Local Foods and Traded Goods—the Faunal Remains from a Napatan Outpost at Gala Abu Ahmed (Sudan, First Millennium BC)

Abstract

Seventeen thousand six hundred and forty-five faunal remains from recent excavations at the pre-Napatan and Napatan fortress Gala Abu Ahmed, about 110 km west of the Nile in the lower Wadi Howar, have been identified. The results are described in detail as they represent the first large dataset for the period and region and can therefore serve as a benchmark for future studies. They are also informative for the organisation of life at outposts. Overall, there is not much that distinguishes the fauna from Gala Abu Ahmed from ordinary settlement waste. The presence of many very young caprines suggests that one building may have been used by higher status individuals. Another one, where many cowrie shells were recorded, seems to have had a ritual function. Mainly locally available animal resources were consumed, predominantly goat and sheep. However, some resources must have been brought in from the Nile Valley as well, including cattle. The environment around Gala Abu Ahmed appears to have been an arid desert area, but thanks to wells, livestock could be kept. The fauna did not yield any particular evidence that may be related to one of its presumed main functions, that of a trade post. Other outposts in north-eastern Africa are younger than Gala Abu Ahmed, and the diversity of their fauna reflects the diversity in their specific function, organisation and the people occupying them.