This dissertation examines the practises of faunal deposits at Pangrave and C-Group cemeteries.
The faunal culture of the Middle Nubian Horizon has occasionally been mentioned in the literature and scholarly interest has included the topic of daily subsistence consumption as well as the symbolic or ritualised consumption of animals. Due to the excavation history of the C-Group and Pangrave cultures much of this research is, however, either based on very limited amounts of excavated faunal remains or based on secondary sources of information.
In 1961-64 The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (the SJE), working under the auspices of UNESCO, excavated numerous sites in Northern Sudan. The substantial assemblages of faunal material from this expedition have not been studied in the intervening years. The material includes faunal deposits from 16 Middle Nubian Horizon cemeteries and these cemeteries and their faunal deposits provide the basis for this dissertation
In the first two chapters I will introduce the area of Lower Nubia, the cultures of the Middle Nubian Horizon and the state of research, with special attention to sources mentioning faunal remains. The methodology will be presented and discussed in the third chapter.
In the fourth and main chapter, I will present and discuss the analysis of the SJE assemblages. The primary method of investigation is an in-depth MNI based identification of the faunal deposits. I have investigated the deposits, with respect to species, specific joints or body-parts and any special treatment of the bones, such as cutting, skinning and painting. In order to contextualise the faunal deposits I have also included information concerning the cemeteries, the graves, the small finds and the gender and age of the deceased. In the SJE assemblages three types of deposits could be identified, these include complete sheep deposited next to the dead, cut cattle skulls as well as large deposits of decorated sheep and goat skulls, the two latter located on or near the original surface of the cemetery. In the following fifth chapter information regarding from a number of other cemeteries will be scrutinised and compared to the SJE pattern of three distinct types of faunal deposits.
In the final two chapters of this dissertation I will attempt to position the faunal deposits in a wider context of ritually staged production and cultural practises within the C-Group and Pangrave and thus produce new knowledge of the C-Group and Pangrave cultures in relation to animal sacrifices and the related ritual practises, as they can be observed in a burial context. Ritual is understood as a particular form of practises, which creates a social arena where various social transactions and manipulation of social relations can occur and therefore an attempt will be made at understanding the social status and possible personhood of the animals utilised. In order to hypothesize on the possible meaning and social context of the faunal remains a number of relevant ethnographical analogies have been used in the interpretation of the SJE results.