The importance of the interdisciplinary approach: the example of EIMAWA mission

The goal of this presentation is to provide an overview of the activities of EIMAWA, a joint mission of the University of Milan and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in the necropolis located near the mausoleum of the Aga Khan III, in Aswan. The cross-disciplinary work of the MIASWAN project will be presented, carried out on materials found in a burial site (AGH026), discovered in February 2019. The main feature of the project is a team built to be highly interdisciplinary: participants, specialists in various fields, were selected based on their know-how in all disciplines required for the study of the necropolis. The burial site is complex and characterized by the presence of various objects and commingled remains, including mummies (often body parts) and human bones, with a high representation of subadults. Current research data concerning the analysis of human remains will be discussed. In particular, the presence of both anthropologists and practicing physicians can be a greater resource for the analysis of osteological samples or mummies. Anthropological analyses were carried out in situ, due to site constraints, where X-rays of selected remains were taken using a portable radiographic instrument. Anthropologists elaborated biological profiles from osteological remains. Radiological imaging provided more concrete data and led to a more comprehensive diagnosis of the sex and age, and at the same time facilitated the search for possible diseases. In the next mission, the entire mummies will be examined by computed tomography for more complete data. In addition, the recently discovered tombs will also be studied through interdisciplinary activities of different specialists in order to have more complete data. This presentation will show how the joint analysis may help resolve the limitation of such a particular context and finding an answer to some questions about the Aswan population.