In a grand ceremony in Port Sudan, the seat of the Sudanese government since the outbreak of the Khartoum war, the General Intelligence Service handed over to the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism 570 looted archaeological pieces from Sudan’s heritage, which were stolen by militias and hidden in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country.
On the occasion of the publication of the latest issue of the Aegyptiaca journal (no. 9, 2025), I would like to draw attention once again to the current situation in Sudan. This brand-new issue also features my review of William Carruthers‘ splendid book, Flooded Pasts (2022).
For Flooded Pasts, Carruthers did a really thorough review of the archival material produced during the famous UNESCO Nubian campaign. He says it’s clear that the archives we’re talking about are part of a (post)colonial context, where modern Nubian communities and their sites have been ignored in the past. The focus of the archives, archaeological investigations and historical narratives is exclusively on the ancient past, thus giving rise to the necessity of „repeopling Nubia“, the subtitle of the conclusion of the book (pp. 274–283).
One result of the UNESCO campaign in Sudan was the opening of the National Museum in Khartoum on 25 May 1971. Even though its garden had temples from Aksha, Buhen, Semna East and Semna West, the museum and its collection weren’t given World Heritage status (unlike Egypt; check out the reviewed book for more on this, on pp. 239–241). Carruthers (p. 242) rightly puts this in context, pointing out that Sudan at the time was “a state in some degree of turmoil” (p. 242). It’s interesting that on page 241, above the heading “Forgetting Sudan?”, there’s a picture of the Sudan National Museum (Carruthers‘ Fig. 7.1). As with so much of Sudan’s cultural heritage, the museum has suffered destruction and looting in a ‚forgotten‘ war, which has been going on since 2023.
The current conflict in Sudan shows just how closely linked archaeology is to the society around it. The archaeology of Sudan is closely tied to the history of colonialism, and it’s been affected by different forms of exploitation and manipulation by governments and powerful groups who have used it to push their own national agendas. It’s clear that this is just as true today as it was in the past.
At the time of writing, Carruthers said that discussing the future of the Nubians was a tricky topic (p. 283). The war in Sudan has been going on since 2023 and has affected millions of people all over the country. This also shows why we should be interested in creating Nubian histories. It’s not just the institutions involved in the so-called Nubian campaign or archaeologists working in Sudan who should be interested, but everyone on a global level. There are new versions about the Nubian presence in Egypt, Sudan, the United States and other places that are still to be written! And these are anything but marginal.
As we said a few weeks ago at the UNESCO conference in Berlin, we’re never going to give up on Sudan! But we also need more people to talk about Sudan, to care about the Sudanese people and to help protect their rich cultural heritage.
With the festive season here in Europe and another awful war going on just next door, we should remember that millions of Sudanese people have lost everything and are struggling to survive. Sudan is the biggest humanitarian crisis of 2025, and we’re really hoping things will change in 2026.
A so-called zir is a large pottery vessel for storing water and other materials. Local customs and traditions have developed in most parts, if not all, of Sudan, emphasizing the importance of having one or more zirs for storing drinking water. Additionally, the water that seeps out from the bottom of the zir is considered cleaner and is used for drinking by the sick or for making tea for those with a refined taste due to its higher purity.
The zir is well-known to most people, but some, especially the newer generation of Sudanese, particularly city dwellers, may not be familiar with it, as its use has decreased or become rare due to the availability of faster, easier, and more modern alternatives. However, the strongest survives!
The zir has been known in Sudan since ancient times, with evidence found in archaeological excavations – such as the MUAFS excavations between Attab and Ferka and many other missions. It is studied by scholars and is part of ethnographic and folklore studies, as its production is accompanied by stories and legends. It also has various uses in Sudanese customs and cultures, such as in weddings and circumcisions.
Today, we discuss its continuity. During the war in Khartoum, I noticed that the use of the zir had increased. Previously, it had been particularly important in villages, unlike in cities such as Khartoum, where alternative water containers and drinking vessels were available. Altogether, the zir remains the preferred choice in Sudan.
There is a focus on creating a special place for it, whether by building it with green bricks or red bricks, or creating a seat with an iron canopy, known locally as a „Mazira“.
By chance, I learned a special method for cleaning it, particularly from the green fungi that grow on its exterior due to exposure to air and water seepage, known as „dew“.
Firstly, the zir is made by men in the field, but its care and cleaning are the responsibility of women, especially older women.
Despite the various types of zir in terms of size, shape, and color, depending on the materials used, there are also different methods of cleaning and decorating them from one region to another. There is also a preference for using black or red zirs.
In Northern Sudan, both black and red zir are used, but there is a difference in decoration and polishing. The people of the Northern State and the River Nile State prefer to polish and clean the exterior using natural materials, often using red brick for red zir and black charcoal for black zir.
In Dongola and some Nubian regions, people often use red zirs or those with a reddish color, known to specialists, which is determined by the materials used and the firing process. In these regions, the lower part of the zir, which is more prone to green fungi, is painted with a coating, often red or yellow, and has become a distinctive mark of the people of Dongola.
I was fortunate to witness a cleaning process, polishing, and applying a special coating to one of the zir, and I documented the process with photos. The tools and materials used are natural and part of the heritage.
All of this is done to make the zir look clean and beautiful, and this method is usually used every month or more.
These are customs, traditions, and tools that are part of the Sudanese heritage, and we hope they will continue for future generations.
I am delighted to announce the next DiverseNile seminar!
Fatima Siddig, a Sudanese PhD student funded by a DAAD Hilde Domin scholarship and based in Münster, will present her recent research on Nov. 25.
The title of her lecture is: Unravelling Ancient Nubian Beauty: A Multi-Analytical Approach: Chemical and Archaeological Study of Kushite Cosmetics
Fatima is one of a new generation of Sudanese scholars applying interdisciplinary methods to their work, and she is truly the future of Sudanese archaeology. In light of the ongoing war in Sudan, I am both proud and grateful that Fatima is able to conduct her vital research here in Germany. Don’t miss her presentation!
I am delighted to announce the first translation of a DiverseNile article into Arabic. Our dear friend and colleague, Elhassan Ahmed, translated the recent article entitled ‚Reconstructing Contact Space Biographies‘. You can find the full article here.
To kill two birds with one stone – making important texts more accessible to Arabic-speaking colleagues, but also alleviating the financial hardship of at least some Sudanese colleagues – the Sudan Cultural Emergency and Relief Fund (SCERF) of the International Society for Nubian Studies has launched a translation initiative. All articles translated to date can be found here: https://nubianstudies.org/maqalat/
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Collegium Aegyptium for their considerable financial support, which has made the translation of our article a reality.
I am very happy to announce that a new article by Panos, Hassan, Julia and myself, on integrating evidence from domestic and funerary archaeology has just been published open-access in World Archaeology (https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2025.2567057). The article is part of a special issue on Domestic and funerary archaeologies in dialogue edited by Penny Bickle (University of York), Solène Denis (CNRS) and Stella Souvatzi (University of Thessaly), and I am very much looking forward to seeing the other papers in the issue.
In our paper ‘Establishing a dialogue – Settlement and funerary archaeology in northern Sudan’ we explore ways of combining methodological and interpretative frameworks from mortuary and settlement archaeology. We focus in particular on better understanding social dynamics and cultural entanglements in the Attab-Ferka region in the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC and how these can manifest in the archaeological record. The nature of cultural entanglements can vary considerably at different scales and spheres of society as well as being influenced by a range of internal and external causes, such as a changing environmental and socio-political landscape. By using both mortuary and domestic archaeological data as well as interdisciplinary approaches which take into account the local landscape, the project is striving for a more holistic perspective on the Attab-Ferka region at both the local scale and regional level in the longue durée.
In this article we continue to consider the problematic use of labels in archaeological research, for example ‘Egyptian’ versus ‘Nubian’ by suggesting that ‘compound’ (after Stewart 2011) cultures may be a useful way of thinking about the ‘new’ cultures that can be created when different communities interact. This broadly moves away from some of the problematic connotations or idiosyncrasies of existing terminologies such as hybrid or syncretism. Overall, we hope this new article gives a good overview of many of the areas we are exploring as part of the DiverseNile project, and we will be elaborating on many of them in upcoming publications (including cultural entanglement; settlement patterns/urbanism; scales of analysis).
Reference
Stewart, C. 2011. “Creolization, Hybridity, Syncretism, Mixture.” Portuguese Studies 27 (1): 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1353/port.2011.0007
I am delighted to announce the upcoming DiverseNile seminar!
Our next speaker is Victoria Arroyo, a PhD candidate in Egyptology at the University of Münster, who has received a scholarship from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
She will be talking about her PhD thesis and the title of her lecture is: ‚Funerary Amulets in the Nile Valley‘. Cultural and Social Interactions Between Kush and Egypt in the Napatan period (c. 750–270 BCE).
I’m really looking forward to this, which promises to offer an updated perspective on the use of funerary amulets during the Napatan era.
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.
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).
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.
