Archiv der Kategorie: Middle Nile

Risks of Climate Change and Projections on Cultural Heritage in Sudan?

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Autumn Season and its Impact on Antiquities in Sudan

Sudan experiences a desert climate with minimal seasonal variation, but the autumn season can still have an impact on archaeological sites. The effects of climate change and environmental factors can exacerbate the deterioration of ancient structures and artifacts.

Impacts of the Autumn Season on Antiquities in Sudan:

  • Increased Rainfall: Heavy rainfall can cause erosion and damage to archaeological sites, especially those in fragile or unstable conditions.
  • Strong Winds: Strong winds can lead to the degradation of structures and the loss of artifacts.
  • Flooding: Flooding can damage archaeological sites, especially those located near rivers or in low-lying areas.

Conservation Efforts:

  • Site Monitoring: Regular monitoring of archaeological sites to assess the impact of environmental factors and take necessary conservation measures.
  • Risk Assessment: Conducting risk assessments to identify potential threats and develop strategies for mitigation.
  • Community Engagement: Engaging local communities in the conservation and protection of archaeological sites.

Importance of Protecting Sudan’s Cultural Heritage:

Sudan’s cultural heritage is invaluable, and it is essential to protect it from environmental degradation and human impact. Conservation efforts are necessary to preserve the country’s rich history and cultural identity for future generations.

Challenges and Opportunities:

  • Climate Change: Climate change poses a significant threat to Sudan’s cultural heritage, and it is essential to develop strategies to mitigate its impacts.
  • Sustainable Development: Balancing economic development with cultural heritage conservation is crucial to ensure the long-term preservation of Sudan’s archaeological sites.
  • International Cooperatio: International cooperation and support are necessary to support conservation efforts and protect Sudan’s cultural heritage.

Climate change poses a significant threat to cultural heritage in Sudan, as it can lead to the deterioration and erosion of archaeological sites, especially with harsh weather conditions such as heavy rainfall and strong winds. Rising sea levels can also lead to the submersion of coastal heritage sites and erosion of archaeological and architectural structures. Additionally, changes in the ecosystems surrounding heritage sites can affect their ecological balance and further complicate conservation efforts.

Main Impacts of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage in Sudan:

  • Erosion of archaeological sites: Heavy rainfall and strong winds can cause erosion and deterioration of archaeological sites.
  • Rising sea levels: Can lead to the submersion of coastal heritage sites and erosion of archaeological and architectural structures.
  • Changes in surrounding ecosystems: Can affect the ecological balance around heritage sites and complicate conservation efforts.

Efforts to Protect Cultural Heritage in Sudan:

  • Climate risk assessment: Climate risks are assessed for cultural sites to determine necessary protection measures.
  • Emergency plans: Emergency plans are developed to protect heritage sites from climate change impacts.
  • Use of technology: Remote sensing and 3D laser scanning techniques are used to assess the condition of heritage sites and monitor surroundings climate

Environmental changes, floods, and mining pose a greater threat to antiquities than wars!

There are archaeological sites in Sudan that are affected by the environment, especially in the northern regions of Dongola. Some of these sites include:

  • Sai Island Archaeological Site: An island containing tombs, Pharaonic sites, and graves dating back to thousands of years, with recent signs of severe mining activities on the island.
A view from Sai Island.
  • Old Dongola: A historical city containing archaeological sites consisting of palaces, remains of churches, tombs, and domes, considered one of the important cities during the Middle Ages, affected by rising groundwater levels or Nile floods.
  • Other Archaeological Sites in Sudan: Such as Kerma, suffering from the impacts of climate change, especially soil erosion, floods, and landslides.
  • Al-Bajrawiya: These archaeological sites are affected by strong winds and heavy rains, causing erosion to structures and antiquities.
  • Additional Archaeological Sites in the Nile River State and the Northern State: All are affected by climate change, desertification, and environmental degradation.
  • Meroe Archaeological Sites: Affected by climate change and desertification, leading to the deterioration of ancient structures and antiquities.
  • The Royal City of Meroe: All these are important archaeological sites affected by environmental changes, desertification, and environmental degradation.
Situation at the Royal City of Meroe.
One of the temples at the Royal City of Meroe and glimpses of environmental change.

Some sites received attention and archaeological work during the Qataris project to protect Nubian antiquities, but environmental changes were stronger, requiring more serious and urgent attention to preserve them from deterioration and loss. Again, with recent environmental changes in Sudan, these sites, along with newly discovered ones, are affected by climate change, desertification, and environmental degradation, threatening their destruction and the loss of ancient cultural heritage in Sudan.

It’s crucial to note that these archaeological sites require special attention to protect them from deterioration and ensure their continuity for future generations.

New publication: Perspectives on the post-colonial period in the Attab to Ferka region

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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

More than one way to look at pottery

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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.

New progress in the documentation of rock art in the MUAFS concession

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As rock art in Sudan continues to be one of my favourite research topics, I am very pleased that a new article of mine on the rock engravings of Kerma in the MUAFS concession has just been published and that one of the beautiful boulders with cattle depictions has also made it onto the front page of MittSAG 35!

In the paper “Cattle motifs in Nubian rock art of the Bronze Age – a preliminary update from Kosha, Mograkka and Ferka” (Budka 2024), my aim was to show the potential of the little-known rock art from the MUAFS concession, especially for the Kerma period. During this period, cattle motifs are particularly prevalent in rock art in Sudan.

Among other sites, I highlighted some aspects of the largest rock art cluster within the MUAFS concession, 3-P-5, located on the border between Mograkka and Kosha. This remarkable site comprises more than 400 individual rock carvings.

The rock art boulder which made it to the cover of the MittSAG is a prominent rock which shows human-animal interaction and is likely to be interpreted as a ‘pastoral scene’ (see Polkowski 2021). It was already documented by Vila in the 1970s (Vila 1976, 86, fig. 37.3). In various lines, with different styles and shapes of horns, not only cattle, but also birds (probably geese) as well as a goat, a possible calf (or another goat?) and a dog are depicted. Such scenes find plenty of parallels, especially in the Third and Fourth Cataract regions, for which I give the details in the article. It is reasonable to assume that this panel depicts the daily life of pastoralists. All in all, the important role that livestock, particularly cattle, played for people in the Kosha region – during the Bronze Age, but also later – is very clear at site 3-P-5.

In February 2025, I was very fortunate to be back in the Attab-Ferka region and had the chance to revisit the intriguing site 3-P-5. The aim was to test new ways of documentation of the rock art – introducing 3D scanning with the ultrafast, highly accurate mobile app Scaniverse – a tool, we have been using in Egypt and for our ceramics here in Munich in the past two years. 3D modelling in rock art research in general has made great progress worldwide in recent years – from standard image-based techniques to more sophisticated methods such as terrestrial 3D laser scanners. Given the situation in Sudan, where war is still raging, my focus was on testing the quality of an ultra-fast scanning technique.

The results of documenting rock art with Scaniverse were simply amazing – the app makes it possible to capture not only details, but above all the complete shape and position of the boulders. Larger areas were quickly captured with the iPad, smaller boulders and details are well suited to the smaller iPhones.

Here is a screenshot of the 3D scan of the panel that was first published by Vila in the 1970s, relocated by us in 2020, re-photographed and published in 2024, also becoming a cover star (see above), and now 3D scanned in 2025. The high-resolution scan allows extreme zooming in for details and you can measure every tiny detail.

This example shows very nicely the progress in the documentation of rock art in recent years and makes me very positive about the possibilities of tackling new relevant questions on this fascinating research topic in the near future.

References

Budka, J. 2024. Cattle motifs in Nubian rock art of the Bronze Age– a preliminary update from Kosha, Mograkka and Ferka, MittSAG – Der Antike Sudan 35, 9‒19.

Polkowski, P. L. 2021. “Cattle in the Nile Fourth Cataract rock art: the site of El-Gamamiya 67 as an example.” In Bayuda and its neighbours, ed. by A. Obłuski, H. Paner and M. Masojć, 71-91. Turnhout: Brepols.

Vila, A. 1976. La prospection archéologique de la Vallée du Nil, au Sud de la Cataracte de Dal (Nubie Soudanaise). Fascicule 4: District de Mograkka (Est et Ouest), District de Kosha (Est et Ouest). Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Nubian-style pottery of the New Kingdom in focus

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I am very happy to announce that a paper focusing on Nubian-style pottery from Sai Island has just been published, being part of a special issue of Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia [OW], vol. 5 (2025), dedicated to the theme „De-Constructing Nubia“.

My paper presents the Eighteenth Dynasty Nubian pottery from Sai city, especially quantities, shapes, wares and parallels from various sites, in context and discusses its social and cultural implications.

My main argument is that Nubian pottery as an integral part of the pottery corpus of Sai allows us to address social practices of a local group with a specific cultural identity. Within the colonial context of Sai as an Egyptian administrative town, the community practices reflected in the pottery show that the legacy of the Kerma empire was never completely abandoned but updated regarding the new political, social and religious situation.

Furthermore, I tried to discuss whether Sai represents an elite phenomenon in urban space which differs from rural contexts in the hinterland of the city. This aspect is closely related to ongoing research ̶ I am currently studying the pottery from the 18th Dynasty site AtW 001 in Attab West, with a special focus on Nubian-style pottery. We recently found more close parallels to Sai and pieces which attest to an intercultural mixing like a new basketry-impressed Nubian-style cooking pot with a painted red rim.

For now, I am very grateful to Aaron De Souza, the organiser of the workshop which lead to this special issue and its main editor as well as to all the other persons involved realising this important collection of papers. “De-Constructing Nubia” is still an urgent research matter and our current work in Attab West can add much data in this respect.

Embedded in Clay – Reflections and Impressions after the P.I.P.E conference Identity and Performance in Figurines and Ceramic Objects from Ancient Societies

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Less than two years after the 16th-edition-of-the-european-meeting-on-ancient-ceramics-emac I had the pleasure of returning to the splendid setting of Pisa to attend the International Conference Embedded in Clay – Identity and Performance in Figurines and Ceramic Objects from Ancient Societies, organized by prof. Gianluca Miniaci and the team of the pipe-project at the Dipartimento di Civilta’ e Forme del Sapere, University of Pisa (Italy).

Upon receiving the kind invitation from Beatriz Noria-Serrano, Georgia Long, and Hannah Page, the three project postdocs and primary organizers of this event, I was pleasantly surprised by their intention to revive the topic of clay figurines − every so often neglected or kidnaped by ceramicists (Gianluca Miniaci cit.) – and situate this within a novel and much more comprehensive framework, to foster a collaborative environment amongst scholars whose methodologies pertain to the analysis of identity and performance as manifested in clay artifacts. The final result exceeded expectations!

In a friendly and informal setting, with an agenda (for details see, embedded-in-clay-conference-programme) covering a wide range of chronologies and geographies, from the Ancient Nile Valley in Egypt, through northern and central Sudan, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Asia, and with an equally well-calibrated assortment of lectures and roundtables to stimulate discussion among the various specialists, the three conference days flew by, and it seems only yesterday that we were all enchanted by Richard Lesure’s (University of California, LA) exciting keynote on figure-making during the Formative era in Mesoamerica.

In this schedule, our paper entitled ‚Archaeometry as a means of multiplying material identities. Case studies based on ceramic vessels and clay figurines from the Middle Nile Valley during the Bronze Age‘ opened the second day of the conference, which was entirely dedicated to the concepts of identity and performance through the lens of archaeometry, while the last day was devoted to archaeology.

The talk has been formally divided into three macro-parts, starting with a theoretical introduction on the subject of identity in archaeology, and continuing with case studies, the first on clay figurines from the site of Sai Island, while the second dedicated to the analysis of the ceramic corpus from the neighbouring region of Attab and Ferka, in the hinterland of Sai and Amara West. Overall, we have tried to present some preliminary results, based on the different laboratory methodologies (INAA; OM; Raman Spectroscopy, XRD; Micro-CT; SANS) we have applied in the framework of the Diverse Nile project, dealing with a very large data set of samples from different sites. Most importantly, we have tried to emphasize how, over the years and thanks to the impact of postcolonial archaeology, our approach through materialities has significantly shifted − we do not work anymore along dichotomies and schematizations of identities (e.g. Egyptian vs. Nubian manufacturers). Instead, we explore open questions that also imply the complexity, hybridity, and entanglement of multiple material (and thus cultural) identities.

As the conference progressed, some of our questions were considered, debated, and answered in subsequent talks, while others perhaps emerged and stimulated my new thinking.

During the round table that wrapped up the conference, I took note of many themes and new and much-needed research perspectives on the subject of clay figurines that we agreed on: the need to revise the terminology, which is often too schematically limited to the distinction between human and zoomorphic figures; to take greater account not only of the function and performance of figurines, but also of their re-use and possible multifunctionality, both in synchronic and diachronic terms; to look at chaîne opératoires and gestures and fingerprints and, through them, reconstruct novel and hidden narratives related to women and children; eventually go beyond the surface and the ‘outer skin’ of the figurines, beyond traditional typologies and performances, in search of new ontologies and dynamic meanings.

The liveliness of that discussion, with so many pleasant colleagues and friends, still resonates in my mind, blending the gentle landscape of Pisa with the lights of the sunset on the Arno, another river, like the Nile, which has been crossed every day for ages by boats, and items, and by the glances and encounters of many diverse people.

Mortuary Practices and Social Structures in the Meroitic State: Guest lecture by Mohamed Bashir on Kedurma

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I am particularly pleased that Mohamed Bashir has joined the DiverseNile project as a TWAS-DFG Visiting Scholar this week. Mohamed will present his latest excavation results at the site of Kedurma in a public lecture in person on 4th February 2025 – everyone is welcome to attend.

Mohamed has written a summary of his lecture, which I am happy to reproduce here as an incentive not to miss this presentation:

“This research focuses on the archaeological investigation of the Meroitic cemetery of Kedurma in the Middle Nile Valley to examine the funerary practises and social complexity in the Meroitic state of ancient Africa. Recognising that social complexity is crucial for the interpretation of social development, the study identifies different burial customs that reflect different cultural and socio-political dynamics.

The results show a range of burial types and grave goods that indicate stratified social structures and complicated identity formations within the community. In particular, the study of 50 newly excavated tombs shows influences from both ancient Egyptian traditions and local variations, indicating a differentiated approach to mortality and memory. The typology of the tombs reflects different practises that may indicate evolving socio-economic landscapes and interregional exchange.

Overall, this study argues for the importance of local traditions in shaping Meroitic identity and highlights the need to incorporate African archaeological perspectives into broader historical narratives. The complexity of burial practises at Kedurma challenges simplistic notions of social hierarchy and emphasises the dynamic interplay of cultural influences in ancient Nile Valley societies. Through a detailed chronological framework and the analysis of artefacts, the study enriches our understanding of the complex social fabric of early African state societies and underlines the importance of further archaeological investigations to shed light on the historical experiences of the continent.”

Just published: Reconstructing Contact Space Biographies in Sudan during the Bronze Age

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Events tend to come thick and fast at the end of the year – as was the case with our latest article, which was fortunately published yesterday despite the public holidays.

We are happy to announce that the ‘Contact Space Biography’ concept developed as part of the DiverseNile project (see already my early blog post at the start of our project) is now available in article form and will hopefully be discussed – and useful to others. We developed this concept in order to reach a higher resolution understanding of cultural dynamics and diversity of ancient Nilotic groups, taken the Attab to Ferka region as a case study. We argue that areas like the MUAFS concession can be understood as complex social spaces intertwined with an often changing landscape.

We present our findings from the study of selected cemetery and settlement sites in Attab and Ginis. The following sites are discussed in our article: cemetery GiE 003; cemetery GiE 002 and the settlement sites AtW 001, AtW 002 and 2-T-53 (cf. other “stone villages” in Attab and Ginis West). These sites range in date from Middle Kerma to the Napatan period and allow to consider the local realities of cultural interactions in rural areas, away from “central sites” such as Amara West and Sai Island, showing clear changes from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Read our article for more information!

MUAFS concession area showing the location of the sites discussed in our article (Map: C. Ward)

Reference:

Budka, J., Aglan, H., & Ward,C. (2025). Reconstructing Contact Space Biographies in Sudan During the Bronze Age. Humans, 5(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.3390/humans5010001

Analysing spatial patterns in GiE 003: The unusual gap in Trench 3

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The post-excavation processing of the Kerma cemetery GiE 003 is in full swing (see also an earlier blog post). There are some interesting observations regarding the diachronic development of the site and also its spatial organisation. A case study on the latter is presented below.

Trench 3 excavated in GiE 003 yielded Classic Kerma burial pits (Budka et al. 2023, Budka 2024). The trench is situated in the northwestern extent of our excavations at the site. It shows a relatively large area on its eastern side in which no burial pits were found. This apparent ‘gap’ contrasts with the surrounding areas, which show dense burial activity and graves laid out very regularly in the same orientation. Such a deliberate avoidance of this area raises some questions about ceremonial practices associated with the cemetery’s use.

Plan of Trench 3 in GiE 003 with Kerma burial pits and an area void of graves around an irregular pit.

In the middle of the area in question, a shallow depression with an irregular outline was found. First thought to be an unfinished burial pit, it might in fact be a marog-digging pit. Its dimensions are 1.97 meters in length, 1.67 meters in width, and 0.23 meters in depth.

Possible marog-digging pit in Trench 3 after excavation. Photo: J.M.A. Gomez, © DiverseNile project.

The pit was dug into the alluvial soil and found filled with compacted sand, containing numerous brownish-grey clay clumps, medium to large in size,. Some human remains were found in the northeastern part of the pit − most likely coming from nearby burial pits. Most of the burials in Trench 3 appear to have been looted and dispersed human bones were found across the surface of the trench.

Of course, it is also possible that the pit itself was cut by the ancient looters (maybe in Medieval times) when they were looking for burial pits at the site.

Nevertheless, the gap between the otherwise evenly aligned east-west graves is unlikely to be coincidental. One possible explanation for the gap in burial pits in Trench 3 is that we have cut into an area used for funerary practices and intentionally kept clear of graves. Although, as we have not excavated the entire cemetery, this is still difficult to fully judge.

Interestingly, similar spatial patterns can be observed at Ukma, another provincial Kerma cemetery, where areas void of graves are in particular present in the southern part between Classic Kerma burial pits which are comparable to those at GiE 003 (see Vila 1987, general plan of the site). These recurring patterns suggest that such gaps were common in Kerma cemeteries.

Further analysis, including additional excavations of GiE 003 and comparison with other Kerma cemeteries, might allow us to better understand the reasons for these gaps. A better comprehension of the spatial dynamics of Trench 3 within the context of GiE 003 could provide new insights into patterns of funerary practices during Kerma times.

References:

Budka et al. 2023 = Budka, J., Rose, K., Ward, C., Cultural diversity in the Bronze Age in the Attab to Ferka region: new results based on excavations in 2023, MittSAG 34 (2023), 19–35.

Budka 2024 = Budka, J., Introduction. Regionality of resource management in Bronze Age Sudan: an overview and case studies, in: J. Budka and R. Lemos (eds), Landscape and resource management in Bronze Age Nubia: Archaeological perspectives on the exploration of natural resources and the circulation of 751 commodities in the Middle Nile; Wiesbaden 2024, 19–33.

Vile 1987 = Vila, A. (avec les contributions de Guillemette Andreu et de Wilhem van Zeist), Le cimetière kermaïque d’Ukma Ouest, Paris 1987.

Upcoming DiverseNile Seminar: Animal industries within Kerma civilization

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I am delighted to announce the next DiverseNile Seminar Series. Nahed Al-Hakim will speak about “Animal industries within Kerma civilization”.

Nahed has been an archaeologist with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities since 2004 and currently serves as the Director of Scientific Research at the Karnak temples.

In 2022, she earned a master’s degree in ancient history and civilization, focusing on „Raw Materials and Industries in the Kushite Civilization.“ Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate at the Faculty of African Graduate Studies, Cairo University, with a dissertation on the Osirian religion during the Napatan period, examining the cemeteries of Kurru and Nuri in Sudan, as well as Abydos and Thebes in Egypt. A very exciting topic and highly relevant for both Egyptology and Sudan Archaeology!

The upcoming DiverseNile Seminar lecture will focus on results from Nahed’s MA thesis and will highlight the importance of animals in Kerma culture. I am very much looking forward to this and hope you can join us – it’s also the last lecture for 2024, so not to be missed!