Ancient Egyptian teenage mummy buried 3,600 years ago found with bridal clothes and jewellery intact

AN ANCIENT Egyptian teenage girl has been found buried with her 'bridal jewellery'.

The treasures buried with the mummy in the 3,600 year old coffin are thought to be a dowry of expensive items that would have been gifted with a bride at a wedding.

The fascinating discovery was made by a Spanish team working at a necropolis in Luxor, Egypt.

The team, from the Djehuty Project, found the coffin on a hill called Dra Abu el-Naga.

In ancient times this would have been in the city of Thebes, the capital of Egypt in the Middle and New Kingdom periods.

The wooden coffin was discovered in an impressively well-preserved state and some of its white paint was still intact.

Inside the coffin was a bejewelled mummy of a girl who died around the age of 15 or 16.

She was around 5 feet 1 inch (1.59 m) tall.

Her coffin turned out to be a small treasure trove of valuable items, which experts have connected to a potential marriage scenario.

Some reports also suggest there were bridal clothes inside the coffin.

Archaeologists found two earrings, two rings and four necklaces with the mummy.

The young girl was wearing one ring on each finger and a pair of earrings.

The other jewellery items she has thought to have collected in preparation for marriage were placed on her chest.

This included necklaces made of glossy ceramic beads and 75 precious stones.

Archaeologists also found a tiny clay coffin nearby.

The coffin containing the young girl appears to have been abandoned.

It's possible it was left there by grave robbers.

An abode chapel and other burials with an unusually high proportion being children or young women were found around the same area.

A brief history of Ancient Egypt

Here's everything you need to know...

• The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point owned a huge portion of the globe
• The civilisation began about 5,000 years ago when ancient humans began building villages along the River Nile
• It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
• The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
• They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world's earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
• The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
• Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
• Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest buildings in the world
• The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people's corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
• The Ancient Egytpian empire fell due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation

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