Beyond Borders: A Craniometric Exploration of Population Affinities and Individual Ancestries in the Nile Valley during the Early to Mid-Second Millennium BCE.

Abstract

Using craniometric analysis against a contextualised backdrop, this thesis examines interpopulation affinity and intrapopulation diversity of the Nubian and Egyptian Nile Valley during the first half of the second millennium BCE (c.2000-1500 BCE). This time is characterised by intense interactions between Egyptians and Nubians, and provides artistic, textual, and archaeological evidence of heightened relationships with people from outlying regions. Previous quantitative and qualitative cranial and dental studies of Egyptian and Nubian groups have found anomalies or variation during this time, but often lack contextualised explanations or are confined by their biocultural, temporal, or spatial scope. Few consider the individuals within the populations. This thesis not only establishes the origins and relatedness of Nilotic groups within a discrete but dynamic period, but also draws upon regional and global samples to investigate relationships between populations, as well as the individual outliers concealed within. By layering a combination of statistical tests over multiple scenarios, biological relationships which mirror cultural and geographical borders are revealed. However, the populations of the Nile Valley are also closely intertwined. Inconsistencies that arise within the samples used both challenge and support previous findings, yet correlate with historically documented events. Despite general homogeneity of the Nilotic groups, both admixed and foreign (non-Nilotic) individuals are detected and their ancestral origins investigated. Through this approach, this thesis contributes to current understandings of population dynamics within Egypt, Nubia, and neighbouring regions, and reveals implications for broadening discourse on mobility, migration, and estimation of ancestry during the first half of the second millennium BCE. Show more