Ancient Egypt: Mummy Remains Discovered Inside 'Empty' 2,500-year-old Coffin After 157 Years

A 2,500-year-old ancient Egyptian coffin—left untouched for 157 years—has been found to contain the remains of a mummy believed to be that of a prestigious high priestess.

The coffin was acquired by academics at the University of Sydney in 1860. Successive researchers assumed that grave robbers had stolen the mummy inside, leaving behind only tattered bandages and debris, the university’s Muse magazine reported. As such, it remained untouched for over 150 years.

Thanks to a routine check in June 2017, however, university staff realized they had been sitting on a research gold mine. Lifting the lid and expecting to discover nothing but tattered cloth, “we were astonished by what we saw,” recalled James Fraser, the senior curator at the university’s Nicholson Museum. “Far from residual scraps, the coffin was filled with a miscellany of bones, bandages, beads and other materials.”

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“Imagine this coffin has been shaken like a cocktail shaker, and you can perhaps picture the jumble of remains inside,” Fraser told Muse.