Archeologists in Egypt say they have unearthed one of the oldest-known villages in the Nile Delta, dating back to before the pharaohs.

The antiquities ministry said the Neolithic site was discovered in Tell el-Samara, about 140 kilometers north of Cairo.

A joint Egyptian and French team found several storage silos containing animal bones and food, indicating human habitation as early as 5,000 B.C, the antiquities ministry said Sunday.

That would be about 2,500 years before the pyramids were built at Giza.

“Analyzing 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,” said Nadia Khedr, a ministry official responsible for Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities on the Mediterranean.

The new discovery stoked hopes of reviving tourism, which has waned after the unrest that followed the 2011 Egyptian uprising.
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