celebrity.estateAn EGRET.LAW propertyWorld map3D timeline
Home / Egypt and Africa / The Abd el-Rassul brothers sold royal mummies from a hidden tomb for a decade, until the…
Case file s1334 · Egypt and Africa · 1000 BCE
See 1000 BCE on the timelineSee it in 3D
1000 BCE
DB320 Mummies 1881: Photograph by Émile Brugsch of the Royal Cache of mummies found in DB320 by Gaston Maspero in 1881. Taken before the mummies were unwrapped.
DB320 Mummies 1881. Émile Brugsch (1842-1930). Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
c. 1000 BC (21st Dynasty reburial of the royal mummies; conventional dating)
Place
Deir el-Bahari, Luxor, Egypt
Field
Monarchy; antiquities trade · Royalty and nobility on the timeline
Legal tradition
Egyptian antiquities law and the Antiquities Service
Historical event
The discovery of the royal mummy cache (TT320), 1881
Egypt and AfricaBodies, bones and burialsAncient worldMiddle EastEgypt

The Abd el-Rassul brothers sold royal mummies from a hidden tomb for a decade, until the eldest confessed in 1881

After robbers stripped the New Kingdom royal tombs, priests moved the kings' bodies, rewrapped them and placed many in the family tomb of the high priest Pinedjem II at Deir el-Bahari, now TT320. About 1871 Ahmed Abd el-Rassul of Qurna went down a shaft there, by his account after a goat, and found a corridor of coffins. He and his brothers Mohammed and Hussein sold pieces for years. Canopic jars and papyri reached the Luxor market by 1874, and Pinedjem II's Book of the Dead sold for £400 in 1876. Gaston Maspero of the Antiquities Service noticed. On 4 April 1881 Ahmed was arrested and questioned. Neighbours, including the mayor, vouched for the family, and he was released after about two months; he walked with a limp afterwards. After a family quarrel, Mohammed, the eldest, confessed to the police chief Daoud Pasha on 25 June 1881. On 6 July Émile Brugsch and Ahmed Kamal entered the tomb. Within 48 hours they removed more than 50 royal mummies, among them Seqenenre Tao, Ahmose I, Thutmose III, Seti I and Ramesses II, and nearly 6,000 objects, without recording where anything lay. When the steamer took them north, people on the banks mourned and fired guns. Mohammed was hired by the Antiquities Service as a foreman. On 3 April 2021, 22 royal mummies were moved through Cairo to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.

What the law took from it

Heirs who secretly sell an inheritance piece by piece leave a trail, and one heir's grievance ends the secret.

Record vs. record

Maspero's research dates the find to about 1871; the 2003 identification of Ramesses I's mummy, bought around 1860, has been used to argue for 1860 (

Wikipedia (English)
Sources
  1. newlinesmag.comPress
  2. the-past.comPress
  3. chrisnaunton.comPress
  4. africanews.comPress
  5. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “The Abd el-Rassul brothers sold royal mummies from a hidden tomb for a decade, until the eldest confessed in 1881,” story s1334, https://www.celebrity.estate/royal-mummy-cache-1000-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

Related cases

Each one shares a person, a kind of fight, a subject, a period or a place with this case. The line under each headline says which.

Entrance of Tomb KV5 of Ramesses II's sons: This is a view of entrance of the closed Tomb KV5 of the sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings.1213 BCE · Valley of the Kings, Luxor, EgyptRamesses II outlived his first three crown princes, his thirteenth son succeeded him, and his sons' tomb KV5 has more than 130 roomsShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastRamesses II reigned from 1279 to 1213 BC. Estimates of his children run to 48 to 50 sons and 40 to 53 daughters. Four of his daughters, Bintanath, Meritamen, Nebettawy and Henuttawy, became his Great Royal Wives.kirkusreviews.com and 4 moreRamses I Mummy, caudal view: This work was uploaded within an activity of Egypt Wikimedians User Group. Feel free to drop your question on the workshop discussion page.1291 BCE · Valley of the Kings, Egypt; Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; A mummy sold in Luxor around 1860 spent over a century in a Niagara Falls curiosity museum before it was identified as Ramesses I and sent homeShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastRamesses I founded the Nineteenth Dynasty and reigned about two years. His son was Seti I and his grandson Ramesses II.archive.archaeology.org and 4 moreSarcophagus of Seti I 2023-02-17d: London, United Kingdom: Sir John Soane's Museum, sarcophagus of Pharao Seti I., showing the Book of Gates1279 BCE · Valley of the Kings, Egypt, and London, EnglandSeti I's empty sarcophagus was sold to the architect John Soane in 1824, and Soane obtained an Act of Parliament so his son could not inherit itShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastSeti I, father of Ramesses II, was buried in tomb KV17 in a sarcophagus carved from one block of calcite. Robbers smashed its lid in antiquity, and priests later moved his body; it was found in the royal cache in 1881.UK Parliament, Hansard and 5 moreHoward Carter: Howard carter1323 BCE · Valley of the Kings, Luxor, EgyptHoward Carter's team cut Tutankhamun's body apart to free it from his coffin in 1925, and Carter's published account left it outShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastOn 24 October 1925 Carter's team found that Tutankhamun's innermost coffin was solid gold and fixed to the second coffin by thick resin. Resin poured over the king at his funeral had also glued the body inside.tutankhamun.griffith.ox.ac.uk and 4 moreSaqqara, Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II (never used), British Museum: Saqqara, Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II (never used since he left it when he fled south), British Museum343 BCE · Alexandria, Egypt, and London, EnglandThe last native pharaoh fled the Persians and never used his sarcophagus, and the British took it from Alexandria in 1801 as the tomb of AlexanderShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastNectanebo II was the last native Egyptian king. In 343 BC the Persian king Artaxerxes III restored Persian rule. Nectanebo fled south and never regained power.Internet Archive and 2 moreMap of Turkey, marked on the globe41 BCE · Ephesus (near Selçuk, Turkey)Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe IV fought Caesar, walked in chains in his triumph and was killed at a temple on Antony's orders, and the skeleton said to be hers was a boy'sShared: bodies, bones and burials; also Egypt and Africa; same era, ancient world; also Middle EastIn 48 BC, while Julius Caesar was besieged in Alexandria, Cleopatra's younger sister Arsinoe escaped the palace with her tutor, the eunuch Ganymedes, and proclaimed herself queen.University of Chicago, LacusCurtius and 5 more

Where this case sits

Egypt and AfricaBodies, bones and burialsAncient worldMiddle EastEgypt