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Ancient Egyptians did it tough

Evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance at a city that was once the capital of ancient Egypt.

Studies on the remains of ordinary ancient Egyptians in a cemetery in Tell el-Amarna show that many suffered from anaemia, fractured bones, stunted growth and high juvenile mortality rates, researchers say.

Professor Jerome Rose, a US anthropologist at the University of Arkansas, says adults buried in the cemetery were probably brought there from other parts of Egypt.

"This means that we have a period of deprivation in Egypt prior to the Amarna phase," he says.

"So maybe things were not so good for the average Egyptian."

Professor Barry Kemp, director of the Amarna Project, which seeks in part to increase public knowledge of Tell el-Amarna and the surrounding region, says little attention has been given to the cemeteries of ordinary ancient Egyptians.

"A very large number of ordinary cemeteries have been excavated but just for the objects and very little attention has been paid to human remains," the University of Cambridge professor says.

"The idea of treating the human remains ... to study the overall health of the population is relatively new."

Paintings in the tombs of the nobles show an abundance of offerings, but the remains of ordinary people tell a different story.

Rose says pictures show spinal injuries among teenagers, probably because of accidents during construction work to build the city.

The study shows that 74% of children and teenagers and 44% of adults had anaemia, Rose says.

The average height of men was 159 centimetres and 153 centimetres for women.

"Adult heights are used as a proxy for overall standard of living," he says. "Short statures reflect a diet deficient in protein. People were not growing to their full potential."

Kemp says he believes further excavations in Tell el-Amarna will firm-up the team's conclusions.

"We are seeing a more realistic picture of what life was like," he says.

"It has nothing to do with the intentions of [the then-pharaoh] Akhenaten, which may have been good and paternal toward his people."

Ancient capital city

The city of Tell el-Amarna was briefly the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of Akhenaten.

Akhenaten, who ruled between 1379 and 1362 BC, built and lived in Tell el-Amarna in central Egypt for 15 years.

The pharaoh abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favour of the Aten sun disc and brought in a new and more expressive style of art.

The city was largely abandoned shortly after the pharoah's death and the ascendance of the famous boy king Tutankhamen to the throne.