The lives of princesses in ancient Egypt are often described as luxurious and sheltered, surrounded by servants in sprawling palaces. A new look at the burial chambers of some ancient Egyptian princesses, however, reveals that they also took part in skilled physical activity and knew their way around weapons. A team of researchers studied six royal women’s mummies from the Middle Kingdom, some of whom were buried with items like bows and arrows—items traditionally associated with men. Scientists have long debated whether weapons found in the graves of ancient Egyptian princesses were ceremonial or functional. In other words, did the princesses use the weapons they were buried with? By analyzing their bones, the researchers found that the princesses were highly physically active in ways consistent with using the weapons buried alongside them. The findings are detailed in a study published today in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.
Not your average princess The mummies were originally found in the 1890s at Dahshur, a pyramid complex located southwest of Cairo. They were later rediscovered in 2020 during a curation project for the Egyptian museum after having been lost for years. Four of the six women were sisters: Princess Ita, Princess Khenmet, Princess Itaweret, and an anonymous woman provisionally identified as Princess Sathathormeryt; all were daughters of the pharaoh Amenemhat II.
