| by Raymon Kondos CAIRO (youregypt.com)
- A US mission revealed 6 tombs of courtiers and servants of King
Aha,
who is probably the first or second king of the 1st
dynasty of
the Pharaonic era, at the early dynastic necropolis of Abydos ,
some 490 kms south of Cairo.
According to culture minister Farouk Hosni, “no important monument
has been found for this king since famous archeologist Flinders Petrie
discovered his tomb in 1900.”
Burials of donkeys that should
accompany kings in afterlife |
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The tombs surround a very well preserved chapel of the king, all
part of a mud-brick royal enclosure. The courtiers were intended
to serve the king in the afterlife, who was buried some few hundred
meters away.
Next to Aha's complex, another enclosure of an unknown first dynasty
king was discovered. Strikingly, three attached subsidiary graves
contained bodies of the ten donkeys were surfaced in the enclosure. “They
are intended to meet the king's transportation needs in the afterlife,” said
Zahi Hawas, Egyptian head of the antiquities department.
William Kelly Simpson from Yake University explained that royal
enclosures and tombs of first dynasty kings were associated with
subsidiary graves of courtiers and servants around each monument
to serve the king in the afterlife.
Debate rose among archeologists on whether the dead courtiers
were sacrificed with or just they were buried after their normal
death.
The US mission is a joint venture by University of Pennsylvania
Museum, Yale University and Institute of Fine Arts and New York
University .
he discoveries were initially detected by a sub-surface magnetic
survey which revealed maps and locations of the anciently buried
structures.
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