Egypt: 5,000-Year-Old Wine Jars Unearthed In Female Pharaoh's Tomb

In recent news, the latest archaeological discovery could have all of us raising a glass to Ancient Egypt! Archaeologists have found sealed jars of wine and other grave goods in the tomb complex of Queen Merneith in Abydos, Egypt.

The presence of 5000-years-old wine, along with other funerary objects, suggests that Queen Merneith could potentially have been the first female pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, far before Hatshepsut, who is currently thought to have been Ancient Egypt's first female ruler. 

The Archaeological Dig

According to the official website of the University of Vienna, archaeologist Christiana Kohler, leading a German-Austrian team of archaeologists, examined the tomb complex of Queen Merneith from Egypt's 1st dynasty in Abydos, Egypt. Abydos is known for having housed Egypt's first royal cemetery, and the fact that Queen Merneith is the only woman (so far discovered) to have had "her own monumental tomb," here speaks to the fact that "she was probably the most powerful woman of her time and today's researchers speculate that Merneith may have been the first female pharaoh in ancient Egypt and thus the predecessor of the later Queen Hatshepsut from the 18th dynasty," according to the official website. 

While her true identity remains a mystery, continuous excavation of her tomb complex reveals increasingly new things about the ancient Egyptian queen. 

5000-Years-Old Wine

Among the grave goods found in Queen Merneith's tomb, a large number of jars containing wine were found. A considerable number of them were very well preserved and still sealed in their original state, according to the University of Vienna. 

Additionally, the website also stated that inscriptions in the tomb testify that Queen Merneith was responsible for central government offices such as the treasury, which supports the idea of her special historical significance.

Revelations

This amazing discovery holds major revelations for the way most historians (and the rest of the world) study Ancient  Egyptian history. Along with the idea that women could have been rulers in Egypt for far longer than previously thought, the discovery of Queen Meret-Neith/Merneith's monumental tomb complex also houses the tombs of 41 courtiers and servants in addition to her own burial chamber, with the entire complex built of "unbaked mud bricks, clay and wood," according to the official website of the University of Vienna. 

Through careful excavation and the use of new methods of dating and technology in archaeology, this German-Austrian team of archaeologists at the University of Vienna were able to prove that the tombs were built in several construction phases over a relatively long period of time, problematizing the conventional belief that ritual human sacrifices were a part of royal burials in Egypt's 1st Dynasty. 

Suggested Reading: Cleopatra’s Skin Colour Didn’t Matter In Ancient Egypt, Her Strategic Role In World History Did