Remains of ancient Greek ambassadors found in Alexandria cemetry

Two French researchers from the University of Leon conducted a study, the first of its kind , on the remains of a man and a lady that were kept in ceramic pots hidden at eastern Alexandria cemetery in Al Hadra district. The pots, unearthed l30 years ago, contain the remains of Greek ambassadors in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic age.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Gaballah Ali Gaballah said the research was the rarest medical one concerned with old bones. Researchers managed, through the use of state-of-art medical devices to determine the race and gender of the deceased and the disease they were suffering from.Researchers said most of them died from TB.

Ahmed Abdul Fatah director of the Graeco-Roman museum in Alexandria said the pots contain remains of Greek ambassadors who used to come to the Mediterranean city to attend the rituals of the goddess of harvest. The corpses of these ambassadors were burned and preserved in the pots. Abdul Fatah said that the study shed light on Egypt's relations to Greece and neighbouring Mediterranean islands in the third century AD.