Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T01:27:21.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discovery of the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt’s western desert

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

MichaƗ Kobusiewicz ,
Jacek Kabaciński ,
Romuald Schild ,
Joel D. Irish  and
Fred Wendorf
MichaƗ Kobusiewicz
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań Branch, Zwierzyniecka 20, 60-814 Poznań, Poland (Email: [email protected], [email protected])
Jacek Kabaciński
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań Branch, Zwierzyniecka 20, 60-814 Poznań, Poland (Email: [email protected], [email protected])
Romuald Schild
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Solidarnœci 105, 00-140 Warszawa, Poland
Joel D. Irish
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 99775-7720, USA
Fred Wendorf
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75-275, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The authors report the discovery of a cemetery of richly furnished graves in the western desert of south Egypt. Artefacts, burial rites and radiocarbon dates relate the cemetery to pastoralists practising transhumance in the later Neolithic period. The first such cemetery to be investigated, its cultural affiliations offer a pre-echo of what would become the Egyptian civilisation.

Keywords

EgyptNeolithicdesertmultiple burialbeadspastoralisma
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 301 , September 2004 , pp. 566 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brace, C.L. 1962. Cultural factors in the evolution of human dentition, in Montague, M. F. A. (ed.), Culture and the Evolution of Man: 343–354. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chłodnicki, M. & Kabaciński, J.. 2002. The Neolithic of the Dongola Reach (Nubia). African Raports 2:1–13.Google Scholar
Darnell, D. 2002. Gravel of the Desert and Broken Pots in the Road: Ceramic Evidence from the Routes between the Nile and Kharga Oasis, in Friedman, R. (ed.), Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert: 156–177. British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, R. & Joseph, J. Hobbs. 2002. A “Tasian” Tomb in Egypt’s Eastern Desert, in Friedman, R. (ed.) Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert: 178–191. British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Gues, F. 1980. Fouille de sovetage a El Kadada (III). Service des Antiquitiés du Sudan. Section Française de Recherche Archéologique. Raport Annuel d’Activité 1978–1979.Google Scholar
Hassan, F. A. 1985. Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Predynatic sites in Upper Egypt and the Delta, African Archaeological Review 3: 95–11 Google Scholar
Hassan, F. A. 1996. Chronology of the Khartoum “Mesolithic” and “Neolithic” and related sites in the Sudan: statistical analysis and comparison with Egypt, African Archaeological Review 4: 83–102.Google Scholar
Hedges, , Housley, R. E. M. R.A. Bronk Ramsey, C., & Van Klinken, G. J.. 1994. Radiocarbon Dates from the Oxford Ams System: Archaeometry Datalist 18, Egypt, Badari Region, site 3400, Archaeometry 36: 367–368.Google Scholar
Hendrickx, S. 1999. La chronologie de la préhistoire tardive et des débuts de l’histoire de l’Egypte, Archéo-Nil 9:13–81, 99–107.Google Scholar
Hendrickx, S., Midant-Reynes, B. & Van Neer, W.. 2001. Mahgar Dendera 2 (Haute Egypte), un site d’occupation Badarien. Egyptian Prehistory Monographs 3, Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Hiernaux, J. 1975. The People of Africa. New York: Charles Scriner’s Sons.Google Scholar
Holmes, D. L. & Friedman, R.F.. 1994. Survey and test excavations in the Badari Region, Egypt, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60: 105–142.Google Scholar
Irish, J. D. 2001. Human skeletal remains from three Nabta Playa sites, in Wendorf, F. & Schild, R. (eds.) Holocene Settlements in the Egyptian Sahara. Vol 1. The Archaeology of Nabta Playa. 521–528. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Irish, J.D., Kobusiewicz, M. Schild, R. & Wendorf, F.. 2003. Neolithic Tooth Replacement in Two Secondary Burials from Southern Egypt, Journal of Archaeological Science, 30: 281–85Google Scholar
Irish, J.D., Schild, R. Froment, A., And Wendorf, F.. 2002. The role of Neolithic peoples in northeast African prehistory: A biocultural perspective from Nabta Playa, Egypt. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Suppl. 34: 88–89.Google Scholar
Irish, J.D., Wendorf, F..& Schild, R.. 1999. Preliminary report on Neolithic human remains from Nabta Playa, Egypt, American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Suppl. 32: 85.Google Scholar
Krzyzaniak, L. 1991. Early Farming in the Middle Nile Basin: Recent Discoveries at Kadero (Central Sudan). Antiquity 65: 515–532.Google Scholar
Mckim Malville, J., Wendorf, F. Mazhar, A.A. & Schild, R.. 1998. Megaliths and Neolithic astronomy in southern Egypt. Nature 393:488–92Google Scholar
Nelson, K. & Associates. 2002. Holocene Settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 2. The Nabta Playa. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Reinold, J. 1987. Les fouilles pré-et proto-historiques de la Section Française de la Direction des Antiquitiés de Soudan: Les campagnes 1984–85 et 1985–86. L’Archéologie du Nil Moyen 2: 17–120.Google Scholar
Schild, R., Kobusiewicz, M. Wendorf, F. Irish, J.D. KabaciñSki, J. & KróLik, H.. 2002. Gebel Nabta Playa in Jenerstrasse 8 (ed.) Tides of the Desert – Gezeiten der Wüste, 117–23 Cologne.Google Scholar
Schild, R., & Wendorf, F.. 2001a. Geomorphology, litostratigraphy and taphonomy of sites. In Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 1. The Archaeology of Nabta Playa, Wendorf, F. Schild, R. & Associates, 11–50. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Schild, R., & Wendorf, F.. 2001b Combined Prehistoric Expedition’s radiocarbon dates associated with Neolithic occupations in the Southernn Desert of Egypt. Vol. 1. The Archaeology of Nabta Playa. In Wendorf, F. Schild, R. & Associates, 51–55. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Smith, B.H. 1984. Patterns of molar wear in hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists. American Journal of Physical Anthroplogy 63:39–56.Google Scholar
Welsby-Sjöström, J. 2001. The pottery from the survey, in Welsby, D. (ed.) Life on the desert edge. Seven thousand years of settlement in the northern Dongola Reach, Sudan, vol. 1–2, Sudan Archaeological Research Society 7, Sudan Archaeological Research Society. London.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F. & Mckim Malville, J.. 2001. The megalithic alignments. In Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 1. The archaeology of Nabta Playa, Wendorf, F. Schild, R. & Associates: 489–502. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F. & Schild, R.. 2001. Conclusions. In Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 1. The archaeology of Nabta Playa, Wendorf, F. Schild, R. & Associates: 648–75. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Wendorf, F., Schild, R. & Associates, 2001. Holocene settlement of the Egyptian Sahara. Vol. 1. The archaeology of Nabta Playa. New York: Kluver Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar