These Medieval Islamic Tombs in Sudan Were Laid Out Like Galaxies

Some of the burials appear to be clustered around “parent” funerary mounds of seeming cultural significance



Researchers analyzed the Sudanese landscape with a model originally created to analyze the spatial patterns of stars and galaxies. (Costanzo et al. / PLOS One)

By Isis Davis-Marks
SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
2 MINUTES AGO

Archaeologists in eastern Sudan have discovered thousands of medieval Islamic tombs arranged in patterns resembling galaxies, with burials seemingly clustered around central “parent” tombs of great significance.

As Owen Jarus reports for Live Science, experts uncovered the funerary monuments in the state of Kassala. Per a statement, the international research team drew on satellite images and fieldwork to identify more than 10,000 tombs spanning 1,600 square miles. The findings are newly published in the journal PLOS One.

“To the naked eye, it was clear that the clustered tombs were conditioned by the environment, but deeper meaning may have been implied in their spatial arrangement," lead author Stefano Costanzo, an archaeologist at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” tells Live Science.

Costanzo and his colleagues used the Neyman-Scott Cluster process—a model initially developed to study the spatial patterns of stars and galaxies—to analyze the burials and pinpoint their locations. Types of tombs recorded included “visually striking” qubbas, whose history and architectural design are the subject of debate, and stone tumuli, which are “relatively simple raised structures, widespread throughout African prehistory and history,” according to the study.



Landscape views of scatters of qubbas around the Jebel Maman (Stefano Costanzo under CC-BY 4.0)

The analysis revealed six clusters with sub-groups of burials nested within, reports the Jerusalem Post. As Becky Ferreira explains for Vice, the researchers suggest that the parent tombs, which “are akin to galactic centers,” are older burials of cultural significance, “with younger tombs radiating away from them, like the stars in a galactic [disc].”

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https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/experts-have-uncovered-thousands-medieval-islamic-tombs-arranged-galactic-pattern-180978140/