Mystery of the world's oldest pyramid-shaped monument

A giant grave containing the remains of at least 30 fighters in Syria could be the oldest war memorial ever discovered.

The structure, which dates back at least 4,300 years and is located in the now-submerged Tell Banat area, is also the first example of a special type of monument mentioned in ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions, in which the bodies of both locals and enemy soldiers are piled on top of each other.

The monument looks from a distance like the Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt.

The monument looks like the Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt from a distance. (Photo: Euphrates Salvage Project).

"The new findings suggest that ancient people honored their dead in battle just as we do today ," said Anne Porter, a professor of Middle Eastern civilization at the University of Toronto. "We don't know if they won or lost the battle. We only know that people from Tell Banat brought the bodies of their dead and buried them in giant tombs that could be seen from miles away."

The monument looks a bit like the Egyptian Step Pyramid of Djoser , except that its layers are made of earth and plaster instead of stone, according to research published Dec. 28 in the journal Antiquity. Locals today call the tomb the “white monument” because the plaster makes it glow in the sunlight.

Porter and his colleague Thomas McClelland excavated the site in 1988 and 1999, but they didn’t know the purpose of the structure at the time. They began excavations before the site was flooded by the Tishreen Dam project. Now, the team, along with graduate students at the University of Toronto, are examining the find and concluding that it is likely a war memorial. They also found that the memorial was built on top of another structure.

The team was able to determine the precise burial. Each skeleton was placed in a pit in layers on the memorial. The remains were placed directly on the soil, without any covering or clear boundaries. In many cases, the experts were unable to determine the age or sex of the deceased. They could have been males ranging in age from 8-10 years old to adults. The team is not sure why some of the children were placed in the war memorial.

Some of the dead were buried with kungas, donkey-like animals that pulled carts. The soldiers may have been rickshaw drivers. Archaeologists also found small bullets near some of the remains. Ancient people often used rubber band bullets as weapons. The bullets may have symbolized the role the deceased played in the army when they were alive.

Porter and his colleague Thomas McClelland excavated the site in 1988 and 1999, but they didn’t know the purpose of the structure at the time. They began excavations before the site was flooded by the Tishreen Dam project. Now, the team, along with graduate students at the University of Toronto, are examining the find and concluding that it is likely a war memorial. They also found that the memorial was built on top of another structure.

The team was able to determine the precise burial. Each skeleton was placed in a pit in layers on the memorial. The remains were placed directly on the soil, without any covering or clear boundaries. In many cases, the experts were unable to determine the age or sex of the deceased. They could have been males ranging in age from 8-10 years old to adults. The team is not sure why some of the children were placed in the war memorial.