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.
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
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.
Our recent five-week season in Sudan in February and March was very impressive on many levels – I will report on this elsewhere on this blog. Today I am delighted that the Austrian Academy of Sciences has published an interview with me about the situation on the ground.
In this interview, I describe some of my impressions of everyday life in a war-torn country, explain why the conflict is far more than a ‘battle between two generals’ – and what archaeological research can do for the future of the country.
Sudan must not be ignored. The cultural heritage is under threat, but also the drone attacks and killings continue, despite of the liberation of the capital Khartoum. We need international support and joint efforts at many levels, including supporting NCAM in assessing the looting in the Sudan National Museum.
After this week’s DiverseNile Seminar by Patrizia Heindl on the mysterious fire dogs (for those who missed it: it was recorded and the video is available online), I am delighted to announce the upcoming seminar.
Our dear friend and colleague El-Hassan Ahmed Mohamed will be speaking about his long-time research on Napatan royal stelae and their inscriptions.
El-Hassan will address the most important ritual event in the kingdom of Kush: the coronation of the king, which generally took place first in a great public spectacle at Napata (Jebel Barkal). We know that this ceremony was then repeated on a smaller scale at other Amun temples like for example at Kawa. Many questions about Napatan and Meroitic kingship remain unanswered, and the study of the most important ritual event is of great importance.
El-Hassan will review all the information concerning the royal coronation as described in the royal Kushite stelae, including questions about the royal succession.
I am very much looking forward to this DiverseNile seminar, which will present the research of a distinguished Sudanese colleague who carried out his work in exile in Cairo during the war. We must be grateful to him and so many others for continuing their work despite all the difficulties. And especially grateful that they share it with us. Don’t miss El-Hassan’s next lecture!
