Forgotten flint tools in museum boxes reveal how Egypt’s early farmers paved the way for the pharaohs

By Giulio Lucarini, Senior Researcher, Institute of Heritage Science, National Research Council (CNR)
Federica Ugliano, Curator at Museo Egizio (Turin, Italy) and Research Affiliate, National Research Council (CNR)
Lorena Lombardi, Research Affiliate, National Research Council (CNR)

More than a century after they were excavated from beneath Cairo, almost 3,000 stone tools from Heliopolis show that specialised work was already reshaping village life before Egypt became a state.

Few places have a grander origin story than Heliopolis. It flourished thousands of years before the founding of Cairo, now Egypt’s capital and largest city. In pharaonic times Heliopolis was a major religious and intellectual centre, devoted to the cult of the sun god Ra. The ancient Egyptians believed…

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