A study reveals details of a brutal practice carried out by the ancients in Egypt after the death of kings

A new study, based on a forensic examination of human remains found in the vicinity of the funerary complexes of ancient Egyptian kings, revealed evidence indicating that these remains belong to servants who were presented as human sacrifices upon the death of the kings. The remains of these servants, or followers, were first exhumed in the 1920s from funerary complexes at Abydos in eastern Egypt, dating back to around 3,000 BC.

Campbell, a postdoctoral researcher at Purdue University in Indiana, who examined the skulls excavated in those original excavations, told Ofoq News on Monday that archaeologists at the time suspected that these individuals were sacrificed, but no evidence was found at the time to determine the cause of their death. “By using recent forensic studies and our progress in understanding how human bodies respond to injuries and decomposition processes over time, I was able to identify clear evidence of head injuries in some of these individuals, injuries that occurred around the time of death,” Campbell added.

Then she explained: “These injuries clearly indicate, in the archaeological context, that at least some of the followers were killed and buried in the vicinity of the tombs of these rulers.” The press release said it was the "sheer number" of graves that led British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, who exhumed the remains in the early 1900s, to believe these burials were the result of human sacrifice.

“In many cultures, ritual sacrifice of followers is practiced based on beliefs that sacrificed individuals will continue to serve the ruler in the afterlife, but the practice may also be a means of displaying the ruler’s authority,” Campbell explained in a statement. She continued, "Some followers may have volunteered to die in pursuit of eternal life or honor, while others may have chosen or even been forced to do so."

Petrie documented the remains through photographs and kept records, and then reburied most of them, with the exception of the skulls, 46 of which Campbell found at the University of Cambridge. In the statement, Campbell explained that “injuries found on preserved skulls are generally linear fractures, and likely resulted in rapid loss of consciousness, internal bleeding, and even death,” adding that linear fractures are usually caused by a flat, broad weapon.

Of the 46 preserved skulls examined in the study, traces of potentially fatal injuries were found in 18 of them, or 39% of them. But this does not necessarily mean that the hundreds of other burials in these areas were also victims of ritual human sacrifice, according to Campbell, who noted that some of these people may have died of natural causes.

They may have been killed by strangulation or in some other way that left no visible marks. Katherine Slinger, a lecturer in Egyptian archeology at the University of Manchester in England, told Ofoq News that although it was long believed that the king's entourage was sacrificed upon his death, details about this practice were scarce.

“The manner in which these members of the entourage were killed had previously remained unclear, and theories ranged from strangulation to poisoning,” said Slinger, who was not involved in the study. She continued: “This is the first time that forensic evidence supports this theory of human sacrifice, and proves the manner in which at least some of these individuals were killed.”

Understanding ritual sacrifice Campbell is currently working on a draft of a book on this subject, scheduled to be published in 2027, and which will address in greater depth “the identity of these courtiers, the context of Egyptian thought and society in that era, and how we study and understand violence and sacrifice in the past more broadly,” as she puts it. For his part, Carl Harrison, a forensic archaeologist at the University of Exeter in England, who was not involved in the study, told Ofoq News that the results are "really interesting."

But he cautioned against over-interpreting the intentions of the ancient Egyptians, writing in an email: “While forensic science can contribute to understanding patterns of injury, caution must be exercised when assessing its significance in relation to the issue of intentionality.” He added: "The cross-cultural behaviors of ancient humans, especially those that left no written records or were documented only in the writings of other peoples, involve social complexity that exceeds our ability to comprehensively reconstruct them."

The study was published in the journal Frontiers on Monday.