Study Finds 4,000-Year-Old Egyptian Princesses Wielded Weapons, Not 1894 Burial Symbols
Updated
Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 17
Study Finds 4,000-Year-Old Egyptian Princesses Wielded Weapons, Not 1894 Burial Symbols
3 articles · Updated · ScienceAlert · Jul 17
Summary
Bone analysis and X-rays of 4,000-year-old Dahshur royal remains found the princesses habitually used bows, maces and daggers, rather than being buried with purely symbolic weapons.
Pronounced upper-limb muscle attachments and healed injuries point to repeated high-intensity training: Noub-Hotep showed an archer’s build, Ita strong weapon-gripping features, and Itaweret survived rib and foot fractures.
The findings were made after archaeologist Zeinab Hashesh rediscovered the remains in 2020, more than a century after they were boxed, mislabeled as generic human remains and largely forgotten in Cairo.
The study challenges a long-standing view dating to 1894 that elite Egyptian women’s weapons were votive objects, recasting these royal women as physically trained ritual agents in the Middle Kingdom court.