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Contents

IntroductionVivian Davies 1

Reports

Excavations at Qasr Ibrim in 2000Pamela J. Rose 2

The Kawa Excavation ProjectDerek A. Welsby 5

The Royal Pyramids of Meroe. Architecture,Construction and Reconstruction of a SacredLandscapeFriedrich W. Hinkel 11

Rescue Excavations at Soba EastAbdel Rahman Ali Mohamed 27

The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Period in theRepublic of SudanIntisar Soghayroun El-Zein 32

The Domed Tombs of the Eastern SudanSalah Omer Elsadig 37

Archaeological Survey in the Fifth Cataract RegionYousif M. El-Amin and David N. Edwards 44

The Amri to Kirbekan Survey 1999Derek A. Welsby 51

The Archaeology of Arduan Island - the MahasSurvey 2000.David N. Edwards and Ali Osman 58

Reconstructing Patterns of Settlement in theMahas: Evidence from Language and Place-namesMuhammad Jalal Hashim and Herman Bell 71

Miscellaneous 79

Front Cover: Meroe. Pyramid BEG N 18 (type XII) beforerestoration work on the chapel. In the background pyramidBEG N 9 (type VII). Photo taken by F. W. Hinkel in 1980from the top of BEG N 19 (slide 5467).

SUDAN & NUBIAThe Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin No. 4 2000

IntroductionVivian Davies

During the last winter the Society resumed its flagship projectat Kawa, among other things uncovering more of the earlyKushite town, including an extraordinary mud-brick build-ing once decorated with wall-paintings showing royal anddivine figures and containing the remains of large ceramicfigures of the gods Bes and Beset (see Welsby below). Wealso responded to the international appeal for help from theNational Corporation for Antiquities and Museums to docu-ment sites threatened by the planned Merowe Dam, carry-ing out a survey on the left bank of the Nile and on theislands between Amri and Kirkeban above the Fourth Cata-ract which identified well over a hundred sites of differenttypes and periods (Welsby). Qasr Ibrim, for many yearsunder excavation by the Egypt Exploration Society and stillyielding information of first-rate importance (Rose), embod-ies an acute reminder of the destructive consequences of damsand of the loss to knowledge that such schemes entail.

The need for rescue-work in response to various threats(environmental as well as man-made) is a thread runningthrough much of this issue, which also includes reports onthe study and conservation of the monuments at Meroe(Hinkel), excavation necessitated by road-building at SobaEast (Abdel Rahman Ali Mohamed), archaeological surveyin the little-known Fifth Cataract region (Yousef El-Aminand Edwards), and continuing investigation of the Mahasregion at the Third Cataract (Edwards and Ali Osman), thelatter an interdisciplinary project which now valuably incor-porates ecological, ethnographic and linguistic components(Muhammad Jalal Hashim and Bell). We are also very pleasedto include two papers on aspects of Islamic archaeology inthe Sudan (Intisar Soghayroun el-Zein and Salah OmerElsadig), hitherto a chronically neglected subject but clearlyone with great potential for further research.

It is an enormous pleasure to report that Professor WilliamY. Adams, one of the great names of modern Sudanesearchaeology, has accepted our invitation to become Honor-ary President of SARS, in succession to the late Sir LaurenceKirwan. Professor Adams takes office in time to preside overour tenth anniversary in 2001, a year in which SARS cel-ebrates a decade of progressive achievement and looks for-ward to the formidable but exciting challenges that lie ahead.

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