Archaeologists Stunned to Discover 3,600-Year-Old Rock-Cut Tombs and Burial Shafts, Say It Will Reconstruct Egyptian History
Excavations along the causeway of Queen Hatshepsut’s funerary temple in Luxor have resulted in multiple findings that experts think could change the way Egyptian history is perceived. Researchers have uncovered rock-cut tombs, remnants of Queen Hatshepsut’s Valley Temple, and burial shafts on the site, Popular Mechanics stated. Artifacts found at those places include bronze coins, funerary masks, winged scarabs, funerary beads, amulets, clay toys, and many more.
Archaeologists looking at the condition inside the temple became sure that some of the artifacts had been looted from the site. Despite the robberies, the experts managed to recover many items like pottery tables, meat bows, and archer’s bows along with the more expensive antiques. All these remnants researchers believe could reveal new details regarding the life of Luxor ancestors. Researchers are especially focussing on meat and archer's bows to get some hints regarding the identity of tomb owners where they were buried.
The rock-cut tombs spotted by archaeologists inside the temple have been dated back to the Middle Kingdom from 1938 to 1630 B.C. by experts. One of the tombs was identified to be of Djehuti-Mes, the overseer of Queen Teti Sheri’s palace. Researchers located a funerary monument in this tomb whose engravings implied that it had been built in the ninth year of King Ahmose I (1550 to 1525 B.C.). The monument helped in the identification. This specific tomb's condition indicated to experts that it had been emptied of all artifacts. Burial shafts were also analyzed and they were determined to come from the 17th dynasty (1580 to 1550 B.C.) The shafts still housed wooden coffins and one of them contained the remains of a young child.
This is not the first time Queen Hatshepsut’s funerary temple has become the site of multiple artifact findings, stated Live Science. Some days ago, experts unearthed items like adze (a tool used to cut and shape wood), a wooden hammer, a wooden cast model for making bricks, two stones featuring Hatshepsut's cartouches and ovals with hieroglyphs from the temple. The most prominent discovery in this set of findings was 1,500 colorful stone blocks that appear to have been part of the Valley temple located nearby.
"For me, the most important is the discovery of the blocks from the valley temple of Hatshepsut," Aidan Dodson, an honorary professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol in the U.K. added. Dodson explained that the valley temple has not been as extensively examined as the funerary temple which increases the value of the stone blocks.
Researchers also uncovered a portion of the Assassif Ptolemaic Necropolis at the site in a recent expedition, according to Popular Mechanics. This necropolis contained several mud-brick tombs placed right above the remnants of Queen Hatshepsut’s temple. A large part of this necropolis was uncovered in the past during the 20th century but wasn't properly documented, as per The Times of Israel. Several other valuable historical findings have been located in Luxor. One of them was in November 2024, when researchers unearthed eleven sealed burials near the site, all of which dated back to the Middle Kingdom.