]

In 1988, it was noted by the researchers that the graveyard contained an unexpected number of blondes amongst the naturally mummified bodies, as well as oddities in tooth decay amongst the buried; "Of those whose hair was preserved 54% were blondes or redheads, and the percentage grows to 87% when light-brown hair color is added".[3] In 2014, it was revealed that burials seem to be clustered by hair-colour, those with red-hair are in one area, those with blonde hair in another.[1]

Controversy

In 2014, the BYU team claimed that the cemetery contains over a million mummies.[4][5]

In an e-mail to Newsweek, Kerry Muhlestein explained "In a square that is 5 by 5 meters across and usually just over 2 meters deep, we will typically find about 40 burials. The cemetery is very large and so far seems to maintain that kind of burial density throughout. Thus, the math suggests that there are over a million mummies in the cemetery, though we cannot be certain of this without further exploration and a thorough academic review process."[6]

The corpses were found buried in deep shafts cut into the limestone rock.[7]

The "million mummies" claim was promptly dismissed by Egyptian authorities, since the data reported to the press by the Brigham Young University team were only an estimate, and furthermore these were referring to burials, not necessarily mummies: indeed, the team has discovered many poorly preserved skeletons, ranging from a person 213 cm tall to an 18-month-old girl's remains, but the only real mummy ever found at Fagg El Gamous was unearthed in 1988.[8][9]

After working things out with Egyptian authorities, the team was granted renewed permission to excavate in mid January 2015.[2]

Publications

References
  1. Pruitt, Sarah (19 December 2014). "Egyptian Cemetery May Contain a Million Mummies". History. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  2. BYU Press release
  3. C. Wilfred Griggs, "Excavating a Christian Cemetery Near Selia, in the Fayum Region of Egypt", in Excavations at Seila, Egypt, ed. C. Wilfred Griggs, (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1988), 74–84.
  4. Osborne, Hannah (17 December 2014). "One million 'mummies' discovered in ancient Egyptian cemetery". International Business Times. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  5. Jarus, Owen (17 December 2014). "Million-Mummy Cemetery Unearthed in Egypt". Live Science. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  6. Newsweek
  7. "Egyptian cemetery may hold over one million mummies". www.haaretz.com. Haaretz. 20 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  8. "Fayoum antiquities official denies 'million mummies' reports". Ahram Online. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  9. "Egypt antiquity ministry slams US mission after 'million mummy' controversy". Ahram Online. Retrieved 21 December 2014.

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