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4 - Human Mobility and Identity

Variation, Diet and Migration in Relation to the Garamantes of Fazzan

from Part I - Burial Practices in the Central Sahara

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

By
Ronika K. Power ,
Efthymia Nikita ,
David J. Mattingly ,
Marta Mirazón Lahr  and
Tamsin C. O’Connell
Edited by
M. C. Gatto ,
D. J. Mattingly ,
N. Ray  and
M. Sterry
M. C. Gatto
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
D. J. Mattingly
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
N. Ray
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
M. Sterry
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

The Garamantes were the earliest urbanised population in the Central Sahara, and their socio-political and economic histories have been the subject of extensive study.However, little is known about their biological origins. Building on the results obtained in the Desert Migrations Project, the biocultural theme within the Trans-SAHARA Project has sought to answer two main questions relating to human migration in the Central Sahara. First, it aimed to determine what (if any) biological and cultural links can be established between the historical kingdom of the Garamantes and the preceding late Neolithic (Pastoral) and contemporary peoples in the surrounding Saharan, Sahelian, Nilotic and Mediterranean regions. Second, the project aimed to investigate aspects of the diet and individual mobility of the people who were buried in the Garamantian cemeteries of the Wadi al-Ajal, in direct comparison with results from the analysis of people from the surrounding regions.

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Chapter
Information
Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond , pp. 134 - 161
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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