Pastoralists, travellers, and miners in the Atbai Desert (Sudan)

Surveys and excavations at Khor Rafit

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6042645
AutoresJulien Cooper (0000-0002-8621-9315, Macquarie University, autor correspondente), Rebecca Whiting (0000-0002-6754-4833, British Museum), Ewa Czyżewska-Zalewska (0000-0003-3533-5110, University of Warsaw), Kefilwe Rammutloa (0000-0001-9204-3726, Yale University)
Ano2025
Volume61
Fascículo1
Páginas1-41
Data de publicação2025-11-24
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2025.2586366
OpenAlexW4416599884
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas1
Referências citadas43

Owing to the remote terrain and difficulty of logistics, archaeological investigations of the Atbai Desert of Eastern Sudan are in their infancy. As part of a larger project aimed at surveying and documenting sites at threat from modern gold mining, in 2019 the Atbai Survey Project investigated the site of Khor Rafit, a multi-period site with importance both to ancient nomadic groups and foreign urban states (Rome, the Arab-Islamic Caliphate, Nubia) that were involved in gold extraction there. Surveys and excavations at the site revealed extensive gold-mining operations and a large cemetery exhibiting the burials of local pastoralist nomads, as well as Neolithic burials and rock-art sites. The local archaeology bears witness to the as yet unexplored interactions between nomads and foreigners in the gold mines of the Atbai Desert. Moreover, Khor Rafit was a vital watering station and strategic stopping-point on the long-distance trade route known as the Korosko Road, an important desert bypath shortening the route between Lower and Upper Nubia. With ongoing destruction at such sites from unregulated gold mining, archaeological operations at Khor Rafit and other sites in the Atbai should be conducted with urgency

Assemblage (archaeology) · Desert (philosophy) · Excavation · Pottery · Prehistory · African Studies and Geopolitics · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology