These Royal Mummies Sat in a Museum Basement for Over a Century. Their Bones Just Rewrote History.

These princesses didn’t just carry weapons to the afterlife, they bore the scars of using them.

Thousands of years ago, Egyptian women enjoyed exceptional power and autonomy . They could own land and businesses, were allowed to inherit property and leave it to anyone they wanted after death, and could stand in for their husbands when needed. Sobekneferu , and later Hatshepsut , were pharaohs in their own right, and queens such as Tiye and Nefertiti were the backbone of their husbands’ regimes. It remained unclear, however, whether women in ancient Egypt were allowed to brandish weapons and fight.

Some archaeological evidence at least suggested that warrior women existed. Murals have shown queens vanquishing enemy forces, but there was debate as to whether they depicted actual events or were simply symbolic of royal dominance. Weapons have also been found buried with women throughout the dynasties.

The Dashur pyramid complex (part of the larger Memphis Necropolis) was a luxury resting place for the elite of the Middle Kingdom. There, excavations of the pyramids of Amenemhat II and Amenemhat III began in 1894, and a team of archaeologists led by Jacques de Morgan discovered the mummies of 13th Dynasty Pharaoh Hor I and Princess Noub-Hotep, as well as 12th Dynasty Princesses Ita, Itaweret, Khenmet, and an unidentified woman possibly identified as Sathathormeryt, daughters of Amenemhat II. Found in the burial chambers of the princesses were bows, maces, staves, and other weapons that could have had ritual or ceremonial purposes, but also may have been used to train or fight.

Their remains languished in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir until 2020. Now, further analysis of the female bones has shown signs of intense physical training.

It’s possible the weapons placed so close to the ancient Egyptian princesses “underscore their elite status and align them with Osirian symbolism,” as archaeologists Zeinab Hashesh, Ahmed Gabr, and Roxie Walker said in a study recently published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology . “Through their title mesu-nisut , these royal women participated in the cyclical rebirth of the king , transforming the Dahshur pyramid complex into a landscape of ritual renewal.”

Bone preserves the ravages of stress and trauma. Princess Itawaret was found to have suffered rib and foot fractures, possibly from either a blow to the chest or a fall. She also showed signs of strong muscle attachment in the arms and shoulders. Both discoveries are signs of repeated high-impact motions that likely meant she’d been training with weapons. The same can be said of a healed stress lesion on Princess Noub-Hotep’s spine, and a type of abnormal bone formation seen in Princess Khenmet that could have only been caused by an inflammatory injury to the soft tissue. Hor I, who must have trained, since he was a pharaoh required to be ready for battle, showed similar injuries.

It became obvious to the researchers that these princesses had not been performing labor, like so many women of lower status who worked the fields or processed food. They were going through the motions associated with war . And, lending even more credence to this interpretation, the weapons that went to the afterlife with them appear to have been used.

Signs of drawing a bow over and over are present in both Khenmet and Itawaret. Princess Noub-Hotep was buried with some of her arrows, and her skeleton and those of her sisters reveal evidence of repeated postures and axial loading , which involves applying force across an axis. Instead of luxuriating while servants fanned them and brought them food and libations, these princesses were probably practicing shooting arrows, clashing blades, or throwing spears.

“Differences in activity, including gendered roles, have been widely documented, with males often showing higher trauma rates,” the researchers said . “However, the Dahshur evidence complicates such models , suggesting that elite women engaged in physically demanding and skilled activities. This indicates that status could redefine or expand expected gender roles.”

Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.

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