A monumental synthesis of a half century of research, this book investigates human remains from three communities from the ancient Nubian civilization of the Nile River Valley: Meinarti, Kulubnarti, and an unnamed shantytown of underclass laborers. The analyses of these surveys chart the evolution of the field of physical anthropology. During the first archaeological expeditions to Nubia in the early nineteenth century, anthropologists set out to identify the races of Nubian peoples during the rise and fall of their civilization, while the second wave of expeditions to Nubia in the 1930s caused a backlash against this racial determinism.
 The analyses at Wadi Halfa, part of the third-wave expeditions to Nubia sponsored by UNESCO in the 1960s, helped inspire the "biocultural approach" to human biology now used by anthropologists worldwide. Life and Death on the Nile, the life's work of two highly accomplished anthropologists, exemplifies the very best of this perspective.
 George Armelagos and Dennis Van Gerven present studies of cranial morphology and evolution in Nubian populations. They look at patterns of physiological stress and disease, as well as growth and development, in infants and children. They study bone fractures and age-related bone loss in adults, and they discuss case studies of diseases such as cancers and congenital defects. Focusing on the link between human biology and the cultural and natural environment, they provide a holistic view of the lives of ancient Nubian peoples.

Life and Death on the Nile: A Bioethnography of Three Ancient Nubian Communities

History

Armelagos, George J.

Van Gerven, Dennis P.

Ancient Civilizations

University Press of Florida

This third volume concerns the funerary remains from the site of Kulubnarti in the Northern Sudan. Graves from two different cemeteries, one on the island of Kulubnarti, the other on the adjacent left bank of the Nile, are described and discussed in terms of their location, descriptions of the grave types within their medieval context, the grave goods and analysis of the skeletal remains. In particular, Nettie Adams provides a detailed study of the well preserved textiles which ascribe to the practice of wrapping the bodies in cloth, sometimes secured with bindings, prior to deposition, occasionally laid on a woven mat. The two cemeteries date to the pre-Christian period and from c.AD 600 to recent times, respectively. Volume I of this report outlines the architectural remains and volume II the artefactual evidence.

Kulubnarti III: The Cemeteries (BAR International)

Adams, William Y.

Adams, Nettie K.

Greene, David L.

British Archaeological Reports

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