Archaeologists discovered the pregnant woman's skeleton buried in a tumulus (a tomb covered by rocks) near Hathor's temple.
The people worshipped Hathor — the goddess of love, pleasure and maternity — at Timna, and considered her to be the protector of the miners.
At the time the pregnant woman lived, Egypt controlled the mines at Timna, suggesting she was Egyptian. In addition, she may have been a singer at the Hathor temple, said Erez Ben-Yosef, the director of the Central Timna Valley Project and a senior lecturer in archaeology at Tel Aviv University. She was buried with beads whose design is similar to those found at the Hathor temple, Ben-Yosef told Live Science.
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