Mortuary Practices and Social Transformation

Presents a detailed examination of Ancient Egyptian mortuary practices in the Nile delta during the 4th millennium BC and a clear methodology for approaching prehistoric mortuary data in regions lacking settlement remains

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This latest volume in the Studies in Funerary Archaeology series presents an Egyptian case study from the 4th millennium BC within the framework of wider studies and analyses of early complex societies. Mortuary Practices and Social Transformation is concerned with means by which to approach mortuary data - especially when there is a considerable lack of settlement data - to consider both what it can tell about the living world, but also what it can tell us about relationships between the dead and the living. The volume gives an overview of the period prior to and during the rise of the Egyptian state and presents a clear methodology for approaching mortuary data, including the importance of chronological divisions by which researchers can have the opportunity to monitor change over time. Joanne Rowland embeds discussion of the results of her analysis within a comparison of various aspects of mortuary data throughout Egypt from the Neolithic until the Early Dynastic period (late 6th millennium-c. 2900 BC) emphasising aspects of regional differentiation, as well as local environmental niches, and addressing questions as to the actual purpose for the foundation of these sites, their function(s) and reasons for their variable longevity. This in-depth study is the first monograph dealing with data from the cemetery of Kafr Hassan Dawood, and, as such, presents a section on the ceramic chronology for the site, within the framework of other Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egyptian sites.