Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2022

Egyptians helped discover King Tut's tomb. Now, they're finally being recognized.

British archaeologist Howard Carter is often credited with finding Tutankhamun's tomb, but the names and identities of the Egyptians who did much of the work are largely unknown. Now, in the exhibition Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive at the University of Oxford's Bodleian libraries, which runs through Feb. 5, 2023, photos...

Nov 4, 2022

Long-lost jewelry from King Tut's tomb rediscovered a century later

Tutankhamun's tomb, discovered a century ago on Nov. 4, 1922, contained many fantastic artifacts. But some of the pharaoh's jewelry has gone missing in the century since it was discovered, despite laws specifying that the artifacts in the tomb belong to Egypt. Some of this jewelry may have been taken...

Nov 9, 2022

Greek bathhouse found in ancient Egyptian town by Red Sea

The ruins of a 2,200-year-old bathhouse dating to the second half of the third century B.C. have been discovered at Berenike, a town in Egypt by the Red Sea. The giant bathhouse has two tholoi (circular structures) with 14 bathtubs in each that would have had cold or lukewarm water,...

Nov 9, 2022

King Tut: The life and death of the boy pharaoh

Tutankhamun, or King Tut as he is often called today, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was buried in a lavish tomb filled with gold artifacts in the Valley of the Kings near modern-day Luxor. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by an archaeological team led by British Egyptologist Howard...

Nov 11, 2022

Ancient Egyptians may have used branding irons on human slaves

Small branding irons from ancient Egypt were likely used to mark the skin of human slaves, a new study suggests. Several ancient texts and illustrations, as well as 10 branding irons dating to 3,000 years ago, suggest that ancient Egyptians branded slaves. These branding irons, actually made of bronze, are...

Nov 14, 2022

What did King Tut look like?

One hundred years ago, on Nov. 4, 1922, an archaeological team discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, revealing many wonderful things from ancient Egypt, including the boy king's mummy. These discoveries provided a wealth of information on Tutankhamun, who ascended the throne at about age 9 and died when he was...

Nov 14, 2022

30 incredible treasures discovered in King Tut's tomb

Tutankhamun's tomb, discovered by archaeologists in the Valley of the Kings on Nov. 4, 1922, was found loaded with treasures. Some of those artifacts, like his death mask, are widely known. But others, such as a mannequin that may have helped the boy king choose what to wear, are less...

Nov 14, 2022

Vast tunnel found beneath ancient Egyptian temple

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered a vast tunnel beneath a temple at the ancient city of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria. The 4,281-foot-long (1,305 meters) tunnel, which brought water to thousands of people in its heyday, was discovered by an Egyptian-Dominican Republic archaeological team, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and...

Nov 14, 2022

Protective childbirth tattoos found on ancient Egyptian mummies

Lower back tattoos may seem like an early 21st century fad popularized by low-rise-jeans clad celebrities, but new archaeological evidence from Egyptian mummies shows the practice is actually more than three millennia old. At the New Kingdom site of Deir el-Medina (1550 B.C. to 1070 B.C.), researchers Anne Austin and...

Nov 16, 2022

Hundreds of mummies and pyramid of an unknown queen unearthed at Saqqara

Archaeologists have unearthed the pyramid of a never-before known ancient Egyptian queen; a cache of coffins, mummies and artifacts; and a series of interconnected tunnels. For the past two years, archaeologists have been working at Saqqara, an archaeological site in Giza, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Cairo. Recently,...

Nov 22, 2022

Ancient Egyptian mummification was never intended to preserve bodies, new exhibit reveals

It's long been believed that ancient Egyptians used mummification as a way to preserve a body after death. However, an upcoming museum exhibition indicates that was never the case, and instead the elaborate burial technique was actually a way to guide the deceased toward divinity. Researchers from the University of...

Nov 29, 2022

Tomb aligned with winter solstice sunrise excavated in Egypt

Archaeologists have unearthed an unfinished, 3,800-year-old ancient Egyptian tomb with a chapel perfectly aligned with the sunrise on the winter solstice. Archaeologists say that this might be the oldest known tomb in Egypt that is aligned with the winter solstice. The tomb, near modern-day Aswan, was built during Egypt's 12th...

Dec 1, 2022

Gold tongues found in 2,000-year-old mummies in Egypt

Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered the remains of several mummies with tongues made of gold in an ancient cemetery near Quesna, a city located about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Cairo, according to Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Some of the mummies were buried in wooden coffins with...

Dec 6, 2022

Ancient mummy portraits and rare Isis-Aphrodite idol discovered in Egypt

Archaeologists have discovered ancient mummies buried with stunning, lifelike portraits of the deceased. The mummies were interred in a cemetery at the ancient city of Philadelphia in Egypt, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Dec 1. The city of Philadelphia, located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southwest...

Dec 14, 2022

Ancient Egyptian 'masterpiece' is so realistic, researchers identified the exact bird species it depicts

An ancient Egyptian masterpiece painting of birds flying and perching within a verdant marsh is so detailed, modern researchers can tell exactly which species artisans illustrated more than 3,300 years ago. The painting was discovered about a century ago on the walls of the palace at Amarna, an ancient Egyptian...