GoKawiilStudy: Skulls from Abydos burials show signs of ritual strangulation
Researchers analyzed skulls from subsidiary graves surrounding early royal tombs at Abydos, Egypt, dating back roughly 5,000 years. Their examination found physical evidence consistent with strangulation, supporting the long-standing idea that these individuals were sacrificed rather than having died of natural causes around the same time as the ruler's burial.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The findings could confirm a theory first raised by an Egyptologist in the 1920s that mass burials near early royal tombs were not coincidental deaths but deliberate sacrifices tied to funerary rituals. This may reshape understanding of early Egyptian state power and the lengths rulers went to assert control, including over life and death, in the formative period of pharaonic civilization.
- Skulls from subsidiary graves at Abydos show evidence of strangulation
- Findings support a decades-old hypothesis about human sacrifice near royal tombs
- Discovery adds insight into political and religious practices of early Egypt
Source: gizmodo.com, 2026-10-05
Published there as: “Skulls Reveal Evidence of Human Sacrifice in Egypt 5,000 Years Ago”
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