Michael Bra
Biographic Data
| ID | 1223682 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Bra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Bra |
| SIGNATURE | BRA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2891-5750 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 104 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Ceramic manufacturing traditions and sources from the multi-period agro-pastoral cemetery of Jebel Moya, Sudan
The Epipalaeolithic Reoccupation of the Eastern Sahara, written by Jan Kuper
Production and Use of Ceramics in the First Millennium BC
The site of Jebel Moya, situated in the center of the southern Gezira Plain in southcentral Sudan, has an occupational sequence spanning at least five millennia until around 2000 years ago. Renewed excavation is shedding new light on its occupational chronology and socioeconomic history, including activities such as burial, savanna herding, and domesticated sorghum cultivation practices dating to at least the mid-third millennium BC. In the prese…
The prehistory of Jebel Moya, Sudan
This paper outlines the ways in which the project is addressing the colonial legacy of Henry Wellcome as well as presenting the data from the first three field seasons at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data have substantially revised our chronological and socio-economic understanding of the site. Our excavations, initiated in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2022, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previousl…
An Archaeology of Pastoralism and Agropastoralism in the Sudan
What might an archaeology of pastoralism in the Sudan look like? This challenging question is hampered by an uneven archaeological record and a lifestyle that has a long and complex biography. While acknowledging that pastoralism continues to be a part of contemporary life, the period up to the early 1st millennium ce, contemporary with the end of the Meroitic state, was a particularly important period for pastoralism in the Sudan. Moreover, the …
New radiocarbon dates from Jebel Moya (Sudan)
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan
Sudan, Prehistory of
The chronological and social implications of the pottery from Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)
The second season of excavations at Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)
This report presents the latest data from ongoing excavations at Jebel Moya, Sudan. This year saw the opening of five new trenches and continued excavation of an archaeologically rich trench. We have recovered four individual burials, a mud brick wall and a number of animal and archaeobotanical remains. The excavations also yielded a longer pottery sequence, showing clearly that the site was in use by at least the sixth millennium BC. This season…
The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara
Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex …
New findings on the significance of Jebel Moya in the eastern Sahel
This paper presents new excavation data and new radiometric dates for Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data suggest revisions to previous chronological understandings of the site. New excavations, initiated in 2017, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. Archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analyses provide evidence for domesticated taxa. Archaeobotanical evidence is dominated by domesti…
The Desert Fayum Reinvestigated
On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India
Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoi…
New data from Jebel Moya and Shaqadud (central Sudan)
Building upon Brass’ previous research on Jebel Moya, which included a comprehensive reanalysis of the pottery from Wellcome's 1911–14 expeditions curated at the British Museum, new research activities by the University College London–University of Khartoum–NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira project have included locating and examining for the first time the Late Mesolithic sherds from Jebel Moya curated at the National Museum in Khartoum. Re…
Jebel Moya
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal extensive evidence
Jebel Moya
Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting
Nearly four decades have passed since an independent North African centre for cattle domestication was first proposed in 1980, based on the Combined Prehistoric Expedition's work in the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba region of southern Egypt, and the initial rigorous debates between Andrew B. Smith and Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Achilles Gautier. More recently, geneticists have entered the fray with determinations on the spread of haplotypes, and …
Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan
The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivor…
The Southern Frontier of the Meroitic State
The site of Jebel Moya, excavated in the early twentieth century, represents arguably the largest pastoral mortuary complex in Africa. Jebel Moya is resituated in relation to the neighbouring Meroitic-era agro-pastoral settlements and the only known Meroitic trading station (Sennar) in the southern Gezira Plain, Sudan. It is the first time that the known localities in the southern Gezira and southern Meroitic cemeteries have been compared, in an …
Jebel Moya (Sudan)
This paper proposes a new chronology for the burial complex at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. It reassesses the body of evidence from Sir Henry Wellcome's original 1911-1914 excavations in order to place the site within a firm chronological framework by: (a) applying an attribute-based approach to discern discrete pottery assemblages; and (b) applying initial OSL dates to facilitate the reliable dating of this site for the first time. Jebel Moy…
Burials, migration, and identity in the ancient Sahara and beyond
In what is fast becoming a seminal series of publications, this, the second in a planned sequence of four volumes, arose from two projects in the Libyan region of Fazzan: The Desert Migrations Proj
Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting
Nearly four decades have passed since an independent North African centre for cattle domestication was first proposed in 1980, based on the Combined Prehistoric Expedition's work in the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba region of southern Egypt, and the initial rigorous debates between Andrew B. Smith and Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Achilles Gautier. More recently, geneticists have entered the fray with determinations on the spread of haplotypes, and …
Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan
The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivor…
On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India
Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoi…
Jebel Moya (Sudan)
This paper proposes a new chronology for the burial complex at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. It reassesses the body of evidence from Sir Henry Wellcome's original 1911-1914 excavations in order to place the site within a firm chronological framework by: (a) applying an attribute-based approach to discern discrete pottery assemblages; and (b) applying initial OSL dates to facilitate the reliable dating of this site for the first time. Jebel Moy…
New data from Jebel Moya and Shaqadud (central Sudan)
Building upon Brass’ previous research on Jebel Moya, which included a comprehensive reanalysis of the pottery from Wellcome's 1911–14 expeditions curated at the British Museum, new research activities by the University College London–University of Khartoum–NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira project have included locating and examining for the first time the Late Mesolithic sherds from Jebel Moya curated at the National Museum in Khartoum. Re…
New findings on the significance of Jebel Moya in the eastern Sahel
This paper presents new excavation data and new radiometric dates for Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data suggest revisions to previous chronological understandings of the site. New excavations, initiated in 2017, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. Archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analyses provide evidence for domesticated taxa. Archaeobotanical evidence is dominated by domesti…
The Southern Frontier of the Meroitic State
The site of Jebel Moya, excavated in the early twentieth century, represents arguably the largest pastoral mortuary complex in Africa. Jebel Moya is resituated in relation to the neighbouring Meroitic-era agro-pastoral settlements and the only known Meroitic trading station (Sennar) in the southern Gezira Plain, Sudan. It is the first time that the known localities in the southern Gezira and southern Meroitic cemeteries have been compared, in an …
Production and Use of Ceramics in the First Millennium BC
The site of Jebel Moya, situated in the center of the southern Gezira Plain in southcentral Sudan, has an occupational sequence spanning at least five millennia until around 2000 years ago. Renewed excavation is shedding new light on its occupational chronology and socioeconomic history, including activities such as burial, savanna herding, and domesticated sorghum cultivation practices dating to at least the mid-third millennium BC. In the prese…
Jebel Moya
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal extensive evidence
Burials, migration, and identity in the ancient Sahara and beyond
In what is fast becoming a seminal series of publications, this, the second in a planned sequence of four volumes, arose from two projects in the Libyan region of Fazzan: The Desert Migrations Proj
The second season of excavations at Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)
This report presents the latest data from ongoing excavations at Jebel Moya, Sudan. This year saw the opening of five new trenches and continued excavation of an archaeologically rich trench. We have recovered four individual burials, a mud brick wall and a number of animal and archaeobotanical remains. The excavations also yielded a longer pottery sequence, showing clearly that the site was in use by at least the sixth millennium BC. This season…
New radiocarbon dates from Jebel Moya (Sudan)
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan
Ceramic manufacturing traditions and sources from the multi-period agro-pastoral cemetery of Jebel Moya, Sudan
The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara
Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex …
Jebel Moya (Sudan)
This paper proposes a new chronology for the burial complex at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. It reassesses the body of evidence from Sir Henry Wellcome's original 1911-1914 excavations in order to place the site within a firm chronological framework by: (a) applying an attribute-based approach to discern discrete pottery assemblages; and (b) applying initial OSL dates to facilitate the reliable dating of this site for the first time. Jebel Moy…
The Southern Frontier of the Meroitic State
The site of Jebel Moya, excavated in the early twentieth century, represents arguably the largest pastoral mortuary complex in Africa. Jebel Moya is resituated in relation to the neighbouring Meroitic-era agro-pastoral settlements and the only known Meroitic trading station (Sennar) in the southern Gezira Plain, Sudan. It is the first time that the known localities in the southern Gezira and southern Meroitic cemeteries have been compared, in an …
Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan
The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivor…
Early North African Cattle Domestication and Its Ecological Setting
Nearly four decades have passed since an independent North African centre for cattle domestication was first proposed in 1980, based on the Combined Prehistoric Expedition's work in the Nabta Playa—Bir Kiseiba region of southern Egypt, and the initial rigorous debates between Andrew B. Smith and Fred Wendorf, Romuald Schild and Achilles Gautier. More recently, geneticists have entered the fray with determinations on the spread of haplotypes, and …
The Desert Fayum Reinvestigated
On the Origins and Dissemination of Domesticated Sorghum and Pearl Millet across Africa and into India
Four decades have passed since Harlan and Stemler (1976) proposed the eastern Sahelian zone as the most likely center of Sorghum bicolor domestication. Recently, new data on seed impressions on Butana Group pottery, from the fourth millennium BC in the southern Atbai region of the far eastern Sahelian Belt in Africa, show evidence for cultivation activities of sorghum displaying some domestication traits. Pennisetum glaucum may have been undergoi…
New data from Jebel Moya and Shaqadud (central Sudan)
Building upon Brass’ previous research on Jebel Moya, which included a comprehensive reanalysis of the pottery from Wellcome's 1911–14 expeditions curated at the British Museum, new research activities by the University College London–University of Khartoum–NCAM Expedition to the Southern Gezira project have included locating and examining for the first time the Late Mesolithic sherds from Jebel Moya curated at the National Museum in Khartoum. Re…
Jebel Moya
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal extensive evidence
Jebel Moya
The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara
Different emphases on ideological, socio-economic and technological changes have been brought to bear on the cultural variability made materially manifest in pre-Iron Age Saharan pastoral societies. The models have ranged from limited or no complexity before iron production to transient mobile elites across the Sahara, to socially complex communities from the mid-Holocene onwards in the Central Libyan Sahara, and to permanent elites with complex …
New findings on the significance of Jebel Moya in the eastern Sahel
This paper presents new excavation data and new radiometric dates for Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data suggest revisions to previous chronological understandings of the site. New excavations, initiated in 2017, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previously recognised. Archaeozoological and archaeobotanical analyses provide evidence for domesticated taxa. Archaeobotanical evidence is dominated by domesti…
The chronological and social implications of the pottery from Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)
The second season of excavations at Jebel Moya (south-central Sudan)
This report presents the latest data from ongoing excavations at Jebel Moya, Sudan. This year saw the opening of five new trenches and continued excavation of an archaeologically rich trench. We have recovered four individual burials, a mud brick wall and a number of animal and archaeobotanical remains. The excavations also yielded a longer pottery sequence, showing clearly that the site was in use by at least the sixth millennium BC. This season…
Sudan, Prehistory of
An Archaeology of Pastoralism and Agropastoralism in the Sudan
What might an archaeology of pastoralism in the Sudan look like? This challenging question is hampered by an uneven archaeological record and a lifestyle that has a long and complex biography. While acknowledging that pastoralism continues to be a part of contemporary life, the period up to the early 1st millennium ce, contemporary with the end of the Meroitic state, was a particularly important period for pastoralism in the Sudan. Moreover, the …
New radiocarbon dates from Jebel Moya (Sudan)
New excavations at the Jebel Moya cemetery in Sudan reveal previously unknown, continuous burial activity from the third millennium BC to c. 2000 years ago. Radiometric dates, archaeobotanical analyses and new approaches to the pottery sequence reveal a long-lasting and vibrant community in what was previously dismissed as a marginal environment in south-central Sudan
The prehistory of Jebel Moya, Sudan
This paper outlines the ways in which the project is addressing the colonial legacy of Henry Wellcome as well as presenting the data from the first three field seasons at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. These data have substantially revised our chronological and socio-economic understanding of the site. Our excavations, initiated in 2017 and continued in 2019 and 2022, show a longer, more continuous occupation of the site than has been previousl…
The Epipalaeolithic Reoccupation of the Eastern Sahara, written by Jan Kuper
Burials, migration, and identity in the ancient Sahara and beyond
In what is fast becoming a seminal series of publications, this, the second in a planned sequence of four volumes, arose from two projects in the Libyan region of Fazzan: The Desert Migrations Proj
Production and Use of Ceramics in the First Millennium BC
The site of Jebel Moya, situated in the center of the southern Gezira Plain in southcentral Sudan, has an occupational sequence spanning at least five millennia until around 2000 years ago. Renewed excavation is shedding new light on its occupational chronology and socioeconomic history, including activities such as burial, savanna herding, and domesticated sorghum cultivation practices dating to at least the mid-third millennium BC. In the prese…
Ceramic manufacturing traditions and sources from the multi-period agro-pastoral cemetery of Jebel Moya, Sudan
Archaeology (19 works) · Geography (19 works) · History (14 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (10 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (9 works) · History (7 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (7 works) · Pottery (7 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (6 works)