Sheshonq III's Tomb Identified at Tanis Thanks to 225 Royal Ushabtis, Mondes Préhistoriques

The discovery of 225 faience funerary figurines bearing pharaoh Sheshonq III's titulary formally identifies his tomb at Tanis, ending decades of uncertainty.

225 Ushabtis to Identify a PharaohPharaohThe title of the ruler of ancient Egypt, regarded as a living god guaranteeing cosmic order (Maat), supreme head of state, army and worship.→

A Franco-Egyptian team working at the site of Tanis (San el-Hagar, Nile Delta) announced in August 2026 the formal identification of the tomb of pharaoh Sheshonq III, ruler of the 22nd dynasty (c. 825-773 BCE), through the discovery of 225 faience ushabtis bearing his royal titulary.¹ This identification ends several decades of uncertainty about the exact location of this pharaoh's burialBurialThe intentional deposition of a body, sometimes with offerings; a marker of symbolic behaviour.→, whose annals record a long reign but whose tomb had never been formally identified since Pierre Montet's pioneering excavations in the 1930s-1940s.

Ruins of Tanis in the Nile Delta — The ruins of Tanis (San el-Hagar) in the eastern Nile Delta. The city was the royal capital of the 21st and 22nd dynasties. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Tanis is one of the most important sites of the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period (1069-664 BCE). Capital of the Libyan dynasties of the 21st and 22nd dynasties, it was the burial place of numerous pharaohs whose royal tombs, protected by the rubble of surrounding temples, escaped the looting that ravaged most Egyptian royal burials. It was Pierre Montet who discovered the first intact tombs at Tanis between 1939 and 1946, revealing treasures comparable -- in historical significance -- to those of Tutankhamun. But the tomb of Sheshonq III had remained elusive.

Ushabtis: Servants for Eternity

Ushabtis (also spelled shawabtis or shabtis depending on the period) are small Egyptian funerary figurines, generally made of faience or wood, intended to perform the arduous labour to which the deceased might be subjected in the afterlife. Their name probably derives from ancient Egyptian meaning "the one who answers". From the Middle Kingdom onwards, it became customary to deposit several dozen, then hundreds, in royal and noble tombs. Sets of 365 ushabtis -- one for each day of the year -- were sometimes accompanied by 36 "overseer ushabtis" supervising thirty-six workers per decade, for a total of 401 figurines.²

Egyptian faience ushabtis — Turquoise faience ushabtis typical of the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period. The 225 examples from Sheshonq III's tomb bear his complete royal titulary. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5)

The 225 ushabtis found in the presumed tomb of Sheshonq III present a decisive characteristic: they bear the complete royal titulary of the pharaoh, including his coronation name (Usermaatre Setepenre Meryptah) and birth name (Sheshonq), inscribed in hieroglyphs on their bodies. They are made of green and blue faience, of royal quality, measuring between 12 and 18 centimetres. Their style and inscription correspond perfectly to the productions of the royal Tanis workshop in the 9th-8th century BCE, confirming both authenticity and dating.

Tanis and the Mysteries of the Third Intermediate Period

The 22nd dynasty, known as the "Libyan dynasty", was founded by Sheshonq I (c. 945-924 BCE), the pharaoh the Bible associates with the ruler who sacked Jerusalem during the reign of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. His successors ruled over an increasingly fragmented Egypt, progressively sharing power with High Priests of Amun at Thebes and with other regional dynasties. Sheshonq III, who reigned for nearly half a century, is one of the best-documented monarchs of this turbulent period, but his annals remained incomplete for lack of a certain identification of his tomb.

Sphinxes and columns at Tanis — Sphinxes and architectural fragments at the Tanis site. The city's royal necropolisNecropolisA large organised burial ground, a "city of the dead", often spanning several periods.→ has yielded several intact tombs since Montet's excavations. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The tomb of Sheshonq III, located within the enclosure of Tanis's great temple of Amun, has a limestone structure with several chambers. Though partially disturbed in late antiquity, it preserves numerous architectural and furnishing elements that will now be the subject of in-depth study. Researchers hope in particular to recover fragments of the royal sarcophagus, any possible usurpations of furnishings by later pharaohs, and funerary texts illuminating the cosmology and theology of the 22nd dynasty. This discovery is part of a revival of excavations at Tanis since 2010, which has already revealed several new tombs of dignitaries and priests, renewing our understanding of this Egyptian capital too often overlooked in favour of the more celebrated Theban Valley of the Kings.

Sources

1. French Archaeological Mission at Tanis, preliminary report, August 2026.

2. Schneider H. D., Shabtis: An Introduction to the History of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Statuettes, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, 1977.

3. Montet P., Les enigmes de Tanis, Payot, Paris, 1952.

4. Kitchen K. A., The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100-650 BC), Aris and Phillips, Warminster, 1973.