Kenneth Glad
The discovery adds new detail to an old burial practice. It shows how grave design changed as Egyptian society became more organized and ambitious.
Two 5,000-year-old tombs uncovered at Jabal al-Tayr in Egypt’s Minya Governorate are being studied for what they may show about the road from early elite graves to pyramids.
According to history site Historienet and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the tombs date back to Egypt’s first dynasties, when royal power, burial customs and stone construction were becoming more complex.
The ministry said one tomb has walls that are thickest at the base and gradually become thinner toward the top. Egyptian authorities described the feature as a possible step toward the Step Pyramid and the later smooth-sided pyramids.
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said in the ministry’s Facebook statement that the discovery is “a new addition to the record of Egyptian archaeological discoveries.”
The surviving wall shape gives archaeologists a rare look at how tomb construction was being adjusted in this period. The ministry linked the design to later pyramid forms, while stopping short of presenting it as a direct prototype.
The cemetery spans thousands of years
Jabal al-Tayr appears to have been used as a burial ground across several eras, making the site valuable beyond the two newly found tombs. Archaeologists can compare grave types from different periods in the same area.
The mission also found burials from before Egypt’s pharaonic state fully emerged. Some bodies were placed in crouched positions and wrapped in plant mats, with black-rimmed pottery nearby.
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Researchers noted similarities between the two newly discovered tombs and the tomb of King Den at Abydos, an ancient ruler linked to Egypt’s first royal burial customs.
One of the Jabal al-Tayr tombs was damaged in antiquity, probably when stone was removed for reuse. Even so, surviving sections preserve evidence of careful cutting and large wooden supports used to strengthen the walls.
The second tomb, just south of the first, is better preserved and follows a similar plan. Its condition may help archaeologists study wall design from a period before Egypt’s best-known monuments were built, writes Historienet.
Later burials were also found at the site, including individual and collective graves. Some remains were discovered inside decayed wooden coffins, suggesting that the area kept its funerary role long after the first tombs were built.
From simple graves to the Great Pyramid
Egypt’s royal tombs changed over centuries. Desert burials, mounds and mastabas came before Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara, where stacked stone platforms became a towering royal monument.
Later pharaohs pushed the form further. Snofru experimented with smooth-sided pyramids, while Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza became the best-known result of that ambition.
Large pyramid projects required precise stonecutting, heavy transport, internal chambers and careful control of weight. The finds at Jabal al-Tayr show some of those concerns in an earlier and smaller setting.
The discovery does not prove a direct line from these tombs to Giza. It does, however, give researchers another site to study from the centuries when Egyptian burial design was becoming more complex.
Excavations are continuing, and the ministry said further work may reveal more about the site’s long use as a cemetery.
Sources: Historienet; Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
