18 First Dynasty Burial Skulls Show Potentially Lethal Trauma, Study Finds

A new analysis of forty-six preserved skulls

Archaeologist Roselyn Campbell re-examined 46 skulls preserved from subsidiary burials around royal funerary complexes at Umm el-Qaab in ancient Abydos. According to the study, 18 showed signs of potentially lethal trauma, including skull fractures and, in a few cases, sharp-force injuries. The findings are presented as further support for the possibility that some people were deliberately killed as retainers for First Dynasty rulers.

Earlier excavation work identified the satellite burials but did not establish how the buried people died.

The reanalysis adds potentially lethal perimortem skull trauma—injuries sustained around the time of death—to evidence bearing on whether some attendants were killed and buried near First Dynasty kings.

The analysis applies modern forensic methods to remains excavated in the 1920s and addresses a longstanding uncertainty: whether people buried near early Egyptian kings died naturally or may have been killed around a ruler's death.