Inscriptions from Tombs at Bir esh-Shaghala

Abstract

Excavations during the past decade by the Supreme Council of Antiquities have uncovered a number of cemeteries belonging to the ancient city of Mut (Mothis in Greek), which was the capital of the Dakhleh Oasis in the Roman period as it is today. At one of these, Bir esh-Shaghala, about 3 km northwest of the town of Mut, these excavations have found several large mud-brick tombs which originally had pyramidal superstructures, now largely eroded, and subterranean burial chambers, many of which are well preserved. Maher Bashendi, the director of the Dakhleh Oasis inspectorate of the SCA and the excavator of this cemetery, will publish the tombs from this site with collaborators. He has kindly allowed us to publish here, in advance of that full report on the site, the Greek and demotic texts found on and in two of the tombs, Tombs 5 and 6.