This story is a collaboration with Biography.com.
Thanks to his nearly 67-year reign during the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, which was full of impressive architectural and military achievements, Ramses II is considered to be one of history’s greatest pharaohs. Now, over three millennia after his death, a striking new discovery on the pharaoh’s sarcophagus has added to his legacy.
Ancient Egyptian kings, even the mummified ones, were buried in coffins. They contained a sarcophagus, usually a stone-like coffin covered with decorations. Archaeologists have long believed that Ramses II’s sarcophagus was lost, as looters shattered his alabaster one into irreparable, puzzle-sized pieces. But in a twist, it seems that Ramses II might have had two sarcophagi.
In 2009, archaeologists discovered a decorated granite panel that’s roughly 5.5 feet long and 3 inches thick, and attributed it to Menkheperre, a high priest from the Twenty-First Dynasty of Egypt. Even back then, however, historians suspected the original user of the sarcophagus was an “unknown prince,” and that Menkheperre commandeered the piece for his own use later.
Frederic Payraudeau, an Egyptologist with the Orient et Mediterranee Laboratory and Sorbonne University, wanted to find that unknown prince.
And it turns out the prince was a king.
In a statement, Payraudeau said his colleagues thought the sarcophagus’s cartouche—the part that contains a royal name or title in hieroglyphics—preceded by the word “king” referenced Menkheperre, “who ruled southern Egypt around 1000 BC.” But after he analyzed the hieroglyphics more closely, he found the cartouche “actually dated from the previous engraving and therefore designated the first owner.”
The first clue came from a small decoration depicting the Book of Gates, an initiatory text reserved for kings during the Ramesside period, indicating the sarcophagus was likely a royal one. But it was the next clue that really shaped the finding. “The royal cartouche contains Ramses II’s coronation name,” Payraudeau said, “which is specific to him, but was obscured by the condition of the stone as well as a second engraving added for a later use.”
Payraudeau said there’s little skepticism now. “Clearly, this was the sarcophagus of a king,” Payraudeau told CNN. “The cartouche dates back to its first usage, and contains Ramses II’s throne name, Usermaatra. He was the only pharaoh to use this name during his time, so that cleared any doubt that it was his sarcophagus.”
The new finding, published in the journal Revue d’Egyptologie, fills out the burial items for Ramses II. According to the American Research Center in Egypt, the pharaoh was initially buried in a gold-gilded wooden coffin made from imported wood. This coffin, which had gold decorations looted from the Valley of the Kings, was placed inside an inner alabaster sarcophagus. Looters later smashed it into small pieces. A larger, granite sarcophagus surrounded the inner sarcophagus. And that’s the one Menkheperre used approximately 200 years after Ramses II’s burial.
“This is further proof that the Valley of the Kings was a frequent target for looting, especially during the 21st Dynasty,” Payraudeau said.
Payraudeau told CNN that using two stone sarcophagi, along with a gold-adorned wooden coffin, showed the growing effort to insulate funerary items against looting. At one point in history, both Ramses II’s coffin and mummy were moved to a hidden location in the temple complex Deir el-Bahari.
Linking these pieces to Ramses II, whose reign from 1279-1213 BC makes him one of ancient civilization’s longest-tenured rulers, per Britannica, provides a more complete history of one of Egypt’s most famous kings.
Ramses II’s father, Seti I, ruled in Egypt and engaged in wars to the north with the Hittites, with princes in Palestine, and to the south in Syria. After serving as an army captain at age 10, Ramses II took over for his father and proved more successful in extending the Egyptian kingdom to the north and the south.
Following the wartime success, Ramses II became known for extensive temple building across Egypt, along with the formation of statues highlighting his accomplishments as a soldier. Some of his key projects include the great hypostyle hall at Karnak, the temple at Abydos, Seti I’s funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor, his own Ramesseum complex, and several other major shrines.
Ramses II’s popularity can be traced by those who wanted connection to him, with nine of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt’s kings using his name. It was his reign that signified the height of Egyptian power. Decreased prosperity after his rule led to major looting in the Valley of the Kings, resulting in the smashing of his alabaster sarcophagus, the pilfering of gold from his coffin, and the reuse of his granite sarcophagus.
Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.
