They were drawn to the fertile land around Al Fayyum.
Known as Shedet during pharaonic times, the city, the nearby oasis, and the surrounding area were transformed when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 B.C., incorporating Egypt into an empire that would grow to encompass what is now Greece, Turkey, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and much of Central and South Asia.Īlexander’s successors, the Ptolemy kings, would rule Egypt for nearly three centuries. The modern-day city of Al Fayyum is located about 60 miles southwest of Cairo, between the Western Desert and the Nile.
The artistic style seen in the mummy portraits reflected this cultural intermingling and may have influenced later Christian art. Petrie was, nevertheless, the first archaeologist to submit these portraits to academic study, beginning the task of piecing together a unique world in which Egyptian, Greek, and Roman styles and customs began to intertwine from the first century B.C.
