I recently posted about some potentially spectacular, but currently controversial, results about the great pyramids. This referred paper reports more modest results about a different tomb complex that has the potential to change our understanding of just what these tomb complexes are.
Sarah Schrader, Michele Buzon, Emma Maggart, Anna Jenkins, Stuart Tyson Smith, Daily life in a New Kingdom fortress town in Nubia: A reexamination of physical activity at Tombos, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Volume 78, 2025, 101668, ISSN 0278-4165, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2025.101668.
Highlights
- A multi-method approach to better understanding physical activity and socioeconomic status in a colonial Egyptonubian space.
- Novel quantitative and qualitative assessment of points of muscle and ligament attachment.
- Bioarchaeological methods are bolstered by archaeological excavations, isotope analysis, and comparative Egyptian/Nubian contexts.
- Pyramid complexes, once thought to be the burials for the elite, were actually resting places for a socioeconomic cross section of this community.
- Illustrates the importance of reanalyzing data.
Abstract
Previous analysis of skeletal indicators of physical activity suggested that the population at Tombos, an Egyptian colonial town in Nubia, may have benefited from an imperial framework through occupations that were not physically demanding. With more than ten years of continued excavations, coupled with further biomolecular testing, we reanalyze entheseal changes at Tombos. We compare entheseal changes between the three areas of cemetery, which house drastically different tomb types. Additionally, we also assess burial position (Egyptian, Nubian) and we incorporate the results of previous strontium isotope analysis to better understand the mortuary, socioeconomic, and occupational landscapes of this colonial space.
Our findings suggest that pyramid tombs, once thought to be the final resting place of the most elite, may have also included low-status high-labor staff. We support this argument with comparative data from Egypt and Nubia. Other cemetery areas seem to include individuals whose activity levels were more moderate. Nubian-style burials have relatively low entheseal scores, suggesting that they may have had low-labor occupations during the Egyptian colonial period, despite possibly identifying as Nubian. Lastly, locals and non-locals appear to have similar levels of physical activity, suggesting that migration status was also neither an advantage nor disadvantage in such a multicultural community. This study speaks to the importance of reanalyzing data; with continued excavations, dating, and biomolecular analysis, interpretations of lived experience in the past can be completely altered.
