Lost 4,400-Year-Old Tomb Found With Ancient Egyptian Mummy Inside

Archaeologists have rediscovered a lost tomb that contains the mummy of an ancient Egyptian official.

The tomb belonged to Ptahshepses, who lived around 4,400 years ago during the 25th and 24th centuries B.C. Archaeologists with the Czech Institute of Egyptology at Prague's Charles University said this week they located the tomb near the archaeological sites of Abusir and Saqqara in 2022 by using satellite imagery and studying old maps. Further excavations were conducted at the site this year.

The tomb was partially exposed almost 160 years ago by the French scholar Auguste Mariette, who uncovered an intricately decorated false door and a lintel, a kind of supporting beam.

Mariette extracted the objects, which are now on display in London's British Museum. But not long after his discovery, the official's tomb disappeared under the desert sand.

The false door contains an extensive and unique biography of Ptahshepses' career. It tells the story of his education at the court of Menkaure, an ancient pharaoh who was born in 2532 B.C. and died in 2504 B.C. during Egypt's Old Kingdom, which lasted from around 2700 B.C. to 2200 B.C.

"Ptahshepses was famous for his autobiography, which is nowadays kept in the British Museum," said Miroslav Bárta, director of archaeological work at the site, who is with the Czech Institute of Egyptology.

He went on: "The two seasons of archaeological explorations at the tomb have not only confirmed the credibility of his story but have also significantly expanded our understanding of this crucial period of the Old Kingdom's history.

"At the end of his life, there are indications of several crises emerging in the kingdom, such as a compromised social contract, climate change, a crisis of legitimacy and leadership among the ruling elite, an increase in nepotism and lobbyism, soaring expenses and loss of a cheap source of fuel for growth. This example shows how important the multidisciplinary study of history is so that we don't make the same mistakes ourselves," Bárta said.

In the case of ancient Egypt, the main source of the "fuel" that enabled growth was the annual Nile floods, he said.

"Good floods led to rich harvests. Taxes were paid in grain. Therefore, good floods led to high income in taxes for the state treasury. Grain was a specific form of money, which was used, among other things, to pay for workers on state-sponsored projects, in rations of bread," Bárta said.

A decline in the annual flooding during the period that Ptahshepses was alive resulted in less and less tax money being collected at a time when the kingdom's expenses were rising.

"The social contract got compromised because the elites were not able to take care of the majority. The race for control of shrinking resources was on, nepotism and lobbyism was proliferating, and climate change was making it no better," Bárta said.

The decrease in the annual flooding continued to worsen, eventually becoming one of the factors that contributed to the collapse of the Old Kingdom.

According to Ptahshepses' biography, the official married the daughter of Userkaf, a pharaoh who reigned for a short period in the early 25th century B.C.

"This reference itself indicates that Ptahshepses is the first known official of non-royal descent in Egyptian history who was given the privilege of marrying a royal daughter," the Czech Institute of Egyptology said in a Facebook post.

In addition, on the lintel there is a reference that is one of the earliest attestations of the deity Osiris, the god of fertility and the embodiment of the dead.

"This makes the official Ptahshepses even more unique because he can be credited with the idea of introducing the famous god of the Egyptian afterlife into the Egyptian pantheon," the Facebook post said. "Given Ptahshepses' political, historical and religious significance, the tomb is one of the most remarkable discoveries of the recent periods in Egyptian archaeology."

Excavations at the site uncovered an extensive, 137-foot-long and 72-foot-wide superstructure of the tomb. It includes a relatively well-preserved chapel with painted decoration in the entrance and a long access corridor.

This past spring, archaeologists examined the burial chamber, which appeared to have been robbed in antiquity. Nevertheless, it still featured some original funerary artifacts (including pottery), the remains of votive offerings, jars and a mummified fish.

In addition, researchers found a partially opened sarcophagus with the complete mummy of Ptahshepses inside.

Examination of the mummy by Egyptian anthropologists has provided important new data on the evolution of mummification during Egypt's Old Kingdom.

Bárta said in a statement: "The tomb of a man who changed the course of Egyptian history has been rediscovered, representing one of the expedition's greatest recent discoveries. The research is still ongoing, and further discoveries will likely be made to shed new light on his family and times."

Update 10/4/23, 10:26 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comments from the Czech Institute of Egyptology's Miroslav Bárta.

Correction, 10/20/23, 2:18 p.m. ET: This article was updated to clarify that Auguste Mariette was male not female.