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11 - Burial Practices in Western Sahara

from Part IV - Looking West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

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

Since 2002, the University of East Anglia’s Western Sahara Project has undertaken a series of field seasons in the POLISARIO-controlled areas or ‘Free Zone’ of Western Sahara (Fig. 11.1). This work has involved intensive survey and excavation in a 3 km by 4 km area north of the settlement of Tifariti, known as the TF1 study area (Fig. 11.2), and extensive survey throughout the Northern and Southern Sectors of the Free Zone. Fieldwork has focused on the recording of funerary monuments and other stone-built features, rock art, surface scatters of archaeological materials and palaeo-environmental indicators. Dating has been carried out on human remains from two burials in the TF1 study area and on charcoal from test excavations of surface scatters of chipped stone and pottery.In addition, a number of indicators of past humid conditions from throughout the Free Zone have been dated and are awaiting publication.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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