Jar burials may have aided in the afterlife rebirth of the dead in ancient Egypt.

A view from above of the current excavations at Tell el-Retaba, an ancient fortification that was a part of Egypt's Ways of Horus military path. Excavation teams have discovered human bones encased in pottery pots or jars. M. BOGACKI, © WARSAW UNIVERSITY. Travellers heading northeast from Cairo will ultimately come to the geographic dividing line that separates the Sinai and the Nile Delta. Here the deep loamy soil, green crop fields, and sparse irrigation ditches give way to the peninsula's parched desert. The area is characterised by driving sands and outcroppings of limestone that are tempered with pieces of old fossils. The spectacular fortress of Tell el-Retaba, built and strengthened over 3,000 years ago under the rule of Egypt's military pharaoh, Ramesses the Great, was located in this border region. Along the Sinai Peninsula's northern coast, the fortress was one of many that made up a strong defensive system. The Ways of Horus were the ancient name for this network of strongholds, and was employed by the Egyptian army as it traveled across the Near East to battle Pharaoh's adversaries.

Tell el-Retaba, however, was home to the soldiers' families as well as their quarters. Early in the 20th century, British archaeologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie discovered an unusual tomb while working at Tell el-Retaba. It was carved into one of the fortress's real mudbrick walls rather than being outside the devoted cemetery.

An infant, maybe little older than a year, was buried with his remains inside a pottery amphora, which is a kind of storage jar.Regretfully, and also rather characteristic of archaeologists of the time, Petrie reacted to the discovery by crafting a rather bizarre story: he asserted that the pot burial proved proof of both non-Egyptian occupation of the site and human sacrifice (Victorian archaeologists, like Petrie, believed that ancient Egypt was simply too advanced to have engaged in such a barbaric custom). Petrie was incorrect in both aspects. Human sacrifice was a practice carried out by the ancient Egyptians, and the pot burial did not indicate the presence of non-Egyptian occupants; numerous other such interments could be discovered all across Egypt. The body is buried in repurposed or specially built ceramic pots in pot burials, also known as jar burials. Furthermore, they were not exclusively used by the ancient Egyptians. These kinds of behaviours can be traced back to prehistoric Japan during the Jomon period, ancient customs from the Philippines and Malaysia, graves from the third century in Iran, and comparable practices from Corsica that persisted until the sixth century.

Petrie was not the last archaeologist to discover a pot burial at Tell el-Retaba, despite being the first to do so. More pot burials of small children were discovered at the site during excavations carried out by other teams. Hundreds of pot burials from the Predynastic, about 6,000 years ago, until the end of the Pharaonic Period, approximately 30 B.C., have been discovered all throughout Egypt. These burials contain the bodies of both adults and children.

Scholars have always believed that those who could not afford a wooden coffin and had to make do with repurposing a container meant to store wine, olive oil, or pine resin for their loved one's remains were the ones who practiced these pot burials.

Recent findings, however, indicate that lower-class people were not the only ones buried in pots. Pots were symbolic of the womb in culture, and their selection might have been motivated by a desire to facilitate the rebirth of the departed into the afterlife. These vessels' ovoid shapes also evoke the image of an egg, another rebirth and regeneration metaphor from Egyptian mythology. A popular kind of Egyptian coffin originated during the reign of Ramesses the Great, around the time the infant was buried at Tell el-Retaba. This particular style of coffin is unique in that it is made completely of clay. Known as slipper coffins, they were not well received by early archaeologists. British Egyptologist William Perry, for example, disregarded them, claiming that only "poor people" would have used them, despite the fact that their creation would have required a great deal of expertise and money. A full-size human coffin fashioned completely of clay would have required a significant amount of fuel to burn, especially in Egypt where burning wood was usually in short supply.