Human Mobility and Identity: Variation, Diet and Migration in Relation to the Garamantes of Fazzan


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Book chapter
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Authors
Power, Ronika 
Nikita, Efthymia 
Mattingly, David 
Mirazon Lahr, Marta 
Abstract

The Garamantes were the earliest urbanised population in the Central Sahara, and their socio-political and economic histories have been the subject of extensive study.However, little is known about their biological origins. Building on the results obtained in the Desert Migrations Project, the biocultural theme within the Trans-SAHARA Project has sought to answer two main questions relating to human migration in the Central Sahara. First, it aimed to determine what (if any) biological and cultural links can be established between the historical kingdom of the Garamantes and the preceding late Neolithic (Pastoral) and contemporary peoples in the surrounding Saharan, Sahelian, Nilotic and Mediterranean regions. Second, the project aimed to investigate aspects of the diet and individual mobility of the people who were buried in the Garamantian cemeteries of the Wadi al-Ajal, in direct comparison with results from the analysis of people from the surrounding regions

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Is Part Of
Burials, Migration and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
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All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Research Council (295907)
European Research Council (269418)
Society for Libyan Studies (via University of Leicester) (RA11G0188)