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Skulls kept for more than a century are offering a troubling clue about the burials of Egypt's first rulers. According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, a team has identified potentially fatal cranial injuries on 18 of 46 re-examined skulls from the Abydos necropolises, where the kings of the First Dynasty were laid to rest about 5,000 years ago. The findings strengthen the idea that servants may have been killed during royal funerals.
Royal tombs surrounded by hundreds of burials
Around 3000 BCE, the first rulers of a unified Egypt had elaborate funerary complexes built at Abydos. They include royal tombs, annex chambers and enclosures probably used for funerary ceremonies.
Around these structures stretch numerous small burials, arranged in regular rows. Some royal tombs are accompanied by several hundred of these secondary interments, a feature that has long raised questions about why so many people were buried near a single sovereign.
An old hypothesis never conclusively proven
During his excavations in the 1920s, archaeologist Flinders Petrie noted this unusual concentration. He suggested that these individuals may have died in a practice of retainer sacrifice, which involves killing a ruler's close associates at the time of his death.
Petrie, however, could not demonstrate a violent death. With no identifiable lesions, the question remained an archaeological puzzle, lacking convincing material evidence.
Fractures reread with forensic methods
Part of the remains had been reburied, but Petrie had kept a selection of skulls, some of which were transferred to the United Kingdom. Researcher Roselyn Campbell, affiliated with Purdue University, located 46 of them in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge.
Her examination revealed past injuries that had gone unnoticed. Eighteen skulls bear marked trauma, mostly linear fractures that Petrie may have attributed to natural causes. Forensic techniques now make it possible to date these injuries to the time of death. Several specimens also show cuts made by a blade, leading to the estimate that at least 39% of the individuals studied may have been killed deliberately.
How did these men die?
Egyptian depictions frequently show the ruler smiting his enemies with a mace. However, the servants buried at Abydos were not captured enemies, and the shape of the fractures does not closely match the depressions such a weapon usually produces.
An accidental fall cannot be entirely ruled out, but it would probably have left other marks on the skeleton, which are absent from the excavation records. The researchers also do not know the cause of the other deaths: some may have occurred naturally, others by means that leave no trace on bone, such as suffocation.
A useful reappraisal for Egyptology
This study shows how much valuable evidence older collections can hold. Revisiting earlier data with recent tools makes it possible to answer questions that the first excavators lacked the means to resolve.
Roselyn Campbell, who is preparing a book on state violence and human sacrifice under the First Dynasty, stresses that remains not yet studied could yield further answers. Her work also restores attention to these men and women, who are often relegated to the margins of the narrative centred on the rulers.
Frequently asked questions
What human sacrifices are suspected in the Egypt of the first kings?
This refers to the hypothesis that servants and close associates of the ruler were killed at his death so they could continue serving him in the afterlife. This practice, called retainer sacrifice, had been suspected since Flinders Petrie's excavations in the 1920s.
Where are the royal tombs of the First Dynasty located?
The tombs of the First Dynasty rulers are located at Abydos, in Upper Egypt. They are surrounded by numerous secondary burials arranged in rows.
How did researchers identify traces of violence?
Researchers re-examined 46 skulls held at the University of Cambridge using modern forensic methods. They identified 18 skulls with fractures sustained at the time of death, some of which appear to have been inflicted deliberately.
Were the servants necessarily sacrificed?
No, the researchers cannot say so with certainty. The fractures suggest a violent death, but the exact cause of the deaths remains uncertain and some individuals may have died in other ways.
Sources
Original summary written with the help of artificial intelligence from the sources cited, checked automatically, then translated from the French original. Information and quotations belong to their authors. Read the French original.
