'Not enough survives to read the king's name': Tomb discovered of unknown ancient Egyptian pharaoh

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the royal tomb of an unknown king who ruled the region during a tumultuous time 3,600 years ago.

The tomb was found within an ancient Egyptian necropolis in Abydos. The burial is located about 23 feet (7 meters) underground and contains a limestone burial chamber covered with mudbrick vaults, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities wrote in a statement. The burial chamber was originally about 16 feet (5 m) high.

The king's reign dates to the "Second Intermediate Period" (circa 1640 to 1540 B.C.), when northern Egypt was ruled by a group called the Hyksos and the southern part of Egypt was controlled by multiple Egyptian kings.

Abydos, in central Egypt, would have been ruled by an Egyptian king. But the name of the newfound tomb's owner is unknown.

"The king's name was originally recorded in painted scenes on plastered brickwork that decorated the underground entrance to the limestone burial chamber," said Josef Wegner, a professor of Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania who led the team. "However, the hieroglyphic texts were damaged by ancient tomb robbers and not enough survives to read the king's name."

The grave robbers sacked the tomb, and didn't leave any remains of the king's mummy or sarcophagus behind, Wegner said.

Archaeologists are still investigating the area where the tomb was found, he added. 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 told Live Science in an email.

Anna-Latifa Mourad-Cizek, an assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology at the University of Chicago who is not involved in the excavation called the discovery "highly significant." It "adds to a very limited body of evidence on the rulers of this region" and will provide more evidence on what the Second Intermediate Period was like in this part of Egypt, she told Live Science in an email.

This is the second discovery of a tomb belonging to an Egyptian king announced so far this year. In February 2025, another group of archaeologists reported that they had found the tomb of Thutmose II to the west of the Valley of the Kings. Pharaoh Thutmose II was the half brother and husband of Hatshepsut. Queen Hatshepsut ascended the throne after Thutmose II's death about 3,500 years ago.

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A pottery shard, known as an ostraca, that has the Egyptian script Demotic written on it.

The newly discovered king's tomb, which was plundered in ancient times.

Pottery workshop

In addition to the newly discovered tomb, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a pottery and glass workshop at Banawit, a village located north of Abydos. The workshop dates to a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt (30 B.C to A.D. 642), the ministry said in the statement. It contains a large number of kilns along with extensive storage areas.

Within the workshop, archaeologists found 32 ostraca — writing on pottery shards — that discuss commercial transactions and how taxes were paid, the ministry reported. The ostraca were written in Greek and Demotic, an Egyptian script.

Between the seventh and 14th centuries A.D., the workshop was reused as a cemetery, and the remains of families were found within it.