For well over a century, the bows, arrows and other weapons placed inside the tombs of ancient Egyptian princesses were often treated as ceremonial objects, intended to express status rather than everyday life. Research published in Frontiers on 17 July 2026, titled “ Bioarchaeological reassessment of Dahshur royal skeletal remains from the Late Middle Kingdom (c. 1850–1700 BCE) ”, offers a different way of looking at those discoveries. By examining the skeletons of King Hor and several princesses from the Late Middle Kingdom, researchers argue that the women's bones preserve physical traces that match repeated weapon handling. The combination of skeletal evidence and grave goods raises the possibility that at least some royal women were not simply buried with weapons as symbols of power, but had used them during their lives.
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