Ancient secrets revealed: the 3,500-year-old mummy and the enigmatic 'dowry' of an Egyptian girl

Archaeologists have just revealed the more than 3,500-year-old mummy of an Egyptian girl buried with expensive jewelry that may have been her dowry. The mummy lies in a wooden coffin at the Draa Abul Naga cemetery near Luxor in southern Egypt.

Dr. Mustafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said this burial chamber was discovered during the 2020 excavation season. The wooden coffin measures only 1.75 meters long and 0.33 meters wide. and is made from a single panel of sycamore wood, painted white. According to Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, archaeologists believe that this girl was only between 15 and 16 years old when she died around 1600 BC.

The coffin is quite modest.

The coffin is made of sycamore wood carved with the image of the deceased.

The mummy was placed on its right side, so the coffin is very narrow. The girl wore two pairs of spiral earrings covered with copper leaves in one ear, two finger rings made of bone and metal, one with blue lenses.

Exquisite necklaces and jewelry

In particular, she wore 4 delicate necklaces. The first necklace is about 70 cm long and is made of round blue beads. The second necklace is smaller and made of green glass beads. While the third necklace is the most beautiful, made with 74 pieces of amethyst, amber, green crystal…

The necklace is made of 74 pieces of amethyst, amber, green glass…

Among these necklaces are amulets and two scarab-shaped ornaments, one of which represents the Eye of Horus, a symbol of health and royal power often used for ceremonies and funerary activities with the desire to protect the dead in the afterlife. . This amulet is made of a rare metal and until now, archaeologists have rarely discovered amulets like this on mummies.

Rare amulet to protect the dead in the “afterlife”

Located on the other side of the burial chamber is a small stone sarcophagus containing four wooden statues wrapped in rolls of linen. There is a wooden statue carved with the word “Osiris”, the Egyptian god of death. In another burial nearby was a pair of bright red leather sandals, along with a pair of leather balls tied with rope. Researchers believe these objects belonged to the young girl’s mummy and were often used in a game popular among young Egyptian girls of the time.

The two leather balls were probably used in a game popular among Egyptian girls at that time.

Although the mummy was decomposing, “the sandals were well preserved, despite being 3,600 years old,” said José Galán, director of the archaeological team. In addition, small pieces of gold engraved with scarabs and other things were also found in the coffin of the Egyptian girl. José Galán commented that the valuable objects in the coffin “confused” and surprised the archaeological team because they contrasted with the rather modest coffin.