This a weird one
Photo by the Center for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, or CER RAS, who conducted the dig.
What you’re looking at is a pile of dead dogs with a child on top. The 8-year-old – sex is near impossible to determine at this age – was buried on a pile of 142 dogs. All died at the same time; no evidence of violence.
But wait! There’s more! The child was buried with a linen bag over its head.
The necropolis is in Faiyum Oasis, about 60 miles southwest of Cairo, and had burials in it for 1,100 years. Earliest so far is 400 BC. They have uncovered one other corpse with a bag over its head, and he was apparently executed (arrow to the chest).
The only clue, bits of blue clay were found around the dogs. Similar to stuff they find in Egyptian reservoirs.
So my guess is, the child was minding a pack of dogs. The Egyptians used dogs for hunting. And then something – a flash flood, little Timmy down a well? – and they all drowned together. As for the linen bag, though, I haven’t a theory.
Posted: January 17th, 2023 under archaeology.
Comments: 4
Comments
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 17, 2023, 6:11 pm
I looted that place once. In Assassin’s Creed.
Comment from Deborah HH
Time: January 18, 2023, 1:34 pm
Knowing absolutely nothing about Egyptology, my hunch is that the bag over the head is to prevent them from seeing in the afterlife. That may explain the man who was executed, but I don’t understand why the child. Unless he egregiously disobeyed an order or rule.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: January 18, 2023, 2:06 pm
Perhaps the linen bag’s purpose was to mask the dead boy’s face from the living. Why? I dunno.
Comment from homer
Time: January 18, 2023, 10:06 pm
The guys who got sent out to kill him, for whatever reason there was, probably put it over his head so that they didn’t have to see the expression on his face. They probably had to strangle him. The dogs were killed too. That many dogs don’t die together in one neat pile.
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