GIZA, EGYPT—Live Science reports that the remains of two 4,500-year-old structures have been uncovered at an ancient port near the Giza pyramids by a team of researchers led by Mark Lehner of Ancient Egypt Research Associates. The buildings are thought to have served as housing for a priest who may have been a high-ranking government official and an official in charge of the production of food for a paramilitary force during the reign of Menkaure, who ruled from about 2490 to 2472 B.C. A third large building at the site may have been used for brewing and baking. Nearby buildings called galleries may have housed the paramilitary force, thought to have been made up of about 1,000 people. The food produced at the site could have fed the people living in the galleries, and perhaps even some of the workers building Menkaure’s pyramid. To read in-depth about recent archaeological work in Egypt, go to "Emblems for the Afterlife."
