During the rule of the Romans, which lasted from B.C. 30 to A.D. 640, the Greek language entirely superseded Egyptian for official purposes, and it was also usually employed in the funerary inscriptions. Interesting examples are the stele of =Politta=, inscribed with a metrical text (Bay 26, No. =1083=), and the stele of =Artemidorus= (Bay 26, No. =1084=). On the =pillar altar= (Bay 31, No. =1086=) is a dedication in Greek to the god Serapis of the city of Canopus; and on the square sandstone slab (Bay 26, No. =1087=) is a very interesting but difficult text recording the cleansing and restoration of some public building near the town of Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt, whilst Gabriel was Duke of the Thebaïd. Other interesting inscriptions in Greek are found in =ostraka=, or potsherds, many of which are dated in the reigns of Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Antoninus, Sabinus, Pertinax, etc., will be found exhibited in Table-case C in the Third Egyptian Room. During the early centuries of Roman rule the Egyptians continued to mummify their dead, and to bury them with the ancient rites and ceremonies. The use of the funerary stele or tablet continued down to the fourth century A.D.; but the gods represented on them appeared in different forms, and Greek or demotic took the place of hieroglyphics. In the region about Thebes and to the south of that city the cult of Osiris and Isis continued until about A.D. 560, and a simple system of mummification was practised in connexion with the worship of the dead. [Illustration: Sepulchral tablet sculptured with figures of doves, pillars, leaf patterns, etc. [Southern Egyptian Gallery, Bay 30, No. 1156.]]