In a graveyard in Al-Kadada, north of Khartoum, the archaeologists have dug up the tomb of a man and a woman facing each other in a ditch, with bodies of two women, two goats and a dog buried nearby.

The discovery ‘confirms’ excavations last year which found traces of the oldest human sacrifice ever identified in Africa, Jacques Reinold, a researcher for the French section of the Sudanese antiquities department, told AFP.

The unearthed bones date from between 3,700 and 3,400 BC, a period considered as one the key stages in the transition from a hunting to a farming society.

The Al-Kadada region, on fertile land alongside the Nile, is regarded as one of the cradles of humanity in the Neolithic era.

Reinold’s team also unearthed polished axes, a millstone, make-up palettes and ceramics at Al-Kadada.