Test trenches at the prehistoric
16-D-4 and 16-D-5 sites
Two test trenches have been carried out at two prehistoric
sites (16-D-4 and 16-D-5) located during the survey activities
of the 2002 campaign. They have been located 8 km south of
the 10-X-6 site along the western White Nile bank. At each
site a 5 x 5 m trench has been opened after completing a detailed
topographic survey of the two contiguous artificial hills
(Fig. 42).
16-D-4
The site is on the place of a very low round shaped morphological
relief. The surface is densely spotted by smoothed sandstone
pebbles, fragmentary sandstone grinders, grinding stones and
rings (Figs. 43-44). The relatively small number of pottery
sherds is 99% pertaining to the Khartoum Mesolithic tradition
and characterised by the typical wavy line incised decoration
(Figs. 45-46).
When two years ago we came on this site we noticed on the
surface the presence of many scattered human bone fragments.
The though limited trench size confirmed our hypothesis about
the presence of a very old graveyard at the site. A Mesolithic
date of the graves is highly possible, but not yet ascertained.
What we can affirm for sure at the present state of the research
is that the site went through a very strong wind and water
erosion process which has lowered the original relief of about
60 to 80 centimetres exposing many of the buried human skeletal
remains and the bottom of the grave pits. We excavated only
three, badly preserved graves (Fig. 47), in the 5 x 5 meters
test trench (Fig. 48), but many other graves have been located
in the site area. We are planning for the next season an extensive
excavation at the site to verify if better preserved graves
are still present and to dig the residual anthropic layer
which covers the sterile soil.
16-D-5
The site has the shape of a long north-south oriented hill,
two hundred meters long and hundred meters large. It is, as
many other sites of this period (Mesolithic and Neolithic),
located on a yellow sandstone longitudinal bar which has been
demonstrated by our geologist Mauro Cremaschi to be an ancient
White Nile bank. The site surface is covered by large quantities
of Mesolithic (Early Khartoum phase) and Neolithic (Shaheinab
phase) pottery sherds.
A 5 x 5 meters test trench was opened on the north-western
slope of the hill (Fig. 49) to collect information on the
anthropic deposit’s state of preservation and its cultural
sequence. The first 60 cm resulted to be highly modified by
animal and human disturbances and by a strong biological transformation
process. The earthen deposit appears to be pulverised and
flimsy. No traces of structural features have been noticed
in the upper part of the deposit.
The archaeological material, though abundant,
is absolutely mixed up. Mesolithic and Neolithic pottery
is fluctuating together in this soft dark grey soil. Neolithic
pottery could come from graves as suggested by the amount
of human bone fragments recovered, subsequently destroyed
by a later (Post-Meroitic) use of the hill as a graveyard.
As a matter of fact, at the base of the most powdery deposit
we recognised the presence of a pit that turned to be a
Post-Meroitic grave (Fig. 50). The grave furniture was very
poor consisting in a dark grey pottery bowl placed upside
down on the mouth of a so-called “beer jar”.
The dead was lying on its right side in a very crushed position
on the western half of the pit, opposite to the pottery
jar, the head to the south looking to the northeast. Fragments
of a wooden object, possibly a stool, have been found under
the jar. The pit resulted to be excavated in a slightly
compact deposit when compared with the upper one, but no
structural remains except the above-described grave pit
has been noticed.
Only at a depth of about one meter we meet a more compact
layer with traces of structural remains like postholes and
a fireplace (Fig. 51)
containing an homogeneous assemblage of Mesolithic
pottery sherds (Figg. 52, 53, 54), two fragmentary sandstone
rings (Fig. 55) and a grinding stone with traces of red
and yellow ochre (Fig. 56). The apparently undisturbed deposit
was about 40 cm thick and lying directly on the yellow sandstone
bar of the older White Nile bank. On the bedrock traces
of artificial cuts have been cleaned which can be referred
to the first settlement structural remains at the site (Fig.
57). Two postholes and some semicircular cuts in the bedrock
could be in fact related to hut structures.
The pottery coming from these basal deposits is very homogeneous
and can be attributed to a Mesolithic phase older than the
one discovered at the 10-W-4 site. Fortunately the above
mentioned fireplace provided us with a good amount of charcoal
which will provide a radiocarbon determination for this
cultural phase.
Radiocarbon dates, we presume, will set the chronological
position of the two different Mesolithic phases unearthed
at the 10-W-4 and 16-D-5 sites.
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