Archaeologists discover 3,000-year-old tomb of Pharaonic queen

Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities has announced the discovery of a queen's tomb from ancient Egypt's Ramesside period.

A team of Egyptian and French archaeologists accidentally found the Pharaonic tomb in the walls of the Ramesseum temple complex, on the west bank of Luxor. The Ramesseum was a memorial temple for Ramesseum II, the third pharaoh of Egypt's 19th dynasty. During the Ramesside period, which lasted from 1314 B.C.E. to 1085 B.C.E., there were 11 Egyptian kings named Rameses.

Fragments of 20 funerary statues found in the tomb were inscribed with the name "Karomama." The researchers are now working to figure out who the queen was and which pharaoh was her husband. Archaeologists believe "Karomama" may refer to the wife of Pharaoh Osorkon II, from Egypt's 22nd dynasty.

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Whoever the tomb's resident was, the researchers know she was a queen, because the tomb also bears the inscription "the divine wife of God Amun," a title only given to royal wives.