New findings on the significance of Jebel Moya in the eastern Sahel

This paper presents new excavation data and new radiometric dates for Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data suggest revisions to previous chronological understandings of the site. New excavations, initiated in 2017, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. Archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analyses provide evidence for domesticated taxa. Archaeobotanical evidence is dominated by domesticated sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), radiocarbon dated to c. 2550–2210 BC. Faunal remains include cattle and goat/sheep. A late thirdmillennium BC date on the human skeleton excavated in the 2017 season also shows that mortuary activity began early in the site’shistory, contemporary with domesticated faunal and botanical remains. These initial results indicate the long-term association of the site with pastoralism and agriculture and with environmental change. Jebel Moya’s continued potential to serve as a chronological and cultural reference point for future studies in south-central Sudan and the eastern Sahel is reinforced

The chronological and social implications of the pottery from Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)

Continued research at Jebel Moya shows that this burial and habitation site has a very long chronology and was the locus for a number of activities. This study presents the first comprehensive analysis of pottery from stratified contexts from the new field seasons, utilizing a statistical attribute approach that provides both clarity and avenues for further research. The stratigraphic sequence and radiometric dates show that the site was inhabited from at least the late 6th millennium to 2000 years ago. Our analyses reveal previously unknown types of pottery and a wider range within assemblages. Overall, there is a longer period of mid-late Holocene habitation than previously recognised. Results are considered within a broader contextual and comparative approach with central Sudan, showing the importance of rethinking networks between south-central and central Sudan

Snapshots in time: MicroCT scanning of pottery sherds determines early domestication of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) in East Africa

MicroCT visualisations of organic inclusions within pottery sherds from Khashm el Girba 23 (KG23), Sudan, reveal domesticated sorghum (Sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor) at c. 3700–2900 BCE. The percentage of non-shattering spikelet bases was c. 73% of identifiable visualizations, with c. 27% representing wild types. These analyses demonstrate the domestication of sorghum is significantly earlier than suggested by previous archaeological research. These results also demonstrate that microCT scanning is a major qualitative and quantitative advance on pre-existing methods for the investigation of crop remains in pottery sherds, which hitherto have been reliant on surface impressions; it is non-destructive, provides higher resolution 3D imaging of organic inclusions, and enables greater archaeobotanical recovery of inclusions within a sherd. MicroCT analysis of ceramics, mudbrick and other building materials has considerable potential for improving the chronologies and resolution for the domestication of other cereals in the past

Gebel Moya (Site 100)

Gebel Moya, officially known as Site 100, is a large agricultural-pastoral site located below the Nile’s Sixth Cataract in Sudan. It lies between the Blue Nile and White Nile in what is now a semi-desert environment. It was first excavated by Henry Wellcome in the early twentieth century and was known as a cemetery until 2017, when fieldwork was renewed by a joint international mission. Current excavations show that, in addition to being a major cemetery, the site bears traces of Mesolithic habitation. Over a period of 5,000 years the area witnessed rapid climate change, and ongoing work is focused on reconstructing the ancient flora and fauna. It is now clear that Site 100, long considered insignificant by scholars, was home to dynamic communities across the millennia

Prehistory of Sudan

The Republic of Sudan, northeast Africa, is bordered by Egypt, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea. To the east there is the Red Sea. With an area of 1,886,068 square kilometers, it is the third largest country in Africa. The country is marked by diversity in terms of environment, archaeology, and ways of living. The most well-known archaeological remains and periods are the pyramids from the Kingdom of Kerma (2500–1500 BC), the rise of the Kingdom of Kush (c. 785 BC–AD 350), the later Christian kingdoms of Nobatia, Makuria, and Alodia and the Funj Sultanate in central and eastern Sudan. Sudan’s complex history has seen Mahdi, Ottoman, British, and Islamist rule and is now a secular state. While the present population is estimated to be 70% Arab, there is a diverse range of groups, languages, and dialects

Chapter Mortuary Theory, Pottery and Social Complexity at Jebel Moya Cemetery, South-Central Sudan

archaeology - hunter-gatherers - early food producing societies - Northeastern Afric

Archaeological survey in the Blue Nile area, Central Sudan. Prospección arqueológica en el área del Nilo Azul, Sudán Central

Se presentan los resultados de una prospección intensiva del área de Wadi Soba-el-Hasib al este de Jartum en la orilla oriental del Nilo Azul y una exploración del Nilo Azul aguas arriba hasta Singa. El objetivo principal fueron losrestos prehistóricos, con un 80% de yacimientos mesolíticos (EarlyKhartoum), siendo el resto neolítico(Shaheinab-Jebel Moya) junto a escasos restos paleolíticos. Porprimera vez se han registrado yacimientosimportantes del Neolítico Final en el Sudán Central, siempreen áreas lejanas al Nilo de la Butana y laGezira. Se han aplicado métodos estadísticos multivariantes a los procesos de formación, seriación cerámica ymodelos de asentamiento. Se advierte elpaso primero de una explotación acuática por grupos móviles a unaconcentración demográfica decazadores-pastores de sabana, que luego adoptan una economía móvil contúmulos funerarios comoúnico resto arqueológico hasta la época moderna.The results are presented of an intensive survey of the Wadi Soba-el-Hasib area east of Khartoum on the east bank of the Blue Nile and the exploration of the Blue Nile Basin upstream to Singa. The survey focused mainly on the Prehistoric sites, with the Mesolithic period (Early Khartoum) as the mostly represented with more than 80% of the discovered sites, the Neolithic sites (Shaheinab-Jebel Moya) making up most of the remainder 20%. Very few Palaeolithic sites were recorded. Late Neolithic sites of large size have been found for the first time in the Central Sudan, all of them located away from the Blue Nile in the Butana and Gezira plains. Site structure and formation processes, ceramic seriation and settlement patterns have been analysed applying statistical multivariate methods to the survey quantitative data. Some historical trends have been noticed. The first is the change from a Nilewadi aquatic exploitation by small mobile groups towards demographic concentration of near-sedentary savanna hunting herding populations. During the Late Neolithic period the groups adopted a mobile economy and their only archaeological record thereafter are the burial tumuli fields up to the Christian and Islamic periods

Production and Use of Ceramics in the First Millennium BC: Jebel Moya, Sudan

The site of Jebel Moya, situated in the center of the southern Gezira Plain in southcentral Sudan, has an occupational sequence spanning at least five millennia until around 2000 years ago. Renewed excavation is shedding new light on its occupational chronology and socioeconomic history, including activities such as burial, savanna herding, and domesticated sorghum cultivation practices dating to at least the mid-third millennium BC. In the present study, predominantly final phase pottery sherds from the first millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD (Assemblage 3) have been analyzed via a combination of thin section petrography and instrumental geochemistry to determine their raw materials and place of manufacture and reconstruct their manufacturing technology. Organic residue analysis was also conducted to identify the products processed within vessels found at the site. The results suggest the existence of a well-developed local ceramic craft tradition that persisted for over one thousand years. Pots from Assemblage 3 were used to process, store, and consume animal and plant products, thus reinforcing emerging evidence for early agro-pastoral activities

The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara

Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex social structures. Here, ethnographic cultural variability is stressed, previous models detailed, and data for the Eastern and Central Sahara summarised and analysed. The emerging picture is of a mosaic of population movements, clustering and experimentation resulting in transient peaks of wealth and the potential for incipient social complexity to become temporarily or permanently manifest. Saharan social diversity serves as a warning against linear models and highlights the importance of an explanatory framework for investigating the evolution of social structures outside of permanently settled communities for North Africa