17 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Roman-era Pottery Workshop discovered in Alexandria

The Egyptian archaeological mission discovered a Roman-era pottery workshop at the site of Tibet Mutawah, west of Alexandria.

The researchers have uncovered an ancient pottery workshop — with the remains of rounded vessels, coins, figurines, and even a ‘ritual room’ — dating to the beginning of the Roman period.

The archaeological mission unearthed an industrial space containing kilns, two of which were carved into the rock. One of them is in a good state of preservation and has a vaulted entrance on the western side, through which the potters were put into the furnace to stack the amphoras. After the compaction process is completed, the entrance is blocked with clay blocks and the remains of pottery sherds. The fuel was added by a ramp carved into the rock below this inlet.

There is evidence that the facility was in use both before and after the Roman pottery concerned was established at the site.

Part of the discovery. Photo: Min. of Tourism & Antiquities
Part of the discovery. Photo: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Mustafa Waziri of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said the site was reused during the Byzantine era for lime production, and later as a cemetery.

Nearly 100 burials found at the site pre-date the pottery concern. An area just north of the Roman-era furnaces had a lime-making kiln believed to date to the Byzantine era. It would be reused as a burial ground in the Middle Ages, with two burials, one a pregnant woman, found inside the Byzantine kiln. Another building held south of the kilns cooking utensils and tableware, another held stoves and amphoras containing fish bones, while additional structures may have served as temporary housing for workers.

A group of limestone units from the Ptolemaic era was discovered. Photo: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

The presence of terracotta statues of Harpocrates, the juvenile form of the falcon-headed god Horus, in a room with a raised platform suggests it may have been used for rituals.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mustafa Waziri also pointed out that the mission will continue its excavations at the site to unravel more secrets in the coming period.

The mission also found parts of terracotta statues of deities and elite women.
The mission also found parts of terracotta statues of deities and elite women. Photo: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Head of the mission Mohga Ramadan Abdel Kader indicated that the mission also succeeded in discovering a large group of coins, most of which span back to the Ptolemaic era. The mission restored a number of the coins, some of which were carved with the faces of Alexander the Great, Queen Cleopatra, and the ancient deity Zeus.

The mission also found parts of terracotta statues of deities and elite women, an amulet and feathered crown for the deity Bes, part of a statue associated with fertility, and parts of the fishing hooks used by the inhabitants of the area at the time, and the anchor of one of the boats.

Cover Photo: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Related Articles

Zeus Temple’s entrance was found in western Turkey’s Aizanoi Ancient City

31 July 2021

31 July 2021

During recent digs, the monumental entrance gate of the Zeus Temple sanctuary in the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in...

Getting to Know Matar Kubilea

8 February 2021

8 February 2021

Hittite state’s, With its collapse in 1200-1190 BC, Anatolia entered a period of drift from holistic to dispersal. (The Hittite...

British archaeologists unearth the 1200-year-old man-made island

13 February 2022

13 February 2022

A team holding excavations and archaeological surveys on the historic Al Sayah Island in Muharraq, Bahrain found that it’s ‘man-made’,...

INAH Archaeologists recover the coyote-man of Tacámbaro

26 January 2022

26 January 2022

Archaeologists win the coyote-man trial that lasted 30 years in Mexico. The litigation regarding the coyote-man of Tacámbaro, an important...

Roman-era Mixers and Millstones Made with Geology in Mind

22 September 2021

22 September 2021

A study on stone tools from an outpost of the Roman Empire has found that for ancient bakers and millers,...

Archaeologists find the largest bronze beast of Sanxingdui ruins

4 September 2022

4 September 2022

The largest and only one of its kind discovered in China to date, the bronze beast was discovered by archaeologists...

Archaeologists in Derbyshire have unearthed a 9th century Anglo Saxon house

15 July 2021

15 July 2021

A nearly complete Anglo-Saxon house, considered to date from the early ninth century and might have been the abode of...

Oldest footprints of pre-humans identified in Crete

11 October 2021

11 October 2021

Six million-year-old fossilized footprints on the island show the human foot had begun to develop. The oldest known footprints of...

Human Relief Found at Million Stone Excavation Site in İstanbul

18 July 2021

18 July 2021

The Milion Stone (also known as the Million Stone) from the Eastern Roman period is one of important the historical...

10,000-year-old Settlement Discovered in Turkey’s Şanlıurfa

25 June 2021

25 June 2021

A Neolithic settlement was discovered in the garden of a house in the Sayburç Neighborhood of Şanlıurfa’s Karaköprü district. News...

DNA Elucidates Mysteries of the Iron Age Log Coffin Culture in Thailand

9 February 2024

9 February 2024

The Northwestern Thailand highlands region of Pang Mapha is dotted with dozens of caves that contain some incredibly odd prehistoric...

Feline and anthropomorphic 29 new geoglyphs discovered in Peru

21 December 2023

21 December 2023

In Ica, a region south of Lima on the coast of Peru, 29 geoglyphs were found by an archaeologist from...

The Lord’s Prayer Carved in Stone with Scandinavian Runes and a Picture of a Boat Discovered in Ontario, Canada

17 June 2025

17 June 2025

Hidden deep in the northern Ontario wilderness, an extraordinary archeological discovery has puzzled researchers and captured the imagination of history...

Dacian Treasure Discovered in Romania, Possibly Indicating a Hidden Settlement in Breaza

12 April 2025

12 April 2025

In the spring of 2025, an extraordinary archaeological discovery was made in the Breaza commune of Mureș County, Romania, when...

A still life fresco discovered in new excavations of Pompeii Regio IX

28 June 2023

28 June 2023

Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Pompeii have uncovered a gorgeous still-life fresco depicting a platter covered in food and...