Grants

Titles and bones of ancient Egyptian officials: New mathematical approach to analysing Old Kingdom data (TIBO)

GAČR Junior Star 24-10275M

Principal Investigator: Veronika Dulíková

The main goal is to study individuals and the operation of society in Egypt in the third millennium BC. The principal task is to define possible relations and links between anthropological data and the social status, family kinship or demographic profile of the population using mathematical methods.

The analysis of extensive data of prospographical, administrative and anthropological character using advanced mathematical methods reveals changes in Old Kingdom society (2700–2180 BC) and differences between individuals in relation to their social status. The combined use of a database of officials and their titles (Maat-base) and an anthropological database (AnuBase) containing the detailed evaluation of hundreds of morphological and metric features is the initial resource in the analyses and mathematical processing. The interdisciplinary project integrating the methods of systematic data collecting and complex network analysis with anthropological study of particular individuals buried at Giza and Abusir enables us to view, newly interconnect and evaluate known data using new perspectives that significantly expand and deepen our knowledge of ancient Egyptian society at a number of levels: an individual (physical appearance, physical activity, career length) – the family or community (family ties, nepotism) – the whole society/population (demography, changes over time).

Project duration: 2024–2028

Settlement and social networks of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahel: the case of Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan

GA ČR 23-06488S

Principal Investigator: Lenka Varadzinová

Jebel Sabaloka in central Sudan has preserved a unique sequence of 14C dates that span the entire duration of the Early Khartoum culture (EKC) (~8800–4700 cal BC). The archaeological evidence from this region is used here as a starting point for detailed research on long-term development and variability of settlement and subsistence strategies among early Holocene (EH) hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahel. Using new data from five EKC settlements in Sabaloka we will reconstruct and evaluate the sequence of settlement and subsistence systems during 4,000 years of this EH complex. Special attention will be devoted for the first time to detailed characterization of the earliest phase of EKC represented in Sabaloka by the earliest evidence of this culture from safe contexts (was it a ready-made, or emerging system?) and to social interactions of local foragers. The project will alter the understanding of the economic and social evolution of EH hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahel and of the ways they responded to changing conditions long before the emergence of productive economy.

Project duration: 2023–2025

Ancient Egyptian Burial Containers of the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period. Evolution, Contextualisation and Significance

GAČR No. 23-04989S

Principal investigator: Marie Peterková Hlouchová

The aim of the project is to scrutinize all types of burial containers from the Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period (stone, wood, reed and pottery) from localities all over Egypt. The data corpus of all available finds, collected in the freely accessible database, will serve as a basis for establishing an overall typology that is noticeably missing. The main analytical part lies in tracing the development of the containers and in the reconstruction of the entire process from the origin of a particular burial container to its use and possible reuse. The intention is to trace the whole scale of activities including material acquisition, its transport, methods of manufacture, applied decorative techniques as well as the final burial installation. The social, ritual and economic implications that encompass the production (e.g. religious significance of different materials, questions of specialised workshops or foreign trade with precious materials) will also be addressed.

Supported from 2023 to 2025

In Pharaoh’s Shadow: Second Life of a Royal Monument

Czech Science Foundation project no. 24-10886S

Main investigator: Hana Vymazalová

The project aims to investigate in an interdisciplinary manner the continuously developing nature and interrelationship between an Old Kingdom royal necropolis and its subsequent interpretation and (re)use by the local lower-class population. The research starting point is set in a single spatial environment – Djedkare’s royal cemetery in South Saqqara – but is characterized by a clear social (royal versus lower class) and temporal (3rd millennium BC versus 2nd/1st millennium BC) distinction. The interdisciplinary study of the finds, such as secondary burials and the associated material culture, will combine osteological, archaeobotanical and zoological analysis, assessed within its documented archaeological context in order to gain maximum information. The final synthesis will provide a deeper understanding of the interplay and affinity between the royal and low-class spheres during various periods in the history of ancient Egypt, but also offer information on environmental changes.

Project duration: 2024-2026

Grants Managed in the Previous Period

Communities and resources in late prehistory of Jebel Sabaloka, central Sudan: from analysis to synthesis

Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) project no. 17-03207S

Principal investigator: Mgr. Lenka Varadzinová, Ph.D. (Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts, Czech Institute of Egyptology,)

Co-investigator: RNDr. Petra Havelková, Ph.D. (National Museum, Natural History Museum, Department of Anthropology)

Jebel Sabaloka at the Sixth Nile Cataract in Sudan constitutes an unparalleled relic of late prehistoric settlement landscape with a considerable research potential. This project, which is a direct continuation of field research during six campaigns in 2009 – 2015, is devoted to final evaluation of the already available archaeological and anthropological findings. These will be supplemented by necessary comparative data to be obtained through excavation of two selected sites and by further analytical data needed for completion of the catalogue of sites of the whole study area. The aim of the project is to provide a synthesis of data and to evaluate their information value especially on the issue of relation between settlement patterns, subsistence and territoriality, and on the biological characteristics of the local late prehistoric populations, the phenomenon of the beginnings of community burying, and the role of the area in the supra-regional distribution of stone materials.

Project duration: 2017–2019

The Rise and Development of the Solar Cult and Architecture in Third Millennium BC Egypt

projekt GA ČR č. 17-10799S

hlavní řešitel: PhDr. Massimiliano Nuzzolo, Ph.D.