Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

FOURTH CATHARACT - SHEMKHIYA

SUDAN

SHEMKHIYA
SEASON 2006
Bogdan Zurawski

The volatile situation in the Oar Monasir region in January 2006 resulted in the
expedition1 suspending the Hagar el-Beida part of the project (directed by Marek
Chlodnicki) and devoting most of the time, from early February to mid March, to an
exploration of the Shemkhiya region on both banks of the Nile, upriver from Umm Safaya
and downriver from el-Shellal. The region had not been topmost on the agenda due to the fact
that it is to be least affected by the Merowe Dam Lake inundation. Apart from the three left-
bank strongholds located near the villages of el-Ar (SHI), el-Meghera (SH8) and el-Tina
(island of Tanta), which were surveyed and in the first two cases tested archaeologically,
salvage operations included two tumulus cemeteries, the Late Meroitic SII5 and SH10, as
well as a Christian burial ground SH9 adjacent to the tumuli field of SHI 0, the latter two
situated landwards from the fort at SH8. An anthropological report from the work by the
mission's anthropologist, Karol Piasecki, appears below. The khors joining the Nile
downriver from Tanta were explored and discovered to abound in rock art (see separate reports
by K. Piasecki and E. Kuciewicz in this volume).
The International Middle Nile Rescue Project has been implemented this year as a joint
project of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the Hniversity of Warsaw and
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, which provided most of the funding. The moving force
behind this idea was Rita E. Freed, Curator of the Department of Art of the Ancient World
at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

1 Banganarti mission staff in the 2006 season: Bogdan Zurawski, Project Director; Adam Lajtar, epigraphist; Tomasz
Piociennik, epigraphist; Magdalena Laptas, iconologist; Magdalena Wozniak, archaeologist/iconologist; Anna Blasz-
czyk, Ewa Kuciewicz, Mariola Orzechowska, Agata Rak, Anastazja Stupko, archaeologists and draftspersons; Dobies-
lawa Bagihska, archeologist/ceramologist; Marta Momot, draftsperson; Martyna Mazur, Ada Oles-Niedzielska,
archaeology student; Karol Piasecki, physical anthropologist; Lisa Hildebrandt, palaeobotanist; Tadeusz Badowski,
restorer; Dorota Moryto-Naumiuk, restorer; Ryszard Szemraj, technical assistant, restorer and building engineering
supervisor. The geodesic team comprised Roman Lopaciuk, Wieslaw Matkowski and Lukasz Moczulski.
The NCAM was represented by senior inspectors Ayasha and Fathiya Abder Rahman.

433