Ancient Egyptian tomb shows how burial trends changed over hundreds of years
Placement of mummies in a Theban tomb – from individual placement to stacking of bodies – shows how burial practices and their symbolic implications changed over time
image:
Figure 3 — Mummified individuals from Side Chamber 3 of Theban Tomb 209, showing variation in body orientation and arm position.
view moreCredit: Proyecto dos cero nueve, Universidad de La Laguna / Jared Carballo-Pérez.
The Theban Necropolis, opposite Luxor, is comprised of more than 400 tombs. In a new Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology study, researchers in Spain examined a part of one of these tombs – chamber three in tomb TT 209 – more closely to reconstruct how this burial space was used and reused between its construction during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (754-656 BCE) and the Ptolemaic period (305–30 BCE), when it was abandoned.
“We found a total of 16 mummified human individuals, a mummified dog, and a disturbed deposit containing the remains of at least four individuals,” said first author Dr Jared Carballo-Pérez, a researcher at the University of La Laguna. “The detailed study of the bodies indicates neither chaotic accumulation nor a loss of the original ritual over time. Rather, there was a spatial logic in which each new deposition was adapted to the presence of previous bodies – a kind of funerary memory in the processes of reuse.”
Senior author Dr Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo, a professor of Egyptology at the University of La Laguna, added: “We have few details regarding how the people who entered tombs behaved, what their motivations were in each historical period, and how they conceptually reconfigured the pre-existing space.”
Tomb through time
To deepen the understanding of the deposition of bodies and the transformation of funerary space, the team excavated the chamber, photographed the mummies, and produced sketches and descriptions of their position, orientation, and relationship with the tomb’s structures. The chamber contains nine funerary deposits, comprising individual and multiple burials, as well as associated funerary objects.
For the earliest deposits, the team observed relatively separated burials where bodies were placed in coffins.
“The earliest individuals buried here appear to have been of high social standing, as they were interred in coffins, with funerary nets and amulets, and with an assemblage containing costly items, such as the contents held in Phoenician amphorae, a large number of which were found alongside them,” said Molinero Polo.
Later, towards the end of the 25th dynasty and the Persian period (around 680-404 BCE), bodies started being inserted into any space still available. This resulted in denser use of space. In some cases, a change could be seen in the positioning of limbs, for example a folded-in arm whereas in earlier burials arms were typically stretched out. Also in the Persian period, the team observed a shift from individual deposits to a vertical way of arranging bodies. Superposition of bodies was found in two thirds of the burials in the chamber.
Reconstructing funerary practices
In the southeastern section of the chamber, four mummies and one mummified dog are buried on top of one another in the Ptolemaic Period.
“The bodies buried in vertical superposition did not have coffins but were carefully mummified. They also can be associated with upright jars that point to a specific ritual not found in the earlier phases of the tomb’s use,” said Molinero Polo.
“One detail I find quite beautiful is the presence of a mummified dog placed directly on top of the mummies of a man and a woman,” said Carballo-Pérez. “This could indicate a close relationship between these human individuals and the animal, an idea that I think is quite easy to empathize with.”
“It could also reflect a further change in ritual practice, with an animal taking on the role of a psychopomp, a symbolic helper in the journey to the afterlife,” added Molinero Polo.
This, alongside certain changes in the arrangement of bodies – for example, in later deposits individuals were buried with both arms folded over their chests in what Egyptologists call the Osirian position – suggests that the tomb did not become disordered or without structure, or that cultural rites were lost. Instead, the chamber should be considered a repeatedly reactivated space, reconfigured by new burials that transformed the organization and meaning of space itself without erasing the past.
In some funerary deposits, it is difficult to identify the exact sequence of depositions and reconstruct the precise intentionality behind them, the team noted. This is due to century-long use during which the chamber flooded multiple times as well as fires and human re-entry that transported debris within the tomb.
“Nevertheless, what we present means that deposits that were previously considered ‘disordered’ can be reinterpreted,” concluded Carballo-Pérez. “This helps us develop a better understanding of the social behaviors behind funerary practices.”
Journal
Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
From individualized mummies to collective accumulations: an archaeothanatological analysis of funerary reuse in Theban Tomb 209 (Twenty-Fifth Dynasty–Ptolemaic Egypt)
Article Publication Date
18-Aug-2026
COI Statement
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor SS declared a past co-authorship with the author JCP.
Figure 6 — Evidence of disturbance and displacement affecting two mummified individuals in side Chamber 3.
Credit
Proyecto dos cero nueve, Universidad de La Laguna / Jared Carballo-Pérez.
Figure 4 — Detail of superposition and spatial relationships between individuals in SC3 (TT 209). The figure shows the relative position of several individuals, highlighting direct vertical contacts and partial overlaps between bodies. M6 and M7 are closely superimposed, with the canid (M9) placed over their lower limbs.
Credit
J. Carballo-Pérez.
Exterior view of the superstructure of TT 209. The protective covering and visual homogenization of its walls were completed at the end of the 2026 season.
Credit
Proyecto dos cero nueve / José Miguel Barrios Mufrege.
Preserved painted stucco decoration showing a goddess on the inner side of the floorboard of the outer box of Coffin 2.
Credit
Photograph: Proyecto dos cero nueve / José Miguel Barrios Mufrege. Drawing: Proyecto dos cero nueve / Daniel Méndez Rodríguez.
Preserved painted decoration showing an Osirian djed pillar (IMAGE)
Preserved painted decoration showing an Osirian djed pillar on the outer side of the floorboard of the outer box of Coffin 3.
Credit
Photograph: Proyecto dos cero nueve / José Miguel Barrios Mufrege. Drawing: Proyecto dos cero nueve / Daniel Méndez Rodríguez.
Schematic plan of SC3 in TT 209 showing the approximate spatial distribution of funerary deposits (FD). Early deposits (FD1–FD2) are located in the eastern/northeastern and southwestern sectors and display relatively discrete spatial organization. Subsequent and later deposits (FD3–FD9) are mainly concentrated in the southeastern sector. The dashed outlines indicate approximate depositional areas, while the schematic representations of mummified bodies reflect their general orientation and spatial relationships rather than exact anatomical positions. The circular area (FD6) corresponds to a secondary assemblage of disarticulated, thermally altered remains.
Credit
Jared Carballo-Pérez
