A tomb rifled in antiquity has been unearthed by archaeologists to find human remains and evidence that the site once had a 23-foot pyramid at its entrance.
Discovered at the Abydos ancient cemetery, the tomb has been dated to around 3,300 years ago, Live Science reported. The revealed chambers were originally below the ground with only the pyramid visible.
"Originally, all you probably would have seen would have been the pyramid and maybe a little wall around the structure just to enclose everything," Kevin Cahail, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania who led the excavations, told Live Science.
While the tomb's red sandstone sarcophagus holds no mummy, researchers have found "disarticulated skeletal remains from three to four men, 10 to 12 women and at least two children in the tomb," according to Live Science.
The sarcophagus was apparently carved from sandstone for a scribe named Horemheb and has images and inscriptions related to Egypt's ancient beliefs and rituals. Along with images of Egyptian gods, the sarcophagus has hieroglyphic inscriptions detailing spells from the Book of the Dead, words that were intended to guide the person into the afterlife.
Horemheb may have had military ties, something that Cahail believes helped his family afford the elaborate tomb. Both Horemheb and Ramesu, a likely close relative who was buried in another chamber, shared names with two great military leaders of the time that became pharaohs.
"They could actually be emulating their names on these very powerful individuals that eventually became pharaoh, or they could have just been names that were common at the time," Cahail told Live Science.
Researchers combing through the tomb's contents still have many other questions, including whether the two men had multiple wives since the chambers have held substantially more women than men. They will perform radiocarbon tests in the near future to attempt to date the bones.
Cahail will be presenting his findings at the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt, to be held in Portland, Ore., from April 4-6.
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