At the edge of Egypt’s vast Eastern Desert, archaeologists have unearthed haunting evidence of an ancient dark history — rusted iron shackles. It’s a chilling glimpse into the brutal conditions endured by miners during Egypt’s gold rush under the Ptolemaic dynasty more than two thousand years ago.
The shackles, dating back to the 3rd century BCE from a site known as Ghozza, provide some of the oldest direct evidence of forced slave labor in Ptolemaic Egypt (332–30 BCE).
“Beneath the grandeur of Egypt’s wealth and the imposing mountains of the Eastern Desert lies a history of exploitation,” French archaeologist Bérangère Redon wrote in his new study. “The gold extracted from these mines helped finance the ambitions of Egypt’s rulers, but it came at a significant human cost.”
Shackled History
Egypt is a land rich in gold, and its history is intertwined with this precious metal. In addition to the resources of the Eastern Desert, Egypt had access to the riches of Nubia, which is reflected in its ancient name, nbw (the Egyptian word for gold). The heiroglyph for gold — a broad collar — appears with the beginning of writing in Dynasty 1. But the earliest surviving gold artifacts date to the preliterate days of the fourth millennium B.C. These are mostly beads and other modest items used for personal adornment.
However, under the Ptolemies — who ruled from 305 to 30 B.C. after Alexander the Great’s conquest — the pursuit of gold intensified dramatically. Mines dotted the Egyptian landscape, feeding the wealth and military power of rulers like Ptolemy I, one of Alexander’s generals and Diadochi. This gold funded wars, lavish lifestyles, and monumental public works projects.
Previous archaeological excavations revealed organized mining communities. At Ghozza, a village with streets, housing, administrative buildings, and even baths suggested a relatively comfortable existence for miners. Hundreds of ostraca, pottery shards scribbled with everyday notes, showed many workers earned wages. Initially, there seemed to be no signs of forced labor — no guarded dormitories, no fortifications.
But Redon’s latest discovery, put things into a stark context.
A Bound Workforce
The shackles were buried in rubble near a storage facility used to repair metal equipment. Two separate sets of heavy ankle cuffs — one with seven ankle rings linked together, another with fragmented rings and iron links — provide unmistakable evidence of forced labor. These shackles are among the oldest found in the Mediterranean region, predating even Roman-era examples.
These shackles were designed explicitly for human limbs, not animals. Unlike ropes commonly used for animals in the Eastern Desert, these shackles were forged to tightly encircle human ankles. When closed directly around a prisoner’s ankles, these shackles could not have been removed without assistance. While hands remained free, walking would have been arduous and exhausting due to their heavy weight.
“The discovery of shackles at Ghozza reveals that at least part of the workforce was composed of forced labour,” Redon explained. “The exact living conditions of these individuals remain unclear because their dwelling places have not yet been identified, indeed the village set-up seems to suggest that the population was free to move around in general.”
Echoes from Greece
Of course, it’s not like Egypt was a stranger to slave labor. It existed at least since the Old Kingdom period. The Greek historian Agatharchides, writing in the second century BC, vividly depicted the plight of enslaved laborers at Egyptian gold mines:
“And those who have been condemned in this way — and they are of a great multitude and all have their feet bound — work at their tasks unceasingly both by day and throughout the entire night.”
Remarkably similar restraints were uncovered at the ancient Greek silver mines of Laurion. This suggests that Greek engineers likely introduced their mining technology — and possibly forced labor practices — to Egypt during the Ptolemaic period. The Ptolemies retained their Greek heritage across their entire dynasty. Famously, none of the Ptolemaic rulers and elites ever spoke Egyptian until Cleopatra, the last Hellenistic pharaoh.
Earlier excavations at another Ptolemaic mine, Samut North, also found technological parallels to Greek mining techniques. So, there is evidence that Ptolemaic Egypt retained deep cultural and technological ties with other ancient Mediterranean civilizations.
Yet, despite the historical references, physical evidence like these shackles is exceedingly rare. Their discovery at Ghozza provides the first direct archaeological proof that some miners endured slavery-like conditions, bound in heavy iron, laboring under the desert sun.
Who were these forced laborers? Were they prisoners of war, condemned criminals, or perhaps enslaved individuals from conquered territories? The historical texts remain silent on these specifics, and so far, excavations at Ghozza have uncovered no human remains directly linked to these chains. Yet, what is more certain is the heavy human cost underlying Egypt’s Ptolemaic golden age.
The findings appeared in the journal Antiquity.
