5-millenia-old town unearthed in Abydos may yield wealth of new information

An ancient Egyptian town and necropolis dating back to pre-dynastic times, estimated to be over 5,300 years old, has been unearthed in the city of Abydos in Sohag.

Located nearly 600 kilometers south of Cairo, this discovery was announced by the Antiquities Ministry on Wednesday. The remains are reported to include residential quarters and a necropolis for the town’s nobility, along with what is believed to be housing quarters for workers, with an array of huts, clay pots, crockery, and stone tools.

Fifteen large tombs for the nobility — of varying architectural designs and structures — were unearthed in the ancient town, according to the ministry’s statement.

The pre-dynastic residential and burial complex was reported to have been discovered by a team of Egyptian archaeologists affiliated to the Antiquities Ministry less than half a kilometer away from the temple of the 19th-dynasty Pharaoh Seti I, who reigned circa 1290 to 1279 BC.

This pre-dynastic town may have been the precursor to subsequent towns and settlements in Abydos, according to a statement from the head of the Ministry of Antiquities’ Artifacts Department, Mahmoud Afifi.

Afifi indicated that the inhabitants of this town, said to include state officials, high ranking employees and laborers, may have laid the foundations for the royal tombs and funerary chambers of the kings of ancient Egypt’s first dynasty (circa 3200 to 2800 BC).

The newly discovered town may also have paved the ground for the burial of King Narmer/Menes, who reigned circa 3200 BC and is known as the first monarch of unified Egypt. He was entombed nearby in Abydos, in a royal necropolis known as Om al-Qaab.

Newly discovered evidence in the town indicates that food and drink were supplied to manual laborers specifically so that they could construct the tombs of royals and nobles, along with other works, Afifi claimed.

He added that the new discovery may help unearth a great deal of new information regarding the history of Abydos and the very early history of ancient Egypt. Further excavations and archaeological analysis of this mysterious ancient town are due to be conducted in the near future.