Human
Sacrifice
It is the content of this third
deposit which yields the most curious and unexpected element of the Mirgissa
find, for its provides the first indisputable evidence for the practice of
human sacrifice in classical ancient Egypt. Interred about four meters from the
central deposit, a skull rested upside down on one half of a broken pottery
cup, its mandible missing and its upper jaw flush with the surface. About the
skull were found small traces of beeswax dyed with red ochre, presumably the
remnants of melted figurines. Although the cup which had probably once held the
skull seemed naturally broken, perhaps as a result of burial, an intentionally
shattered piece of inscribed red pottery 15 cm to the southeast clearly
affiliated the find with the ritual of the central deposit. Lying a further 5
cm from this broken pottery was a flint blade, the traditional ceremonial knife
for ritual slaughter. That the skull derived from a ritual sacrifice cannot be
denied, as it was the initial discovery of a nearby decapitated and
disarticulated skeleton which had led to the find of the execration assemblage.
Clearly, the head had belonged to the adjacent body, which appeared less buried
than discarded. Examination of the fragile remains suggested a Nubian origin
for the sacrificed individual-a human counterpart to the broken enemy
figurines. (Robert Kriech Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical
Practice [Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 54; Chicago: The University
of Chicago, 1993], 162-63)
