Tomb in Egypt reveals flowers, not mummies

But instead of a mummy, the coffin revealed a tangle of fabric and rusty-colored dehydrated flowers woven together in laurels that looked likely to crumble to dust if touched.

‘‘I prayed to find a mummy, but when I saw this, I said it’s better,’’ said Nadia Lokma, Chief Curator of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The flowers were likely the remains of garlands, often entwined with gold strips, that ancient Egyptian royals wore around their shoulders in both life and death, she said.

‘‘It’s very rare—there’s nothing like it in any museum. We’ve seen things like it in drawings, but we’ve never seen this before in real life,’’ Lokma said.