The excavation at R12 (Fig. 1) has been going on for the last four years, thanks to an agreement between the Sudan Archaeological Research Society of London and the Centro Veneto per gli Studi Classici e Orientali and was currently reported on this web site.
The last field season which has taken place in November-December 2003 benefited from a contribution from the Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation which was particularly important allowing Luana Cenci’s conservation work on a great number of vessels and ivory and bone objects and the presence of an archaeozoologist for the study of the great amount of animal bones (mainly used for the production of bone tools) found in the graves. Since the first campaign of work in Sudan in 2000, the GASID and AREA OFFICE of Turin supported us in various and invaluable ways.
A lot of effort was put into moving the work ahead as much as possible so that about 170 graves of a graveyard supposed to contain no more than 120 were excavated.
The sample in our hands may give a reasonable picture of a Neolithic Nubian society and may contribute to unravelling problems about the cultural and chronological sequence of the Neolithic in Nubia.
The Cemetery, according to C14 determinations have been used for about six hundred years with the excavation revealing different grave layers, in spite of a strong erosive process which especially affected the northern and southern periphery. This long use was responsible, frequently, of graves cutting into each other and of other disturbances. Apart from the risk of some material admixture, a careful stratigraphic control often confirmed a chronological order among the different inhumations.
This also means that, unfortunately, many skeletons were found incomplete.
Erosion caused high damage on both the skeletal and archaeological materials. As wind/water cleared part of the original soil of the mound, some of the graves appeared on the surface with bones in a very fragile state and the pottery abraded to such a point that the original surface treatment sometimes was hardly recognisable (Fig. 2).
A lot can be learnt about crafts, ideology and society, from these 170 graves. Not to replicate at length information published on this web pages, after a brief description of the graves we will focus on the problem of dating the Neolithic period of this area taking a short look at the central Sudan region.

Fig. 1	Fig. 2	Fig. 3	Fig. 4

The graves are simple pits dug in the Nile sediment preserved in the form of a mud and sand mound. The pits, when very deep, appear larger at the bottom where the deceased is buried otherwise, they are strictly ellipsoidal in shape. Sometimes they are filled with Nile silt and small pebbles, other times small pebbles were used to create a sort of bed for the dead.
Graves mainly holds one body, but a few double burials were encountered as well. Sometimes the same pit was used for different inhumation, and, when this was the case, there was an attempt not to disturb the previous burial.
The bodies were in a contracted position. When deeply contracted, it is possible to argue that they were tightened and wrapped in a linen fabric. The inhumed lay mostly on their left sides, oriented West-East, facing North or North-east. Other positions were recognised, but these are those more statistically meaningful.
The population of the graveyard, using provisional data, is 34% of male, 27% of children, 21% female plus 10% unidentifiable adults. Unrecognised amount to 6%.
Almost all graves were accompanied by their goods, which in some cases indicate the special status of the deceased. The association between grave goods and sex and/or age has not yet been studied, but it is likely that objects, in certain cases, were related to particular activities to which the dead were dedicated. Widespread was the habit to put one or more “bucrania” in the grave.
This graveyard was used by one of the many groups living in the Seleim Basin during Neolithic times. They were probably mainly dedicated to herding, but hunting was still practised.
From preliminary work of archaeozoologist, Nadja Pöllath, University of Münich, Institut für Paläoanatomie, it turns that cows, sheep and goats represent almost 50% of all the animal bone sample (Fig. 3).
Some kids were found in the graves. In one case the deceased was holding the small animal between its arms (Fig. 4).