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Ancient Egypt

This gilded mummy mask was recently discovered in a burial chamber in Saqqara, Egypt. Archaeologists called the find a "sensation."

Mummification Workshop and Trove of Burial Relics Found in Egypt

‘We are standing before a goldmine of information,’ one expert said

A look inside the VR experience

Take a VR Tour of an Egyptian Queen’s Elaborate Tomb

The resting place of Queen Nefertari, the favorite wife of Ramses II, is largely closed to visitors, but it can now be explored virtually

Cool Finds

Oldest Greek Fragment of Homer Discovered on Clay Tablet

The verses come from the ancient city of Olympia and date to the Roman era

Photographer Harry Burton spent eight years documenting the excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb

Rare Photographs Put Focus on Egyptians Who Worked Alongside Carter to Excavate Tutankhamun’s Tomb

Harry Burton’s 3,400 snapshots document rich array of artifacts, unseen Egyptians who contributed to the Egyptologist Howard Carter’s great discovery

Scanning Tut's tomb

Trending Today

Sorry, There Are No Secret Chambers in King Tut’s Tomb

After two contradictory radar scans, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities commissioned a third comprehensive survey that revealed no voids beyond the tomb walls

Partial rendering of Psamtek I's statue

4,500 Newly Discovered Fragments Help Piece Together Massive Psamtik I Statue

The pieces gave researchers a better idea of the size and shape of the colossus

Ataqeloula stele

Cool Finds

Large Cache of Texts May Offer Insight Into One of Africa’s Oldest Written Languages

Archaeologists in Sudan have uncovered the largest assemblage of Meroitic inscriptions to date

Governor Djehutynakht

New Research

The F.B.I. Helped a Museum Learn the Identity of a 4,000-Year-Old Severed Head

Cutting-edge DNA analysis revealed the mummified head belonged to Djehutynakht, a governor in Middle Kingdom Egypt, and not his wife as some believed

Mummy Found Inside 2,500-Year-Old ‘Empty’ Coffin

The coffin had been listed as empty for nearly 160 years while stored at the University of Sydney’s museum

Cool Finds

Rare Image of Early Female Pharaoh Found in University Collection

After her reign, Hatshepsut was expunged from Egyptian history, but a carving of her likeness has turned up in Swansea University

Tattoos on the Pre-dynastic female mummy from Gebelein.

Earliest Figural Tattoos Discovered on 5,000-Year-Old Mummies

The markings include a bull, a sheep and a mysterious ‘S’ motif

Ask Smithsonian

Is the Fall Equinox the Secret to the Pyramids’ Near-Perfect Alignment?

One engineer says yes

A panel from the newly found tomb

Cool Finds

Tomb of 5th Dynasty Priestess Found in Egypt

The 4,400-year-old burial chamber includes well-preserved wall paintings, including an image of a monkey dancing in front of an orchestra

We’re One Step Closer to Non-Invasively Reading Ancient Papyri Hidden in Mummy Masks

Researchers at the University College of London are working to find a way to read the ancient scraps without destroying the artifacts in the process

Tut and Ankhesenamun

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Could Be Close to Finding the Tomb of King Tut’s Wife

After Tut’s death, Ankhesenamun might have wed the Pharaoh Ay, and there’s a possibility she’s buried near him in the Valley of the Monkeys

The repatriated mummy skull

Trending Today

After More Than 90 Years, Looted Mummy Parts Repatriated to Egypt

The skull and two hands were illegally acquired by a tourist in 1927 and were confiscated from an antiquities dealer

How 21st-Century Technology Is Shedding Light on a 2nd-Century Egyptian Painting

Researchers at UCLA and the National Gallery of Art have pioneered a technology that goes behind the scenes of a centuries-old artistic process

Egyptian excavation workers work on a mummy in a newly discovered tomb in Luxor, Egypt

Cool Finds

In Luxor, Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Unveil Their Secrets

They include hundreds of statues and one of the best-preserved wall paintings found in the area

Statue of Memnon in the westbank in Luxor, with the community of Qurna in the background.

The Greatest Clash in Egyptian Archaeology May Be Fading, But Anger Lives On

After 200 years, the sad story of Qurna, a so-called ‘village of looters’, is coming to a close

Did a well-known Biblical eclipse really occur? Two physicists set out to investigate.

New Research

How Scientists Identified the Oldest Known Solar Eclipse … Using the Bible

The new research by two physicists adds to astronomical knowledge—and overturns previous Biblical interpretations

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