Prehistoric Egyptian Burial Practices

In the pre-dynastic period of ancient Egypt, the dead are thought to have been buried in pit burials, as typified by 'Ginger' in the British Museum. It's a far cry from the elaborate and complex burials of the Pharaohs, but it shows a growing sophistication and belief in the afterlife that is remarkable for the time. Achaeologists now believe that this sensitive treatment of the dead can be traced back even further. A number of key burial findings give an insight into the evolution of the most elaborate burials even seen.

Cannibalism and Human Sacrafice?

The earliest deliberate burial found in Egypt dates to approximately 100,000 BP, at Taramsa Hill near Denderah, at a chert quarry heavily exploited at the time. The burial was of a young girl of possibly 8 to 10 years old, buried in a collapsed trench, leant up against the rock face in a seated position with the head facing upwards. The whole body was covered in rubble from the quarry. The body was very fragmentary with only the shafts of the long bones still intact, and was buried less than a metre below the ground. It is thought that she died when the pit walls collapsed, and that she was intentionally placed here for burial. As time progressed such burials became commonplace, and the bodies were accompanied by funerary goods to be utilised in the afterlife.

Changes in religious beliefs led to ritual practices associated with the bodies of the deceased. These ritual practices have included dismemberment and perhaps even cannibalism, as attested by burials found in a number of Gerzean (3500-3200 BCE) Upper Egyptian sites. One burial at el-Amra was dismembered before burial with the leg bones separated from the torso and arranged alongside fish-tailed flint knives a diorite mace-head, and a fish-tailed cosmetic palette. At Naqada, three skulls had been replaced with another object including vessels and an ostrich egg incised with small figures. Other interments have the skull placed on top of a pile of stones or mud-brick, or placed between the legs or feet. Other burials were minus the arms and hands and one was without the hands and wrists but the fingers were placed beneath the skull. There were two cases of complete dismemberment, where the bones were placed together in a pattern; one with the legs of four bodies placed parallel to each other and another in Cemetery T had a pile of pelvis bones with the leg bones in the corner of the grave, the ribs surrounding the vertebrae and the arm bones in the middle showing creativity in the organisation of burials.
 
At Adaïma dismembered bodies have been interpreted as the victims of human sacrifice, as one burial has the arm of an adolescent removed and reassembled in the coffin itself. Another burial, of a new-born child, had been laid in the grave with only half a corpse, and one unfired clay coffin contained the severed genitals and the remainder of the dismembered body.
 
The Goddesses Emerge
 

A particularly interesting burial also in Cemetery T had a large pile of disjointed bones in the centre, some bearing signs of teeth marks. Flinders Petrie commented that the ends of some of the bones were broken and the marrow removed which has been taken by some as a sign of cannibalism; perhaps as a means of absorbing some of the nature and wisdom of the deceased. This sentiment is reflected in the Cannibal Hymn of the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts.
 
These practices were not widespread, but were certainly not rare in the period, and illustrate an interest in the body after death which is further attested by excavations at Hierakonpolis (3500-3200 BCE) displaying early attempts at preserving the body; not quite mummification but a precursor for it. Three female bodies were wrapped in linen shrouds or within a leather sack, but there were some where the head and hands were wrapped in layers of linen dipped in resin. Some areas of the body were padded out with linen packs before the final wrappings are arranged.
 
Petrie associated the dismemberment of bodies with the mythology of Osiris and Seth, where the body of Osiris was cut up into fourteen pieces and scattered around Egypt. Wherever the body parts fell, to be buried within the soil, a temple was built in commemoration of his death. The dismemberment of Osiris ultimately ended in his resurrection and perhaps this was the idea behind the pre-dynastic practices. Although there is no way of knowing whether there is a connection between these practices and the myth which only emerged sometime later, there was clearly ritualistic associations with the burials, through the creation of an image out of the deceased, which may be a precursor to the idea of the semi-deification of the dead. 
 
The later practices of mummification were only for the rich and influential, and this also appears to be the case for these very early attempts at preparing the body for burial. They were not common in the pre-dynastic period but equally they were not rare. The majority of people were buried as the infamous Ginger, in a shallow pit surrounded by pottery, palettes and food. It's a far cry from the multiple shrines and thousands of objects found buried with King Tut, but it does indicate that the population was developing in such a way that they were at least considering what happened to the deceased after death, and what they would need for this afterlife. The society was clearly far more advanced than they are often given credit for, and further research into these early burial practices could greatly enhance our knowledge of the origins of dynastic religion and funerary beliefs.

Image of Ginger (top) by bpitzer20. Image of pre-dynastic burial (bottom) by seriykotik. All rights reserved.

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About The Author

Charlotte Booth (follow me: )

Last three pieces by this author:

Highlights From the Neues: 'King' Nefertiti and the Controversial Amarna Stela | Framing the Archaeologist Exhibition at the Petrie Museum, UCL | Mike Parker-Pearson on Bluestonehenge and other recent results from The Stonehenge Riverside Project

Charlotte Booth is an MA graduate of UCL in Egyptian Archaeology and has been a freelance Egyptologist for the last decade. She spends her time in museums, writing in her office, and disappearing down random holes in Egypt, always on the lookout for something interesting that someone else might not have noticed.