Nubia

14 contributions, 256 pages, 62 figs., 15 tables, paperback

see also: http://www.academia.edu/3545293/Reconsidering_the_Mesolithic_and_Neolithic_of_Sudan

Recalling the Eleventh Dynasty, the three rulers in
Lower Nubia were a clear threat to the security of
the Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian state. The policy of 

recruiting foreign soldiers backfired when they could
go home with full knowledge of Egypt and its capabilities..

In the last decade, prehistoric archaeology in central Sudan and Nubia has been characterised by a regional approach and the use of proper stratigraphic methods in excavation strategies. This has also led to the discovery of well-preserved stratified Mesolithic deposits at sites affected by heavy post-depositional anthropogenic disturbances. For the first time, 65 years after the excavation of the Khartoum Hospital site, it is possible to perceive and describe material production variability, settlement pattern discontinuity and/or continuity. It has now become possible to face the problem of social complexity of hunter–gatherer–fisher groups along the middle Nile Valley, a cultural phase which lasted for at least 3,000 years. The new data suggest a reworking of the static picture of this culture, as emerging from the scientific literature, in order to move the debate in a new and more productive direction. This contribution will only be a first step, based mainly on freshly collected pottery assemblages, towards a new approach to the Khartoum Mesolithic pottery culture. It also begins a critical appraisal of the methodological and theoretical faults that hampered a correct evaluation of the data collected from previous surveys and excavations in central Sudan. Incidentally, it will help to revitalise the study of pottery–bearing hunter–gatherer–fisher societies, and supply fresh data to the worldwide anthropological debate on this complex and yet unresolved topic.

Azhari Sadig Blog: My First Book. 

The basic objective of this book is to develop earlier studies, in the light of comprehensive new data which has been found in the last 40 years in the Middle Nile Region. The book provides a summary and interpretation of the archaeological evidence of the Neolithic of the region through a theoretical and practical approach to subsistence, economy and settlement patterns.It is written for the non-specialist; however it will also be useful for those archaeologists who, whilst interest in Neolithic because they read about it during the course of their study, only have a basic understanding of the major aspects and approaches by which Neolithic is studied.This book, written by Dr. Azhari Mustafa Sadig, University of Khartoum, is one of the outputs from the spring 2008 "Water, Culture and Identity"- group.

17th January – 30th April 2013
This exhibition is the result of photographic and filmic research by Frederique Cifuentes in Sudan from 2004 to 2010. Comprised of Cifuentes’ original material and historic photographs from Durham University’s Sudan Archive, the exhibition offers a new and unique documentation of the remnants of the colonial experience in Sudan from the Ottoman, Egyptian and British periods. It explores how these physical remains of empire have been appropriated in Sudan since Independence.

Neal Spencer, British Museum The archaeology of Amara West town is spectacular: few other sites in the Nile Valley preserve houses of the late New Kingdom (1300-1100 BC), standing to nearly two met...

Antiquity Vol 86:334, 2012 pp 1068-1083 - Stan Hendrickx and others - The vivid engravings on vertical rocks at the desert site of Nag el-Hamdulab west of the Nile comprise a rock art gallery of exceptional historical significance. The authors show that the images of boats with attendant prisoners, animals and the earliest representation of a pharaoh offer a window on Dynasty 0, and depict the moment that the religious procession of pre-Dynastic Egypt became the triumphant tour of a tax-collecting monarch.

The last quarter century has seen extensive research on the ports of the Red Sea coast of Egypt, the road systems connecting them to the Nile, and the mines and quarries in the region.

The Meroitic town of Hamadab was situated just three kilometers south of Meroë city. It was a common ‘non-royal’ town, but probably related to the capital by economic and personal links. Its temple and two steal bearing a long Meroitic inscription of Queen Amanirenas have been unearthed by John Garstang in 1914.
Excavations and geophysical investigation since 2001 revealed a comprehensive map of an urban settlement of five hectares size. It consisted of a square-shaped Upper Town and suburbs. The Upper Town was originally enclosed by a strong city wall. The main avenue, the temple and large habitation blocks must have been founded by higher authorities in the last two centuries BCE, being followed by a continuity of use and rebuilding over centuries. However, still in the late period of the town during the 3rd century CE, densely built mud brick houses, streets and cross roads still show a regular settlement pattern. Present excavations illustrate the life in a Meroitic town, household activities and handicrafts. Within the suburbs beyond the city walls, pottery kilns and dumps with iron slag and production waste indicate workshops for pottery production, iron smelting, as well as glass and faience manufactures
In early 2012 Dr Jane Humphris, a research fellow at UCL Qatar investigating early iron production in Sudan, traveled to the Meroitic site of Hamadab to join the ‘Hamadab and Meroë Royal Baths’ project of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). Led by Dr Pawel Wolf, archaeological research at the site of Hamadab has been ongoing for a number of years, and continues to reveal much about life at this urban settlement. One aspect of the site that had remained unexplored until now are the extensive remains associated with a major iron producing industry

From the blog of Azhari Mustafa, an archaeologist at University of Khartoum

Architectural Conservation of an Amun Temple in Sudan

Archaeologists excavating a site in in Sedeinga, northern Sudan have discovered 35 pyramids surrounded by graves which they believe date back around 2,000 years.

Antiquity Vol 86:334, 2012 pp 1155-1166 - Alex de Voogt - Game-boards carved on monuments offer an intriguing opportunity to track a certain mindset in time and space. In an earlier Antiquity article, the author showed us that mancala boards were carved on the Roman plinths at Palmyra by Arab soldiers. Here he takes us into Sudan, finding new mancala boards on the first-millennium pyramids at Meroe. With adroit detective work, he shows that these too are probably owed to military visitors, this time a group of nineteenth-century Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman empire—perhaps those assigned to help Giuseppe Ferlini to blow up and pillage the tombs.