
Archaeologists discover long-lost tomb of unknown pharaoh in Egypt
Archaeologists in Egypt recently uncovered a once-in-a-lifetime discovery: an unknown pharaoh's tomb, dating back 3,600 years.
The excavation, which was conducted near the Egyptian city of Abydos this winter, was announced by the Penn Museum in Philadelphia last week. The pharaoh's tomb was found 23 feet underground and featured a decorated entryway and mudbrick vaults.
Pictures show a team of international archaeologists excavating the deep tomb in the Egyptian desert.
Excavation leader Dr. Josef Wegner, an egyptology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke with Fox News Digital about the discovery, which dates back to the Second Intermediate Period.
"Surprisingly, we came upon a royal tomb that we had no idea existed," Wegner said. "Excitingly, it's adding new evidence on what seems to be the early development of a group of fascinating kings that we call the Abydos dynasty. They are kind of a lost, forgotten dynasty."
"There were no human remains remaining, there were no remnants of the king himself or his funerary equipments," he said.
"The original decoration that contained hieroglyphic texts and columns that contained his name had been damaged just enough that the name is gone. But we can see where the name flanked the entrance to his burial chamber."
The excavation wasn't Wegner's first rodeo. In 2014, he discovered a different pharaoh's tomb: Senebkay, another Second Intermediate Period ruler who was totally unknown in the historical record until that time.
"Finding a new pharaoh's tomb is that's always, always quite an exciting moment in time. So it's the second time it's happened to me, and I guess I shouldn't be too greedy, but I'm hoping for more if we can find them," Wegner said.
"He was an unknown king, and we excavated the area right around that. And it seemed like we could more or less exhausted the evidence on this Abydos dynasty…Lo and behold, 10 years almost to the day since finding Senebkay, we found a new tomb that's bigger than any of the other ones," he added.
Wegner, who also works as a curator at the Penn Museum, described the Second Intermediate Period as an "intriguing" part of Egyptian history which spanned from roughly 1650 to 1570 B.C.
"It was a period where Egypt was broken apart into a sort of rival kingdoms," the expert explained. "We think there were as many as four."
"The ancient tomb robbers were not always very considerate in what they did in the process of tomb robbery."
"It provides the basis for the rise and establishment of the new Kingdom of Egypt, which is usually thought of as the golden age of the pharaohs."
Wegner characterized the limestone burial chamber as "grand," complete with mud brick vaults and a "very deep shaft entrance system." But unfortunately, the king's name has not emerged yet.
"We were a little frustrated," Wegner laughed. "The ancient tomb robbers were not always very considerate in what they did in the process of tomb robbery."
"They didn't think about archaeologists in the future that would be looking for bits and pieces of evidence," he added.
"We've completed the full excavation of it and what it was, you know, was essentially robbed out. It seems to have been a very richly-equipped royal tomb. So it did attract tomb robbers for that reason."
Even though the tomb was plundered, Wegner is hopeful that more artifacts will show up in the future – and that the pharaoh's name will be discovered.
"There's significant potential in the orbit of the tomb, around the periphery of it, there could well be objects that were discarded, remains of stone vessels," he described.
"For example, what we call the canopic jars that would have had the name of the king on them. Those kinds of things probably weren't very interesting to tomb robbers."
"And there's indications that there may be more of these tombs," he added.
The next stage is to study the terrain around the tomb, where more evidence is slated to emerge.
The latest discovery comes just weeks after archaeologists found the long-lost tomb of King Thutmose II, which marked the first major royal tomb discovery since King Tutankhamen's tomb was found in 1922.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


National Geographic
3 hours ago
- National Geographic
Snakes
There are over 3,000 types of snakes in the world. They have wide distribution, living everywhere except in Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland, and New Zealand. In the United States, snakes live in almost every state, except Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine. About 600 species are venomous. Of those, only about 200 can kill or significantly wound a human. Nonvenomous snakes, which range from harmless garter snakes to the not-so-harmless python, dispatch their victims by swallowing them alive or constricting them to death. Whether they kill by striking with venom or squeezing, nearly all snakes eat their food whole, in sometimes astoundingly large portions. Almost all snakes are covered in scales. As reptiles, they're cold blooded and must regulate their body temperature externally. Scales serve several purposes: They trap moisture in arid climates and reduce friction as the snake moves. Several species of snakes are mostly scaleless, but even those have scales on their bellies. Cultural significance of snakes Throughout history, snakes have been important symbols in cultures across the globe. In ancient Egypt, people often associated snakes with royalty. The goddess Wadjet was depicted as a snake. Pharaohs wore head gear and held scepters topped with a uraeus, or the upright form of an Egyptian cobra. Many East Asian cultures see snakes as symbols of immortality and renewal because they can shed their skin. The snake is also one of 12 animals that hold a spot on the Chinese zodiac and star in many folklore. Snakes are also familiar creatures in Native American folk tales and traditions. The Hopi and Cherokee see snakes as connections to the Underworld that deserve reverence and respect. How do snakes hunt? Snakes eat all sorts of animals, from small mammals and small fish to larger prey up to three times larger than the width of their head. They're able to swallow such large animals because their lower jaws unhinge from their upper jaws. Once in a snake's mouth, the prey is held in place by teeth that face inward, trapping it there. Snakes hunt by flicking their forked tongues in different directions to smell their surroundings. That lets them know when danger—or food—is nearby. Snakes have several other ways to detect a snack. Openings called pit holes in front of their eyes sense the heat given off by warm-blooded prey. Bones in their lower jaws pick up vibrations from rodents and other scurrying animals. (Snakes gang up to hunt prey—a first) Left: A green tree python (Morelia viridis) at the Riverside Zoo. Right: Speckled rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchellii) at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Photographs by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark Behavior and reproduction About once a month snakes shed their skin, a process called ecdysis that makes room for growth and gets rid of parasites. They rub against a tree branch or other object, then slither out of their skin head first, leaving it discarded inside-out. Most snakes lay eggs, but some species—like sea snakes—give birth to living young. Very few snakes pay any attention to their eggs, with the exception of pythons, which incubate their eggs. (These are the rules of king cobra fight club—no venom allowed.) Here's a fact to make ophidiophobes feel uneasy: Five species of snakes can fly. Sea snakes Most snakes live on land, but there are about 70 species of snakes that live mostly among the coral reefs in the Indian and Pacific oceans. These family elapidae sea snakes and their cousins, kraits, are some of the most venomous snakes that exist. The yellow bellied sea snake is one of the most venomous. Most sea snakes pose little threat to humans because they're shy, gentle, and their fangs are too short to do much damage. What to do if you see a snake in the wild Experts say it's best to leave snakes alone and give them plenty of room. A rattlesnake (Crotalus) can lunge about two-thirds of its body weight. Most nonvenomous snakes will eventually glide out of the way. If a snake doesn't move, experts say to wait it out or just turn back. Do not attempt to handle it or touch it with a stick. Rattlesnakes don't always rattle their tails in warning, so it's important to be extra careful. (The key to protecting rattlesnakes from extinction? Clearing their name and reputation.) Conservation status There are nine IUCN Red List categories: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild, and Extinct. Roughly a hundred snake species are endangered, typically due to habitat loss from development. Of those endangered snakes, 17 percent are vipers. Pythons 101 From unbelievably flexible jaws to rows of razor sharp teeth, a range of impressive features make the python one of nature's most formidable predators. Learn about ball, burmese, reticulated, and other types of pythons, what the snakes eat, where they live, and how a surprising feature might be a sign of legged ancestors. What are the top 10 biggest snakes? The 10 biggest snakes in the world are the African rock python (Python sebae), amethystine python (Simalia amethistina), black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), boa constrictor, Burmese python (Python bivittatus), green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), Indian python (Python molurus), king brown (Pseudechis australis), king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), and reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus). —BBC Science Focus Magazine What are the four most poisonous snakes? India has nearly 60 highly venomous snakes, including a few known as the 'Big Four.' They are the common krait, Russell's viper, saw-scaled viper, and spectacled snake with the deadliest venom in the world is the western or inland taipan. These snakes live in arid and semi-arid regions of Australia. Taipan venom contains a mix of toxins that paralyze muscles, constrict breathing, and cause internal bleeding. —Wildlife S.O.S. and Britannica What will keep snakes away? There are many ways to deter snakes from entering your home or property. Discourage rodents by maintaining a tidy yard and patching any holes or cracks where animals can enter. Keep pet food stored indoors and consider fencing or concrete walls to provide a physical barrier to snakes. Most experts don't recommend chemical repellents, which can be ineffective and harmful to others. Experts also discourage inhumane deterrents such as glue traps and ceramic eggs in chicken coops. —Utah State University How dangerous are snakes? Of the 3,000 species of snakes in the world, only about 10 percent are venomous. Half of those have venom deadly enough to cause human fatalities. —Rainforest Trust This story originally published on January 25, 2019. It was updated on June 10, 2025.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Found a 6,200-Year-Old Skull. Then They Noticed Something Very Wrong.
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The burial site Chega Sofla has many skeletons with elongated skulls, likely from a practice called cranial bandaging where people use wrapped fabric to permanently reshape the skull in infancy and early childhood. Researchers discovered one skeleton with a cone-shaped skull that died from blunt force trauma. The study used CT scans to analyze the thickness of the elongated skull and determine whether the severity of the injuries could be attributed to the cranial bandaging. Much to your grandma's dismay, your tattoos and piercings are types of body modifications, or procedures that deliberately alter the human body. Humans have experimented with these alterations for much of our existence. And while your 'sick ink' may be widely accepted in the Western world, other cultures have body modification rituals that are much more extreme by our standards. Cranial bandaging is the practice of wrapping strips of fabric around a child's growing skull to permanently modify the shape. When performed over several years, cranial bandaging results in an elongated, cone-shaped head. Many skeletons with these modified skulls have been found at Chega Sofla, a site in western Iran that dates all the way back to 4,700 B.C. The site features dozens of graves that range in size from single burials to entire family tombs. Researchers for the Zohreh Prehistoric Project have studied the area for more than a decade, and they recently discovered the remains of a woman with an elongated skull that was inexplicably bashed in. Published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology on May 22, the researchers' new study details the traumatic head injury that killed the woman about 6,200 years ago. 'We know this woman experienced the fracture in the final moments of her life,' lead author of the study Mahdi Alirezazadeh told Live Science, 'but we don't have any direct evidence to say that someone intentionally struck her.' Alirezazadeh and the other researcher on the study, Hamed Vahdati Nasab, used CT scans to get a closer look at the woman's (referred to as BG1.12 in the study) skull. They focused on the thickness of her cranial bones and something called the diploë, or the spongy bone tissue found between the external and internal calvaria layers (think of diploë as the insulation in the walls of the skull). Researchers found that BG1.12's bones and their diploë were much thinner than that of a typical skull, although they noted that this is to be expected with cranial alterations. They explain that because of the thinness, the skull was likely much less effective at protecting the brain from external forces—like a blunt-force blow—than a normal skull would be. The triangular fracture on BG1.12's skull runs from the front to the left side of her head. According to the study, 'an intense force delivered by an object with a wide edge impacted the skull of this young woman during her final moments.' Alirezazadeh explains that they can't necessarily attribute the woman's death to her modified skull because the trauma was so severe. He also noted that another fractured skull was found at the site, except it was unmodified. 'It should be noted that the blow was so severe that it would have fractured a normal, unmodified skull as well,' the researcher told Live Science. 'So we cannot attribute cranial fractures solely to modified skulls,' he later continued. At Chega Sofla, people with and without cranial modifications are buried together, so the woman's skeleton has yet to be identified. Researchers are also still uncertain whether the woman sustained her injuries accidentally—or if she was murdered. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?


Miami Herald
4 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Hobbyists dig up 4,500-year-old blade, lead archaeologists to sensational find
A group of amateur archaeologists made a surprising Neolithic discovery at a construction site in northwestern Germany that stunned even professionals. They had unearthed a 4,500-year-old flint blade fragment — a rare Stone Age find — in the Kernmünsterland region, along access roads to an area under development, according to a June 10 news release from the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe. Flint blades, or knives, were ancient cutting tools made from flint stones, according to Cotswold Archaeology. Experts said the heavy clay soils in the Kernmünsterland are not ideal for artifact preservation, and as a result, they have discovered hardly any Stone Age sites in the region. When staff of the Archaeology Center for Westphalia were shown the find, they decided to investigate the site themselves, according to the release. While conducting their own search, they found an even older artifact associated with the creation of small arrowheads dated to the Middle Stone Age between 9650 and 4900 B.C., officials said, calling it a sensational discovery. Experts said the layer of soil where the artifacts were discovered has been severely disturbed by years of cultivation, making a full-scale excavation of the site unnecessary. Officials said they expect to find more individual artifacts that could shed light on the ancient history of the region. The Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe Archaeology Department is now monitoring the construction project, according to the release. Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe.