How a sarcophagus fragment helped solve an ancient Egyptian mystery

Fragment of the sarcophagus bearing the name of Menkheperre, the high priest of Amun-Ra, the ancient Egyptian god of the sun and the air, who ruled the south of Egypt between 1045 and 992 BC. (Photo by Kevin Cahail)
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Updated 30 June 2024
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How a sarcophagus fragment helped solve an ancient Egyptian mystery

  • A humble piece of granite in the floor of a monastery was found to bear the name of one of Egypt’s most famous rulers
  • Ramses II, who ruled from 1279 to 1213 B.C., is regarded as one of the most powerful warrior-pharaohs of ancient Egypt

LONDON: During excavations carried out at the ancient site of Abydos in Egypt in 2009, archaeologists made an unexpected discovery — the remains of a lost Coptic monastery, believed to have been founded in the fifth century by the leader of the Coptic church, Apa Moses.

That was fascinating enough, but even bigger surprises would emerge.

Deep within the excavated ruins of the monastery, archaeologists from the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities made a discovery that shone a light on the tensions that existed between the early Coptic church and the remnants of Egypt’s “pagan” past.

Pressed into service as a humble doorstep within the monastery was a piece of red granite, 1.7 meters long and half as wide.




The sarcophagus of Merenptah. (Photo courtesy: Frédéric Payraudeau)

A partial inscription revealed it was part of the sarcophagus of Menkheperre, the high priest of Amun-Ra, the ancient Egyptian god of the sun and the air, who ruled the south of Egypt between 1045 and 992 B.C. 

The find seemed to solve one mystery ­— where Menkheperre had been buried. Previously it was thought that he must have been entombed near his power base at Thebes, in a grave yet to be discovered. Now, it seemed, he had been laid to rest in Abydos.

The existence of a fragment of his sarcophagus, set within the floor of the monastery, as the authors of a paper published in 2016 surmised, owed something to Apa Moses’ “persecution of local pagan temples,” and was “perhaps the result of the fervor with which his followers dismantled pagan structures and tombs throughout Abydos.”

And that is where the story might have ended, but for Frederic Payraudeau, an Egyptologist at Sorbonne University in Paris.




Frederic Payraudeau, an Egyptologist at Sorbonne University in Paris. (Supplied)

Ayman Damrani and Kevin Cahail, the Egyptian and American archaeologists who had discovered the fragment, recognized from the outset that the sarcophagus had another occupant before Menkheperre. 

They saw that earlier inscriptions had been overwritten and suggested the original owner might have been an unknown royal prince.

The fragment, made of hard red granite, represented “a much greater allocation of time and resources involved in its construction,” they wrote, than would have been expended on the sarcophagus of even a high official. 

This suggested the original owner “had access to royal-level workshops and materials,” and might, they concluded, have been a prince by the name of Meryamunre or Meryamun.




In this photo taken on May 11, 1976, Egyptian Ambassador Naguib Kadry and Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt attend the opening of the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Ramses II during an exhibition dedicated to him at the Grand Palais in Paris.  (AFP/File)

“When I read this article, I was very interested because I am a specialist of this period,” said Payraudeau, “and I was not really convinced by the reading of the inscriptions.”

He added: “I already suspected that this fragment was from the sarcophagus of a king, partly because of the quality of the object, which is very well carved, but also because of the decoration.”

This consisted of scenes from the Book of Gates, an ancient Egyptian funerary text reserved almost exclusively for kings.

“It is known in the Valley of the Kings on the walls of the tombs, and on the sarcophagi of the kings, and it was used only by one person, who was not a king, in a later period.

“But this is an exception, and it would have been very strange for a prince to have used this text — and especially a prince that we hadn’t heard of.”

The photographs published with the paper were of too low quality to confirm his suspicions, so he asked the author to send him high-resolution copies. “And when I saw the enlarged photographs of the objects, I could clearly see the cartouche of a king.”




The royal cartouche, or inscription, including Ramses’ name. (Photo courtesy: Frédéric Payraudeau)

A cartouche is an oval frame, underscored at one end and containing a name written in hieroglyphics, that was used to indicate royalty. This one read “User-Maat-Ra Setep-en-Ra.” 

Translated roughly as “The justice of Ra is powerful, Chosen of Ra,” it was the throne name of one of the most famous rulers of ancient Egypt — Ramses II.

Ramses II, who ruled from 1279 to 1213 B.C., is regarded as one of the most powerful warrior-pharaohs of ancient Egypt, famed for having fought many battles and created many temples, monuments and cities, and known to generations of subsequent rulers and their subjects as the “great ancestor.”




The royal cartouche, or inscription, including Ramses’ name (Photo courtesy: Frédéric Payraudeau)

His was the longest reign in Egyptian history, and he is depicted in more than 300 often colossal statues found across the ancient kingdom. 

On his death, after a reign that lasted 67 years, he was buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Because many of the tombs were later looted, one of his successors, Ramses IX, who ruled from 1129 to 1111 B.C., had many of the remains moved for safekeeping to a secret tomb in Deir El-Bahari, a necropolis on the Nile opposite the city of Luxor.

There they lay undisturbed for almost 3,000 years until their chance discovery by a goat-herder in about 1860. 

It was not until 1881 that Egyptologists got wind of the extraordinary find, and there among the more than 50 mummies of pharaohs, each labeled with the details of who they were and where they had been originally buried, was Ramses II.

He was in a beautifully carved cedar-wood coffin. Originally, this would ordinarily have been placed inside a golden coffin — lost to antiquity — which in turn would have been housed within an alabaster sarcophagus, which itself was then placed inside a stone sarcophagus.

Small fragments of the alabaster sarcophagus, which had presumably been shattered by looters, were found in his original tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Of the granite sarcophagus, however, there was no sign — until now.




A head believed to be that of 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramses II which was discovered in Cairo is seen March 1, 2006. An ancient solar temple has been discovered beneath a flea market in a Cairo suburb. The temple was found embedded in green shist rock beneath the market. Royal statues in pink-colored granite, probably from the time of Ramses II (13th century BC) and weighing five tons, were found in the temple. (AFP/File)

The looting of graves and the reusing of sarcophagi was a result of social and economic upheaval in ancient Egypt. “The sarcophagus was intended to be used by the owner for eternity,” said Payraudeau.

But with the death of Ramses XI in 1077 B.C., at the end of a long period of prosperity, there was a civil war and then a long period of unrest, he said.

“This was the Third Intermediate Period, which saw much looting of the necropolizes because the Egyptians knew that there was gold, silver and other valuable materials, such as wood, in the tombs.”




Drawing from the temple of Khonsu in Karnak. Closeup of pharaoh Ramesses XI while taking a sort of "shower of Life" performed by two gods. (Karl Richard Lepsius/Wikimedia Commons)

In addition to ordinary grave robbers, even the authorities took part in the looting, recycling sarcophagi for their own use. That is how Menkheperre came to be buried in a sarcophagus previously used by Ramses II.

Payraudeau is not convinced that the use of a fragment of the sarcophagus in the building of the fifth-century Coptic monastery was necessarily an act of disrespect.

“When they built this monastery, they didn’t know that they were reusing the sarcophagus of Ramses, because by this time no one had been able to read hieroglyphs for about 500 years.”

It would be 1799 before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which, with a royal decree written in three languages, including ancient Greek, provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphic script.




The Rosetta Stone, shown here on display in the British Museum in London, carried three versions of inscriptions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Ancient Egyptian using hieroglyphic and Demotic scripts, and the bottom is in Ancient Greek. The inscriptions enabled archaeologists to decipher ancient Egyptian scripts. (Photo by Hans Hillewaert / Wikimedia Commons)

The one remaining mystery now, said Payraudeau, was where in Abydos Menkheperre was originally buried.

“Somewhere there must be the undiscovered remains of the tomb of the high priest,” he said.

“Maybe it was completely destroyed. But I can’t let go of the idea that perhaps they reused the parts of the sarcophagus which were suitable to use as pavements and so on, and that the lid, which would have been far harder to reuse, might still be lying intact somewhere in Abydos.”

In 1817, about 3,000 years after the death of Ramses II, archaeological discoveries in Egypt inspired the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to write a sonnet reflecting on how the once seemingly eternal power of the great king the ancient Greeks knew as Ozymandias had turned to dust.

Reflecting on an inscription on the pedestal of a shattered, fallen statue, part of the poem reads: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains, round the decay, of that colossal wreck. Boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away.”




Panorama of the Valley of the Kings, the burial place of the royals of ancient Egypt. (Nikola Smolenski/Wikimedia Commons)

In fact, not only has Ramses II’s fame grown in the 3,236 years since he was entombed in the Valley of the Kings, he has also become the most traveled of the ancient pharaohs.

In 1976, after it was noticed that his mummified remains were starting to decay, Ramses was sent to the Musee de l’Homme in Paris for restoration, along with a whimsical “passport” that gave his occupation as “King (deceased).”

Since then, he has been seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors to numerous exhibitions around the world, including a return visit to Paris last year.

If the lid of his sarcophagus were discovered, it could be reunited with the mummy and its coffin, and the Ozymandias show would doubtless grow ever more popular, continuing to confound Shelley’s poetic prediction that the Great Ancestor would be forgotten, swallowed up by the sands of time.
 

 


Israel army says intercepts Yemen missile after air raid sirens sound

Updated 01 June 2025
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Israel army says intercepts Yemen missile after air raid sirens sound

  • Yemen’s Houthi insurgents later claimed to have fired a 'ballistic missile' at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen on Sunday after air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem and other cities.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the army said in a statement.
Yemen’s Houthi insurgents later claimed to have fired a “ballistic missile” at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
The group’s military spokesman Yehya Saree said three drones were also launched at Israel.
The Iran-backed group has repeatedly launched missiles and drones at Israel since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023 with Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Almost all of the projectiles have been intercepted.
Sunday’s interception followed another reported attack on Thursday claimed by the Yemeni militants.
The Houthis, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians, paused their attacks during a two-month Gaza ceasefire that ended in March, but began again after Israel resumed its military campaign in the territory.
While most of the projectiles have been intercepted, one missile fired in early May hit inside the perimeter of Ben Gurion airport for the first time.
Israel has carried out several strikes in Yemen in retaliation for the attacks, including on ports and the airport in the capital Sanaa.


Lebanese President Aoun reviews ties, cooperation with Iraqi official

Updated 01 June 2025
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Lebanese President Aoun reviews ties, cooperation with Iraqi official

  • Joseph Aoun said that Lebanon and Iraq face the challenge of terrorism, which is being addressed through security agencies
  • Lebanese and Iraqi presidents emphasized the urgency to end the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip and to support Palestinians

LONDON: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun discussed ties and cooperation with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani during his visit to Iraq on Sunday.

Aoun stressed the importance of establishing an Arab mutual interest system to enhance shared interests among Arab countries during his meeting with Al-Sudani.

In a separate meeting with Rashid at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, Aoun commended Iraq’s support and donations, including fuel shipments to generate electricity, for the Lebanese people during the recent round of the Israeli-Hezbollah war, which flared up in September 2024.

Aoun said that Lebanon and Iraq face the challenge of terrorism, which is being addressed through security agencies in both countries.

The two presidents emphasized the urgency to end the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip and to support the Palestinian cause without allowing it to be compromised, according to the NNA agency.

Aoun said that Israel must withdraw from the five areas inside the Lebanese territory it has controlled since 2024 and stop its repeated attacks on the country that undermine peace efforts in the region.

Rashid affirmed Iraq’s support for Lebanon and said that Baghdad views positively the recent developments in the country following the formation of the new government in early 2025.


Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins aid ship sailing to Gaza aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade

Updated 01 June 2025
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Climate activist Greta Thunberg joins aid ship sailing to Gaza aimed at breaking Israel’s blockade

  • The sailing boat Madleen – operated by activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition — departed from the Sicilian port of Catania

CATANIA, Italy: Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and other 11 activists set sail on Sunday afternoon for Gaza on a ship aimed at “breaking Israel’s siege” of the devastated territory, organizers said.

The sailing boat Madleen – operated by activist group Freedom Flotilla Coalition — departed from the Sicilian port of Catania, in southern Italy.

It will try to reach the shores of the Gaza Strip in an effort to bring in some aid and raise “international awareness” over the ongoing humanitarian crisis, the activists said at a press conference on Sunday, ahead of departure.

“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,” Thunberg said, bursting into tears during her speech.

“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide,” she added.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

In mid-May, Israel slightly eased its blockade of Gaza after nearly three months, allowing a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the territory.

Experts have warned that Gaza is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.

UN agencies and major aid groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Among those joining the crew of the Madleen are “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament who is of Palestinian descent. She has been barred from entering Israel due to her active opposition to the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The activists expect to take seven days to get to their destination, if they are not stopped.

Thunberg, who became an internationally famous climate activist after organizing massive teen protests in her native Sweden, had been due to board a previous Freedom Flotilla ship last month.

That attempt to reach Gaza by sea, in early May, failed after another of the group’s vessels, the “Conscience”, was attacked by two alleged drones while sailing in international waters off the coast of Malta.

The group blamed Israel for the attack, which damaged the front section of the ship, in the latest confrontation over efforts to send assistance to the Palestinian territory devastated by nearly 19 months of war.

The Israeli government says the blockade is an attempt to pressure Hamas to release hostages it took during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the conflict. Hamas-led militants assaulted southern Israel that day, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas is still holding 58 hostages, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

In response, Israel launched an offensive that has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. Israel’s bombardment and ground operations have destroyed vast areas of the territory and left most of its population homeless.

The Flotilla group was only the latest among a growing number of critics to accuse Israel of genocidal acts in its war in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies the allegations, saying its war is directed at Hamas militants, not Gaza’s civilians.

“We are breaking the siege of Gaza by sea, but that’s part of a broader strategy of mobilizations that will also attempt to break the siege by land,” said activist Thiago Avila.

Avila cited the upcoming Global March to Gaza — an international initiative also open to doctors, lawyers and media — which is set to leave Egypt and reach the Rafah crossing in mid-June to stage a protest there, asking Israel to stop the Gaza offensive and reopen the border.


Nearly 250,000 Syrians in Turkiye returned home after Assad regime collapse

Updated 01 June 2025
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Nearly 250,000 Syrians in Turkiye returned home after Assad regime collapse

  • The fall of Assad allowed for the voluntary return of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to their homes
  • In May, 2,723,421 Syrians were living in Turkiye, compared to 3,737,369 in May 2021

LONDON: Nearly 250,000 Syrian refugees living in Turkiye have returned to Syria since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, which ended more than a decade of civil strife in the country.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Sunday that data from the Turkish Immigration Directorate showed a significant decline in the number of Syrians with temporary protection status, with nearly 250,000 making a return journey to Syria.

In May, the directorate recorded 2,723,421 Syrians living in Turkiye, compared to 3,737,369 in May 2021, according to the SANA news agency. It added that the fall of Assad’s regime in December allowed for the voluntary return of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to their homes.

The civil war in Syria, which began in 2011, has displaced nearly 8.5 million people, almost half of the population. The majority of them have ended up in Turkiye and refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon.


Arab ministers denounce Israeli ‘arrogance’ over blocking West Bank visit

Updated 01 June 2025
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Arab ministers denounce Israeli ‘arrogance’ over blocking West Bank visit

  • Saudi FM said Israeli stance showed its “extremism and rejection of peace”
  • Ministers held video conference meeting in Amman with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

CAIRO: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the Israeli government's refusal to allow Arab ministers to the occupied West Bank showed its “extremism and rejection of peace.”

His statements came during a joint press conference with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain in Amman. 

The Arab ministers condemned what they described as the “arrogant” Israeli decision to ban them from visiting the West Bank and its rejection of any peace efforts.

Members of the Ministerial Committee assigned by the Joint Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit on Gaza met with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman earlier today to discuss ceasefire efforts in the Gaza Strip and a post-war plan.

The Ministerial Committee, which consists of the foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain, along with the Secretary-General of the Arab League, held a video conference meeting in Amman on Sunday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his deputy, Hussein Al-Sheikh, and Mohammad Mustafa, the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs.

Ayman Al-Safadi, Jordan's Foreign Minister, said that the “Israeli government continues to kill all the chances of peace in the region” after the committee visit was blocked on Saturday.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan echoed these sentiments and added that the Palestinian Authority continued to carry out its duties while facing a party that did not want any solutions.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told Petra news agency that Jordan and Egypt will strongly confront all Israeli plans to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

On Saturday, Israel said it will not allow a planned meeting on Sunday in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah to go ahead.