Surprising discovery of archaeologists - Egyptian mummified king turned out to be a princess

The science of Egyptology originated in the 20s of the 19th century.Since then, the attention of archaeologists and Egyptologists around the world has been riveted on the Egyptian civilization. By the end of the 19th century, most of the tombs of the pharaohs and other great people were discovered. True, many of the discovered tombs were plundered, both by modern tomb raiders and the ancients. But, despite this, Egypt continues to constantly provide new historical information and amaze scientists. To this day, researchers have found new tombs in Egypt. And sometimes they are discovered not even by scientists, but by farmers. The tomb, which will be discussed later, was discovered by Egyptologists last year in the desert on the west bank of the Nile, near Cairo. It was a royal necropolis that contained many interesting artifacts. Among them was a sarcophagus with the outline of a man's face in a wig of the goddess Hathor. Scientists immediately assumed that the mummy of the Egyptian king was inside, since the tomb was made in the shape of a pyramid. The latter were used only for the burial of rulers. But, contrary to the expectations of scientists, it turned out that a woman was buried here.

Scientists have discovered an Egyptian pyramid, in which a princess was buried instead of a king

Mysterious woman in the ruler's sarcophagus

A team of researchers led by an EgyptologistDr. Yasmin El-Shazli began to carefully study the find. As Yasmin El-Shazli notes, the top cover of sarcophagi usually had a voluminous carved face, similar to the face of the person who is buried in it. However, the Egyptians tried to idealize the features in order to capture them like that forever.

Wooden lid of the sarcophagus of the mysterious princess

The discovered sarcophagus depicts a manwearing a wig Hathor. This accessory was widespread in the era of the Middle Kingdom, that is, in the period from 2040 to 1650 BC. However, the wig was worn exclusively by women, which confused the researchers. Thus, they realized that inside was the mummy of a woman, apparently belonging to the family of the ruler.

Next to the sarcophagus was a chest covered ininscriptions. The latter encouraged the scientists - they hoped that the text would reveal more about the personality of the buried woman. However, the section of the chest that contained her name and some information was badly damaged. Therefore, expectations were not met, but the Egyptologists managed to decipher the surviving part of the text.

Princess chest found in the tomb next to the sarcophagus

“What is especially important in this chest is that thanks to it we were able to find out that it belonged to the princess. It read “The Daughter of the King,” says Yasmin El-Shazli.

The mystery of the burial of the Egyptian princess

For scientists, not only the name remained a mysterywomen, but also why she ended up buried in the pyramid. According to experts, only kings were buried in such tombs, but not the younger members of the ruler's family. According to tradition, the woman was to be buried in an ordinary tomb with a camera below. Obviously, for some reason, this tradition was broken.

Egyptologist Yasmin El-Shazli, who led the study

To get more information about a woman,the team drew attention to the era in which they lived. As I said above, this was the era of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. During this period, the first Egyptian historical novel was written, entitled The History of Sinuhe. Also in Srednaya, new technologies for processing gold appeared, which made it possible to create more complex and elegant jewelry. In general, the Middle Kingdom is considered the classical Egyptian era.

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At the same time, there was another Egyptianprincess - Henmet. Some of her jewelry and treasures are kept in the Cairo Museum. Scientists believed they would provide clues regarding the mysterious princess. I must say that Egyptologists do not know who Henmet's father was. But, since the woman was buried near the pyramid of Amenemhat II, scientists believe that it was he who was the father of the princess.

Egyptian princess Henmet decoration

Henmet's tomb contained manygold jewelry inlaid with semi-precious stones. They were decorated with symbols and patterns similar to those found in the tomb of the mysterious princess. As scientists suggest, the pyramid, apparently, also contained many gold decorations, like the tomb of Henmet, but was plundered in ancient times.

As for the personality of a woman, she isunknown to the former scientists. The team continues to search for an answer to this question. It is possible that someday this mystery will be solved. Finally, let me remind you that over the past year, scientists have also managed to find out a lot of other interesting information about Egypt. Not so long ago, I talked about the secrets of the Egyptian art of decorating temples, which also surprised researchers a lot.