High-Status Home Unearthed Near the Giza Pyramids

TORONTO, ONTARIO—A large house containing at least 21 rooms is being excavated to the south of Egypt’s Sphinx, where a 4,500-year-old urban site is located. In a mound near the house, archaeologists uncovered the hind limbs of young cattle (the forelimbs were probably offered to deities), the seals of high-ranking officials, and leopard teeth. Two leopard teeth were also found in the house. Richard Redding of the University of Michigan and Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), thinks that the teeth may have dropped out of a leopard-skin worn with the leopard’s head still attached. Illustrations from the Old Kingdom period depict high-ranking clergy wearing such garments. “We have very, very, high status individuals,” Redding said.