Page "Fayum mummy portraits" Paragraph 28

The burial habits of Ptolemaic Egyptians mostly followed ancient traditions.

The bodies of members of the upper classes were mummified, equipped with a decorated coffin and a mummy mask to cover the head.

The Greeks who entered Egypt at that time mostly followed their own habits.

There is evidence from Alexandria and other sites indicating that they practised the Greek tradition of cremation.

This broadly reflects the general situation in Hellenistic Egypt, its rulers proclaiming themselves to be pharaohs but otherwise living in an entirely Hellenistic world, incorporating only very few local elements.

Conversely, the Egyptians only slowly developed an interest in the Greek-Hellenic culture that dominated the East Mediterranean since the conquests of Alexander.

This situation changed substantially with the arrival of the Romans.

Within a few generations, all Egyptian elements disappeared from everyday life.

Cities like Karanis or Oxyrhynchus are largely Graeco-Roman places.

There is clear evidence that this resulted from a mixing of different ethnicities in the ruling classes of Roman Egypt.