🇬🇧 [2001-2005] Surveys and rescue excavations

Francis Geus, Yves Lecointe, Vincent Francigny, Raphaël Pouriel, Coralie Gradel, Frédérique Adam, Aurore Schmitt, David Peressinotto, Elena Garcea, Piotr Osypinski, Yan Moyerson, Maria Gatto, Philippe Van Peer, Vincent Rondot, Ali Merghani Ahmed, Nahla Mustafa, Habab Ahmed Idriss, Awadallah Ali El Bacha, Fawzi Hassan Bakhit, Ayman El Tayeb, Heider Mohamdian, AbdelHai Abdel Sawi, El Taher Adam Elnur, Yassin Mohamed Sayed, Ahmed El Amin Elsukari, El Hassan Ahmed Mohamed, Azari Mustafa, Mohamed Ahmed Abdel Hamid, Faïz Hassan Osman, Abdel Bagi Ayib, Mejdi Awad.

For four years, the SFDAS took part, alongside the NCAM, in a programme of archaeological surveys and salvage excavations linked to the construction of a dam in the region of the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. The programme began in November 2001 and ended in 2005. SFDAS was commissioned by NCAM to carry out four interventions in the repopulation zones chosen for the settlement of the Chaggyia and Manassir populations currently inhabiting the Fourth Cataract. These areas are located near Debba, Korti, Atbara and Abou Hamed.

The first phase of the programme, which ended in December 2002, concerned the el-Multaga region located east of Debba. The survey identified 147 localities of archaeological interest. Its contribution mainly concerns prehistory, more specifically knapping sites from the Middle Palaeolithic, contemporary settlement sites from the “Mesolithic” and the Khartoum Neolithic, and burial mounds dating from the second half of the fifth millennium BC.

The second rescue campaign took place on the right bank of the Ouadi Muqaddam, from November 2003 to April 2004. The campaign let to the identification of one hundred and eighty-nine sites. The oldest material found on the surface dates back to the Acheulean period and the very earliest phases of the Middle Palaeolithic. Similar to the ones in Multaqa, the Neolithic sites are Khartoum “Mesolithic” and Khartoum Neolithic habitats. The excavation of four small post-Meroitic cemeteries highlights the settlement of small communities along the wadis and in the hinterland. The Christian sites, the most numerous, are mostly isolated tombs, sometimes organised in groups of a few units.

The third region, situated to the south of Ed-Damer, was surveyed from October to December 2004. Over an area of 240 km² (south of Ed-Damer, Mukabrab site), 35 sites were inventoried, most of them located a few kilometres east of the river’s present course. The oldest site is a Neolithic settlement contemporary with the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Khartoum Neolithic. The discovery at the site of shards comparable to ancient Kerma ceramics is a first in this region of the Middle Nile. A small cemetery of Meroitic and post-Meroitic tombs with no material was the subject of a salvage excavation, and a number of isolated tumuli from the Christian period were studied.

The latest operation, named “Kehaila East Archaeological Salvage Project”, took place in June 2005 and involved the Keheila area between Abu Hamed downstream and the village of Meheisa upstream (coordinates: 19°42,000 to the north, 19°35,000 to the south; 33°01,000 to the west, 33°15,500 to the east). This desert zone is mainly characterised by gravel plains crossed by small wadis. The largest of these is the wadi el-Go’oud. Most of the sites identified are Neolithic (43.48%). There are also Kerma (6.95%), Post-Meroitic (4.35%) and Christian (5.21%) period sites.

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