Perhaps one of the most well-known archaeological survey projects ever undertaken, the Archaeological Survey of Nubia (ASN) directed by George Andrew Reisner and later Cecil Firth, conducted over four seasons between 1907–1911, has left an indelible mark on archaeological research in Egypt and Sudan. Of the human skeletal remains recorded and variously recovered from 151 cemeteries—from which the author Jenefer Metcalfe estimates that approximately 7500 individuals were excavated from about 20 000 graves—it is only truly the results of the first season of 1907–1908 that, to date, have been comprehensively published. The results of skeletal analyses from subsequent seasons have thus far been presented in a much more piecemeal and topic-specific fashion through various field reports and research papers.
Anatomical analyses of the human skeletal remains excavated by the ASN during the first season (1907–1908) were conducted by Sir Grafton Elliot Smith and Frederick Wood Jones with subsequent publication in 1910 as The archaeological survey of Nubia 1907–08 Vol II. Report on the human remains. Douglas Erith Derry, working in collaboration with Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, was the anatomist on site for the final three seasons (1908–1911). The skeletal remains recovered during the ASN range from the early A-group period to the Christian period, a timeframe spanning from c. the fourth millennium BC through to c. the first millennium AD. Analyses of archaeologically identified skeletal remains during the early 1900s were less common than today, with rationales for investigation typically focusing on assessments of mummification processes, elite social echelons or identification with notable artefacts. The motivation of the ASN to analyse so many human remains was driven in no small part by an interest in differentiating Egyptian from Nubian populations. Whatever the questionable objective of this goal may have been, the population-level perspective and detail of recording across temporal periods and social classes ultimately led to the ASN bioarchaeological results being one of the key foundational studies on ancient populations of the region. These findings continue to inform ongoing research, with the publication of results from the first season of the ASN being unlike anything published previously. As part of a project initially funded through a Wellcome Trust grant, Metcalfe focuses on presenting primary data about the human remains recovered and analysed from the second season of the ASN in 1908–1909. This effort has helped to reduce the lacuna left by the unpublished bioarchaeological results of the second and subsequent seasons of the ASN.
The second season of the ASN was initiated on 1 October 1908, starting in the area of Gennari on the east bank of the Nile and Kalabsha on the west bank. In total, 37 cemeteries were studied over six months, with the second season finishing in March 1909 near Aman Daud on the east bank; burials from Cemetery 58 through Cemetery 92 are presented by Metcalfe. A key focus of the second season continued to be on the question of population dynamics and transition; in particular, establishing whether cemeteries further down the Nile suggest a continuity, both culturally and biologically, of occupation from those excavated during the first season of the ASN.
Working with archival records, 495 anatomical recording cards produced during the ASN, and re-identified by Metcalfe in the Duckworth Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, form the core basis of this volume. In addition to the material at the Duckworth, skeletal materials collected under the ASN—and now curated at the University of Manchester, the University of Cambridge, the Natural History Museum, London, the Aswan Museum and the South Australia Museum, Adelaide—were integrated into the assessment undertaken. Appendix I provides a breakdown of the materials at each institution. From these sources, Metcalfe pieces together the details of skeletal materials analysed during the second season of the ASN.
The research presented by Metcalfe is a multipronged contribution to the bioarchaeological discourse. This volume provides a valuable source of primary data on human skeletal remains from numerous sites in Egypt and multiple socio-temporal contexts, as well as guidance to locations where additional data—both published and archival source materials—can be found for readers who may wish to engage further with the material presented. To this end, the bulk of this volume is dedicated to the ‘Burial Catalogue’ (pp.11–264). The catalogue gives brief details derived from the anatomical recording cards and citations to relevant source materials. Such presentation gives essential details about the human remains in a clean, straightforward, standardised format; it transforms harder-to-access, and often less-convenient-to-access, archival data and provides it in one freely accessible place. In addition to the catalogue of data, several appendices of skeletal measurements as well as an index of related entries organised by skeletal element are provided, which furthers the research benefits that this volume will surely bring. There are no specific discussion or conclusion sections because the main intention of this volume centres around data accessibility and not syntheses of results.
While the primary contribution of this volume is the ‘Burial Catalogue’, it also situates itself within a broader developing discourse in archaeology, and by extension bioarchaeology, which is that of archival archaeology and openly accessible data. Published within the ‘Access Archaeology’ series of Archaeopress, the present volume seeks to be easily accessible to all, with a digital edition option that is free to download for personal use.
Archival archaeology as an emerging subdiscipline is a multifaceted endeavour that aims to interrogate archival data sources both to provide broader and, importantly, easier access to such, as well as to engage with legacy collections more fully. A key aim is to ‘re-excavate’ or further assess aspects of site excavations. This commonly entails utilisation of, typically, grey-literature data (i.e. daily notebooks, journals, fieldnotes, marginalia, drawings) that exist for almost all archaeological projects, but which rarely see the light of day in publication. This avenue of inquiry has proven quite fruitful. While not an explicitly stated aim of the present volume, the results of this publication nonetheless demonstrate the benefits of an archival archaeology approach. In travelling to numerous museums and research institute archives, Metcalfe undertook significant legwork to access, find, verify, transcribe and understand the multifold pieces of data generated from the anatomical studies undertaken as part of the ASN second season, as well as adding updated details about research subsequently carried out on the human remains after their initial assessment. This effort of co-ordination, collection and concatenation, as manifest in this volume, is no small task and has resulted in a publication that will be of great use to bioarchaeological researchers with a focus on Egypt, Sudan and adjacent regions. In addition to these specifically targeted audiences, the generation of this volume will be of use to researchers interested in the integration of archival data sources into archaeological discourses.
