Archaeology, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 24, 2022

King Tut's father revealed in stunning facial reconstruction

An ancient Egyptian pharaoh that may be King Tut's father has a new face, with regal features and a serene expression shaped by digital reconstruction. Though this is the most accurate reconstruction of the man to date, long-standing questions about his identity remain unanswered. His remains were found in 1907...

Oct 24, 2022

King Tut's Parents Were Cousins, Not Siblings: Researcher

Updated Friday, Feb. 15, at 6:25 p.m. ET For all the popularity Tutankhamun enjoys today, key details about the ancient Egyptian pharaoh's life, such as his parentage, have remained somewhat mysterious. While Akhenaten was known to be King Tut's dad, the identity of the boy king's mother has remained elusive....

Oct 24, 2022

King Tut's Mummified Erect Penis May Point to Ancient Religious Struggle

Egypt's King Tutankhamun was embalmed in an unusual way, including having his penis mummified at a 90-degree angle, in an effort to combat a religious revolution unleashed by his father, a new study suggests. The pharaoh was buried in Egypt's Valley of the Kings without a heart (or a replacement...

Oct 24, 2022

King Tut Sculpture with Sketchy Origins Sells at Christie's for Nearly $6 Million

Despite a sketchy provenance, a raging diplomatic dispute and threat of court action, a sculpture depicting the head of the pharaoh Tutankhamun sold for $5,971,285 (4,746,250 pounds) yesterday (July 4) at auction at Christie's in London. Both the buyer and seller are anonymous. The buyer chose to remain anonymous on...

Oct 24, 2022

What Killed King Tut

King Tut may have died in part from malaria and bone abnormalities, new mummy DNA analysis shows. Tutankhamun, perhaps the most famous of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, was part of the 18th dynasty of the Egyptian New Kingdom, which lasted from about 1550 to 1295 B.C. The boy king died...

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,...