An Archaeologist Found The Ancient Tomb of The God Osiris?! – Right Under The Sphinx
Every culture has its legends and its myths. Most of us are familiar with the legend of King Arthur, the greatest king in British legends, and his queen Guinevere. Likewise, the mythology surrounding Osiris is one of the most prominent tales to come out of Egypt.
The main chamber. You can see the statue of Osiris at the back, with the stairs and central shaft going down.
Osiris is the ancient Egyptian god of the dead and the ruler of the underworld. As is true of many religions, the myths surrounding this figure are complex and varied.
He was the god of immortality; he was supposed to judge the dead, only allowing the morally worth into his afterlife; he was seen as a god of regeneration and rebirth, and he held a number of other roles that varied according to the cult.
But regardless of how he was seen, he was widely regarded as one of the more powerful Gods. And now, archaeologists have discovered an ancient tomb that appears to be directly modelled according to the mythical Tomb of Osiris.
This find was made by a Spanish-Italian archaeological team, in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
This tomb was described by Egyptian lore in the necropolis of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, a funerary complex that is part of the Deir el-Bahari (the Northern Monastery) that is located on the West Bank at Thebes.
The tomb was initially uncovered back in 1887 by Philippe Virey. And in the 20th century there were some cursory efforts to map the main structure; however, Tomb Kampp -327, which you can see marked in red below, was never outlined.
The newly identified Osiris complex includes a shaft that connects to multiple chambers that hold a number of interesting artefacts.
One such area has a wall relief that shows a series of demons holding knives, which were placed there in order to protect the bodies of the dead.
Another chamber (the central vaulted chapel) has an emerald skinned deity sitting and facing a staircase with a 29.5-foot (9-meter) shaft in it.
The shaft connects to another room with a second shaft that goes down for 19.6 feet (6 meters) into two rooms. It’s a little bit like a maze, as you can see below.
The exact date of this structure’s creation is not known; however, researchers believe the tomb complex dates back to the 25th dynasty (760 – 656 BC) or the 26th dynasty (672 – 525 BC), based on a comparison to similar tombs that contain Osirian elements.
Drawing of the tomb’s architecture made by Raffaella Carrera, of the Min Project.
Ancient Egypt archaeologists find 30 mummies in a fire-scorched sacrificial chamber
Hidden within a fire-scorched structure near the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt, archaeologists discovered the entrance to a 2,000-year-old family tomb. Inside, they found 30 mummies of various ages, including several arthritis-ridden elderly people, as well as children and a newborn.
The newly discovered rectangular structure contains the tomb.
The tomb was discovered beneath a set of stairs.
Though the archaeologists have yet to date the tomb, they suspect a single family buried their dead in it over generations spanning the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (the first century B.C. to the second or third century A.D.)
According to Patrizia Piacentini, a professor of Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Milan, who was co-director of the excavation.
One of the mummies discovered in a coffin inside the tomb.Researchers discovered this colourful cartonnage inside the coffin of a child.
This new tomb is one of more than 300 recently discovered surrounding the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan, a pink granite structure built in the 20th century that sits on top of a slight hill along the Nile River.
But while most of the other tombs were found underground or dug into rocky hills, this particular tomb was unique in that it was found inside a larger above-ground structure, which the researchers think was likely used as a place of sacrifice.
“It seems that, due to its position along a valley of access to the necropolis, this building was used as a sacred enclosure where sacrifices were offered to the god Khnum in the form of Aries, creator god and protector of the fertile floods of the Nile, particularly revered in Aswan,” Piacentini told Live Science. “Who better than he could have propitiated the eternal life of those who rested in this necropolis?”
The archaeologists discovered a copper necklace with the inscription “Nikostratos” next to a mummy.
The researchers found this broken offering table in front of the tomb.
A barbotine bowl was among the finds.
A knife with an iron blade and wooden handle was among the finds, and the researchers think it may have been used by ancient robbers to cut the bandages of the mummies.
The researchers used a portable x-ray machine at the site to analyze the mummified head of a child.
Further supporting its use as a place of sacrifice, Piacentini and the team discovered signs of fire on the structure walls possibly from offering ceremonies; but some of the fire marks may have also been made by grave robbers, she added. Either way, inside that burned structure, they discovered animal bones, plant remains and offering tables.
Also hidden inside was a mummy of a man next to a copper necklace engraved with his name “Nikostratos.”
At the bottom of a staircase leading to the tomb entrance — which had been dug out of the rock —, they found a broken offering vase that still contained small fruits. The tomb, which was made up of four deeply-excavated chambers, contained the remains of around 30 mummies.
Some of the mummies were very well preserved, such as the remains of a child tucked inside a terracotta sarcophagus, while others had their bandages and cartonnage, a material ancient Egyptians used to wrap mummies, cut by ancient robbers.
The researchers also discovered a knife with an iron blade and wooden handle that may have been used by the plunderers. The researchers also say that Nikostratos was likely once inside the tomb with the other 30 mummies, but was taken out by the robbers.
The excavation was a joint venture between the Aswan and Nubian Antiquities Zone in Egypt and by the University of Milan in Italy; the researchers are continuing to analyze and date the finds.
“The study of the newly discovered structure is just beginning,” Piacentini said.
Quintessential human traits such as large brains first appear in Homo erectus nearly 2 million years ago. This evolutionary transition towards human-like traits is often linked to a major dietary shift involving greater meat consumption.
A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, calls into question the primacy of meat-eating in early human evolution.
While the archaeological evidence for meat-eating increases dramatically after the appearance of Homo erectus, the study authors argue that this increase can largely be explained by greater research attention on this time period, effectively skewing the evidence in favour of the “meat made us human” hypothesis.
Homo erectus in East Africa surrounded by contemporary fauna
“Generations of paleoanthropologists have gone to famously well-preserved sites in places like Olduvai Gorge looking for — and finding — breathtaking direct evidence of early humans eating meat, furthering this viewpoint that there was an explosion of meat-eating after 2 million years ago,” W. Andrew Barr, an assistant professor of anthropology at the George Washington University and lead author on the study, said.
“However, when you quantitatively synthesize the data from numerous sites across eastern Africa to test this hypothesis, as we did here, that ‘meat made us human’ evolutionary narrative starts to unravel.”
Barr and his colleagues compiled published data from nine major research areas in eastern Africa, including 59 site levels dating between 2.6 and 1.2 million years ago.
They used several metrics to track hominin carnivory: the number of zooarchaeological sites preserving animal bones that have cut marks made by stone tools, the total count of animal bones with cut marks across sites, and the number of separately reported stratigraphic levels.
The researchers found that, when accounting for variation in sampling effort over time, there is no sustained increase in the relative amount of evidence for carnivory after the appearance of H. Erectus.
They note that while the raw abundance of modified bones and the number of zooarchaeological sites and levels all demonstrably increased after the appearance of H. Erectus, the increases were mirrored by a corresponding rise in sampling intensity, suggesting that intensive sampling – rather than changes in human behaviour – could be the cause.
“I’ve excavated and studied cut marked fossils for over 20 years, and our findings were still a big surprise to me,” Briana Pobiner, a research scientist in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and co-author on the study, said.
“This study changes our understanding of what the zooarchaeological record tells us about the earliest prehistoric meat-eating. It also shows how important it is that we continue to ask big questions about our evolution, while we also continue to uncover and analyze new evidence about our past.”
In the future, the researchers stressed the need for alternative explanations for why certain anatomical and behavioural traits associated with modern humans emerged.
Possible alternative theories include the provisioning of plant foods by grandmothers and the development of controlled fire for increasing nutrient availability through cooking.
The researchers caution that none of these possible explanations currently have a strong grounding in the archaeological record, so much work remains to be done.
“I would think this study and its findings would be of interest not just to the paleoanthropology community but to all the people currently basing their dieting decisions around some version of this meat-eating narrative,” Barr said. “Our study undermines the idea that eating large quantities of meat drove evolutionary changes in our early ancestors.”
In addition to Barr and Pobiner, the research team included John Rowan, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Albany; Andrew Du, an assistant professor of anthropology and geography at Colorado State University; and J. Tyler Faith, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Utah.
Ancient city found in Ethiopia sheds new light on country’s history
Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient, forgotten city in Ethiopia once thought to be the home of giants. The discovery reveals important new information about the origins of international trade and Islam in the country between the 10th and early 15th centuries.
This is the first evidence that proves Eastern Ethiopia was well connected with the Gulf, Egypt and India hundreds of years ago and highlights how skilled craftsmen traded with communities around the world and lived alongside people from different areas around the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
A dig in Harlaa, Eastern Ethiopia, has revealed a 12th-century mosque, evidence of Islamic burials and headstones as well as glass vessel fragments, rock crystal, carnelian, glass beads, imported cowry shells, and pottery from Madagascar, the Maldives, Yemen and China. Archaeologists have found bronze and silver coins from 13th-century Egypt.
A dig in Harlaa, Eastern Ethiopia, has revealed a 12th-century mosque.
There has so far been very little archaeological research carried out in Islamic sites in Ethiopia, with experts more focused on finding early humans in the region.
Archaeologists had not previously carried out extensive work in this part of Ethiopia. Farmers had been uncovering pottery and coins for many years in the area and were convinced there was rich information about Ethiopia’s history to be found underground.
The size of some of the building stones also found created a local legend that the area had been home to giants.
Archaeologists worked with the community for two years to make the discoveries, which will be exhibited in a heritage centre run by local people designed to bring income to the area.
Some findings will be displayed in the country’s national museum in Addis Ababa. The work was completed in partnership with the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.
Professor Timothy Insoll, from the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, who led the research, said: “This discovery revolutionises our understanding of trade in an archaeologically neglected part of Ethiopia. What we have found shows this area was the centre of trade in that region.
The city was a rich, cosmopolitan centre for jewellery making and pieces were then taken to be sold around the region and beyond. Residents of Harlaa were a mixed community of foreigners and local people who traded with others in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and possibly as far away as the Arabian Gulf.”
Harlaa is 120km from the Red Sea coast and 300km from Addis Adaba. The architecture of the mosque is similar to those found in Southern Tanzania and Somaliland, showing connections between different Islamic communities in Africa.
Remains found in the dig suggest jewellers were making high-quality, delicate pieces in silver, bronze and semi-precious stones and glass beads. They used some technology usually associated in that period with jewellers in India, suggesting trade or immigration from that country to Harlaa.
The settlement, which is around 500m by 1,000m, has buildings and walls constructed with large stone blocks – leading people to assume only those with enormous stature or strength could have built it, and encouraging local legends about giants having inhabited the region.
The remains of some of the 300 people buried in the cemetery are being analysed to see what their diet consisted of.
Professor Insoll said: “The archaeological findings suggest this place was home to a very mixed community. Local people were extremely keen for us to solve mysteries. Farmers had been finding strange objects, including Chinese coins, as they were working on their land, and a legend began that the area was home to giants. We have obviously disproved that, but I’m not sure they fully believe us yet. Some people have said the bodies we have discovered are the children of giants!”
The research is funded by the European Research Council and previously by the Max Van Berchem Foundation in Switzerland.
The archaeologists, from the Universities of Exeter, Addis Ababa and Leuven, will dig again next year, in other sites and deeper underground, to uncover more evidence of people who lived there earlier in history. So far, they have excavated down to a depth of 2.5 metres and dated this to the 6th century.
Professor Insoll said: “We know jewellery was being made here for trading into the African interior, and materials to do this came in from the Red Sea, East African Coast and possibly India, but we don’t know what was given in exchange for that jewellery. During the next stage of our archaeological research in this era, we hope to examine this by working on other sites up to 100km away.”
Archaeologists Unearth Colossal Pair of Sphinxes in Egypt During Restoration of Landmark Temple
A pair of giant limestone sphinxes have been unearthed by archaeologists excavating the temple of Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,300 years ago and was the grandfather of Tutankhamun.
The statues depict the pharaoh wearing a mongoose-shaped headdress, a royal beard and a wide necklace. After further analysis, the team found the script ‘the beloved of Amun-Re’ across one of the sphinx’s chests.
The Egyptian-German archaeological team, led by Horig Sorosian, found the colossal statues submerged in water at the funerary building, known as the ‘Temple of Millions of Years,’ according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
A pair of giant limestone sphinxes have been unearthed by archaeologists excavating the temple of Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,300 years ago and was the grandfather of Tutankhamun. The statues depict the pharaoh wearing a mongoose-shaped headdress, a royal beard and a wide necklace.
The temple is in Luxor, Egypt, which is famously known for the oldest and most ancient Egyptian sites, along with being home to the Valley of Kings.
Along with the 26-foot-long sphinxes, the team also uncovered three nearly intact statues of the goddess Sekhmet, the lion-like defender of the Sun god Ra and the remains of a great pillared hall.
And the walls throughout the hall are decorated with ceremonial and ritual scenes. Horosian emphasized the importance of this discovery, as the two sphinxes confirm the presence of the beginning of the procession road where the celebrations of the Beautiful Valley Festival were held every year.
This yearly event was a time when people could visit their deceased loved ones and bring them gifts – and it was only celebrated in the ancient city of Thebes.
After further analysis, the team found the script ‘the beloved of Amun-Re’ across one of the sphinx’s chests. Pictured is a second sphinx that appears to have been weathered over thousands of years
Along with the 26-foot-long sphinxes, the team also uncovered three nearly intact statues of the goddess Sekhmet, the lion-like defender of the Sun god Ra and the remains of a great pillared hall
King Amenhotep III was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun and ruled in the 14th century BC at the height of Egypt’s the New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.
The 18th dynasty ruler became king aged around 12, with his mother as regent and is believed to have ruled Egypt between 1386 and 1349 BC. Amenhotep III chose the daughter of a provincial official as his royal wife, and throughout his reign, Queen Tiy featured alongside the king.
Amenhotep III died in around 1354 BC and was succeeded by his son Amenhotep IV, widely known as Akhenaten, who was King Tut’s father.
Tut began his reign at the age of eight or nine and ruled for about nine years. However, the young king was plagued with health issues due to his parents being brother and sister – and experts believe the issues led to his death.
Archaeologists emphasized the importance of this discovery, as the two sphinxes confirm the presence of the beginning of the procession road where the celebrations of the Beautiful Valley Festival were held every year. Pictured is another statue of the goddess Sekhmet.
Amenhotep III may have left the Earth thousands of years ago, but archaeologists are still uncovering remnants of his past, with the most lavish being the ‘lost golden city.’
In April 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 3,500-year-old city in Luxor, which they said is the largest ancient city ever to be discovered in Egypt.
It was built by Amenhotep III and later used by King Tutankhamun. Luxor, a city of some 500,000 people on the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt, is an open-air museum of intricate temples and pharaonic tombs.
Excavations at the site uncovered bakeries, workshops and burials of animals and humans, along with jewellery, pots and mud bricks bearing seals of Amenhotep III.
The team initially set out to discover Tutankhamun’s Mortuary Temple, where the young king was mummified and received status rites, but they stumbled upon something far greater.
Betsy Brian, Professor of Egyptology at John Hopkins University in Baltimore USA, said ‘The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun’.
Amenhotep III may have left the Earth thousands of years ago, but archaeologists are still uncovering remnants of his past, with the most lavish being the ‘lost golden city.’ In April 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 3,500-year-old city in Luxor, which they said is the largest ancient city ever to be discovered in Egypt.
‘The discovery of the Lost City, not only will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time when the Empire was at its wealthiest but will help us shed light on one of history’s greatest mysteries: why did Akhenaten & Nefertiti decide to move to Amarna.’
The city sits between Rameses III’s temple at Medinet Habu and Amenhotep III’s temple at Memnon. Excavations began in September 2020 and within weeks, archaeologists uncovered formations made of mud bricks.
After more digging, archaeologists unearthed the site of the large, well-preserved city with almost complete walls, and rooms filled with tools once used by the city’s inhabitants.
Has the Burial Chamber of Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertiti Been Found?
Egyptian archaeologists announced recently they may have found the burial place of Queen Nefertiti in a hidden chamber close to the pharaoh’s burial complex in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
The final resting place of Nefertiti, who served as queen alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten over 3,000 years ago, is one of Egypt’s greatest mysteries.
It is believed that the powerful monarch was the mother of King Tutankhamun’s wife and that she briefly ruled Egypt outright after the death of her husband in 1335 BC.
Archaeologists have never found her remains, and one long-standing theory is that she was buried in a secret compartment within Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Tutankhamun died at just 19 years of age, and his burial complex is exceptionally small for a monarch, leading some experts to speculate that parts of it still remain undiscovered.
Now scientists have used high-tech radar scans to reveal possible evidence of hidden chambers beyond the tomb’s north wall.
The corridor-like space measures two meters (six feet) high and over 10 meters (32 feet) long. It sits just a few meters from Tutankhamun’s gold-laden treasury.
The study was led by archaeologist Mamdouh Eldamaty, a former Egyptian minister of antiquities.
A new technology called ground-penetrating radar, which uses radar pulses to see through soil and rock, was used to scan around Tutankhamun’s tomb.
There is no concrete proof yet that what they found really is a hidden chamber – let alone that it contains Nefertiti’s tomb – but it offers an extremely tantalizing prospect to Egyptologists.
Ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound
Before you go, “Aren’t all mummies wrapped in bandages, hardy, har, har,” hilarious, but let us explain. Scientists have found the oldest-known example of a bandaged wound on the mummy of a child who once lived in Ancient Egypt.
Business Insider reports how researchers from Germany, Italy, and the States were able to essentially digitally unwrap the mummy—a four-year-old girl who passed away about 2,000 years ago—using computed tomography (CT) scans in order to properly examine the remains.
It was only then in the resulting images that they were able to observe how a “bandage-like structure” was wrapped around the child’s lower right leg, remnants of pus implying that some type of skin lesion may have occurred.
Scientists CT scanned the mummies of 21 Egyptian children and found one had a bandage wrapped around her leg.
Scientists have found the first example of a bandaged wound on a mummified body from Ancient Egypt, pictured here next to a scan showing the bandage.
“In ancient Egypt, infections were likely a common aspect of daily life and the major cause of death,” reads the study, as published to Science Direct.
“However, the overall evidence of infections in ancient mummies is limited, especially in the less frequently investigated child mummies.”
This particular mummy was one of 21 children mummies that were observed in all, others, too, which showed signs of skin lesions and infections.
Only the girl, though, had a bandage still attached to where it was placed over her injury.
Furthermore, while the study explains that such Ancient Egyptian medical treatments have been recorded by previous texts, the child mummy is a rare, physical example.
The same Business Insider article does note, however, that the scientists do posit the possibility that the bandage is for religious purposes, not medicinal.
4,000-Year-Old Mummies Are Half Brothers, DNA Analysis Shows
Using ‘next generation’ DNA sequencing scientists have found that the famous ‘Two Brothers’ mummies of the Manchester Museum have different fathers so are, in fact, half-brothers.
The mummies of Khnum-Nakht (left) and Nakht-Ankh (right) date to about 1800 B.C. The DNA extracted from Khnum-Nakht, who died first, was in bad condition.
The Two Brothers are the Museum’s oldest mummies and amongst the best-known human remains in its Egyptology collection. They are the mummies of two elite men — Khnum-nakht and Nakht-ankh — dating to around 1800 BC.
However, ever since their discovery in 1907 there has been some debate amongst Egyptologists whether the two were actually related at all. So, in 2015, ‘ancient DNA’ was extracted from their teeth to solve the mystery.
But how did the mystery start? The pair’s joint burial site, later dubbed The Tomb of The Two Brothers, was discovered at Deir Rifeh, a village 250 miles south of Cairo.
They were found by Egyptian workmen directed by early 20th century Egyptologists, Flinders Petrie and Ernest Mackay.
Hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffins indicated that both men were the sons of an unnamed local governor and had mothers with the same name, Khnum-aa. It was then the men became known as the Two Brothers.
When the complete contents of the tomb were shipped to Manchester in 1908 and the mummies of both men were unwrapped by the UK’s first professional female Egyptologist, Dr Margaret Murray. Her team concluded that the skeletal morphologies were quite different, suggesting an absence of family relationships.
Margaret Murray and her colleagues unwrap the mummy of Nakht-Ankh, which was sent from Egypt to Manchester in 1908.
Based on contemporary inscriptional evidence, it was proposed that one of the Brothers was adopted.
Therefore, in 2015, the DNA was extracted from the teeth and, following hybridization capture of the mitochondrial and Y chromosome fractions, sequenced by a next-generation method.
Analysis showed that both Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht belonged to mitochondrial haplotype M1a1, suggesting a maternal relationship.
The Y chromosome sequences were less complete but showed variations between the two mummies, indicating that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht had different fathers, and were thus very likely to have been half-brothers.
Dr Konstantina Drosou, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester who conducted the DNA sequencing, said: “It was a long and exhausting journey to the results but we are finally here.
I am very grateful we were able to add a small but very important piece to the big history puzzle and I am sure the brothers would be very proud of us. These moments are what make us believe in ancient DNA. “
The study, which is being published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, is the first to successfully use the typing of both mitochondrial and Y chromosomal DNA in Egyptian mummies.
Dr Campbell Price, Curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum, said: “The University of Manchester, and Manchester Museum, in particular, has a long history of research on ancient Egyptian human remains.
Our reconstructions will always be speculative to some extent but to be able to link these two men in this way is an exciting first.”
