Archaeologists Excavated an Ancient Temple—and Found 2,500-Year-Old Tombs

Ongoing archaeological work at the Ramesseum Temple at Luxor has resulted in a wealth of new finds.
Crews discovered storage areas—which once kept oil, honey, and wine—that paint a new picture of what the site was originally used for.
The remains of drawings and school toys also show that the temple complex included a school.

The goings-on at Ramesseum Temple near Luxor, Egypt, were far more in-depth than experts believed possible. This site wasn’t just a religious symbol or place to bury the dead—it had cultural and economic prominence deeper than we may ever understand.

New archaeological work uncovered remains of store houses for food, workshops aplenty, a “House of Life” scientific school and administrative offices. Mohamed Ismail—secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Archaeology—said in a translated statement that the Ramesseum Temple was not just a place of worship. It was also a center for the redistribution of stored or manufactured products, a home of artisan makers, and a place of scientific study.

The latest work—led by the Archaeological Preservation and Registration sector of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Archaeology, the French National Research Centre, and Sorbonne University—excavated 2,500-year-old tombs at the Ramesseum, unveiling a wide window into the ancient culture and revealing details about the daily life at the temple complex.

In an area northeast of the actual temple, the team excavated ruins to uncover tombs from the Third Intermediate Period. While the team located canopic jars (as expected), they also discovered 401 shabti figures—small statues crafted to look like the deceased.

In other areas both north and east of the temple, the daily workings of the site came to life. The team found storage areas that housed olive oil, honey, fats, and wine—they even found wine jar labels—while administrative buildings were located near workshops for weavers, stonemasons, and bakers.

Inside the temple, the team found evidence of the House of Life scientific school, a school (focused on architecture) known to exist within prominent temples. The team also located toys and drawings, giving further credence to the idea that there was a school at the site.

Experts have confirmed that the site was occupied before the pharaoh Ramesses II built his temple there during his 1279-to-1213-B.C. reign. It also had some utility after the pharaoh’s rule—it was repurposed into a tomb after being looted and before being used by quarry workers in the Baltic and Roman eras. But during the time of Ramesses II, the temple served as a royal institution that carried out religious rites to sanctify the king during his lifetime, while evidently playing a key role in Egypt’s administrative and economic processes.

Ismail said that the discoveries indicate the presence of a true hierarchical system for civil servants inside the temple, which was not only a place of worship but an economic center that focused on making and distributing products. While the entire system benefited the residents of the area—including the makers of the goods—everything in and around the Ramesseum was still subject to royal authority.

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