The Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin No. 17 2013 ASWAN 1St Cataract
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SUDAN & NUBIA The Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin No. 17 2013 ASWAN 1st cataract Egypt RED SEA W a d i el- A lla qi 2nd cataract Batn el-Hajar W a d i Akasha G a b g Sedeinga a b Jebel Dosha a Tinare Jawgul 3rd cataract ABU HAMED e Sudan il N El-Ga’ab Kawa Basin Sudan Military KAREIMA 4th cataract Fifth Railway Cataract el-Kurru Dangeil Usli Berber ED-DEBBA ATBARA ar Gala ow i H Wad Abu Ahmed es-Sour A tb el-Metemma a r m a k a li e d M d l- a e adi q W u 6th cataract M i d a W OMDURMAN KHARTOUM KASSALA B lu e Eritrea N i le MODERN TOWNS Ancient sites WAD MEDANI Atbara/Setiet W h it e N i GEDAREF le Aba Island KOSTI SENNAR N Ethiopia South 0 250 km Sudan S UDAN & NUBIA The Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin No. 17 2013 Contents Dangeil 2012: Sacred Ram – Avatar of the God Amun 70 Julie Anderson and Salah Mohamed Ahmed Reports Dangeil, A Preliminary Report on the Petrography 78 Lithic Material from the Late Neolithic Site of 2 Meredith Brand es-Sour, Central Sudan A Third Season of Rescue Excavations in the Meroitic 90 Azhari Mustafa Sadig Cemetery at Berber, October 2012: Preliminary Report ‘Pharaonic’ Sites in the Batn el-Hajar – the 8 Mahmoud Suliman Bashir ‘Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia’ Revisited. Jawgul – A Village Between Towers 101 David N. Edwards and A. J. Mills Mariusz Drzewiecki and Piotr Maliński A Note on the Akasha Rock-Inscriptions [21-S-29] 17 The Archaeology of the Medieval and Post-Medieval 109 Vivian Davies Fortress at Tinare in the Northern El-Mahas Creating a Virtual Reconstruction of the Seti I 18 Abdelrahaman Ibrahim Saeed Ali Inscription at Jebel Dosha Upper Atbara Setiet Dam Archaeological Salvage 113 Susie Green Project (ASDASP), the Rescue Excavation Results Archaeobotanical Investigations at the Gala Abu on the Western Bank of the Atbara: Preliminary Report Ahmed Fortress in Lower Wadi Howar, Northern Murtada Bushara Mohamed, Mohammed Saad Abdalah, Sudan Sami Elamien Mohammed and Zaki aldien Mahmoud The Site and the Findings 24 Archaeological, Ethnographical and Ecological 124 Friederike Jesse Project of El-Ga’ab Basin in Western Dongola: A Report on the Second Season 2010 Phytoliths on Grinding Stones and 28 Yahia Fadl Tahir Wood Charcoal Analysis Barbara Eichhorn Surveys at the Fifth Cataract and on the Sudan Military 131 Railway and excavations at Kawa, 2012-13 The Fruit and Seed Remains 33 Derek A. Welsby Stefanie Kahlheber Archaeological Survey in El-Metemma area 137 New Excavations at El-Kurru: Beyond the Napatan Nada Babiker Mohammed Ibrahim Royal Cemetery Archaeological Survey of Aba Island: 142 Introduction 42 Preliminary Report Geoff Emberling and Rachael J. Dann Ahmed Hussein Abdel Rahman Adam Investigating Settlement at El-Kurru 43 From Nubia to Arizona – and back; or, Reisner 149 Geoff Emberling comes Home Geophysical Prospection in the Archaeological 48 William Y. Adams Settlement of El-Kurru Mohamed Abdelwahab Mohamed-Ali Miscellaneous Coring and Soundings in the El-Kurru Settlement 50 Obituary 154 Tim Boaz Bruun Skuldbøl Michel Azim Five-sided Corinthian Capitals in the Mortuary 54 Brigitte Gratian Temple at El-Kurru Review 154 Jack Cheng Giovanni R. Ruffini 2012.Medieval Nubia. A Social Geophysical Survey at the El-Kurru cemetery 56 and Economic History Ed Blinkhorn William Y. Adams Sedeinga 2012: A Season of Unexpected Discoveries 61 Front cover: The descendary of Tomb IV T 1 near Sedeinga Claude Rilly and Vincent Francigny under excavation (© V. Francigny / SEDAU). The Latest Explorations at Usli, Northern Province 66 Miroslav Bárta, Lenka Suková and Vladimír Brůna 1 Sudan & Nubia is a peer-reviewed journal Methodology Dangeil, A Preliminary Report The Dangeil samples were prepared by the author at the on the Petrography Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) Petrographic Laboratory. The samples were analyzed using the methodology of the ROM Meredith Brand Petrographic Laboratory with the types of inclusions, their grain size, shape and degree of sorting recorded and analyzed Eighteen samples of Meroitic pottery from the temple and at 100x magnification3 (as discussed in Mason 2004, 6-16). settlement site of Dangeil were examined by petrographic The mineral abundance is expressed in overall percentages analysis.1 This preliminary analysis has identified four broadly of the various inclusions and was established using inclusion discernable petrofabric groups: ‘Dangeil Nile’; ‘Dangeil abundance charts (from Terry and Chillingar 1955). The scale Mixed Clay’; ‘Dangeil Kaolin’ of which there are two sub of the degree of sortedness used in this study (e.g. poor, groups, ‘Dangeil Kaolin 1’ and ‘Dangeil Kaolin 2’; and finally medium, well, and very well) is derived from Pettijohn et al. ‘Dangeil Granitic’. This study of Dangeil pottery fabrics is (1987, fig. A-1). The terminology employed to describe grain particularly important, as petrographic analysis has not been shape (e.g. angular, sub-angular, sub-rounded, rounded and conducted on pottery from the Berber-Abidiya region nor well rounded) is also based on charts by Pettijohn et al. (1987, in the areas just to the north or south of the Fifth Cataract. fig. A-2), and has been further modified by Mason (2004, fig. As such, one of the aims of this article is to provide a brief 2.4). The data from this preliminary analysis are presented comparison of the Dangeil petrofabrics with published pet- in Tables 1, 3 and 5 with the mineralogy, voids, argillaceous rographic studies from other sites in the Sudanese Nile Valley. inclusions, and their abundance, degree of sorting, and shape This comparison also highlights future goals to be pursued given for each sample (see the key to Tables 1, 3 and 5 for in the final publication of the Dangeil petrographic study.2 the abbreviations used in these tables). The first future goal is to characterize variability in Dangeil Grain size was further recorded on the 18 samples by point Nile, mixed Nile, and kaolin clays. This will further enable a counting inclusion in an area (i.e. area counting) following detailed study on ceramic paste preparation that will lead to Middleton (Middleton et al. 1985) where 150 grains4 were a more in depth understanding of pottery manufacture, as counted and their sizes recorded5 at x100 magnification. This well as inter-and intra-regional trade. data was then recalculated to 100% so that the point counts represent the size of grains in relation to the 150 grains Preliminary Comments on the Geology of the counted, and not the entire sample (Middleton et al. 1985; Dangeil Region Mason 2004). The recalculated data is presented in histograms to give an idea of the relative proportions of each mineral in Dangeil is located on the east bank of the Nile, approximately a size classification (Figures 2-6). The ROM petrography labo- 60km south of the Fifth Cataract (Anderson and Ahmed ratory’s size classifications were used for point counting, with 2006, 95). This region, located between Berber and Abidiya, the following categories: 0.0-0.0125mm; 0.0125-0.025mm; exhibits a high degree of geological complexity. The area 0.025-0.05mm; 0.05-0.075mm; 0.075-0.1mm; 0.1-0.125mm; around Dangeil on the east bank of the Nile is comprised 0.125-0.15mm; 0.15-0.175mm; 0.175-0.2mm; 0.2-0.225mm; of a thin strip of Nubian sandstone (approximately 5km and > 0.25mm. These grain sizes groups are correlated with wide). Dangeil is also located at the juncture of two base- Folk’s (1980) sediment size classification in Table 2. ment complexes; to the north of the site is the Precambrian Despite several studies that include voids and opaques in schist basement complex and to the south is the Precambrian point counting for Nile silt clays (e.g. Bourriau et al. 2000, 3; gneiss basement complex. On the west bank of the Nile is Smith 1991), they were not incorporated in the point counting a thin ribbon (approximately 5km wide) of the Precambrian schist basement complex with outcrops of basic volcanic 3 Up to 400x magnification was used to identify minerals; however, all rocks (namely basalt). The nearest granite outcrop is on the recording and analysis was at 100x magnification. west bank of the Nile 40km north and about 5km west of 4 The methodology regarding point counting for grain size distribution the river (see Geological Map of the Sudan 1981) (Figure 1). is an ongoing process of research connected with the broader study of textural analysis (Quinn 2013, 100-115). One of the most influential articles on textural analysis by Middleton et al. (1985, 72) purports that most methods of point counting are reliable with as few as 50 grains. In the Middleton et al. study, measurements were collected in 2-4 subsets 1 The author would like to thank the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) of 50 to 150 grains (1985, 65), accordingly, their study does not suggest Petrographic Laboratory and Professor Robert Mason for their as- a target number of grains that should be counted. Some scholars have sistance with this study, as well as Stanley Klassen and the directors built on Middleton et al. (1985) and measured 200 grains (e.g. Bourriau of the Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project, Julie Anderson and et al. 2000). This study, however, employs the ROM Petrography Lab Salah Mohamed Ahmed. The Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Mission guidelines for grain size distribution with point counting of 150 grains, is grateful to the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, as discussed by Mason (2004, 12-13).