Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (19.2007(2010))

FOURTH CATARACT — EL-SADDA

SUDAN

EL-SADDA
EXCAVATIONS ON THE POLISH CONCESSION
(HAMADAB DAM RESCUE PROJECT)
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007

Piotr Osypmski

Another season of rescue excavations as part of the MSDAPproject to the Fourth Cataract
was carried out in the Polish concession from mid January through the end of February
2007 by a team from the PAFRIMONIUM Foundation.1
The chief objective of the season was finishing the excavation of the post-Meroitic
cemetery ofEl-Sadda 1 (Osypmski 2007), while completing a survey of the southwestern
part of the concession. A choice of sites in the vicinity ofEl-Sadda village was explored in
order to provide data for anthropological and cultural comparative studies. These included
(apart from SD1):
- SD28, Neolithic remains;
- SD24, tumuli cemetery, classified as Kerma horizon in the survey, proven in excavation
to be Late Meroitic/post-Meroitic;
- SD4, tumuli cemetery, at least one gravefrom the Old Kush period, thus predating the
post-Meroitic period;
- SD34, Christian cemetery (in lieu of the box-grave cemetery at SDK which could not
be excavated);
An effort was made to complete excavations at the Late Meroitic/post-Meroitic cemetery
in Hagar el-Beida 1 with its exceptionally big ‘royal’ tumulus (T10). The work had to be
interrupted again because of local unrest. Planned excavations at a Middle Kerma cemetery
in Hagar el-Beida 11 (at least 150 superstructures, some unplundered, cf. Sip 2007) could
not be initiated at all for the same reason.

1 The MSDAP is an international salvage project concentrating on the area of the Fourth Cataract which is to be inundated
by the waters of the Hamdab High Dam in construction near the island of Merowe. The PCMA concession extends
approximately 45 km on the left bank of the Nile between Khor Umm Ghizlan to the southwest and Shemkhiya upriver
to the northeast. The Polish effort in 2007 was co-directed for PCMA by Dr. Marek Chlodnicki and Dr. Bogdan
Zurawski. The PATRIMONIUM team, which was based in El-Sadda, was field-directed by Piotr Osypmski; the team
included Marta Osypihska, archaeologist and archaeozoologist. Dr. Lukasz Maurycy Stanaszek, physical anthropologist,
Klaudyna Trawihska and Michal Sip, archaeologists. The National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums was
represented by Fathiya Abdelrahman.

Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 19, Reports 2007

435