Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifice was a practice in which servants were killed after a pharaoh's death so they could continue to serve the pharaoh in the afterlife.
Notes on verification
Corroborated by multiple independent sources including a scholarly Egyptological paper and archaeological evidence from royal tombs (e.g., Djet, Den, Hor-Aha). Practice is well-documented for the First Dynasty specifically, though inferred largely from burial patterns rather than direct textual records.
Sources
- Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifices (en.wikipedia.org)
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ancient-egypt-afterlife-human-sacrifice-shabti (atlasobscura.com)
- https://www.lovetoknow.com/life/grief-loss/sacrificial-burial-egypt (lovetoknow.com)
- https://www.jacobusvandijk.nl/docs/Retainer_Sacr.pdf (jacobusvandijk.nl)
- https://www.historyoftheancientworld.com/2014/08/did-the-ancient-egyptians-practice-human-sacrifice/ (historyoftheancientworld.com)