Death on the Nile, 4,000 Years Ago

The story of a mysterious massacre in the royal city of Mendes in the Nile delta area is being unearthed by archaeologists who were stunned to find some 36 bodies in a mass grave under a temple.

They found old and young, men and women, tumbled in disordered heaps. In a civilization that made a cult of death, such discoveries are rare: even the poorest were interred formally, and with some provision for the afterlife.

It is an astonishing discovery; the arid climate in Egypt helps in preservation but this part of the country has been inundated by the Nile every year, at times for up to ten months of the year. Archaeologists say the bodies “are virtual powder in the mud.”

The cause of death is not known but researchers have established that the victims were killed elsewhere and “thrown in front of the podium.”  - The Guardian.