Amara West, Sudan

Project leader:  Neal Spencer

Department: Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Project start: 2008
End date: tbc

External partners:
National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Sudan
Archaeological Prospection Services of Southampton, http://apss.soton.ac.uk/ (2008)
British School at Rome, www.bsr.ac.uk (2008)
University of Manchester (2009)
University of Aberystwyth (2009)
Purdue University (2009)

Research in cemetery C is made possible through a Small Research Grant from the British Academy (2009-2010; SG-51563).

The American Board of the Fondation Michela Schiff Giorgini has awarded a grant for excavations in cemetery D (2010).

Description:

Amara West is an extensive Ramesside settlement (thirteenth-twelfth century BC), located on the north bank of the River Nile opposite the modern town of Abri. Originally located on an island, the remains of the town are now largely buried under windblown sand.

Amara West was the seat of the Egyptian administration of upper Nubia, or Kush, from the reign of Seti I (1306-1290 BC) onwards, and came to be known as the ‘house of Ramses beloved of Amun’.

Excavations by the Egypt Exploration Fund in 1938-1939 and 1947-1950 uncovered a stone temple decorated in the reign of Ramses II, with later additions. Two areas of the surrounding town, set within a mudbrick enclosure wall, were also excavated.

The key building in the western part of the town was the ‘governor’s palace’, with the doorjambs identifying resident officials such as the deputies of Kush, Paser and Sebau-khau. The latest phase of occupation was not securely dated, though in places structures had been built above one metre of sand which had accumulated above the 20th Dynasty occupation levels. Elsewhere, parts of the temple were modified for domestic use. A badly disturbed cemetery, with burials both contemporary and later in date than the settlement, was also partly excavated.

In 2008, the British Museum conducted the first season of a new fieldwork project at the site, in co-operation with the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums. A magnetometry survey of the settlement mound was completed, revealing that the ancient town extends some way beyond the western town wall. In this area large buildings, perhaps elite houses, are visible in the survey data. There is clearly potential for further research excavations at this settlement. 

Excavations commenced in 2009, including study of a villa in the western suburb, a post-New Kingdom cemetery east of the town, and a storage complex near the governor's residence.

Download a preliminary report pdf (508kb)

Objectives:

• To investigate an Egyptian garrison town and associated cemetery, largely unaffected by significant later building work, modern occupation, or extensive irrigation projects. Careful attention to phasing, allied with scientific analyses and consideration of landscape, can improve our understanding of the lived experience of thw town's inhabitants.
• To question the degree of interaction between the local population and Egyptian inhabitants, using scientific analysis (notably analysing residues in cooking vessels, the study of skeletal material, charcoal and botanical remains) to balance the rhetoric of official Egyptian texts, which describe complete dominance and cultural supremacy, unlikely to fully reflect reality.
• To re-assess the process of abandonment and later re-use, perhaps by both Egyptian and indigenous populations. Can we identify evidence for Egyptians remaining at Amara West, living under a different authority, following the end of the New Kingdom? Is there post-New Kingdom building activity and occupation levels at the site, as the cemetery suggests there might be? Such evidence may help elucidate the emergence and authority of the Kushite state in the centuries following the New Kingdom.

More information:

N. Spencer, “A late Ramesside suburb at Amara West”, Sudan & Nubia 13 (in press, 2009)

R. Parkinson and N. Spencer, “Amenemhat at Amara”, Egyptian Archaeology 35: 25–7.

Download a topographic survey and magnetometry map pdf (947kb)

Images (from top):

• Twentieth Dynasty villa (E12.10) excavated in the western suburb at Amara West.
• Sandstone stela depicting Ramses II offering to the goddess Satet, discovered during the EES excavations of a house south of the temple (1947-1948). Height: 50cm. British Museum EA 68675.
• View south-east across the West Gate of the town at Amara West, now partly re-buried in sand.