Abstract
The site of Jebel Moya, situated in the center of the southern Gezira Plain in southcentral Sudan, has an occupational sequence spanning at least five millennia until around 2000 years ago. Renewed excavation is shedding new light on its occupational chronology and socioeconomic history, including activities such as burial, savanna herding, and domesticated sorghum cultivation practices dating to at least the mid-third millennium BC. In the present study, predominantly final phase pottery sherds from the first millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD (Assemblage 3) have been analyzed via a combination of thin section petrography and instrumental geochemistry to determine their raw materials and place of manufacture and reconstruct their manufacturing technology. Organic residue analysis was also conducted to identify the products processed within vessels found at the site. The results suggest the existence of a well-developed local ceramic craft tradition that persisted for over one thousand years. Pots from Assemblage 3 were used to process, store, and consume animal and plant products, thus reinforcing emerging evidence for early agro-pastoral activities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | African Archaeological Review |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Sept 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank the NERC for partial funding of the National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF; contract no. NE/V003917/1). We also thank NERC (contract no. NE/V003917/1), the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007–2013), and European Research Council Grant Agreement number 340923 for funding GC–MS capabilities, and NERC (contract no. NE/V003917/1) and the University of Bristol for funding the GC-IRMS capabilities. Ian Bull, Alison Kuhl, and Helen Whelton are thanked for their technical help.
Funding Information:
The excavation of Jebel Moya is funded by The British Institute for Libyan and Northern African Studies (formerly the Society for Libyan Studies). Brass, Vella Gregory, and Adam are grateful to the people of Jebel Moya for their generous enthusiasm, support, and hospitality and to our fantastic fieldwork team. We are also grateful to the National Corporation of Antiquities (NCAM) for their continued enormous and invaluable support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
Keywords
- Sudan · Jebel Moya · Pottery · Petrography · Lipid residue · Agro-pastoralism