Wadi Qitna and Kalabsha-South : Late Roman - Early Byzantine Tumuli Cemeteries in Egyptian Nubia. Volume II, Anthropology
Abstract
The present publication follows Volume I of 1984 that presented the results of a comprehensive archaeological investigation of two tumulus cemeteries of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period (third-fifth centuries AD) explored by the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology (Charles University in Prague) in the scope of the UNESCO-organised salvage campaign called for in advance of the ultimate submersion of Nubia by the waters of the High Aswan Dam. This Volume II evaluates the human skeletal remains of 558 individuals from the completely explored cemetery at Wadi Qitna (456 tumuli) and a comparative sample of 35 individuals from the near-by cemetery at Kalabsha-South (19 tumuli) from the point of view of social, cultural and physical anthropology.
It provides the evidence of their social structure as well as an insight into the life of the people and their family relationships. A comparison of the physical-anthropological features of the community with other contemporaneous and antecedent series using univariate and multivariate methods reveals their mutual position.
The final chapter provides a brief overview of the history of the northern part of Egyptian Nubia and an up-to-date report on the handmade pottery found in large numbers at Wadi Qitna and Kalabsha-South, whose distribution has since been attested at many sites in the Nile Valley, on the Red Sea coast and in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and the Sudan. The volume touches upon the complex social and ethnic processes that were taking place in the frontier region between Egypt and Nubia during the critical centuries separating the Antiquity and Medieval Period and opens paths to their further research.