Donatella Usai
Biographic Data
| ID | 144756 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Donatella Usai |
| GIVEN NAMES | Donatella |
| FAMILY NAME | Usai |
| SIGNATURE | USAI D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Centro Studi GISED |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9379-9015 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 120 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Recommendation of
A recommendation of: Marianna Fusco, Behailu Habte, Alice Leplongeon, Andrea Manica, Enza E. Spinapolice, Michela Leonardi The environmental context of the Middle-to-Late Stone Age Transition in eastern Africa: seasonality as a key factor https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.09.627606
Decision Revise
A recommendation of: Marianna Fusco, Behailu Habte, Alice Leplongeon, Andrea Manica, Enza E. Spinapolice, Michela Leonardi The environmental context of the Middle-to-Late Stone Age Transition in eastern Africa: seasonality as a key factor https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.12.09.627606
Techniques, Tools and Boundaries
Symbolic and utilitarian aspects of fishing and hunting
Mapping Early Holocene to contemporary surface processes and human landscapes west of the lower White Nile (central Sudan)
Nile River clayey materials in Sudan
An FTIR-based model for the diagenetic alteration of archaeological bones
Using Cactus Thorns to Drill Quartz
A recommendation of: Madeleine Raymond, Pierrick Fouéré, Ronan Ledevin, Yannick Lefrais and Alain Queffelec Technological analysis and experimental reproduction of the techniques of perforation of quartz beads from the Ceramic period in the Antilles https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/a5tgp
Wild Food
Al-Khiday, located on the bank of the White Nile in Sudan, offers an exceptionally preserved stratigraphic sequence, providing a unique opportunity to use organic residue analysis to investigate diet and subsistence during the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, a period of nearly 3500 years (7000–4500 cal BC). While the vast and diverse Mesolithic fish assemblage indicates a strong reliance on products from aquatic habitats, floodplains…
D digital dental models’ accuracy for anthropological study
From Foraging to Food Producing
The Nile valley has been the cradle to groups of foragers practicing hunting, gathering and fishing, and technologically advanced pottery production. This social, economic, and cultural system developed during the early and part of the middle Holocene periods and was gradually supplanted by socially more complex communities with a mixed food-producing subsistence system. Differences from northern and southern part of valley can now be emphasized …
The Khartoum-Omdurman conurbation
Khartoum is one of the largest cities in Africa, located immediately south of the junction of the Blue and White Nile rivers in central Sudan. The growth of the Greater Khartoum-Omdurman conurbation arosewithout a proper urban planfrom the agricultural wealth created through the completion of three dams, and mostly in the last three decades. Urban expansion was enabled by and helped to enhance the major agricultural expansion of the Gezira clay p…
Elena A. A. Garcea
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond: Asia, Italy, Africa
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond
The Qadan, the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery and the Lithic Collection
Most of the prehistoric sites located by the expeditions during the Nubian Campaign were surface concentrations and their dating was made on the basis of their location on ancient Nile deposits attested at different levels: the Dibeira-Jer, Ballana, Sahaba, Birbet and Arkin formations (De Heinzelin 1968). Absolute elevation was also considered as relevant to a site's date
The Palaeolithic / Stone Age
The Neolithic and ‘Pastoralism’ Along the Nile
The Mesolithic period on the White Nile region and the al-Khiday sites
The excavation at al-Khiday’s Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, located along the western bank of the White Nile, 25 km south of Khartoum, provides a complex view of hunter-gatherer-fisher pottery-bearing communities inhabiting this region of Sudan during the early and middle Holocene. Their state of preservation, combined with special attention to site formation processes and a multidisciplinary approach to excavation and recording methods, has id…
The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa
Prehistory in Central Sudan
Fish and salt
Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan)
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeologi…
The long-distance exchange of amazonite and increasing social complexity in the Sudanese Neolithic
The presence of exotic materials in funerary contexts in the Sudanese Nile Valley suggests increasing social complexity during the fifth and sixth millennia BC. Amazonite, both in artefact and raw material form, is frequently recovered from Neolithic Sudanese sites, yet its provenance remains unknown. Geochemical analyses of North and East African raw amazonite outcrops and artefacts found at the Neolithic cemetery of R12 in the Sudanese Nile Val…
Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus
Mesolithic Site Formation and Palaeoenvironment Along the White Nile (Central Sudan)
The Neolithic and ‘Pastoralism’ Along the Nile
Fish and salt
Stable isotope study on ancient populations of central sudan
OBJECTIVES: A contribution to the knowledge of the economy and the environmental surroundings of the populations living along the Nile valley in three different periods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study reports stable isotope analyses on apatite bone samples of 139 humans, 48 mammals, and 43 fish from the Al Khiday archaeological sites in Sudan. The bones belong to four archaeological periods: pre-Mesolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Meroitic.…
The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa
The Al Khiday Cemetery in Central Sudan and its “Classic/Late Meroitic” Period Graves
The first millennium BC in Sudan sees the birth of the Kushite (Napatan and then Meroitic) Kingdom. Royal cities, cemeteries and centres of religious power have attracted archaeologists and historians while peripheral areas have only rarely seen any systematic investigations. This lack of research provides difficulties in interpreting the limited evidence of the Napatan and Meroitic periods located on the White and Blue Niles and limits our compr…
Settlement structures and cemetery at Wadi Shab‐GAS1, Sultanate of Oman
Many chronological and cultural facets of Early and Middle Holocene Prehistoric Oman are still unclear. Archaeological excavations of settlements and cemeteries are adding new data to the reconstruction of a chronological and cultural framework. Wadi Shab‐GAS1 is a Middle Holocene site found at the beginning of the 1980s and later destroyed by urbanisation. It is located in a rich environmental niche, on a cliff facing the sea and near a permanen…
Preliminary report on the excavations at Wadi Shab, Area 1, Sultanate of Oman
Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan)
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeologi…
An FTIR-based model for the diagenetic alteration of archaeological bones
Wild Food
Al-Khiday, located on the bank of the White Nile in Sudan, offers an exceptionally preserved stratigraphic sequence, providing a unique opportunity to use organic residue analysis to investigate diet and subsistence during the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, a period of nearly 3500 years (7000–4500 cal BC). While the vast and diverse Mesolithic fish assemblage indicates a strong reliance on products from aquatic habitats, floodplains…
The long-distance exchange of amazonite and increasing social complexity in the Sudanese Neolithic
The presence of exotic materials in funerary contexts in the Sudanese Nile Valley suggests increasing social complexity during the fifth and sixth millennia BC. Amazonite, both in artefact and raw material form, is frequently recovered from Neolithic Sudanese sites, yet its provenance remains unknown. Geochemical analyses of North and East African raw amazonite outcrops and artefacts found at the Neolithic cemetery of R12 in the Sudanese Nile Val…
The Mesolithic period on the White Nile region and the al-Khiday sites
The excavation at al-Khiday’s Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, located along the western bank of the White Nile, 25 km south of Khartoum, provides a complex view of hunter-gatherer-fisher pottery-bearing communities inhabiting this region of Sudan during the early and middle Holocene. Their state of preservation, combined with special attention to site formation processes and a multidisciplinary approach to excavation and recording methods, has id…
Early Holocene seasonal movements between the desert and the Nile Valley. Details from the lithic industry of some Khartoum Variant and some Nabta/Kiseiba sites
Detecting seasonal movements between the Nile Valley and the adjacent desert in the Early Holocene period is a difficult task. The material production, especially the lithic industries, may have been oriented to different economic activities forwarded in these two different environments. Identifying lithic products as the output of the same cultural group moving from one area to the other may be, for this reason, quite complex. The Nabta region a…
Tracing the movements of the Western Desert dwellers
Following a line of research amply discussed in a paper that appeared in this same journal (Vol. 3 [1], 2005: 103- 115), the data presented here represent a further attempt to “track” the movements of the Western Desert dwellers into the Nile Valley and to reinforce the hypothesis that the Western Desert and the Nile Valley were, even in the Early Holocene, part of an integrated ecological and cultural system. The continuous search for archaeolog…
New Prehistoric sites along the Omani coast from Ra's al‐Hadd to Ra's al‐Jins
The information gathered from the study of surface collections is still an extremely important source of knowledge of prehistoric Oman. The data presented here come from some sites found during a survey by the Italian‐French team working in the Ra's al‐Hadd Project. Technological, typological and typometric analyses of the lithic material are used to suggest a tentative chronology
Preliminary report on the excavations at Wadi Shab, Area 1, Sultanate of Oman
Early Holocene seasonal movements between the desert and the Nile Valley. Details from the lithic industry of some Khartoum Variant and some Nabta/Kiseiba sites
Detecting seasonal movements between the Nile Valley and the adjacent desert in the Early Holocene period is a difficult task. The material production, especially the lithic industries, may have been oriented to different economic activities forwarded in these two different environments. Identifying lithic products as the output of the same cultural group moving from one area to the other may be, for this reason, quite complex. The Nabta region a…
Settlement structures and cemetery at Wadi Shab‐GAS1, Sultanate of Oman
Many chronological and cultural facets of Early and Middle Holocene Prehistoric Oman are still unclear. Archaeological excavations of settlements and cemeteries are adding new data to the reconstruction of a chronological and cultural framework. Wadi Shab‐GAS1 is a Middle Holocene site found at the beginning of the 1980s and later destroyed by urbanisation. It is located in a rich environmental niche, on a cliff facing the sea and near a permanen…
Tracing the movements of the Western Desert dwellers
Following a line of research amply discussed in a paper that appeared in this same journal (Vol. 3 [1], 2005: 103- 115), the data presented here represent a further attempt to “track” the movements of the Western Desert dwellers into the Nile Valley and to reinforce the hypothesis that the Western Desert and the Nile Valley were, even in the Early Holocene, part of an integrated ecological and cultural system. The continuous search for archaeolog…
The lithic industry of Wadi Shab, a Middle Holocene site on the coast of Oman
One of the most tedious stages in archaeological research is that which concerns the analytical study of the hundreds and thousands of lithic, ceramic, faunal and other remains generated during the excavation of a site. Detailed descriptions of these assemblages have the advantage of becoming a tool for theoretical work and, moreover, for studies of unstratified assemblages. This paper illustrates in detail the lithic assemblage of the Neolithic/…
Predynastic settlement and cemeteries at Nag el-Qarmila, Kubbaniya
Gatto Maria Carmela, De Dapper Morgan, Gerisch Rainer, Hart Elizabeth, Hendrickx Stan, Herbich Tomasz, Joris Hannah, Nordström Hans-Åke, Pitre Mindy, Roma Sara, Swiech Dawid, Usai Donatella. Predynastic settlement and cemeteries at Nag el-Qarmila, Kubbaniya. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°19, 2009. L’art rupestre de la vallée du Nil et des déserts égyptiens. pp. 186-206
Mesolithic Site Formation and Palaeoenvironment Along the White Nile (Central Sudan)
Dental Calculus Reveals Unique Insights into Food Items, Cooking and Plant Processing in Prehistoric Central Sudan
Accessing information on plant consumption before the adoption of agriculture is challenging. However, there is growing evidence for use of locally available wild plants from an increasing number of pre-agrarian sites, suggesting broad ecological knowledge. The extraction of chemical compounds and microfossils from dental calculus removed from ancient teeth offers an entirely new perspective on dietary reconstruction, as it provides empirical res…
Microbotanical Evidence of Domestic Cereals in Africa 7000 Years Ago
The study of plant exploitation and early use of cereals in Africa has seen over the years a great input from charred and desiccated macrobotanical remains. This paper presents the results of one of the few examples in Africa of microbotanical analyses. Three grave contexts of phytolith-rich deposits and the dental calculus of 20 individuals were analysed from two Neolithic cemeteries in North and Central Sudan. The radiocarbon-dated phytoliths f…
The Al Khiday Cemetery in Central Sudan and its “Classic/Late Meroitic” Period Graves
The first millennium BC in Sudan sees the birth of the Kushite (Napatan and then Meroitic) Kingdom. Royal cities, cemeteries and centres of religious power have attracted archaeologists and historians while peripheral areas have only rarely seen any systematic investigations. This lack of research provides difficulties in interpreting the limited evidence of the Napatan and Meroitic periods located on the White and Blue Niles and limits our compr…
Plant exploitation in Neolithic Sudan
Stable isotope study on ancient populations of central sudan
OBJECTIVES: A contribution to the knowledge of the economy and the environmental surroundings of the populations living along the Nile valley in three different periods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study reports stable isotope analyses on apatite bone samples of 139 humans, 48 mammals, and 43 fish from the Al Khiday archaeological sites in Sudan. The bones belong to four archaeological periods: pre-Mesolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Meroitic.…
Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus
Prehistory in Central Sudan
Fish and salt
Early Human Occupation at al-Jamrab (White Nile Region, Central Sudan)
The middle reaches of the Nile River play a key role in the current models about the diffusion of modern Humans out of Africa, nevertheless the Early and the Middle Stone Age (Early Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic) in central Sudan are poorly known. On-going investigation at al-Jamrab (White Nile region) highlights the archaeological potential of the central Sudan and illustrates the importance of an integrated approach combining archaeologi…
The long-distance exchange of amazonite and increasing social complexity in the Sudanese Neolithic
The presence of exotic materials in funerary contexts in the Sudanese Nile Valley suggests increasing social complexity during the fifth and sixth millennia BC. Amazonite, both in artefact and raw material form, is frequently recovered from Neolithic Sudanese sites, yet its provenance remains unknown. Geochemical analyses of North and East African raw amazonite outcrops and artefacts found at the Neolithic cemetery of R12 in the Sudanese Nile Val…
The Palaeolithic / Stone Age
The Neolithic and ‘Pastoralism’ Along the Nile
The Mesolithic period on the White Nile region and the al-Khiday sites
The excavation at al-Khiday’s Mesolithic and Neolithic sites, located along the western bank of the White Nile, 25 km south of Khartoum, provides a complex view of hunter-gatherer-fisher pottery-bearing communities inhabiting this region of Sudan during the early and middle Holocene. Their state of preservation, combined with special attention to site formation processes and a multidisciplinary approach to excavation and recording methods, has id…
The archaeology and ethnoarchaeology of rain-fed cultivation in arid and hyper-arid North Africa
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond: Asia, Italy, Africa
Tales of Three Worlds - Archaeology and Beyond
The Qadan, the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery and the Lithic Collection
Most of the prehistoric sites located by the expeditions during the Nubian Campaign were surface concentrations and their dating was made on the basis of their location on ancient Nile deposits attested at different levels: the Dibeira-Jer, Ballana, Sahaba, Birbet and Arkin formations (De Heinzelin 1968). Absolute elevation was also considered as relevant to a site's date
Archaeology (31 works) · Geography (30 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (20 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (18 works) · Biology (13 works) · Prehistory (12 works) · History (11 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (10 works) · Geology (10 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (9 works)