Funerary practices and anthropological features at 8000-5000 BP. Some evidence from central-southern Acacus (Libyan Sahara).

In this paper we bring together and analyse old and new data which are indicative of funerary practices and population dynamics in the Tadrart Acacus (south-western Libyan Sahara) between 8000 and 5000 BP. We report therefore unpublished, or partially published information referable to sites of central-Southern Acacus: Uan Muhuggiag, Imenennaden,and Fozzigiaren. To this brief review, we add new data coming from both the re-examination of archaeological and anthropological materials stored in Libyan and Italian museums, as well as the analysis of new burial evidence and theresults of new excavations at the sites of Uan Muhuggiag and Imenennaden. The results provide new indications on funerary practices before and during the Pastoral phases, as well as the first diachronic information on the human groups which inhabited the region in the early-middle Holocene and on aspects of their life conditions.