Suchergebnisse

Nubia's position both geographically and historically made it a natural laboratory for application of a historical diffusionist paradigm. That approach, which dominated research on Nubia before 1960, led to a view of Nubian culture history as a series of disconnected episodes, each characterized by the migration, displacement, or hybridization of differing racial stocks. The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, begun in 1960, provided a new view of Nubian history, emphasizing both cultural and biological continuity since earliest times. From that perspective, it has become possible to reconsider the forces of biological and cultural change in the Nubian corridor over the past 12,000 years, and to propose that the most reasonable explanation for biocultural change in the Nubia is in situ evolution. [Nubia, biological determinism, biocultural adaptation, diffusionism]

Human remains from two cemeteries at Kulubnarti in Sudanese Nubia present an ideal opportunity to assess the biological impact of political and economic change. Remains from the early cemetery come from Nubia's medieval period, characterized by political unification and important achievements in art and architecture. Remains from the second cemetery come from the later emergent feudal age, characterized by regional isolation and return to a subsistence economy. Patterns of mortality, growth, development, nutrition, and disease revealed by the remains converge on one conclusion: the transformation from the medieval to the feudal age at Kulubnarti witnessed an improvement in human health and survival.