Africa's Oldest Human Sacrifice Found In Sudan

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                                   Africa's oldest human sacrifice found in Sudan






Telegraph.co.uk
Feb. 4, 2009

French archaeologists in northern Sudan have unearthed a 5,500 year-old Stone Age tomb they believe to confirm the location of Africa's "oldest human sacrifice."
 
In a graveyard in Al-Kadada, north of Khartoum, the archaeologists have dug up the tomb of a man and a woman facing each other in a ditch, with bodies of two women, two goats and a dog buried nearby.

The discovery of the group "confirms" excavations last year which found traces of the oldest human sacrifice ever identified in Africa, Jacques Reinold, a researcher for the French section of the Sudanese antiquities department, said.

The ancient unearthed bones date from between 3,700 and 3,400 BC, a period considered as one the key stages in the transition from a hunting to a farming society.

The Al-Kadada region, on fertile land alongside the Nile, is regarded as one of the cradles of humanity in the Neolithic era.

Mr Reinold's team also unearthed polished axes, a millstone, make-up palettes and ceramics at Al-Kadada.

Sudan is in the grip of a bitter and bloody conflict against rebel forces.

The fighting in Darfur began in 2003 when rebels in Sudan's arid western region took up arms, citing neglect and marginalization by the central government. So far, 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have been displaced.