Human remains from Tomb MMA 514 in North Asasif: preliminary assessment

Abstract

Since 2013 the Asasif Project has conducted excavations of several Middle Kingdom tombs in the North Asasif Necropolis under the direction of Patryk Chudzik. Located adjacent to the New Kingdom temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahri in southern Egypt, these tombs were originally excavated in the early 20th century by H.E. Winlock. This article describes the results of a preliminary inventory of the human remains left behind from Winlock’s excavations of one of these tombs, MMA 514, and its associated funerary complex. This tomb was reused at least twice in antiquity after the original interment, and Winlock’s sometimes cursory (by modern standards) excavation methods have produced a highly mixed archaeological assemblage of human and faunal remains as well as archaeological artifacts from various time periods. In 2017, this author joined the Asasif Project for a very brief part of the excavation season to assess the condition and distribution of human remains from Tomb MMA 514. Although the human remains are in various stages of preservation and are highly fragmented, it is possible to identify at least nine separate individuals, ranging in age from infancy to adulthood.

Keywords

• physical anthropology
• Asasif
• Middle Kingdom
• Third Intermediate Period
• rock-cut tomb