Eerie ‘cemetery for newborns’ built by mysterious extinct culture that ‘led to rise of Ancient Egypt’ found in middle of the desert
WE don't know much about Neolithic Egypt and the people that came before the famous civilisation with the pyramids but several quite recent excavations have revealed interesting finds.
Archaeologists carried out digs at sites around the the area of Gebel Ramlah in the Libyan desert and discovered several cemeteries including the earliest known infant cemetery in the world.
Members of the Combined Prehistoric Expedition, with permission from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, were able to study burial sites from the Final Neolithic, dating from 4,600-4,000 BC.
In their paper “Gebel Ramlah—a Unique Newborns’ Cemetery of the Neolithic Sahara”, the researchers offer new insights into the mysterious ways of life of the people of this lesser known civilisation.
The two large cemeteries they found contained lots of artefacts including ornamental pottery, sea shells, precious stone and ostrich eggshell jewellery.
They also discovered lots of animal remains, makeup tools and stone weapons.
The presence of a separate infant cemetery was one of the most peculiar finds.
It highlighted high rates of children dying young.
This discovery is the world's earliest known infant cemetery and contained children under the age of three years old and some later term foetuses.
Three women with infants were also found and may have died in childbirth.
Lots of Neolithic Egyptian sites are now under the Nile so these finds are huge for archaeologists as they have revealed a sophisticated society.
The researchers think that the separate cemeteries may also be indicators of a civilisation with class and status hierarchies.
These findings have been published in the .
A brief history of Ancient Egypt
Here's everything you need to know...
- The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point owned a huge portion of the globe
- The civilisation began about 5,000 years ago when ancient humans began building villages along the River Nile
- It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
- The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
- They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world's earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
- The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
- Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
- Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest buildings in the world
- The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people's corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
- The Ancient Egytpian empire fell due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation
TOP STORIES IN SCIENCE
In other archaeology news, a mystery sealed tunnel has been found inside ‘tower tomb’ revealing lost treasures and an ‘ancient looting operation’.
And we've rounded up some of the most bizarre maps of Earth from history that reveal ancient geography blunders like missing continents and phantom islands.
What do you make of this eerie cemetery? Let us know in the comments...
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.