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The successful ‘recipe’ for a long-lasting tradition: Nubian ceramic assemblages from Sai Island (northern Sudan) from prehistory to the New Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Giulia D'Ercole ,
Julia Budka ,
Johannes H. Sterba Open the ORCID record for Johannes H. Sterba [Opens in a new window] ,
Elena A.A. Garcea  and
Dieter Mader
Giulia D'Ercole*
Affiliation:
ERC Project AcrossBorders, Ludwig Maximilians-University Munich, Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, 80333 Munich, Germany
Julia Budka
Affiliation:
ERC Project AcrossBorders, Ludwig Maximilians-University Munich, Katharina-von-Bora-Str. 10, 80333 Munich, Germany
Johannes H. Sterba
Affiliation:
Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria
Elena A.A. Garcea
Affiliation:
Department of Letters and Philosophy, University of Cassino and Southern Latium, Via Zamosch 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy
Dieter Mader
Affiliation:
Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: giulia.dercole@lmu.de)
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Abstract

Sai Island, in the Nile in northern Sudan, has a series of settlement sites spanning the entire period from the eighth millennium BC through to the Eighteenth Dynasty of the Egyptian New Kingdom. This long sequence provides an excellent opportunity to study continuity and discontinuity in long-term pottery traditions. Ceramics from the varying cultural phases of the occupation reflect changing dynamics between broader regional social identities, notably Kerma to the south and Egypt to the north. Combining studies of petrography with trace element composition and chaîne opératoire analysis, the authors present the first diachronic study of ceramic manufacture throughout the extended cultural history of Nubia, highlighting the varying manifestations of change and continuity.

Keywords

SudanNubiaceramicsmanufacturecontinuitychaîne opératoirepetrographyinstrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA)
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 355 , February 2017 , pp. 24 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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