Clues to Egypt’s Distant Past Emerge Near Suez : Archeology: Vast prehistoric burial ground has yielded more than 800 graves. Some may date from reign of first ruler of upper and lower kingdoms.

A 5,500-year-old cemetery on an arid patch once watered by the Nile is providing clues about the union of upper and lower Egypt, the event that ushered in the pharaohs.

Archeologists are uncovering skeletons, shards of clay and alabaster pottery and other artifacts at the 90-acre cemetery about 10 miles west of the Suez Canal near the Sinai Peninsula, the historic bridge from Africa to Asia.

“We don’t know when Egyptian culture began, and this is the key to find out,” said Fekri Hassan, an archeologist at University College in London and head of the Egyptian-British group studying the site.

So far, archeologists have uncovered 813 graves spread over 240 square yards, and more are sure to be excavated, making the cemetery one of the largest prehistoric burial grounds in Egypt.

What is striking, they say, is that some of the graves appear to date from the reign of Narmer. He is considered the first ruler who united the Nile Valley of upper Egypt in the south with the fertile delta of lower Egypt in the north, regions that had developed as separate kingdoms.

The process of unifying the north and south is thought to have taken centuries, and much of it remains concealed in legends and half-truths from later records.

“It is the beginning of the culture,” said Abdel-Halim Noureddin, the Egyptian antiquities chief, who believes the site may become more important than the Great Pyramids.

The origins of Egyptian mythology might date to those times as well, and some artifacts suggest the beginning of social differentiation, state religion and the uniformity in religious beliefs that came to characterize Pharaonic Egypt.

In one of the biggest graves, archeologists found skeletons of a bull, a cow and a child. The cow’s skeleton is arranged so that it appears to be suckling the child. Some have suggested that the configuration is a precursor of the cult of Hathor, an Egyptian goddess often represented as a cow or cow-headed woman.

The placement of the skeletons may also be one of the earliest indications of the belief in resurrection and life after death, a powerful doctrine diffused throughout ancient Egypt.

In another grave, what is believed to have been a government official was buried with clay and alabaster pots, one of them inscribed with the name of King Narmer--dating to 3000 BC or earlier.

“This period is important in revealing the first steps in the formation of the centralized state which was the foundation of ancient Egypt,” Hassan said in an interview at the site. “This is an important link between the prehistory and the written history.”

Just yards away was a grave of copper merchants, believed to date from 3500 BC, suggesting vibrant trade ties between Palestine, Egypt and Mesopotamia across the Sinai.

The ancient cemetery was found by accident. In 1988, a construction company wanted to build a condominium on the site. Some pits were dug, and the graves were found.

In the past, archeologists had not bothered to inspect the area because it was once the site of a branch of the Nile and it was thought that water, silt and erosion would have wiped out its antiquities.

Archeologists are at a loss to explain how the alabaster and clay pots, skeletons and coffins remained in such good shape.

“It is unusual to find antiquities dating from that period in a place covered with silt, where humidity is high and crops are harvested,” said Abdel-Halim Rizk, director-general of Lower Egyptian Antiquities.

The government is planning to build a training center for archeologists at the site, and a museum is on the drawing boards. Government officials say they are awaiting financing, which they acknowledge may be long in coming.