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The architecture of Sudan mirrors the geographical, ethnic and cultural diversity of the country and its historical periods. The lifestyles and material culture expressed in human settlements, their architecture and economic activities have been shaped by different regional and environmental conditions. In its long documented history, Sudan has been a land of changing and diverse forms of human civilization with important influences from foreign cultures.
Esh Shaheinab is an African archaeological site that was occupied multiple times during the early Holocene. Artifacts from this site exemplify various traditions including the Early Khartoum, Neolithic, and Late Neolithic.
Kadero is an African archaeological site located in Central Sudan, northeast of Khartoum, Sudan and east of the Nile River. The site consists of burial grounds and two sand mounds around 1.5 meters in elevation, altogether encompassing around three hectares. Excavations at the site were led by Lech Krzyżaniak at the University of Warsaw. Kadero was occupied during the Neolithic period, dating to the years 5960 through 5030 B.P specifically, by pastoralists. The inhabitants of Kadero left behind evidence of intensive pastoralism, which is the earliest evidence of such phenomena in the area. Analysis of ceramics and stone artifacts have led archaeologists to consider the site as comparable to other early Neolithic sites in central Sudan, such as Ghaba and R12, placing the site in the early Khartoum culture.
Ghaba is a Neolithic cemetery mound and African archaeological site located in Central Sudan in the Shendi region of the Nile Valley. The site, discovered in 1977 by the Section Française de la Direction des Antiquités du Soudan (SFDAS) while they were investigating nearby Kadada, dates to 4750–4350 and 4000–3650 cal BC. Archaeology of the site originally heavily emphasized pottery, as there were many intact or mostly intact vessels. Recent analysis has focused on study of plant material found, which indicates that Ghaba may have been domesticating cereals earlier than previously believed. Though the site is a cemetery, little analysis has taken place on the skeletons due to circumstances of the excavation and poor preservation due to the environment. The artifacts at Ghaba suggest the people who used the cemetery were part of a regionalization separating central Sudan's Neolithic from Nubia. While many traditions match with Nubia, the people represented at Ghaba had some of their own particular practices in food production and bead and pottery production, which likely occurred on a relatively small scale. They also had some distinct funerary traditions, as evidenced by their grave goods. The people at Ghaba would have likely existed at least partially in a trade network that spread through the Nile and to the Red Sea. They used agriculture, cultivation, and cattle for sustenance.
References
- ↑ Manzo (2017), p. 22.
- ↑ Manzo (2017), pp. 22–23.
- ↑ Manzo (2017), p. 25.
- ↑ Manzo (2017), p. 27.