Burial Chamber Discovered in Pyramid at Dahshur

News May 11, 2017

(Nevine El-Aref, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities)
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Dahshur burial chamber
(Nevine El-Aref, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities)

CAIRO, EGYPT—According to a report in Live Science, a team of archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities has discovered a burial chamber in the remains of a 3,800-year-old pyramid uncovered at the Dahshur royal necropolis last month. At the time, the name “Ameny Qemau,” a pharaoh who ruled around 1790 B.C., was found on an alabaster block at the site. Within the chamber, the researchers found a wooden box inscribed with the name “Hatshepset,” who may have been a daughter of Ameny Qemau. Such boxes were used to store canopic jars containing the inner organs of mummies, but only a few mummy wrappings were recovered from this box. Egyptologist James Allen of Brown University suggested that the princess may have been buried in her father’s pyramid, which would explain why two pyramids in Dahshur bear his name. The excavation team also found a poorly preserved sarcophagus in the burial chamber. For more on Egypt, go to “Hidden Blues.”

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