Forensic analysis of remains from Abydos has shown that servants of ancient Egyptian rulers may have been deliberately killed, The Guardian writes. Bioarchaeologist Rosalyn Campbell of Purdue University conducted a study of skulls from the royal necropolis of Umm el-Qa'ab in Abydos, dating back about 5,000 years, according to infohub.kz.
The results of the forensic analysis of remains held in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge were published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. The work sheds light on the ritual practices of the rulers of Egypt's First Dynasty.
In the study of 46 skulls, first excavated about a century ago by Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, injuries shortly before death were found on 18 skulls (about 39%). The pattern of linear bone fractures indicates deliberate blows from flat blunt objects made of wood or horn, rather than stone maces. These data support the hypothesis of ritual sacrifice of servants to accompany the monarch in the afterlife.
According to Egyptologist Don McCormack of Samford University in Alabama, the practice of sacrificing subjects existed for a short period and died out by the Second Dynasty. Rulers abandoned the brutal ritual due to political instability, replacing human sacrifices with wooden and stone figurines of servants — ushabti. The study's authors emphasize the need for further study of old museum collections using modern methods.