Abstract
FURTHER details of the Egyptian royal tomb recently discovered at Tanis in the Nile Delta (see NATTJBE, March 25, p. 512) suggest that the results of its examination may prove of even greater interest than was anticipated at first. Another chamber has now been discovered and opened. It also proved to be intact. It is thought that the explorers may be fortunate enough to find still other chambers which have not been plundered; while there is the even more stimulating possibility that this may be the first only of a whole series of royal burials belonging to the twenty-first and twenty-second dynasties. Again, the walls both of the chamber in which the royal sarcophagus has been found and of that since openedare covered with paintings and inscriptions, from which presumably many historical data will be recovered, such as were, strikingly, absent from the tomb of Tutankhamen. Among those in the chamber of the sarcophagus is the cartouche of King Psusenes, identified with the King Shishak, who plundered Jerusalem in the reign of Rehoboam in 930 B.C. Many finely sculptured jars, some with beautifully carved stoppers, much jewellery of gold and precious stones and a huge sculptured human foot have been found. Within the silver mummy case of King Shishak was an inner casing of gold and leather. The first pictures of the tomb, funerary chambers and finds to reach England appeared in The Times of March 27.
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New Egyptian Royal Tomb at Tanis. Nature 143, 552 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143552c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143552c0