Osiris under water

On Sunday, we went to an exhibit at Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, about the underwater remains of the submerged cities of Thônis-Héracléion and Canope, near Alexandria, Egypt. The cities have been explored by Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM) in the past decade, with amazing vestiges that helped reconstituting the religious mysteries of Osiris [hence the name of the exhibit].One of the first exhibits is this incredibly well-preserved stone, written in three languages (hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek), that could have been another Rosetta stone, had it not stayed under water till a few years ago.

An impressive statue of the goddess Tuat (or Taweret) that may have come from another source than the submerged cities. And which looks like a modern cartoon character…To conclude with this magnificent head of a priest (?) in a Greek style, as many pieces from the temples were from the Ptolemaic era.