A bioarchaeological approach to the study of an Ancient Egyptian population from Saqqara, Egypt

Description

This research intends to demonstrate the potential of multidisciplinary studies by using a combination of archaeological attributes and skeletal indicators of health in order to explore the nature of social structure and processes of social change in an ancient Egyptian population from Saqqara. The study is based on a biocultural analysis of the funerary customs and human remains from a multi-periodcemetery where the funerary activity took place during the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC) and Late to Ptolemaic periods (664-30 BC).Based on the methods of assessing social diversity previously applied in studies of several large ancient Egyptian populations, a funerary wealth index that incorporates a much wider spectrum of archaeological data has been designed to assist in the estimation of the individual’s wealth and to evaluate the social stratification of the Saqqara population in various historical periods. The examination of the skeletal remains intends to establish whether the overall health status of the individuals at the time of death correlated with their socialstatus, and to what extent the observed patterns of social and biological status changed over the period of use of the cemetery.

Period	11 May 2011
Event title	4th Conference of Jornadas de Jovens em Investigação Arqueológica
Event type	Conference
Location	Universidade do Algarve, Faro, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International