Ancient Egyptian princesses buried with weapons may have been fighters
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- Zeinab Hashesh at the University of Beni-Suef and colleagues studied six royal mummies — five female, four believed to be daughters of Pharaoh Amenemhat II — from the Dahshur pyramid complex, dating to Egypt's Middle Kingdom (roughly 1850–1700 BC) and rediscovered in Cairo's Egyptian Museum in 2020 after being excavated in the 1890s.
- Princess Ita, who died aged 28–34 and was buried with an elaborate gold and lapis lazuli dagger, showed bone structure indicating strong forearm connections and hand muscles consistent with habitual gripping of daggers or maces.
- Princesses Noub-Hotep and Itaweret both had enlarged radius bones suggesting repetitive bow-drawing; Noub-Hotep also displayed bowing of her second right metacarpal and strengthened finger attachments — what Hashesh calls an 'archer's grip.'
- Princess Itaweret survived broken ribs and foot fractures that healed cleanly, which Hashesh attributes to her royal access to skilled surgeons capable of setting bones without infection or misalignment.
- Michelle Langley at Griffith University said the study shows royal women 'were trained in very practical martial and hunting arts, just as we imagine their fathers and brothers were,' not sitting idle in palaces.
- Sonia Zakrzewski at the University of Southampton pushed back, noting that frequent juggling, scything, or other repetitive activities could produce similar bone changes — meaning the weapons in burials aren't proof of fighting on their own.
- The paper was published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology (DOI: 10.3389/fearc.2026.1844402).
Why it matters: This is rare skeletal — not just symbolic — evidence that elite ancient Egyptian women trained in martial and hunting arts from a young age, complicating the 'decorative royal' stereotype. But the caveat from Zakrzewski matters: repetitive non-combat activities could mimic these bone signatures, so the 'princesses were fighters' framing rests partly on inference, not certainty.
