Historians have long assumed that ancient Egyptian pyramids were constructed primarily for royals and high-status individuals—those with the money and power required to build such grand structures.
But new research at the archaeological site of Tombos in present-day Sudan is complicating that narrative. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Tombos’ pyramids may have served as the final resting place for low-status workers alongside elites.
“We can no longer assume that individuals buried in grandiose [pyramid] tombs are the elite,” write the researchers. “Indeed, the hardest working members of the communities are associated with the most visible monuments.”
Situated along the Nile River, Tombos lies in the ancient region of Nubia. In around 1400 B.C.E., Egypt conquered the area and established Tombos to “facilitate colonial control,” according to the study. Workers built pyramids in the area, though they were modest in comparison to famous examples like the pyramids of Giza.
Researchers recently reanalyzed 110 human skeletons from Tombos that had originally been studied in 2012. They examined the skeletons’ entheses—the places where tendons and ligaments connect to bones—which can hint at how much physical labor an individual has performed.
When someone performs intensive labor, their tendons and ligaments “require a stronger mode of attachment,” per the study. Their bones may develop “distinct crests and ridges” at the “point of attachment.”
“Entheseal changes can’t tell us exactly what these people were doing, but they can tell us if they were more physically active or more like couch potatoes,” lead author Sarah Schrader, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, tells BBC Science Focus’ Hatty Willmoth.
Some of the bones exhibited little entheseal change, indicating that they had belonged to the members of the upper classes. But the team found more extensive entheseal changes on others, suggesting that they once belonged to lower-class workers.
“This could potentially shake up what we know about the pyramids,” Schrader tells BBC Science Focus. “In the past, we’ve just assumed that the people who were buried in there were the elite, because we know that the pyramids were designed for elite people. That still holds true, but maybe there were others being buried in the pyramids as well.”
From past excavations, researchers know the names and roles of many individuals buried in Tombos. Roland Enmarch, an Egyptologist at the University of Liverpool who wasn’t involved in the study, says that many Egyptian pyramids from this period were built for high-status individuals who weren’t royalty.