The Cemeteries of Adaima

The cemeteries of Adaima Supervisor: Béatrix Midant-Reynes (prehistorian, IFAO). Collaborators: Éric Crubezy (anthropobiologist, univ. Paul Sabatier, Toulouse 3), Sylvie Duchesne (anthropologist, INRAP). The predynastic site of Adaima, which was excavated from 1989 to 2005, revealed a vast residential site and two cemeteries that covered the greater part of the 4th millennium, an era that witnessed the succession of different stages of Upper Egypt's predynastic culture (Naqada I to III). The investigation of the funerary ensembles employed the now commonly used methods of l’anthropologie de terrain.or field anthropology. The excavation was conducted by an anthropologist and led to the essential observations for understanding the funerary practices (conditions of decomposition in open or closed space, position of hands and of fingers, etc.). The excavation at Adaima of the nearly 800 tombs, many of which were intact, has led to an up-dating of everything that we knew concerning the funerary practices of the period in question. Moreover, a palaeobiological approach using DNA was quickly developed, leading to an analysis of illnesses within an epidemiologic perspective. In 2002, most of the western cemetery, i.e. around 200 tombs, was the subject of an IFAO publication by É. Crubezy, Th. Janin, B. Midant-Reynes. The 600 burials that are still to be published are generally in the eastern cemetery and the majority are of children within

a

clearly

circumscribed

area,

thus

allowing

for

a

palaeodemographic

approachpaléodémographique. Planned activities:



Complete the study of the eastern cemetery of Adaima.

Planned publications:



S. Duchesne, É. Crubezy & B. Midant-Reynes, Adaïma III. La nécropole de l'Est. IFAO, Le Caire.

Selected bibliog ra phy: 

É. Crubezy, Th. Janin, B. Midant-Reynes, La nécropole prédynastique d'Adaïma, FIFAO 47, Le Caire, 2002.



S. Duchesne, Chr. Petit, N. Baduel, B. Midant-Reynes, É. Crubézy, «Le rôle des parures dans les cérémonies funéraires au Prédynastique: l’exemple des sépultures d’enfants à Adaïma», BIFAO 103, 2003, p. 133-166.



É. Crubézy, S. Duchesne & B. Midant-Reynes, «The predynastic cemetery of Adaima (Upper Egypt). General presentation and implications for the populations of predynastic Egypt», dans B. Midant-Reynes et Y. Tristant (ed.),Egypt at its Origins 2, Proceedings of the International Conference «Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt», Toulouse, 5th-8th September 2005, OLA 172, Louvain, 2008, p. 289-310.