An Egyptian sarcophagus shows the sky goddess Nut as being covered in stars and having a dark, undulating curve running through her body. This depiction is thought to illustrate the Great Rift, a band of dust and gas that appears to split the Milky Way in two. While this is the clearest known evidence for the ancient Egyptians understanding the Milky Way, others examples have also been found to reveal the knowledge of the cosmos. Nesitaudjatakhet’s sarcophagus is not the only Egyptian cosmological vision that mirrors the Milky Way. “I suggest that this undulating curve is the visual representation of the Milky Way, which the Egyptians saw as cleaving the sky in two,” he said.