Back from the very successful International Conference for Meroitic Studies last week in Münster, I would like to elaborate on one interesting site I mentioned there in the broader context of Napatan sites in Ginis West. As outlined in a previous post, presenting these “stone villages”, I took another look at all our drone images and, above all, the georeferenced orthophotos and digital elevation models, especially from Attab West and Ginis West.
This enabled me to correctly locate a site in Attab West, on the border to Ginis West, which I had never found in the field in Sudan. This map of Ginis West was created by Kate Rose in 2023 after our last field season and shows all the Vila sites that we were unable to relocate in the field. There are various reasons for this – some of them are damaged, for some we have problems because of the georeferencing of Vila’s maps and because of unclear terrain on the ground.
Map with the status of 2023 showing sites documented by Vila, but not yet relocated by us in Ginis. 2-T-67 is on the top left, at the border between Attab and Ginis.
The latter holds true for Vila’s site 2-T-67 (Vila 1977, 93-96). I tried twice to relocate it on the ground, but could not find what Vila referred to as channels. I only saw sandy dunes, modern tracks, some depressions, but no clear traces of what Vila described. Since Vila dated these three openings with underground connections to channels to the New Kingdom, based on a single pottery vessel, the site was of greatest interest to DiverseNile. It was correspondingly annoying that I simply couldn’t find the site.
Sketch of the site by Vila 1977: fig. 49 incl. the pottery vessel he used as dating evidence.
However, the dating of Vila is anything but certain. Looking at this pottery bowl, for example, it is more likely to date already from the Pre-Napatan period. The site is nevertheless truly intriguing – the basins and channels have recently been linked to post-flood irrigation by Mathew Dalton and colleagues (2023). They suggest very convincingly that the site, and in particular the circular features, one of which was surrounded by a stone setting, actually served as wellheads for shadufs. Now it was great when I discovered the channels and round depressions on the orthophoto based on our drone images from 2022!
Detail from our orthophoto showing features corrsponding to Vila’s description to the left.
Importantly, our drone photographs show more features than those documented by Vila. Now that we have relocated this site, it will be possible to verify it in the field once we can go back to Sudan and try to obtain more certain dating evidence. This is particularly relevant to understand the dry stone walls in the area, the presumed irrigation systems (see Dalton et al. 2023) and the changing land- and riverscapes in Attab and Ginis.
Zoomed out area of 2-T-67, with a measuring line along one of Vila’s channel, showing more depressions and circular pits towards the east.
References
Dalton et al. 2023 = Dalton, M., Spencer, N., Macklin, M. G., Woodward, J. C., & P. Ryan. “Three thousand years of river channel engineering in the Nile Valley.” Geoarchaeology, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21965.
Vila 1977 = Vila, A. La prospection archéologique de la Vallée du Nil, au Sud de la Cataracte de Dal (Nubie Soudanaise). Fascicule 6: District de Attab (Est et Ouest). Paris 1977.
The start of this year’s DiverseNile Seminar on May 7th is approaching! I am very much looking forward to the lecture by Mohamed Bashir (currently Visiting Research Scholar, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, NYU) with the title “Lost landscapes, hidden histories: Palaeoecological reconstructions and archaeological investigations of the ancient city of Kedurma and its hinterland, Northern Sudan”.
„This study addresses the complicated/unexplored relationship between the ancient city of Kedurma in the Third Cataract region of northern Sudan and the surrounding hinterland. It focuses on the reconstruction of the palaeoecological conditions and the exploration of the archaeological remains, looking for the dynamic process that shaped the landscape over time in interaction with environmental factors and human activities. By integrating palaeoecological data and archaeological finds, this study seeks to uncover the historical development of the city and its hinterland.
Through interdisciplinary approaches, including survey, excavation, and analysis of archaeological artefacts, we can identify patterns of land use, settlement dynamics and cultural interactions. Through analysis, we seek to reconstruct past environments and human interventions in this urban periphery. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the surrounding landscapes of the Third Cataract region and their impact on the development of Kedurma, as well as their significance in a broader historical narrative.
Ultimately, this study sheds light on the interconnectedness of human societies, urbanization and environmental change and offers valuable perspectives for urban planning, heritage conservation and sustainable development.“
This presentation ties in perfectly with the goals of the DiverseNile project and our investigations of the hinterland of the ancient cities of Amara West and Sai Island applying the landscape biography approach. This case study will also showcase the importance to investigate urbanization processes in the Middle Nile – also in respect to sustainable development goals as Mohamed pointed out. All in all, there are plenty of reasons why you should attend this upcoming seminar!
I am very proud to announce the publication of a new volume of the ERC-funded DiverseNile Project: the copies of Landscape and resource management in Bronze Age Nubia: Archaeological perspectives on the exploitation of natural resources and the circulation of commodities in the Middle Nile, Contributions to the Archaeology of Egypt, Nubia and the Levant 17, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2024, edited by Rennan Lemos and me have just arrived and simply look great!
This volume is a direct result of many discussions held in the first DiverseNile seminar series organised by Rennan Lemos in 2021 as well as the second one in 2022, partly co-organised by Chloë Ward. The input of various colleagues working on several aspects of research extraction and management in ancient Nubia provided an opportunity to further develop an idea originally focused on gold into a collective effort to understand Nubian resource management in the Bronze Age. We are deeply grateful to all contributors to this volume, whose work illustrates the rich potential for a better understanding of how resources were extracted, managed, and utilised in complex ways in Nubia by various groups, including both Egyptians and indigenous communities, but also desert nomads. The table of content of the volume can be found here.
We are especially grateful to Manfred Bietak and the CAENL editorial board for accepting this volume for publication in their series and for organising the peer review. The publication was finalised in a difficult time for Sudan as a result of the conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. As much as we are delighted to offer a further contribution to the investigation of ancient Sudan, we are also deeply concerned about the risks the people and the cultural heritage of Sudan are facing.
We fully support all our friends and colleagues in Sudan and would like to express our appreciation for their commitment to the preservation of the Sudanese cultural heritage in these extremely challending times. With the first anniversary of this terrible conflict and humanitarian tragedy approaching, it is timely to renew our concerns about and thoughts with the Sudanese people. Peace for Sudan!
Chloë, Kate and I summarised under the title “Cultural diversity in the Bronze Age in the Attab to Ferka region: new results based on excavations in 2023” the most important working steps and results of our field season in Attab and Ginis earlier this year. This work would not have been possible without our Sudanese workmen and the support of all authorities. We are in particular very grateful to Huda Magzoub Elbashir, our NCAM inspector and long-time collaborator and friend.
An update of our work in Kerma cemetery GiE 003 can be found in the article, highlighting the relevance of the Pan-Grave burials we discovered in Trench 5. The presence of cultural diversity (Pan-Grave Nubians, Kerma Nubians) and evidence for cultural exchange (with the Hyksos – see for example the royal scarab, with the Egyptians – especially through imported ceramics) is of key importance for the ERC DiverseNile Project.
Furthermore, a short section describes our work at site 2-S-54 which we recorded as AtW 002. The rectangular Structure 1 on this site can be dated through the ceramics to the early 18th Dynasty and I included in the new article the results from the C14 analysis of a charcoal sample from a fireplace in the lower stratum, presumably the primary usage horizon. The sample yielded with the highest probability the period of 1688-1517 BCE, supporting our hypothesis that AtW 002 and neighbouring sites were probably used from Classic Kerma times to the early New Kingdom. The site is located along a paleochannel which was documented in our 2023 season by Kate (who also describes her work in this article). This paleochannel was recently addressed by our colleagues Mat Dalton, Neal Spencer and others (Dalton et al. 2023) under the topic of the intriguing river walls (of which there are plenty in our concession).
The report includes an update on our 2023 excavation at AtW 001 which allows a better understanding of this site, also in terms of dating. The material found in the debris layers we excavated in 2023 is all mid-18th Dynasty in date, therefore an abandonment of the site under the late years of Thutmose III or one of the subsequent Egyptian kings is likely. The latest pottery found at the site seems to date to the reigns of Amenhotep II/Thutmose IV (e.g. imported bichrome decorated ware).
Finally, Kate describes in the article the two primary objectives carried out for the landscape work package during the 2023 field season: 1) the drone survey over the entire district of Attab West and other areas in the concession, including low flights over selected sites for the creation of detailed orthophotos and digital elevation models of the terrain, and 2) ground survey and mapping of dry-stone features in the landscape, using a Trimble Catalyst GPS receiver, and a TDC 6000 data collector. One of Kate’s nice drone photos also made it to the cover of the new issue of MittSAG!
Seeing results of our fieldwork in Sudan published is very ambivalent at the moment – it reminds us all too well of our friends and colleagues on site and the terrible situation in Sudan, which unfortunately continues to escalate. The hope remains that 2024 will bring rapid improvement for the country and its residents. Just as there will hopefully be peace in other parts of the world.
Reference
Dalton et al. 2023 = Dalton, M., Spencer, N., Macklin, M. G., Woodward, J. C., & P. Ryan. “Three thousand years of river channel engineering in the Nile Valley.” Geoarchaeology, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.21965.
As a “landscape” archaeologist, I often have to ask myself, “What do I actually mean when I talk about landscapes?” This is far from a simple exercise, as landscapes seem to defy singular definition. Landscapes are also inherently multidimensional and interact with multi-layered social phenomena and processes such as economy, subsistence, religion, ritual, and political organization. I define landscape as the integration of natural surroundings with cultural phenomena which constitute and are constituted by social relationships. Landscapes are continuously reinvigorated and transformed by the experiences and identities of humans operating within them, and the interactions between humans, animals, ecosystems, climate, and topography. As I delve further into analysis of the landscapes of the Munich University Attab to Ferka Survey region, I try to revisit these central questions; what are landscapes and how can we best approach them from an archaeological and theoretical toolkit?
Drone photo taken in February 2023 by K. Rose showing the landscape near the Nile, from Attab West.
Landscape archaeology tackles the nuances of culture, environment, memory, meaning, and place-making. Landscape perspectives have evolved to recognize the permeability and relativity of landscapes, in that societies imbue their own sense of place and time on spaces (Anschuetz et al. 2001). This is a realization that extends beyond archaeology, as works from the realms of architecture, design, environmental studies, geography, history, psychology, and others reiterate the same principles. As the architect Amos Rapoport writes, “People seem to shape and interact with built environments/material culture primarily through meaning and this seems to hold over time, cross-culturally, and in all kinds of environments, contexts, and situations” (1990: 42). Anschuetz et al. (2001) argue for the adoption of a unified landscape perspective, which accounts for the theoretical and methodological development of the field and builds an epistemology of landscapes. The authors claim, “a landscape approach complements traditional archaeological space and time systematics through its processual and scientific means of analysis while at the same time integrating human history and agency into their constructions” (187). This perspective unites the main concerns and objectives of the two most dominant theoretical schools within the discipline of archaeology, Processualism (New Archaeology) and Post-processualism.
As someone who also is particularly interested in cemeteries, I often think about the intersections between landscapes and death. Neither death, nor landscapes were static components of ancient life. Cemeteries can be reconceptualized within archaeology as “mortuary landscapes.” Mortuary landscapes are not isolated phenomena; monuments of death scattered throughout the landscape. They, in concert with the natural landscape, are physically and ideologically transformative embodiments of long term social and cultural processes. Many works have explored this reconceptualization of cemeteries as inextricable from their natural and cultural surroundings (for examples pertaining to North Africa, see Stone and Stirling 2007 and Richards 1999, 2005). My working definition of mortuary landscapes is that they are built landscapes of burial, consisting of tombs, temples, and other constructions dedicated to death, strategically integrated with natural surroundings. These landscapes are complex, hubs of activity that develop and change over time due to natural and cultural processes. We must consider mortuary landscapes as active and dynamic spaces for the maintenance of identities of the dead and living.
Many past studies since the mid-20th century have situated a discussion of landscape archaeology within the context of the culture, history, geography, and environment of ancient Nubia and modern-day Sudan (Ahmed 1984; Caneva 1988; Edwards 1989; Garcea and Sebastiani 1998; Grzymski 2004; Hinkel 1994; Trigger 1965, 1982; Welsby 1998; Williams 1985). With respect to cemeteries, landscapes have also been integrated into studies from Neolithic to post-Medieval Nubia (Bashir 2021; Costanzo et al 2021; Emberling 2012; Weschenfelder 2015). There is a need for more studies that evaluate diachronic relationships between mortuary practices and landscapes using systematic, spatial methodologies. I intend to delve further into the application of systematic and spatial methodologies to Nubian contexts in a future blog post.
A framework that I think is helpful in achieving this mortuary landscape approach is “inscribing” the landscape. Inscription as a concept and a process has been discussed within the field of archaeology broadly. For example, in David and Wilson’s edited volume, Inscribed Landscapes: Marking and Making Place, landscape inscription is presented as a two-fold process: 1) the physical marking of the natural environment through monument construction such as rock art, and 2) and the social engagement of people with their environment that embodies landscapes with memories and “anchors people in place” (2002: 6). In studies of Nubia, the process of inscribing is discussed with reference to identity formation (Buzon et al 2016: 285) as well as landscape formation (Ambridge 2007). While there are many ways to describe this concept, I want to emphasize landscape inscription as a continuous process of imprinting and reproducing social meaning and relationships onto the physical environment through interactions and alterations that create a material signature. This includes the construction of architecture, and the use and manipulation of natural resources and features in creating patterns. Inscribing the landscape is akin to creating a dialogue between material culture and natural surroundings to translate the immaterial aspects of social relationships and phenomena. The landscape is the canvas on which the images of social meaning are drawn. This does not imply that social meaning can only be viewed or understood in one way. Interpretations will differ according to the perspectives, objectives, and biases of the inscribers and the viewers. Landscape inscription does not have an end point, so long as humans are interacting with their surroundings.
As archaeology for decades has attempted to reconcile structure and agency within the past, I conceive of landscapes as both agents and products of actions, processes, and changes. Furthermore, considering the process of death and veneration of the dead adds an interesting dimension to the landscape equation. In many cultures, such as the ones under investigation by the DiverseNile Project, death is obviously not viewed as an end result or product of a life. It is the continuation, an open door to another stage of being, an unfinished sentence. Landscapes, to me, exist in a similar plane, always in a process of becoming, never serving as a conclusion.
Ultimately, we hope that through a social biography approach to landscape (Budka 2020: 57; Kolen and Renes 2015) that delves into the interconnectedness of people, environment, material culture, and all organisms we can elucidate further patterns in landscape use and management over time; and identify more trajectories of continuity and change the inscribed landscapes of the Attab to Ferka region.
References:
Ahmed, K. A. (1984) Meroitic Settlement in the Central Sudan: An analysis of Sites in the Nile Valley and the Western Butana. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 197.
Ambridge, L. (2007) ‘Inscribing the Napatan Landscape: Architecture and Royal Identity’ in N. Yoffee (ed.), Negotiating the Past in the Past: Identity, Memory, and Landscape in Archaeological Research. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, pp. 128-154.
Anschuetz, K.F., Wilshusen, R.H. and Scheick, C.L. (2001) ‘An Archaeology of Landscapes: Perspectives and Directions,’ Journal of Archaeological Research, 9(2), pp.157-211.
Bashir, M.A.S. (2021) ‘Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology in the Sudan: A Study of Two Cemeteries at Mura, Northern State,’ The Algerian Journal of Humanities, 3(1), pp. 178-201.
Budka, J. (2020) ‘Kerma Presence at Ginis East: The 2020 Season of the Munich University Attab to Ferka Survey Project,’ Sudan & Nubia, 24, pp.57-71.
Caneva, I. (1988) El Geili: The History of a Middle Nile Environment, 7000 B.C.–A.D. 1500. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 424.
Costanzo, S., Brandolini, F., Idriss Ahmed, H., Zerboni, A. and Manzo, A. (2021) ‘Creating the Funerary Landscape of Eastern Sudan,’ PLoS ONE, 16(7), pp. e0253511–e0253511.
David, B. and M. Wilson (eds.) (2002) Inscribed Landscapes: Marking and Making Place. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Edwards, D. (1989) Archaeology and Settlement in Upper Nubia in the 1st Millennium A.D. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 537.
Emberling, G. (2012) ‘Archaeological Salvage in the Fourth Cataract, Northern Sudan (1991 2008)’ in M. Fisher, P. Lacovara, S. D’Auria, and S. Ikram (eds.), Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press: pp. 71-77.
Garcea, E. and R. Sebastiani (1998) ‘Advantages and Limitations of Surveys: The Case of the Napatan Region,’ Archéologie du Nil Moyen, 8, pp. 55-83.
Grzymski, K., (2004) ‘Landscape Archaeology of Nubia and Central Sudan.’ African Archaeological Review, 21(1), pp.7-30.
Hinkel, M. (1994) ‘The Water Reservoirs in Ancient Sudan’ in C. Bonnet (ed.), Etudes nubiennes. Conférence de Genève. Actes du VIIe Congrès International d’études nubiennes. Volume II. Genève: Mission Archéologique de l’Université de Genève au Soudan, pp. 171-175.
Kolen, J. and J. Renes (2015) ‘Landscape Biographies: Key Issues’, in J. Kolen, J. Renes and R. Hermans (eds.), Landscape Biographies: Geographical, Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on the Production and Transmission of Landscapes. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp. 21-47.
Rapoport, A. (1990) History and Precedent in American Design. New York: Plenum Press.
Richards, J. (1999) ‘Conceptual landscapes in the Egyptian Nile valley’ in Ashmore, W. and B. Knapp (eds.), Archaeologies of Landscape: Contemporary Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83-100.
Richards, J. (2005) Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trigger, B. G. (1965) History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven: Yale University, Department of Anthropology (Yale University Publications in Anthropology 69).
Trigger, B. G. (1982) ‘Reisner to Adams: Paradigms of Nubian cultural history’ in J.M. Plumley (ed.), Nubian Studies. Warminster, pp. 223–226.
Welsby, D. (1998) ‘Roman Military Installations Along the Nile South of the First Cataract,’ Archeologie du Nil Moyen, 8, pp. 157–182.
Weschenfelder, J. (2015) ‘The Terminal Neolithic Cemetery in the Funerary Landscape of MOG034, Mograt Island, Sudan,’ Der Antike Sudan. Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, 26, pp.145-152.
Williams, B. (1985) ‘A Chronology of Meroitic Occupation Below the Fourth Cataract,’ Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 22, pp. 149–195.
Summer term has started at LMU today and we are happy to announce the start of the online DiverseNile Seminar Series 2023, organised by Chloe Ward. The theme of this year’s DiverseNile Seminar Series will focus on interdisciplinary approaches to archaeological research in the Nile Valley. A detailed programme will follow soon.
Our very own Kate Rose (PostDoc of the DiverseNile project) will give the first talk on Tuesday 25th of April (13-14 CET) with the title “Inscribing the Landscape: Continuity and Change in Napatan Royal Cemeteries”.
A must for anyone interested in landscape archaeology! See you next week!
P.S.: I would like to stress that also here in quiet Germany, nothing has been routine since Saturday and the outbreak of fighting in Sudan. My thoughts are with all friends, colleagues and the civilian population at large who are once again paying such a heavy price, suffering in this political fight for power. In the hope that peace will soon return to our beloved Sudan.
Time flies by, especially when you are enjoying and/or are very busy! This clearly holds true for our last days here – they were extremely demanding but also very pleasant and full of important results and discoveries.
We managed to close the excavation in Kerma cemetery GiE 003. The original aims for the 2023 season there, building on our work from 2022, were to clarify its dating, the distribution of certain burial pit types and to check for aspects of cultural diversity. All of this worked out perfectly and more details will follow soon. For now, the most important result is the discovery of a Pan-Grave style burial in Trench 5, located just north of Trench 2 from 2022 (with Kerma Moyen burials). Since some of our pottery from 2022 was already indicating that we might have the presence of what is normally called Pan-Grave horizon, this did not come as a big surprise, but simply as what I was really wishing for.
Final surface cleaning in Trench 5; Feature 50 is the large circular pit, here fully excavated.
Feature 50, the Pan-Grave burial pit, yielded not only the remains of a funerary bed, of goat offerings as well as jewelry and ivory objects but also several intact pots. This complete beaker with some repair holes is a typical Black Topped ware associated with the Pan-Grave horizon.
Pan-Grave style beaker from Feature 50 with multiple repair holes.
In Trench 4, there were two important niche tombs cutting Classic Kerma burial pits. At least Feature 66 (which was discovered just before closing for the weekend last week) is clearly associated with Classic Kerma material culture as well – thus providing much food for thought about who decided when (and why) to be buried in a niche tomb rather than in the more common rectangular burial pits? The burial of Individual 18 found in Feature 66 was unfortunately looted, but it can be reconstructed as a contracted burial which was placed in the oval niche without a funerary bed with the head in the West and the feet in the East.
Remains of the contracted burial inside Feature 66, cutting an earlier Classic Kerma pit.
Furthermore, we finished sampling of pottery from AtW 001, GiE 003 and the Vila site 2-S-54. Giulia did prepare more than 100 samples which we will hopefully analyze together with Johannes Sterba of the Atominstitut Wien by iNAA, just like the samples we took already in 2022. Our focus was on a range of Nubian wares and Egyptian-style Nile clay wares.
Thanks to the support of NCAM and our colleague Sami, Kate managed to conduct at least three days of Drone Aerial Photography after the crash of our own Phantom 4 Pro. I also managed to squeeze in some surveying on the west bank – with the discovery of some amazing new 18th Dynasty sites – very promising for the next season!
Beautiful landscape and rich archaeology – Attab West is just breathtaking!
By now, most of our team members have already left – many thanks to all of them! It was a particular pleasure to welcome Mohamed and Tasabeh from Al-Neelain University – hope to see you again next year!
Group picture 2 of the 2023 season, without Chloe but with Giulia, Tasabeh and Mohamed.
The remaining small team of Jose, Sofia, Huda and I will be busy finalizing everything here in Ginis before our own departure early next week. More updates about our results of the 2023 season will follow soon insha’allah.
I am very pleased to announce another recruitment for the ERC DiverseNile project: Kate Rose has joined us this week and will be focusing on Work Package 4, “The Biography of a Frontier Landscape in the Middle Nile.”
Kate has already settled into her new workplace at our office.
Kate is an anthropological archaeologist in the final stages of completion of her PhD at Harvard University. In her dissertation, she studied the relationship between gender and power through spatial analyses of royal cemeteries in the Napatan region.
Kate has worked and served in various leadership positions on excavations in Spain, Jordan, Turkey at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük, Egypt at the site of Tell el-Amarna, and also in Sudan at the cemeteries of El-Kurru, Nuri, Jebel Barkal, and El-Zuma.
Her experience as a field archaeologist and methodological expertise in GIS and spatial analyses makes her well-suited to explore our landscape questions aiming to reconstruct the contact space biography of the Attab to Ferka region. Kate will investigate questions of how physical spaces and landscapes constitute and are constituted by social dynamics. She will be closely collaborating with all team members, especially with Chloë and Sofia.
Welcome to Munich and our team, Kate! We are very happy to have you as a new team member.
Four years have passed since the last International Conference of Nubian Studies in Paris and on Sunday, the 2022 edition of the 15th congress will start in Warsaw.
Rennan, Chloë and I will be attending, and I will present the MUAFS project and its main results of the last years. My paper will give an overview of our activities from 2018 until 2022, with a special focus on the ongoing subproject ERC DiverseNile focusing on the Bronze Age remains. I will introduce our landscape biography approach in the Attab to Ferka region as the investigation of encounters of humans and landscapes in a peripheral borderscape with a longue-durée perspective, considering all attested finds from Palaeolithic times until the Islamic age.
For the presentation, I updated our list of sites and processed some of the quantitative data. At present, a total of 266 sites was documented. This comprises 186 of the 219 Vila sites as well as 80 newly identified sites. This number of sites is still preliminary because parts of Kosha, Mograkka and Ferka on the West bank have not yet been surveyed.
Regarding the types of sites, the most common sites are settlements and burial grounds. However, it is also remarkable that the MUAFS concession includes one granite quarry, one gold extraction site and several rock art sites.
Main types of sites in the MUAFS concession (status 2022).
As far as the dating of the sites in concerned, the majority belongs to the Medieval time. However, Bronze Age sites, here labelled as Kerma and New Kingdom sites, which are relevant to the DiverseNile project are also well represented. There are also several multi-period sites and others were re-used in later periods (e.g. Kerma sites in Medieval times).
Dating of the MUAFS sites. Note that the total number of sites for this table is 283 since several sites were used in more than one period. The Kerma and New Kingdom sites are currently being investigated by the DiverseNile project.
I will also present some general patterns of the distribution of sites throughout the ages. This allows to highlight the importance of environmental parameters and changing landscapes in the region.
Although my last visit to Warsaw was just in May this year, I cannot wait to be back in this beautiful town. I am very much looking forward to the Nubian conference and meeting all the international colleagues working in Sudan.
As anounced earlier, our DiverseNile Seminar Series 2022 will focus on material culture and society in Bronze Age Nubia and respective perspectives from landscape and resource management. I am delighted that the final programme is now available and includes a great line-up of international speakers:
I am very grateful to all speakers and especially to Rennan Lemos for organising this exciting online seminar. Registration is open and possible via email. If you registered already last year, we will just send you the 2022 Zoom link hoping that you will join us again! See you at our kick-off on January 25!
