This Mark May Point to One of History's First Female Kings

A new look at a 72-year-old photo may have just promoted one of Egypt's earliest queens into the ranks of its kings. Researchers say a revamped digital look at a published 1954 image of one of 13 jar plugs found at the entrance to a tomb in Saqqara and later lost to time suggests Queen Meretneith—long known as a powerful royal and "king's mother"—may actually have held full ruling status more than 5,000 years ago, per Smithsonian. Writing in Prague Egyptological Studies, the team argues that two tiny hieroglyphic panels on the stopper, once too blurry to read, now clearly show Meretneith's name inside serekhs, a symbol reserved for rulers.

Meretneith—linked to First Dynasty king Djer, who may have been her father, and likely regent for her son Den—has been floated before as an early female pharaoh. The new analysis, which digitally boosted contrast, inverted colors, and converted the photo into a crisp vector image, is being cast by coauthor Susan Kelly as the closest thing yet to a text naming her as a sovereign. "The signs clearly point to Meretneith being one of the early rulers of Egypt," she writes in the Conversation. Not everyone is convinced: a Berlin-based historian argues the enhanced image only shows Djer's name. But if the new reading holds, Meretneith's already lavish legacy—she had a vast tomb complex and 41 buried attendants—could take on new significance.