Ancient Hierakonpolis: The Earliest Evidence of Livestock Horn Modification

Transforming Animals in Predynastic Egypt

Around 5,700 years ago, in the elite burial grounds of Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, a striking practice was unfolding. Here, rulers and elites buried themselves alongside a menagerie of wild and exotic animals—crocodiles, elephants, and baboons among them. But recent archaeological findings reveal that even domestic livestock were transformed to project …