WHAT WE HAVE DONE SO FAR

We worked at the site in 2019, 2022 and 2025, uncovering several dozen tombs and achieving a greater understanding of the cemetery structure and what it contains. We have recovered hundreds of ceramic vessels, some marked with makers’ ‘signatures’, and even what appears to be an early map scratched onto a pot when it was drying. Many of the vessels are Naqadan, meaning that they come from the southern part of Egypt, in the region that would produce many of the earliest kings of a united Egypt starting with Narmer in 3150-3100 BC. Even at this time there were evidently hierarchies – burials were interred with enormously variable material wealth – notably beads and other jewellery made from a wide range of materials both local and exotic – while some were buried with nothing at all. Burials were oriented in special ways – such as facing the direction of the sunrise – while others were buried in group tombs, perhaps representing families. This could be linked to the local areas’ copper production, a matter of great interest to the state, and perhaps the source of local hierarchies springing up in the very earliest days of what would go on to become one of the ancient worlds’ greatest civilisations. The bones themselves demonstrate few signs of pathology, while the good condition of their teeth seems to indicate a less carb-heavy diet than those of later groups. The lack of child bones suggests that they may have been buried in or around the village itself, a theory we will test when we locate it.