Archaeology News: Possible double-burial of pharaohs in Osorkon II’s tomb, newly discovered statues show

  Possible double-burial of pharaohs in Osorkon II’s tomb, newly discovered statues show

Archaeologists uncovered 225 inscribed funerary statues beside an unmarked sarcophagus in Osorkon II’s tomb, strengthening the case for two royal burials at Tanis, Egypt.

By Jerusalem Post Staff, November 25, 2025

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/archaeology-around-the-world/article-875130

Shabti figurines inscribed with the name of Pharaoh Shoshenq III, found inside Osorkon II’s tomb at Tanis, northern Egypt.

(photo credit: Screenshot via Maariv/section 27A, SCREENSHOT/X)

An Egyptian-French team in Tanis uncovered 225 shabti figurines inscribed with the name of Shoshenq III inside Osorkon II’s tomb, indicating a royal reburial, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities revealed in a Monday Facebook post.

Archaeologists working in northern Egypt said the cache was found beside an unmarked sarcophagus in the Tanis complex. The figurines, inscribed with Shoshenq III’s name, point to his burial in his predecessor’s tomb during the 22nd Dynasty, according to the report.

The figurines, traditionally placed to serve the deceased in the afterlife, were recovered during conservation work led by a French mission.

Their placement next to an anonymous sarcophagus suggests that Shoshenq III was interred in Osorkon II’s burial rather than in his own.

Researchers said newly documented inscriptions from the chamber are under study. The tomb and sarcophagus were recorded in 1939, but the shabtis were identified only during the current project.

(ILLUSTRATIVE) A 2,300-year old mummy is displayed after it was found by the Sakkara pyramids south of Cairo, May 3, 2005 (credit: REUTERS)

Why the king might have been moved

Shoshenq III ruled amid political fragmentation, when tomb reuse was not uncommon. Experts suggested his original burial may have been displaced, or that a successor appropriated his tomb, forcing a reburial within Osorkon II’s complex.

Reburial inside earlier royal structures has surfaced elsewhere in Egypt.

Earlier this year, officials reported a later-period burial inserted into a powerful ruler’s older complex at Abydos, underscoring the practice of later interments within established sacred spaces.

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