Community Resilience and Connection on the Middle Nile: The Es-Selim R4 Archaeology Project in Sudan

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The community archaeology project at the Kerma settlement site of Es-Selim R4 (ESR4) seeks to investigate how environmental, social, and political change intersect to affect a provincial population center over 1000 years. The site is located in the Northern Dongola Reach, where the floodplain was braided with Nile palaeochannels, supporting a network of settlements. Our initial community engagement in 2020 provided insight into how people living in the area relate to past remains of human activity in the landscape and what they want to better understand about past residents and environmental conditions. Community members identified questions about the ancient environment and subsistence strategies as a high priority, as our research results can inform their choices as they face climate change today. During 2021–2023, we continued to build relations with the residents through surveys disseminated with the assistance of the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museum collaborators. Our initial findings and future goals presented here are based on the results of these surveys. They include insights into the level of public interest in the ancient Nubian past, how residents and tourists interact with ancient sites today, and how they hope to learn more in the future.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41620.0