From 2012 to 2018, the European Research Council project AcrossBorders has investigated questions of the New Kingdom occupation on Sai Island by means of fresh fieldwork and various scientific analyses. Excavations were conducted both in the New Kingdom town of the island and in the contemporaneous elite cemetery.
New information provided by AcrossBorders excavations contribute to recently discussed questions regarding cultural encounters and social practices in New Kingdom Nubia. The archaeological contextualisation of data from the town and a newly discovered tomb offers fresh information on the complex coexistence of various cultural groups on Sai with slightly different approaches to their cultural and social affinities during the New Kingdom. Overall, these finds are of prime significance for understanding lived experience on New Kingdom Sai and more broadly in New Kingdom Nubia.
The lecture summarises these results by means of case studies and will discuss questions about pottery production, subsistence strategies and gold working in the region around Sai Island. Lessons learned by the results of the ERC project AcrossBorders will be stressed and open questions highlighted. The presentation includes an outlook based on a new approach followed in the ERC project DiverseNile which focuses since 2020 on the hinterland of Sai Island.

Sai Island as a microcosm in New Kingdom Nubia: New perspectives on an Egyptian temple town and its hinterland