Posted on 04/21/2005 10:36:05 AM PDT by SmithL
CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists digging in a 5,600-year-old funeral site in southern Egypt unearthed seven corpses believed to date to the era, as well as an intact figure of a cow's head carved from flint.
The American-Egyptian excavation team made the discoveries in what they described as the largest funerary complex ever found that dates to the elusive 5-millenia-old Predynastic era, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.
"This is a major discovery, and will add greatly to our knowledge of the period when Egypt was first becoming a nation," said Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist.
The team working for five years in the area of Kom El-Ahmar, known in antiquity as Hierakonpolis, excavated a complex thought to belong to a ruler of the ancient city who reigned around 3600 B.C.
The find is significant because little is known about the early phase of Predynastic period. That era predates the unification of upper and lower Egypt that triggered the Dynastic era, when the pharaohs ruled.
Little remains from the Predynastic period.
The grave sites at Kom El-Ahmar, 370 miles south of Cairo, appear to date to the early Naqada II era, when the settlement at Hierakonpolis was at its peak and the city was the largest urban center on the Nile.
The complex, which is enclosed in a well-preserved wall of wooden posts, consists of a large rectangular tomb covered with the earliest known superstructure.
Against the enclosure wall in an ash-laden deposit, excavators came across a complete figurine of a cow head carved from flint. Diggers found a flint figure of an ibex in the same tomb, now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Hawass said Egyptian flint figurines are extremely rare. Only 50 have been discovered. He said the uncovering two fine examples in one site is a stroke of luck.
Although the tomb and its surroundings were severely plundered in antiquity, excavators unearthed four bodies at one end of the tomb. The position of the corpses suggests that they may belong to sacrificed servants or prisoners who were buried at the foot of the grave, a common practice in the first Dynasty, Hawass said.
A second tomb housed well-preserved remains of three adults as well as textile and padding used to wrap the corpses before covering them with thick matting.
Eight deep post-holes, four on each side, were found at the longest side of the burial chamber, three of which still bear remains of the ancient wooden posts. Six more post-holes to the east, in two rows, suggest the presence of an offering chapel.
A deposit of burnt ostrich eggshell found at the site is thought to convey the desire to magically ensure rebirth.
Excavations started in 2000 under the leadership of Egyptologist Barbara Adams, who died in 2002. The work continues under Renee Friedman, the current head of the American team.
Hoffa?
Mummy? Is that you?
Exactly. Corpses in a tomb. Who'da thunk it?
Needs to be added to the silly headlines list that has been going around for a couple years.
A note indicating who hired Craig Livingstone?
This will be a minor site because it is too old. The old group was not close to being so interesting.
Many, if not most, egyptian tombs have long since been pillaged by grave robbers. Finding an intact one, with the corpses still in it, is a rarity.
Jimmy Hoffa's remains?
D. B. Cooper
It's Dubya's fault...
Hey, wait a minute.....Does this senario ring a bell?
Think I'll stick to admiring tombs as opposed to digging in them.
Just an observation.
Time to take another AP editor back out behind the woodshed for a good thrashing: should be "5-millennia-old".
SmithL wrote:
What did they think they would find in a tomb?
</Peter Lorre voice>
Okay, correct me if I'm wrong but were ostrich only native to Australia? Is this another "out of context" find such as the cocaine and tobacco residue/evidence reported for certain other Egyptian mummies?
Did someone WAAAAY back when bring home the birds as a curiosity or something after a trip to a far off pre-dynastic outpost? May indicate a more correct interpretation that the Egyptian ships found buried near some pyramids and said to be very seaworthy in the type of waters found beyond the Med and Nile were actually better suited to open sea travel than ceremonial river transport.
"What did they think they would find in a tomb?'"
no kidding
i thought this was Lenos Headlines
like
Dead man found in cemetary
Yeah exactly...scientists and the media are always good for a chuckle...next it will be
Divers discover fish inhabit the ocean...breaking news...
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