DOI Heft:
Sudan
DOI Artikel:Żurawski, Bogdan T.: Shemkhiya 2006/2007
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42093#0375
SHEMKHIYA
SUDAN
SHEMKHIYA 2006/2007
Bogdan T. Zurawski
The fourth season of the PCMA effort in the Fourth Cataract Region under the MDASP
Salvage Project ran from 29 November 2006 to 30 January 2007and concentrated on the
Shemkhiya area. The present report concernsfieldivork by a team organized by the PCMA
and directed by the present author.1
About 100 new sites were registered in the area southeast of thefortress ofEl-Ar around
the Sahrat el-Kalakil, ivhich is the historic designation for the El-Ar rock. Of these, 22 were
surveyed, sampled, measured and mapped, intentionally leaving for later the region to be
affected by the dam [map in Fig; 1]. Twelve sites were excavated. Altogether, 41 tumuli
and cairn graves were explored (from two to nine at the most from a single cemeteryJ.
Reconnoitering of the area south of Tanta Eland was continued on a limited scale, giving
priority to the lowest lying ground. Follow-up work at the sites of the Christian cemetery
SH9 and the tentative church at SH10 near el-Meghera (Zurawski 2008b: XXX-YYY)
had to be postponed to the next season. The results of the season were presented during the
Lille Conference (22-23 June 2007) and duly published in the conference papers
(Zurawski 2008a; Wlodarska 2008; Wozniak 2008).
Moreover, the gold rush in Gebel el-Gurgurib, which started in the autumn of2006
after an auriferous vein had been hit in Wadi el-Akhla [cf. Fig. 1 ], while a hindrance for
the fieldwork in unexpected ways, provided interesting ethnographical insight into the
process of gold mining (for description and illustrations, cf. Zurawski 2008a: Figs 2, 3).
1 The Shemkhiya 2006/2007 Mission was financed jointly by the PCMA and the Packard Humanities Institute. The team
comprised Dr. Bogdan T. Zurawski, Project director, archaeologist; Anna Blaszczyk, Ewa Kuciewicz (Rock Art Study
Unit, Poznan Archaeological Museum), Alicja Pl^skowska, Anastazja Stupko, Elzbieta Szewczyk, Magdalena Wlodarska,
Magdalena Wozniak, archaeologists and documentalists; Lukasz Maurycy Stanaszek, anthropologist; Roman Eopaciuk,
topographer; Fathiya Abd El Rahman, NCAM inspector.
The downriver part of the PCMA concession fell traditionally to the Poznah Archaeological Museum and is reported on
separately in this volume (see below, Chlodnicki et alii·, page 375ff).
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007
369
SUDAN
SHEMKHIYA 2006/2007
Bogdan T. Zurawski
The fourth season of the PCMA effort in the Fourth Cataract Region under the MDASP
Salvage Project ran from 29 November 2006 to 30 January 2007and concentrated on the
Shemkhiya area. The present report concernsfieldivork by a team organized by the PCMA
and directed by the present author.1
About 100 new sites were registered in the area southeast of thefortress ofEl-Ar around
the Sahrat el-Kalakil, ivhich is the historic designation for the El-Ar rock. Of these, 22 were
surveyed, sampled, measured and mapped, intentionally leaving for later the region to be
affected by the dam [map in Fig; 1]. Twelve sites were excavated. Altogether, 41 tumuli
and cairn graves were explored (from two to nine at the most from a single cemeteryJ.
Reconnoitering of the area south of Tanta Eland was continued on a limited scale, giving
priority to the lowest lying ground. Follow-up work at the sites of the Christian cemetery
SH9 and the tentative church at SH10 near el-Meghera (Zurawski 2008b: XXX-YYY)
had to be postponed to the next season. The results of the season were presented during the
Lille Conference (22-23 June 2007) and duly published in the conference papers
(Zurawski 2008a; Wlodarska 2008; Wozniak 2008).
Moreover, the gold rush in Gebel el-Gurgurib, which started in the autumn of2006
after an auriferous vein had been hit in Wadi el-Akhla [cf. Fig. 1 ], while a hindrance for
the fieldwork in unexpected ways, provided interesting ethnographical insight into the
process of gold mining (for description and illustrations, cf. Zurawski 2008a: Figs 2, 3).
1 The Shemkhiya 2006/2007 Mission was financed jointly by the PCMA and the Packard Humanities Institute. The team
comprised Dr. Bogdan T. Zurawski, Project director, archaeologist; Anna Blaszczyk, Ewa Kuciewicz (Rock Art Study
Unit, Poznan Archaeological Museum), Alicja Pl^skowska, Anastazja Stupko, Elzbieta Szewczyk, Magdalena Wlodarska,
Magdalena Wozniak, archaeologists and documentalists; Lukasz Maurycy Stanaszek, anthropologist; Roman Eopaciuk,
topographer; Fathiya Abd El Rahman, NCAM inspector.
The downriver part of the PCMA concession fell traditionally to the Poznah Archaeological Museum and is reported on
separately in this volume (see below, Chlodnicki et alii·, page 375ff).
Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007
369