SEDEINGA, SUDAN—At a crowded 2,000-year-old necropolis in Sudan, archaeologists from the French Archaeological Mission to Sedeinga have found at least 35 small pyramids that had been constructed over a period of hundreds of years. Several of the unusual pyramids feature a circle in the center, which is connected to the corners of the pyramid with cross-braces. Team member Vincent Francigny of New York’s American Museum of Natural History thinks the circles may have evolved from a local tradition of tumulus construction, combined with the more fashionable pyramids. Plundered graves have been unearthed from beside the pyramids. “Because it lasted for hundreds of years they built more, more, more pyramids and after centuries they started to fill all the spaces that were still available in the necropolis,” added Francigny.
