New research by American researcher Roselyn Campbell of Purdue University has reportedly made earlier suspicions about human sacrifice in the burials of Egypt’s first kings more plausible. At Umm el-Qa'ab near Abydos, a cemetery dating to around 3000 BC, archaeologist Flinders Petrie found dozens to hundreds of graves containing people associated with the royal court, including court ladies, officials and craftsmen. Petrie identified a possible example of human sacrifice but found no evidence that the people had been deliberately killed. Later researchers supported his suspicions, while historians also suggested that some people may have willingly died to be buried with the king. Campbell used new techniques to study 46 skeletons and found further clues.