Sarcophagus Leads to the Tomb of Unknown Pharaoh and Lost Dynasty in Egypt

Archaeologists have uncovered the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh in Egypt. They've discovered the final resting place of Woseribre Senebkay and have also found the first proof of a forgotten Abydos Dynasty. The findings reveal a little bit more about the ancient past of the area and shows a bit more about the rulers that shaped the world from 1650 to 1600 BC.

The researchers discovered the huge 60-ton royal sarcophagus chamber at South Abydos. The chamber is made of red quartzite quarried and transported to Abydos from Gebel Ahmar, which is near modern Cairo. It could be dated to the late Middle Kingdom but until now, its owner remained unidentified. The sarcophagus had been extracted from its original tomb and reused in a later tomb, but the royal original owner remained unknown.

Now, archaeologists have identified the owner. They have now found that the giant quartzite sarcophagus chamber derives from a royal tomb built originally for a pharaoh Sobekhotep, the first king of Egypt's 13^th Dynasty. Fragments of the king's funerary stela were found recently in front of this huge, badly robbed tomb. A group of later pharaohs reused elements from Sobekhotep's tomb for building and equipping their own tombs. In fact, one of these kings extracted and reused the quartzite sarcophagus chamber.

The newly discovered Senebkay's tomb was badly plundered by ancient tomb robbers. They ripped apart the king's mummy and stripped the pharaoh's tomb equipment of its gilded surfaces. Yet archaeologists found the remains of the king amidst debris of his fragmentary coffine, funerary mask and canopic chest. Preliminary work on these remains show that the kin was a man of moderate height and died in his mid to late 40s.

The findings reveal a little bit more about the political and social history of Egypt's Second Intermediate Period. The existence of an independent "Abydos Dynasty," contemporary with the 15^th and 16^th Dynasties was first hypothesized in 1997. This latest discovery now proves the existence of this dynasty and identifies the location of the royal necropolis at South Abydos in an area anciently called Anubis-Mountain.