ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PRINCESSES TRAINED IN ARCHERY AND COMBAT, BONE ANALYSIS SHOWS

Analysis of mummified remains from five royal women buried approximately 4,000 years ago in ancient Egypt has revealed evidence that some princesses were skilled users of weapons including bows, arrows, daggers and maces. The reassessment, led by Dr Zeinab Hashesh and published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, examined six royal mummies discovered at Dahshur, a funerary complex of pyramids and shaft tombs, in the 1890s. The mummies had been lost for years before rediscovery during a curation project at the Egyptian Museum in 2020. Four of the six individuals were sisters, daughters of pharaoh Amenemhat II, buried in matching underground chambers with weapons and regalia traditionally associated with male burials.

The researchers analysed bone development patterns to determine whether the weapons buried alongside these women were ceremonial or practical. Dr Hashesh stated that the skeletal evidence showed "the way their bones developed to sustain heavy muscle use, which corresponds directly to the weapons discovered in their tombs". Princess Ita, aged between 28 and 34 at death, displayed strong upper-body muscle attachments consistent with habitual use of weapons such as maces or daggers. Princess Khenmet, in her late 30s or 40s, showed signs of bone thinning but possessed robust ligament attachments. The researchers also evaluated Princess Itaweret, an anonymous woman provisionally identified as Princess Sathathormeryt, Princess Noub-Hotep and King Hor using similar analysis.

The study concludes that members of the royal family, particularly women, were active participants in skilled, physically demanding activities including archery and hunting during the Middle Kingdom period. Soft tissue had deteriorated into powder in all six mummies, and the princesses' skulls were lost in the early 1900s, limiting the scope of analysis. The remaining bones were sufficiently preserved to allow researchers to estimate age at death, height, sex and evidence of illness or injury. The findings challenge longstanding assumptions about the symbolic purpose of weapons in royal burials.