Rewriting ancient Egyptian historyAbydos Dynasty kings such as Seneb-Kay are unique because they do not appear on the king lists that were once kept by the ancient Egyptians.

Rewriting ancient Egyptian historyAbydos Dynasty kings such as Seneb-Kay are unique because they do not appear on the king lists that were once kept by the ancient Egyptians.

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The newly found tomb is similar in architecture and decoration but is much larger than Seneb-Kay’s — the main compartment of the three-chambered crypt is about 1.9 meters (6.2 feet) wide by 6 meters (19.7 feet) long. Because the tomb was built in a section of the necropolis that the researchers believe was established earlier in time, they think that the wealthy king buried there was likely a predecessor to Seneb-Kay.

The scientists suspect that the tomb might have belonged to King Senaiib or King Paentjeni, two monarchs represented in the sparse archaeological record of the dynasty that exists as part of a dedicated monument at Abydos.

“It is equally possible there could be some entirely unknown king,” said Wegner, who is also curator of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian section. “We don’t think we have all of (the Abydos kings) names — evidence hasn’t survived consistently for them.”

While any markings that might help pinpoint the freshly unearthed burial chamber’s former occupant didn’t survive, the tomb does still have two painted images of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who were commonly depicted in funerary rites as if they were mourning the deceased.

The researchers plan to investigate about 10,000 square meters (over 100,000 square feet) more of the area’s desert terrain in an effort to uncover additional tombs, Wegner said. “There could easily be 12 or 15 kings that compose this group of kings,” he said.
In addition to further excavation, the researchers will scope out the area using ground penetrating radar, technology that uses sound waves to map structures below Earth’s surface, as well as magnetometry, which creates maps of structures underground that kra16 cc have magnetic signatures.

“The discovery of another ruler of the Abydos dynasty is very exciting,” said Salima Ikram, a distinguished university professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, in an email. “It establishes that there was a significant royal … cemetery here of that time, provides us with more details about royal tomb architecture, (and) gives us a clue as to the members of this dynasty and the order in which they ruled.”

Ikram was not involved with the burial chamber’s discovery but said she is hopeful that future excavations will yield more tombs that will help to “further our understanding of this once-obscure period of Egyptian history.”