# 733. バイリンガルニュース 10.15.26

- Show: バイリンガルニュース (Bilingual News)
- Published: 2026-10-15
- Canonical: https://podc.club/en/episode/653415937_d640d30afa91.html
- Audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bilingualnews/101426.mp3?dest-id=154797
- Source: Edited from a machine transcript of the first 30 minutes of the episode. Not an official summary.

Modern forensic analysis of 46 skulls unearthed from Early Dynastic Egyptian royal tombs has found evidence of fatal head injuries in roughly 39% of specimens, shedding new light on the practice of human sacrifice in ancient Egypt. A separate 13-year longitudinal study tracking people from age 50 found that those experiencing both loneliness and social isolation developed mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety up to 5.8 years earlier than those with neither. The episode moves between these two subjects—ancient sacrificial customs and modern health science—also touching on Maya ritual sacrifice.

## What this episode answers

### What evidence of human sacrifice was found around the royal tombs of ancient Egypt?

Of 46 skulls excavated from burial sites surrounding the tombs of King Djer, King Djet, and Queen Merneith (c. 3000 BCE), 18—roughly 39%—showed head injuries sustained around the time of death, including fractures running across the skull, puncture wounds from sharp objects, and cuts near the eye sockets, pointing to deliberate killing.

### How does modern forensic science identify the cause of damage in ancient bones?

Modern forensic techniques can distinguish whether bone damage occurred while a person was still alive or immediately around the time of death; they can also differentiate injuries inflicted before death from post-burial deformation caused by soil pressure, and this ability to separate the two was key to drawing definitive conclusions—though the skulls had shown signs of damage since their excavation in the 1920s, determining the cause remained difficult until recently.

### Why and how did the practice of human sacrifice eventually end?

Around 2700 BCE the practice shifted to burying small figurines called ushabtis in place of actual people, but why the custom changed is unknown—whether for practical reasons such as labor shortages or due to a moral shift is unrecorded, and how the ideological reversal ('dying was once the ultimate honor, but now a figurine will do') was explained to people remains a mystery.

### How much of a difference do loneliness and social isolation make to healthy lifespan?

People aged 50 who had both loneliness and social isolation developed major physical illnesses 2.4 years sooner (women) and 1.7 years sooner (men) than those with neither; the gap was larger for mental illness—depression and anxiety arrived 3.7 years sooner for women and 5.8 years sooner for men—and healthy lifestyle habits reduced the harm of social isolation but showed no equivalent moderating effect on loneliness.

### Why is it important to distinguish between loneliness (subjective) and social isolation (objective)?

Social isolation is an objective measure of how often a person actually interacts with others, while loneliness is a subjective sense of dissatisfaction with one's relationships; someone who sees people only once a month may feel no loneliness if satisfied, while someone surrounded by many friends may still feel lonely, so the study treated them as separate variables and analyzed their health effects independently.

## Article

## Evidence of Human Sacrifice in Ancient Egyptian Royal Tombs

Around 3000 BCE, the tombs of Early Dynastic rulers King Djer, King Djet, and Queen Merneith were surrounded by hundreds of subsidiary graves. Modern forensic analysis of 46 skulls recovered from those graves found that 18—roughly 39%—bore head injuries dating to around the time of death. The damage included fractures running across the skull, puncture wounds consistent with a sharp implement, and cuts near the eye sockets, all pointing to deliberate, lethal blows to the head.

Flinders Petrie, who excavated the site in the early twentieth century, had long argued that so many people dying simultaneously was unnatural and raised the possibility of human sacrifice. At the time, however, hard physical evidence was lacking and the debate dragged on for decades. What made the new study decisive was the application of modern forensic knowledge: researchers can now distinguish damage that occurred while a person was alive or in the immediate perimortem window from deformation caused by soil pressure on bones during centuries of burial. That ability to separate the two categories of damage is what finally produced conclusive evidence.

Analysis of the sex and age profile of the buried individuals revealed a mix of males and females, with no children and very few elderly people—a demographic consistent with able-bodied adult servants who worked in the royal household.

## The Psychology of Sacrifice—and the Mystery of How It Ended

The episode raised the question of what psychological state a royal attendant must have been in knowing that the king's death would mean their own. Religious faith can be entered voluntarily, but those born into a station had no choice. Still, if a shared value system held that serving the king in the afterlife was the ultimate honor, the arrangement could function on its own terms.

The hosts also wondered whether some individuals tried to refuse or flee. Michael noted that under the divine right of kings there were no juries and no individual rights, meaning faith, state authority, and coercion were inextricably entangled.

Around 2700 BCE, the practice shifted: instead of burying live people, Egyptians began placing small figurines called ushabtis in tombs as substitutes. Why the transition happened is unknown. Practical reasons—a shortage of labor—are one possibility; a genuine moral shift is another. What remains equally puzzling is how the ideological reversal was communicated: having told people for generations that being sacrificed was the highest honor, how did anyone explain that a small clay figure would now suffice?

## Human Sacrifice in Maya Civilization

Recent DNA analysis has revealed that young boys aged three to six were frequently sacrificed in Maya civilization. Approximately 25% of the child victims were close relatives of one another or identical twins. The selection of twins is thought to reflect a belief that twin births—extremely rare at the time—represented something anomalous that needed to be removed. The episode also noted that children were sometimes purchased from neighboring cities for use in sacrifice.

## Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Healthy Lifespan: A 13-Year Longitudinal Study

A study that tracked people from the age of 50 over a median follow-up of 13 years found that those experiencing both loneliness and social isolation had shorter disease-free lives than those with neither. The time to a first major physical illness was 2.4 years shorter for women and 1.7 years shorter for men. The gap was larger for mental illness—depression, anxiety, and similar conditions—where women lost 3.7 years of healthy life and men lost 5.8 years. Crucially, the finding concerns the length of time lived without disease, not overall lifespan.

People with healthy lifestyle habits—good diet, regular exercise, adequate sleep, not smoking—showed smaller harm from social isolation, but the same protective effect did not appear for loneliness.

The episode highlighted the importance of distinguishing between social isolation—an objective measure of how often a person actually sees others—and loneliness, which is a subjective sense of how satisfied one feels with one's relationships. Someone who meets people only once a month may feel no loneliness if that suits them; conversely, a person with many friends can still feel profoundly lonely. The study measured the two as separate variables and analyzed their health effects independently. The hosts also noted that the study alone cannot establish the direction of causality: it is unclear whether loneliness damages health or whether declining health leads to greater loneliness.

## Takeaways

- Forensic analysis of 46 skulls from Early Dynastic Egyptian royal tombs found head-injury evidence of human sacrifice in roughly 39% of specimens—the first such forensic confirmation.
- The shift from sacrificing people to burying ushabti figurines around 2700 BCE remains unexplained, and how the ideological reversal was communicated to those involved is an open historical mystery.
- A 13-year longitudinal study found that people aged 50 who had both subjective loneliness and objective social isolation developed mental illness up to 5.8 years earlier than those with neither, with loneliness and isolation defined and measured as distinct variables.