7 Corpses Discovered in Ancient Tomb

Archeologists 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 excavation team, consisting of Americans and Egyptians, made the discoveries in what they described as the largest funerary complex that dated to the elusive 5-millenniums-old pre-dynastic 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 archeologist.

The team worked in the area of Kom El Ahmar, known in antiquity as Hierakonpolis, excavating a complex thought to belong to a ruler of the ancient city who reigned around 3600 BC.

Little is known about the early phase of Egypt’s pre-dynastic period. That era predates the unification of upper and lower Egypt that triggered the dynastic era, when the pharaohs ruled.

The grave sites at Kom El Ahmar, 370 miles south of Cairo, appear to date to when the settlement at Hierakonpolis was at its peak and the city was the largest urban center on the Nile.

Excavators came across a complete figurine of a cow head carved from flint and a flint figure of an ibex.

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 be those of 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.