Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Remains of Child & 142 Dogs Unearthed at Ancient Burial Site in Fayoum

The burial place is Roman in origin and dates somewhere between the first century BC and the first century AD.

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An excavation at an ancient and mysterious burial site in the Fayoum necropolis, led by the Centre for Egyptological Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CEI RAS), revealed the remains of 142 dogs, as well as one child, who was estimated to be eight or nine years old.

According to the data gathered by the CEI RAS, around 87% of the dogs were pups. The burial place is Roman in origin and dates somewhere between the first century BC and the first century AD.

This form of burial is not considered a particularly Egyptian practice. There has only ever been one other instance of a child being buried with dogs in recorded Egyptian history, and that was in the Hierakonpolis necropolis in modern-day Aswan.

A blue-coloured clay was present on the bodies of the dogs, suggesting that they drowned in a flood, but why a child was placed amongst them remains a mystery.