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THE HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS OF THE LATE AKSUMITE SITE MIFSAS BAHRI (SOUTHERN TIGRAY) [Abstract ID: 0104-04]
The archaeological site Mifsas Bahri, lying just beside Lake Hashenge, has been explored by Heidelberg University and Mekelle University through the years 2013-2016. During this excavation human skeletal remains have been found which could be dated between the 11th and the 15th century. Most of these human osteal finds were individual disarticulated bones from secondary burials or stray finds. Just a few skeletal remains could be determined as graves and were more or less undisturbed. The osteal remains included a total of 98 adult individuals and 50 subadult individuals. The youngest individual died in preterm age (neonatus) and the oldest individual between 65‒74 years of age. The highest mortality can be found in individuals of the age classes’ infans I and adult. Only part of the present finds could be sexed: 40% of the sample showed significant male sex characteristics, and only 16% showed typical female sex characteristics. 44% of the skeletal elements could not be sexed, which is attributable to the high proportion of extremely slight individual representation of the skeletal material. The anthropological analyses of this population sample gives us a first impression of the living conditions in southern Tigray between the 11th - 15th century with the help of anthropological methods like demography and paleopathology.