Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

Places burial traditions at the centre of Saharan migrations and identity debate, with new technical data and methodological analysis.

M. C. Gatto (Edited by), D. J. Mattingly (Edited by), N. Ray (Edited by), M. Sterry (Edited by)

9781108474085, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 February 2019

586 pages, 130 b/w illus. 19 maps 22 tables
25.6 x 18.4 x 2.7 cm, 1.33 kg

'In Burials, Migration, and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond, Gatto, Mattingly, Ray, and Sterry bring together diverse datasets from all corners of the desert using an explicitly trans-Saharan approach. Inspired by developments in Mediterranean archaeology, they reframe the desert as a great interconnected sea that can only be understood in relation to its 'shorelands' on its eastern, northern, and southern peripheries. Instead of standing outside the desert looking in, as scholars and historians have done for centuries, this book is set within the Sahara looking out. Through this approach, the editors seek to understand how events and processes within this network shaped human lives across space and time.' E. A. Sawchuk, African Archaeological Review

This ground-breaking volume explores a series of inter-related key themes in Saharan archaeology and history. Migration and identity formation can both be approached from the perspective of funerary archaeology, using the combined evidence of burial structures, specific rites and funerary material culture, and integrated methods of skeletal analysis including morphometrics, palaeopathology and isotopes. Burial traditions from various parts of the Sahara are compared and contrasted with those of the Nile Valley, the Maghreb and West Africa. Several chapters deal with the related evidence of human migration derived from linguistic study. The volume presents the state of the field of funerary archaeology in the Sahara and its neighbouring regions and sets the agenda for future research on mobility, migration and identity. It will be a seminal reference point for Mediterranean and African archaeologists, historians and anthropologists as well as archaeologists interested in burial and migration more broadly.

Preface David J. Mattingly
1. Burials, migration and identity: the view from the Sahara David J. Mattingly, Maria Carmela Gatto, Martin Sterry and Nick Ray
Part I. Burial Practices in the Central Sahara: 2. Dying to be Garamantian: burial, migration and identity in Fazzan David J. Mattingly, Martin Sterry and Nicholas Ray
3. Identity markers in the South-Western Fazzan: were the people of the Tanezuft/Tadrart Akakus region Garamantes? Maria Carmela Gatto, Lucia Mori and Andrea Zerboni
4. Human mobility and identity: variation, diet and migration in relation to the Garamantes of Fazzan Ronika K. Power, Efthymia Nikita, David J. Mattingly, Marta Mirazón Lahr and Tamsin C. O'Connell
5. The Garamantes from Fewet (Ghat, Fazzan, Libya): a skeletal perspective Francesca Ricci, Mary Anne Tafuri, Francesca Castorina, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Lucia Mori and Giorgio Manzi
Part II. Looking East: 6. Between the Nile and the Sahara: some comparative perspectives David N. Edwards
7. Isotopic approaches to mobility in Northern Africa: a bioarchaeological examination of Egyptian/Nubian interaction in the Nile Valley Michele R. Buzon, Sarah A. Schrader and Gabriel J. Bowen
Part III. Looking North: 8. Numidian burial practices Joan Sanmartí, Irene Cruz Folch, Jordi Campillo and David Montanero
9. Revisiting first Millennium BC graves in North-West Morocco Emanuele Papi
Part IV. Looking West: 10. Protohistoric and pre-Islamic funerary archaeology in the Moroccan pre-Sahara Youssef Bokbot
11. Burial practices in Western Sahara Joanne Clarke and Nick Brooks
Part V. Looking South: 12. Burial and society at Kissi, Burkina Faso Sonja Magnavita
13. Burial practices, settlement and regional connections around the Southern Lake Chad Basin, 1500 BC–AD 1500 Scott MacEachern
Part VI. Linguistic Aspects of Migration and Identity: 14. The linguistic prehistory of the Sahara Roger Blench
15. Berber peoples in the Sahara and North Africa: linguistic historical proposals Christopher Ehret
16. The archaeological and genetic correlates of Amazight linguistics Elizabeth Fentress
17. Concluding discussion Martin Sterry, David J. Mattingly, Maria Carmela Gatto and Nick Ray.

Subject Areas: Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], African history [HBJH]