2023-10-09 07:04:03
A monumental grave in Egypt’s first royal cemetery and huge amounts of grave goods show that Queen Meret-Neith was probably the most powerful woman 5,000 years ago, reported Viennese archaeologist Christina Köhler. She may even have been the first female pharaoh. According to current excavations and investigations in the grave complex in the desert of Abydos, sacrifices of servants and courtiers after a king’s death are just rumors floating around.
“Out there in the desert, this huge complex among the other, similar-looking royal tombs must have been very impressive,” explained Köhler, who researches at the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Vienna, to the APA. In the center is the main grave, that of Meret-Neith. It was once covered by a hill of sand and rubble. All around there are secondary graves of 41 servants and courtiers, above which were small rectangular superstructures made of mud bricks. The layout of the facility is approximately 37 by 26 meters in size and is mainly underground, i.e. buried in the desert sand.
An Austrian-German archaeological team recently began excavations in the queen’s tomb, according to a release from the University of Vienna. Meret-Neith lived 5,000 years ago and was a ruler in the “1st Dynasty” of ancient Egypt. “She was the only woman to have her own monumental tomb in Egypt’s first royal cemetery at Abydos,” said the researchers: “We found evidence of a massive amount of grave goods, including hundreds of large jars.” Some were even still originally sealed. They contained remnants of 5,000-year-old wine, they reported: “Furthermore, inscriptions attest that Queen Meret-Neith was in charge of key government offices such as the Treasury.” This would underline their special historical significance.
Previous researchers had “developed the idea” that there were human sacrifices on the occasion of royal deaths in the First Dynasty, said Köhler. “Although it has never been conclusively proven, it is still floating around and persisting.” For example, in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia: “Until the end of the 1st Dynasty, it was tradition that the closest relatives and high-ranking servants had to follow the king into death. They were buried in small, almost square side graves directly at the royal grave,” it says there .
“The scientific study of the graves shows no traces of trauma (physical injuries due to accidents or violence, note) or a simultaneous burial of the courtiers,” Köhler clarified: “Where enough remains were preserved, we were able to prove that the “Graves were closed at different times”. The investigations also showed that the construction of the complex took a long time. “This speaks against ritual human sacrifice for the queen’s funeral,” said the archaeologist.
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