SAEDNEWS: In 2019, Patrizia Piacentini, an Egyptologist at the University of Milan, began work at a site outside the bustling ancient border city of Aswan in southern Egypt. It took her five years to uncover the significance of this archaeological site.
According to the History and Culture Service of Saed News, citing Faradid, not every remarkable discovery involves a singularly extraordinary artifact, a previously unknown structure, or a revised timeline for an ancient technology. Some of the most significant finds result from persistent exploration, allowing archaeologists over time to fully understand the scope and importance of a site. New insights can reshape researchers’ previous assumptions.
In 2019, Patrizia Piacentini, an Egyptologist at the University of Milan, began working at a site outside the bustling ancient border city of Aswan in southern Egypt. It took five years for her to grasp the full significance of the site. During the first season, Piacentini’s team, in collaboration with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, noticed several tombs carved into a hill along the Nile, which had been looted in antiquity. Upon closer inspection, Piacentini observed dark stains in the yellow sand, clearly indicating the presence of mud bricks. “Let’s try here. I think there’s a tomb,” she recalled thinking at the time.
Her intuition proved correct. The team uncovered a large tomb containing the remains of 46 men, women, and children dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, along with artifacts such as statues and brightly colored panels, and layers of plaster and linen used to encase mummies. Over time, these findings revealed a previously unknown, massive cemetery, which the team determined covers an area of 25 hectares.
Piacentini commented on the discovery: “We knew the Greek-Roman period people in Aswan had to be buried somewhere, but we didn’t know where. Now we do.”
By 2024, it became clear that this cemetery is unique in Egypt. While Egyptian cemeteries were typically constructed in two or three levels to accommodate large numbers of burials over time, the Aswan cemetery was designed for fewer than ten levels. It contains over 400 tombs holding the remains of thousands of individuals.
Excavations revealed that the upper levels were intended for wealthy individuals, including the commander of the Egyptian army in the 2nd century BCE, whereas the lower levels, explored in 2024, were reserved for middle-class burials.
“We want to understand who these people were and how this cemetery was organized,” Piacentini explained. Like many major discoveries, answering these questions will be the result of both past and future research efforts.
