ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Egypt say they have unearthed one of the oldest-known villages in the Nile Delta which predated the pharaohs by thousands of years.

A joint Egyptian and French mission uncovered several storage silos containing large quantities of animal and plant remains, as well as pottery and stone tools, the antiquities ministry said today.

The ministry said the find indicates that humans were living in the the fertile Tell al-Samara, in the northern province of El-Dakahlia, as early as the fifth millennium BC, far predating Egypt's oldest known pyramid in Djoser which was built in 2630BC.

Nadia Khedr, a ministry official responsible for Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities on Mediterranean, said: "Analysing the biological material that has been discovered will present us with a clearer view of the first communities that settled in the Delta and the origins of agriculture and farming in Egypt."

Rain-based Neolithic farming may hold vital clues to a technological leap that led to irrigation-based farming along the Nile which marked the beginnings of human civilisation and paved the way for the pharaoh era.

Earlier this year, scientists discovered an enormous void inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, prompting speculation that we may not yet know all the secrets of the ancient Egyptians.

In July archaeologists in Egypt have opened an eerie 2,000-year-old sarcophagus hidden inside a buried tomb, revealing its mysteries – despite fears of an ancient curse.

Defiant scientists broke open the sinister stone coffin on Thursday and discovered three decomposed mummies submerged in rancid sewer water.

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