Science Visualized Archaeology

Archaeologists have finally found ancient Egyptian wax head cones

The mysterious headgear appears often in art dating from around 3,550 to 2,000 years ago

ancient skeleton wearing cone-shaped cap

Excavations at the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna uncovered the skeleton of a woman in her 20s who was buried wearing a cone-shaped cap that likely held spiritual significance, researchers say.

Courtesy of the Amarna Project, Antiquity Publications Ltd.

By Bruce Bower

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Archaeology

  1. Coxcatlan Cave entrance
    Archaeology

    New clues suggest people reached the Americas around 30,000 years ago

    By Bruce Bower
  2. photo of two skeletons on their sides in the fetal position, half immersed in the soil
    Anthropology

    Hunter-gatherers first launched violent raids at least 13,400 years ago

    By Bruce Bower
  3. black and white image of dusty ruins in Greenwood after the massacre
    Archaeology

    To find answers about the 1921 race massacre, Tulsa digs up its painful past

    By Helen Thompson
  4. sharpened turkey leg bones used for tattoos
    Archaeology

    The oldest known tattoo tools were found at an ancient Tennessee site

    By Bruce Bower
  5. virtual reconstruction of child's bones
    Anthropology

    A child’s 78,000-year-old grave marks Africa’s oldest known human burial

    By Bruce Bower
  6. scientists excavating a rock shelter in the Kalahari Desert
    Archaeology

    Stone Age culture bloomed inland, not just along Africa’s coasts

    By Bruce Bower
  7. archaeological structures from ancient city of Çatalhöyük
    Archaeology

    A tour of ‘Four Lost Cities’ reveals modern ties to ancient people

    By Bethany Brookshire
  8. bones of a man and woman with artifacts in a bronze age grave
    Anthropology

    Riches in a Bronze Age grave suggest it holds a queen

    By Bruce Bower

From the Nature Index

Paid Content