Egyptian Princesses Went to Their Graves With Weapons, and Experts Disagree on Why

Nearly 4,000 years ago, royal women in Egypt’s Middle Kingdom went to their tombs with bows, arrows and daggers. A new study argues they used those weapons in life. Three outside researchers say the bones cannot prove it.

What the study found

Lead author Zeinab Hashesh of Beni-Suef University and colleagues examined six royal mummies from Dahshur in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. Archaeologists found the mummies in the 1890s, and they were lost for years before curators rediscovered them in the Egyptian Museum in 2020. The group includes King Hor and five women: Princess Ita, Khenmet, Itaweret, Noub-Hotep and an unidentified woman who may be Princess Sathathormeryt. Four of the women are believed to be daughters of Amenemhat II.

The team used X-rays and infrared spectroscopy to study the muscle-attachment sites on the bones. Ita had pronounced sites on her right shoulder, arm and hand, and Noub-Hotep had strong sites on her forearms and right hand. The authors link such changes to repeated actions like pulling a bowstring or gripping a mace or dagger. Itaweret’s bones also suggest skilled archery. “These were not just symbolic gifts, but tools they actively used,” Hashesh said.

Why experts are not convinced

Sonia Zakrzewski of the University of Southampton said the identities rest on 19th-century labels, and that the bone changes cannot be tied to weapons, especially because the study used no comparison groups. Scott Haddow of the University of Turin said archery is highly asymmetrical, yet some changes appear on both sides, and age, body size and genetics also shape these sites. Sébastien Villotte of the French National Center for Scientific Research said the study offers limited biomechanical evidence and that comparing the women with non-elite contemporaries would be stronger.

The limits of the remains

Only about 22 to 58 percent of each skeleton survived, the soft tissue has turned to powder, and the princesses’ skulls disappeared in the early 1900s. The team says stable isotope analysis could clarify the nutritional problems seen in several of the women, but nobody has done it yet.

Sources

• Frontiers news release (17 July 2026)
• Hashesh et al., Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology (2026), DOI 10.3389/fearc.2026.1844402
• Live Science: outside expert comments
• Popular Science: Egyptian princesses and their weapons