Bone Scans Reveal Recently Discovered 2,600-Year-Old Etruscan "Prince" Actually A Warrior Princess

Archeologists recently revealed a stunning find of an untouched 2,600 year old Etruscan prince-and there is one more detail that's even more striking: the prince was a princess.

Last month, archeologists found a completely sealed tomb cut deep into into rock in Tuscany, Italy. It was reported that the grave held the body of an Etruscan prince holding a spear and the ashes of his wife.

Now, however, bone scans have revealed that the warrior prince was really a princess.

When the team of archeologists removed the sealed slab of rock blocking the tomb, they peeked inside and saw two large platforms. One platform was the final resting place to a skeleton bearing a lance, and on the other, there was a skeleton that had been partially incinerated. Inside, they also found several pieces of jewelry and a bronze-plated box that likely belonged to a woman.

"The underground chamber dates back to the beginning of the sixth century B.C. Inside, there are two funerary beds carved into the rock," Alessandro Mandolesi, an archeologist from the University of Turin who  excavated the site, wrote in an email.

Scientists assumed that the skeleton on the larger platform was a male warrior and that his wife occupied the other platform.

However, they assumed wrong.

The prince holding the lance was actually a 35- to 40-year-old woman, and the second skeleton belonged to a man.

So why the spear?

"The spear, most likely, was placed as a symbol of union between the two deceased," Mandolesi said to Viterbo News 24 on Sept. 26.

Weingarten, however, thinks his explanation is "highly unlikely"-the spear shows the woman's high status and is an example of how gender bias can endanger scientific discoveries.

"She was buried with it next to her, not him," Weingarten points out.

The Etruscan culture is little-known; Etruscans left no documents and were absorbed into Roman civilization at around 400 B.C. Now, however, the tomb may lend clues.

While Greek women were often kept cloistered, the Greek historian Theopompus said that Etruscan women "were more carefree, working out, lounging nude, drinking freely, consorting with many men and raising children who did not know their fathers' identities," LiveScience reported.

The new tomb, which has just been unsealed by archaeologists in Tuscany, was discovered in the Etruscan necropolis of Tarquinia. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site where more than 6,000 graves have been cut into the rock.