Nag el-Qarmila, Aswan - Season 2007 report

Bioarchaeology of the Near East, 1:59–72 (2007)

Site surveys carried out between 2005 and 2006 in the Aswan-Kom Ombo region of Egypt by the British Museum and the University of Rome “La Sapienza” revealed the presence of two cemeteries and a settlement in the locality of Nag el-Qarmila, north of Kubbaniya (Gatto& Giuliani 2006–2007, 2007). Th e 2007 fi eld season at the site of Nag el-Qarmila, directed by Dr. Maria Carmela Gatto, took place between January 24 and March 13. The purpose of this excavation was to rescue a Pan-Grave cemetery and two Predynastic/A-Group sites, all of which are in danger of being destroyed by building activities in the area. In addition to rescuing the sites, the overall research goals of the project were to defi ne the extent of interaction between Egyptians and Nubians in the region over time and to determine the location of the political boundary that existed between them. Th is report includes a summary of the excavation of the cemeteries and a discussion of the fi ndings of the preliminary in-fi eld osteological analysis performed by Pitre.