Two Mesolithic burials from Khor Shambat, Sudan

2024, 33, Vol. 33, Regular Issue

State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw Anthropological Laboratory

Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology

Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań


Publication date

05.09.2024

Submission date

28.01.2024

Acceptance date

17.04.2024

Publishing model

open access

License type


Field

Humanities

Discipline

archeology

Language of publication

English

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Abstract

The site of Khor Shambat 1 (KSH1) is located on the west bank of the Nile, in Omdurman, approximately 5 km north of Tuti Island. The first surveys there started in 2012, to be followed by an expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, which began four years later. A series of radiocarbon dates show that Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers inhabited the site between 7000 and 5200 calBC, while Neolithic pastoralists settled there between 5000 and 3800 calBC. The research, carried out in nine trenches with a total area of nearly 180 m², yielded 66 human burials. While most of them were Neolithic and post-Meroitic, two graves found in the central part of the site contained remains of hunter-fisher-gatherers. The paper presents the results of archaeological, anthropological, and bioarchaeological research on the skeletons of the two Mesolithic men. The analyses are presented against a broader background of Early Holocene settlement in Central Sudan.

Keywords:

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