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Discovery of the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt’s western desert

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

MichaƗ Kobusiewicz ,
Jacek Kabaciński ,
Romuald Schild ,
Joel D. Irish  and
Fred Wendorf
MichaƗ Kobusiewicz
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań Branch, Zwierzyniecka 20, 60-814 Poznań, Poland (Email: mkobus@man.poznan.pl, kabay@man.poznan.pl)
Jacek Kabaciński
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań Branch, Zwierzyniecka 20, 60-814 Poznań, Poland (Email: mkobus@man.poznan.pl, kabay@man.poznan.pl)
Romuald Schild
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Al. Solidarnœci 105, 00-140 Warszawa, Poland
Joel D. Irish
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK. 99775-7720, USA
Fred Wendorf
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75-275, USA
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Abstract

The authors report the discovery of a cemetery of richly furnished graves in the western desert of south Egypt. Artefacts, burial rites and radiocarbon dates relate the cemetery to pastoralists practising transhumance in the later Neolithic period. The first such cemetery to be investigated, its cultural affiliations offer a pre-echo of what would become the Egyptian civilisation.

Keywords

EgyptNeolithicdesertmultiple burialbeadspastoralisma
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 301 , September 2004 , pp. 566 - 578
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

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