A 3,000-Year-Old Warhorse Burial and a Ramses II Tablet, Among Other Relics, Have Been Discovered in an Ancient Egyptian Fortress

Archaeologists working within a recently discovered fortress in the Nile River Delta say they have excavated a trove of artifacts and remains that shed new light on the daily military and social cadences of ancient Egyptian society. Recent digs at a roughly 3,000-year-old fortress—originally unearthed in 2024 within a larger site called Al-Abqaa’, or Tell Al-Abqain, in Egypt’s modern-day Beheira province—contains the remains of mudbrick houses, wells, grain silos, roads and pottery ovens used to prepare food. The fortress, though established near the country’s western border to defend from attacks launched by neighboring armies, also harbored routine residential life.

The complex was likely a thriving community during Egypt’s New Kingdom era, which lasted from 1570 B.C.E. to 1069 B.C.E. The treasures that have survived inside for millennia are just beginning to be found. Among the most exciting new excavations is the 3,000-year-old grave of a young male warhorse that may have been used in battle.

The horse’s skeleton was found intact, and its alabaster and limestone chariot harness was dug up nearby, indicating that the horse had been honored with a ceremonial burial, according to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Instead of being ridden, they were typically paired to transport pharaohs and chariots into war. This was especially true during the New Kingdom era.

Hieroglyphs carved into temple walls at the time, according to research from the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, detail royals’ wartime relationship with horses and their linked iconography: King Thutmose III, for example, rode into battle against the Canaanites at Megiddo “on a chariot of fine gold, decked in his shining armor like strong-armed Horus”; his son Amenhotep II mastered horses that “did not grow tired when he took the reins, and they did not drip with sweat at a high gallop”; Thutmoseis IV was famously buried with his war chariot. Carolyn Willekes, a historian at Mount Royal University, in Canada, tells Live Science that Al-Abqaa’s seemingly “intentional horse burial also gives tantalizing hints about the equine-human relationship in ancient Egypt and the cultural importance of the horse.” Other discoveries at the fortress shed further light on the region’s conflict and power hierarchy. Archaeologists also uncovered a fragment of a limestone stela depicting a bound prisoner, likely a member of a Libyan tribe, bent in a submissive position.

Another stela is inscribed with the birth name, throne name and Horus name of Ramses II, while a third compares his son, Merneptah, a ruler himself, to the god Seth. Amulets, looms, jewelry and a variety of pottery vessels—made in the shape of fish, lotus flowers, crocodile scales and baboons—were also discovered in and around ancient residences, according to the Egyptian ministry. Some old crop warehouses still contained traces of unhusked grain.

Further excavations are planned for the historic site. Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.