An Egyptian-British delegation excavating a necropolis at Tel el-Amarna in Egypt discovered the tomb of a young woman wrapped in woven carpet and plant fibers. She took all her gold jewelry with her when she died.
The mission is digging at the North General Cemetery of the Tel el-Amarna archaeological site in the Minya Governorate. Announcing the discovery, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Egyptian Council of Antiquities, stated that the team has been excavating at the Northern General Cemetery since 2010 with the goal of studying economic and social conditions. Assembly of the inhabitants of Akhenaten (or el-Amarna), the capital of King Akhenaten. In particular, the research team is studying the foods and diseases common during this period.
According to the deputy team leader, Dr. Anna Stevens, the British team has been active in Amarna since the 1980s, and besides many valuable discoveries, they are also working on restoring buildings, houses, palaces and mud brick temple.
Part of the ruins of the city of Amarna, Minya, Egypt. (Sergey/Adobe Stock)
Akhenaten, the heretic king
The Northern General Cemetery was once the burial place of the people of Amarna or Akhenaten, meaning the horizon of the sun, the capital built by Pharoah Akhenaten, the 10th king of the 18th Dynasty, in 1343 BC source, Middle East news agency reported. Before Amarna, Thebes served as the country’s capital.
Akhenaten, originally Amenhotep IV, set aside the polytheistic tradition of Egypt to promote the cult of the Aten, depicted as the sun disk. According to the Middle East News Agency, during the early part of his reign, Akhenaten still followed established worship traditions but quickly made Atenism the state religion, building several temples and shrines to Aten all over the city. The most notable of the Aten temples are the Great Temple and the Small Temple.
Akhenaten also owns several other buildings, according to Egypt Today. They include the Grand Palace and the King’s House connected by a bridge over the royal road used by Akhenaten to travel from his residence to the seat of government. He also built the Northern Palace, also known as the Nefertiti Palace, as well as large houses for important courtiers and statesmen.
A gold teardrop necklace and engraved ring were part of the prize money. ( MOTA )
However, the transition to monotheistic Atheism he engineered was short-lived and the country quickly returned to the polytheistic tradition after Akhenaten’s death. According to Heritage Daily, his successors distanced themselves from the king who was referred to in contemporary documents with pejorative terms such as “enemy,” “that criminal,” and “heretic king.”
Interestingly, Akhenaten was the father of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh who probably achieved greater fame after the discovery of his intact tomb in 1922 than he had achieved during his lifetime. This is because the tomb remained intact and the amazing treasures that were regularly buried with the pharaohs were not carried away by tomb robbers.
Woman with decorations
The recently discovered grave at the Northern General Cemetery is that of a woman wrapped in cloth and plant fibers. She wears a necklace with hollow gold teardrop beads and three finger rings made of gold and steatite (soapstone).
An Egyptian-British archaeological mission has unearthed a collection of gold jewelry at Tel el-Amarna, a pharaonic city in southern Egypt. ( MOTA )
One of the rings features the ancient Egyptian protector god Bes and was probably worn to ensure the wearer’s safety. Bes, along with his female counterpart Beset, is the protector of households, more specifically of mothers, children, and childbirth. This god then evolved into the champion of all good and the destroyer of all evil.
The remaining two rings are inscribed with hieroglyphs that translate to “ladies of the two lands,” believed to refer to the lower and upper kingdoms of Egypt.
The woman was placed in a small tomb with a vault and shaft dating to around the time of Akhenaten’s reign. The tomb contains several other tombs. Speaking about the burial, Dr. Stevens explained: “Her burial is at the Amarna North Desert Cemetery in the low desert west of North Tombs. It includes a small number of crypts and mausoleums as well as burial pits.”
In addition to the General Cemetery, there are 25 tombs carved into the rocks on the eastern mountain that are said to house the remains of high-ranking priests and statesmen. These large tombs are decorated with religious motifs. A royal cemetery nestled among the mountains 15 kilometers east of the city. Its layout is designed to resemble the tombs in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings.
Like elsewhere in Egypt, the necropolises and tombs with their rich treasures and decorations are an exceptional source of information about the culture of the period. There’s also something endearingly timeless about finding a woman’s burial site adorned with her precious jewels.
Top image: Ring-bearing hieroglyphs found at the Tel el-Amarna excavations. Source: MOTA
