Exploring Kinship Within a Late Meroitic to Medieval Cemetery in Sudan Using k-Modes Clustering

Intracemetery patterns at the Qinifab School site, a late Meroitic to Christian period cemetery (c. 250-1400 CE) between the fourth and fifth cataracts of the Nile River in Sudan, are modeled to explore the role of kinship in cemetery organization during significant sociopolitical and religious shifts.

Sixty-eight cranial and 36 dental nonmetric traits were examined among 67 adults. A machine-learning clustering method (k-modes clustering algorithm), new to biological anthropology, was used to detect patterning among biological, demographic, and temporal data and validated with inter-individual Mahalanobis distances and mixed data principal components analysis using only biological data.

When three validated clusters were examined, a pattern emerged that aligned with the archaeological context of the cemetery when time period is considered. One cluster concentrated at the oldest end of the site appeared to be a founding group, with the other two groups equally comprising later periods. Some mortuary patterning by sex was visually identified; a few late to Post-Meroitic males grouped together in one cluster.

Individuals from Clusters 1 and 3 were buried near each other infrequently, which suggests two different kin groups may have intermarried with the third, or one group held a status that allowed identification with the other clusters. Kinship was not a determinant for males with archery items or individuals with incisor avulsion, as they were found in all three clusters. The Qinifab School cemetery reflects temporal organization, a multilocal residence pattern, and a lack of sex stratification for the medieval period.