Marek Chłodnicki
Biographic Data
| ID | 4184974 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marek Chłodnicki |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marek |
| FAMILY NAME | Chłodnicki |
| SIGNATURE | CHŁODNICKI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | State Archaeological Museum |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1728-464X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Life on the Riverbank
The Mesolithic of central Sudan represents a key phase in the long-term development of forager societies in the Middle Nile Valley, unfolding within the environmental framework of the African Humid Period. Khor Shambat 1, located on the west bank of the Nile in Omdurman, preserves a rare stratified sequence of Early, Middle, and Late Mesolithic occupation. Excavations documented settlement features, dense cultural deposits, and two burials. Integ…
Holocene Lithic Traditions on the Middle Nile in Light of New Data from Letti, Sudan
Authors Accepted Manuscript of a paper published in "Lithic Technology" (2025) The research of Early Holocene sites in the Middle Nile region enabled the establishment of general trends in technological traditions, including the creation of stone tools, ceramic vessels and subsistence. Nevertheless, the task of ascribing the origins of subsequent Neolithic tradition to these earlier ones was a challenging endeavor. This in turn served to reinforc…
Cattle domestication revisited
Ritual Deposit at Bir Nurayet
Bir Nurayet is a place in the Red Sea Hills at the foot of Jebel Magardi. One of the most significant rock art galleries on the African continent exists near this beautiful isolated mountain. In 2010, a stone chest was discovered in one of the valleys, containing a deposit of several dozen clay figurines, mostly phallic-shaped with a few representations of animals, miniature vessels and their fragments, as well as bronze products. Thanks to the r…
Ltd1
Research work carried out in the Letti Basin between 2022 and 2023 revealed a number of unknown sites including LTD1, showing the southern extent of the Kerman culture settlement sites (3rd–2nd millennium BC) in the Nile Valley. The findings represent an important voice in the decades-long debate on the “settlement hiatus” between the Third and Fourth Cataracts in this period. In addition, the results of the new excavations at Letti have yielded …
Unearthing 6th-century CE occupation on the fringes of the Nile Valley. Closing the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad Basin (Sudan)
Presentation of the results of the last season of research in the Affad Basin (Northern Province, Sudan). Recent discoveries focused on the most distant archaeological sites known in the microregion, remote some 7 km from the current river. Explored features revealed cultural affinities with pastoralism at the semi-desert environment dated to the period between Meroitic and Makuria kingdoms
Return to Kadakol
Early comparative research on the material from the site of Kadakol 1 in the Letti Basin (Sudan), which was surveyed in the late 1960s, suggested an association with the Kerma Culture horizon while not excluding multicultural occupation. Investigations, which were resumed in 2022 within the frame of a new research project exploring the significance of the Middle Nile Valley in prehistoric times, have yielded data confirming the early findingsand …
Unearthing a Middle Nile crossroads – exploring the prehistory of the Letti Basin (Sudan)
New research on early Holocene settlement and burial practices in the Southern Dongola Reach focused on the key areas of the Letti region, Argi (adjacent to Affad) and the outlets of Wadi el-Melik and Wadi Howar. The project follows up on ten years of investigations by the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad region (Northern Province, Sudan). Unique data collected in the course of the first season of fieldwork reopens the debate on cattle domesticat…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Holocene resource exploitation along the Nile
The subsistence practices of Holocene communities living in the Nile Valley of Central Sudan are comparatively little known. Recent excavations at Khor Shambat, Sudan, have yielded well-defined Mesolithic and Neolithic stratigraphy. Here, for the first time, archaeozoological, palaeobotanical, phytolith and dental calculus studies are combined with lipid residue analysis of around 100 pottery fragments and comparative analysis of faunal remains a…
Neolithic Inhabitants of Khor Shambat 1, Sudan
Ever since Arkell launched research excavation in Shaheinab, many Neolithic sites of varying scientific value have been discovered in Central Sudan. These discoveries included both sites and cemeteries that shed some light not only on the economy, but also on the social structure and beliefs of ancient populations. Sites such as Kadero, el‐Geili, el‐Ghaba, Shaqadud and el‐Kadada have become benchmarks for describing and understanding the Neolithi…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Rebirth in the afterlife
Burials in pots are one of the most intriguing and at the same time most widespread funeral practices in the prehistoric world. The oldest examples probably originate from the northern Levant where they occur in the Pottery Neolithic at the end of the seventh and in the early sixth millennia BC. The tradition was introduced into Egypt relatively late, most likely around 3500 BC, but appears a little earlier further south in central Sudan, where t…
Affad 3.0/Cattle+. Field seasons 2017 and 2018 of the PalaeoAffad Project
The first Affad was the one we saw when the archaeological sites there were first investigated at the beginning of the century. The second Affad, which is the region that we have been exploring in the past 15 years, bore many signs of modern Sudanese culture encroaching upon the desert. In 2009, an asphalt road cut through the desert and shortly thereafter, the Debba bridge and power lines were constructed, the latter coming from a hydroelectric …
Tell el-Farkha. Archaeological Fieldwork 2016–2017
The paper discusses archaeological investigations carried out on all three tells making up the site of Tell el-Farkha, expanding on the findings from earlier seasons. Phasing of the brewery discovered four years ago on the Western Kom gave a time range for the use of the installation from the first Southern Egyptian occupation (Naqada IID) to the Naqada IIIA1/2–IIIB phase, when a catastrophic fire destroyed the entire settlement. The big Naqada w…
Early Dynastic Bead Workshops at the Central Kom of Tell el-Farkha
In 2002, specialized workshops with micro-perforators (microdrills) were found at Tell el-Farkha. The material was well described as seven separate units. Further analysis shows that originally they formed only two separate workshops. Each workshop occupies a similar space. Although we did not find any finished products or raw material in direct association with the implements, it seems that as on the other sites they were used for bead productio…
Tell el-Farkha
The archaeological site of Tell el-Farkha is composed of three mounds excavated continuously by the Polish team since 1998. In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, covered in this report, investigations were carried out in already opened trenches in three sectors. On the Western Kom, another brewery was explored to add to the already existing set of investigated installations of this kind. It demonstrated three phases of use, the topmost separated from the…
Tell el-Farkha. Excavations, 2012–2013
Excavations at Tell el-Farkha in 2012 and 2013 were conducted on all three koms making up the site. The upper layers excavated on the Western Kom during the first campaign were connected with the beginning of phase 4 at Tell el-Farkha and the lower layers with phase 3. A few poorly preserved rooms were unearthed, mainly in the southern part of the trench. Also part of a brewery dated to Naqada IIIA1 was explored. A rectangular building with thick…
Hunter-gatherers and Early Food Producing Societies in Northeastern Africa
archaeology - hunter-gatherers - early food producing societies - Northeastern Africa
The Neolithic of the Fourth Cataract
Chłodnicki Marek. The Neolithic of the Fourth Cataract. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°16, 2006. Les civilisations préhistoriques du Soudan ancien. Hommage à Francis Geus. pp. 85-94
Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) 1998-2002
Chłodnicki Marek, Ciałowicz Krzysztof M. Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) 1998-2002. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°13, 2003. Actualité de la recherche prédynastique : les terrains de fouilles. 2-La Basse-Égypte. pp. 47-54
Holocene resource exploitation along the Nile
The subsistence practices of Holocene communities living in the Nile Valley of Central Sudan are comparatively little known. Recent excavations at Khor Shambat, Sudan, have yielded well-defined Mesolithic and Neolithic stratigraphy. Here, for the first time, archaeozoological, palaeobotanical, phytolith and dental calculus studies are combined with lipid residue analysis of around 100 pottery fragments and comparative analysis of faunal remains a…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Cattle domestication revisited
Rebirth in the afterlife
Burials in pots are one of the most intriguing and at the same time most widespread funeral practices in the prehistoric world. The oldest examples probably originate from the northern Levant where they occur in the Pottery Neolithic at the end of the seventh and in the early sixth millennia BC. The tradition was introduced into Egypt relatively late, most likely around 3500 BC, but appears a little earlier further south in central Sudan, where t…
Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) 1998-2002
Chłodnicki Marek, Ciałowicz Krzysztof M. Tell el-Farkha (Ghazala) 1998-2002. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°13, 2003. Actualité de la recherche prédynastique : les terrains de fouilles. 2-La Basse-Égypte. pp. 47-54
The Neolithic of the Fourth Cataract
Chłodnicki Marek. The Neolithic of the Fourth Cataract. In: Archéo-Nil. Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, n°16, 2006. Les civilisations préhistoriques du Soudan ancien. Hommage à Francis Geus. pp. 85-94
Hunter-gatherers and Early Food Producing Societies in Northeastern Africa
archaeology - hunter-gatherers - early food producing societies - Northeastern Africa
Tell el-Farkha. Excavations, 2012–2013
Excavations at Tell el-Farkha in 2012 and 2013 were conducted on all three koms making up the site. The upper layers excavated on the Western Kom during the first campaign were connected with the beginning of phase 4 at Tell el-Farkha and the lower layers with phase 3. A few poorly preserved rooms were unearthed, mainly in the southern part of the trench. Also part of a brewery dated to Naqada IIIA1 was explored. A rectangular building with thick…
Early Dynastic Bead Workshops at the Central Kom of Tell el-Farkha
In 2002, specialized workshops with micro-perforators (microdrills) were found at Tell el-Farkha. The material was well described as seven separate units. Further analysis shows that originally they formed only two separate workshops. Each workshop occupies a similar space. Although we did not find any finished products or raw material in direct association with the implements, it seems that as on the other sites they were used for bead productio…
Tell el-Farkha
The archaeological site of Tell el-Farkha is composed of three mounds excavated continuously by the Polish team since 1998. In the 2014 and 2015 seasons, covered in this report, investigations were carried out in already opened trenches in three sectors. On the Western Kom, another brewery was explored to add to the already existing set of investigated installations of this kind. It demonstrated three phases of use, the topmost separated from the…
Tell el-Farkha. Archaeological Fieldwork 2016–2017
The paper discusses archaeological investigations carried out on all three tells making up the site of Tell el-Farkha, expanding on the findings from earlier seasons. Phasing of the brewery discovered four years ago on the Western Kom gave a time range for the use of the installation from the first Southern Egyptian occupation (Naqada IID) to the Naqada IIIA1/2–IIIB phase, when a catastrophic fire destroyed the entire settlement. The big Naqada w…
Affad 3.0/Cattle+. Field seasons 2017 and 2018 of the PalaeoAffad Project
The first Affad was the one we saw when the archaeological sites there were first investigated at the beginning of the century. The second Affad, which is the region that we have been exploring in the past 15 years, bore many signs of modern Sudanese culture encroaching upon the desert. In 2009, an asphalt road cut through the desert and shortly thereafter, the Debba bridge and power lines were constructed, the latter coming from a hydroelectric …
Neolithic Inhabitants of Khor Shambat 1, Sudan
Ever since Arkell launched research excavation in Shaheinab, many Neolithic sites of varying scientific value have been discovered in Central Sudan. These discoveries included both sites and cemeteries that shed some light not only on the economy, but also on the social structure and beliefs of ancient populations. Sites such as Kadero, el‐Geili, el‐Ghaba, Shaqadud and el‐Kadada have become benchmarks for describing and understanding the Neolithi…
The PalaeoAffad Project and the Prehistory of the Middle Nile
Current work on the PalaeoAffad Project allows us to contribute greatly to the legacy of prehistoric research in the Middle Nile Valley. This paper presents the state of research on Late Pleistocene settlement on both banks of the river. Based on absolute dates obtained in the Affad Basin (since MIS5 up to the 5th millennium BP), the prehistory of the area has become an important reference point for general NE-African studies. We were able to inv…
Rebirth in the afterlife
Burials in pots are one of the most intriguing and at the same time most widespread funeral practices in the prehistoric world. The oldest examples probably originate from the northern Levant where they occur in the Pottery Neolithic at the end of the seventh and in the early sixth millennia BC. The tradition was introduced into Egypt relatively late, most likely around 3500 BC, but appears a little earlier further south in central Sudan, where t…
Wild and Domestic Cattle in the Ancient Nile Valley
Archaeological sites at Affad (Sudan) are the only ones in northeastern Africa providing ostological remains of both African aurochs (Bos primigenius), dated to 50 kya, and domestic cattle, dated to 7–6 kya. The evidence enables studies of behavioral diversity between taurids. Strontium isotope analyses of the tooth enamel of both Pleistocene and Holocene ruminants suggest the local origin of these animals. The archaeozoological analysis reveals …
Holocene resource exploitation along the Nile
The subsistence practices of Holocene communities living in the Nile Valley of Central Sudan are comparatively little known. Recent excavations at Khor Shambat, Sudan, have yielded well-defined Mesolithic and Neolithic stratigraphy. Here, for the first time, archaeozoological, palaeobotanical, phytolith and dental calculus studies are combined with lipid residue analysis of around 100 pottery fragments and comparative analysis of faunal remains a…
Unearthing 6th-century CE occupation on the fringes of the Nile Valley. Closing the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad Basin (Sudan)
Presentation of the results of the last season of research in the Affad Basin (Northern Province, Sudan). Recent discoveries focused on the most distant archaeological sites known in the microregion, remote some 7 km from the current river. Explored features revealed cultural affinities with pastoralism at the semi-desert environment dated to the period between Meroitic and Makuria kingdoms
Return to Kadakol
Early comparative research on the material from the site of Kadakol 1 in the Letti Basin (Sudan), which was surveyed in the late 1960s, suggested an association with the Kerma Culture horizon while not excluding multicultural occupation. Investigations, which were resumed in 2022 within the frame of a new research project exploring the significance of the Middle Nile Valley in prehistoric times, have yielded data confirming the early findingsand …
Unearthing a Middle Nile crossroads – exploring the prehistory of the Letti Basin (Sudan)
New research on early Holocene settlement and burial practices in the Southern Dongola Reach focused on the key areas of the Letti region, Argi (adjacent to Affad) and the outlets of Wadi el-Melik and Wadi Howar. The project follows up on ten years of investigations by the PalaeoAffad Project in the Affad region (Northern Province, Sudan). Unique data collected in the course of the first season of fieldwork reopens the debate on cattle domesticat…
Ltd1
Research work carried out in the Letti Basin between 2022 and 2023 revealed a number of unknown sites including LTD1, showing the southern extent of the Kerman culture settlement sites (3rd–2nd millennium BC) in the Nile Valley. The findings represent an important voice in the decades-long debate on the “settlement hiatus” between the Third and Fourth Cataracts in this period. In addition, the results of the new excavations at Letti have yielded …
Ritual Deposit at Bir Nurayet
Bir Nurayet is a place in the Red Sea Hills at the foot of Jebel Magardi. One of the most significant rock art galleries on the African continent exists near this beautiful isolated mountain. In 2010, a stone chest was discovered in one of the valleys, containing a deposit of several dozen clay figurines, mostly phallic-shaped with a few representations of animals, miniature vessels and their fragments, as well as bronze products. Thanks to the r…
Holocene Lithic Traditions on the Middle Nile in Light of New Data from Letti, Sudan
Authors Accepted Manuscript of a paper published in "Lithic Technology" (2025) The research of Early Holocene sites in the Middle Nile region enabled the establishment of general trends in technological traditions, including the creation of stone tools, ceramic vessels and subsistence. Nevertheless, the task of ascribing the origins of subsequent Neolithic tradition to these earlier ones was a challenging endeavor. This in turn served to reinforc…
Cattle domestication revisited
Life on the Riverbank
The Mesolithic of central Sudan represents a key phase in the long-term development of forager societies in the Middle Nile Valley, unfolding within the environmental framework of the African Humid Period. Khor Shambat 1, located on the west bank of the Nile in Omdurman, preserves a rare stratified sequence of Early, Middle, and Late Mesolithic occupation. Excavations documented settlement features, dense cultural deposits, and two burials. Integ…
Archaeology (18 works) · Geography (16 works) · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology (13 works) · History (13 works) · Ancient history (10 works) · Archaeology and Historical Studies (10 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (6 works) · Geology (6 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (6 works) · Prehistory (6 works)