Tomb of the unknown Abydos dynasty king
Tomb of the unknown Abydos dynasty king Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
Before archaeologists confirmed the discovery of the tomb of Thutmose II last month, more than a century had passed since Howard Carter and a team of Egyptian laborers unearthed the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Now, for the second time in what is already proving to be a landmark year for the study of ancient Egypt, archaeologists have discovered yet another ancient king’s tomb.
This time around, however, there’s just one snag: No one knows which king it belonged to.
A joint Egyptian-American archaeological team made the discovery in the Mount Anubis necropolis in Abydos, a major city in ancient Upper Egypt, according to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The tomb is thought to date back to the Middle Kingdom’s Second Intermediate Period, which spanned roughly 1630 to 1540 B.C.E. At the time, the Hyksos dynasty ruled Lower Egypt, the northernmost region of the kingdom. The Hyksos, a Greek term for “rulers of foreign lands,” came from western Asia, bringing with them major cultural and technological contributions, such as the horse and chariot.
In contrast, Upper Egypt, in the southern part of the kingdom, was ruled by a group of Egyptian kings who later succumbed to a Hyksos invasion. As a result, little is known about this so-called Abydos dynasty. But in 2014, archaeologists unearthed the tomb of the previously unknown King Senebkay in Abydos, offering a glimpse at this forgotten chapter in Egyptian history—a period of political fragmentation and economic struggle.
Buried more than 20 feet underground, with a larger footprint than previous tombs linked to the Abydos dynasty, the newly uncovered tomb consists of a limestone burial chamber covered in mud-brick vaults. Inscriptions on the walls of the entrance reference the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, but the name of the king buried within the tomb is illegible.
“The king’s name was originally recorded in painted scenes on plastered brickwork that decorated the underground entrance to the limestone burial chamber,” Josef Wegner, an Egyptologist at the University of Pennsylvania who led the excavation, tells Live Science’s Owen Jarus. “However, the hieroglyphic texts were damaged by ancient tomb robbers, and not enough survives to read the king’s name.”
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In the statement, Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, suggests the tomb belonged to a predecessor of King Senebkay. But Wegner points out that the raiders also took all the treasures—including the king’s mummy and sarcophagus—from the tomb, leaving it bereft of clues to help archaeologists track down the king’s identity.
Still, Wegner tells Live Science that he is hopeful his team can uncover nearby artifacts and sites that might help “shed light on [the] identity and ownership of this new royal tomb.”
In fact, the tomb of the unknown pharaoh is just one of two major recent finds in the Sohag Governorate, as Ahram Online’s Nevine El-Aref points out.
Around the same time as the excavations in Abydos, a group of archaeologists from the Supreme Council of Antiquities discovered a pottery workshop in the village of Banawit that dates back to Egypt’s Roman and Byzantine eras, between 30 B.C.E. and 642 C.E.
The unknown king's tomb
The unknown king's tomb was buried more than 20 feet underground, with limestone walls and mud-brick vaults. Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
According to the statement, the workshop consisted of multiple kilns; storage areas; and 32 ostraca, or pottery shards, with commercial transactions written in Greek and Demotic scripts.
Preliminary studies suggest the pottery workshop was in use during the Byzantine era but was repurposed during the seventh century C.E. as a cemetery.
Mud-brick tombs containing mummies and skeletons of different ages, including a child in a fabric cap and the skull of a woman in her 30s, suggest the site was used for family burials, possibly until the 14th century. Wheat roots and seeds from palms and barley found alongside the bodies offer glimpses of the agricultural history and funereal practices of the Sohag region.
As Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the excavation, tells Live Science, these finds add to “a very limited body of evidence” about the region and its rulers. She calls the discovery of the tomb in particular “highly significant.” But there is much work left to be done.
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Eli Wizevich | | READ MORE
Eli Wizevich is a history correspondent for Smithsonian. He studied history at the University of Chicago and previously wrote for the El Paso Times.
Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Cemetery, Cool Finds, Egypt, Kings, Monarchs, Mummies