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New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan. Keywords: Sudan, Jebel Moya, Sahel, agropastoralism, mortuary, Introduction Jebel Moya is the largest known cemetery in the southern Gezira plain of south-central Sudan (Figure 1). Between 1911 and 1914, Henry Wellcome removed 3135 human burials in his [...]

Published by Cambridge University Press, 26 October 2018.In the article by Brass et al. (2018), the affiliation and funding information supplied for Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin was incorrect. The correct affiliation is [...]

It has been almost three decades since the Wendorf & Schild-Andrew Smith debate over the timing and location of domesticated cattle in North Africa reached its climax. The time is now appropriate for a review of the old models in light of subsequent anatomical and genetic data which have come to light. This article summarises the main issues and models, and attempts to provide suggestions for future investigations.

Debates on the subject of cultural complexity and its material manifestations are situated at the centre of research on prehistoric pastoralism in North Africa. Employing already published databases, this article integrates raw data from archaeological sites across the Sahara with ethnography to generate a framework of analysis in which changes in material culture can be interpreted. It attempts to establish a relationship between the analysis of human and cattle remains in order to study (a) the relations between modes of interment of animals and of humans, and social changes, and (b) the processes responsible for the appearance of a symbolism of power in the mid- and late Holocene funerary rituals. Their integration with landscape systems results in a conclusion of complex patterns of cultural diversity which question previous dismissals of early Saharan pastoral-is is as the progenitors of social complexity.