Forget everything Hollywood taught us about ancient Egyptian royalty lounging around palaces all day. A new study suggests some Egyptian princesses may have spent their time training with weapons, hunting big game, and building some serious upper-body strength.
The surprising contents of the royal tombs
Researchers studying nearly 4,000-year-old royal remains from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom uncovered evidence that several princesses may have led surprisingly active lives.
The study focused on the remains of six royal individuals, including Princess Khenmet, Princess Itaweret, Princess Ita, and Princess Sathathormeryt—four women believed to be daughters of Pharaoh Amenemhat II. While ancient royal burials often include luxurious artifacts, these tombs also contained something unexpected: weapons.
One princess, Ita, was buried with an ornate dagger. Other tombs contained bows, arrows, and maces.
Their bones may have the answer
Because the mummies’ soft tissue had long since disappeared, researchers turned to the bones themselves. Using X-rays and other imaging techniques, the team examined the spots where muscles and ligaments attached to bone.
These areas can change over time when muscles are repeatedly used, almost like your skeleton quietly keeping a lifelong fitness log.
Several of the princesses showed unusually strong upper-body muscle attachment sites. According to the researchers, those changes are consistent with years of physically demanding activities like drawing powerful bows, swinging weapons such as maces or daggers, hunting, and other repetitive upper-body movements.
One of the princesses, Itaweret, even appeared to have healed from broken ribs and foot fractures, suggesting she lived an active and occasionally dangerous life.
Ancient Egypt may have had its own Wonder Women
Lead researcher Dr. Zeinab Hashesh says the findings challenge the long-held image of elite Egyptian women living quiet, luxurious lives while men handled all the action. Instead, the evidence points to royal women who may have actively participated in hunting, ceremonial displays of power, or even protecting the royal court.
The theory is in dispute
Before we start picturing Egyptian royalty speedrunning an ancient version of Assassin’s Creed, other archaeologists are urging caution. Sonia Zakrzewski, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Southampton in the U.K. who was not involved in the research, noted that while the bones clearly show repeated muscle use, they don’t reveal exactly what caused it.
Those same physical changes could have resulted from other demanding activities unrelated to combat or archery.
And truly, the skeletons tell us these women were remarkably active, but they don’t come with a built-in activity tracker explaining why.
Source: New York Post