Site 16-D-5
The excavation at this site was prompted by the result obtained in 2004 field season when the first structural remains, so far recognised in Sudan, linked to a Mesolithic occupation were brought to light. The Post-Meroitic reuse of the area had not, in fact, here been completely damaged, as we ascertained at the Mesolithic site 10X6, at El Salha, the prehistoric deposits. A big fireplace which produced a relevant quantity of archaeological remains (fauna, human artefacts and the interesting pebble with a boat representation, Fig. 12) was found under the deposits reworked by the Post-Meroitics. The charcoal here collected had given a date 7980±40 bp (Beta-201728: 7060-6700 cal BC). Together with the similar one provided by Spanish work on the Blue Nile (V. M Fernandez., An Archaeological Exploration of the Blue Nile in January-February 2000, Sudan & Nubia 7, 2003) this is one of the most ancient date for the Mesolithic in Central Sudan.
This fortunate opportunity pushed us to plan a systematic excavation at this site in order to investigate properly the very ancient Mesolithic deposit and check if other structures were left associated to the fireplace.
For this reason after cleaning the 2004 trench (2.5x5 m) the area to investigate was enlarged working finally on a 5x15 m trench, oriented E-W. The trench was opened at the periphery of the prehistoric mound, an approach different from the one used at Site 10X6, where the trench test was placed on the topmost of the relief. Furthermore a very dark, burnt, soil had been previously noticed, through an accurate observation, and it seemed important to understand its origin and any possible connection with the prehistoric deposit.
The surface of the trench was covered, as usual, by human artefacts of Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. Due to the admixture, this surface material was not collected systematically.
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Part of the upper deposit until the elevation corresponding to the opening of the Post-Meroitic grave was rapidly excavated through artificial spits. Once this level was reached the method of excavation changed to Stratigraphic Units controlled system. Fifty-four different Stratigraphic Units were recognised. A level of Neolithic occupation (US 5/6), badly preserved and damaged by Post-Meroitic reuse of the area was identified under the surface artefact cover. It was located only in the very western part of the trench. Plenty of fragments of Red Polished impressed or incised Neolithic pottery together with quartz tools and typical riolite gouges of the Shaheinab type were recovered in this deposit but no structural remain was so far recognised.
The Neolithic deposit covered the more ancient Mesolithic ones, the most interesting archaeological sequence so far brought to light. A first possible mud-wall, pisé, was identified immediately under the Neolithic deposit (US 3, Fig. 5, 7), in the western part of the trench and a very dark, black organic deposit further to the west (Fig. 7). Given the rarity of the discover a great attention was paid to excavation work in order to rule out the possibility that this wall was connected to any Post-Meroitic structure. This wall seemed to delimit the space: west of it the black sandy-claysh deposit very rich in archaeological material and east of it no deposit of this kind was recognised. In fact, a medium hard, light brown silt soil (US 12) was here covering another more compact soil, also light brown in colour and silty, with rare archaeological material, where other mud-wall structures (US 3, 27, 49, 54; Fig. 5, 8) were identified. These walls were delimiting irregular internal spaces (US 25, 26), with fireplaces resting against them (US 37, 38, 51). These fireplaces produced interesting archaeological cultural material (Fig. 10-12). Other mud-walls were identified which were clearly pertaining to different phase of construction (Fig. 8). The detailed analysis of these structural sequence would need a further field season with plans of enlarging the excavated area. These should also give the opportunity to understand the spatial organisation of these structures and the original topography in each phase.
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Other better preserved mud-walls were located along the eastern end of the trench, here these structure are preserved for as much as 45/50 cm in height (Fig. 6).
The area to the west continued to show a different sequence of dark grey silty to black sandy deposits (US 29, 30, 41, 43, 47, 53), always particularly rich of archaeological material, pottery and stone tools, and faunal remains, fish, as usual, but also big unidentified mammals.
The origin of these deposits is quite obscure, it seems certain that this part of, what we may call, an hamlet, was external to the habitations, a possible courtyard.
The soil structure and the very dark colour may suggest the these organic rich deposits had been for some time covered by standing water. Samples for geo-morphological and chemical analysis have been collected to better understand their origin with the hope that future excavation will also help understanding the overall situation.
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