4,000-Year-Old Unlooted Tomb Complete with Mummy and Grave Goods Discovered in Egypt

Ancient Origins

A Spanish team of archaeologists has unearthed a 4,000-year-old unopened tomb in West Aswan, Egypt. The tomb belongs to the brother of Sarenput II, one of the most dominant and powerful Pharaonic governors of the 12th Dynasty in ancient Egypt.

 Tomb Belongs to the Brother of Sarenput II
In a great day for Egyptian archaeology, the previously unknown and unopened tomb was discovered in West Aswan, Egypt. The discovery was the outcome of a Spanish archeological mission that was determined to unlock the biggest mysteries of this ancient Egyptian burial area. The newly found burial belongs to the brother of Sarenput II, one of the most significant governors of the 12th Dynasty, according to Luxor Times Magazine. “The discovery is important because not only for the richness of the burial but it sheds light on those individuals who were shadowed by others in power. In fact, there is no much information about them,” said Mahmoud Afifi, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities department of the antiquities ministry. Additionally, director of Aswan Antiquities, Nasr Salama, stated that the present finding is unique because it has been located with all the funerary goods, which consist of pottery, two cedar coffins and a set of wooden models, which represents funerary boats and scenes of the daily life.

Archaeologists open a tomb that has remained sealed for 4,000 years. Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

A Mummy Also Discovered Inside the Burial Chamber
Another important discovery took place thanks to the efforts of Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano, director of the Spanish mission of the University of Jaen. A mummy covered with a cartonnage that was painted in several colors, an impressive mask and collars in a great state of preservation, was discovered but hasn’t been examined yet, and photos have not yet been made available.

 The inscriptions of the coffins bear the name of the defunct, Shemai (Sarenput II’s brother), followed respectively by his mother and father, Satethotep and Khema. Serrano explained that Sarenput II, the eldest brother of Shemai, was one of the most powerful governors of Egypt under the reigns of Senwosret II and Senwosret III. “This discovery, the University of Jaen Mission in Qubbet el-Hawa adds more data to previous discoveries of fourteen members of the ruling family of Elephantine during Dynasty 12. Such high number of individuals provides a unique opportunity to study the life conditions of the high class in Egypt more than 3800 years ago,” the director of the mission said as Egyptian Streets reported.

Egyptologists consider this a very important discovery, which will possibly uncover more secrets of the great and historic culture of Egypt. More expeditions are expected to unravel the mysteries of Aswan and it is just a matter of time when another find will fill the news.

The door to the tomb before it was opened. Credit: Ministry of Antiquities.

Top image: Painted eyes on the newly discovered tomb. Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

By Theodoros Karasavvas​

Every Curator’s Dream? 2000-Year-Old Mummy Shroud Discovered at the National Museum of Scotland

Ancient Origins

Curators at the National Museum of Scotland have made an exceptional discovery inside a World War II service envelope with a hand-written note. The writing distinguishes the contents, a remarkably preserved mummy shroud, as being from an ancient Egyptian tomb originally built around 1290 BC. The package had been forgotten in the museum’s storage since the mid-1940s.

Ancient Textile Described as a “Curator’s Dream”
The shroud, which dates to the 9 BC, was discovered during "an in-depth assessment" of Egyptian collections and it is only one of the many objects from this tomb which are in the museum’s collections. Conservators gently humidified it in order for the fibers to become less dry and brittle. This helped experts to cautiously unfold the shroud, a procedure that lasted nearly 24 hours. A hieroglyphic inscription on the shroud divulged the owner’s identity: the son of the Roman-era high-official Montsuef and his wife Tanuat. Dr. Margaret Maitland, senior curator of ancient Mediterranean collections, told BBC :

"To discover an object of this importance in our collections, and in such good condition, is a curator's dream. Before we were able to unfold the textile, tantalising glimpses of colourful painted details suggested that it might be a mummy shroud, but none of us could have imagined the remarkable figure that would greet us when we were finally able to unroll it. The shroud is a very rare object in superb condition and is executed in a highly-unusual artistic style, suggestive of Roman period Egyptian art, yet still very distinctive."

Researchers examining the shroud. ( National Museum of Scotland )

Other Remarkable Shrouds
 Of course, this is not the first time an extraordinary shroud is found in great shape. A rare and exquisite funeral shroud dating back 2,000 years to the ancient Paracas culture of Peru was discovered on the Paracas Peninsula in the 1920s. The magnificent textile was described as uniquely complex, with more than 80 hues of blue, green, yellow and red woven into a pattern of 32 frames.

Yet the most notable and famous archaeological story involving a shroud consists of the notorious Shroud of Turin . Believed by many to be the burial cloth of Jesus of Nazareth, but held only as a religious article of historical significance by skeptics, the Shroud of Turin has captivated scholars and scientists alike due to its mysterious nature. What’s even stranger with this case is that most recent studies and DNA tests add more fuel to the fire instead of solving the puzzle.

The renowned Shroud of Turin, religious relic and mysterious artifact. ( Public Domain )

Newly Found Shroud Comes from a Roman-Era Burial
 Experts claim that the mummy shroud found in the National Museum of Scotland comes from a Roman-era burial in a tomb originally built about 2300 years ago, opposite the famed city of Thebes, modern-day Luxor. First constructed for a chief of police and his wife, it was looted and reused many times before being sealed during the early days of the 1st Century AD.

In Roman-era Egypt, shrouds became more and more significant as the use of coffins was already rare by then. Curators also speculate that because of its owner's close relationship to Montsuef and Tanuat, whose deaths were recorded in 9 BC, it is very possible to date the shroud around the same period of time.

Examining the shroud. ( National Museum of Scotland )

The shroud will be displayed for the first time in The Tomb: Ancient Egyptian Burial exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland on 31 March.

Top Image: Detail of the face on the mummy shroud from around 9 BC which was recently recovered from a hidden package in the National Museum of Scotland’s collections. Source: National Museum of Scotland

By Theodoros Karasavvas

Egyptologists Set to Unravel the Identity of Mystery Pharaoh from Tomb KV55

Ancient Origins

An ancient Eygptian tomb excavated in 1907 still holds mysteries. Chief among them: Who exactly was buried there? Was it Akhenaten, a radical pharaoh who overturned all the Egyptians knew about their many deities and elevated one “true” god above all others—Aten? A new study will explore this question and try to answer once and for all who was the occupant of the mystery sarcophagus in tomb KV55 of the Valley of Kings.

No one has ever presented any definitive evidence that the sarcophagus had contained Akhenaten’s remains, AhramOnline quotes Elham Salah, head of the Antiquities Ministry’s Museums Department, as saying. Dr. Salah added that the sarcophagus is one of the most controversial among Egypt’s many known ancient burials.

Bust of Pharaoh Akhenaton (Wikimedia Commons)

The Ministry of Antiquities will continue a study of the sarcophagus begun in 2015 with help of a $28,500 grant from the American Research Center in Egypt.
“Salah … told Ahram Online that the study is being carried out on a collection of 500 gold sheets found in a box in storage at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir along with the remains of a skull and a handwritten note in French,” the newspaper states.

Pieces of the skull found in the sarcophagus in KV55 (AhramOnline photo)

The note dates to the opening of KV55. It says the 500 gold sheets were in a sarcophagus in the tomb, but doesn’t specify which sarcophagus, AhramOnline states. The initial phase of the study determined the gold sheets could have been in sarcophagus in question.

The gold sheets that were in a sarcophagus in the tomb (Photo by AhramOnline)

Islam Ezat, a staffer with the ministry’s scientific office, said the study is being done by skilled Egyptian archaeologists and restorers. He told AhramOnline the study may answer once and for all who the owner of the sarcophagus and tomb was.
KV55 contained a variety of artifacts and a single body, as Ancient Origins reported in January 2015. Identification of the body has been complicated by the fact that the artifacts appear to belong to several different individuals. It has been speculated that the tomb was created in a hurry, and that the individual buried there had been previously laid to rest elsewhere. With many different possibilities for the identity of the mummy – ranging from Queen Tiye (Akhenaten’s mother), to King Smenkhkare – researchers who set out to identify the mummy were presented with a puzzling challenge.
In January 1907, financier Theodore M. Davis hired archaeologist Edward R. Ayrton and his team to conduct excavations in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The Valley of the Kings is an area in Egypt located on the West bank of the Nile River, across from the city of Thebes. Almost all of the pharaohs from Egypt’s Golden Age are buried in this famous valley.
The KV55 tomb is small and simple. The entrance includes a flight of 20 stairs. At the time of the discovery, the entrance and stairs were covered by rubble. A sloping corridor leads to the tomb, which contains a single chamber and a small niche. Within the tomb, at the time of discovery, were four canopic jars, a gilded wooden shrine, remains of boxes, seal impressions and a vase stand. It also had pieces of furniture, a silver goose head, two clay bricks, and a single coffin. The coffin had been desecrated, with parts of the beautifully decorated face having been removed.

One of the four Egyptian alabaster canopic jars found in KV55, depicting what is thought to be the likeness of Queen Kiya. Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 2.5

Overall, the physical appearance of the tomb is unremarkable. However, the contents became more puzzling and mysterious as they were examined, as each piece appeared to be connected to different individuals. This made efforts to identify the remains within the tomb more difficult. According to some researchers, the presence of this variety of items indicates that whoever was entombed here was done so in a hurry, or possibly the individual was buried somewhere else, and then relocated to KV55 at a later date.
While identifying the remains in the tomb has been challenging, there are many clues in the items found within the tomb. Many of these items have been linked to King Akhenaten. The four canopic jars within the tomb were all empty. They contained effigies of four women, believed to be the daughters of Akhenaten, and may have been created for Kiya, one of Akhenaten’s wives. The gilded shrine appeared to have been created for Akhenaten’s mother, Queen Tiye. And Akhenaten’s name was on the two clay bricks.

Profile view of a skull recovered from KV55. Public Domain

In 2010, some experts had concluded they were nearly certain the remains were of Akhenaten, but the identity is now being studied further.
Featured image: The desecrated royal coffin found in Tomb KV55. Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0
By Mark Miller

Leaving a Mark: Elaborate Tattoos Found on 3,000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy

Ancient Origins

A bioarchaeologist studying mummies found in Deir el-Medina, Egypt has discovered a special kind of ancient tattoo. While most Egyptian mummies with tattoos only have patterns of dots and dashes, those present on the remains of a woman from 3,000 years ago are said to be the first example of a mummy from dynastic Egypt to depict actual objects. 

The study comes from Anne Austin of Stanford University who presented her findings last month at a meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. By using infrared lighting and an infrared sensor, Austin found that the mummy has over 30 tattoos – although many of them are not visible to the naked eye.

As the mummy's skin is distorted and covered in resin, it is difficult to see many of the tattoos, such as these Hathor cows, with the naked eye. (Anne Austin)

And speaking of eyes, one of the symbols found on the woman are wadjet eyes, which an article in the journal Nature says are “possible symbols of protection against evil that adorn the mummy’s neck, shoulders and back.” As Austin told Nature, “Any angle that you look at this woman, you see a pair of divine eyes looking back at you.”

A blue faience Wadjet amulet with the sacred eye outlined in black. (Harrogate Museums and Arts service/ CC BY SA 4.0)

Along with the wadjet eyes, Austin also found baboons on the mummy’s neck, cows on her arm, and lotus blossoms on her hips. Austin explained that the size and location of the designs (many not within her own reach), show that they held a special significance. She also said that the tattooing “would’ve been very time consuming, and in some areas of the body, extremely painful.” She added that the fact that the woman received such a quantity also demonstrates “not only her belief in their importance, but others around her as well”.

• The Tattooed Priestesses of Hathor
• Ancient Ink: How Tattoos Can Reveal Hidden Stories of Past Cultures
• Scientists discover new tattoos on 5,300-year-old Otzi the Iceman mummy

Specifically, the tattoos are thought to have a strong religious meaning. For example, the cows are associated with the goddess Hathor. According to Nature, “The symbols on the throat and arms may have been intended to give the woman a jolt of magical power as she sang or played music during rituals for Hathor.”

Hathor as a cow suckling a pharaoh. (CC BY NC SA 2.0)

In the late 19th century several other tattooed female mummies related to Hathor were discovered in Deir el-Bahari, the site of royal and high status burials. The women have been called ‘The Tattooed Priestesses of Hathor’ and the most famous is Amunet, Priestess of the Goddess Hathor. The women have tattoos comprised of dots and dashes and it has been suggested that the markings were likely therapeutic in nature.
In comparison, Emily teeter, an Egyptologist at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute in Illinois, told Nature that she believes the tattoos on the mummy from Deir el-Medina could be a sign of the woman’s religious nature. As some of the marks are more faded than others, Austin agreed that that the woman’s religious status may have grown with age.
Teeter also revealed that the discovery left her and some other Egyptologists “dumbfounded”. She said, “We didn’t know about this sort of expression before.” While rare, the tattooed woman is not one of a kind, however, and Nature reports that Austin “has already found three more tattooed mummies at Deir el-Medina, and hopes that modern techniques will uncover more elsewhere.”

Anthropologist Ghada Darwish Al-Khafif uses infrared imaging to examine tattoos on the mummy's back. (Anne Austin)

Featured Image: The mummy's tattoos include two seated baboons depicted between a wadjet eye (top row), a symbol of protection. Source: Anne Austin
By Alicia McDermott