Search

Frigi et al. [2010 (this issue)] present some new findings on a population of Amazigh--Berber speakers in Tunisia. Although their study is not exhaustive, they provide an outline of human [...]

We present the results of a study of Upper Egyptian male crania from the predynastic through the beginning of the dynastic period (about 4400?-3050 B.C.). Upper Egypt was the site [...], We carried out an exploratory historical biology study using temporally distinguished groups of predynastic-Early Dynastic male crania from the region of Upper Egypt. The objectives were, first, to determine the overall pattern of phenetic affinity between temporally sequential series and in relation to the earliest series and, second, to explore the possible meanings of the pattern of relationship to sociohistorical change. The cranial series were designated early predynastic, late predynastic, terminal predynastic, and Dynasty I. Craniometric phenetic affinity was ascertained using Mahalanobis distances; a 5% level of probability was chosen for significance. The distance matrix values were ordered into hierarchies of dissimilarity from each series (distance hierarchies) and tabulated for time-successive groups, including the temporally earliest series (i.e., serialized by time). The principal observations were as follows. The overall pattern was not one in which the values between all series were statistically insignificant; nor was it one of consistent sequential increase of biological distance from the earliest series. There was a notable and statistically significant distance between the early and late predynastic groups, with the late and terminal predynastic groups mutually having the lowest and statistically insignificant distances with each other. The value between the terminal predynastic and Dynasty I series was generally larger than the values between other groups and was statistically significant. The overall pattern is possibly consistent with archeological interpretations that postulate increasing intraregional interactions during the late and terminal predynastic periods and the rise of an Egyptian state that eventually included northern Egypt. KEY WORDS: CRANIOFACIAL VARIATION, MAHALANOBIS DISTANCES, EGYPT, AFRO-ASIATIC LANGUAGES.

Variation in the frequency and severity of porotic hyperostosis [porous defects], seen in the skulls of individuals buried at two First Dynasty cemeteries at Abydos, suggested differences in health and social conditions. Those buried near the kings had suffered from childhood deficiencies, while those associated with funerary enclosures in a second cemetery further to the north seemed to have benefited from occupational or social advantages. The author speculates on the possible factors which gave rise to this difference. Keywords: First Dynasty, Egypt, Abydos, cemetery, porotic hyperostosis, Introduction This paper presents the results of a palaeopathological study of skeletal remains from the high status cemetery of Abydos in Upper Egypt associated with the rulers of the First [...]

Male Badarian crania are analyzed using the generalized distance of Mahalanobis in a comparative analysis with other African and European series from the Howell's database. The Badarians reveal a greater affinity to indigenous Africans while not being identical and this suggests that the Badarians are more affiliated with local and an indigenous African population than with Europeans.

Predynastic and Early Dynastic Upper Egyptian adult crania were assessed for porotic hyperostosis. This lesion (in adults) is believed most often to reflect iron deficiency anaemia that has occurred in childhood. The results indicate an increase in frequency from the Badarian to Naqada I with a subsequent decline to Dynasty I. This pattern is discussed in terms of subsistence change and its possible relationship to exposure to schistosomiasis, hookworm, and various possible adaptive responses.

A diachronic decline in stress markers was found in a study of predynastic remains from the Naqada region of Upper Egypt. Dental hypoplasias and porotic hyperostosis were examined in samples representing a period when population density and social complexity were increasing and Nile flooding was decreasing.

Use of the term 'race' is discussed in response to arguments made by B. Bogin and C. Bouchard et al. The concept of race in human biology is considered in relation to the notion of subspecies in zoology.

The concept and schema of race continue to exert a major influence on studies of human biology. The racial paradigm informs evolutionary studies in spite of evidence indicating that categories based on external phenotype are not valid. Racial thinking is especially prevalent in studies of Africa. It persists in defiance of genetic data that deconstruct such thinking, probably as a result of the sociocultural milieu, linger research traditions, and a lack of appreciation of the implications of modern genetic studies.

An analysis of First Dynasty crania from Abydos was undertaken using multiple discriminant functions. The results demonstrate greater affinity with Upper Nile Valley patterns, but also suggest change from earlier craniometric trends. Gene flow and movement of northern officials to the important southern city may explain the findings.

Historical sources and archaeological data predict significant population variability in mid-Holocene northern Africa. Multivariate analyses of crania demonstrate wide variation but also suggest an indigenous craniometric pattern common to both late dynastic northern Egypt and the coastal Maghreb region. Both tropical African and European metric phenotypes, as well intermediate patterns, are found in mid-Holocene Maghreb sites. Early southern predynastic Egyptian crania show tropical African affinities, displaying craniometric trends that differ notably from the coastal northern African pattern. The various craniofacial patterns discernible in northern Africa are attributable to the agents of microevolution and migration.

The implications of the results of a study of Meroitic Period Lower Nubian crania, which used the forensic identification program Fordsic to analyze 42 crania individually as unknowns in a morphometric experiment employing forced allocation based on phonetic affinity, are discussed.

The factors involved in the generation of p49a,f Taql Y-chromosome spatial diversity in Egypt were studied. The pattern of diversity for these variants in Egyptian Nile Valley was largely the product of population events that occurred in the late Pleistocene to mid-Holocene through the First Dynasty, and was sustained by continuous smaller-scale bi-directional migration.

A principal components analysis that was carried out on male crania from the northeast quadrant of Africa and selected European and other African series is reported. The crania from the northeast quadrant of Africa collectively show the greatest pattern of overlap with both Europeans and other Africans and the high level of African interindividual variation in craniometric pattern is reminiscent of the great level of molecular diversity found in Africa.

IN THEIR REVIEW 'FARMERS AND THEIR languages: the first expansions' (25 Apr. 2003, p. 597), J. Diamond and P. Bellwood suggest that food production and the Afroasiatic language family were [...]

The appearance of agriculture in the Nile Valley occurs some 2000 years after its development in Europe and the Near East. The major cultigens are the same in these areas. It has been hypothesized by some researchers that agriculture emerges in the Nile Valley concomitant with the arrival of speakers of the Afro-Asiatic language family, both being brought after the differentiation of the Nostratic macofamily speech community. In this view agriculture (and Afro-Asiatic) come from Europe, the locale of the Nostratic cradle in this model. A phenetic craniometric analysis of early farmers from the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt was undertaken in order to explore this hypothesis. Badarian crania were studied with European and African series from the Howells' database, using generalized distances and cluster analyses (neighbour joining and UPGMA algorithms). Greater affinity is found with the African series. The results are considered with a variety of linguistic and archaeological evidence, as well as the findings of simulation studies relevant to this study. It is concluded that the earliest Nile Valley farmers in Upper Egypt for which there is record were locals, not European immigrants, and therefore that the development of agriculture in this region was not due to demic diffusion ultimately from Europe. The problems with phenetic affinity studies considered in isolation from other evidence will be discussed, as well as the flaws of thinking in terms of absolute identity, and not relative similarity.