From Homescape to Flora Landscape

In Sudan, the study of earthen construction materials is very rare, mudbricks were and still are widely used as building materials in many regions. This paper gives a new perspective for applying the technique of extorted plant remains from mudbrick in Sudan. The material was collected during the fieldwork of Mahas Archaeological project in April 2019 from four Christian mudbrick sites, approximately four kilograms (one kilogram from each site). The material was soaked in water for six hours to dissolve the hard mud and sand. Two metal sieves with a mesh size of 0.5 and 1 mm were used. The separated material was dried and examined under binoculars and for identification fresh seed was used as a reference collection and determination literature. Seven plant species were as seeds, fruits were extracted and identified. These include *Triticum aestivum, Hordeum vulgare, Sorghum bicolor, Setaria italica, Adansonia digitate, Acacia nilotica* and *Cyperus rotundus*. In addition, some large unidentified deposits of glumes of wild grasses (of the Poaceae family) were presented in the samples from the four sites. Some animal dung and insect remains were separated during the sorting processing of the plant macro-remains. The archaeobotanical evidence from these four Christian mudbrick sites in El Mahas region provided evidence of the economy and flora landscape in this area. This flora can be divided into three types, i.e. riverine wild flora, cultivated flora, and wild trees

Acacia · Cultivated plant taxonomy · Flora (microbiology · Paleoethnobotany · Plant species · Poaceae · Sorghum · Stipa · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Hygrothermal properties of building materials