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Jebel Moya: The Wellcome Excavations in the Sudan

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... Wellcome never returned to Jebel Moya after 1914, and no further excavations were held after that time (Vella Gregory, 2024). The site report was only published in 1949 (Addison, 1949a). By this time, material relating to Jebel Moya (objects, artifacts, documents, photographs) had been moved a number of times. ...
... They include the personal diary of Oric Bates (who led excavations for one season only), grave card registers that record graves and their finds, cards detailing objects, some geological notes, and photographs. We lack detailed notes on essential things like decisions on where to excavate and crucial information on the recording of features and stratigraphic contexts is of mixed quality and usefulness; indeed Addison (1949a) mentions that George Resiner made suggestions to Wellcome, although these have been lost. ...
... As outlined in Addison (1949a), Wellcome launched this project to assist in the so-called improvement of the native population, in the process employing more than 4000 workmen. The reality was much more complex (see Vella Gregory, 2020). ...
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This paper explores the relationship between archaeology, photography, and colonialism at the site of Jebel Moya (Site 100), Sudan. We consider technical aspects of the photographic archive, the role of photographers, the manipulation of images to convey specific narratives, and the dispersal and reclassification of the Jebel Moya materials across various institutions. When Site 100 was first excavated by Henry Wellcome (1911–1914), Sudan had a Condominium government, rendering the country a British colony in all but name. Our work acknowledges the racial legacies of colonial rule and as such it engages with the community whose past is under discussion, emphasizing how photography served as an agent of Western colonial authority. It re-situates Jebel Moya and related archives in the Sudanese context, providing an enriched understanding of the site’s history, the workers who excavated it, and the various colonial power dynamics involved. Additionally, our current fieldwork recognizes that as a discipline, archaeology is deeply rooted in European colonialism and as such we extend inquiry beyond sites and artifacts and focus on colonial practices and representational encounters, pronounced power imbalances, and imperial values rooted in white dominance and superiority. Consequently, this study contributes to the reframing of Sudanese history and a more inclusive understanding of the past.
... Jebel Moya was first excavated by the founder of the Wellcome Trust, Henry Wellcome, over four seasons from January 1911 to April 1914 (Addison 1949). The occupied valley is formally known as Site 100 but will be referred to here as Jebel Moya. ...
... It is approximately 250 km south-south-east of Khartoum and c. 30 km west of Sennar, and the valley is c. 10.4 hectares in size. Officially, a fifth of the valley floor was excavated (Addison 1949). It is the largest pastoral cemetery in Africa. ...
... Wellcome's excavation yielded a recorded 3,135 human burials from 2,791 graves, assigned to the third and last of the three occupational phases. The first phase is dated to the late sixth millennium BC and was said to be represented by only small disturbed deposits left behind in the lowest stratum (Addison 1949), but field observations during the 2017 season by the University College London-University of Khartoum-NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira (Sudan) (codirected by Brass and Adam) show that the lowest stratum remains prevalent with embedded Late Mesolithic sherds. Brass (2016, 28-70) did a thorough re-examination was undertaken of the Jebel Moya pottery repertoire currently stored at the British Museum. ...
... This is particularly significant, since Wellcome's team removed a staggering number of burials and, while he mandated a laborious card-recording system, the removal and recording methods led to numerous problems, particulary in terms of chronology, stratigraphic distribution and the associated grave goods. These problems have puzzled a number of scholars, including Frank Addison, who was in charge of the final report, despite having never worked at Jebel Moya (see Addison 1949;Gerharz 1994;Brass 2016). The situation is rendered more complex by the site's geology. ...
... There are four macro-geological strata, which broadly correspond to chronology (for more detail, see Brass et al. 2020) (Table 1). Addison (1949) initially assigned all burials to the Napatan State; he later revised his dates after criticism from Arkell and ultimately settled for the Meroitic (Addison 1956). More recently, absolute dates (Table 2) were combined with a more thorough sequence based on detailed excavations and a re-assessment of pottery (Brass et al. 2019;Brass & Vella Gregory 2021). ...
... There are four macro-geological strata, which broadly correspond to chronology (for more detail, see Brass et al. 2020) (Table 1). Addison (1949) initially assigned all burials to the Napatan State; he later revised his dates after criticism from Arkell and ultimately settled for the Meroitic (Addison 1956). More recently, absolute dates (Table 2) were combined with a more thorough sequence based on detailed excavations and a re-assessment of pottery (Brass et al. 2019;Brass & Vella Gregory 2021). ...
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New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan.
... An examination of curated material remains and archives relating to Wellcome's expedition highlighted two important points. First, the site had enormous potential for further work and second, very little was known about Wellcome's expedition bar the carefully curated promotional material during his lifetime and, eventually, reports by Addison (1949) and Mukherjee et al. (1955). From the outset, it was decided that the project would be a full collaboration with Sudanese archaeologists and that it would involve the local community. ...
... There is one main gully; it is shallow and broad and flows from the western slopes across the valley and out through a break in the eastern slopes. It is frequently mentioned by Addison (1949). There are thinner but deeper gullies traversing from the north and north-west which meet the main gully before it exits the valley. ...
... Despite the lack of precise methodology, Wellcome's excavations revealed that the site was made up of a number of strata. This is seen in Addison's (1949) report, field notes by the excavators Dixon and Wainwright and Oric Bates' personal field diary (extant field notes are curated at the Griffiths Institute, Oxford) and grave cards (curated at the Duckworth Laboratory, Cambridge). Addison (1949, 15) The terminology has been retained for the sake of continuity, although from the outset our excavation proceeded at 10 cm spit intervals. ...
Article
This report presents the latest data from ongoing excavations at Jebel Moya, Sudan. This year saw the opening of five new trenches and continued excavation of an archaeologically rich trench. We have recovered four individual burials, a mud brick wall and a number of animal and archaeobotanical remains. The excavations also yielded a longer pottery sequence, showing clearly that the site was in use by at least the sixth millennium BC. This season confirms the long and complex history of Jebel Moya and provides the material for future studies on population health and subsistence. This season also saw an increase in community engagement and a more detailed study of the various historical trajectories that make up the biography of Jebel Moya.
... Jebel Moya was first excavated by the founder of the Wellcome Trust, Henry Wellcome, over four seasons from January 1911 to April 1914 (Addison 1949). The occupied valley is formally known as Site 100 but will be referred to here as Jebel Moya. ...
... It is approximately 250 km south-south-east of Khartoum and c. 30 km west of Sennar, and the valley is c. 10.4 hectares in size. Officially, a fifth of the valley floor was excavated (Addison 1949). It is the largest pastoral cemetery in Africa. ...
... Wellcome's excavation yielded a recorded 3,135 human burials from 2,791 graves, assigned to the third and last of the three occupational phases. The first phase is dated to the late sixth millennium BC and was said to be represented by only small disturbed deposits left behind in the lowest stratum (Addison 1949), but field observations during the 2017 season by the University College London-University of Khartoum-NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira (Sudan) (codirected by Brass and Adam) show that the lowest stratum remains prevalent with embedded Late Mesolithic sherds. Brass (2016, 28-70) did a thorough re-examination was undertaken of the Jebel Moya pottery repertoire currently stored at the British Museum. ...
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Building upon Brass’ previous research on Jebel Moya, which included a comprehensive reanalysis of the pottery from Wellcome's 1911–14 expeditions curated at the British Museum, new research activities by the University College London–University of Khartoum–NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira project have included locating and examining for the first time the Late Mesolithic sherds from Jebel Moya curated at the National Museum in Khartoum. Representative samples from the sites of Shaqadud Midden and Shaqadud S21 at the British Museum have also been re-examined. The aims of these activities were threefold: to test the reliability and cohesiveness of and patterning in the Shaqadud collection through the expanded application of attribute analysis, to determine if Caneva's observations of décor patterns on Jebel Moya's Late Mesolithic sherds could be replicated and to obtain better visibility into the nature of its pottery assemblage from this time, and to use the resulting data to test the viability of the central Sudan being a fulcrum of cultural interchanges during the late sixth and early fifth millennium BC. We conclude that there was a piecemeal establishment of networks along which there was diffusion of ideas and animals, and perhaps low numbers of people, into the central and south-central Sudan.
... 11km. Its north-eastern valley was excavated by (later Sir) Henry Wellcome, the founder of the Wellcome Trust, over four field seasons from 1911-1914(Addison 1949. Around a fifth of the estimated 10.4 hectares of the valley floor was excavated over four seasons, yielding a recorded 3135 human burials from 2791 graves. ...
... The archaeological and bioanthropological reports were published in 1949 and 1955 respectively (Addison 1949;Mukherjee et al. 1955 Edwards (1989: Figure 1) and Winchell (2013: Figure 1.2). ...
... Addison visited Jebel Moya in 1938, but he otherwise relied on the descriptions provided by Wellcome's camp leader, Major Uribe, for understanding the camp life and activities during the second to fourth field seasons he was present. Moreover, no detailed contextual records existed pertaining to the first season, for which the only records available to Addison (1949) were John Holmes' manuscript diary, providing little information on archaeological context, and Wellcome's brief paper presented to the British Association in 1912. The diaries of Bates and Dixon, who perished during the first World War, were technical and provided little contextual and stratigraphic setting to the excavations (Addison 1949: VI). ...
Conference Paper
The largest known pastoral cemetery in sub-Saharan Africa is found in the Jebel Moya massif, south-central Sudan. It was excavated from 1911 to 1914 by Henry Wellcome and first published in 1949. With more than 3100 human burials, the site provides extraordinary scope for exploring the interaction of indigenous and external cultural traditions on the southern boundary of the Meroitic state. This dissertation revises our understanding of Jebel Moya and its context. The few known archaeological localities of the southern Gezira and pre-Meroitic and Meroitic-era cemeteries are compared to elucidate the nature of pastoral social organisation at Jebel Moya. After reviewing previous applications of social complexity theory to mortuary data within and outside of Africa, new questions are posed for the applicability of such theory to pastoral cemeteries. Reliable radiometric dating of Jebel Moya for the first time by luminescence dates is tied into an attribute-based approach to discern three distinctive pottery assemblages. Three distinct phases of occupation are discerned, dating from (1) the early fifth millennium BC, (2) the mid-second to early first millennium BC, and (3) a mortuary phase from the first century BC into the sixth century AD. Analytically, new statistical and spatial analyses such as cross-pair correlation function and multidimensional scaling provide information on zones of interaction across the mortuary assemblages. Finally, an analysis of Meroitic and non-Meroitic mortuary locales from the central Sudan and Upper and Lower Nubia are examined to show how changing social, economic and power relations were conceptualised, and to highlight Jebel Moya’s potential to serve as a chronological and cultural reference point for future studies in south-central and southern Sudan.
... It is situated in the northeast valley, termed Site 100, of the Jebel Moya massif in the southern Gezira Plain. Spanning 10.4ha, it was partially excavated by the founder of the Wellcome Trust, Sir Henry Wellcome, over four seasons from the end of January 1911 until April 1914 (Addison 1949). A total of 3,135 bodies were uncovered from 2,791 excavated undisturbed shallow graves, without substructures or permanent superstructures, in four strata (Stratum A -D in descending order). ...
... The majority of the materials, including the skeletal data and excavation records, were shipped to the UK. Frank Addison (Addison 1949;1956) published the archaeological report in 1949, while the physical anthropological remains -curated at the Duckworth Laboratory, University of Cambridge -were published subsequently (Mukherjee et al. 1955). In the intervening years, there have been a series of small but nevertheless influential studies, some of which have been previously summarised (Brass 2009 Haaland's (1984; excavations at nearby Rabak revealed the presence of some Neolithic Jebel Moya-like pottery sherds. ...
... Two approaches to pottery analysis have been used in Africa and elsewhere in the world since the 1950s: attribute and typological-based analyses (Caneva 1987;Dunnell 1986;Ford 1954a;1954b;Mohammed-Ali and Khabir 2003;Spaulding 1953;1954;1977;Whittaker et al. 1998;Winchell 2013). Fundamentally, previous limited analyses of select Jebel Moya pottery (Addison 1949;Caneva 1991;Clark 1973;Manzo 1995) failed to adequately engage with numerous interpretive scopes beyond attempted typological groupings and, excluding Addison as hardly any sites were then known and explored outside the Nile Valley, only basic attempts were made at cross-correlation with the material culture and dates from other sites in the Gezira and neighbouring regions. The primary reason for this state of affairs was that Sudanese archaeologists have traditionally operated within both a narrow typological classificatory methodological approach to pottery analysis and a broader discourse of Nubian archaeology long-labouring under the continuing influence of the culture history paradigm (Dann 2009). ...
... The excavated valley, formally known as Site 100 and spanning 10.4 ha, is located in the northeastern sector of the massif. Sir Henry Wellcome, the founder of the Wellcome Trust, initiated excavations in January 1911, and these continued over four field seasons until April 1914, shortly before the onset of the First World War (Addison 1949). Around a fifth of the estimated 10.4 ha was excavated, yielding 2882 recorded graves and pits, of which 2791 were excavated by Wellcome. ...
... No post-war excavations were undertaken by Wellcome, who passed away in 1936. The archaeological (Addison 1949(Addison , 1956) and bioanthropological (Mukherjee et al. 1955) remains were analysed and subsequently published. ...
... 26). Attempts to re-evaluate the nature of habitation activities within the valley for the first time since Addison (1949) are hampered by the absence of surviving field notes detailing the type and stratigraphic positioning of the stated presence of floors and other features outside the southwest sector of the excavated area of the valley (Fig. 4). In the southwest, the ground surface at the time of excavation was on average 210 cm above the surface of Stratum C, and the surface of The ground surface here at the time of excavation was 210 cm above C surface Stratum D c. 75 cm below. ...
Article
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The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivory and ostrich feathers. Trade routes criss-crossed the desert and extended down the Nile river to Greco-Roman Egypt, as well as through Red Sea ports to several Middle Eastern destinations including Egypt. Using the southern and southeastern reaches of the Meroitic state as a case study, I argue that to conceptualise the frontier peripheries of early states as borders is to misunderstand their internal dynamics (movements of people, fluid social networks and regional exchange systems). Each region had its own distinctive form of power relations. Examining how communities in these frontier zones were constituted, inscribed their identities in the landscape and facilitated trade in relation to the core of the Meroitic state in the Shendi Reach draws attention to the fluidity and continual renegotiation of state–pastoral relations.
... Sir Henry Wellcome initiated the first of four excavation seasons on 29 th January 1911 when the first test trenches were dug. These initial test trenches were named after the nearby villages which the respective workers came from, for example the Segadi and Moya New Trenches (Addison 1949). Around a fifth of the estimated 10.4 hectares of the site was excavated until the end of the fourth season in April 1914. ...
... The majority of the excavated artefacts and all of the physical anthropological remains and the excavation records were shipped to the United Kingdom where they were examined in the late 1930s and post-1945 (Addison 1949, Mukherjee et al. 1955). Subsequently, there have been two studies of note. ...
... West 498 Central to improving the understanding of the stratigraphic complexity of Jebel Moya and subsequently decoding the inter-site variation in material culture is the establishment of a secure chronology. Briefly (see Brass 2009, Brass and Schwenniger 2013 for further details), the site was first dated by Addison (1949) to the first millennium BC, between 1000 -400 BC. He later revised his dates from the last centuries BC to the fourth century AD (Addison 1956). ...
Chapter
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Brass, M. 2015. Mortuary theory, pottery and social complexity at [ebel Moya cemetery, south-central Sudan. In Kabacinski, J., Chlodnicki, M. and Kobusiewicz, M. (eds) Hunter-gatherers and early food producing societies in Northeastern Africa. Studies in African Archaeology 14. Poznan Archaeological Museum.
... The area excavated at Jebel Moya is situated in a basin-like valley within the northeastern portion of the massif. Approximately a fifth of the basin's 10.4 ha was excavated over four seasons between January 1911 and April 1914 (Addison 1949), yielding 3135 human burials in 2791 graves, making it is the largest cemetery yet excavated in Northeast Africa (Figure 2). The precise dating of this site has long been in doubt and the aim of the present study is to define better the temporal context of this interpretively important assemblage. ...
... The excavation of Jebel Moya was funded by Sir Henry Wellcome in the years leading up to the First World War, initially as research into a time period and area that interested him, but ultimately as a philanthropic gesture. Upon his death in 1936, the Wellcome Trust appointed Frank Addison to undertake an analysis of the archaeological materials, which had been shipped to England during the course of the excavations (Addison 1949). J.C. Trevor (Duckworth Laboratory, University of Cambridge) was commissioned to complete the osteological work; he brought in Ramkrishna Mukherjee and C. Radhakrishna Rao to undertake the majority of the analyses (Mukherjee et al. 1955). ...
... A thorough reconsideration of the Jebel Moya pottery has been sorely lacking. Previous attempts (Addison 1949;Caneva 1991;Manzo 1995) failed to move beyond vague and unproductive typological groupings. Instead, this study employed an attributebased approach focusing on the sherds' individual parameters including form, fabric, thickness, surface finish, decorative tools and the motor actions employed in executing decorations. ...
Article
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This paper proposes a new chronology for the burial complex at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. It reassesses the body of evidence from Sir Henry Wellcome's original 1911-1914 excavations in order to place the site within a firm chronological framework by: (a) applying an attribute-based approach to discern discrete pottery assemblages; and (b) applying initial OSL dates to facilitate the reliable dating of this site for the first time. Jebel Moya is re-interpreted as a burial complex situated on the southern periphery of the late Meroitic state, and its potential to serve as a chronological and cultural reference point for future studies in south-central and southern Sudan is outlined.
... Structural and spatial analyses of the distribution of graves and grave goods will subsequently be undertaken alongside re-examination of the composition of the recorded classes of grave goods. Frank Addison's (1949) original site report was essentially a catalogue description of the remains and geology. Although Rudolf Gerharz (1994) has published a revised chronology through re-seriation of the grave contents and Isabella Caneva (1991) has undertaken further work on the pottery housed at the British Museum, no study has re-examined the excavation records to test the interpretive validity of the original site report and re-analysed the social implications of the individual burial assemblages and the distribution of the graves. ...
... Later in 1910, Lord Kitchener approached Wellcome to elicit unspecified assistance to the inhabitants of the Sudan. Wellcome agreed to provide aid but did not denote the form it would take (Addison 1949). His health was poor and he travelled to Egypt on the advice of his doctors to recuperate before taking the opportunity to continue south to Sudan. ...
... He arrived on 26 th January 1911 and initiated excavations on the 29 th January with 15 local inhabitants equipped with improvised wooden tools. There were around 4000 people employed by Wellcome on site by the close of the fourth and final season in April 1914 (Addison 1949). ...
... In the Early Holocene, Central Sudan was inhabited by hunter-gatherer communities. Until recently, the cultural landscape of this period was very unclear, even though nearly eight decades have passed since the discovery of the Two Mesolithic burials from Khor Shambat, Sudan first Mesolithic sites in the area of Khartoum (Arkell 1947;1949). Archaeological research conducted in the last 40 years has provided new data that help to unravel some of the obscurities. ...
... Similar burials were found at Jebel Moya in the 1940s(Addison 1949). ...
Article
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The site of Khor Shambat 1 (KSH1) is located on the west bank of the Nile, in Omdurman, approximately 5 km north of Tuti Island. The first surveys there started in 2012, to be followed by an expedition of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, which began four years later. A series of radiocarbon dates show that Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers inhabited the site between 7000 and 5200 calBC, while Neolithic pastoralists settled there between 5000 and 3800 calBC. The research, carried out in nine trenches with a total area of nearly 180 m², yielded 66 human burials. While most of them were Neolithic and post-Meroitic, two graves found in the central part of the site contained remains of hunter-fisher-gatherers. The paper presents the results of archaeological, anthropological, and bioarchaeological research on the skeletons of the two Mesolithic men. The analyses are presented against a broader background of Early Holocene settlement in Central Sudan.
... About 496 human and animal figurines were recovered during the excavations at Jebel Moya (Addison 1949). Of these, the human figurines are both male and female and highly stylised, and are made of unfired clay. ...
... The prevalence of many simple, almost phallic types, looking like rough cones of clay, may point to different symbolisms around figurines at this site. Addison (1949) suggested that the animal figurines represent children's toys, while the human figurines seem to differ in character from the animal types. The latter are model animals with legs, horns, tails, etc., all realistically reproduced, or at least reproduced as well as their makers knew how, but no attempt was made to model a human. ...
Article
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Clay female figurines recovered from central and northern Sudan suggest there are cultural similarities between the Neolithic (5000-2800 BC) and Meroitic periods (400 BC-AD 350). Female figurines were recovered from several Meroitic sites, including from the elite cemeteries in el-Bagrawwaya west, the domestic strata in the royal city of Meroe, the Meroitic settlement in Karanog at lower Nubia, and at el-Muweis south of the Meroitic Town. Here, I argue that female forms in the Meroitic period, like some of the Neolithic samples, and their continuation in the archaeological record, show the social importance of females across the cultural history of ancient Sudan. The paper describes the figurines and uses a comparative method to study and reassess the Meroitic female figurines according to their similarities with other samples from the Neolithic and prehistoric periods.
... Later, J. Desmond Clark sunk test trenches at Jebel et Tomat (Clark 1973;Clark and Stemler 1975), situated near the east bank of the White Nile to the north-east of the famous site of Jebel Moya, which is in the middle of the southern Gezira Plain (Addison 1949;Brass 2016). Jebel Tomat was a multi-phase site. ...
... Amulets have also been found elsewhere within the Meroitic lands at locales such as Kerma (Bonnet and Tayeb Mahmoud 1991) and el-Kadada (Geus and Lenoble 1985). In the Gezira Plain, a few were found at Jebel Moya (Addison 1949;Brass and Schwenniger 2013;Brass 2016). Their presence outside of the political boundaries of the Meroitic state all the way down to Kosti (and maybe beyond?) speaks to an as yet unidentified culturally embedded significance in these items, whether from trade or heirlooms. ...
Article
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New archaeological discoveries south of Khartoum in south-central Sudan are enhancing our ability to determine the spread of items originating from the Meroitic state 2000 years ago, beyond the political borders of the state. For the first time in a full-length paper, this research aims to increase our knowledge of archaeological sites dating to this period along the very poorly understood White Nile. The conditions of the sites are outlined, archival research was undertaken through an examination of the original excavation notes and records, and the importance of future research is highlighted. The results shed new light on the features of the communities living to the south of the state as well as how they interacted with the Meroitic state. The conclusions suggest that the lack of civil, political, and religious Meroitic constructions are indicative of a lack of political control over the White Nile where the archaeological evidence demonstrates that fisher-hunting activities predominated. However, there were commercial relations between these rural areas, and the Meroitic state was based on the White Nile's need for ivory, wood, animals, slaves, and perishable items such as leather, and on the presence of Meroitic products such as amulets, gold ornaments, iron arrowheads, and pottery.
... The massif is situated between the Blue and White Niles, approximately 250 km south/southeast of the confluence of the Niles at the Sixth Cataract by Khartoum, and some 30 km to the east of the claimed Meroitic trading station and later Medieval Funj kingdom seat of power at Sennar (Fig. 1). At the conclusion of the original four seasons of fieldwork, a fifth of the 10.4 ha had been excavated (Fig. 2) (Addison 1949). No further excavations have been undertaken, apart from a couple of test trenches dug by J. Desmond Clark's team during a brief visit in the early 1970s (Clark and Stemler 1975). ...
... The surviving anatomical remains are curated at the Duckworth Laboratory (University of Cambridge), the excavation records at the Duckworth Laboratory and at the Griffiths Institute (Oxford), a representative pottery sample at the British Museum and Petrie Museum (London), and the majority of the known surviving artefacts at the Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology (University of Cambridge). The site has been largely ignored due to (1) the unusually large number of workmen employed, which hindered detailed recordings of materials and remains by the field excavators, and (2) the existence of two different chronologies proposed by the author of the archaeological site report, Frank Addison, based upon the same pottery assemblages and stratigraphic distribution of graves (Addison 1949(Addison , 1956Brass 2009;Gerharz 1994). Consequently, limited attention has been paid to the archaeology of the Gezira Plain in favour of the territory covered by the Meroitic State down to the Shendi Reach (Edwards 2007;Salvatori 2012;Fernández et al. 2003). ...
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Link to Open Access article: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-014-9164-5 The site of Jebel Moya, excavated in the early twentieth century, represents arguably the largest pastoral mortuary complex in Africa. Jebel Moya is resituated in relation to the neighbouring Meroitic-era agro-pastoral settlements and the only known Meroitic trading station (Sennar) in the southern Gezira Plain, Sudan. It is the first time that the known localities in the southern Gezira and southern Meroitic cemeteries have been compared, in an attempt to elucidate the different social organisation reflected in mortuary assemblages between the core and the periphery of the Meroitic State. New questions are posed for (1) the applicability of mortuary theory to pastoral cemeteries, and (2) the nature of zones of interaction on the frontier of the Meroitic State, through the application of new statistical and spatial analyses of the mortuary assemblages and the site’s reinterpretation as a pastoral, instead of an agro-pastoral, mortuary complex.
... Less common is the presence of micro arrowheads, which have been found in different Neolithic strata, as well as one example in association with the burial in Trench 9. These tools will be studied and they are hard to relate to those described in Addison's (1949) publication due to the latter's lack of formal context. ...
Article
This paper outlines the ways in which the project is addressing the colonial legacy of Henry Wellcome as well as presenting the data from the first three field seasons at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data have substantially revised our chronological and socioeconomic understanding of the site. Our excavations, initiated in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2022, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. The faunal and botanical remains have implications for the spread of early domesticates in the eastern Sahel and for climate changes, and raise issues of resilience. There is confirmed human burial activity from at least the third millennium BC onwards, while the pottery continues to yield information about the variety of decoration and, for the final Assemblage 3, data on its usage. Overall, the continued importance of the site for the eastern Sahel is re-emphasised.
... The site has so far yielded 3141 human burials, most excavated by Henry Wellcome's team (Addison, 1949). The present expedition is shedding light on the previously unknown history of southern Gezira. ...
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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 archaeological data from Wellcome's expedition were originally analysed and published by Frank Addison (1949), who initially placed Jebel Moya in an uninterrupted sequence from 1000-400 BC. He later modified his dating to between the last centuries BC until the third century AD, contemporary with the Meroitic state to the north (Addison 1956, contra Arkell's 1955 ascription of it to the Napatan period, c. 750-350 BC). ...
... Dense agglomerations of multiple households became common from the Meroitic period onwards (e.g. Adams & Nordström, 1963;Crawford & Addison, 1951;Wolf et al., 2014) and by the Medieval period the population had steadily expanded over time (Anderson, 2004). Increased population density and greater sedentism may have been accompanied by more polluted settlements, household crowding, and a decline in sanitation levels, leading to a higher disease load (e.g. ...
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Objective To investigate the prevalence of maxillary sinusitis in people who lived in the Middle Nile Valley across different periods, cultures, and environmental conditions. Materials 481 skeletons from 13 sites, curated at the British Museum, London, were analysed. The sites ranged in date from the Neolithic to Medieval periods (c. 4900 BCE–CE 1500). Methods Bony changes within the maxillary sinuses, associated with sinusitis and oroantral fistulae were systematically recorded according to pre-established criteria. Results There were significant differences in the prevalence of maxillary sinusitis between time period/subsistence economy groups. The Neolithic hunter-gatherer/early agricultural group had the lowest prevalence, whilst the urban group demonstrated the highest frequency of the disease. Conclusions Factors involved in the development of maxillary sinusitis are manifold and complex. However, the results indicate that increased aridity in Sudan in later periods and intensification of agricultural practices may have played a role in increasing prevalence of the disease. Urban environments, including crowding, poor sanitation, and industrial air pollution, could also have influenced susceptibility to maxillary sinusitis. Significance Prior to this paper, the impact of arid environments on respiratory health in the past had received little attention despite growing clinical research on the topic. Both arid and urban environments are predicted to expand in the future. This paper provides a deep-time perspective on an issue of increasing concern today. Limitations Poor preservation of skeletons and a lack of archaeological settlement data for some sites. Future research Investigation of a greater range of populations from different environments/climates.
... Other objects found in burials are also considered. These include a light green glazed scarab in burial 2225a, (Addison, 1949a: Plate XLV, B4; Addison, 1949b), a bronze statuette of the Egyptian god Shu found c. 15 cm from the head of burial 524 and a pale green faience Udat amulet with burial 535. There are more recorded instances in non-burial contexts: Table 3.12 in Brass (2016) lists the occurrences of surface finds of plaques and scarabs in multiple areas across the site, and their chronological attribution of manufacture by Addison (1949a: 117). ...
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... These are all found in settlement debris and are quite varied in shape— some seated like the figurine from the Second Cataract area and some standing (information presented in a paper given by Elisabeth David at the 11th Nubian conference, Neuchatel September 2014). Similar figurine material has been found at the Jebel Moya site located in the Gezira area south of Khartoum (Addison 1949). Nearly 1,500 animal figurines were recorded at the site. ...
... Similar figurine material has been found at the Jebel Moya site located in the Gezira area south of Khartoum (Addison 1949). Nearly 1,500 animal figurines were recorded at the site. ...
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... Another important aspect is the 'African' nature of the Meroitic ceramic industries that influenced a large proportion of the pottery found in the capital city and in Nubia (Robertson 1976;Robertson & Hill 1999;Evina 2010). Although several publications have already described such material (Addison 1949;Arkell 1949;Crawford & Addison 1951), its origins and the surrounding cultural background still remain less well studied. ...
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The Forts of North Omdurman volume presents research aimed at establishing when and why a group of nine forts were built in Upper Nubia (modern Sudan). These defences resemble late Roman fortlets commonly found in the Egyptian Eastern Desert and elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The nine forts were irregularly positioned within a 550km section of the Middle Nile Valley, a land which was never subject to Roman authority. Excavations were conducted at the three southernmost forts situated on the outskirts of modern Omdurman. The methodology chosen was designed to define the possible chronological limits of the defences and to identify the remains left by the first settlers. The chapters include a detailed analysis of the forts' architecture, stratigraphy, pottery, beads, plaster, animal and plant remains supplemented by a series of radiocarbon dates. The result is a new insight into the dynamic beginnings of the forts and the challenges faced by the rulers of the medieval Kingdom of Alwa in the 6th and 7th centuries AD.
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Available online (free) access: http://www.archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={9334676E-3BBC-4D52-BF46-96F92045E02A} The largest known pastoral cemetery in sub-Saharan Africa is found in the Jebel Moya massif, south-central Sudan. It was excavated from 1911 to 1914 by Henry Wellcome and first published in 1949. With more than 3100 human burials, the site provides extraordinary scope for exploring the interaction of indigenous and external cultural traditions on the southern boundary of the Meroitic state. This research revises our understanding of Jebel Moya and its context. The few known archaeological localities of the southern Gezira and pre-Meroitic and Meroitic-era cemeteries are compared to elucidate the nature of pastoral social organisation at Jebel Moya. After reviewing previous applications of social complexity theory to mortuary data within and outside of Africa, new questions are posed for the applicability of such theory to pastoral cemeteries. Reliable radiometric dating of Jebel Moya for the first time by luminescence dates is tied into an attribute-based approach to discern three distinctive pottery assemblages. Three distinct phases of occupation are discerned, dating from (1) the early fifth millennium BC, (2) the mid-second to early first millennium BC, and (3) a mortuary phase from the first century BC into the sixth century AD. Analytically, new statistical and spatial analyses such as cross-pair correlation function and multi-dimensional scaling provide information on zones of interaction across the mortuary assemblages. Finally, an analysis of Meroitic and non-Meroitic mortuary locales from the central Sudan and Upper and Lower Nubia are examined to show how changing social, economic and power relations were conceptualised, and to highlight Jebel Moya’s potential to serve as a chronological and cultural reference point for future studies in south-central and southern Sudan. I am greatly indebted to my former Ph.D supervisor at the Institute of Archaeology (University College London), Professor Kevin MacDonald, who first suggested Jebel Moya as a potential candidate for my doctoral research, which this study is the result of. Our discussions and meetings have always been lively and highly stimulating, and his guidance invaluable. I would also like to thank my secondary supervisors, Professors Andrew Bevan and Dorian Q. Fuller. Professor Bevan provided incalculable assistance and guidance with the spatial analyses, while Professor Fuller gave very graciously of his time to answer any questions I had about wider Sudanese archaeology. The support of other colleagues in the Institute of Archaeology and the intellectual freedom offered by the Institute has been significant. The director, Professor Sue Hamilton, encouraged me to publish the luminescence dates on the Jebel Moya pottery. Professor David Wengrow and Dr Richard Bussmann were always available for queries, and provided the opportunity to speak to the British Association of Near East Archaeology 2015 conference hosted by the Institute. Dr Neil Spencer and Dr Derek Welsby kindly provided access to the Jebel Moya collection at the British Museum, and Dr Welsby extended gracious invitations to present my research to The Sudan Archaeological Research Society in 2008 and 2015. Dr Marta Lahr kindly granted access to the records archived at the Duckworth Laboratory, University of Cambridge, while the Griffiths Institute (Oxford) provided access to their collection. I am indebted to Professors Azhari Sadig, Mike Parker Pearson, Andrea Manzo, and Dr Donatella Usai and my colleagues from many conferences and organisations, notably the annual African Archaeology Research Day in the UK, Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa (LPNEA 2011 and 2015, Poznan, Poland) and the Society of Africanist Archaeologists. There are too many people to thank individually but you know who you are. A very special thank you goes to my wife, Dr Isabelle Vella Gregory, for her unstinting support and for her invaluable discussions and input at vital stages of my research. Any mistakes which remain are my responsibility. Finally, my research would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the Wellcome Trust, for which I am very grateful.
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Kite Aerial Photography (KAP) is applied as a tool for documenting excavations at the Tulul adh-Dhahab site in the lower Zarqa valley, northwestern Jordan. The resulting imagery as well as aerial photos from the 1950ies are used to generate 3D models, orthophotos and DSMs by Structure from Motion Photogrammetry (SfM).
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