Just a quick update following my previous post on the black sarcophagus discovered in Alexandria in July (2018). The results of the first investigations into the three skeletons discovered when the sarcophagus was opened on 19 July* have now been made available. They represent the bodies of a young woman of perhaps 20 to 25 years, and two men, one who died in his 30s, and the other in his 40s (as reported e.g. in ahramonline and The Indepenedent). The elder man’s skull exhibits a round cavity which seemed to have healed over prior to death, and may be evidence of trepanation.

Perhaps more interestingly (I’m not a specialist in human remains) the sarcophagus did, it turns out, contain a little ‘treasure’ after all, in the form of a gold object of uncertain type, and three gold plaques, roughly square in shape measuring 3 to 5 cm across.

The four gold objects discovered inside the sarcophagus. Copyright Ministry of Antiquities, taken from ahramonline.

Each of the plaques is decorated with a simple motif in low relief, apparently applied using the repoussé technique (hammering the design from the reverse side). One appears to show the pod of an opium poppy, the second something like a palm frond or perhaps an ear of corn (as suggested via LiveScience), while the third shows a coiled snake. It has been proposed (here) that the designs relate to military rank, but the snake immediately put me in mind of the agathodaimons – beneficent snake demons – flanking the entranceway to the main tomb at Kom es-Shoqafa. The iconography isn’t quite the same but it’s an interesting connection with perhaps the best known tomb in Alexandria.

Entranceway to the burial chamber in the main tomb at Kom es-Shoqafa, flanked by coiled agathodaimons

Detail of the agathodaimon to the right of the entrance to the burial chamber of the main tomb at Kom es-Shoqafa

*Mea culpa: I should have mentioned that that brilliant source of information on new discoveries made in Egypt, Luxor Times, posted a wonderful series of photographs showing all the stages in the opening of the sarcophagus here. The insertion of wooden wedges in between the sarcophagus basin and lid to prize it open put me in mind of a favourite object of mine: the mallet left behind by robbers in Mastaba 17 (Fourth Dynasty, reign of Sneferu) at Meydum. No improvement in technique required in over four thousand years…

The black sarcophagus lid being wedged open. Copyright Ministry of Antiquities, taken from Luxor Times.

Sarcophagus in mastaba 17 at Meydum with its lid partially displaced by robbers, one end raised on top of a mallet which was inserted to help roll the lid back

The robber’s mallet still trapped in between the sarcophagus basin and lid. #redhanded

You’ll find more on the opening of tombs, robberies etc in my book, Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt, which will be out in October. For more info or to pre-order please go here.