ANIMAL BONE REMAINS FROM THE CEMETERY IN EL-ZUMA (2007 SEASON)
ANIMAL BONE REMAINS FROM THE CEMETERY IN EL-ZUMA (2007 SEASON)

Summary/Abstract: Deposits of animal bones were found in the burial chambers of three of the tumuli from the cemetery in El-Zuma excavated by a team working within the framework of the Early Makuria Research Project during the 2007 season. These were tumuli 5 (chambers 2 and 3), 10 (central part of main chamber) and 25 (chambers 2 and 3, all three of which were dated by pottery finds to the 5th century AD. Deposits of this kind have been recorded before in tumuli from the Early Makurian period in El-Zuma, Tanqasi and other cemeteries from the Fourth Cataract. The archaeozoological analysis encompassed 116 faunal remains from the 2007 season. Species and anatomical identification was successful for all of the osteological fragments. All the bones were aged and sexed, and the morphological type was determined. Butchery traces on the bones were also noted. The faunal assemblage included mammals: cattle, camel and small domestic ruminants, considered as one group of ovicaprids owing to the low morphological differentiation of the skeletal remains of these species.

• Details
• Contents