Evidence of the brutal lives endured by some ancient Egyptians to build the monuments of the Pharaohs has been uncovered by archaeologists at Amarna, a new capital built on the orders of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, 3,500 years ago.

Archaeologists from a British-based team made a breakthrough when they found human bones in the desert, which had been washed out by floods.

Skeletal remains from a lost city in the middle of Egypt suggest many ordinary people died in their teenage years and lived a punishing lifestyle with common spinal injuries, poor nutrition and stunted growth. The temples and palaces required thousands of large stone blocks. Working in summer temperatures of 40C (104F), the workers would have had to chisel these out of the rock and transport them 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the quarries to the city.

Even Akhanaten's son, Tutankhamen, died aged just 20; and archaeologists are now beginning to believe that there might also have been an epidemic here.