Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities disclosed a pair of archaeological discoveries on Saturday that illuminate the country’s late-antique period. A Byzantine-era residential and religious settlement, remarkably intact after sixteen centuries, was unearthed in the Dakhla oasis of the Western Desert. Simultaneously, excavations at Marina el-Alamein on the Mediterranean coast brought to light 18 new tombs, raising the site’s total to 48 and yielding rare funerary objects including gold tongue amulets.

The settlement, dated to the fourth century AD when Egypt was part of the Byzantine Empire, features a planned urban grid with north‑south thoroughfares intersected by east‑west streets, open squares, and public spaces. At its head stands a basilica-style church from the mid‑fourth century, flanked by two watchtowers. Archaeologists identified the house of a church deacon, Tisous, that likely served as a domestic church before the basilica’s construction. Domestic infrastructure—bread ovens, kitchens, grinding tools—and a hoard of bronze and gold coins, including issues of Emperor Constantius II (337‑361), provide a vivid snapshot of daily economic life. A collection of nearly 200 ostraca, pottery fragments inscribed in Coptic and Greek with commercial transactions and correspondence, offers rare documentary evidence.

At Marina el-Alamein, 100 km west of Alexandria, the 18 tombs include eleven rock‑cut chambers averaging eight metres in depth and seven surface structures built from limestone. Many remained sealed with their original stone slabs. Inside, archaeologists recovered pottery vessels, amphorae, lamps, altars, and a 2.5‑metre granite sarcophagus containing skeletal remains. The most striking artefacts are 24 small gold pieces placed in the mouths of the deceased—so‑called “golden tongues”—a practice tied to Hellenistic and Roman beliefs that the dead needed speech in the afterlife. A plaster sphinx statue and an amulet bearing the Eye of Horus testify to the persistence of Egyptian religious motifs under Greek and Roman influence. The site is identified with the ancient port of Leukaspis, which flourished from the Hellenistic period into the fourth century.

Both discoveries feed Egypt’s strategy to leverage its archaeological heritage for economic recovery. Tourism, alongside Suez Canal receipts and remittances, remains a vital source of foreign currency for a country grappling with financial strain. Dakhla oasis already appears on UNESCO’s tentative list, and officials hope that the new finds will strengthen its bid for World Heritage status. Meanwhile, the Marina el-Alamein tombs will undergo bioarchaeological analysis, including DNA and isotope studies, to reconstruct demographic profiles and mobility patterns of the ancient coastal population. The next milestone is the analysis of skeletal material from the sarcophagus and the further decipherment of the ostraca.