egyptian artifacts in museums gold mummies

The diversity of the mummies’ adornments suggests that the site served as the final resting place for every level of society, including wealthy merchants, members of the middle class and poorer inhabitants.

The first few expeditions have uncovered several hundred mummies that date back to Egypt’s Greco-Roman period, as well as a treasure trove of artifacts. Zahi Hawass began excavations of the site, known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies. Suddenly, the donkey’s leg stumbled into a hole, revealing an opening in the desert floor and the edge of a tomb.Ī team of archaeologists led by Dr. In 1996, an antiquities guard was riding his donkey on the temple’s grounds. Located in Egypt’s Western Desert, the Bahariya Oasis was a major agricultural center during ancient times and is now home to several archaeological sites, including a Greek temple dedicated to Alexander the Great. When Hawass and his colleagues compared the tooth to a gap in the mummy’s upper jaw, it was a perfect fit, leading the researchers to conclude that the search for Hatshepsut was finally over. The vital piece of evidence was a molar tooth found in a wooden box bearing Hatshepsut’s name.

Zahi Hawass set out to determine whether the anonymous woman in KV60 could be the missing queen herself. Carter also unearthed a separate tomb, known as KV60, which contained two coffins: that of Hatshepsut’s wet nurse–identified as such by an inscription on its cover–and that of an unknown female. When he located her sarcophagus some years later, however, it was found to be empty. The archaeologist Howard Carter discovered her royal tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in 1902. The most prominent female pharaoh, Hatshepsut reigned over Egypt for roughly two decades, undertaking ambitious building projects and establishing valuable new trade routes until her death in 1458 B.C. Artificial mummification was not yet a common practice at the time of their deaths, but their bodies were naturally dried and preserved by the warm sand in which they were buried. Ginger and the other bodies found with it are the oldest known mummies in existence, dating back to about 3400 B.C. It went on display at the British Museum in 1901, becoming the first mummy to be exhibited in public, and has stayed there ever since. Nicknamed for its red hair, “Ginger” is the most famous of six naturally mummified bodies excavated in the late 19th century from shallow graves in the Egyptian desert.

Egyptian artifacts in museums gold mummies