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POSTCARD FROM THE SUDAN After one
year spent to study materials from previous campaigns
we are again in Sudan. We arrived in Khartoum October
18th, after a one and half day long fly and a six
hours stop at Doha, in Qatar. At the Khartoum airport,
after collecting our baggage, we were welcomed by
two dear fiends, Lina and Paolo, who opened to us
their house. It is not easy to find the proper words
to express our gratitude to them and to Ilaria and
Fabio, other two Italians working in Sudan, who offered
hospitality to two of us. We will tell only that without
their help everything would have been more stressing
and difficult.
I would like to introduce the members of this archaeological
team in Sudan. Actually myself (Donatella) and Sandro,
are trying to restrain the youth vitality of Ilaria,
Simone and Timothy. Federica and Luca will join us
in few days. Luana, a professional restorer, and Nadja,
a zooarchaeologist, will come only in November, directly
to the site.
I (Donatella, Fig. 1) am working in Sudan since 1990,
but only four years ago I was successful in finding
funds for a my own research project in Central Sudan,
under the aegis of the Italian Institute for Africa
and the Orient and the Italian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. Sandro (Fig.2), who spent thirty years in
Middle East archaeology, but still fascinated by new
archaeological experiences, decided, four years ago,
to join the project and to open a second one, together
with the British colleague Derek Welsby, for the Sudan
Archaeological Research Society of London, oriented
to the exploration of the R12 Neolithic cemetery in
the Northern Dongola Reach, in Nubia. This project
is mainly supported by the “Centro Veneto per
lo Studio delle Civiltà Classiche e Orientali”
of Venice. Both the projects have benefited of the
financial support of the Michela Shiff Giorgini Foundation
and of the sponsorship of two Italian firms, “Gasid”
and “Area Office” of Turin.
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| Ilaria (Fig. 3), is
the youngest of the team. She will be 22 on November
22nd and we hope this work and life experience will
turn in an unusual birthday present. She is here as
a student, but I had the opportunity to test her working
talent months before in Oman. Furthermore she is from
Sardinia as myself and, you perhaps know, how much
we are linked with our homeland.
Sorry for the last digression!!!!
Simone (Fig. 4), a 23 years old student of the Pisa
University, last year sent a message to our web site
asking to join us in Sudan. We had an empty place
this year and thus he is with us.
Timothy Galloway (Fig. 5), in spite of his American
name, is from Naples and his field is physical anthropology
though at his first experience in Africa. His enthusiasm
and sly eyes betray a fine mind.
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| Federica (Fig. 6), a physical anthropologist,
is with us since the beginning. We like to describe
her as a "nature strength" for the passion
and energy she puts into everything she does.
Luca (Fig. 7), who is mainly involved in Syrian archaeology,
is here to experience African archaeology after meeting
it through seminars at the Venice University.
Luana (Fig. 8), a professional restorer, with excavation
training, has worked in many foreign countries, from
Tunisia to Uzbekistan. Fortunately she was never in
Sudan so that she accepted with enthusiasm to join
us here.
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This is our team just to use
a word the Italians, ill with football, like so much!!!.
To tell the true, another specialist, a colleague from
the University of Munich, Nadja, will join us towards
the end of the period. She is coming to study the many
animal bones we have found in the graves.
A hard work is waiting for us in Kasura!!!!
Our stay in Khartoum
and the trip to Kasura. We
halted five days in Khartoum. The day we arrived was
used to rest after the long flight, enjoying a special
dinner at Lina’s house and meeting with all
the friends we have in the town.
The next day, a little bit bothered by the hot climate,
we moved to accomplish the numerous bureaucratic duties
to be performed before leaving to Nubia. First of
all we paid a visit to the Director General of the
Antiquity Service of Sudan, dr. Hassan Hussein Idriss;
after that the registration of the passports at the
police station and the extension of our visa.
Five days of hot temperatures and long queues at the
office windows. Only after the Antiquity Service Inspector
was assigned to us and the passports with the visa
extension were in our hands it was possible to plan
the trip to the north.
 The
inspector is a very nice lady, Habab Idriss Ahmed
(Fig. 9). Once again we have a female as inspector.
She is very active and efficient, but even friendly
and clever.
We are finally moving to Nubia the 23rd of October,
early morning, with a bit of sadness for leaving our
friends and the good food Lina prepared for us during
our stay in Khartoum.
We set the alarm at four and I can tell it was very
hard. The night before it was impossible to go to
sleep before midnight!!!.
Simone and Habab reached Dongola by bus, a very comfortable
air-conditioned Mercedes bus which can fly over the
desert sands! We (Donatella, Sandro, Ilaria and Timothy)
moved with a Land Rover and all the baggage (food,
technical stuff and personal belongings and many other
things we need for work).
The trip is a very long one, more than 500 kilometres.
Only that morning we realised something was leaking
dripping from the car, but we decided to move anyway
tempting Fate. Few hours late we stop for a sandwich
and to stretch our legs. Having a look at the car
we realised that the leaking was increased and opening
the bonnet we immediately saw the fuel coming out
from the gasoline filter. The problem was not too
big, but we decided to stop at Tam Tam, a place midway
from Khartoum and Debba, looking for a mechanic. When
we arrived at Tam Tam people informed us that no mechanic
was available there! You can easily imagine our dismay
at such a bad new. The spectrum of a terrible trip
was in front of our eyes.
Fortunately Sudanese is a very flexible people and
used to manage this kind of situations. The workmen
of the filling station decided to help us and with
great, unsuspected, skill solved our problem in less
than a hour. When we offered money for their help
they refused telling us that they did that only for
friendship. When I asked permission to have a photo
with them they agreed with enthusiasm (Fig. 10).
 From
Tam Tam the trip was slow but without further obstacles.
After 400 km, close to Debba, the asphalt road ends
and the near 150 km to Dongola are mostly in a desert
area. Our old Land Rover, which cannot exceed the
speed of 70 km/hour, took three hour to cover the
distance to Dongola. We arrived there at 8 p.m. while
Simone and Habab six hours before us!!!
At 9 p.m. we crossed the Nile to reach Kasura on the
other bank of the river and the house of our guest,
Selim. We exchanged the usual greetings in a mixed
slang (Italian, Arabic and English) and, finally,
we lent down on the beds arranged in the house courtyard.
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