An ancient zoo was discovered by archeologists in a prehistoric animal cemetery considered the first found in ancient Egypt's annals.
A variety of discoveries have attracted attention from archaeologists worldwide, but animal remains were not expected. This find is the first known zoo in ancient times, which was not known until now.
Animals Discovered Kept as Royal Pets in Ancient Egypt
It could be called a breakthrough in the ancient civilization of Egypt. Finding such an animal graveyard would give a new dimension to what is known, reported the Express UK.
Egyptian history has drawn interest from many archeologists globally. Still, Egypt was obscure until it came to western attention as the signs of an ancient civilization inhabited the banks of the Nile.
In the 1880s, this magnificent time in the past was uncovered from the sand of millennia by the English Egyptologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie. His discovery of the sections of the colossal statue of Ramses II, an Egyptian pharaoh, opened up a wave of interest lasting till now, cited Head Topics.
But locals were working on the ruins before Petrie sensationalized it, with his work getting him a knighthood.
The span of the history of the ancient Nile kingdom of the Pharaohs would be way back to about 3000 BC when Upper and Lower Egypt would be one.
By 343 BC, they were abolished but are called the Immortal Kings descended from Ra. Though it is the popular version of this civilization, scholars know that Egypt was much different from that version of pyramids and pharaohs.
Prehistoric Egypt would span from the first-time people settled and stayed along the River Nile, wherein in this early period, the kings ruled over people.
In 2015, the ruins of Hierakonpolis, when it was the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt when archeologists excavating there discovered the rare found that would blow assumptions. What they found was seen in a documentary on the Smithsonian Channel.
According to Renée Friedman, an archaeologist, she worked on the dig and found where the remains of animals that live in Africa were seen for the first time in such a place.
World's First Zoo Discovered
The team was amazed in their further examination to find that it was thought to be an old zoo where the animals were fed like someone's pets.
The archeologist saw the world's oldest zoo and the least likely place to find the spectacular discovery, which dates far back 6,000 years old. It even predates the creation of writing and even the invention of the potter's wheel. The pyramid wasn't even prominent in the landscape yet.
The ruler of Egypt would descend from this ancient zoo and the distinctive style of ancient Egypt it influenced. Friedman remarked that carbon dating had shown when animals ate the last time, and their death was nearly the exact dates.
Like the people who would come with the king, they were slaughtered to accompany the ruler. There were structures built over the tombs at one time, and these animals were buried around the complex, accompanying the ruler for protection in his afterlife.
