Forever Young : A Study of Nubian A-Group Child Burials

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates child burials from the Nubian A-Group within the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia’s excavations. The aim is to discuss practices and burial assemblages of children between sites and within sites. The main sites discussed are 277 and 292 where both adults and children are compared. The two cemeteries contain 73.6 % of all the A-Group children that were found by the expedition. The goal is to explore if there are geographical or chronological similarities or differences in the practices of burying children. To investigate this, practice theory and assemblage theory is applied to examine the burial assemblage to review the sites local practices of burying their dead. Earlier research has attributed certain objects to be typical of child burials such as strainers and ostrich eggshells. This, among other objects appears to not be a homogenous practice, but rather a local practice within individual sites. In conclusion, there appears to be local practices, within the cemeteries, but perhaps also within kin-groups.