Egyptian priestess’ burial chamber unearthed after 4,000 years: ‘Sensational discovery’

A burial chamber containing the remains of an ancient Egyptian priestess has been unearthed after nearly 4,000 years.

Named Idy, her remains were found in a coffin within another coffin in a tomb in the city of Asyut, Egypt, just about 200 miles south of Cairo.

The excavations took place between Aug. 18 and Sept. 17.

Idy was the daughter of Djefai-Hapi I, a wealthy regional Egyptian governor who lived around 1880 BC. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a Facebook post that he was “one of the most important rulers of the territories in ancient Egypt.”

“Djefai-Hapi I was deified in ancient times and his tomb was an integral part of the cultural memory of ancient Egypt for more than 2000 years,” Professor Jochem Kahl, an archeologist at Freie Universität Berlin who led the discovery, said, according to the Daily Mail.

“Idy was a priestess of the goddess Hathor and was called ‘mistress of the house,’ which identifies her as a woman from a wealthy family.”

After Idy died, her internal organs including her liver, spleen, lungs and intestines were removed from her body and put into jars. The box of jars containing these organs was also found.

The body was then mummified, which is a process to preserve the body after death by deliberately drying or embalming the flesh.

A preliminary study of Idy’s bones suggests that she died before the age of 40 and suffered from a congenital foot defect.

The coffins she was found in — which were described as “some of the most amazing coffins ever found” — were covered with text and illustrations depicting “the journey of the deceased in the afterlife.”

The coffin inside the coffin was then sealed into a chamber in a vertical shaft about 45 feet deep.

Both coffins appeared to be made out of “foreign wood,” Kahl said, meaning wood that was sourced from outside Egypt.

Idy was also found with grave goods such as a dagger and wooden figurines, which may have been deliberately placed there for her to use in the afterlife.

The tomb dates back to around 1880 BC and has “monumental” architecture, featuring rooms over 36 feet high carved into the rock.

Though the resting place of Idy has now been discovered by researchers, it has since gone unnoticed, and it is believed it was ransacked by thieves thousands of years ago. Idy’s remains were robbed of jewelry and metal objects, though the other grave goods appeared to have no interest to the thieves.

“Remnants of Idy’s garment and her bones, which were completely torn to shreds by ancient looters, provide information about her person,” Kahl shared.

Kahl said the findings were “both aesthetically and scientifically extraordinary.”

“The uncovering of this shaft began in 2022, took three excavation campaigns and has now ended with a sensational discovery – the burial of Idy in two nested wooden coffins with numerous grave goods,” he added.

It had been known where Djefai-Hapi I had rested after death, but the discovery of his daughter’s body in the same building at Asyut was unusual and miraculous.

The study will allow “new and far-reaching statements to be made about the position of women and the transfer of knowledge in ancient Egypt.”

Kahl said that there still needs to be further study of the discovery in order to shine light on the lives of Idy and her father.

“After an initial conservational consolidation of the wooden objects in the burial chamber and the subsequent laborious recovery from the narrow, 14-meter deep shaft, the finds will be handed over to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism,” he said.