An "empty" coffin containing a mummy surprised archeologists, who were not expecting to find human remains inside the 2,500-year-old sarcophagus that had been sitting in storage for more than 150 years, BBC News reported.
The coffin was classified as empty after it was sourced in 1860 by a former chancellor of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney but was later forgotten as Egyptologists turned their attentions elsewhere.
For decades the sarcophagus sat untouched in the university's museum, until Australian scientists hauled it out of storage and opened it up for the first-time last year only to discover the remains of human feet and bones inside.
"The records previously said the coffin was empty or with debris...There is a lot more to it than previously thought," said Jamie Fraser, the lead investigator and senior curator at the museum, according to USA Today.
Although the remains were damaged, possibly by tomb raiders, scientists determined that they dated back to 600 BC and belonged to a single human believed to be around the age of 30, who was identified as a priestess called Mer-Neith-it-es by Hieroglyphs inscribed on the coffin.
The discovery was made public only now, after computed tomography (CT) scans and a laser scan for 3D modeling were completed last week.
Now experts are hoping to unlock some powerful mysteries about the way of life in Egypt back then.
"We can start asking some intimate questions that those bones will hold around pathology, about diet, about diseases, about the lifestyle of that person – how they lived and died," said Jamie Fraser, senior curator at the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney, according to The Independent.
Meanwhile, the coffin will be exhibited at a new museum on the university's grounds with three other coffins, The Daily Mail said.
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