Piotr Osypiński
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 252398 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Piotr Osypiński |
| NOMBRES | Piotr |
| APELLIDO | Osypiński |
| FIRMA | OSYPIŃSKI P |
| AFILIACIONES | Polish Academy of Sciences |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7843-224X |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 22 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 55 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 22 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2011 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 4 |
A centurion’s monkey? Companion animals for the social elite in an Egyptian port on the fringes of the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd c. CE
Monkeys kept as exotic pets by wealthy Romans have hitherto been determined as African species exclusively, specifically Barbary macaques, in the few documented cases of monkey skeletons. This has now been revised following the discovery of three dozen burials of Indian macaques from the first two centuries CE at the animal cemetery of the Red Sea port of Berenike. The special status of these primates among other buried companion animals, mainly …
Holocene Lithic Traditions on the Middle Nile in Light of New Data from Letti, Sudan
Authors Accepted Manuscript of a paper published in "Lithic Technology" (2025) The research of Early Holocene sites in the Middle Nile region enabled the establishment of general trends in technological traditions, including the creation of stone tools, ceramic vessels and subsistence. Nevertheless, the task of ascribing the origins of subsequent Neolithic tradition to these earlier ones was a challenging endeavor. This in turn served to reinforc…
Cattle domestication revisited
A Roman fibula from a transcontinental port on the fringes of the Empire
A brooch found in a mid-first-century AD context at the Roman port of Berenike, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, represents the southernmost find of an Aucissa-type fibula. The item reflects the identity of its wearer, possibly a Roman soldier, for whom it may have held sentimental value
Animal cemetery and caravan stop — investigating suburban space in a transcontinental port in Berenike (Red Sea, Egypt)
Berenike was a port of trade between the Roman Empire, Arabia, Africa and India. • Companion animals were buried with care during town’s peak prosperity in 1–2c. CE. • A masonry structure became the centerpiece of the animal cemetery in mid-1st c. CE. • Caravans from the Nile Valley may have stopped near the area of animal cemetery. • Data from animal cemetery illuminates spatial development of the ancient port suburbs. This paper presents new ar…
New advances in research on pre- and proto-historic settlement of Argi and Letti, Upper Nubia
New fieldwork in Argi and Letti (Southern Dongola Reach) has produced unique data on early Holocene settlement and burial practices. New surveys, backed by GIS data, shed light on true forms and preservation of settlements dating from the Paleolithic to the Kerma periods, providing an absolute chronology as well as exciting future directions
Southern province of the first African state
Discoveries at Letti provide important data on the functioning and reach of one of the oldest African civilisations: the kingdom of Kerma (2500–1500 BC). Extensive surveys and preliminary excavations have recorded numerous settlement and funerary sites in the region. Our results help to expand the economic data and chronology
Unearthing a Middle Nile crossroads – exploring the prehistory of the Letti Basin (Sudan)
New research on early Holocene settlement and burial practices in the Southern Dongola Reach focused on the key areas of the Letti region, Argi (adjacent to Affad) and the outlets of Wadi el-Melik and Wadi Howar. The project follows up on ten years of investigations by the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad region (Northern Province, Sudan). Unique data collected in the course of the first season of fieldwork reopens the debate on cattle domesticat…
Oh, My Beloved, Great Bull!” An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cattle as a Marker of Economic and Political Status in Medieval Sub-Saharan Societies
The historical, zooarchaeological and isotopic data concerning cattle breeding and management in the medieval Middle Nile Valley are considered in this paper in the first such comprehensive research for the region. The main source of data are the nearly 10,300 animal remains. The archaeozoological analyses focused primarily on cattle morphology. Strontium isotope analyses were used to indicate the local/non-local origin of animals encompassing th…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Re‐examining the age of the Affad MSA deposits in the Middle Nile Valley
We present data on the chronology of fluvial and aeolian sediments as well as ecofacts that allow us to indicate the timing of Middle Stone Age settlement in Affad on the Middle Nile. Previously published chronometric data based solely on (multi‐grain) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates suggested the extremely late settlement and usage of Middle Stone Age technology in North‐East Africa during the Terminal Pleistocene (post‐Last Glacia…
Ancient Pets. The health, diet and diversity of cats, dogs and monkeys from the Red Sea port of Berenice (Egypt) in the 1 st -2 nd centuries AD
Exploration of the ancient transcontinental port of Berenice has enabled us to reveal some of the cultural roots of today's societal bond with 'commensals'; this bond included emotional ties with domesticated animals. The 'pet cemetery' at the port functioned from the mid-1st to mid-2nd century AD. The 585 unearthed burials were dominated by cats, dogs and two species of macaques. At least some of these animals came from outside the African conti…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Excavation of the small animal cemetery at the Roman Red Sea harbor of Berenike in 2018 and 2019
The paper discusses funeral practices with regard to animals in ancient Berenike, investigated in two seasons of exploration, 2018 and 2019 (trenches BE18/19-107, BE01/19-48 and BE19/132). Three groups of animals are represented almost exclusively in the burials. These are cats, dogs and monkeys, buried mainly around the top and on what was the eastern slope of a sand dune. In the mid 1st century AD, an enclosure wall roughly 0.50 m thick was bui…
Affad 3.0/Cattle+. Field seasons 2017 and 2018 of the PalaeoAffad Project
The first Affad was the one we saw when the archaeological sites there were first investigated at the beginning of the century. The second Affad, which is the region that we have been exploring in the past 15 years, bore many signs of modern Sudanese culture encroaching upon the desert. In 2009, an asphalt road cut through the desert and shortly thereafter, the Debba bridge and power lines were constructed, the latter coming from a hydroelectric …
New evidence for the emergence of the human-pet relation in early Roman Berenike (1st–2nd century AD)
Animals were as inextricable a part as they were indicative of the system of common ancient Egyptian beliefs. Their special role was manifested in a rich iconography and in multitudes of animal mummies deposited in the major sacral complexes. Seen in this light, the cemetery of small animals of 1st–2nd century AD date, excavated since 2011 in the Red Sea port town of Berenike, comes across as entirely unique, notwithstanding the spiritual aspects…
Levallois Tradition epigones in the Middle Nile Valley
The paper presents the results of an archaeological ground survey aimed to record prehistoric settlement landscape in chosen parts of the Southern Dongola Reach (Tergis, Affad and El-Nafab districts). The project fills in the gaps in earlier research on the right bank of the Nile. Numerous new sites were recorded, all reflecting a frequently occupied level of silts and sands originating in the former river valley aggradations. Prospection of loca…
Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley
With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this re…
The Wadi Khashab ceremonial complex — a manifestation of cattle keepers in the Eastern Desert of Egypt before the end of the fifth millennium BC
Despite suggestions of cattle keepers being present in the Eastern Desert of Egypt before the end of the fifth millennium BC there is still no archaeological evidence concerning settlement patterns and relations to the cultures of the Nile and Western Desert. Archaeozoological datasets have also been lacking for ancient herding models and animal metrics/morphology in the region. Research at Wadi Khashab provides new data with which to address the…
Affad 23
Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest Levallois industries in the Nile Valley
Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site with Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan
Affad 23, situated in upper alluvial deposits related to a former channel of the Nile in the Affad District, Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan, is mainly known through its upper or surface level. The combined data concerning the position of the site, composition of the lithic assemblage, freshness, refittings and dispersion of the artefacts point to a late Middle Palaeolithic workshop used for short periods. It utilized discoid and levallois debitage…
Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest Levallois industries in the Nile Valley
Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley
With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this re…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Affad 23
Oh, My Beloved, Great Bull!” An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cattle as a Marker of Economic and Political Status in Medieval Sub-Saharan Societies
The historical, zooarchaeological and isotopic data concerning cattle breeding and management in the medieval Middle Nile Valley are considered in this paper in the first such comprehensive research for the region. The main source of data are the nearly 10,300 animal remains. The archaeozoological analyses focused primarily on cattle morphology. Strontium isotope analyses were used to indicate the local/non-local origin of animals encompassing th…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site with Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan
Affad 23, situated in upper alluvial deposits related to a former channel of the Nile in the Affad District, Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan, is mainly known through its upper or surface level. The combined data concerning the position of the site, composition of the lithic assemblage, freshness, refittings and dispersion of the artefacts point to a late Middle Palaeolithic workshop used for short periods. It utilized discoid and levallois debitage…
Cattle domestication revisited
Re‐examining the age of the Affad MSA deposits in the Middle Nile Valley
We present data on the chronology of fluvial and aeolian sediments as well as ecofacts that allow us to indicate the timing of Middle Stone Age settlement in Affad on the Middle Nile. Previously published chronometric data based solely on (multi‐grain) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates suggested the extremely late settlement and usage of Middle Stone Age technology in North‐East Africa during the Terminal Pleistocene (post‐Last Glacia…
Affad 23, a Late Middle Palaeolithic Site with Refitted Lithics and Animal Remains in the Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan
Affad 23, situated in upper alluvial deposits related to a former channel of the Nile in the Affad District, Southern Dongola Reach, Sudan, is mainly known through its upper or surface level. The combined data concerning the position of the site, composition of the lithic assemblage, freshness, refittings and dispersion of the artefacts point to a late Middle Palaeolithic workshop used for short periods. It utilized discoid and levallois debitage…
Optimal adjustment or cultural backwardness? New data on the latest Levallois industries in the Nile Valley
Levallois Tradition epigones in the Middle Nile Valley
The paper presents the results of an archaeological ground survey aimed to record prehistoric settlement landscape in chosen parts of the Southern Dongola Reach (Tergis, Affad and El-Nafab districts). The project fills in the gaps in earlier research on the right bank of the Nile. Numerous new sites were recorded, all reflecting a frequently occupied level of silts and sands originating in the former river valley aggradations. Prospection of loca…
Animal Exploitation and Behaviour of the Latest Middle Stone Age Societies in the Middle Nile Valley
With the research on the issue in its initial phases, the behaviour and hunting strategies of MSA communities inhabiting the Nile Valley in the Late and Terminal Pleistocene have been fragmentarily recognised thus far. Osteological materials from the area of the Affad Basin in the Middle Nile Valley, recorded in archaeological contexts and dated to the sixteenth millennium BP using OSL methods, have significantly enhanced our knowledge in this re…
The Wadi Khashab ceremonial complex — a manifestation of cattle keepers in the Eastern Desert of Egypt before the end of the fifth millennium BC
Despite suggestions of cattle keepers being present in the Eastern Desert of Egypt before the end of the fifth millennium BC there is still no archaeological evidence concerning settlement patterns and relations to the cultures of the Nile and Western Desert. Archaeozoological datasets have also been lacking for ancient herding models and animal metrics/morphology in the region. Research at Wadi Khashab provides new data with which to address the…
Affad 23
New evidence for the emergence of the human-pet relation in early Roman Berenike (1st–2nd century AD)
Animals were as inextricable a part as they were indicative of the system of common ancient Egyptian beliefs. Their special role was manifested in a rich iconography and in multitudes of animal mummies deposited in the major sacral complexes. Seen in this light, the cemetery of small animals of 1st–2nd century AD date, excavated since 2011 in the Red Sea port town of Berenike, comes across as entirely unique, notwithstanding the spiritual aspects…
Excavation of the small animal cemetery at the Roman Red Sea harbor of Berenike in 2018 and 2019
The paper discusses funeral practices with regard to animals in ancient Berenike, investigated in two seasons of exploration, 2018 and 2019 (trenches BE18/19-107, BE01/19-48 and BE19/132). Three groups of animals are represented almost exclusively in the burials. These are cats, dogs and monkeys, buried mainly around the top and on what was the eastern slope of a sand dune. In the mid 1st century AD, an enclosure wall roughly 0.50 m thick was bui…
Affad 3.0/Cattle+. Field seasons 2017 and 2018 of the PalaeoAffad Project
The first Affad was the one we saw when the archaeological sites there were first investigated at the beginning of the century. The second Affad, which is the region that we have been exploring in the past 15 years, bore many signs of modern Sudanese culture encroaching upon the desert. In 2009, an asphalt road cut through the desert and shortly thereafter, the Debba bridge and power lines were constructed, the latter coming from a hydroelectric …
Ancient Pets. The health, diet and diversity of cats, dogs and monkeys from the Red Sea port of Berenice (Egypt) in the 1 st -2 nd centuries AD
Exploration of the ancient transcontinental port of Berenice has enabled us to reveal some of the cultural roots of today's societal bond with 'commensals'; this bond included emotional ties with domesticated animals. The 'pet cemetery' at the port functioned from the mid-1st to mid-2nd century AD. The 585 unearthed burials were dominated by cats, dogs and two species of macaques. At least some of these animals came from outside the African conti…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Re‐examining the age of the Affad MSA deposits in the Middle Nile Valley
We present data on the chronology of fluvial and aeolian sediments as well as ecofacts that allow us to indicate the timing of Middle Stone Age settlement in Affad on the Middle Nile. Previously published chronometric data based solely on (multi‐grain) optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates suggested the extremely late settlement and usage of Middle Stone Age technology in North‐East Africa during the Terminal Pleistocene (post‐Last Glacia…
Unearthing a Middle Nile crossroads – exploring the prehistory of the Letti Basin (Sudan)
New research on early Holocene settlement and burial practices in the Southern Dongola Reach focused on the key areas of the Letti region, Argi (adjacent to Affad) and the outlets of Wadi el-Melik and Wadi Howar. The project follows up on ten years of investigations by the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad region (Northern Province, Sudan). Unique data collected in the course of the first season of fieldwork reopens the debate on cattle domesticat…
Oh, My Beloved, Great Bull!” An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cattle as a Marker of Economic and Political Status in Medieval Sub-Saharan Societies
The historical, zooarchaeological and isotopic data concerning cattle breeding and management in the medieval Middle Nile Valley are considered in this paper in the first such comprehensive research for the region. The main source of data are the nearly 10,300 animal remains. The archaeozoological analyses focused primarily on cattle morphology. Strontium isotope analyses were used to indicate the local/non-local origin of animals encompassing th…
New advances in research on pre- and proto-historic settlement of Argi and Letti, Upper Nubia
New fieldwork in Argi and Letti (Southern Dongola Reach) has produced unique data on early Holocene settlement and burial practices. New surveys, backed by GIS data, shed light on true forms and preservation of settlements dating from the Paleolithic to the Kerma periods, providing an absolute chronology as well as exciting future directions
Southern province of the first African state
Discoveries at Letti provide important data on the functioning and reach of one of the oldest African civilisations: the kingdom of Kerma (2500–1500 BC). Extensive surveys and preliminary excavations have recorded numerous settlement and funerary sites in the region. Our results help to expand the economic data and chronology
Animal cemetery and caravan stop — investigating suburban space in a transcontinental port in Berenike (Red Sea, Egypt)
Berenike was a port of trade between the Roman Empire, Arabia, Africa and India. • Companion animals were buried with care during town’s peak prosperity in 1–2c. CE. • A masonry structure became the centerpiece of the animal cemetery in mid-1st c. CE. • Caravans from the Nile Valley may have stopped near the area of animal cemetery. • Data from animal cemetery illuminates spatial development of the ancient port suburbs. This paper presents new ar…
A centurion’s monkey? Companion animals for the social elite in an Egyptian port on the fringes of the Roman Empire in the 1st and 2nd c. CE
Monkeys kept as exotic pets by wealthy Romans have hitherto been determined as African species exclusively, specifically Barbary macaques, in the few documented cases of monkey skeletons. This has now been revised following the discovery of three dozen burials of Indian macaques from the first two centuries CE at the animal cemetery of the Red Sea port of Berenike. The special status of these primates among other buried companion animals, mainly …
Holocene Lithic Traditions on the Middle Nile in Light of New Data from Letti, Sudan
Authors Accepted Manuscript of a paper published in "Lithic Technology" (2025) The research of Early Holocene sites in the Middle Nile region enabled the establishment of general trends in technological traditions, including the creation of stone tools, ceramic vessels and subsistence. Nevertheless, the task of ascribing the origins of subsequent Neolithic tradition to these earlier ones was a challenging endeavor. This in turn served to reinforc…
Cattle domestication revisited
A Roman fibula from a transcontinental port on the fringes of the Empire
A brooch found in a mid-first-century AD context at the Roman port of Berenike, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, represents the southernmost find of an Aucissa-type fibula. The item reflects the identity of its wearer, possibly a Roman soldier, for whom it may have held sentimental value
Archaeology (20 obras) · Geography (19 obras) · History (14 obras) · Ancient history (13 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 obras) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (8 obras) · Geology (8 obras) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (7 obras) · Prehistory (7 obras)