City of Luxor

Luxor is a city in Southern Egypt. It is the capital of Luxor Governorate. It is a very ancient city. In ancient times, Egyptians called this region as Waset. On the other hand, Greek named it Thebes.

It has the world’s largest open-air museum. Some of the famous archaeological discoveries of this city are the remains of Karnak and Luxor temple complexes. It has a long continuation as a human settlement. Thus it has great potential in unearthing the cultural remains.

The Discovery

It was the month of April 2020. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced a new discovery. It was a burial. It was an important discovery. Because it was a burial of a teenage girl. It is at least 3,600 years old. Thus, archaeologists were amazed by this discovery.

Background Behind the Discovery

Djehuty was an Army General. It was the time period of the 18th Dynasty. He served under King Thutmose III. A joint archaeological mission of Spanish and Egyptian archaeologists started excavating in an open courtyard area of the tomb of Djehuty. During the excavation, they have noticed the remains of the teenage mummy and then eventually unearthed it.

The Mummy

The mummy is of a teenage girl. She was probably 15 or 16 years old and about five feet and one inch tall when she died. She belonged to the time period of the 17th Dynasty. The exact location of the mummy was Draa Abul Naga necropolis on the west bank of Luxor.

Archaeologists have also recovered a pair of leather shoes along with her mummy. It probably belonged to her. It is an isolated example of well-preserved sandals. There are engravings of images of god Bes, goddess Tawaret, a pair of cats, an ibex, and a rosette.

The Jewelry

Archaeologists have recovered a huge number of precious jewelry along with the mummy. All these pieces of jewelry are beautiful. These mainly include necklaces made out of beads and copper earrings. Thus, this discovery is important for understanding ancient Egyptian jewelry.

Varieties of semi-precious stones are there for bead making purpose. These are amethyst, amber, carnelian, quartz, blue glass, etc.

The condition of the mummy was not good at the time of its discovery. But, experts restored her jewelry. These include two copper-made spiral earrings coated with thin metal leaf in one of her ears, two9 rings on her fingers, four necklaces around her neck, etc.

Robbed Burial

The most interesting aspect of this discovery is that the burial revealed traces of robbing in its surrounding areas. It means that robbers robbed this area. They were probably searching for treasures (jewelry). But they left this tomb. Because they probably did their robbing in a hurried way. Thus, we have found the coffin withy this expensive jewelry.

Other Findings

Archaeologists have also found other artifacts in the surrounding area of the mummy. They recovered a miniature mud-made coffin. It was near the main coffin. This miniature coffin contained a wooden funerary ‘Ushabti’ figurine. There was a stone-made ‘Eye of Horus’ inside the main coffin.