Sheep/goat long bones were modified to make tools for the everyday life, and in some graves “raw material” and finished or almost finished tools were found together (Fig. 5). Thicker cow bones and ribs were transformed in perforators (Figs. 6-7). In one burial along the vertebrae of the deceased, we found a bunch of cow ribs that we could not count because they were almost powdery in condition.

Thanks to the “re-cycling” taking place at the site, we are informed of the subsistence and economy of R12. The list of animals present in the bone sample also includes gazelles, hippopotami, elephants and birds obtained through hunting.
Bracelets made of ivory and containers made of hippopotamus tusks, pins and needles, are just some of the items appearing in the list of objects recovered from the graves (Figs. 8, 9, 10).
Whether this pastoral society was enjoying the rich environment of the Seleim basin all year round or was there only seasonally is an open question.
This lush environment would seem to have had quite a good carrying capacity for supporting the population all year round, and it would not be unreasonable to assume this.
We tried to sort out this problem by analysing the mortuary practices of the group. We consider the orientation of the body and face as well as the deposition side as a meaningful information. More than once, in fact, it has been pointed out in the literature that the side of deposition of the dead was not casual, even though this specific trait can convey different messages. In some cases it was linked to gender and clan or group membership, that is to say, relinkable to the system of social organisation or else conceptions related to where the spirits of the dead reside. In other cases, it is the orientation of the face which prevails, and is often related to the direction the mythic complex of the group give to the here-after or else to the clan or the totem of the deceased. It seems certain that the modality of the position of the corpse can represent crystallised directional messages towards different cultural spheres and perhaps can be grouped under two main labels:
A) religious ideology and
B) social ideology (possibly reflection of the social system).