Spain: Catalan archaeological mission returns to Egypt

ANSAmed) - MADRID, FEBRUARY 6 - One year after the uprising in Egypt, the mission of archaeologists and Egyptologists of the University of Barcelona, working in collaboration with the Catalan Egyptology Society, returns to Cairo to resume its excavation work in Oxirrinco. The news is reported by mission director and Egyptology professor Josep Padro, quoted by La Vanguardia.

The goal of the Spanish mission, entering its 20th year, is to ''continue excavating the remains of a large Greek-Roman temple which, because of its position and texts found on papyrus scrolls, could be the Serapeum, dedicated to the god Serapis'', Pardo explains.

The most famous find so far was made in the necropolis of Saqqara by French archaeologist Auguste Mariette in 1850 with mummy cases of the bull-deity Apis. But the most important find made by the Catalan mission in Oxirrinco regards the Osireion, an underground temple dedicated to the god Osiris. ''It is the only one in Egypt at the moment,'' said the professor. ''We have find still unidentified blocks during restoration works. We have covered them up, lacking permission to excavate them, and we will start to dig from there,'' Josep Pardo concluded.
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