Visceral display of the rulers power: Bludgeoned skulls suggest royal servants were sacrificed to serve Pharaoh in afterlife

They literally followed their leader into hell.The idea of servants being sacrificed to honor Egyptian leaders is no old wives’ tale.A forensic analysis of 5,000-year-old skulls suggests that royal retainers were killed so they could follow the pharaoh into the afterlife, per a macabre study in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.“Some retainers might have volunteered to die to achieve eternal life or honor; others may have been chosen or even forced,” the study’s lead author Dr.

Roselyn Campbell, an Egyptologist at Purdue University in Alabama, wrote in a statement.She and her team were building upon research by British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, who had discovered a complex of Pharaohs’ tombs and secondary graves in Abydos in Eastern Egypt, Popular Science reported.These sprawling burial chambers date back to the First Dynasty between 3150 BC and 2890 BC, which marked the first time Egypt became unified under a centralized monarchy.Many of the satellite graves were marked with names and official titles, denoting that they were occupied by lower- or mid-level officials, or artisans.Based on the sheer numbers of burials, Petrie postulated that they were victims of ritual sacrifice — a possibility that intrigued Campbell.“Retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice where those close to a ruler are killed when the ruler dies,” she explained.“In many cultures, retainer sacrifice is practiced because of beliefs that the sacrificed individuals will continue to serve the ruler in some kind of afterlife, but retainer sacrifice can also be a visceral display of the ruler’s power.”While many retainers volunteered, others were slain and interred against their will, making for a helluva retirement plan.Unfortunately, there wasn’t any evidence to support this mass sacrifice hypothesis — until now.

Thankfully, Campbell and her team were finally able to crack this ancient cold case file thanks to the dozens of skulls that were excavated fro...