5600-year-old Egyptian tomb found
American archaeologists working in southern Egypt have found what they think is the tomb of a prehistoric ruler from the middle of the 4th millennium BC.
A team led by Egyptologist Renee Friedman found the tomb at the site of ancient Hierakonpolis or Nekhen.
It is close to the modern town of Edfu and one of the first places in the world identifiable as a capital of a significant political entity.
The Government's Supreme Council for Antiquities said in a statement that the rectangular tomb contained a wooden offering table and four bodies in a poor state of preservation.
The tomb had clearly been looted in ancient times.
"Unless this tomb was reused in later periods and these bodies buried in it then, the position of the bodies could indicate that these were prisoners or devotees of the ruler, who dedicated their souls to him after death," the statement quoted council chairman and Egyptologist Zahi Hawass as saying.
"Sacrificing oneself for the ruler was one of the religious rites known in Egypt from the 1st Dynasty," he added.
The tomb dates from the Naqada II period about 3600 BC, several hundred years before the unification of Egypt under the first pharaohs and the invention of hieroglyphic writing.
But Egyptologists say that Hierakonpolis was probably the nucleus of the political entity which gradually extended its influence throughout southern Egypt and eventually defeated rival political entities in the Nile Delta to the north.
The town is about 600 kilometres south of modern Cairo.
The statement quoted Friedman as saying the American Expedition to Hierakonpolis had found a later grave in the same area with three well-preserved bodies and pieces of cloth in which the bodies were wrapped.
The team also found a cow head statue skilfully carved from granite with a strong resemblance to a goat head discovered in the same area in 2000.
"These small statues are very rare. Only five of them have been found so far," said Hawass.