The splendor of the Silver Pharaoh’s tomb raised new questions for historians, as it indicated a level of wealth and power historians had assumed pharaohs did not possess by the time Psusennes ruled Egypt, around 3,000 years ago.
At the outset of World War II, the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet was excavating near the New Kingdom capital of Tanis when he stumbled on a treasure-filled tomb rivaling that of King Tut. Inside, the little-known 21st-Dynasty pharaoh Psusennes I had been buried in an exquisitely detailed coffin made of solid silver, wearing a spectacular gold burial mask. The splendor of the Silver Pharaoh’s tomb raised new questions for historians, as it indicated a level of wealth and power historians had assumed pharaohs did not possess by the time Psusennes ruled Egypt, around 3,000 years ago.