Archaeologists have discovered a huge tomb of an unknown pharaoh from the Second Intermediate Period (1640-1540 B.C.) in the Anubis Mountain necropolis at Abydos. It is a multi-chamber tomb with a plastered brick entryway leading to a large limestone burial chamber. The rooms are topped with mudbrick vaulted ceilings 16 feet high.
The Penn Museum team has been excavating the necropolis of the Abydos dynasty for more than a decade. In January of 2014, they found the tomb of a previously unknown pharaoh named Woseribre Seneb-Kay from the Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1650 B.C.) His tomb also contained a limestone burial chamber with painted texts on the walls identifying him by name.
Similarity in decoration and architecture between the tombs excavated in 2014 and 2025 has led Penn Museum archaeologists to conclude that the unknown ruler may have been one of King Seneb-Kay’s predecessors. Despite their comparable design, the newly unearthed tomb is much larger than that of Seneb-Kay or any other known ruler from the same dynasty buried there.
The name of the pharaoh was originally painted on the plastered brickwork of the entryway of the newly-discovered tomb, but the hieroglyphic texts on the wall were damaged by looters in antiquity. Today only the depictions of the goddesses Isis and Nephythys are identifiable. There are two known Abydos Dynasty kings who are possible owners of the tomb. Pharaohs Senaiib and Paentjeni are named on monuments, but their tombs have not yet been found, so it could be one of them.
Excavations will continue through 2025 across this new focus area at Anubis Mountain, measuring roughly 10,000 square-meters (more than 100,000 square-feet) of desert terrain, using state-of-the-art technology such as remote sensing, magnetometry (magnetic mapping), and photogrammetry (three-dimensional modelling of the tombs).
“Ongoing excavations also include protection, site management, and conservation of these structures. That is a part of our commitment to the site in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities,” Dr. Wegner says. “Together, we have now opened King Seneb-Kay’s and King Senwosret III’s tombs as visitable monuments, and we’re in the process of opening other ones in the very same area where this new tomb was found. This discovery is a new window to understanding the origins of the enigmatic Abydos Dynasty.”
Excavation leader and University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Dr. Josef Wegner will be giving a virtual lecture, “Uncovering the Social and Political History of Ancient Egypt,” on April 2nd. He will be discussing the excavations at Abydos in the lecture. Registration is $15 for the general public.
* This article was originally published here
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