Life and Death in Ancient Nubia: Archaeological and Bioarchaeological Perspectives

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

While often considered and presented in isolation, the archaeological study of mortuary contexts and the bioarchaeological study of human remains should be considered in tandem for broader interpretations of past lifeways. Mortuary contexts and human remains are often the only remaining and strongest evidence of past populations, particularly when ancient settlement sites are inaccessible or absent. This is particularly true for many regions and time periods of ancient Nubia, where without many written sources, the interpretation of Nubia’s past relies on archaeology and bioarchaeology. Mortuary landscapes (even those within settlement sites) and human remains of ancient Nubia reflect many cultural and biological aspects of this dynamic civilization, particularly in light of its ever-changing and complex relationship with ancient Egypt, including population identity, social and political complexity, population mobility and change, the transmission of ideas and material goods, subsistence practices, and disease. The aim of this symposium is to present mortuary evidence from both archaeological and bioarchaeological perspectives to give a broader understanding of culture and identity in ancient Nubia. The contributed papers will focus on the diversity of funerary practices and biological and cultural identity as related to all time periods of Nubian history.

Other Keywords
bioarchaeology • Nubia • Sudan • Paleopathology • Sai Island • Bioarcheology • Colonialism • Borderlands • Stable Isotopes • mortuary practices

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Botswana (Country) • Republic of Namibia (Country) • Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (Country) • Republic of Iraq (Country) • State of Israel (Country) • Republic of South Africa (Country) • Lebanese Republic (Country) • Syrian Arab Republic (Country) • West Bank (Country) • Republic of Kenya (Country)

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Documents
  • Christian Life in Medieval Nubia at el-Kurru, Sudan (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Abagail Breidenstein. Geoff Emberling. Abigail Bouwman. Frank Ruehli. Abigail Bigham.

    The Nubian site of el-Kurru (modern Sudan) lies along the Nile River about 140 km upstream of Old Dongola, the capital of the Medieval Christian kingdom of Makuria. In 2015-2016, a cemetery adjacent to the settlement was excavated, containing 26 skeletons. Here, I will present current bioarchaeological work on these individuals. Biological profiles were developed, including sex and age ranges, health markers evaluated, and indicators of pathology and trauma identified. Those interred span all...

  • Comparison of Nubian and Egyptian patterns of physical activity at New Kingdom Tombos (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michele Buzon. Sarah Schrader.

    Tombos, located at the Third Cataract of the Nile River in Sudan, was established as an Egyptian colonial site in Nubia during the New Kingdom period. Burials provide evidence for high level Egyptian administrators and support staff as well as local community members. Previous investigations of the Tombos remains have indicated that individuals buried at Tombos participated in relatively low levels of strenuous physical activities, indicative of roles such as administrators, scribes, and...

  • The Elite Meroitic Necropolis of Sai Island Part I: Mortuary Interpretations (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Vincent Francigny.

    Sai Island, located in northern Sudan between the 2nd and 3rd Nile cataracts, boasts a rich archaeological history spanning from the Paleolithic to modern times. Recent archaeological excavations conducted by the French Unit of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums have focused on a small elite Meroitic necropolis (300BC-350AD). Similar to other fringe elite Meroitic cemeteries such as Sedeinga, the Sai Island cemetery features pyramid mortuary structures with descendaries...

  • The Elite Meroitic Necropolis of Sai Island, Part II: Bioarchaeological Interpretations (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tosha Dupras. Vincent Francigny. Amanda Groff. Alex de Voogt.

    Five Meroitic necropoli have been identified on Sai Island, located in northern Sudan between the 2nd and 3rd Nile cataracts. Recent archaeological excavations conducted by the French Unit of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums have focused on a small elite Meroitic necropolis (300BC-350AD). Although the archaeology of this necropolis is complicated by interments from other periods and looting, here we present the initial analyses of the Meroitic elite skeletal remains in...

  • Entangled Lives: Intercultural Interactions in the Nubian Borderland (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Stuart Smith.

    Anthropological theories of cultural interaction, in particular entanglement, can help shed light on how individual choices drove intercultural interaction between Egypts and Nubias in the context of a colonial borderland. This paper explores how recent archaeological work in Nubia is breaking the simple Egyptian-Nubian dichotomy that has characterized previous discussions of interactions between the two African cultures. Taking their cue from Egyptian ideology, Egyptologists have often depicted...

  • Inter- and intra-individual dietary variation among the agro-pastoralist Sai Island Meroitic population (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marcos Martinez. Alexandra Greenwald. Jelmer Eerkens. Alex de Voogt. Vincent Francigny.

    We examine inter- and intra-individual variation in diet among high-status individuals from an agro-pastoralist Meroitic burial population interred on Sai Island in modern Sudan. We use stable isotope data (δ13C and δ15N) from dentinal collagen, extracted from serial micro-sections of third molars, to reconstruct the diet of 10 individuals. We employ MixSIAR, a hierarchical Bayesian model for estimating isotopic mixing, along with a previously constructed isotopic food-web to reconstruct human...

  • Life in times of change – A bioarchaeological perspective on health and living conditions in Upper Nubia in the late 2nd and early 1st millennium BC (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michaela Binder. Charlotte Roberts. Neal Spencer.

    With the end of the Pharaonic Egyptian colonial occupation c. 1070BC and the increasing deterioration of climatic conditions, communities in Upper Nubia faced significant changes, both to the political structure (which may have affected trade networks), and to the agricultural potential of the region (e.g. availability of arable land). This presentation aims to elucidate if, and in what ways, these alterations impacted upon the living conditions of the people in the area, using the skeletal...

  • The Medieval Necropolis of Mouweis (Shendi Area, Sudan): Bioarchaeological Insights (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Yann Ardagna. Marc Maillot.

    The site of Mouweis is a Nilotic city of the Meroitic period excavated by the Louvre Museum since 2007. This settlement includes a 1st century AD palace, later destroyed and reduced to a hill-shaped ruin. During the medieval period, a cemetery was created in the demolition level of this palace. Radiocarbon dating reveals a funerary occupation between of the 8th to the 14th century. Burials were mainly individual with a uniform typology and follow the same orientation as the structure of the...

  • Mortuary Variability and Identity Upstream of the Fourth Cataract (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brenda Baker.

    Fieldwork upstream of the Fourth Cataract in northern Sudan reveals substantial variation in mortuary practices among roughly contemporaneous sites on both local and regional levels. Cemeteries in the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE) concession on the right (north) bank of the Nile River near el-Qinefab include intervisible clusters of graves from the Kerma period (c. 2500-1500 BC) and into the subsequent period of Egyptian colonization of Nubia. These sites constitute a mortuary...

  • One More for the Road: Beer, Sacrifice and Commemoration in Ancient Nubian Burials of the Classic Kerma Period (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Elizabeth Minor.

    The funerary equipment of the Classic Kerma elite community included sets of ceramic vessels accompanying the primary deceased and sacrificed individuals. Stacks of beakers were placed in communal areas of graves, suggesting that the vessels were intended for group use in the afterlife. Graves with extraordinary organic preservation include woven giraffe-hair implements placed near the vessels. In comparison with ethnographic examples, these tools are beer strainers. Two graves also had vessels...

  • The Palace of Muweis and Its Medieval Necropolis (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marc Maillot.

    Muweis is located in the Shendi reach, about 300 kms north from the capital of Sudan, Khartoum. Its palace has been excavated by the Louvre Museum since 2007. It is part of the Meroitic Kingdom (350 BCE - 350 CE), which covered an area of 1500 kms on the Middle Nile Valley, making it the most important political structure known in Sub-Saharan Africa until the 19th century. In 2008 a medieval necropolis was discovered among the remains of the palace, under the debris of a small house situated at...

  • A View from the Periphery. Bioarchaeology and Funerary Archaeology at Al Khiday, Central Sudan (2017)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Tina Jakob. Joe W. Walser III. Donatella Usai. Sandro Salvatori.

    Archaeological sites south of Khartoum are much scarcer compared to those further to the north and this presentation aims to report on a multi-phase cemetery that is situated at the periphery of our archaeological knowledge. At present, burials dating to three chronological periods have been recovered at Al Khiday. The site is located on the left bank of the White Nile, approximately 20 km south of Omdurman (Khartoum). Forty-two individuals are dated to the Classic/Late Meroitic period (end of...