The Berber-Abidiya archaeological project

Project leader: Julie Renee Anderson

Department: Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Project start: 2005
End date: 2013

External partners:
Dr Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed, Director of Field Work, National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Sudan

Project funded by:
Foundation Michela Schiff Giorgini, Lausanne Switzerland, Anonymous, private donor

Description:

The Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project is a joint project with the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), Khartoum and as part of the British Museum’s international training initiative, personnel from NCAM receive training in excavation techniques while participating in the mission. The Berber-Abidiya region is situated just south of the fifth Nile cataract.

At the request of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, the project has focused on the late Kushite city of Dangeil (third century BC - fourth century AD). This site is endangered by modern development. Dangeil is located 350km north of Khartoum and has been a mystery to modern archaeologists because of its unique appearance, though in actuality few have ever visited the site. It consists of a series of large discrete mounds, many standing over four metres above the surrounding plain.

Excavations have revealed a large well-preserved, red brick and sandstone temple dedicated to the god Amun, surrounded by an enclosure wall. This temple was previously unknown. A paved processional way with a kiosk, leads from the temple to a monumental gate. A large mound of bread moulds used in temple rituals is located behind the temple and over 1,200,000 of these mould sherds were excavated in 2005.

With many of its buildings substantially preserved and an associated, largely undisturbed cemetery, Dangeil is unique in Sudan and provides an opportunity to more fully understand urban settlement, planning and lifestyle 2000 years ago.    

Objectives:

The first step in understanding the Kushite community of Dangeil will be the completion of excavation of the Amun temple, processional avenue and monumental temenos gate, which formed the central focus of this community. This is expected to occur over the next three years, followed by the publication of the project’s results. The site will also be further protected and conserved and rescue excavations conducted in the region as required by the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Khartoum.

Publications / media coverage:

Nubia: The Forgotten Kingdom, 52 minute film produced for Discovery Channel by Engel Brothers Media.

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Recent Fieldwork conducted by the Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project’, in Welsby and Davies (eds.) Uncovering Ancient Sudan, (London, The Sudan Archaeological Research Society, 2002) pp. 44-45

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Bread Moulds and ‘Throne Halls’: Recent Discoveries in the Amun Temple Precinct at Dangeil’, Sudan& Nubia 10 (2006), pp. 95-101

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, 'The ‘Throne Room’ and Dais in the Amun temple at Dangeil, Nile State Sudan,’ Cahier de Recherches de l'Institut de Papyrologie et d'Egyptology de Lille, 24 (2006), pp. 1-11

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, 'Revealing Terra Incognita: Dangeil, Sudan’, Current World Archaeology, 19 (2006), pp. 23-30

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Painted Plaster: A Glimpse into the Decorative Programme Used in the Amun Temple at Dangeil, Sudan,’ Studies in Honor of Nicholas Millet (Part II). Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, 32 (2006), pp. 1-15

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Le temple d’Amon à Dangeil (Soudan),’ Bulletin de la Société Francaise d’Égyptologie, 162 (2005), pp. 10-27

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Lost for a Millennia: A New Ancient Nubian City,’ Archaeology Odyssey, 5/1 (2002), p.16

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Berber-Abidiya Region, 1997. A Post-Meroitic Double-Shaft Tomb in El-Fereikha,’ Archeologie du Nil Moyen 9 (2002), pp. 15-29

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Recent Excavations at Dangeil, Nile State,’ in Ulrich Luft and L. Török (eds.), A Tribute to Excellence. Studies Offered in Honor of Ernö Gaál, Studia Aegyptiaca XVII, (2002), pp. 45-52

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Archaeological Reconnaissance in the Berber-Abidiya Region,’ KUSH XVIII (1998-2002), pp. 25-34

Salah Mohamed Ahmed, ‘Prospections archéologiques et fouilles de sauvetage dans la région de Berber-Abidiya (1997 et 1999)’, Cahier de Recherches de l'Institut de Papyrologie et d'Egyptology de Lille, 21 (2000), pp. 17-37

‘Discovery of an Intact Post-Meroitic Tomb: The Berber-Abidiya Archaeological Project 1997,’ Newsletter for the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, June 1998 (1998), p. 1

Images (from top):

• Cleaning the kiosk located on the processional way
• Painted kiosk cornice insitu during excavation
• Excavating the mound of bread moulds behind the Amun temple