Ancient Egypt: Zoo animals found buried alongside an early ruler
Egypt's history spans millennia and is up there with one of the world's oldest civilisations.
People settled along the fertile banks of the River Nile and further south as early as 6000 BC.
Over time, these small settlements merged and became states, and soon, two great kingdoms emerged: Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt.
Each has its own history that is simultaneously unique and intertwined and continues to amaze archaeologists to this day.
One discovery, made at Hierakonpolis, the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of the prehistoric era, is arguably the best find of them all.
It was there that archaeologist Renée Friedman and her team found several animal carcasses, their work explored during the Smithsonian Channel's documentary, 'Secrets: Beasts of the Pharaohs'.
Many of the animals whose bones they found wouldn't have been native to the region. Whoever owned them, the researchers concluded, must have had them delivered to them personally.
Further investigations made it clear that the animals had been kept in captivity and fed by humans.
Ms Friedman said: "In essence, here we have the world's first zoo. This dates back over 6,000 years ago.
"This is before even the invention of writing, before the invention of the potter's wheel. This is before pyramids were even a glint in some king's eye."
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These animals would prove integral to Egypt's later religious iconography and influence how artists depicted deities.
"We've been able to get dates on our animals now from what they had for their final meal," explained Ms Friedman.
"This has allowed us to get carbon for 14 dates, which has been showing us that many of these animals were buried all at the same time because the dates are almost identical."
Each animal bore the mark of ritual slaughter and was found buried around their ruler, hinting at the theme of 'ownership' between the ruler and his subjects.
It was also done for the animals' supposed mystical powers to accompany the ruler into the afterlife, a practice which became widespread in the time of the great pharaohs like Tutankhamun.
A leopard, a baboon, an oryx, a crocodile and an ostrich were found, though they were not the only remains dug up.
Bones belonging to women and children were also found alongside the animals. "At a funeral, everybody went together," Ms Friedman explained.
"That means both the animals and the humans were accompanying the ruler to the next life."
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