For thousands of years, Abydos has been the city of the dead. It’s one of Egypt’s most sacred and ancient burial sites, guarding the secrets of many kings and important people from Egyptian society. So it’s not exactly surprising that archaeologists in Abydos uncovered the tomb of a pharaoh.
The tomb, buried more than 20 feet underground in the Mount Anubis necropolis, was carved in the waning days of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. But what is surprising is that this grave bears no clear identity. The pharaoh who once lay here has no name. Robbers long ago stripped the tomb of its riches—and of its clues.
So right now, we have no idea who this pharaoh was. But that doesn’t make it less interesting; on the contrary.
A Dynasty in the Shadows
Archaeologists from a joint Egyptian-American team, led by Josef Wegner of the University of Pennsylvania, uncovered the tomb earlier this year while excavating the necropolis at Abydos in Upper Egypt. The site is a hotspot of ancient secrets, home to temples, cenotaphs, and the burial grounds of forgotten kings. This particular tomb dates to the Second Intermediate Period, around 1630 to 1540 B.C., a time of political turmoil when Egypt fractured between northern invaders and southern dynasts.
At the time, the Hyksos ruled Northern Egypt. They were a foreign dynasty from Western Asia that brought new technologies such as the horse and chariot. The south—including Abydos—remained under native Egyptian control, governed by a cluster of little-known kings. Scholars refer to these rulers collectively as the “Abydos Dynasty,” but few details of their reigns have survived.
That is, until now.
“The king’s name was originally recorded in painted scenes on plastered brickwork that decorated the underground entrance to the limestone burial chamber,” Wegner told Live Science. “However, the hieroglyphic texts were damaged by ancient tomb robbers and not enough survives to read the king’s name.”
According to Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector, the tomb’s style and scale suggest it belonged to a predecessor of King Senebkay, another little-known ruler whose own tomb was uncovered in Abydos in 2014. The new tomb is even larger than Senebkay’s—a hint that its occupant may have wielded considerable power during this chaotic era.
Still, without a name, the pharaoh’s identity remains elusive. No mummy, no sarcophagus, no treasure.
But that may change.
“The area may yield more royal tombs of the same era [which] could shed light on identity and ownership of this new royal tomb,” Wegner said.
Ghosts in the Kilns
Just as the sands of Abydos yielded royal secrets, a separate dig a few miles north in the village of Banawit opened a very different window into Egypt’s past.
There, archaeologists from the Supreme Council of Antiquities uncovered the remains of a vast Roman-era pottery workshop. With its brick kilns, storage rooms, and commercial ostraca—pottery shards inscribed with Greek and Demotic writing—it appears to have been a major hub for trade. Researchers believe the workshop was one of the largest ceramic and glass production centers for the region known as the Ninth District.
“The site was used during the Byzantine era and was reused as a cemetery in the seventh century AD, possibly extending into the fourteenth century,” said Abdel Badie.
Indeed, the factory became a burial ground long after its industrial use faded. Archaeologists found mud-brick tombs containing men, women, and children. One poignant discovery stood out: the mummy of a small child, seemingly asleep, wearing a colored fabric cap.
Also found were agricultural traces—wheat roots, doum palm seeds, and barley remains—that speak to the lives, diets, and funerary customs of those buried there.
According to Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek, an archaeologist at the University of Chicago not involved in the excavation, the Abydos tomb discovery in particular is “highly significant.” It adds, she said, “to a very limited body of evidence on the rulers of this region.”
Piecing Together a Forgotten Age
The unnamed king’s tomb isn’t the only major royal burial found this year. Just weeks earlier, another archaeological team announced the discovery of Pharaoh Thutmose II’s tomb near the Valley of the Kings. He was the half-brother and husband of Queen Hatshepsut, who later ruled as one of ancient Egypt’s most powerful women.
But where Thutmose II’s name has long echoed in history, the king of Mount Anubis has been silenced by time and theft. His story now lies scattered in broken inscriptions and architectural clues.
Still, researchers remain hopeful as they planned more excavations in Abydos. More tombs may yet surface.
And if they do, the pharaoh without a name might finally speak.
