EFEO to resume excavation in Fayoum for 3rd season: official

CAIRO – 23 May 2019: The director of the Fayoum antiquities authority said that a mission from the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology (EFEO) will carry out excavation work in Fayoum's Gerzeh in June for the third season in a row.

Sayed Shura said in an interview with Egypt Today that many foreign missions have excavated Fayoum's antiquities this season, including a German mission that worked at Watfa village for a month, an American and Duth missions at Kom Aushim and a French mission.

Also, a French Italian mission worked in the village of Umm el-Baragat (Tebtunis) for two months and has been operating in the region since 1988, Shura said, adding that this mission held an exhibition in the Egyptian Museum headquarters to display the most prominent antiquities they could discover.

He noted that the exhibition was held from February to April and included 200 antiquities.

The exhibition was managed by the Ministry of Antiquities, in cooperation with the French Institute of Oriental Archeology and the University of Milano.

Director of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, Sabah Abdel Razek, said that among the pieces were three wooden windows from the first and second centuries AD, along with household tools consisting of baskets made of wood and different metals that were discovered in the village houses.

Among the discoveries were utensils made of pottery used for cooking, tableware and utensils to store food from the Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine eras.

Abdel Razek further pointed out that the museum displays a distinctive collection of cosmetics and decorations, including small bottles of perfume and perfumed oils, among others.

It is noteworthy that the village was discovered in 1899, where several English and German scientific missions conducted successive excavations on the site.

The last mission working in the site was the Italian mission which continued its excavation works until the year 1936.

In 1988, the French-Italian mission decided to resume excavations on the site where new neighborhoods and magnificent buildings were discovered.

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Additional reporting by Mustafa Marie