Within the DiverseNile project, we focus on developments and dynamics in the Bronze Age, particularly in the Late Bronze Age. The collapse of the Late Bronze Age is also a key consideration here, and I have recently revisited Post New Kingdom evidence from the MUAFS concession.
I am delighted that a publication is now available. In this new article (Budka 2025), I have attempted to shed new light on an old topic. In recent decades, the concept of a ‘Dark Age’ in ancient Sudan at the beginning of the first millennium BCE has increasingly been questioned within Nubian archaeology. This is primarily due to new archaeological discoveries at urban sites such as Tombos and Amara West, as well as new theoretical approaches that have emerged since the post-colonial shift. My recently published study aims to demonstrate that remote sensing, surveying and excavations in the Attab to Ferka region of Sudan have also yielded significant evidence of sustained habitation following the termination of Egyptian colonial rule over Nubia. Studies of settlement patterns and pottery, in particular, enrich our understanding of people’s lives between 1070 and 750 BCE, allowing us to shed light on dynamic processes, local forms of resilience and innovation.
This new understanding of the resilience of communities after the collapse of colonial Nubia under Egyptian rule enables a more nuanced interpretation of the development of the Napatan Empire and challenges the conventional concept of secondary states.
The Attab to Ferka case study shows that marginalised regions and communities made a significant contribution to cultural dynamics and achievements in Sudan during the first millennium BCE.
I’m very much looking forward to receiving feedback on this discussion and my theory!
Reference
Budka, J. 2025. The End of the Egyptian New Kingdom in Colonial Nubia: New Perspectives on Sociocultural Transformations in the Middle Nile. Humans. 2025; 5(4):26. https://doi.org/10.3390/humans5040026
By Mrs. Huda Magzoub Al-Bashir, Senior Curator of the Sudan National Museum, Khartoum (status: 14th Oct. 2025)
Mechanisms for protecting museums and antiquities in Sudan
The mechanisms for protecting museums and antiquities in Sudan are divided into two parts:
Firstly: The mechanism for protecting the building with its contents. This is further divided into two parts in terms of importance:
1. Archaeological, historical, and heritage buildings, where preservation is more important and requires greater care and caution. This also includes museums and field museums.
2. Museum collections, archaeological, historical, and heritage collections, whose preservation depends on the preservation of the building in which they are displayed, after careful selection of the site, method, and materials of construction, and the importance and concern of the state in doing so.
Secondly: The state’s mechanism for paying attention to museums, antiquities, and heritage, as a symbol of national sovereignty and identity, and any negative interference with it requires swift and necessary response.
Prior planning:
Establishing a museum under state sponsorship requires prior planning to protect it from internal and external threats and to adopt a sound and effective method for preserving it.
Mechanism based on supporting national security awareness to protect antiquities and museums and the right to swift intervention through those in charge of managing museums, antiquities, and heritage in Sudan, by following pre-planned methods to protect archaeological collections in museums and rescue them to safe areas or routes.
Mechanism for preserving museum collections:
This mechanism is the primary work mechanism in this field and is represented by:
– Museum collections themselves, in terms of collecting, restoring, documenting, displaying, publishing, preserving, and making copies of them.
– In this context, when feeling insecure, relying on the experiences of some countries that have previously preserved the originals of collections, antiquities, and artifacts in safe places and displayed copies of them to avoid theft or attacks, even if it requires returning them to the ground or to secret storage until safety is ensured.
Insurance mechanism through security agencies recognized and approved by the state to protect museums, antiquities, and heritage in Sudan.
These security agencies must receive adequate training to qualify them to preserve and protect collections and their locations, including museums.
Armed defense mechanism:
This mechanism is only allowed to be used in case of an attack on museums or their contents. It requires a deadly defense by specialized agencies to do this work and make the security of museum facilities part of national security.
Avoiding exposure of archaeological museums and their heritage to looting:
To avoid exposure of museums with rare archaeological collections to looting, especially in cases of armed threat, requires prior efforts based on:
– The state’s interest in its heritage and collections, whose loss would affect the state’s dignity, strength, and prestige.
– Several aspects and methods can be followed to avoid exposure of museums, antiquities, and museum collections to looting, theft, and aggression:
1. Increasing and developing insurance and its methods, according to modern techniques of theft, and benefiting from the experiences of other countries.
2. Addressing and cutting off corruption in all aspects related to the management of museums, antiquities, and heritage in Sudan.
3. Financial preparedness can play an important role in avoiding exposure of museums to looting, by providing the necessary resources for protection and security.
4. Working continuously to raise cultural awareness of the importance of museums, especially among security agencies, and instilling a sense of national duty to defend this heritage.
5. Seeking international cooperation and assistance from organizations concerned with protecting museums, antiquities, and heritage worldwide.
6. Establishing laws and deterrent penalties that must be put in place in agreement with the state and adopted internationally in case of exposure of museums, antiquities, and national heritage to looting, especially by armed parties.
On Tuesday, October 14, 2025, the Council of Ministers approved a number of international agreements for the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Tourism. This was considered a historic event due to the long wait for these agreements to be reviewed by the Council. The approved agreements include:
1. Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (1970).
2. Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001).
3. UNIDROIT „Institut international pour l’unification du droit privé“. Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects (1995).
Additionally, the Council approved several memoranda of understanding between the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Tourism and its counterparts in China and Russia, including:
1. Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Tourism of Sudan and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on cooperation in the field of culture.
Presented by: Huda Magzoub Al-Bashir, Head of Antiquities, Sudan National Museum, 09 October, 2025.
The Sudan National Museum in Khartoum has been severely damaged due to the ongoing war in the country. The museum, which houses thousands of artifacts from ancient civilizations, including statues, mummies, and golden relics, was looted and vandalized by armed groups.
Key Facts:
– Location: The museum is situated in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan, along the Nile River.
– Damage: Many exhibits were stolen, and some were damaged beyond repair.
– Looted Artifacts: The stolen artifacts include golden relics and other valuable items.
– Responsibility: The Sudanese authorities blame the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for the looting and damage.
– Impact: The looting and destruction of the museum have sparked widespread concern and condemnation, with many calling for the preservation of Sudan’s cultural heritage .
The Sudan National Museum in Khartoum has suffered significant damage and looting due to the ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Here are some key points about the situation:
– Destruction and Looting: The museum, which houses an estimated 100,000 objects, has been comprehensively looted, with thousands of artifacts stolen or destroyed. The RSF occupied the museum in June 2023, and videos have shown empty galleries, shattered display cases, and rubble strewn across the institution.
– Cultural Significance: The museum’s collection includes ancient Nubian kingdoms, Kushite empire, Christian kingdoms of Alodia and Makuria, and Islamic sultanates of Sennar and Darfur. Some of the most valuable items stolen include mummies dating back to 2500 BCE and royal Kushite treasures.
– International Response: UNESCO has appealed to international art dealers, museums, and customs authorities to refrain from trading in or facilitating the movement of Sudanese cultural property looted from the museum or protected sites. The international community is urged to raise awareness and share documentation identifying looted Sudanese artifacts to recover them.
– Current State: The museum’s strongroom was breached, and its entire archaeological gold collection was stolen. A large storage space containing over 500,000 artifacts from across the country was also ransacked and damaged.
– Impact on Heritage: Sudanese intellectuals and citizens have expressed profound grief over the museum’s destruction, framing the loss as symbolic of the broader devastation wrought by the war. The war has endangered Sudan’s cultural heritage, with several regional museums and archaeological sites vulnerable to looting and destruction.
The conflict has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, displaced millions, and plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis. Both the SAF and RSF have been accused of committing human rights violations and international crimes
There is evidence suggesting that the stolen artifacts from the Sudan National Museum have been trafficked to several destinations, including:
– South Sudan: According to Sudanese officials, some of the stolen artifacts have been smuggled into South Sudan, where they are being bought and sold by antiquities dealers. Some of the artifacts have been identified in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and efforts are underway with Interpol to track them down.
– International markets: Reports have emerged of stolen Sudanese artifacts being offered for sale on online platforms, such as eBay, where three stolen Sudanese statues were listed for sale for $200. However, the listings were later removed.
– Within Sudan: Some of the stolen artifacts have been found hidden in factories and homes within Sudan, as was the case in the city of Atbara, where stolen artifacts from the Nyala Museum in Darfur were discovered.
Efforts are being made by Sudanese authorities and international organizations to recover the stolen artifacts and protect Sudan’s cultural heritage.
As the summer season draws to a close, it is also the case that the short hiatus from the DiverseNile Seminar is coming to an end. It is with great pleasure that I announce the forthcoming DiverseNile Seminar, scheduled to take place on 2 September, presented by Mohammed Alfatih Hayati.
Mohammed is currently employed as an Assistant Professor in Archaeology at the Department of Archaeology of the University of Khartoum in Sudan. His particular area of expertise is the Later prehistory (Mesolithic-Neolithic) of Sudan. Mohammed was awarded his PhD in Archaeology from the University of Khartoum in 2016. He is a member of numerous archaeological field projects in Sudan.
The subject of Mohammed’s presentation is „Archaeology in the Gezira Reach. Current State and Future Challenges“. In the context of the ongoing war in Sudan, it is imperative to consider the impact on both the Sudanese people and the nation’s substantial cultural heritage and rich archaeological sites. Current assessments and future challenges pertaining to significant archaeological regions, such as the Gezira, must be addressed in order to formulate effective strategies for the preservation and protection of these invaluable assets.
I’m very grateful to Mohammed for speaking in our Seminar Series and I’m excited to hear his update about archaeology in the Gezira Reach. I hope many of you will be able to join!
Conferences often provide plenty of new ideas and social and scientific encounters, as well as fresh input. This was exactly the case last week when the DiverseNile team participated in the SAfA 2025 conference.
The 27th biennial meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA 2025) took place at the University of the Algarve in Faro, Portugal, from 21 to 26 July 2025. The venue was lovely, Faro is a beautiful place to visit in the summer. The meeting was a great success thanks to the excellent organisation and rich programme, which included excellent keynote speakers and a highly inspiring plenary event.
Alongside Elena Garcea and Giulia D’Ercole, I organised a session titled „Investigating settlements versus cemeteries. Competing or complementing interests? A View from Sudan“.
We considered this session to be relevant for the following reasons:
Firstly, there are some general aspects to consider. Throughout history, research in Sudan has clearly focused more on burials than on settlements. Cemeteries are considered the most significant social units, providing vital insights for archaeological interpretation and the reconstruction of social, economic, and gender patterns. Ideal case studies are those that include both settlements and cemeteries, although these are often not contemporary with each other.
Furthermore, there are also some personal reasons for organising this session. The three of us have worked on Sai Island and developed a longue durée approach that considers both settlements and tombs. My current DiverseNile project clearly links to this, combining an assessment of domestic and mortuary sites (building on what we have already done during the AcrossBorders project on Sai Island).
Me introducing the theme of the session (photo: H. Aglan).
During our session, an impressive line-up of speakers (including our Sudanese friends and colleagues Ahmed Nassr and Mohamed Bashir) presented the various methodological and theoretical aspects, as well as the challenges and opportunities, of this field of study. Drawing on case studies from different regions of ancient Sudan, particularly the Middle Nile Valley, the Jezira plain and the hinterlands, the subject was explored in depth.
Case studies from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Medieval periods were presented. We also discussed social patterns and cultural behaviours throughout history. This allowed us to link the assessment of settlement patterns with burial customs.
I am particularly pleased that Hassan Aglan discussed the relevance of the Kerma cemeteries within the MUAFS concession (highlightening our work at GiE 003), and that Chloe Ward presented innovative ideas regarding settlement patterns within the same area.
To conclude, our perspective on the topic is informed by observations from various periods and regions of Sudan. The session addressed the past, present and future of investigating settlements and cemeteries, an area in which much remains to be done.
We would like to thank all of our speakers, all participants and the organisers of SAfA 2025 again for now. Personally, I am already looking forward to the next meeting in 2027.
I am delighted to announce the next DiverseNile seminar, which will take place before the summer break.
Ahmed Nassr will be speaking on the topic of: „Middle Paleolithic and Neolithic landscape use variabilities in central Sudan, view from recent discoveries in Northern Butana“. Ahmed is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism and Archaeology at the College of Arts at the University of Ha’il in Saudi Arabia.
He specialises in Palaeolithic and Neolithic Sudan and has conducted a wide range of surveys and excavations in various regions of Sudan.
Ahmed kindly wrote an abstract highlighting the content of his upcoming lecture, which I am happy to share here:
“During July 2022 we carried out an archaeological survey in northern Butana (NB) in the area so called Dihaira in the Atbara/Nile triangle. The survey covered the area south of Edamr about 40 km into the fringes of the Butana 80 km in the south, and 20 km east of the Nile to the western margin of Atbara paleo-lake about 60 km. Multiple methods applied including desktop archaeological exploration, landscape ground survey, systematic survey, and test excavations.
The concession is adjacent to two major prehistoric sites (Atbara and Butana), which are of significant importance for understanding human adaptation, cultural evolution and mobility within the central Sudan region. Building on the results of our previous fieldwork in Atbara and the Middle Nile, the NB project was established to understand the range of landscape units exploited by Middle Stone Age (MSA) groups and subsequent prehistoric inhabitants, and to explore the relationship between the hinterland of Butana and the riverine zone.
This lecture tries to present the outcomes of the inaugural survey of the first season, which recorded ninety new archaeological sites. These sites found in variable landscapes, and encompass high-density concentrations of stone artifacts, burial sites, and stratified contexts spanning various periods from Middle Paleolithic, Early and late Neolithic, and Meroitic. The data collected from site surfaces, surface cleaning of MSA sites, excavation of terminal Neolithic sites supported by comprehensive classification and C14 dating.”
Don’t miss this opportunity to find out about a very promising field project in Sudan!
The most significant category of material culture utilised by the DiverseNile project in order to reconstruct contact space biographies (see Budka et al. 2025) in the Attab to Ferka region is pottery. It is therefore with great pleasure that I can announce the recent publication of several articles on pottery and the varied perspectives on its analysis.
As previously stated on this blog, an article was published that examined the significance of Nubian pottery in the context of Sai city, thus in an urban environment in Upper Nubia during the 18th Dynasty (Budka 2025a).
A recent update was presented together with Giulia D’Ercole and Elena Garcea, addressing the subject of archaeometric analyses of Sudanese ceramic assemblages from all archaeological periods, spanning from the ninth millennium BCE to the first millennium BCE. The present article (D’Ercole et al. 2025) discusses some of the findings of my ERC-funded projects, AcrossBorders and DiverseNile.
It is with great satisfaction that I can report on the successful inclusion of novel research findings from the field in Sudan, with fresh samples, in this publication. This achievement is to be attributed to the invaluable support of our esteemed colleagues at NCAM, and in particular, our inspector during the 2025 season, Mohamed Eltoum.
In view of the ongoing war in Sudan, it is imperative to continue our collaborative analysis of material using state-of-the-art methods. This will enable Sudanese archaeology to make progress despite the current difficulties and major concerns, apart from the humanitarian catastrophe, such as the destruction of museums, universities and offices.
In our paper, Fig. 14 comprises a small assemblage of recently collected sherds from the fortified structure 2-S-43N, dating to the early 18th Dynasty, located in Attab West.
This site is of significant interest in the context of cultural entanglement, but it also serves to illustrate the pressing issues currently being faced in northern Sudan. It is fortunate that this region has thus far remained free from the direct impact of armed conflict; however, there has been a considerable loss of cultural heritage due to the expansion of gold mining activities. Evidence of this can be found at site 2-S-43N in the MUAFS concession, where a bulldozer has partially removed the structure, and across the entire west bank, extending from Attab to Ferka. Moreover, on the island of Sai, in close proximity, the repercussions of gold mining on archaeology are pronounced.
The early New Kingdom site 2-S-43N was discovered in February 2025 to be partially destroyed by a deep trench that had been cut with a bulldozer (see photo to the right) (photo: J. Budka).
Turning once more to recent publications on pottery, it is with great pleasure that I announce the publication of an update concerning the Nubian ceramics found in House 55 in Elephantine, Egypt (Budka 2025b).
The study of the pottery from House 55 was initiated during the AcrossBorders project and was continued in 2024. The 2024 season focused on Nubian vessels and so-called hybrid vessels (labelled by Dietrich Raue as Medja-pots, imitating Pan-Grave style incised decoration on Egyptian style wheel-made globular bowls, Raue 2017). The combination of Nubian surface treatment with Egyptian production technique, utilising Egyptian Nile clay, is a distinctive characteristic of these vessels. The shapes exhibit notable similarities to Pan-Grave style cooking pots and globular bowls, while concurrently displaying closer affinities to Egyptian shapes, such as those seen in 17th Dynasty cooking pots.
The prevalence of Nubian pottery in House 55 is noteworthy, with a 17.3% representation in the diagnostic pieces and an average of 4.8% of the overall ceramic material (exceeding 5,500 individual Nubian sherds were documented). In conjunction with 67 hybrid vessels, the Nubian vessels account for 20% of the diagnostic ceramics subjected to detailed analysis from House 55. In the present report, I provided an update on the Nubian vessels.
In general, the Nubian vessels from House 55 are predominantly associated with the Pan-Grave horizon. However, there is also evidence of the presence of Classic Kerma forms and local variants. Drawing upon the extensive corpus from a singular context, Elephantine emerges as a preeminent site of Pan-Grave associated wares within Egyptian settlement contexts. This corpus encompasses a substantial array of black-topped fine wares, thereby complementing the pottery corpus attested from cemeteries (though it is imperative to note the existence of other findings in Egyptian settlements such as Edfu and Abydos; see de Souza 2019, 9).
Published selection of Black topped wares from House 55 (Budka 2025b: Fig. 45).
This phenomenon can be conceptualised as ‚closing the circle‘: The presence of Pan-Grave horizon sherds has also been identified in the MUAFS concession, both in settlement and burial contexts. These include back-topped fine wares, vessels with incised decoration and presumed cooking vessels. This significant collection of pottery is currently being processed as part of the DiverseNile project. Knowledge of the material from Elephantine and also from Sai is of outstanding importance here, particularly in the context of investigating local patterns within a broader framework. The analysis of pottery provides a crucial avenue for reconstructing the lived experiences reflected in archaeological contexts, where aspects of interconnectivity, of seasonality and the combination and dynamics of various lifestyles need to be considered (Budka 2025b).
References:
Budka 2025a = Julia Budka, Nubian style pottery from the New Kingdom town of Sai Island, Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia (Special Issue) 5, 1‒81, https://doi.org/10.1163/26670755-04020011.
Budka 2025b = Julia Budka, 3.2 Nubian pottery from House 55 − an update, in: Martin Sählhof et al., Temples and Town of Elephantine. Final Report on the 52nd Season 2023/2024 by the German Archaeological Institute Cairo in Cooperation with the Swiss Institute for Architectural and Archaeological Research in Cairo, DAIK, 40-46, https://projectdb.dainst.org/fileadmin/Media/Projekte/2816/Dokumente/ELE-ASAE52-ENGLISH.pdf
Budka et al. 2025 = Julia Budka, Hassan Aglan & Chloë Ward, Reconstructing Contact Space Biographies in Sudan During the Bronze Age, Humans 5(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/humans5010001
D’Ercole et al. 2025 = Giulia D’Ercole, Julia Budka, Elena A.A. Garcea, More than one way to perform archaeometric analyses on pottery. Case studies from prehistoric to Bronze Age Sudan, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 66, 105232, ISSN 2352-409X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105232
de Souza 2019 = Aaron de Souza, New horizons: the Pan-Grave ceramic tradition in context, Middle Kingdom Studies 9 (London, 2019).
Raue 2017 = Dietrich Raue, Nubian pottery on Elephantine Island in the New Kingdom, in: Neal Spencer, Anna Stevens and Michaela Binder (eds.), Nubia in the New Kingdom: lived experience, pharaonic control and indigenous traditions (Leuven, 2017), 525-533.
I am delighted to announce the next DiverseNile seminar, which will be presented by a dear friend and colleague from Sudan: Hamad Mohamed Hamdeen is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Al Neelain in Khartoum. Due to the war in Sudan, he spent some time on a fellowship in Berlin, and he is currently based in Prague.
His lecture is entitled “Overview of Recent Archaeobotanical and Archaeoentomological Research from the Banganarti site (Northern Sudan)” and showcases his recent interest in bioarchaeology.
Hamad studied archaeology at BA and MA level in Khartoum, where he also received his PhD in 2017 from the University of Khartoum for his study entitled ‚Palaeoenvironment and Cultural Adaptations During the Late Prehistoric Periods in the Sudanese Desert, West Nile‘. Between the El Mahas Region and the El Golied Plain‘. This topic demonstrates his interdisciplinary interest and approach, which are crucial for modern archaeology. His diploma in Archaeology and Conservation from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland reflects his desire to receive an up-to-date education with a broad background and special fields of expertise.
Over the past few years, Hamad has made significant progress in integrating his research with his teaching, rendering his lectures far more pertinent to the next generation of Sudanese archaeologists. One of his contributions to a specific question is especially notable: he has been keen to develop the possibility of conducting bioarchaeological research in Khartoum, envisaging cooperation between Sudanese universities and the Ministry, as well as international collaboration. Given the excellent state of preservation of macrobotanical and micromorphological material from archaeological sites in Sudan, combined with incomplete knowledge of the country’s archaeobotanical remains, this is not only a valuable asset, but also a powerful tool for the future.
Despite the war, I am convinced that this positive development will bear fruit, albeit with considerable delay and many difficulties due to the extensive damage to universities and laboratories in Khartoum.
Given his focus on the subsistence strategies of prehistoric societies and his extensive experience of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental surveys, Hamad is a perfect fit for the DiverseNile seminar and of great interest to the DiverseNile project’s research agenda.
I am very much looking forward to his presentation on the new material discovered at the Medieval site of Banganarti, with a focus on archaeobotanical and archaeoentomological research.
