Egypt’s Tell Kom Aziza burials span 600-year shift

Remains and artifacts found at Egypt’s Tell Kom Aziza burial site in the Nile Delta date from about 332 B.C. to 395 A.D., revealing funerary traditions changing over roughly six centuries as the settlement evolved into a cemetery. The discoveries include a wid

Cairo — The story starts with a burial ground that was never meant to stay still. At Tell Kom Aziza in Egypt’s Nile Delta. where excavations are uncovering remains and artifacts from a Greco-Roman cemetery that dates back more than 2. 300 years. Egyptian archaeologists are watching funerary practice change across generations.

The burials discovered at the site span from about 332 B.C. to 395 A.D., covering some six centuries of use. And in the layers of death, the site itself appears to have transformed. The evidence suggests it shifted “from a settlement into a cemetery. ” according to Nevine El-Aref. media adviser to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities.

What’s emerging is not one uniform ritual, but a whole spectrum.

Some bodies were laid in simple pits, placed directly in the ground. Others were buried in graves lined with mudbricks. Still others were sealed in painted plaster coffins. Egyptian archaeologists also found both individual and collective burials. while the orientation of the interred followed two axes: north–south and east–west. Even the way hands were positioned differs from grave to grave—some individuals were laid with hands folded or crossed over the pelvic region. Others were placed in the “Osirian pose. ” with arms crossed over the chest. while still more were buried with arms extended and aligned alongside the thighs.

“The diversity can be interpreted in several ways,” Khaled Abdel Ghany Farhat, the head of the team, told CBS News. “It may reflect social differences among the individuals buried, variations in ritual practices, or a limited development within the same funerary tradition.”

The most striking finds add another layer to the question of meaning. Among the discoveries are the complete skeletal remains of two wild boars—described as a rare find at ancient Egyptian funerary sites. In ancient Egyptian mythology, boars were representative of Seth (or Set), a deity associated with chaos and violence.

There is a gap between what the evidence shows and what it might have meant, at least for now. Mohamed Abdel Badi. Head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector. said it is “not possible yet to determine with certainty” whether the boar remains reflect intentional animal burials. remnants of domestic and economic activity. or an element with ritual significance. But. he added. their presence “within this context requires linking the direct archaeological evidence with the cultural and religious significance of the boar in ancient Egypt.”.

The burial story is also being filled in with everyday materials that traveled across centuries. Pottery fragments found at Tell Kom Aziza include pieces dating from the Egyptian Old Kingdom—between around 2686 and 2181 B.C. the era of the great pyramids—and fragments from the Greco-Roman period that followed about 2. 000 years later. The largely domestic items—amphorae. burial jars. bread molds and bread trays—suggest the site saw continued. repeated use. not only over centuries. but across millennia.

Taken together, the discoveries leave archaeologists with a clear trail to follow: burial styles vary, the body positions and orientations differ, and domestic objects reach across vast stretches of time—while the site itself appears to change function as generations pass.

Excavation work is still ongoing, El-Aref said, to uncover more secrets, understand the history of the location and its development over time, and put all the puzzle pieces together to decipher patterns of human activity in the area.

Egypt archaeology Tell Kom Aziza funerary practices Greco-Roman cemetery Nile Delta Seth boar burial Osirian pose mudbrick graves painted plaster coffins