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Burying Children and Infants at Kadruka 23: New Insights into Juvenile Identity and Disposal of the Dead in the Nubian Neolithic
Abstract
Kadruka 23 is a relatively undisturbed funerary mound located in the Northern State of the Sudan, dating to the fth millennium, also known as the Nubian Middle Neolithic. Begun in 2014, the excavations at the site have already brought to light nearly 40 burials, a majority of which belongs to juvenile subjects. A concentration and seemingly codi ed treatment of very young individuals was immediately remarked upon. With the knowledge that such practices have been observed elsewhere, this hypothesis about di erential treatment based on age, is one we wish to develop in further detail. The demarcation of the very young deceased is underscored by several phenomena. We have identi ed a preferential placement within the cemetery (at the top of the mound), the association of mortuary goods not found with older individuals (bead waistbands, ceramic and shell spoons, etc.), consistent placement of ceramics (slightly above the burial level), as well as a variety of burial positions (not seen in the signi cantly more codi ed disposal of the older deceased). Our aim is to improve comprehension of the identity of the young dead, and their place in society before and after death.
... In KDK23 cemetery, both sexes are buried and all ages are represented, from stillborn to old age. There is no evidence of any kind of selective burial practice, particularly for the youngest (Maines et al. 2017), and the mortality profile corresponds to an "ordinary" ancient mortality, an "attritional mortality" (without selection and without crisis). It contains females and males, with no significant differences (although a general sex-ratio cannot be calculated, due to the poor state of preservation of hip-bones), and adults and non-adults of all ages. ...
In the area of Kadruka, in Sudanese Nubia, almost twenty Neolithic cemeteries from the Vth millennium BC have been identified. The current excavation at KDK 23 has already provided more than 130 burials, almost all individual. The often plentiful goods consisted in unused objects or even objects made for the funeral itself, except for the ceramic pots that played a specific role. Taken from the household, they are mainly containers; the inclusion of additional items such as spoons, small bowls or feeding bottles, inside pots associated with infants indicates that they indeed contained food for the dead; supplies for the last journey.
Settlements and inhumation structures at El-Barga during Mesolithic and Early Neolithic periods.
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Extr. de res. d'A. (...) Les articulations labiles, plus precocement rompues, apportent les meilleurs arguments pour demontrer le caractere primaire d'une sepulture et discuter son evolution. L'anthropologie de terrain vise a restituer l'attitude originelle du corps, l'agencement des pieces d'habillement, des elements de parure et du mobilier; elle contribue aussi a definir l'architecture de la tombe en precisant le milieu de decomposition (espace vide ou colmate) et en montrant les effets du contenant sur la position des ossements. Sont egalement discutes dans cet article les criteres d'identification de depots secondaires, les reinterventions consecutives a la reouverture de la tombe, et les methodes specifiques d'analyse des sepultures multiples et collectives
The excavation of the funerary site of Manihina (Ua Huka Island, Marquesas Archipelago, French Polynesia) has brought some forty burials to light, dating to the middle of the 15th century AD (long before the island was discovered by European seafarers). Using standard archaeoanthropological analyses, a wide variety of ways of disposing of the dead was identified within this small burial ground (some of which have parallels in the later ethnohistorical accounts of the first travellers): primary burials of different kinds (directly into the ground or with evidence of the use of a wooden container), but also cases of mummification prior to interment, a few more complex interventions that involved reopening the grave to remove skeletonised parts, add another corpse or rebury dislocated remains (referred to by archaeologists as “secondary burials”), and one exceptional case in which the skull of an individual is arranged and displayed as a “trophy-skull”, which could reflect a process of “ancestralising” the dead. All these various practices are interpreted not as different kinds of “final burial” but as successive steps in a lengthy burial process that illustrates a single and particularly complex mortuary chaîne opératoire.
The African origins of Egyptian civilisation lie in an important cultural horizon, the 'primary pastoral community', which emerged in both the Egyptian and Sudanese parts of the Nile Valley in the fifth millennium BC. A re-examination of the chronology, assisted by new AMS determinations from Neolithic sites inMiddle Egypt, has charted the detailed development of these new kinds of society. The resulting picture challenges recent studies that emphasise climate change and environmental stress as drivers of cultural adaptation in north-east Africa. It also emphasises the crucial role of funerary practices and body decoration.
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