Experts uncovered the ruins of a church, dated to around the mid-fourth century, during an ongoing archaeological excavation of Trimithis (also known as Amheida), an ancient city near the western edge of the Dakhla Oasis in the western desert.
The city was once a settlement during Egypt’s Roman period, which started in 30 B.C. and lasted until the Muslim conquest in 641 A.D. New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World leads the international research team.
According to a recent update from NYU, excavation work resumed in 2023 following a seven-year hiatus, a pause exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The surprise was the discovery of 17 bodies buried in the church. Twelve of them were buried in crypts underneath what would have been the altar.
Scientists did not expect to learn that seven of the bodies buried in the crypt were female, and eight were children or adolescents, including infants. It is possible that there are more women among the remains.
While there is good evidence that women were important in early Christianity, it was still surprising to find such a concentration of women and children buried in this church, since Roman Egypt was a patriarchal society.
Experts are still studying the 17 human remains, research that includes DNA tests.