Sudan & Nubia – The Sudan Archaeological Research Society

The following is an overview of the results of research carried out in the Sudan, between 1975 and 2000, when I was a member of the French Archaeological Unit (S.F.D.A.S.). This permanent mission, embedded within the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums in Khartoum, was created by a Cultural Agreement Protocol signed by the two countries in 1969.

Initial work concentrated on the establishment of an archaeological map of the country, from 1970 up to 1978, taking into account the achievements of various expeditions that participated in the international campaign to save the monuments of Nubia. Surveys of the area south to the Dal Cataract were conducted, in parallel with rescue operations, as sites were threatened as development within the country progressed, like that at the Missiminia necropolis (dating from the Napatan period up to the Christian), near Abri; or the Kerma period cemetery at Ukma West, north of Dal.

From 1976 to 1986, the effort focussed on the central Sudan, in the Shendi reach, as there was another agricultural scheme, extending from Taragma up to Kabushiya, this area was under investigation. During this period work was conducted more specially on sites of el-Ghaba and el-Kadada (Neolithic, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods were well represented). Between 1986 and 1991, works on the later period focused at el Hobagi.

Since 1986 with pressure from agricultural development interest has turned toward Nubia and the Dongola Reach, with surveys on both banks of the Nile and the exploitation of several Neolithic sites in the district of Kadruka and its surroundings.

Finally, the last surveys in which the Unit was engaged were: the Hamdab project, which was undertaken in advance of the construction of a dam at the Fourth Cataract, in three ground reconnaissance surveys, during 1989 and 1990), and the rescue survey and tests in the Region of Ariab (Eastern desert), for which the project aim, during 1996-1998, was the recording and rescuing of archaeological sites endangered by modern gold-mining activity (note 1).

A survey of occupation sites is often the key to studies in prehistory. This is parallel to structure recognition and followed by the development of a typology of artefacts. Indeed conditions of preservation, or rather of destruction are such that the revealing of relevant spaces/structures (domestic area, workshop and so on) proves out to be impossible. It is therefore greatly oriented toward a merely typological stance. The present orientation in prehistory is to tentative of ethno-archaeology interpretations or modelling, gait that proves out to be in truth dangerous of application impossible in these regions. These considerations dragged the development of a specific research program bound to the funeral domain.

Paradoxically the funeral domain, which would appear to provide a limited vision of these cultures offers the possibility of a comprehensive analysis. There is the chance to establish a precise chronological setting and appraise social structures and their implications.

Artefacts retrieved from burial sites are much the same as those obtained from living sites, however there is the added advantage of burial sites providing better preserved and more representative data. For example, objects are often recovered broken but whole, composite tools appear with all elements preserved. Witness of flora and fauna are available in context non-subject to interpretation.

The survey of all elements (pits, skeletons, material), combined with a structured site analysis (according to plans in curve of levels and the respective place of burials) gives a basis to the interpretation. Analysis has shown that distribution of burials in Neolithic cemeteries, very often, reproduce the rules of social stratification.

Before a detailed interpretation it may be valuable to give a description of a Neolithic tomb and to detail the constituents of it.

Burials present themselves in the shape of a simple excavated cavity. They are circular or oval in shape and their measurements may vary from 0.80m for the smallest to 2m for the largest. A superstructure has never been discovered, with the exception of the cemetery at Sedeinga (note 2), where tiles enclosed the pit, however, this practice has been used since the Palaeolithic hence it is unusual that the Neolithic peoples did not construct a covering that was more durable.

As a general rule, the deceased was buried individually, however, some pits do contain several burials, perhaps, a characteristic of some particular ritual. The deceased is usually placed to the center of the pit (without a particular orientation for central Sudan, but almost always with an axis east/west for Nubia). He was placed on the right or left side, in a position that varies from bent to contracted, with arms along the side of the body and hands generally brought up to the face. This position can require ligatures to maintain the posture (sometimes this was achieved by placing the corpse in a sack). A mat, a cushion can be arranged under the body. In Nubia, at KDK1, an optimum state of preservation permitted analysis and revealed cushions made from the skin of bovines and litters comprising of barley.

It is necessary to remember that the range of grave goods left reflects those chosen by the living. Some categories of objects such as beakers of chalice shape are found only in the funeral domain and conferring on them a particular significance (most probably used for libation purpose).

Except for personal adornment, the choice of location of objects in the pit doesn't appear to follow precise rules. The goods may be placed in isolation or in a grouping of several categories of objects, in the vacuum of the pit around the corpus. Only stone tools (bursts and worked tools) and bone (awls) are sometimes placed close to the hands, while bovines horn (bucrania) often lay behind the head. If the meaning of these funeral deposits Is not understandable for us, such a care brought to their constitution can raise the only fate.

The variety of the funerary objects can only lead us to believe that a faithful sampling of the commonly used objects accompanied the deceased. In central Sudan poor skeletal conservation does not permit identification of grave goods according to sexual criteria. On the other hand in Nubia, some objects are with the tombs of men or women exclusively, this, however, varies in different cemeteries. In short the repetition of objects must reflect the differences in status within the local Neolithic community.

Before turning to Nubia we should recall some of the main results obtained in Central Sudan, here the investigation centered on the district of Taragma close to Shendi (note 3). It was possible to observe variations in the funeral tradition over more than a millennium demonstrating that there is no hiatus between the Neolithic of Khartoum as defined at Esh Shaheinab and the Final Neolithic of el-Kadada. Indeed the last phase of el-Ghaba (attributed to the Neolithic of Khartoum) makes a link without solution of continuity toward the end of the IVth millennium with the most ancient burials of el-Kadada.

The locality of el-Kadada with four recognised cemeteries permit the registration of more than three hundred tombs, all attributable to a final phase of the Neolithic, not recognised positively but suspected by Arkell (the pioneer of the prehistoric research in Sudan), who defined it as (?) Protodynastic. However, he did not recognised it as a stage of local development, but rather as the consequence of the migration of a population, chased from Nubia during the Group A period. The most recent tombs of el-Kadada are most likely contemporary to this period.

The first example being supplied by one of cemeteries of el-Kadada, shows a particular ritual for the burial of children, all deceased, before the age of six years (Reinold 2000, 72-3). The superposition of plan in curves of levels with the plan of the burial distribution permits the identification of two cemeteries occupying the slopes of the terrace. These two cemeteries contain only adult's burials. They are situated on the hillside in border of the terrace. The top of this terrace is flattened and defines a space of about 900 m² which was devoted for settlement. On this occupation site there are 17 burials of young children. Their distribution is very sparse and can not be attributed to a cemetery, the conclusion is reached that these children were buried inside or on the border of the houses.

One other unique characteristic is that they are not placed in a pit but inside a large vessel (granary vase). This is a utilitarian type of vessel with a decoration or impression of either wavy lines or stippling. These vessels are not present in adult burials. The choice of the funeral material accompanying these burials, indicate the use of pottery vessels. Knowing that the whole of the panoply of the material and objects used by the Neolithic face in deposits of adult tombs, those of children characterise themselves by the poverty of their furniture. Appear there only containers of types jars, bowls and goblets. The other objects partners can understand: of valves of molluscs, pearls and instruments of grinding (crusher and grindingstone), the most often used and broken up. The lithic artefacts as well as instruments in bone make defect completely.

Few other objects are found and are not representative compared with those from adult burials. The pottery vessels appear to have been previously used and are sometimes broken (urns themselves can present a pierced base), this tends to confirm the minor importance granted to these burials.

The practice of burying children in vessels, outside a clearly defined cemetery, leads us to assume that an individual had to reach a certain age, presumably one of initiation before being fully integrated to the society. It must be underlined that this practice is only evident during the Neolithic period. In the other cemeteries, the tombs of children obey practically the same rules as those of adults.

The main prehistoric cemetery interest is that they translate of a certain manner the social organisation of groups of population buried. To the usual reading of a social division based on the recognition of burials endowed of richer funeral material, the southern cemetery of el-Kadada allows a more precise vision. Some tombs differentiate themselves of others: they present pits that contain superimposed two or three skeletons. Examples of the pit KDDS 76/1-2-3 and KDDS 85/60-61 are some most characteristic (Reinold 2000, 70-71).

In the first case, the pit provides three individuals, probably of the masculine sex. It is obvious that it was necessary to reopen the pit to bury of it the last (76/1). On the other hand the two another one 76/2 and 3, were placed there together, and even on two different sides, they are oriented according to the same axis (skulls to the west). Other detail, the 76/2 shows a very contracted position that translates his burying in a sack or with the help of ligatures. At the time of a simultaneous burial of two individuals, one among them present this specific custom that never finds again with the buried individually people. It is as meaningful to note that a rich funeral furniture (seven vases of which a caliciform shape, a bucrania, a grindingstone and its crusher, a palette and its pestle, some fragments of malachite and about ten mollusk of river valves) surrounds the earliest individual (76/3) and is placed precisely to his level. The individual 76/2 occupies the only space, in the pit, let free of material. He was arranged above of knees of the 76/1, of which he had separated by a sediment of whitish color of less than 10 cm of thickness. The particular position of the body of 76/2 and his situation in the pit confer him practically a role of deposit with regard to the 76/3, to the same title that the other object.

With the second case, the KDD 85/60-61 supplies two individuals, an adult probably masculine and a child of eight to ten years. The adult is buried in the centre of the pit, in contracted position, whereas the child is in stretched out position and has been placed in border of pit (alone three cases of stretched out position have been counted, all correspond to children placed in border of a pit which contains an adult to the centre). Stratigraphical relation between these corpses is assured, in the present case, by a bucrania of which a bony ankle rests on the child's neck whereas the part situated under orbit serves headrest to the adult. The funeral furniture is placed in a half-circle on the periphery of the pit. It surrounds the adult, of the back to knees. A big vessel is placed behind the individual, and a complex deposit, where mingle themselves several objects of nature and different function, is situated before his face. The link between the furniture is assured in a way by the bucrania and the child's body. The complex deposit consists of a grindstone in sandstone on which rests a crusher and a vase of a type bottle. The other objects (a palette and a pestle in sandstone, a group of valves of mollusc and a big vase of type tray) were put deposited in connection with the child whom it covers partially. It is possible to reconstitute moments of this funeral: the child's body is put down then in first the funeral material is distributed in bow of circle, in short the adult is placed in the pit. Again once, stratigraphical reports and the child's situation with regard to the material proves that he participates as good to the funeral furniture and is only a deposit partner to the main individual.

It would be therefore possible to give out the hypothesis that at the time of the death of important persons of this community, individuals were sacrificed during ceremonies connected to the burial. In the case of the KDD 76/1-2-3, this event can be dated by the method of C¹⁴ between 3610 and 3390 years BC (calibrated age).

The northern cemetery of el-Kadada provides us with an other example of interpretation this time with adult tombs. It occupies a limited area on the border of a slope with more than one hundred individuals, with a dense grouping of pits that can reach about ten by poll of 16m². The main characteristic of the burials is their pits re-cut themselves frequently. The similarity of material found in the tombs indicates a short period for the use of this sepulchral space. The re-cut of the pits indicates deliberate intent and does not imply that one forget the place of the previous burials. This principle observed it is possible to define five or six groups of tombs separated by a thin strip of unused land (uncertainty regarding the exact number is a result of earlier disturbance of the site). The groups contain ten to twelve individuals, teenagers and adults whose gender can not be specified because of the poor state of bone preservation. For every group an analysis of position and stratigraphical relationship allows identification of the earliest grave and allows a relative chronology of most of the other burials.

The earliest burial is always placed on the higher part of the slope with regard to the other pits. Later burials develop around this often intruding on it during excavation. The most recent burials are installed in stages progressing toward the bottom of the slope. In observing the skeletal material, the orientation and position across the groups is almost identical.

The funerary objects found with each group demonstrates that the same categories of objects are always present and in spite of some variants, not only are objects identical, but they are represented in much the same proportion. The composition of these funerary goods is therefore meaningful of the individualisation of these groups, observation that has the tendency to show that variants in tombs are not fortuitous, but raise a being not still explained.

Given the consistency of these groups it can be assumed they form a related or linked group, that is to say it is the cemetery of a small community or village. During a precise/defined chronological phase (no more than a century) of the late Kadadien Neolithic, the cemetery, as it appears now would have served a village of about thirty inhabitants. It is possible however that there were contemporary cemeteries on other sections of the slope (the border area of this terrace has previously destroyed) that have not survived.

The probability of it being a much larger community is supported by the finding of several tons of artefacts covering the top of the terrace and indicating occupation for long periods rather than a single important continuous phase. Finally, the common indicators found in these tombs raise the possibility that the burials are grouped according to a domestic or family system (the few individuals recovered in every group seem to confirm this impression) in which no family is predominant. A single dating was possible for this cemetery, obtained by the method of C^14,it gives between 3500 and 3 400 years BC (calibrated age).

The studied zone extends in the south of the III rd. cataract, and focuses mainly on the wadi el-Khowi, from the upper Kadruka district to the eastern border of the Basin of Kerma (or Dongola Reach), about thirty kilometres in a north/south direction and about fifteen kilometres in an east/west direction, from Burgeig in in the north (boundary of the Geneva University Mission concession) to Eimani in the south (boundary of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society concession).

A very fertile alluvial plain, occupies a zone of hundred kilometres long, upstream to the III rd. cataract, on the right bank of the Nile. Several former channels are there recognisable that indicate an east-west movement of the bed of the river. According to considered periods, archaeological sites are always connected to the nearness of the water, are going so to meet themselves along the bed of these former beds, grouped together according to a principle of topo-chronology.

The oriental course colonised from Mesolithic knew especially an intense populating during the Neolithic. The density of archaeological layers is in direct relation to the rich agricultural potential of this zone It remains then empty of any occupation until recent date. The use of motorised pumps allows the irrigation by pumping of groundwaters. In front of the proliferation of farmlands and environment, the French Unit leads, since 1986, an important program of survey and excavations of rescue mainly centred on the pre- and the protohistory. Undertaken on the two strands, these researches brought the registration of 253 archaeological layers distributed chronologically according to the following table :

Period	Number	Percentage
Mesolithic	7	2,76
Neolithic	33	13,04
Neolithic and pre-Kerma	18	7,11
pre-Kerma	15	5,92
Kerma	54	21,34
Méroïtique	1	0,39
Christian	59	23,32
Islamic	55	21,73
Undeterminated	11	4,34
Total	253	99,95

The two banks offer a picture of the completely different population (Reinold 1993). The left bank, with 106 sites, testify a recent work, nearly exclusively Christian and Islamic ancient, and limited in border of the Nile. The some more ancient sites (6 sites attributed to Mesolithic and Neolithic) are in relation with the big pan of the oasis of Laqiya, remain of an ancient lake and participate of an ecosystem therefore without report with the river.

On the right bank, all periods are represented and layers also develop themselves in the hinterland, until about fifteen kilometres of the stream. Layers are regrouped according to their period, according to a north/south direction. More one moves away toward the East and more sites go up again in the time. This topo-chronological distribution results displacements of the river bed. Of the chronological point of view, they cover since the Mesolithic (that is to say groups to ceramic Wavy and Dotted Wavy Line) until the Islamic period. However all cultures of history are not recognised. More that a cultural fact, it owes depicts limits of the prospecting. This no-recognition must value this method of registration, simple observation of surface, that doesn't touch to the basement. On the other hand it is probable that some emptiness on the map are accidental. They are related well often to zones currently occupied (habitats, cemeteries, cultures) or to dunes areas. The proportion of the reserved layers to places of habitats and cemeteries is globally equal, but watch of conflicts by period. The strong density of the population especially explains itself by the rich potential agricultural of this land, very fertile alluvial basin.

Once again the choice to privilege the study of cemeteries (note 4), on that of settlements, is connected to conditions of preservation. Settlements appear as surface layers, characterised by spread of material, without any structure. More stressed in the time, the relief was gradually flattened by the very strong wind erosion and by the deposits of sands which filled the depressions. Intense wind activity has strongly eroded the basin with 0.40m to 0.80m lost from the Neolithic horizon. The original soils have disappeared without even that it is necessary to take in amount the inherent lessivage phenomena to overflows of the stream. The resistant materials remain but they are displaced and out-context. Once again the paleo-ethnological survey of habitat -privileged domain of research in prehistory- is restricted to simple typological perspectives.

Along the oriental arm which forms the wadi el-Khowi, cemeteries appear to-day as isolated mounds, in a landscape today flat. The absence of population for several millennia, after the Neolithic occupation, has made this zone a unique place for archaeological research. With regard to cemeteries, the arditiy of the climate has permitted preservation rarely found elsewhere in the region (bone tools, leather, skins, glums, etc.), as well as of skeletons capable of providing optimum research data.

Seventeen cemeteries have were located, five were just tested, three were excavated entirely and three are in the process of excavation, being spread out of the VI^th in the IV^th millennium, they inform us about the evolution of the funeral customs funeral and the modifications of the social relations in these first communities practising the agriculture and the cattle breeding. These provide us with a remarkable record displaying many similarities with the sites of central Sudan and testifying to a common link between the cultures. There are however variations that translate as possibly different modes of evolution or different regional adaptations.

Except two cemeteries who should exceed thousand graves, the others contain between one and three hundred of burials. The first ones, used over a long period, are more especially useful for the chronological check of the pattern. Representative graves of such or such small cemeteries meet themselves there. They offer so the possibility of relative dates by games of their stratigraphical associations. The second always get an archaeological material which does not present typological evolution, they correspond so to a brief period of use (doubtless of the order of the century). This fact is major, because for societies without writing, it gives us an image of a precise community in a short lapse of time. Let us remind that on condition of being totally excavated, a cemetery, after an all-embracing study of all its constituents (a place of pits, position and orientation of skeletons, nature and type of the funeral furniture...) deliver the indications on the social order of the group which is buried there. We are going now to present some of these cemeteries to describe the main characteristics of it.

This small circular hill of about 50m in diameter stands to a maximum height of around 2m above the surrounding plain and is of a natural origin. It was investigated fully, revealing 124 Neolithic burials (Reinold 1993), for which the distribution of the sexes of the people inhumed provided nearly the same percentage of males and females. The number of children and the age pyramid (adults and children), present numerous anomalies. Most probably the totality of individuals from this community were not buried in this place.

At the beginning of use, burials make the object of frequent re-cuttings. Some recut graves were the object of a specific treatment, which was not found anywhere else : some bones -mainly cranial and long bones- from the earlier skeleton were selected and placed in a bundle, on one side of the pit.

The funeral space was at first used on two axis, south/west and north/east, as well as partially north/east, the middle zone being unoccupied. This empty space was able to be marked on the ground and to be the object of an enclosure in perishable material. During the last phase of use of this cemetery, a grave was placed in the center of this empty place. Following this burial another dozen graves were installed in circle around it before abandonment of the mound as a cemetery. All of them do not present any re-cuttings. It is necessary to underline that this central grave is that of an adult woman. The final interpretation for this cemetery demands still some analyses and is not definitive, but the chronological development already supplies precious elements for comparisons. Five dates C¹⁴places it in a chronological fork extending between 4 250 and 4 470 BC (calibrated age).

Is the first Neolithic cemetery which appear on the surface of the plain. Because of a very strong erosion, edges of pits had disappeared, and it did not there stay more than bottoms with skeletons and some objects. Graves were distributed on two zones, distant from about twenty metres. The burials appeared almost in the surface of the sandy soil. On the other hand both zones were covered by an accumulation of pebbles of anthropological origin.

Around thirty skeletons were recorded, most strongly damaged. The osseous rests allow to reconstitute individuals interred in contracted position, on the left-hand side, according to orientations rather east/west, the skull always in the western sector. The archaeological material, little numerous, delivered two retouched blades found placed on two skulls (temporal), as well as axes polished and small dishes in stoneware. The ceramic contains three vases with conical shape and decoration of type proto-rippled ware.

The ceramic bowls suggest a low dating, late Neolithic, closed to the pre-Kerma. However three dates C¹⁴ between 4 940 and 4 720 BC (calibrated age), opposes to this estimation. We shall retain especially the possibility of a high dating for the appearance of the technique of the rippled ware.

Is still in process of exploitation. Here more than one thousand tombs appear to be located, of which only 116 have been excavated.

The main contribution of this site is in establishing a chronological order, as for the Neolithic period only, there appears to be at least five phases of use. This chronology is based mainly on the ceramic typology established using the differences in shape and decoration. Unfortunately, the rare dated graves, by the method of C 14, place it contemporary of the KDK.1.

By associating typological and the stratigraphical datas (order of re-cutting of graves), one can refine the absolute chronology. Indeed the absolute dates given by laboratories present statistical distances (a raw date is given with a distance expressed in ± x years). From the point of view of the laboratory it is forbidden to compare two dates if they are contained in the same distance. For close cemeteries in the time, dates confirm very often each other, then the appeal to the phases defined by the typology of the material is imperative itself.

This cemetery provides us with yet another model The kom recorded under this abbreviation was fully excavated. It looks like an almost circular mound, about thirty meters in diameter, rising to approximately l.50 meters above of the level of the plain. 142 burials were found, of which 96 were Neolithic and 46 attributable to the Kerma civilisation. Other than some destruction due to later internment it is essentially whole providing the first plan of a Neolithic cemetery in its entirety. The homogeneity of the Neolithic archaeological material indicates its utilisation for a short period (probably one hundred years) by a single group. The arrangement of pits and the preferential distributions of certain types of objects indicate differences of class between the deceased and provide proof of an already hierarchical society.

The spatial organisation of graves presents a partition in two groups (Reinold 2000, 83). The majority of pits are located on the high part of the kom, between contour lines 230.70m and 231.10m. The remainder, close to a quarter, are on the lower part around 230.20m. Initial observation indicates distribution by gender order. The higher are generally male burials, while the lower are female.

That situated in the summit develops circularly and include the individuals the most endowed in material. Children, teenagers and those of indeterminate sex are installed indifferently on the two zones and constitute close to a quarter of the burials. Children who had died at an early age have been afforded the same ritual as that of an adult. This beginning of a separation in the two groups is reinforced by observance of the funerary objects. Conservation conditions, more favorable than those in central Sudan, have allowed 21 categories to be established for objects found. Close to the two thirds of these categories can be found throughout the cemetery. These include: bucrania, cosmetic cases (being shape in a tooth of hippopotamus), corpses of sheep, axes, tools (consisted of one ivory handle with microliths fixed, by an adhesive, in the distal part, and painted vases. On the other hand, eight categories of artefacts, of which some appear significant, are represented only in the group of burials found on the higher section. They include cosmetic palettes, items of adornment made from marine shellfish, mace-heads, beakers for funerary libation, chalice shape and anthropoid figurines.

The graves found in the higher zone also appear to follow a set plan. One burial (record n° KDK 1/131) occupies a privileged site close to the middle of the mound (Reinold 2000, 73). The other pits have been arranged around it moving out to form concentric circles using the first burial as a focus. This tomb is one of the most exceptional found in the region with funerary objects exceeding any found in Nubia or central Sudan. The tomb takes the form of a circular pit 1.50 ms in diameter dug at the highest elevation of the hillock. It is the deepest pit in the cemetery and reaches past the underlying sandy layer to the silty mound. In the center of the pit lies the skeleton of an adult male, of strong stature, having succumbed at more than 40 years of age. The body had been placed on the right side, which is unusual for this site, in a contracted with an east-west orientation, skull to the east and face toward the north. The body was covered with one or more skins of bovine tinted with yellow. The deceased’s adornment included a thick bracelet of ivory protecting the left elbow with six other bracelets of smaller ivory on the right wrist and some tubular agate beads around the neck.

The funerary furniture is arranged in several groups, either on a flat area distributed above of the partition of the pit, or directly on the corpse, or all around of this last in border of the cavity. On the western side of the flat area, an anthropoid sandstone figurine is associated with a yellow stain block. To the north, the group includes a mini-axe and three mace-heads. The eastern group has the most important deposit with valves of Aspatharia, a cosmetic case, a handle of tool in bone (with double axial and lateral perforations), a needle and a mini axe-model in ivory. Four mace-heads to the south constitute another group. On the skeleton are placed two bucrania at the extremities smeared with a white stain, a tool used for smoothing, a pestle as well as two other mace-heads. The individual rests partially on a layer that contains some plant elements. In the pit, a beaker (chalice shape) and a goblet with painted decoration are arranged behind the skull. In front of the individual there are two cosmetic palettes, one in diorite and the other in sandstone, and a jar type of vessel. In front of the legs, a grindingstone in sandstone lies with two ivory combs. Finally, three ceramic containers are situated to the back of the deceased, together with two goblets and a large jar.

The regulated plan of the cemetery permits an understanding of the method of internment with the funeral of the main character serving as an impetus to continue using the mound as a cemetery. Further burials are according to certain criteria in which sex and hierarchy play an important role. The inventory of tomb n°131 is sufficient to distinguish the occupant and to qualify him as the most important member of this small farmer-breeder's community inhumed on this hillock during the V^th millennium. The recognition of a hierarchy so well marked remains a rather exceptional fact.

Although still in the course of exploitation, it offers new data on the funeral rite. Esteemed unless two hundred graves, this cemetery has already allowed to excavate and register 243 graves! It is too early to provide an analysis of it but a simple presentation of data is sufficient to show the value of this site.

1) The first concerns the nature of these mounds, which were perceived, until now, as rests of former islands on the course of the ancient Nile. The kom KDK 21 would be the result of human action. This observation, in the course of analysis and of demonstration of a sedimentological point of view, likes the discovery of structures of combustion (hearths) situated in various levels, which give evidence of successive increases during the forming of the mound.

2) In the implications on the social cohesion necessary for the construction of such a hillock (of about 5.000m³), adds the possibility, by the study of the cracks of shrinkage, to find the original forms, before the increases, what would supply a very precise relative chronology for the establishment of pits and the dating of the different graves, which correspond at least to two main phases of use, according to the ceramic material.

3) If one adds the coverage of pebbles and little stones, which surmounts the mass of silt used for the erection of the hillock, one would have there, from the Neolithic, the origin of the tumulus which characterises most of the civilisations or 'Sudanese' cultures.

4) Re-use of pits are again frequent, but an oblong zone is empty in the eastern side. This anomaly may correspond to the presence of a some form of construction in perishable material, that has left no recoverable remains. Let us remind that the cemetery at el-Ghaba had already supplies an oblong zone, also east of the cemetery, empty of any grave. The hypothesis of a building bound to a funeral cult ( the ancestor of the chapels of Kerma?) is attractive, but remains to be proven.

5) The presence of stone blocks (funerary stela) raise in border of pits is another unusual characteristic at this period (Reinold 2000, 77). They are situated on the north/western sector of the cemetery. It is necessary to underline that these elements did not appear in surface. All were the object of a deliberate piquetage. Stelae usually meet themselves with the A and C Groups, or even in Kerma.

6) In many cemeteries we have become accustomed to find animal remains (dogs, sheep), linked with burials of human. With the KDK 21, we have individual pits each containing the remains of two dogs, buried as humans (on the side and according to an axis east/west). Furthermore, these pits, among four are arranged according to the main cardinal points. Although not still explained, the place of the dog (its role) reaches here another meaning, indeed far from that of the simple offering material.

7) The main grave for one of the two phases was discovered, in connection with the group of the north/western sector. Here the pit contains two subjects (a man and a woman) with the position of the bodies apparently to indicating a greater importance for the woman (Reinold 2000, 71). This raises the question as to whether the male sacrificed at the time of burial? Several beaker for funerary libation and others items, defined as male material on the cemetery KDK.1, are present in KDK 21 with female burials. The major role of women, already demonstrated with the KDK.18, is confirmed here. It is hoped that a complete excavation will provide us with a greater understanding of the variations observed in these cemeteries.

8) Concerning the material culture, let us indicate just in this brief report, the discovery of an anthropoid statuette (Reinold 2000, 84), in veined sandstone, it was found in the grave of a teenager, the only funerary object in the tomb. It was first ground, then pecked before being completely polished. It is necessary to underline that the points of impact (piquetage) are the same nature that those found first on steles. This exceptional statuette distinguishes itself from all other figurines of the Nile Valley. In this work the craftsperson knew the limit of his material and without replicating anatomical detail was able to create an evocative example of the human form. Figurines linked to the concept of a mother goddess appeared in the Near-East around 8,000 years ago and are usually associated with the advent of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle. It would appear in the context of Nilotic cultures however, that they appeared during a period when humans were still following to a large degree a nomadic or partially nomadic lifestyle. In addition the meaning of the extreme stylisation that exudes female characteristics without reproducing any of the commonly used symbols of female genitalia is still to be deciphered. The discovery of such a statuette in the burial chamber of a teenager again raises many unanswered questions.

Four dates obtained by the method of the residual carbon places one of the phases of the cemetery in a very precise position, between 4 790 and 4 720 BC (calibrated age).

Although of more recent date, we shall describe to finish an isolated grave because it presents customs funeral deriving directly from those raised during the Neolithic. A heap of pebbles in plain, in the South of the kom KDK.22, which presented numerous of beads in ostrich's egg was the object of a sounding. It delivered a grave of an individual buried in a bent position on the left side, according to an east/west axis, head in the eastern side (Reinold 2000, 48). Behind the back was a deposit containing a polished axe, flakes witch fit together obtained from a blade, two spoons in ivory, several gastropods fossils (Tertiary period). Some sherds show a painted decoration of an usual type like egg-shells of the Group A. This isolated grave, in plain, is one of the first example which can be connected with the pre-Kerma.

While the time required is enormous, an exhaustive excavation conducted layer by layer is essential. Only by doing this can we hope to fully understand the process of internment and therefore the social organisation of the population concerned. This site will prove invaluable in interpreting the palaeo-demography.

These cemeteries offer many common points, especially in material culture and indicate customs that while varying from one cemetery to another appear to have unifying strand. The constant and variants seem to translate to an homogenous populations and indicate a fast evolution of the social orders of the human groups. Absolute dates are not sufficient, to be able to determine precisely if these customs are specific to a merely chronological data, that would translate their evolutions, or if they correspond to the existence for one same period of several societies organised according to the different models, according to regional data. However, an investigation of the homogeneity of the ceramic material at the sites reveals that it is most likely one population with social structures in a process of transformation.

In central Sudan by the third millennium there is a strong growth in pastoral societies resulting from indigenous development. In Nubia, the third millennium shows the appearance of the first African kingdom, Kerma. The social organisation of the Neolithic groups shows that this kingdom is the descendant of it. Arriving at a standard of social hierarchy, these Neolithic societies are not going to evolve more in their principle, but according to models bound to their growth. Thus they prelude the appearance of kingdoms.

Finally it is necessary to raise find that the researches on Dongola Reach, benefit many of the cooperation which became established between our mission, that of the University of Geneva with Charles Bonnet, and that of the S.A.R.S. with Derek Welsby. One of the most convincing results of this mutual method is to have been able to show the succession of the cultures from the prehistory, without chronological hiatus. The durability of the populating is in this region the base of the chronological pattern and our contribution to the History Sudan.

(note 1) For a detailed presentation of the works of the S.F.D.A.S see Reinold 1997.

(note 2) SEDEINGA - conjoined mission with the SEDAU (CNRS, Paris), that permitted, in 1991, on the small Neolithic cemetery, situated under a pyramid of the XXV th dynasty, to add 11 tombs to the 9 previously recorded by M. Schiff-Giorgini. This whole book the first Neolithic burials of the north Sudan, discoveries downstream the III rd cataract. It must close again about thirty individuals and delivered little material, but of a sufficiently characteristic type so that it is possible to reattach it to the chronological phase defines by the cemetery KDK.1 of Kadruka. See Reinold 1994.

- el-Ghaba : exploited between 1980 and 1986, this neighboring necropolis of el-Kadada , delivered 321 burials whose but 67 tombs, that space out themselves of the Meroitic to the Christian period, others are attributable to the Neolithic as definite on the site of Esh Shaheinab. For this last, the burials, staged on three levels testify of au less two chronological phases. Their material and the funeral customs let to think that there is not solution of continuity with the Kadadien phase.

- el-Kadada : a program of irrigation dragged the excavation of lifesaving of this layer, bring in 1976 and 1986, that permitted the recognition of several settlements (of which an attributable to the Dotted wavy line) and of at less four cemeteries of Neolithic time, for which three among them permitted the discovery of a recent phase (or final), that made of the layer a site which gave the name to this culture. To the whole, 314 burials are recorded, of which the material and the funeral customs allow to discover for this period at least four phases for the necropolis, of which two for the final phase and the structural transformations in the social organisation.

(note 4) Since 1986, excavations and tests carried on Neolithic cemeteries in the Kadruka district, five were just tested (KDK.4 – 15 – 19 – 22 and 33), three were excavated entirely (KDK.1 – 13 and 18) and three are in the process of excavation (KDK.2 – 21 and 22). Two of them, KDK.1 and.2 also contain burials of the Kerma civilisation (ancient and middle phases), of a type different of those of site which gave the name to this civilisation, that translate a rustic facies. Between other containers in ceramics come closer more of the common types met in settlement at Kerma. The cemetery KDK.33, practically completely destroyed (used for gravel), a pit of which delivered a sherd looking like those of the Khartum Neolithic, supplied us with the highest C¹⁴ datation : 6 570 ± 80 BP (uncalibrated).

Reinold J. 1993, 'Section Française de la Direction des Antiquités du Soudan : Preliminary Report on the 1991/92 and 1992/93 Seasons in the Northern Province' S.A.R.S.5, 33-43.

Reinold J. 1994, 'Les sépultures primitives de Sedeinga dans le contexe du néolithique soudanais', Hommages à Jean Leclant, BdE 106/2, I.F.A.O., Cairo, 351-60.

Reinold J. 1997, 'SFDAS : un quart de siècle de coopération archéologique', Kush 17,

Reinold J. 2000, Archéologie au Soudan – Les civilisations de Nube, Paris.

Jacques Reinold was member and director of the French Unit attached to the Sudan Antiquities Service, between 1970-72 and 1975-2000. He was in charged with the research program on Neolithic in the Shendi Reach, with the surveys in Nubia, the excavations in the Wadi el-Khowi and others works in Sudan related to salvage interventions.