The ancient inhabitants of Jebel Moya redux: measures of population affinity based on dental morphology

Abstract

This paper reexamines some of the methods and craniometric findings in the classic volumeThe Ancient Inhabitants of Jebel Moya (Sudan) (1955) by Mukherjee, Rao & Trevor, in light of recent archaeological data and relative to a new dental morphological study. Archaeological evidence characterises these inhabitants as having been heavily influenced by outside sources; yet they managed to establish and maintain their own distinctive culture as seen in the site features and surviving artefact collections. The dental study, modelled after the original craniometric-based investigation and using the same or similar comparative samples, detected complementary indications of outside biological influence. In the study, up to 36 dental traits were recorded in a total of 19 African samples. The most influential traits in driving inter-sample variation were then identified, and phenetic affinities were calculated using the Mahalanobis D 2 statistic for non-metric traits. If phenetic similarity provides an estimate of genetic relatedness, these affinities, like the original craniometric findings, suggest that the Jebel Moyans exhibited a mosaic of features that are reminiscent of, yet distinct from, both sub-Saharan and North African peoples. Together, these different lines of evidence correspond to portray the Jebel Moya populace as a uniform, although distinct, biocultural amalgam.

Reinterpreting chronology and society at the mortuary complex of Jebel Moya (Sudan)

“…It also draws primarily upon the published works by Addison (1949), Mukherjee et al (1955), Caneva (1991), and Irish and Konigsberg (2007), as well as the unpublished study of dental characteristics by Rachel Hutton MacDonald (1999). From the Griffiths Institute, all the records were consulted in order to determine whether any pertinent information had been missed in Addison's (1949) publication.…”

“…Addison's original Register and the integrated with both results of the re-sexing of the extant skeletons curated at the Duckworth Laboratory and previous bioanthropological analyses (Hutton MacDonald 1999;Irish and Konigsberg 2007;Mukherjee et al 1955).…”

“…Population affinity using dental traits Irish and Konigsberg (2007) revisited the Jebel Moya skeletal remains curated at the Duckworth Laboratory while undertaking other unrelated research. They modelled their study after Mukherjee et al (1955).…”

“…For example, the Nubian B Group is no longer recognised as a valid distinct cultural period and so Irish and Konigsberg (2007) opted against attempting to substitute an equivalent sample. Out of the 98 Jebel Moya crania, 58 were examined as they were the best preserved with complete lower and upper dentition.…”

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“…All the grades above the breakpoint are collapsed into "present" and those below into "absent." This makes certain analyses such as biodistance possible, as traits can be transformed into frequency data to compare populations (Khamis et al 2006, Irish andKonigsberg 2007). However, the richness of the multiple character state data is not analyzed.…”