New discovery of 4,000-year-old funeral ritual in Sudan

Discovery of an ancient tomb in Sudan reveals mysterious funeral rituals with charred artifacts, opening up new understanding of the ancient culture of the Kerma kingdom.

Archaeologists excavating an isolated tomb in Sudan have found the first evidence of a previously unknown funeral ritual that took place nearly 4,000 years ago in a little-known African kingdom. Photo: Ewa Lesner.

Specifically, in the ancient tomb above, archaeologists excavated a ceramic jar containing charred plants and wood, animal bones and insect fragments. All of these are believed by the research team to be the remains of a funeral ritual. Photo: Patryk Muntowski.

“We don’t know of any other similar case. This discovery is very mysterious, even unusual, because we don’t know the meaning of this ritual,” said study co-author Henryk Paner, an archaeologist at the Polish Centre for Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Warsaw. Photo: Clemens Schmillen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.

According to the research team, the tomb belonged to a middle-aged man, found in 2018 during an archaeological survey project in the Bayuda Desert in northeastern Sudan. The tomb was determined by experts to be dated between 2050 BC and 1750 BC. From this, they speculated that the tomb's owner could be a resident of the Kingdom of Kerma - an early Nubian civilization located next to ancient Egypt. Photo: Canva | Indian Defence Review.

Inside the tomb, with an oval mound above it, archaeologists discovered a male skeleton, two ceramic vessels placed behind the head and 82 blue-glazed ceramic discs around the neck. Photo: A. Pudło in Badura et al. 2025.

Artifacts found in the tomb suggest that the man was not from an upper-class background. Among the artifacts was an “unusual” jar whose contents had been burned in connection with a funeral ritual. Photo: Lassi - CC BY-SA 4.0.

Because inside the jar were charred remains of plants, wood, animals, insects. Most of the wood was determined by experts to come from acacia trees. They also identified two legumes, possibly a lentil and a bean, along with cereals among the charred plant remains found inside the jar. Photo: Jac Srijbos8 – CC BY-SA 3.0.

Experts also discovered that the jar contained several termites, which may have been attached to the trees since ancient times. Since the jar showed no signs of being burned, researchers believe that the charred remains of plants, wood, animals, and insects may have simply been stuffed inside by the ancients. They may have been part of a funeral feast that took place nearly 4,000 years ago. Photo: Ancient-origins.

Plant remains indicate that the area was a wetter steppe-like environment when the man was buried, a far cry from the desert environment we see today. Photo: Matthias Gehricke/CC BY-SA 4.0.

The other jar was found in a tomb near the body of the deceased, but it contained nothing. This is the first tomb from the Kingdom of Kerma to reveal evidence of a funeral ceremony that took place some 4,000 years ago, providing important information about the cultural life and funeral rites of the time. Photo: Matthias Gehricke/CC BY-SA 4.0.

Readers are invited to watch the video : Revealing lost civilizations through archaeological remains.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/phat-hien-moi-ve-nghi-le-tang-le-4000-nam-tuoi-o-sudan-post2149073552.html