Education in archaeology at the University of Neelain
Fawzi Hassan Bakhiet Khalid
Abstract
The department of archaeology in Neelain University was establishment in 2008 by Prof. Khider Abdelkareem.  It was started with 40 students, and become 250 students for the time being. There are some approaches to teaching archaeology focusing in Archaeology as the main issue from the first to fourth class. The main program of studies is Bs in archaeology. There are some prospects for graduates and Postgraduate program; the department had an International relationship with different Europeans universities such German, Polish, French and Americans.
As a plan for the future, the department looking to be a Faculty of Archaeology, Tourism and Restoration which can contain (four departments: Archaeology, Tourism, Restoration Hotels and folklore).

Education in archaeology at the University of Neelain, Sudan

Al Bagrawiya archaeological site is a world heritage site with significant pyramids shaped structures of Meroe civilization. The pyramids of Meroe back to kingdom of Kush between 8th century BC and 4th century AD and were devoted as a necropolis site for the kings and queens of Meroe. The pyramids of Meroe are suffering from different kinds of damaging factors such as sand dunes formation around the pyramids causing mechanical stresses and instability for the construction elements of the pyramids, flooding which is really coming risk that threaten the archaeological sites and the pyramids and geo environmental impacts. The main objectives of the research are to present an actual assessment for the current state of the pyramids and geo hazards and risks that threaten the archaeological site of the pyramids of Meroe.

Geo-hazards assessment for the pyramids of Meroe, Al Bagrawiya archaeological site, Sudan

Initiated in 2020, bioarchaeological excavations at Old Dongola as part of the Urban Metamorphosis of the Community of a Medieval African Capital (UMMA) project have focussed on burials in the area roughly between the Citadel and the monastery on Kom H. Investigation in this area has sought, in part, to identify cemetery use at the transition between occupation of Old Dongola during the Christian period and the subsequent Funj period. While excavations in this area remain in the very early stages of development, a number of distinctly different approaches to Christian period burial have been identified, ranging from multiple interments, shaft, and vaulted burial chamber graves. Such burial type diversity brings into question the nature of cemetery use and burial preferences among the inhabitants of Old Dongola. This presentation focuses on the diversity of such burial types and associated interments identified within the graves excavated to date as part of the UMMA project at Old Dongola.

Burial Variation in the Cemetery of Old Dongola: Initial Insights from the UMMA Project

Sahara represented the earliest evidence of aquatic resource utilization between the ninth and third millennia B.C. . Lakes and rivers were more full and some inland basins were temporarily linked, especially in the "Middle Africa" belt. This includes southern Sahara and the coast, and extends from Upper Niger to the Middle Nile, with a southeastern extension into the Upper Nile Basin and the East African Rift Valley.Wet conditions effected connection between drainage basins which were normally separated. Freshwater mollusks, fish bones, and the remains of hippos, crocodiles and other aquatic animals have been found in the mud of these lakes and rivers and among these old beaches.
There are two Archaeological evidences which survive in the beaches and silts of these old high lakes, rivers and swamps. First is The shape of serrated harpoons, which were used for hunting fish and other aquatic animals. Second the type of pottery, known as 'wavy-line' and 'dotted wavy-line' from its distinctive decorative patterns, which appearing at some of these waterside sites.
This paper aims to collect the similar evidence from these different regions to prove the early wide dispersed of the human from East Africa to the West.

Aquatic Civilization in Middle Africa as an evidence for the early dispersal of humans from East Africa to the West

Starting ~9,000 BP, the Neolithic archaeological record of Upper Nubia offers a unique opportunity to examine cultural responses to fluctuating resource availability and impacts on subsistence diversity. The uptake of pastoral systems is well documented archaeologically, however, the role of wild plant resources and the beginnings of local crop production are less established and often discounted. Existing ‘pastoral’ Neolithic narratives can largely be attributed to regional site taphonomy and conflated associations between funerary symbolism and economic practice . While herding was a key adaptation to aridification in northeastern Africa, evidence from a growing number of sites is now demonstrating the importance of plants and suggests the variable integration of plant food production within existing economic systems. This paper will present new data for plant exploitation from microbotanical remains preserved within human dental calculus and dietary isotopic signatures from individuals from two cemeteries, Kadruka 1 and 21.

A multiproxy study of plant consumption, Kadruka 1 and Kadruka 21, Upper Nubia, Sudan

At the end of 2018 the Polish center of Mediterranean archaeology ,university of Warsaw applied for a research concession in Soba East, the field work at Soba conducted in 2019-2020 has provided a massive amount of data on the spatial organization of the capital city of the kingdom of Alwa, aimed to collecting information on the distribution of archaeological remains at Soba east.
Our research indicates that Soba is an object of memory and non-memory alike,  in particular among the representatives of elite groups "former traditional leader "and those belonging to well-established  inhabitants Mugarba Arab , we can talk about some sort of pride it's enough to mention that one of primary school is call Soba kingdom, briefly the reason for this pride is the fact that today Soba lies in a place of the former capital of the Nubian kingdom the heart of  entire country, the memory of the Soba past is reconstructed through the legend.

Preliminary results of research in Soba

The architectural features of the royal district of Natakamani and Amanitore at Jebel Barkal confirm the role of ancient Napata in the elaboration of a culture blending Nubian, Hellenistic, and Egyptian traditions in an original and coherent frame.
This is clear for Palace B1500, with high platform and polychrome façades recalling northern architectural models, but also for the buildings surrounding it. These structures show an evident eclecticism in their stone architectural decorations.
In a context where mudbrick is the principal building material, a separate discussion is required for stone architecture, frequently used for capitals, drums of columns, architraves and basements. The great variety in the capitals is one of the main characteristics of Pharaonic Egyptian influence, well distinguishable in the shapes known from hypostyle halls and colonnades of the great New Kingdom and Ptolemaic temples.
Pharaonic inspiration is also prominent in the stylistic rendering of painted decoration, both in colour and thematic choice. The technique, though, seems far from long-established Egyptian practices, and genuinely Meroitic plastering and painting manners can be observed.
This paper aims to discuss formal issues concerning the architectural decoration in the Meroitic district of Jebel Barkal, where stone elements and painted walls underwent an original development.

Stone and Plaster at Napata. Architectural decoration from the Meroitic buildings of Jebel Barkal

Suakin Island is located in north-eastern Sudan on the west coast of the Red Sea. In 1865 the decree of the Ottoman Sultan to khedive ismail gave his sons the right of accession, and granted to Egypt the ports of Massowa and Suakin in return for an additional yearly tribute. Completion of the Alexandria-Suez railway, and then the opening of the Suez Canal, saw a return of trade to the Red Sea and its revival as a major shipping lane. By 1865 Egyptian steamers were maintaining a regular service between Suakin and Suez, as the addition of a new and faster trade route from Europe to the Indian Ocean placed Suakin at the forefront of trade between the Red Sea, Europe and the Indian Ocean. As such, the eastern Red Sea littoral was a key strategic position and essential in maintaining control of the Nile, therefor Suakin was chosen as the most suitable harbor, and Egypt begun to develop infrastructure upon the island and its adjacent mainland . This Paper seeks to examine the conditions of Suakin under the Egyptian administration. And its importance as a port for global trade, especially after the opening of the Suez Canal.

Suakin Under the Egyptian administration 1865- 1882

Smoking tools are one of the important types spread in African continent,and it was a subject of great controversy,and very popular during the Ottoman Empire era,where it was widespread and available in many cafes, especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.The study dealt with smoking pipes in Sudan in the area of Sennar.The aims of this study are to find out the types of smoking pipes and their prevalence rate, while comparing the types that were found in the Old Dongola region, as well as discussing the debate about the prohibition of smoking in that period in the Islamic countries. the results confirmed that the smoking at that time was related to social classes,as there was avariation in the industrial types,shapes,sizes and decoration.It became clear that there were imported Ottoman smoking pipes at the area of the study dating back to about the eighteenth century,and other tayps are local made of similar Nile clay. for species spread in Old Dongola.The study recommended that studying the smoker's community needs Interdisciplinary approach to know more about the psychological and social aspects that prevailed in that period,in addition to knowledge of the development and production of smoking tools.In Sudan and other Islamic countries.

Toward the methodology of studying the pipes in the area of Sennar - Sudan

To understand the nature of the movements, relationships, and interaction, which was taken place among groups of people in Sudan and ones in Egypt in the Late Neolithic period, we would need a larger series of archaeological observations, and nothing conclusive can be stated presently. In the absence of more substantial data, we can only make some very cursory observations focusing on the analysis of pottery vessels distribution at the objective areas. Here a few examples of ceramic traditions have been chosen as a case study: the so-called “tulip-shaped” vessels, which are known beakers with flared rims and the diagnostic decoration, pottery vessels with zigzag dotted/plain decoration pattern, and pots with wavy dotted/incised decoration pattern. They are all thought to be ones of the traits of Saharo-Sudanese pottery vessels appeared in Egypt. Why did these spread toward Egypt during the late Neolithic and the Predynastic periods in different trajectories? What kind of repercussions did they give on pottery vessels in Egypt? Referring to the data at the Nabta Kiseiba in the Western Desert of Egypt, a brief remark can be given.

The traits of Neolihtic Saharo-Sudanese pottery in Egypt

Leon Cienkowski (1822-1887), also known as Lev Semyonovich Tsenkovsky, was a Polish botanist and microbiologist. Living at a time when Poland lost its independence, he necessarily carried out scientific activities in the Russian Empire, lecturing at the universities in Odessa and Kharkiv (now Ukraine). Called the “Ukrainian Pasteur”, he was a co-organizer of the Sevastopol Biological Station. At the beginning of his career, 25-year-old Leon Cienkowski was delegated by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society for an expedition to Sudan. It was an expedition initiated at the request of Muhammad Ali Pasha, and led by colonel Yegor Petrovich Kovalevsky. Its purpose was to locate and exploit gold deposits in the Blue Nile basin. The expedition achieved its goal by organizing gold mining in the Tumat River valley, but the illness of its leader cause the team to return to Russia prematurely. However, Leon Cienkowski remained in Sudan on his own, conducting fieldwork in geography, geology, botany, zoology, physical anthropology, ethnography and linguistics. He made a trip to Kordofan, on the White Nile and Bahr al-Ghazal. It seems that Leon Cienkowski was the first Polish explorer of these areas, although the results of his Sudan studies remain little known to this day.

Leon Cienkowski – a pioneer of Polish research in Sudan

My poster intends to present an Arabic letter that was recently found during the archaeological excavations in Old Dongola in 2021. Although the document contains no specific message except for greetings and words of support, it is very interesting from a historical viewpoint and social perspective. This is a fully-preserved letter from a Muslim religious leader identifying himself with the position of faqīh, i.e. Islamic jurist. The high social status of such a person is well known from the historical sources concerning pre-modern Sudan. Holymen like this were prominent agents in the process of the Islamisation of once Christian Nubia. However, the venerated addressee of the letter is even more interesting. He seems to be identical with the successor of a local ruler, so-called mānjil, whose father was sent from Sennar to govern the Northern Province of the Funj Sultanate in the seventeenth century. Furthermore, the name of this figure is attested only due to the European traveller’s description who declared an interest in oral history which was passed on to him as late as in the nineteenth century.
[Later added] The name of the addressee is also to be found in three documents from the 18th century that were collected in the volume: Public documents from Sennar edited by Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Abū Salīm and Jay Spaulding in 1989.

“Don’t worry about anything” – A snippet of communication between the Old Dongola elite

Archaeological research carried out since 2001 at Banganarti (the site is located between the Third and Fourth cataracts, about 10 km from Old Dongola) has led to the discovery of the remains of a church and a fortified settlement surrounding it. Excavations have brought numerous finds, including more than 120 fragments of glass vessels, dating from the 7th to the 16th century. Various types of bottles, windowpanes, fragments of vessels with tonged, mold blown decoration and marvered glasses can be distinguished. The chemical composition of 58 glass fragments was carried out. Almost all the samples analysed can be classified in the sodium glass group. The samples examined were assigned to pre-established glass groups, allowing the chronology of important changes in glass production in the region to be determined.  The results indicate that in the early Islamic period (7th to 9th century) the glassware that reached Banganarti was mainly produced using natron. Fragments of glass vessels from the 10th/ 11th to the 16th century belong to glasses smelted using the ashes of halophytic plants.

Change in chemical compositions of Islamic glass excavated in Banganarti, Sudan

The Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices project is hosted at the PCMA-University of Warsaw (2021-2022). It fosters collaboration between archaeologists, bio-anthropologists and textile experts to reconstruct the funerary gestures that accompanied the wrapping of the dead. Two case studies will illustrate the important role played by textiles during funerary rites. The first one focuses on the textiles from a Meroitic grave on Sai Island which contained the burials of at least three individuals, deposited in the cavity in successive phases of reuse. Eight groups of textile fragments, from tiny pieces to better preserved fabrics, were retrieved during excavation in 1997 and later studied in the SFDAS facilities in Khartoum. More than 15 years after their discovery, the good quality of excavation records was combined with modern textile analyses to map the use of textiles in a Meroitic burial.
The second case study analyses a set of shroud fragments from a multiple burial of fifteen individuals from Old Dongola, dated to 10th-11th c. The best preserved parts are currently preserved in blocks of fabric layers stuck within the decomposition fluids. The textile and chemical analyses are used in combination with the photographic documentation provided by the anthropologist to assess their original position.

Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices project

This paper discusses the applications and broad implications of UAV or drone survey to the archaeology of Sudan. The author employs drones to map, model, and analyze the Kushite royal cemeteries of El Kurru, Nuri, and Jebel Barkal. The objective is to better understand the diachronic spatial development of royal cemeteries on a landscape level. While many of these sites have been surveyed, their relationships to surrounding landscape features and phenomena have not been identified or documented. Drones provide an efficient means of gathering a massive amount of photography and data on a much greater landscape scale than traditional forms of mapping and photography. Furthermore, the capability of drone photography to form the basis of photogrammetric and 3D models has implications for the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage. Using drone photography, 3D models of these sites are shared remotely on open access platforms which allow audiences to virtually experience the cultural heritage of Sudan. This is particularly useful given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting impact on tourism and archaeological fieldwork. Lastly, drone surveys provide excellent field research opportunities for training, outreach, and collaboration with local communities and Sudanese archaeologists.

Archaeological Applications of Drones and 3D Modeling in Northern Sudan: A Study of Kushite Royal Cemeteries

The research at the prehistoric sites at Affad in Southern Dongola Reach spans almost a decade and unfortunately ends with the archaeological loci anihilation due to the development of industrial farms. Our team's research has demonstrated the importance of archaeological and palaeoecological data in understanding the behavior of late Pleistocene and early Holocene human groups. Analyzes of stone processing technology made it possible to identify a number of features of knowledge and skills transfer in the MSA communities around 50 kya. The discovery of the remains of light wooden instlations/shelters served as a milestone in the perception of the adaptive potential of groups during the „Out of Africa” event. Discovery of the remains of aurochs contributed not only to broadening the knowledge about its range, but also shed light on its signficance in the pre-pastoral hunting strategies. The attempts to establish the absolute chronology of the Palaeolithic sites also contributed to the improvement of knowledge about the limitations of methods commonly used in prehistorich studies - from optical methods through radiocarbon to electrospin resonance. The isotope analyzes is another topic in prehistoric research in Sudan that we introduced, and constantly develope according to both Pleistocene and Holocene materials.

Achievements of PalaeoAffad Project 2012-2021

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

This paper will demonstrate to what extend can we depend on oral tradition as a tool to document history. Oral tradition is considered by some historians as unreliable source to study history. However, it is a valid mean for preserving and transmitting history. From this point, I would like also to show how far we can proceed when dealing with oral language in terms of telling stories of different languages by the oral tradition tellers and the data collectors. In addition to that I would like to point out to the importance of oral tradition in interpreting archaeological evidences and collecting in case of lack of information regarding the topic or the material we are working on. Oral traditions consist of all verbal testimonies which are reported by statements concerning the past. This definition means that nothing but oral traditions either spoken or sung should take into consideration. In Case of Old Town of Berber the paper show how oral tradition was useful in collecting and interpreting data.

Oral tradition as source of collecting and interpreting data “ Old Town of Berber ” as Case study

The currently thriving research on Meroitic ceramics and their great variability stimulated discussions on the mode and the organisation of pottery production in the Meroitic kingdom. Excavations of a Late Meroitic pottery kiln at Hamadab, an urban town near Meroe, has yielded thousands of overfired ceramic wasters which are evaluated to provide new insights on the manufacture of Meroitic utilitarian goods.
Using the broad potentials of ceramic analysis, the kiln load can be reconstructed in terms of composition in forms, fabrics and wares. The incorporation of archaeometric analyses determined the ‘fabric fingerprint’ for this production site, offering new perspectives on the raw material procurement and the distribution of ceramic containers in the Meroitic south. The kiln wasters are furthermore examined towards the prevailing production parameters and technologies of this urban workshop. These suggest an industrial mass-production of standardised ceramic wares in the 3rd/4th century AD. As the first analysis of production wasters from a potter’s kiln in the Meroitic heartland, the Hamadab case study examines the production activities in a non-elite Meroitic community. These will be discussed towards the role of ceramic industry in the economy of the Meroitic state and how local production activities were regulated.

For the community, for the ‘market’ or for the royal house? – Meroitic ceramic production in urban Hamadab

In the 19th and 20th centuries, Nubian history was seen as a series of disconnected episodes, each characterized by the migration or hybridization of different human groups. Changes in funerary customs were often attributed to the movement of peoples, and the evidence for migration was reinforced by osteoarchaeological observations. In fact, until WWII anthropology was mainly aimed at the metric study of human remains to arrive at population comparisons and racial determinations. In particular, it was assumed that the distribution of ‘cranial types’ resulted from the movement of different groups and that both biological and cultural history could be assessed from similarities/differences in cranial morphology. An example of this approach is provided by an anthropological report written by Edoardo Pardini, who took part in the IAMSK activities in the area of Kassala in 1981. In his report, after determining the sex and age of the individuals based on morphometric observation of the skulls, Pardini includes a list of cranial measurements to compare with those of other populations «to identify the anthropological types to which the individuals can be ascribed». Today, the exploration of mobility patterns is still crucial for the IAEES, but bioanthropology resorts to DNA and Strontium isotopic analyses.

1981-2021: How the bioanthropological approach of the IAEES in exploring mobility patterns in Prehistoric Sudan has changed in forty years

A pain in the neck: Impact of possible head loading on the cervical spine of ancient Nubians.

This presentation will outline the main caracteristics of pottery dating from the Napatan period. Is it possible to draw up a list of potential regional specificities? How does the study of the Sedeinga site (Middle Nubia) contribute to precise the layout of Napatan exchange networks? We will gather up the data about the production of these ceramics, which is linked to the economic and political structure of the kingdom. Then we will pay attention to the classification of this series, focusing on the types of the transitional periods: fall of the XXVth Dynasty and rise of Meroitic royalty. Finally, we will discuss the expected contributions of the various archaeological excavations currently being carried out on Sudanese territory to the knowledge of this corpus. Why is it necessary to pay special attention to the pre-Meroitic levels even in reoccupied tombs? How to coordinate contemporary projects to shed new light on this period?

Napatan pottery in context : catching a glimpse of the organization of a vast territory

The focus and concentration of archaeological research within specific regions of the Sudan has had many negative effects, illustrated in the December 2019 issue of Azaniaattempting to shift the focus to research beyond the confines of the Nile Valley. This paper is part of the continuing efforts to expand archaeological exploration in new areas of the Sudan. The identification of sites within the Nuba Mountains. Jebel Damik is in the middle of the region. A survey was carried out to get acquainted with its characteristics, its most prominent archaeological components, and their classifications. The concentration of specific material remains – remains of stone houses, storage places, grinding tools and cemeteries – are strong indicators for continuity and complexity of habitation. The results show the importance of the role of topographical features in determining where certain aspects of material culture were located. Further systematic research is required to determine the precise nature of the cultural and historical trajectory of the site and the wider region.