Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Byzantine City and Tombs with 'Golden Tongues' in Egypt

Deep within the sweeping sands of Egypt’s Western Desert, archaeologists have uncovered an remarkably well-preserved urban quarter dating back to the Byzantine era. The fourth-century settlement, located in the fertile Dakhla Oasis, offers an extraordinarily clear window into ancient daily life, local commerce, and the early rise of Christianity in the region. Simultaneously, along the country’s northern Mediterranean coast, a separate excavation has yielded a cluster of ancient tombs containing rare funerary artifacts, including skeletal remains buried with golden foil in their mouths—a ritualistic practice known as the "golden tongue." Together, these dual discoveries underscore the vast, multi-layered history of Egypt during its transition from the Greco-Roman world into the Byzantine Empire.

Quick summary

• Desert Urban Discovery: Archaeologists have unearthed a highly intact fourth-century Byzantine-era residential and religious quarter in the Dakhla Oasis, complete with a basilica, streets, and watchtowers.
• Daily Life & Trade: The desert site yielded gold coins from Roman Emperor Constantius II, domestic kitchens, and over 200 pottery fragments (ostraca) inscribed with commercial contracts and letters.
• Coastal Tombs & 'Golden Tongues': Near Alexandria, 18 ancient tombs were excavated at Marina el-Alamein, revealing a 2.5-meter granite sarcophagus and skeletal remains buried with golden amulets placed in their mouths.

Why it matters

These discoveries hold profound implications for our understanding of late-antique Egypt, particularly regarding the economic vitality of the Western Desert oases and the evolution of religious practices. The Dakhla Oasis find reveals a highly structured, self-sustaining community that thrived along remote trade routes, showing that the desert interior was far from an isolated wasteland. The presence of both early Christian basilicas and highly organized civic architecture highlights how rapidly Christianity integrated into provincial life.

Meanwhile, the discoveries at Marina el-Alamein provide vital data on the coastal trading hub of Leukaspis, demonstrating how local communities maintained classical Greco-Roman funerary rituals well into the fourth century. For historians, these artifacts fill a crucial gap in mapping the regional transition from traditional pagan customs to Christian hegemony.

Background

During the fourth century, Egypt was a critical economic and agricultural powerhouse of the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire). While historical focus often centers on major urban centers like Alexandria or the fertile Nile Delta, the Western Desert oases played a crucial role as agricultural hubs and military outposts. The Dakhla Oasis, located in the New Valley province, sat on key trans-Saharan caravan routes, facilitating the movement of crops, minerals, and manufactured goods.

Prior to these excavations, knowledge of late-antique provincial domesticity was largely reconstructed from fragmented texts. The discovery of fully intact residential quarters, complete with public squares and defense systems, provides a physical blueprint of fourth-century town planning. The Dakhla Oasis is currently on UNESCO’s tentative list, and this discovery is expected to bolster its case for official World Heritage status.

On the northern coast, Marina el-Alamein was first identified as an archaeological site in 1986 during local development. Historians believe it corresponds to the ancient Greco-Roman port city of Leukaspis. Flourishing between the second and fourth centuries, Leukaspis served as a major maritime gateway, exporting local agricultural surplus and importing Mediterranean luxury goods before eventually declining in the late-antique period.

Unveiling the Desert City of Dakhla

The newly excavated urban quarter in the Dakhla Oasis demonstrates a high level of civic planning. According to Hisham el-Leithy, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the town layout features a neat grid system of north-south thoroughfares intersected by east-west streets. This design created wide public squares, open meeting spaces, and central courtyards where residents gathered.

At the heart of the settlement stands a prominent Christian basilica dating back to the mid-fourth century. The church overlooks the main streets, symbolizing the central role of the church in early Byzantine town life. To safeguard the community from desert nomads and bandits, the town was heavily fortified with thick defensive walls and featured at least two strategic watchtowers situated on its outer boundaries.

Within the residential sectors, archaeologists discovered a variety of houses with vaulted brick roofs and spacious reception halls. One notable structure is the house of Tisous, identified as a church deacon. While the official ministry statement dates this residence to the second half of the 14th century, archaeologists hypothesize that it may have operated as a discreet house church in earlier centuries, preceding the construction of the public basilica.

Domestic Artifacts and Ancient Correspondence

The preservation inside the desert homes is remarkable. Excavators found fully functional kitchens, complete with bread ovens, grinding tools, and storage jars. These everyday domestic items are accompanied by significant economic clues, including bronze coins stamped with Latin inscriptions, Christian iconography, and the portraits of Byzantine emperors.

A cache of gold coins dating to the reign of Roman Emperor Constantius II (who ruled from 337 to 361 AD) was also recovered, confirming the settlement's active economic links to the imperial center.

Perhaps the most valuable find for historians is a collection of approximately 200 ostraca—pottery fragments repurposed as writing tablets. Diaa Zahran, head of the Islamic, Coptic, and Jewish antiquities department, noted that these fragments are inscribed with details of trade agreements, personal letters, and general administrative records. These texts provide an unprecedented, unvarnished look at the social and mercantile dynamics of the oasis population.

The Coastal Secrets of Marina el-Alamein

Roughly 62 miles west of Alexandria, archaeological teams working at the Marina el-Alamein site made another major breakthrough by discovering 18 ancient tombs. The cluster includes 11 deep, rock-cut chambers averaging eight meters in depth, alongside seven surface-level tombs constructed from local limestone. This brings the total number of documented tombs at the ancient port of Leukaspis to 48.

The tombs contained an array of classic Mediterranean grave goods, including amphorae, clay oil lamps, decorative plates, small altars, and limestone basins. However, the most striking discovery was a massive, 2.5-meter-long granite sarcophagus containing skeletal remains that are currently undergoing anthropological study.

Adjacent to this sarcophagus, researchers found the remnants of a plaster sphinx statue and, notably, four gold foil amulets shaped like tongues placed inside the mouths of several deceased individuals. Eman Abdel-Khaliq, lead of the coastal archaeological mission, explained that this "golden tongue" ritual was a traditional Greco-Roman funerary custom. The practice was rooted in the belief that the deceased required a golden tongue to speak eloquently and appease Osiris, the god of the underworld, during their post-mortem trial.

Qnews24h insight

The simultaneous discovery of an organized inland desert city and a sophisticated coastal necropolis challenges the traditional historical narrative that portrays provincial Egypt as a passive, declining territory during the transition to Byzantine rule. Instead, what we see is a highly resilient and deeply integrated network.

The ostraca from the Dakhla Oasis prove that even in remote desert locations, citizens engaged in formal legal and commercial documentation, using standard imperial currencies. Meanwhile, the "golden tongue" burials at Marina el-Alamein reveal how deeply syncretic religious beliefs remained. Even as Christianity swept across the empire, traditional pharaonic and Greco-Roman spiritual rites persisted side by side with the changing times. These archaeological sites emphasize that historical transitions are rarely sudden; they are gradual, complex, and beautifully preserved in the soil of Egypt.

Sources

This report is based on announcements and official documentation provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, with initial reporting published by The Guardian.