Veronica Tamorri (Durham University, UK)

This paper will explore the significance of the manipulation of human remains come to light at several Predynastic cemeteries in Egypt, and the use of these practices to construct and transmit tradition, beliefs and social memory. At necropolises such as Hierakonpolis (HK 43), el-Adaïma and Naqada, post mortem treatment of dead bodies seems fairly common. Incisions practiced on bones, disarticulation of bodies or displacement of entire parts of skeletons (for example skulls) have often been attributed to the action of looters, although their nature proved far too complex and apparently ritualised. In some cases, it has been demonstrated that even decades after the burial the bodies could be subject to rituals showing that memory of tombs and ‘special’ dead was preserved and transmitted. Communities, groups, or families to which the dead had once belonged, seem to have participated to the funeral in a process of reciprocal exchange in which the deceased was guaranteed his/her journey and place in the afterlife, and the living created a permanent link with their ancestors. Human body was the physical support through which these dynamics were carried out, and its manipulation was the result.
In this paper I will illustrate some cases of manipulation of human remains found at the above mentioned Predynastic sites, analysing them through the lens of archaeological theory. The purpose of my research is to verify how such practises changed, disappeared and possibly evolved into the Pharaonic culture.