More than 500 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt, kings of the First Dynasty were buried in burial complexes surrounded by numerous graves belonging to courtiers and craftsmen. Many of these graves appear to have been dug simultaneously, suggesting a suspiciously high number of deaths occurring at the same time.
About a century ago, researchers proposed that these individuals had been sacrificed following the deaths of the kings "to serve them in the afterlife." However, no signs of injury were found on their bones, leaving the cause of death a mystery. Now, a comprehensive reexamination of skulls from the site using modern forensic methods has provided new evidence that at least some of those buried there were killed through deliberate violence.
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The pyramids of Giza, built about 500 years after the tombs at Abydos, pictured in 1938
(Photo: American Geographical Society Library/University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries)
A new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, supports the theory that the large number of graves surrounding the tombs of First Dynasty kings at Abydos — one of the oldest and most sacred cities in Upper Egypt, located about 7 miles west of the Nile River — reflects the practice of sacrificing members of the royal court following the deaths of their rulers.
The graves were excavated in the 1920s by British archaeologist and Egyptologist Professor Flinders Petrie, who believed it was highly unlikely that so many people had died of natural causes at the same time. However, his excavations uncovered no evidence of fatal injuries, leaving him without physical proof to support the theory that the individuals had been sacrificed.
Now, a reexamination of a sample of skulls from the site suggests that at least 39% of these individuals were deliberately killed by blows to the head.
"I was drawn to these retainers partly because, even though they were buried around royalty, they are mostly relegated to footnotes in the grander narrative," said Dr. Roselyn Campbell, a bioarchaeologist and Egyptologist at Purdue University who conducted the study.
Human remains from ancient Egypt
(Photo: Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images)
An intricately detailed, colorful decoration in the chapel of the god Amun-Ra at the Temple of Seti I in Abydos, depicting figures presenting offerings and preparing for the afterlife
(Photo: naTsumi/Shutterstock)
The burial complexes at Abydos were constructed around 3000 B.C., during the reigns of the First Dynasty kings of a unified Egypt.
"Some people had a simple coffin. Most people had a few grave goods, like ceramic vessels, and many graves also included small objects like copper tools, projectile points, or small ivory figurines. Petrie found a few grave markers that had names and sometimes official titles on them. The titles seem to mostly refer to lower- or mid-level officials as well as artisans," Campbell said.
The enormous number of subsidiary graves — in some cases, hundreds surrounding a single royal tomb — led Petrie to suspect that their presence was no coincidence but rather evidence of an ancient practice known as retainer sacrifice.
"Retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice where those close to a ruler are killed when the ruler dies," Campbell explained. "In many cultures, retainer sacrifice is practiced because of beliefs that the sacrificed individuals will continue to serve the ruler in some kind of afterlife, but retainer sacrifice can also be a visceral display of the ruler’s power. Some retainers might have volunteered to die to achieve eternal life or honor, others may have been chosen or even forced."
Petrie kept meticulous records during his excavations, but he reburied most of the skeletal remains, preserving the skulls and sending some of them to Britain. Campbell located 46 of these skulls in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge and examined them again. Her analysis revealed significant evidence of violence that had gone undetected during the original excavations.
A wall decoration at the Temple of Seti I, also known as the Great Temple of Abydos
(Photo: Dave Primov/Shutterstock)
A skull dating to around 3000 B.C
(Photo: Nariman El-Mofty/AP)
Of the 46 skulls examined, 18 showed signs of substantial trauma, including linear skull fractures that Petrie appears to have mistakenly interpreted as naturally occurring damage.
Advances in forensic science have since made it possible to identify these injuries as having occurred around the time of death.
"The injuries on the preserved crania are generally linear fractures, which would likely cause rapid unconsciousness, internal bleeding, and death," Campbell said. She also identified injuries consistent with sharp-force trauma in some of the skulls, including damage to the eye socket of one individual.
However, exactly how these people died remains unknown. Egyptian kings are frequently depicted striking their enemies with maces, but the individuals buried around the royal tombs were not the kings' enemies. Moreover, blows from a mace would generally be expected to produce depressed skull fractures rather than the linear fractures identified in the study.
Professor Flinders Petrie
(Illustration: Ludwig Blum/Wikipedia)
Mummies discovered in an ancient burial chamber in Egypt
(Photo: Roger Anis/AP)
Linear fractures are typically caused by blows from a broad, flat weapon or by falls. However, a fall forceful enough to fracture the skull would likely have caused fractures in other bones as well. Such injuries would presumably have appeared in Petrie's photographs or excavation records.
What happened to the remaining individuals buried around the royal tombs? That mystery also remains unresolved.
Some may have died of natural causes. Alternatively, others may have been killed in ways that left no identifiable marks on their bones, such as strangulation. Another possibility is that they suffered injuries that could have been detected if researchers had been able to examine the rest of their skeletons.
"If I had unlimited resources, I would love to figure out where the bodies of these individuals might be and analyze them," Campbell said. "Still, this study shows how much new information about the past can be revealed when we revisit previous data armed with updated methods and knowledge, even for datasets that are incomplete and imperfect like this one."