The MAHAS SURVEY PROJECT

( Khartoum University )

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 Online Project 1990 -1991 - 2000 - 2002 reports

as .pdfs Survey reports

 

 

 

 

The 'Mahas Survey' is a University of Khartoum project undertaking a regional study of the archaeology and long-term history of the Mahas region of Middle Nubia, northern Sudan ( see map ). The area currently inhabited by Mahasi Nubians ( Nobiin speakers) extends north from around Tombos - Hannek (the southern end of the Nile Third Cataract) to the area of Jebel Dosha-Wawa, the traditional frontier with their Sikoot Nubian neighbours to the north.

New survey work here seemed especially appropriate as most of Nubia further north had been studied during a series of archaeological surveys begun in the early 1900s with the construction of the first Aswan Dam, culminating in the international Nubian Salvage campaigns of the 1960s, in response to the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

By the 1970s most of Lower Nubia had disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Nubia/Nasser behind the Aswan Dam and its inhabitants relocated. The Mahas and Sikoot areas represent the last relatively unexplored parts of northern Nubia which have escaped flooding, although plans for the construction of yet another dam at Kajbar have been under discussion, intermittently, for some years. Such a dam would flood the cataract region upstream of Kajbar.

Support : - A new phase of interdisciplinary research in the region is now being undertaken supported by the University of Khartoum and the Haycock Fund of the British Institute in Eastern Africa as well other Sudanese and expatriate organisations.

Sandstone cliffs, site of many rock drawings, at Sabu, by the Kajbar (Third) Cataract.

Historical Background

The regional identity of the Mahas inhabitants appears to be long-established and the Mahas toponym can be traced back to at least the 1580s (CE) when a 'Sanjak of the Mahas' was created by the Ottoman conquerors of Egypt, advancing south along the Nile -- a local distinction between the Mahas and Sikoot Nubians also appears to have already existed at that time. The Third Cataract may also have marked a much older frontier, the medieval writer al-Aswani recorded that the Cataract marked the border between the heartlands of the Nubian kingdom of Makuria , and its northern province of el-Maris (comprising Middle and Lower Nubia). This was reported to have been both linguistically and administratively distinct.

In turn, this distinction between Nubian areas north and south of the Cataract seems likely to reflect the early frontiers of the embryo Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia and Makuria which were emerging in the fifth century CE, following the disintegration of the Meroitic state which had controlled this region for many centuries. On current evidence, it also seems likely that during this early period we may see the first development of the 'typical' northern Nubian way of life. Based on irrigated agriculture using the waterwheel (Arabic ' saqia ' / Nobiin ' eskalee '- waterwheel), a ribbon of small farming villages along the palm-fringed Nile, lie at the heart of the traditional Nubian world.

Against this background, it is hoped that archaeological survey, the collection of 'folkloric' data, oral history , genealogies and similar data will begin to allow us to reconstruct the region's long-term settlement history, and trace its cultural development, as a step towards gaining a better understanding of the origins and history of the modern Nubians who live here.

more on the project's aims

a quick look at Sudan archaeology

 

More generally, it is hoped that this relatively small project will serve as a model for developing similar projects elsewhere in the Sudan, dealing with the many and varied regional histories which constitute the heritage of the modern country.

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last updated 22/02/2008

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Since 1990, participants have produced a number of Project and related publications . The two main site inventories, a report on an important Meroitic site at KEDURMA and our most recent work may be found in:

Edwards, D.N. & Osman, A. 1992. Mahas Survey Reports 1. (The Mahas Survey 1991. Interim Report & Site Inventory). Cambridge.

Edwards, D.N. & Osman, A. 1994. Mahas Survey Reports 2. (The Mahas Survey 1990. Interim Report & Site Inventory). Cambridge.

Edwards, D.N. 1995. 'A Meroitic Settlement and Cemetery at Kedurma in the Third Cataract Region, Northern Sudan. Archeologie du Nil Moyen 7: 37-51.

Edwards, D. & Ali Osman, 2000. 'The Archaeology of Arduan Island - the Mahas Survey 2000'. Sudan & Nubia 4: 58-70.

Hashim, M. J. and Bell, H. 2000. ‘Reconstructing the History of Settlement Patterns in the Mahas:
Evidence from Language and Place-names’. Sudan & Nubia 4: 71-78.

Ali Osman 2004. 'Archaeology & Settlement in the Third cataract region during the Medieval and Post-Medieval periods', Azania 39: 34-39.

Intisar Soghayroun el Zein 2004. 'The Ottomans and the Mahas in the Third Cataract Region',  
Azania 39: 50-57

Edwards, D. N. 2004. 'The potential for Historical Archaeology in the Sudan', Azania 39: 13-33

 


Director:  Prof. Ali Osman Mohammed Salih
(University of Khartoum, Department of Archaeology)

Archaeological Field Director:  D N Edwards (University of Leicester, UK)

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