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French researchers using AI to analyse more than 500 intact early graves at the cemetery of Adaïma (8km south of Esna) have revealed an evolution in funerary practices that helped to shape early Egyptian statehood. The earliest First Dynasty burials were aligned towards the rising of Sirius, with the head of the deceased facing the setting sun at winter solstice. In one particular grave, the body of an adolescent female had been ritually dismembered, with her right arm severed and carefully repositioned prior to burial. By the Third Dynasty, the alignment of the heliacal rising of Sirius, the annual Nile inundation, and the summer solstice led to a shift in burial orientation. The researchers believe these celestial events and the symbolic ritual dismemberment of the body shaped the Osirian mythology later adopted by Egypt’s ruling elite.
Text: Sarah Griffiths
