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+---
+title: "A House Against Housing: Post-Displacement Nubian Domesticity"
+authors: ["agha.md"]
+abstract: This text discusses the displacement of the Nubian community and their houses due to hydropower projects, particularly the Aswan Low Dam, and subsequent developments. The impact of these projects led to economic hardships, male migration to urban areas for work, and women managing the Nubian houses. Despite these challenges, the Nubian community displayed resilience in rebuilding their villages. The text also examines the housing project initiated by the state for resettlement, known as \"New Nubia", by the state but referred to unfavorably as \"*Al Tagheer*\" by Nubians. The planning and implementation of this project were criticized for not adequately considering the Nubian culture and community needs, resulting in dissatisfaction among residents. Here, I highlight how Nubians took matters into their own hands, making modifications to the state-built dwellings to align them with their cultural norms. Nubian women played a crucial role in these modifications and the construction of houses, displaying their resilience and adaptability.
+keywords: ["Nubia", "displacement", "resilience", "domesticity", "gender", "architecture"]
+---
+
+# Displaced Architecture
+
+The Nubians and their houses faced multiple displacements triggered by
+hydropower projects, starting with the Aswan Low Dam in 1902 (later
+heightened in 1912 and 1933).[^1] The impact of the dam development
+resulted in the loss of arable land, resources, and power within the
+Nubian house. Economic dispossession forced Nubian men to migrate to
+urban centers for wage labour, leaving the Nubian house to be managed by
+women. The 1933 heightening of the dam caused further devastation,
+flooding villages and prompting more labour migration. The Nubian house
+confronted an environmental catastrophe due to irresponsible
+developments. Despite the state offering a meager amount to replace the
+houses lost, the Nubian community rallied together, rebuilding their
+villages in what Hassan Fathy termed \"A Miracle in Architecture\".[^2]
+The Nubian house exhibited resilience, with all houses reconstructed in
+twelve months, each unique and more beautiful than the other, reflecting
+the community-based and emotionally-driven building regime.
+
+It is important to the larger pushback against epistemic violence and
+the depoliticizing language of "development" to investigate and explain
+the wealth that was lost after displacement, and to do so, I look into
+modes of epistemic violence by way of housing in the resettlement
+villages. The state-built housing project was dubbed New Nubia by the
+state, but Nubians refer to it unfavorably as "*Al Tahgeer*," meaning
+"place of displacement."[^3] In this text, I look at the Nubian house
+from inside the house, through memories, and rely on stories embedded
+within the Nubian collective consciousness. In this text, I use the term
+Old Nubia to refer to Nubian land before 1963 and use the terms
+resettlement villages, settlements, and *tahgeer* to refer to the
+current site of resettlement near Aswan.
+
+# Planning without Nubians
+
+New Nubia, as the state names it, or *tagheer* as Nubians refer to it,
+is a large housing project (approximately 12,000 units) that was
+designed as a substitute \"habitat\" for residents of Nubian lands
+flooded during the construction of the High Dam, was later criticized
+for replicating the economic habitat of the old community which
+alienated Nubians.[^4] The state produced the plan under the supervision
+of The Joint Committee for Nubian Resettlement, established in April
+1961.[^5] The planning concept claimed to take a motto of
+\"centralization in planning and decentralization in implementation\" to
+reconcile central planning and community participation.[^6]
+
+However, the planning was hastily finalized and claimed to be "a replica
+of the original housing schemes with a socialist tinge," which is
+visibility contradicted by comparing the plans of Old Nubia and those of
+*tahgeer* (Figure 2).[^7] Notably, the plans were not based on
+substantial sociological or anthropological studies, as they were
+finalized before the Ethnographic survey on Nubia concluded its
+duties.[^8] The Ethnographic survey, which was first conceived in 1960,
+was not tasked to offer spatial information about Nubian houses.[^9]
+Instead, it had a clear task of providing information to assist the
+Egyptian government in its efforts; the project helped the state learn
+how to deal with Nubians but not the other way around.[^10] The research
+was tasked with uncovering tactical problems, part of which was to study
+the social organization and cultural traditions of the three ethnic
+sub-divisions of Egyptian Nubia, each with its own linguistic and
+cultural characteristics.
+
+The government then invited locals to show them models of their
+then-future homes, as a part of a participatory agenda. However, this
+was done later in the process when most of the design decisions had
+already been made. As documented in the official reports, the planning
+process was based on modern urban planning methodologies.[^11] The
+rectangular planning pattern, the minimalist dwelling units, the
+centralized and optimized surveys, and the greater focus on productivity
+were all features in planning the new Nubian settlements. Nubian women
+were excluded from decision-making, which is evident in the Egyptian
+government\'s documentation, which kept lists of locals invited. They
+were all men, and this rendered the process gender biased.
+
+\"We \[the women\] did not speak Arabic, and they \[the interviewers\]
+did not speak Nubian. They spoke only to the Omda \[mayor\] and some
+men; then the men told us our houses would drown; they also said we
+would go to a new Qustul, we would have hospitals and schools and plenty
+of lands (sarcastically), look around you, we were fooled\," as Anna
+Zolihka said (Qustul, December 2016). The government operated a
+gender-exclusive assignment, with most officials being men, who dealt
+mostly with Nubian men. This was justified by the claim that few Nubian
+women spoke Arabic.[^12] Consequently, most states offered polls and
+community invitations only to men, and compensation was distributed to
+the men. The flaws in the state system that excluded women from much of
+the wealth and the complicity of some Nubian men with said system for
+material gains all rendered the process unjust.
+
+The typical resettlement village in New Nubia had a modern linear grid
+and a linear orientation for residential buildings, with a concentration
+of building plots surrounded by agricultural land. The linear grid was
+often dominated by the main street, with services such as a mosque,
+commercial center, school, sports center, and post office in the heart
+of this area. The design was often referred to as unimaginative due to
+its simple form and synthetic spaces that reappropriated elements of
+Nubian architecture but failed to offer the spatial quality of our
+ancestral land.[^13]
+
+The layout of a typical settlement is similar to plans produced by the
+early modernist schools. It was also affected by the 1930 and 1940
+movements of the "modern Egyptian village" that aimed to replace the
+existing village with a gridded one to introduce the Egyptian peasant to
+order and culture.[^14] Large-scale housing projects in cases of
+development-induced displacement and resettlement have been a topic of
+concern and debate within the field of urban development and social
+sciences. The challenges and problems associated with such projects have
+been well-documented in academic literature. Several key issues arise in
+the context of large-scale housing projects for development-induced
+displacement and resettlement, including social disruption, loss of
+livelihoods, inadequate compensation, and lack of community
+participation in the resettlement process.
+
+After resettlement, dwelling units were distributed to families
+according to their size, thus discounting spatial logic and severing
+social contracts. Residents recalled that their first encounter with the
+settlement was filled with disappointment: the modern paradise they were
+promised was just an incomplete housing project in the desert. But even
+those housed in the state-built dwelling units were roofless and
+doorless, so the Nubian people had to invest time and resources into
+building their own houses. During that time, the society came together
+to survive. The process of resettlement in new houses did not flow
+smoothly, according to most literature.[^15] The housing units and their
+facilities were not complete at the time of the move. As Saida, a
+78-year-old woman in Qustul, said: "When we first arrived here, there
+was a house for one family and no house for five others, and if one
+received one, it would have no roof and windows."
+
+# Building Houses Against Housing
+
+American anthropologists Fernea and Kennedy were responsible for the
+ethnographic survey in Nubia during and after the displacement.[^16]
+They noted the vast construction efforts in Nubian displacement
+villages: "There is scarcely a neighborhood in New Nubia in which some
+houses have not been radically altered through the mounting of China
+plates above the doors, as in Old Nubia, and by plastering the exterior
+with mud to create a facade upon which traditional Nubian designs may be
+painted."[^17] The creation of the house in the "Nubian way" was crucial
+to Nubians; therefore, they often paid for an expensive remodeling of
+the new settlement. "Some house-owners have spent as much as 300 EGP in
+their efforts to bring the new homes into conformity with traditional
+Nubian standards." This is an astounding amount of money, knowing that
+in 1960, Egyptian per capita income was 52.4 EGP per year. The
+government\'s compensation for their lost houses was 10 pounds per
+house. As Fernea mentions, cash compensations were given to men and
+quickly spent, which meant the burden fell on Nubian women who had to
+sell their coveted gold.[^18] My grand aunt said: "We had to sell our
+gold in Kom Ombo to make this \[points to the dwelling unit\] a proper
+house."
+
+Nubians have exhibited their dissatisfaction with their newly built
+environment both verbally, in my interviews, and in the renovations they
+implemented to make the state-built dwelling units liveable. They have
+reappropriated the state-built dwellings and refurbished them; Nubian
+women have made the *mastaba*, a bench attached to the home, as they did
+in their old villages.[^19] Some Nubians have opted to build a house
+themselves. Often referred to *ahaly* (people-built) houses, they are
+similar in design and spatial order to the old Nubian houses, yet they
+had to redefine their relationship with the outside. Nonetheless, Nubian
+houses retained the tradition of unlocked doors even in the state-built
+dwellings with their built-in door lock; Nubians drilled a hole in their
+doors to ensure accessibility. Growing up, I remember that our door
+would open after three polite knocks, and someone would come in without
+being told to enter. The accessibility of the house and people's desire
+to access it were matters of family pride: "Our house is always full,"
+as my grandmother used to say.
+
+Historically, the everyday lives of Nubian women were integrated within
+the social sphere, as was the house. The average surface area of Nubian
+houses, before resettlement, ranged from 500 to 2,000 square meters, and
+it is common to find a 1,600 square meter unit that is registered as the
+residence of four or five people.[^20] The state dwelling units offered
+much smaller surface areas, moving all social encounters, such as
+weddings and conflict councils, to formally designated public spaces.
+Dwelling units in the current settlement are less than 10% of the
+average Nubian house as the state-offered dwellings varied from 100 to
+220 square meters, which resulted in two separate spheres -- one public
+and one private.[^21]
+
+My grandmother's stories often deal with the house as the site of
+everyday life; she expects me to automatically set the events in her
+story in a house unless otherwise told. A house is a place where people
+meet, eat, sort their crops, and divide their shares. The house in my
+grandmothers' stories has the ability to transform into a courthouse, a
+warehouse, and a large-scale kitchen, which explains the large surface
+areas of traditional Nubian houses in relation to the number of their
+occupants, unlike the units designed by the Egyptian state in the
+resettlement village. The Nubian house was never a mere dwelling. The
+state-built houses are modernist in design, offering the minimum
+requirements for a human being -- rooms to sleep in, a kitchen, and a
+bathroom. The units were built around a courtyard as the state
+architects claimed to draw inspiration from traditional Nubian
+houses.[^22] The courtyard was too small in scale to fulfil its social
+role in incubating social life or its environmental role in cooling and
+ventilating the house.[^23] The architecture of the dwellings limited
+the Nubian house and its role in social, economic, and political
+functions and, therefore, made the Nubian house a dispossessed Nubian
+institution, consequently excluding women from the public sphere and
+destroying the Nubian household as a cultural institution and its
+constitutive power. In this case, the very existence of public space is
+an ontological intrusion and an infringement on the indigenous spatial
+order, an order in which the house and its women were politically
+involved.
+
+# Emotional Place-Making
+
+In the early 1970s, a remarkable story unfolds against the backdrop of
+the massive displacement of the Nubian community from their ancestral
+lands in Old Nubia due to hydropower projects. It centers around Sakina
+Abaya, a Nubian woman who became a symbol of resilience, emotional
+placemaking, and community empowerment in the face of upheaval. A few
+years after the move from Old Nubia, there was a surge in construction
+activities by displaced Nubians. Four of Sakina Abaya's children were in
+Qustul during the state-operated census before the resettlement; the
+fifth was studying in Khartoum with his family and was not issued a
+house. The construction of Sakina's son's house began; he states: "She
+had commissioned a master mason with the foundation work, as we did not
+understand the soil of this place \[New settlement\]." He continues:
+"She sat there, in a close distance under the shade while we started
+working with the master mason, she brought food and a tea making kit
+every day, she woke us up, came with us, and left with us." Then, I asked:
+"Who decided the division of the house?" He answered: "She did, she would
+tell us to get this wall to end here, or leave a place for windows here."
+He continues: "She was a boss, she understood building and was never
+fooled by commissioned workers. Actually, they all respected her because
+she gave them food and made them tea whenever they wanted."
+
+Sakina Abaya initiated the building process by invoking the love and
+respect of her grandchildren that she garnered over years of caring for
+them; she sustained the construction process from beginning to end by
+performing a practice of care as she sat there with the workers all day
+making tea, she also choreographed the social characteristics of the
+house from her position. Sakina Abaya acted as their building supervisor
+and caregiver. Sakina Abaya died when I was around nine years old, but
+she was surrounded by stories of the exquisite skill with which she
+generated social, emotional, and material capital. With the same method,
+she built three houses for her family, farmed their land, and planted
+numerous palm trees, which we eat daily to this day.
+
+Within the shadow economy of Qustul, I found an effective
+micro-financing network. A person in financial need can initiate a
+financing cycle, a *Jame'ya*, in which he or she can ask trusted
+persons, mostly women, who are willing and able to join a pool of women
+by paying a cyclic contribution (monthly/weekly/bi-monthly/etc.).[^24]
+When they find a pool that suits their economic need, the person and the
+*Jame'ya* agree on a time frame, and a person responsible for managing
+the pool (banker) is assigned. This person is often a trusted woman. The
+banker/manager is responsible for the collection and the allocation of
+funds in a timely manner (e.g., each month); she is also responsible for
+conducting a random draw to decide the succession of payment to
+participants. Usually, need trumps the random draw; for instance, if the
+participants agree among each other--under the banker's coordination--that those in pressing need are paid first. People who are financially
+comfortable join these co-ops as it is a social honor and duty; they
+often get paid last.
+
+It is the poor people\'s bank "where money is not idle for long but
+changes hands rapidly, satisfying both consumption and production
+needs."[^25] Moreover, the trade in this bank is not only in money;
+there is also an exchange of care and honor. Habbob tells the story of Fatom
+Jaara, a woman in her eighties who has been managing a *Jame'ya* since
+1970 in the displaced village of Thomas Wa Afia, his Nubian village,
+which is now located in Esna, 55 kilometers south of Luxor.[^26] In the
+70s, her participants used to pay 0.25 EGP per month. Fatom Jaara's
+*Jame'ya* is one of the many old banks that can be found in all
+displacement villages, whose inhabitants have no relations with
+formalized or big banks, which helped the funding of buildings,
+weddings, travel, school supplies, and more.
+
+In this exploration of Sakina Abaya\'s building story and the *Jame'ya*
+network, I remember and honor the emotional labor that builds our Nubian
+houses, communal bonds, and the profound connection between people and
+the places they create, even in the face of forced displacement. It
+underscores the notion that places are not merely physical entities but
+also vessels of emotion, memory, and identity, shaped by those who
+inhabit and care for them. As we journey through these narratives, we
+gain insight into the intricate web of emotions, values, and traditions
+that define Nubian placemaking, even in the most challenging
+circumstances.
+
+![The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.](../static/images/ahlam.jpg "The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.")
+
+**~~Figure 1. The house built by Sakina Abaya in Qustul.~~**
+
+
+# Bibliography
+
+Allen, Samantha. *Nubians and Development: 1960-2014*. PhD Thesis. American University in Cairo, 2014.
+
+Bayoumi, Ola Ali Mahmoud. "Nubian Vernacular Architecture and Contemporary
+Aswan Buildings' Enhancement." *Alexandria Engineering Journal* 57, no.
+2 (June 1, 2018): pp. 875--83.
+[[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.01.002]{.underline}](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.01.002).
+
+Bouman, F. J. A. "Indigenous Savings and Credit Societies in the
+Developing World." In *Rural Financial Markets in Developing Countries*,
+262--68, 1983.
+https://library.wur.nl/WebQuery/wurpubs/77112.
+
+El-Hakim, Omar. *Nubian Architecture: The Egyptian Vernacular Experience*, Cairo: Palm Press, 1993.
+
+Fahim, Hussein M. "Community-Health Aspects of the Nubian Resettlement
+in Egypt." *University Centre for International Studies, University of
+Pittsburgh*, 1975.
+http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/kas055_056-007.pdf&language=en_US.
+
+Fernea, Robert A. "The Ethnological Survey of Egyptian Nubia." *Current
+Anthropology* 4, no. 1 (1963): pp. 122--3.
+
+Fernea, Robert A., and John G. Kennedy. "Initial Adaptations to
+Resettlement: A New Life for Egyptian Nubians." *Current Anthropology*
+7, no. 3 (1966): pp. 349--54.
+
+Fernea, Robert Alan, and Georg Gerster. *Nubians in Egypt: Peaceful
+People*. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973.
+
+Ghabbour, Samir I. "Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects:
+Policy Guidelines in World Bank-Financed Projects, by Michael M. Cernea.
+(World Bank Technical Paper No. 80.) The World Bank, 1818 Street NW,
+Washington, DC 20433, USA: Vii + 88 Pp., 21.5 × 27.25 × 0.5 Cm, Stiff
+Paper Cover, \[No Price Indicated\], 1988." *Environmental Conservation*
+18, no. 1 (ed 1991): pp. 91--2.
+https://doi.org/10.1017/S0376892900021573.
+
+Habbob, Maher. "Community Sharing: Three Nubian Women, Three Types of
+Informal Co-Ops." *Dotawo* 5: pp. 261--7.
+https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol5/iss1/5.
+
+Hopkins, Nicholas S., and Sohair Mehanna. *Nubian Encounters: The Story
+of the Nubian Ethnological Survey, 1961-1964*. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
+2010.
+
+Jennings, Anne M. "Nubian Women of West Aswan: Negotiating Tradition and
+Change." Commons Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2022.
+https://doi.org/10.1515/9781685857752.
+
+Jennings, Anne M. *The Nubians of West Aswan: Village Women in the Midst of
+Change*. Commons Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995.
+
+Mahgoub, Yasser Osman Moharam. "The Nubian Experience: A Study of the Social and Cultural Meanings of Architecture." PhD Thesis. The
+University of Michigan, 1990.
+
+Mitchel, Timothy. *Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity*.
+California: University of California Press, 2002.
+
+Scudder, Thayer. *Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians*. Pasadena: Springer, 2016.
+http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-10-1935-7_1.
+
+Serageldin, Mona. "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980." In *The Changing
+Rural Habitat. Volume i: Case Studies*, edited by Brian Brace Taylor, pp. 59--82. Singapore: Concept Media, 1982.
+http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/info?url=http%3A//www.bcin.ca/Interface/openbcin.cgi%3Fsubmit%3Dsubmit%26Chinkey%3D77889&language=en_US.
+
+Tadros, H. "The Human Aspects of Rural Resettlement Schemes in Egypt." In
+*Anthropology and Social Change in Rural Areas*, edited by Bernardo Berdichewsky, pp. 121--48. Berlin, New Yourk: De Gruyter Mouton, 1979.
+
+Tibe, Manal. "Nubian Land Rights." In *The Land and Its People: Civil Society Voices Address the Crisis over Natural Resources in the Middle East/North Africa*, edited by Joseph Schechla, pp. 182--91. Cairo: Housing and Land Rights Network, 2015.
+
+Wahdan, Dalia E. "Planning Imploded: Case of Nasser's Physical
+Planning." *Economic and Political Weekly* 42, no. 22 (2007):
+pp. 2099--107.
+
+Waterbury, John. *Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley*. Syracuse, NY:
+Syracuse University Press, 1979.
+https://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=790768801.
+
+Yiftachel, Oren. "Planning and Social Control: Exploring the Dark Side."
+*Journal of Planning Literature* 12, no. 4 (1998): pp. 395--406.
+https://doi.org/10.1177/088541229801200401.
+
+[^1]: Waterbury, *Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley*.
+
+[^2]: El-Hakim *Nubian Architecture*, p. iv.
+
+[^3]: On the term "New Nubia," see Fernea and Gerster, *Nubians in Egypt*.
+
+[^4]: Wahdan, "Planning Imploded."
+
+[^5]: Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980."
+
+[^6]: ibid.
+
+[^7]: Ghabbour, "Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects."
+
+[^8]: Hopkins and Mehanna, *Nubian Encounters*.
+
+[^9]: Fernea, "The Ethnological Survey of Egyptian Nubia."
+
+[^10]: Hopkins and Mehanna, *Nubian Encounters*.
+
+[^11]: Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980."
+
+[^12]: Fernea and Kennedy, "Initial Adaptations to Resettlement."
+
+[^13]: On the unimaginative design, see Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980"; Ghabbour, "Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects."
+
+[^14]: Mitchell, *Rule of Experts*.
+
+[^15]: Allen *Nubians and Development*; Fahim, "Community-Health Aspects of the Nubian Resettlement
+in Egypt"; 2013, 2014; Fernea and Kennedy , "Initial Adaptations to Resettlement"; Ghabbour, "Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects";
+    Hopkins and Mehanna , *Nubian Encounters*; Mahgoub, "The Nubian Experience"; Scudder, *Aswan High Dam Resettlement of Egyptian Nubians*;
+    2016a, 2016b; Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980"; Tadros "The Human Aspects of Rural Resettlement Schemes in Egypt"; Tibe "Nubian Land Rights."
+
+[^16]: Fernea and Kennedy, "Initial Adaptations to Resettlement."
+
+[^17]: Fernea and Kennedy, "Initial Adaptations to Resettlement," p. 351.
+
+[^18]: Fernea, "The Ethnological Survey of Egyptian Nubia."
+
+[^19]: Fernea and Kennedy, "Initial Adaptations to Resettlement."
+
+[^20]: On average surface area of Nubian houses before resettlement, see
+    El-Hakim, *Nubian Architecture*.
+
+[^21]: On the size, see Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980."
+
+[^22]: Serageldin, "Planning for New Nubia 1960-1980."
+
+[^23]: Bayoumi, "Nubian Vernacular Architecture and Contemporary Aswan Buildings' Enhancement."
+
+[^24]: Habbob, "Community Sharing"; Jennings, *The Nubians of West Aswan*.
+
+[^25]: Bouman, "Indigenous Savings and Credit Societies in the Developing World."
+
+[^26]: Habbob, "Community Sharing."

content/article/boozerintro.md

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+---
+title: "Introduction"
+authors: ["annaboozer.md"]
+keywords: ["homescape", "home", "homeland", "household", "homelife", "diaspora", "displacement", "tahgeer" ,"Nubia", "Nubian", "Aswan High Dam Campaign", "war", "genocide", "resettlement", "Kom Ombo", "stereotype", "longue durée"]
+---
+
+# Introduction
+
+This volume goes to press as a war once again threatens homelife in
+Sudan. This conflict, which began in April 2023, has created the largest
+internally displaced population in the world -- well over one million at
+this stage, although firm numbers are difficult to come by. In addition
+to displacement, some communities, such as Darfur, face genocide. And
+yet this conflict has escaped international attention and outrage. This
+war is not remote to the individuals who contributed to this volume,
+some of whom were themselves displaced by warfare. Others search for
+information to support friends and colleagues who remain in Sudan. And
+still others give us optimism while they work with diaspora communities
+to heal the trauma of war, displacement, and genocide. Themes of
+homescape and displacement weave through these contemporary experiences,
+demonstrating the continued relevance of these topics today.
+
+This volume takes a long-term perspective on Nubian houses and
+households to explore the distinctive material, visual, and
+phenomenological worlds of Nubian homescapes. Nubia extends from the
+area around Aswan in Egypt to the contemporary town of Debba in Sudan, a
+region that roughly corresponds to the area between the first and fourth
+cataracts along the Nile. Nubians have existed as a distinct
+ethno-linguistic group since ancient times.[^1]
+
+Contributors to this volume of *Dotawo* explore homelife during periods
+when there were changes in the political and social organization in
+Nubia. By exploring a range of case studies that include objects,
+bodies, households, floral remains, workspaces, houses, and art we aim
+to understand how ordinary people made and continue to make their homes
+and livelihoods during periods of systemic change. In the process, we
+consider how these same sources reveal the power of everyday activities
+to transform broad social organizations from the bottom up. We also
+explore how some ancient social practices in Nubia might live on and
+continue to structure life in the present.
+
+Many of our contributors have explored homescapes creatively, remaining
+attentive to the multisensory, embodied, and intersectional ways that
+people experienced the home. We have encouraged these creative
+approaches because they capture the essence of homescapes better than
+academic prose alone. For this reason, this volume of *Dotawo* includes
+photographic essays, artwork, and fiction in addition to sociological,
+anthropological, archaeological, and linguistic approaches to the topic.
+
+This introduction situates the themes that structure this volume --
+homescapes, resettlement, and the *longue durée*. A brief history of the
+Nubian diaspora provides insights into this step change in Nubian
+lifeways and suggests comparisons for how contemporary displaced
+communities can move forward. And, finally, I introduce the twelve
+contributions to this volume, which range from ancient to contemporary
+Nubian society and span a range of disciplines -- archaeology, art,
+sociology, history, linguistics, and cultural anthropology among them.
+
+# Homescapes
+
+People often define *home* as a place where one lives permanently,
+usually as a member of a family or household. But home is more than a
+physical place and the people contained within it. Home is also where
+people tend to feel most at ease because they are familiar with the
+sounds, smells, and patterns of life within and beyond house walls.
+
+Meanwhile, *homescapes* may be defined as the physical or symbolic
+landscapes of one's home or homeland. In this way, a homescape may be as
+palpable as a house and its surrounding environs. Or it might be more
+ethereal. For example, an individual's accent might evoke feelings of
+home and inclusion to a native speaker who hears them speak, as Asmaa
+Taha describes in her contribution to this volume.
+
+Tim Ingold invented the term *taskscape* as a play on the word
+*landscape*. In his words, "just as a landscape is an array of features,
+so -- by analogy -- is the taskscape an array of related
+activities.[^2]" We define our own term *homescape* in a similar manner
+-- as an array of features related to the home. A homescape, then, is a
+socially constructed space of human activity, understood as having
+spatial, conceptual, or emotional boundaries and delimitations. Of key
+importance to Ingold's definition of taskscape was that it be understood
+as perpetually in process rather than in a static or immutable state.
+We, too, consider the malleability of homescape to be a key component of
+its definition. Concepts of homescape thus contain a dichotomy within
+them -- they rely on both deep histories of connection as well as fluid
+processes of formation and reformation. People actively make their
+homescapes as they go about their everyday lives. They forge a home from
+the land, imbuing it with memory, meaning, and significance.[^3] This
+agency within everyday life, even amid circumstances of forced movement,
+is at the forefront of many contributions to this volume.
+
+Diasporas, whether voluntary or enforced, rupture concepts of *home* and
+*homescape.* The dispersion of a people from their original homeland
+creates scattered communities that combine their homeland with their new
+place of residence. These amalgamations between homeland and new home
+are complicated by the circumstances surrounding the relocation.
+
+People who have been forced to leave their homeland due to war,
+persecution, or natural disaster cannot make a new home so easily.
+Displaced people, and especially those who are displaced within the
+borders of their own country (known as Internally Displaced Persons or
+IDPs), are among the most vulnerable people in the world. They are often
+trapped in a protracted temporary housing status for years or even
+decades. Although they remain within the borders of their nation state,
+they rarely receive the assistance they require to make a new, stable
+home. Instead, many continue to flee from one place to another in a
+quest for adequate shelter, water, food, and medical care. This
+situation is the case for displaced persons who remain in Sudan at the
+moment this volume goes to press.
+
+Displaced persons are usually severed from their original vocations,
+communities, and even families. In such precarious conditions, such
+individuals are left to forge new identities with each new residence --
+each locale they encounter offers them new opportunities to pursue while
+closing out others. The hope that Khalid Shatta offers with his artwork,
+outreach activities, and long-term perspectives, helps assuage some of
+the hopelessness that may arise when considering these circumstances.
+His painting "Boozer/Shatta Figure 14" depicts a crowd of people who
+have fled the war in Sudan for Cairo. Their minds appear to be
+preoccupied with their homes and the war they have left behind. This
+disembodied rumination on homescape captures the essence of forced
+resettlement and diaspora more succinctly than any words I can put down
+here.
+
+Even those who move home under less violent circumstances have to cope
+with ruptures of making a new home in a different physical space as
+Amany Sadiq, Maher Habbob, Menna Agha, and Armgard Goo-Grauer describe
+in their articles. It also involves confronting linguistic differences
+and even offensive stereotypes, as Asmaa Taha describes. There is hope
+as well as struggle when finding a new place in the world, as Khalid
+Shatta described during the course of our interview. Although far from
+home, Shatta explained how feelings of home have never evaporated for
+him. Instead, visions of homescape endure and adapt, allowing
+individuals to forge new senses of self and home as they remake their
+lives.
+
+# Nubian Homelife and the Nubian Diaspora
+
+Concepts of home, homelife, and homescape have been present since
+ancient times, as Hamad Hamdeen, Kate Fulcher, Sarah Shrader, and Elsa
+Yvanez demonstrate in their contributions to this volume. It is
+challenging to identity emotional and conceptual relations to home in
+the material residues of past lives. These contributors tackled this
+challenge by using a wide range of methodological and theoretical
+vantages.
+
+Meanwhile, the Nubian diaspora has complicated easy encapsulations of
+early modern and contemporary Nubian homescapes. The Nubian diaspora is
+itself complex. While many Nubians were involuntarily displaced from
+their homes, others dispersed of their own volition in pursuit of
+opportunities beyond their homeland. This is certainly true of the
+Nubians of southern Egypt. Many Egyptian Nubian men had sought
+employment outside of Nubia for centuries, returning to their homeland
+only periodically. In her photo essay, Anne Jennings discusses this
+traditional Egyptian Nubian economy prior to the erection of the first
+dam along the Nile in 1903 as well as the impact of this and other
+modifications over the years. The raising of the High Dam in the 1960s
+led to significant changes in Nubian homescapes. That construction
+completely flooded the area between the First and Second Cataracts, and
+forced approximately 50,000 Nubians to resettle in the thirty-three
+villages built to accommodate them near the town of Kom Ombo. Several
+villages near the town of Aswan were not in danger of inundation and so
+the villagers were not removed.
+
+The new villages near Kom Ombo were a shock and a disappointment to
+those who resettled there. Nevertheless, they did their best to recreate
+their old environment, homes, and lifeways. Some traditions survived,
+while others shifted, as Menna Agha, Argard Goo-Grauer, Maher Habbob,
+and Amany Sadeq describe in their contributions to the volume. Anne M.
+Jennings reminds us that significant changes took place even among those
+who were able to remain in their villages near Awan. Homescapes are
+always in a state of flux, even though they are deeply entangled with
+endurance and memory.
+
+Many Nubians, both male and female, are now living internationally, in
+countries such as the United States (especially in New York and
+Virginia), England (especially in London), France, (especially in
+Paris), Switzerland, and Germany, as well as in Egypt (namely, in Cairo
+and Alexandria in addition to the Kom Ombo region).[^4] Some of these
+communities struggle against racism and pressures to conform to local
+cultures at the cost of preserving their own lifeways. Others have
+identified new opportunities and advantages unavailable to them in their
+homeland. Past homescapes continue to haunt how individuals perceive and
+act in their new settings.
+
+# Contributions
+
+The contributors to this volume approach homescapes from broad temporal,
+geographic, and disciplinary standpoints. Despite these differences,
+common themes arose among the contributions, such as the value of the
+surrounding landscape in creating homescapes (e.g. Sadeq, Tsakos,
+Fulcher, Hamad) and the need to describe and interact with the home
+creatively in the form of words or images (Fulcher, Shatta, Jennings,
+Goo-Grauer). Given the rich connections between them, these papers could
+be grouped in any number of ways. Here, however, I decided to focus on
+themes of craftwork, displacement, and the *longue durée* since they
+repeated in so many of the contributions.
+
+## Craftwork and labor
+
+Many contributors explored craftwork and labor, demonstrating how work
+helps to define and make a homescape. Hamad Hamdeen delved into the
+plant remains found in the mudbricks used to construct Christian sites
+in Nubia. Brickmakers added these plant remains and other debris --
+collectively known as chaff -- to mudbricks to increase their strength
+and durability. These plant remains are small, sometimes invisible to
+the naked eye. And yet they contain within them a wealth of information
+about the materials people used in and around the home. These remains
+shed light on pharmacy, food and drink consumption, home construction,
+and fodder among other aspects of everyday life. Hamdeen makes a strong
+argument for making mudbrick analysis a mainstay of archaeological
+research through his careful analysis of four significant Christian
+sites in the Mahas region of Sudan.
+
+While bioarchaeology has been a mainstay of archaeological research
+since its inception, Sarah Schrader takes a unique vantage on human
+remains. Using bioarchaeological methods, Schrader demonstrates the
+frequency with which individuals assumed a squatting position. People
+squatted while working -- cooking, cleaning, taking care of children --
+as well as when they drank tea or chatted with a neighbor. In other
+words, ancient Nubians spent a lot of time in a squatting position.
+Schrader's approach offers us a peak into the everyday postures people
+assumed in and around their homes in antiquity.
+
+Elsa Yvanez delves into the world of work in her exploration of textile
+activities in Sudan during the Meroitic Period (*ca.* 300 BCE -- 400
+CE), a time when Meroë served as the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. She
+draws together the surviving material signatures of weaving -- spindle
+whorls, and loom weights most particularly -- to understand where and
+how people incorporated textile work into village and city life during
+the Meroitic Period. Her analysis reveals that this craftwork took place
+in domestic spaces as well as more formalized multi-use industrial
+areas. She found that textile production was ubiquitous, taking place
+in, around, and outside of the home. This result underscores the
+centrality of textiles to the social, economic and work lives of people
+living in Meroitic Nubia.
+
+Finally, Kate Fulcher explores painting materials used in ancient and
+contemporary Nubia as a way of accessing the complex entanglements of
+everyday life. She explains how people see the landscapes around them as
+palettes for decorating their homes. She found ancient evidence of color
+harvesting in the form of raw pigment lumps, the paintings themselves,
+and the residue found on grinding stones. Fulcher's ethnoarchaeological
+research compliments this material evidence since informants provide
+insights into the decisions and practices linked to acquiring and using
+pigment to decorate their homes. Fulcher gathers together this suite of
+evidence into a fictional narrative aimed at making past lives palpable
+and accessible.
+
+## Resettlement
+
+Feelings of displacement, due to architectural, social, and linguistic
+differences pulse throughout the contributions that describe Nubian
+resettlement in the wake of the Aswan High Dam construction. Although
+there had been dams and diasporas before the final raising of the dam,
+this last raising served as a key turning point for Nubian
+homescapes.[^5]
+
+Menna Agha explores the deep disappointment many Nubian settlers felt
+when they beheld the unfamiliar houses offered to them in what they
+called "*Al* *Tahgeer,*" the "place of displacement". The Egyptian State
+refers to *Al Tahgeer* as "New Nubia," a considerably more optimistic
+term that evades common Nubian sentiment. Evasion can be found
+throughout the resettlement process, as Agha describes in her essay. The
+Egyptian state prized optimization and productivity in their house
+designs rather than understanding the home as the fulcrum of everyday
+Nubian life. They left the views of Nubian women, who were deeply
+involved in placemaking, completely out of their planning. Agha shows us
+how villagers refashioned these prefabricated domestic spaces in a
+"Nubian way" once they took over the barren houses offered to them.
+
+Maher Habbob delves into a comparison of architectural and landscape
+features before and after the resettlement. He does so by looking
+closely at the legal, economic, social, and architectural upheavals that
+took place at the village of Tūmās wa 'Afya during the various
+constructions of the Low Dam and High Dam at Aswan. The resettlement of
+this village resulted in a radically different environment and alien
+houses -- neither of which accounted for traditional Nubian social
+understandings of homescapes. It was left to the villagers to remodel
+their new houses to make them into homes.
+
+Amany Abdelsadeq Sayed Hussein explores how the people of Abu Hor, a
+Kenuz Nubian village, remade their homes and homeland in the aftermath
+of their displacement in December 1964. In doing so, she also examines
+her grandfather's house. Sadeq's interest in her family's experience of
+resettlement and making a home resonates with her theoretical framework
+about senses of home. Her work underscores the importance of the social
+and emotional components of homescapes as well as the materiality of place
+and landscape.
+
+Although these individuals creatively remodeled domestic space to better
+suit traditional Nubian ways of dwelling in their new homes, some
+traditions inevitably fell by the wayside. Armgard Goo-Grauer's
+photographic essay of bridal rooms explores one of these traditional
+practices that was lost with the resettlement. Bridal rooms had served
+as a form of female self-expression at a critical time in a Nubian
+woman's life course. Women carefully selected, created, and combined
+objects and images in a single room as a hypnotic symbol of their new
+roles as wives in a household. Considerable emotional and creative labor
+went into the creation of these rooms and yet the practice ended
+abruptly with the resettlement of Nubians into pre-fabricated houses.
+These houses had no space for such rooms and Goo-Grauer describes how
+female decorative ambitions refocused onto furnishings more commonplace
+across Egypt more broadly.
+
+Meanwhile, the photographic essay by Anne M. Jennings reminds us that
+not all Egyptian Nubians were resettled. Jennings shows us the houses
+Nubians still occupy in the villages around Aswan. Although these houses
+have deeper roots in the Nubian community, they too have been
+refashioned over the years to accommodate the changing needs and desires
+of their occupants. For example, in the five years between her 1981 and
+1986 visits to Gubba, Jennings witnessed the transition from traditional
+materials such as mud brick and mud plaster, to stone and tin. This
+change, while less comfortable, allowed families to add a second storey
+to their house, which is itself another departure from traditional
+Nubian house design. By 2007, these Gubba houses had acquired tile
+floors, air conditioning, glass windows, and modern appliances in
+kitchens and bathrooms. These homes offer a powerful account of
+incremental change driven by individuals in contrast to the ruptures
+experienced by the uprooted Nubian communities described by other
+contributors in this volume.
+
+Finally, Asmaa Taha's article examines how Egyptians characterize
+Nubians by the way they speak Arabic, their mannerisms, their dress, and
+other visual signifiers. Egyptian media, particularly in the form of
+accessible soap operas and songs, fuel negative stereotypes of Nubians.
+Taha spoke with Native Nobiin speakers to understand their perception of
+these visual and linguistic stereotypes. Her informants offered a
+diversity of views on these stereotypes -- age and gender seemed to have
+critical influences on how they understood these representations.
+
+## Longue durée
+
+In his review of Derek Welsby's edited volume, *Archaeology by the
+Fourth Nile Cataract*, Alexandros Tsakos takes up two themes that pulse
+through many of the contributions to this volume -- the *longue durée*
+of Nubian homescapes and the loss of homelands. Archaeological work in
+the region of the Fourth Cataract, like much of Nubia, came into being
+as a salvage expedition. Such expeditions have advantages and
+disadvantages -- they take an enviably wide-ranging cultural and
+disciplinary scope, but are painfully limited by time and resources.
+Tsakos describes how these limits are noticeable in both the research
+conducted and in the eventual volume. Tsakos dwells in particular on the
+homescapes of the Manasir, which were documented before their ancestral
+lands were flooded. He makes a strong argument for careful documentation
+and sensitive publication given the ruptures created by this
+indescribable loss.
+
+In my interview with Khalid Shatta, he often took a long-term
+perspective on Sudan, on his artwork, and on himself. He mused on the
+enduring issues in Sudan that create repeated patterns of loss and
+resilience over the course of thousands of years. Shatta's reflection on
+his own life as a Sudanese expatriate illustrates the emotional
+complexity of homescapes and diaspora. His present home allows his mind
+and body the freedom to produce art in a way that was not possible for
+him in Sudan. Meanwhile, Sudan remains deeply embedded in his artwork --
+individuals from his hometown, emotions about the current war, and
+symbols of both ancient and contemporary life appear and reappear
+throughout his works. While his art does not avoid undercurrents of
+violence, unrest, or displacement, it is also beautiful, haunting, and
+even comforting. Here, Shatta shows us how one might harmonize between
+the before and after of the homescapes that have been ruptured by war,
+resettlement, and everyday change.
+
+# A Home for *Nubian Homescapes*
+
+When approaching a topic like Nubian homescapes, it is necessary to tear
+down the walls between disciplines and genres. The complex emotional and
+material terrain of homescapes requires art, photographic essays,
+fiction, and a suite of academic approaches to navigate it. *Dotawo: A
+Journal of Nubian Studies* is an appropriate home for these intertwining
+perspectives. *Dotawo* has been open access since its launch in 2014. It
+welcomes contributions from a diverse range of disciplines, languages,
+and genres. I cannot imagine publishing a volume such as this one
+anywhere else, both because I firmly believe that accessibility is an
+ethical issue and because most journals remained siloed by discipline
+and genre. I am grateful to *Dotawo* for making this volume possible, to
+the contributors for pursuing unique vantages on Nubian homescapes, and
+to the people of Sudan who are on our minds and in our hearts now more
+than ever.
+
+# References
+
+Ingold, Tim. \"The Temporality of the Landscape.\" *Conceptions of Time
+and Ancient Society/World Archaeology* 25, no. 2 (1993): 152--74.
+
+Janmyr, Maja. \"The Nubians of Egypt: A Displaced Population.\" In *An
+Atlas of Contemporary Egypt*, edited by Hala Bayoumi and Karine Benafla,
+96--7. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2023.
+
+Yao, Alice. \"The Great Wall as Destination? Archaeology of Migration
+and Settlers under the Han Empire.\" In *Archaeologies of Empire: Local
+Participants and Imperial Trajectories*, edited by Anna Lucille Boozer,
+B.S. Düring, and Bradley J Parker, 57--88. Albuquerque, NM: SAR & UNM
+Press, 2020.
+
+Youssef, Maaï, and Mayada Madbouly. \"Displaced People and Migrants in
+Cairo.\" In *An Atlas of Contemporary Egypt*, edited by Hala Bayoumi and
+Karine Benafla, 32--3. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2023.
+
+[^1]: For a basic geographic and temporal introduction to Nubia, see
+    Janmyr, \"The Nubians of Egypt: a displaced population.\"
+
+[^2]: Ingold, \"The Temporality of the Landscape.\"
+
+[^3]: Alice Yao described this process for the people who were relocated
+    to live along the Great Wall in Han China. See Yao, \"The
+    Great Wall as Destination? Archaeology of Migration and Settlers
+    under the Han Empire.\"
+
+[^4]: For an overview of the four main waves of Nubian settlement in
+    Cairo from 1902 until 1964, see Youssef and Madbouly,
+    \"Displaced People and Migrants in Cairo.\".
+
+[^5]: The High Dam (*as-Sad al-\'Aali*) was completed in 1970. The
+    reservoir reached its full capacity six years later.

content/article/fulcher.md

@@ -0,0 +1,750 @@
+---
+title: "The use and experience of painting materials in ancient and modern Nubia"
+authors: ["katefulcher.md"]
+abstract: Homes in Nubia are decorated by their inhabitants, using materials from the landscape around them. This has been the case for thousands of years. Taking the ancient town of Amara West (c. 1250 BC--800 BC) and the modern residents of its environs as a case study, the procurementand application of painting materials and its social implications are considered, using archaeological evidence and recently conducted interviews. The ancient evidence includes paint on walls, pigments, paint palettes, grindstones, and painted coffins, samples of which were scientifically analysed to determine the pigments and binders used. Twelve interviews were conducted via translator with modern residents living near to Amara West about their use of paint in their houses, including how they collected painting materials, when painting took place, and who was responsible. Several paints were re-created using tools and materials that were used by the ancient population in order to experience the process and consider it from a sensory perspective. Taking all of this evidence as inspiration, several fictional passages have been added to attempt to imagine ancient events relating to paint making and use.
+keywords: ["Ancient Nubia", "paint", "colour", "ethnography", "Sudan"]
+---
+
+# Introduction
+
+Ancient people used colour in their homes for many of the same reasons
+as people do today -- to lighten walls, to highlight important areas, to
+signal types of use of spaces, to proclaim status within the community.
+The painting materials considered here are from the ancient town of
+Amara West is situated between the second and third cataracts of the
+Nile, and was inhabited from c. 1250 to 800 BC. It was founded by
+ancient Egyptians in the reign of Seti I as one of a series of temple
+towns in the region, in order to control local resources.[^1]
+Excavations at Amara West were initiated by the Egypt Exploration
+Society in 1939, and were revisited by the British Museum from 2008 to
+2018. The EES seasons uncovered the temple and two town areas, including
+a residence bearing inscriptions relating to two holders of the office
+"Deputy of Kush", which indicates that the town was an administrative
+centre of Kush (Upper Nubia).[^2] The British Museum excavations
+focussed on the ancient town and discovered evidence for the preparation
+and use of paint in white, red, yellow, black, blue, and green colours.
+
+Certain features of the site suggest that it was inhabited by both
+Egyptians and Nubians; graves at Amara West display a variety of forms,
+including Nubian and Egyptian, and in some cases, a mix between the
+two.[^3] Pottery assemblages from the settlement comprise between 1% and
+10% Nubian vessels, typically cooking pots.[^4] Although the town
+architecture is consistent with that found in contemporary Egyptian
+settlements, an oval architectural feature at Amara West is more
+consistent with Nubian architectural tradition.[^5]
+
+There are many modern settlements in the area surrounding Amara West,
+including the town of Abri on the opposite shoreline, and Ernetta
+Island. The inhabitants of these towns and villages use both modern
+paint, purchased at the market, and traditional pigments, gathered from
+the landscape, to decorate their houses.
+
+![Map of the Nile Valley showing locations of places mentioned in text.](../static/images/fulcher/fig1.jpg "Map of the Nile Valley showing locations of places mentioned in text.")
+
+**~~Figure 1. Map of the Nile Valley showing locations of places mentioned
+in text.~~**
+
+# Ancient evidence
+
+Paints and pigments were found from all areas of the town of Amara West,
+in the form of lumps of raw pigment (red, yellow, blue), broken pottery
+used as paint palettes (red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white),
+paint applied on walls (red, yellow, blue, black, and white) (fig. 2),
+and residue on grinding stones (red, yellow, green). There were two
+cemeteries used by the town, both were in use over the course of the
+town's history. Coffins were very fragmentary due to termite action;
+painted plaster (white, black, red, yellow and blue) was found related
+to coffin fragments in several tombs.
+
+Scientific analyses identified the pigments and binders used at Amara
+West.[^6] Yellow and red were both ochres, and could have been sourced
+locally. Blue pigment was mostly Egyptian blue, manufactured using
+copper, silica, and flux at a high temperature, which was probably
+imported, as no evidence for local manufacture has been found. A second
+blue was identified as riebeckite and was probably sourced from further
+south, where sources of this rock are known.[^7] Whites were mainly
+gypsum and calcite, the origin of which are not clear; white pigment
+used in modern times and collected from the desert was found to be
+dolomite, which was not found in the ancient town.[^8] Blacks were
+carbon, easily obtainable by burning organic material, and bitumen,
+obtained from the Dead Sea.[^9] Greens were chlorite (green earth),
+probably local, and copper chloride, either a degradation product of
+malachite or manufactured from copper.[^10] Very few contemporary
+domestic sites are known from Egypt and even fewer from Nubia. From the
+evidence we have it seems that ochres, Egyptian blue, carbon, and gypsum
+plaster were commonly used materials.[^11] Riebeckite has not previously
+been reported, and may have been a locally sourced blue(ish) pigment as
+an alternative for Egyptian blue. Bitumen has been reported once
+previously,[^12] but could have been under-identified from other sites.
+Greens in Egypt are more commonly Egyptian green, and the range of
+greens used is debated, but the identified palette seems to be
+expanding.[^13]
+
+Several of the paints from palettes, and plaster from the walls, were
+analysed for carbohydrate. Of the seventeen samples analysed, eight
+contained positive evidence of monosaccharides, indicating that plant
+gum had been added to the pigment as a binder. Acacia trees, from which
+gum Arabic can be harvested, grow in the local area, and were also
+present in ancient times, as evidenced by plant remains from Amara
+West.[^14]
+
+![Fragment of painted wall plaster from house E13.7 at Amara West (F5049c).](../static/images/fulcher/fig2.jpg "Fragment of painted wall plaster from house E13.7 at Amara West (F5049c).")
+
+**~~Figure 2. Fragment of painted wall plaster from house E13.7 at Amara West (F5049c).~~**
+
+
+# Ethnoarchaeology
+
+Archaeological sites provide a huge amount of data about the tangible
+remains but it can be difficult to interpret these in terms of the human
+beings who created and used them. Interviews were conducted with the
+populations local to Amara West, focussing on the collection of painting
+materials, the method of preparation and application, and the people who
+performed these actions. The interviews were intended to provide an
+insight into human considerations, actions, and decisions in relation to
+the painting of houses in the area.
+
+Twelve interviews were conducted in January 2015 with residents in areas
+near to Amara West, which is itself uninhabited. Interviews took place
+in three locations (fig. 1): (1) Ernetta, an island in the Nile and
+location of the expedition house, between Amara West and Abri, the local
+town on the mainland; (2) Amara East, a village east / downstream of
+Abri, on the opposite bank of the Nile from Amara West; and (3) the
+large island of Sai, about 11km upstream of Amara West, which has
+archaeological evidence of inhabitation broadly concurrent with Amara
+West.[^15] The interviewees consisted of 10 women and 7 men, sometimes
+interviewed singly and sometimes as a pair (either married couple or
+mother and daughter). The interviewees were approached at random while
+wandering around the areas mentioned looking for painted houses. The
+majority were middle aged (35-55) as it was thought they would be the
+most likely to have had experience in painting a house, with three older
+(age unknown, 1 man and 2 women) and two younger participants (two women
+in their mid 20s). It was hoped the older interviewees would remember
+times before acrylic paint and plastic paintbrushes were available.
+
+In all three locations, houses consisted of an outside wall, within
+which stood the main house and several outbuildings, usually built of
+courses of mud-brick (*jalus*), with some walls painted.[^16] The most
+common colours were white, yellow, and red. Floors and some outside
+walls were mud-plastered in a circular pattern (fig. 3).
+
+Houses could be painted with *bomastic* (modern acrylic paint) or *gir*
+(powdered rock). Before bombastic was available in the market, everyone
+used *gir*, which was collected from the desert. Now *gir* may also be
+purchased from the market. There was some consensus that yellow and
+white gir were the best to use, and that the use of colour was a fairly
+modern initiative (last 50 years). It was known that red *gir* could be
+made by placing yellow *gir* on the fire, but red *gir* was not popular.
+However, both red and yellow *bomastic* was commonly used. *Bomastic* is
+affected by strong heat and light but the desert *gir* is not affected,
+therefore *gir* was commonly used for the outside walls in the
+courtyard, and bomastic for the interior (fig. 3). White gypsum is also
+used, either in a thick paste to mend cracks, or as a thinner paint for
+a decorative line around the top of a wall. This is always purchased
+from the market.
+
+Either men or women can travel into the desert to collect *gir*. Several
+locations were mentioned often connected with a certain colour of *gir*,
+and it was also said that usually one travelled to near the place known
+for *gir* and asked around as to the best place to dig. Often donkeys
+are taken to help carry the *gir* back, and one woman mentioned carrying
+it in her scarf. The people who collected it may then be open to selling
+some of it to their neighbours.
+
+The *gir* is prepared by placing a lump of it into a container of water
+and variously leaving it to settle, straining off the gritty bits with a
+scarf or sieve, or giving it a stir with a hand. A traditionally made
+sieve was described by one man as being made from muslin-type material
+that is stretched taut over a frame and glued in place using starch from
+*helba* seeds (fenugreek). Sometimes gum Arabic is added, this can be
+bought from the market or picked off a tree.
+
+Most interviewees stated that men were responsible for painting with
+modern acrylic paint and women for the mudplastering and *gir*. However,
+there seemed to be some leeway, with men helping to apply *gir* in
+hard-to-reach areas. Either could use gypsum. Men could be paid for
+their painting work, but the suggestion of paying someone to apply *gir*
+was met with derision. Most of the time it is the family who paints the
+house, but neighbours might help if it is a big job. When the plaster
+and/or *gir* is renewed, the women and girls of the neighbourhood get
+together and paint each house in turn, going from one to the other as a
+group. It is very social with chatting and laughing. If it doesn't rain,
+they repaint approximately every 2 to 4 years. At times of celebration
+also they might renew the *gir*.
+
+Girls watch and learn from their older female relatives how to do the
+mud-plastering and gir. They start contributing to the mud-plastering at
+about the age of 15, but the painting is easy and they could begin
+younger. There was no upper age limit, the only limitation being
+physical ability to take part. Using modern acrylic paints appeared to
+have very little importance or social cache, they were just a useful
+material for painting. However, mudplastering and applying *gir* was
+described as more socially embedded and more gendered. This was a skill
+that was passed down the generations, and had social activities attached
+to it that linked the family and their house into the community.
+
+These days everyone uses plastic brushes bought from the market to apply
+paint, but several interviewees remembered their older relatives using a
+piece of leather with the hair still attached to paint the *gir* onto
+the walls, or a sheep's tail. One family poured *gir* over the walls
+from a teapot.
+
+![House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.](../static/images/fulcher/fig3.jpg "House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.")
+
+**~~Figure 3. House of one of the respondents. Interior (left) painted in red and yellow bombastic; exterior (right) mud plastered in a circular pattern and painted with yellow gir.~~**
+
+# Re-construction of ancient painting materials
+
+Various raw materials need to be collected and processed to make paint,
+and ancillary materials are also needed, for example, paintbrushes,
+grinding stones, and palettes. Information gleaned from the
+archaeological evidence and ethnographic interviews was combined to
+inform the types of materials and processes that were required.
+
+The first material to obtain in order to make paint is the raw pigment
+itself. The exact location of the ancient sources of pigment is not
+known; the white rock that was collected for this experiment was one of
+the sources of *gir* used today by local inhabitants for painting their
+houses. It took 25 minutes to walk there from Amara West across the
+desert. Facing north from Amara West the land dips into the
+paleochannel, which early in the history of the town would have been
+flowing with water and would have required a boat to cross, but which
+within one generation had become dry for much of the year. Beyond this
+the land rises to Cemetery D. A person or group heading north would
+either have to walk through or around the cemetery. Either way, they see
+from the town side, and then pass by, three pyramids each standing to a
+height of 10 metres. Perhaps more importantly to these people, there
+would also be the graves of their own ancestors, which they may have
+visited regularly to lay offerings and ask favours.[^17] As the people
+moved away from the town and the cemetery, the noises of life, of
+animals, of work and play, would have faded away, and been replaced by
+the quiet of the desert. They may have set out early on their journey,
+to avoid the heat of the day. In which case the sun would have only just
+been rising as they made their way to the top of the escarpment that
+then drops away into the desert. In modern times there is almost no
+vegetation visible but when Amara West was inhabited the landscape would
+have been less dry and desolate than it is today. The desert is
+scattered with archaeological remains,[^18] the inhabitants of Amara
+West would have been familiar with this evidence of previous
+inhabitants; this was not a virgin site, the area already had a history.
+During the New Kingdom some of the historic buildings may have still
+have been standing, providing oases of shelter.[^19] The current
+residents of the area are familiar with the archaeological remains
+around them, and often visit them for a picnic.
+
+The route to the rock sources would have been known, and younger people
+would have learnt the route by accompanying more experienced people on
+the journey. On arrival at the source, they would have dug out the
+pigment. Ceramic containers are heavy, so perhaps they used bags,
+baskets, or scarves. Modern people use large metal cans (*sofiha*, fig.
+4), thobes (a woman's wrap around garment) or scarves. To dig they may
+have mainly used their hands, or small metal or stone tools. A piece of
+flat stone picked up in the desert would make an effective shovel and
+obviate the need to carry a tool from the town and back.
+
+![Sofiha can containing gir.](../static/images/fulcher/fig4.jpg "Sofiha can containing gir.")
+
+**~~Figure 4. Sofiha can containing gir.~~**
+
+Alongside the raw materials, a set of tools is also required. A grinding
+stone of some sort is needed, and this either means sourcing a schist
+rock from the desert or finding one that has been previously been used.
+Another tool required is a hammerstone. The Nile bank at the local town
+across the river (Abri) is a shingle beach from where it is a simple
+task to pick up various smooth hand-sized rocks. A large stash of such
+rocks was excavated behind the front door of one of the houses at Amara
+West, possibly a cache of useful tools.
+
+The most numerous paint-related finds from Amara West are ceramic
+palettes that hold paint. These palettes are also known from other
+ancient Egyptian sites, thus it seems that this was common practice
+[^20]. Ceramic sherds would have been easy to obtain, and may even have
+been created for the purpose by deliberate breakage. The palettes
+function better when damp because it prevents the water soaking straight
+into them when it is added to the pigment powder, so they may have been
+soaked in water before use.
+
+Experimentation with the application of paint led to the conclusion that
+a paintbrush would have been a necessary item, and many brushes are
+known from ancient Egypt that suggest these were commonly used items,
+for example Metropolitan Museum of Art 17.190.1967 (fig. 5), said to be
+made of "palm fibres". Experimentation was undertaken with various local
+plant resources to attempt to manufacture a paintbrush. The most success
+was had with the fruit bearing branches of the date palm. These can be
+snapped into shorter lengths, and are made up of many thin strands that
+naturally hold together well, but at the broken end can be beaten with a
+hammerstone to create bristles. A brush manufactured in this way holds
+paint well and is easy to manipulate. Many brushes can be made from one
+branch, and this is one way in which similar paintbrushes may have been
+made by the people of Amara West. Regardless of the origin of the
+fibres, the process highlights the importance of preparation of the
+brushes before the use of paint. My interviews with modern residents
+suggested that brushes based on animal parts might also have been an
+option. Again, these would have taken some preparation, for example the
+removal of a tail, or acquiring a piece of skin with wool attached after
+an animal had been slaughtered. Soft tissue animal products would be
+very unlikely to survive in the archaeological record.
+
+![Ancient Egyptian paintbrush dating to the New Kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.](../static/images/fulcher/fig5.jpg "Ancient Egyptian paintbrush dating to the New Kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.")
+
+**~~Figure 5. Ancient Egyptian paintbrush dating to the New Kingdom. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.~~**
+
+
+To create paint, pigments were ground on a grinding stone similar in
+size to those most commonly found at Amara West. Grinding the raw
+pigments to create pigment powders initially seems to be a simple task,
+but there are some important considerations. The location chosen for the
+grinding is important, even in a light breeze the pigment powders will
+blow away, wasting all the effort that has gone into collecting and
+grinding the pigment. A sheltered area is best, or a very still day. On
+a small grindstone (as is typical at Amara West), only a small amount of
+pigment can be ground at one time. If more pigment is added the powder
+starts falling off the edge of the grindstone, and it becomes impossible
+to achieve a good particle size because the build-up of powder prevents
+the particles from being crushed between the grindstone and the
+hammerstone. Therefore, the powdered pigment has to be regularly
+decanted to another vessel if any sizeable amount is to be ground (fig.
+6). There is a strong sensory experience to grinding. The choice of
+hammerstone is based on how the stone fits in the hand, how the fingers
+curl around it, and how the weight feels when it is brought down. The
+arm muscle quickly begins to ache, and small injuries to the grinding
+hand would have been hard to avoid.
+
+![Grinding red ochre on a small grindstone. Left - Piece of red ochre to be ground. Right -- after grinding, pigment has spilled onto the floor and there is no working space left on the grindstone.](../static/images/fulcher/fig6.jpg "Grinding red ochre on a small grindstone. Left - Piece of red ochre to be ground. Right -- after grinding, pigment has spilled onto the floor and there is no working space left on the grindstone.")
+
+**~~Figure 6. Grinding red ochre on a small grindstone. Left - Piece of red ochre to be ground. Right -- after grinding, pigment has spilled onto the floor and there is no working space left on the grindstone.~~**
+
+
+Modern interviewees said that girls learnt to plaster and paint from
+their mothers by joining in with the plastering and painting process
+from their early teens. We could imagine the grinding of pigments to
+form part of a learning process for younger members of the family or
+neighbourhood, perhaps taking turns at grinding, perhaps just watching
+and listening. This may have been the time that memories were passed on,
+both collective memories that describe the ways in which paint must be
+prepared, and why, and more personal ones of previous times that paint
+has been made, the people that made it, and what happened to them. In
+this way, the painting of the houses could be used as a community event,
+using the painting activity as an opportunity to share both the physical
+activity and the memories associated with it. Having that communal
+memory, and connecting the decoration of the house to it, transforms
+that house into a home that is deeply embedded in a neighbourhood
+community.
+
+During the process of gathering tools, mixing, and painting, people
+would have been unavailable to perform their normal tasks, so the whole
+process may have been accomplished in a group, with one or more people
+painting and others forming a support network, preparing food, looking
+after children and animals and perhaps taking part as a social event.
+Painting may have taken place at particular life events or particular
+times of year and the painting process could have been integrated with
+these celebrations. The interviews indicated that it was desirable to
+schedule redecoration of the house around important events, even if this
+did not always transpire in reality.
+
+The experiential study has demonstrated that the preparation of paints
+and the execution of painting was not a simple process. Many materials
+had to be gathered, traded, manufactured, and processed, taking time,
+effort, and planning. There would have been many people involved, both
+directly and tangentially, and therefore social interactions. The
+performance of all these actions would have been culturally regulated,
+including gestures, songs, timings, and the status of the actors within
+the society. This has also been noted in the decoration of the ancient
+site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, and the centrality of house-based
+activities for relationships has been studied in the Andes.[^21]^,^[^22]
+Peripheral objects and tasks to the ones focussed on here probably
+included cooking food (requiring food, pots, fire, utensils), travelling
+by donkey or boat, making bags or baskets, producing items to trade,
+meeting and trading with other people, collecting water, minding animals
+and children, and cleaning. The task of painting was part of a much
+wider interconnected taskscape, the "spatiotemporal layout of activity
+at a site"[^23].
+
+# Narratives
+
+The archaeological evidence, information gathered from interviews, and
+experience of collecting materials and making paint have been combined
+to create a fictional passage which imagines what the ancient experience
+of paint creation may have been. To a certain extent, all archaeology is
+storytelling, since the "truth" can never be known for certain; all
+archaeological reporting uses a narrative form of some sort, some of
+which have become institutionalised and are therefore hardly recognised
+as storytelling [^24]. The aim of this fictional section is to
+demonstrate how important the intangible aspects of the production of
+paint may have been to its creation, and to add life to the
+archaeological record, to "people the past" [^25].
+
+*I got up earlier than usual this morning because today we are going to
+fetch paint-rock from the pit in the desert and we need to leave before
+the sun rises. The younger children are staying with my sister, but I'm
+taking the older two with me, and it's Menet's first time. She's excited
+and gets up without complaining, despite the early morning chill. We
+each take a cloak and then head to the edge of the village where we are
+meeting Waset with the donkey and her children. Yesterday we filled a
+waterskin and put some bread aside, and now we tie all this plus several
+empty baskets onto the donkey, and as the light touches the sky we set
+off towards the cemetery. In the cemetery we stop for a while to visit
+our ancestors and leave small food offerings. The children run around
+chasing each other. We pass the boulders that mark the edge of our daily
+surroundings and look out into the desert. It's important to start the
+journey facing the right direction so we take a couple of minutes to
+discuss the landmarks we need to notice, and then we set off into the
+desert. As we walk on, the wind picks up and we all wrap our heads in
+our cloaks to keep the sand out of our eyes and ears. I think about the
+previous journeys I have made to fetch paint-rock and the events that
+have led to these painting days: marriage, a new house, a new baby. This
+journey is to collect paint-rock for the coming festival. We also
+thought it was a good time to take the older children to the desert pit
+to show them the paint-rock and how they will have to collect their own
+painting materials when their turn comes. As we reach the place the wind
+dies down and we can talk again. The children look around for rocks to
+use as shovels, and we find some that were used last time and left in a
+pile at the side of the pit. We sit to eat a little and drink some water
+while we tell stories of the last trip, who was there, and where we dug.
+Then we point to where we need to dig. The youngest digs first and fills
+a basket with the chunks of coloured rock. There are songs to sing while
+we dig, which remind us of the other times, and of the people who were
+here with us. Now it is getting hot and digging is hard work, we chide
+the children and the songs help us finish the work. When we have filled
+all of the containers, we sit again, and now the flies have come out and
+they buzz around us. We head back with the sun getting hotter and hotter
+and pull our cloaks over our heads. There is no wind at all and we can
+all talk easily. We point out landmarks we need to know to find our way
+across the desert. Eventually we can see the pyramids in the cemetery.
+They grow larger on the horizon and then I can hear the workmen in the
+cemetery swearing and joking and swinging their hammers. We wearily head
+into the village, and people greet us on our return. They call out to us
+or stop for a chat. Some people who couldn't come on the journey ask if
+they can have some of the paint-rock in return for a contribution to the
+party.*
+
+*I have gathered the rocks and tree gum, and the day has come when the
+rock must be ground to a powder. It will take a whole day, so I have
+asked the neighbours on both sides to join me, and my sister is here
+too. We will take turns grinding the powder, watching the children, and
+cooking. Because we have gathered, we are making some special food. I
+remember my mother making the paint for my sister's house and the smells
+of the stew she made, and the taste of the special breads. I suggest we
+make these foods and my sister agrees but the others have their own
+special foods that they want to make, so we end up with a lot of food!
+We find a quiet, sheltered corner of the house to grind the rock, where
+the wind won't reach it, and as we finish each grind, we place the
+powder into the basket my mother gave to me for holding the powder. We
+each grind until the ache in our hand becomes unbearable, then the next
+person takes a turn. As we work alongside each other we chat and sing
+songs that remind us of other times when we have been grinding paint and
+the events that led to those times and the people involved. People
+passing the doorway can smell our food and come in to say hello and talk
+about the reason for the paint and to taste the food. We give each
+visitor a bread to take with them. Some of them share their memories of
+special food with us and some give us advice on the grinding, and how
+much plant gum to add. Menet sits by me as I grind and asks questions.
+After she has watched for a while she asks to take a turn. I show her
+how to hold the hammerstone, the amount of rock to use, and the correct
+way to pound the rock. It quickly starts to hurt her hand so I send her
+to take water to the animals. When the basket is full, we can stop
+grinding. We sing a song of celebration and relief, cover the basket,
+and put the ground rock aside for another day.*
+
+*I start the painting by applying a layer of white plaster to the whole
+wall. It is thick so I use my hand. I mix the plaster with some water
+and plant gum in a large pot and stir it with my hand, then I take a
+lump and smear it onto the mudbrick wall. I continue until the whole
+wall is covered, and there are splashes of white plaster over the floor
+and over me too. My oldest daughter helps me with the lower sections of
+the wall; it's her first time so she makes a mess but I quickly smooth
+it over. This way of applying the plaster takes practice to get it
+smooth enough to paint on. It doesn't take long to cover the whole wall.
+Then we leave it to dry while going about our normal tasks. The whole
+house smells damp while it is drying and I light the fire earlier than
+normal in the evening to get rid of the damp feeling. After two days I
+am sure it is dry and we can paint the colour. I have prepared red and
+yellow ground rock, and some charcoal that I ground to make black. Blue
+is not for us. So I'll stick with the normal colours. My husband mixes
+the ground charcoal with a little water in a piece of broken pot and
+paints a thin line of black around the wall. I mix red and water and
+paint the area above the line. He uses a brush we made from palm last
+time we dried the palm branches; mine is a bigger brush, made with
+grasses from the river bank that I gathered when the moon was small and
+then dried on the roof until the moon was full again. When we are done,
+we invite the family over to admire our work and we share food that they
+have brought with them. We sing together and play music. We go to bed
+late, but before we go to sleep, we speak to our ancestors and ask that
+all will be well in this house now we have painted the walls.*
+
+*For the first few days after the painting, every time I enter the room
+I am again surprised at the change in colour and the way it makes the
+room feel different from before. Then after a while I get used to it.
+Menet says it makes her shy of her elders, the room feels more formal.
+When neighbours come into the room they behave differently from before,
+they do not sit so casually on the floor but stay by the doorway and
+wait to be invited in. But I remember how this goes; the paint is fresh
+and this will last for a little while, yet soon they will be back to
+their normal selves and gradually the paint will crack and the room will
+still feel different from before, but not so newly painted. My husband
+is pleased with the effect the paint has had. Soon it will be somebody
+else's turn and we will have the chance to help them and share their
+food.*
+
+# Conclusion
+
+Combining archaeological evidence, interviews of the current inhabitants
+of the area, and a re-creation of painting materials, allowed the
+experiences and activities of ancient people to be imagined. The
+re-creation highlighted the wide range of tasks that would have
+surrounded the creation and application of paint, and how this would
+have been embedded in the landscape, and the lives of the ancient
+people. Each task had associations with others (for example, pottery
+used for palettes), that were interconnected across a taskscape. The
+creation of paint should not be viewed as an isolated event, but rather
+as one of many processes that were taking place within the village that
+each impacted on the other, and on the lives of the people around it,
+and their associates, their relationships, and their memories. The
+application of paint to a house individualises the space to make it
+unique to the people who there, and communicates to others in the
+neighbourhood the social standing and aspirations of the family. Through
+this communication, the family situates themselves in the community. The
+way a house is laid out and decorated could be referred to as a
+homescape, the way the space is manipulated by the addition of colour
+(and other elements) to curate the house into a home within a community.
+
+# Acknowledgements
+
+Research was conducted during a Collaborative Doctoral Award at UCL and
+the British Museum, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
+(Grant 1350956). The samples were excavated as part of fieldwork of the
+British Museum Amara West Project, funded by the Qatar-Sudan
+Archaeological Project, Leverhulme Trust, and British Academy.
+
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+a Colonial Town at Amara West." In *Nubia in the New Kingdom: Lived
+Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions. British Museum
+Publications on Egypt and Sudan 3*, edited by Neal Spencer, Anna
+Stevens, and Michaela Binder, pp. 323--55. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
+
+Spencer, Patricia. *Amara West I: The Architectural
+Report. EES Excavation Memoir 63*. London: Egypt Exploration Society,
+1997.
+
+Stevens, Anna, and Anna Garnett. "Surveying the
+Pharaonic Desert Hinterland of Amara West." In *Nubia in the New
+Kingdom: Lived Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions.
+British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 3*, edited by Neal Spencer,
+Anna Stevens, and Michaela Binder, pp. 287--306. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
+
+Tringham, Ruth. "Households with Faces: The Challenge of
+Gender in Prehistoric Architectural Remains." In *Engendering
+Archaeology: Women and Prehistory*, edited by Joan M. Gero and Margaret
+W. Conkey, pp. 93--131. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.
+
+Wenzel, Marian. *House Decoration in Nubia*. London: Duckworth,
+1972.
+____________________________
+
+**Images available here:**
+<https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnQUQ06LWl5ygpFpxGL_Y3uMI9k7fQ?e=BtO2CH>
+
+
+[^1]: Spencer, "Building on New Ground: The Foundation of a Colonial
+    Town at Amara West."
+
+[^2]: Spencer, *Amara West I: The Architectural Report.
+    EES Excavation Memoir 63*.
+
+[^3]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West:
+    Funerary Perspectives on Nubian -- Egyptian Interactions."
+
+[^4]: Spataro, Millet, and Spencer, "The New Kingdom Settlement of Amara West
+    (Nubia, Sudan): Mineralogical and Chemical Investigation of the
+    Ceramics."
+
+[^5]: Spencer, "Nubian Architecture in an Egyptian Town?
+    Building E12.11 at Amara West."
+
+[^6]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West: The Technology and
+    Experience of Colour in New Kingdom Nubia. British Museum
+    Publications on Egypt and Sudan 13*; Fulcher et al.,
+    "Multi-Scale Characterization of Unusual Green and Blue Pigments
+    from the Pharaonic Town of Amara West, Nubia";
+    Fulcher, Stacey, and
+    Spencer, "Bitumen from the Dead Sea in Early Iron Age
+    Nubia."
+
+[^7]: Fulcher et al., "Multi-Scale Characterization of
+    Unusual Green and Blue Pigments from the Pharaonic Town of Amara
+    West, Nubia."
+
+[^8]: Fulcher, *Painting Amara West: The Technology and
+    Experience of Colour in New Kingdom Nubia. British Museum
+    Publications on Egypt and Sudan 13*, p. 43.
+
+[^9]: Fulcher, Stacey, and
+    Spencer, "Bitumen from the Dead Sea in Early Iron Age
+    Nubia."
+
+[^10]: Fulcher et al., "Multi-Scale Characterization of
+    Unusual Green and Blue Pigments from the Pharaonic Town of Amara
+    West, Nubia."
+
+[^11]: Fulcher and Budka, "Pigments,
+    incense, and bitumen from Sai."
+
+[^12]: Siddell, "Appendix 6: Analysis of Pigments from the
+    Gurob Ship-Cart Model**".**
+
+[^13]: Lacovara and Winkels, "Malqata: The
+    painted palace".
+
+[^14]: Cartwright and Ryan,
+    "Archaeobotanical Research at Amara West in New Kingdom Nubia."
+
+[^15]: Budka, "Life in the New Kingdom Town of Sai Island:
+    Some New Perspectives."
+
+[^16]: Dalton, "Reconstructing Lived Experiences of
+    Domestic Space at Amara West: Some Preliminary Interpretations of
+    Ancient Floor Deposits Using Ethnoarchaeological and
+    Micromorphological Analyses"; Wenzel, *House
+    Decoration in Nubia*.
+
+[^17]: Binder, "The New Kingdom Tombs at Amara West:
+    Funerary Perspectives on Nubian -- Egyptian Interactions," p. 604.
+
+[^18]: Stevens and Garnett, "Surveying the
+    Pharaonic Desert Hinterland of Amara West."
+
+[^19]: Ibid.
+
+[^20]: Pagès-Camagna and Raue,
+    "Coloured Materials Used in Elephantine: Evolution and Continuity
+    from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period"; Kemp and
+    Stevens, *Busy Lives at Amarna: Excavations in the
+    Main City (Grid 12 and the House of Ranefer, N49.18). Volume I*.
+
+[^21]: Çamurcuoğlu, *The Wall Paintings of Çatalhöyük
+    (Turkey)*, pp. 240-246.
+
+[^22]: Leinaweaver, "Raising the roof in the transnational
+    Andes: building houses, forging kinship."
+
+[^23]: Ingold, "Taking taskscape to task" pp. 26;
+    Ingold, \"The Temporality of the Landscape.\"
+
+[^24]: Joyce, "Introducing the First Voice";
+    Majewski, "We Are All Storytellers: Comments on
+    Storytelling, Science, and Historical Archaeology";
+    Pluciennik, "Archaeological Narratives and Other Ways
+    of Telling."
+
+[^25]: Mickel, "Archaeologists as Authors and the Stories
+    of Sites"; Tringham, "Households with Faces: The
+    Challenge of Gender in Prehistoric Architectural Remains."

content/article/hamdeen.md

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+---
+title: "From Homescape to Flora Landscape: Preliminary Observation on Plant Remains from the Christian Mud-Buildings in the Third Cataract Region"
+authors: ["hamadhamdeen.md"]
+abstract: 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.
+keywords: ["Archaeobotany", "Plant remains", "Mudbrick", "Third Cataract", "Sudan"]
+---
+
+
+# Introduction
+
+Mudbrick materials provide a source of environmental data to aid in
+understanding the diversity of local sediments and flora. Most studies
+begin with examining the origins of brick materials, which also can be
+studied as chronological markers, technology as social practice, as
+indicators of social class or cultural identity, and as a source of
+environmental information.[^1] Given the active role of architecture as
+material culture mudbricks are a good source of botanical evidence since
+they often include desiccated chaff, straw, fruits, and seeds, chaff
+impressions, phytoliths, diatoms, and pollen.[^2]
+
+Archaeologically, earth construction techniques have been known for
+over 9000 years. Mudbrick (adobe) houses dating from 8000 to 6000 BCE
+have been discovered in Russian Turkestan.[^3] Rammed earth
+foundations dating from ca. 5000 BCE have been discovered in Assyria.
+Earth was used as the building material in all ancient cultures, not
+only for homes but for religious buildings as well.[^4] In Sudan, the
+study of earthen construction materials is very rare, mudbricks were
+considered common building materials that were used in Sudan from 2500
+BCE, during
+
+the Kerma period, and are still widely used as building materials in
+many regions of Sudan. The materials used to make these bricks include
+Nile mud, sand, chopped straw, and animal dung. Makers mixed these
+materials in varying quantities to produce bricks with different
+characteristics.
+
+Most importantly, these added materials vastly improve the tensile
+strength of bricks. Straw, and sometimes chaff, has always been the
+preferred type of temper. Alternatives may include chopped grasses or
+weeds, tree bark, and potsherds.[^5] Hillman appropriately
+distinguishes between various classes of vegetal temper according to
+their derivation from the process of winnowing and coarse-sieving
+cereals, highlighting their commonly assigned different uses.[^6] The
+first type, "fragmented light straw," is probably the type of vegetal
+temper most commonly used in mudbricks. The second type,
+"medium-coarse winnowed straw," features more commonly in mud plaster
+or is used as fuel; and the third is "chaff," which results from a
+later step during cereal processing, and may be used for bricks or
+wall plaster.[^7]
+
+From a general view of home architecture in ancient Sudan, two types
+of homescape can be distinguished: external and internal, in which
+plants are essential elements in both. Plant remains can help us to
+understand the architectural style of houses of the external
+homescape, such as wood, which represents an essential part of the
+architectural construction elements in mud buildings, as it has been
+used as roofs and pillars to support the roofs of buildings since
+early periods in Sudan. Also, hardwood trees represent an essential
+architectural element in the design and decoration of doors and
+windows. Also, in this type of home, *Rakoba* or *Arishah* is a
+crucial element of the house and is used for recreation and protection
+from the sun and heat during the hot summer seasons. Many trunks,
+stems and branches of trees are used in its construction of *Rakoba*,
+in addition to palm and doum fronds. The trunks and stems of large
+trees also play an essential role in the building of animal pens.
+
+As for the elements of the interior homescape, wood, palm and doum
+fronds are used as a basic element in the manufacture of home
+furniture, such as beds, wooden chairs, and *brooches* that are used
+as rugs for sitting, in addition to the use of palm and doum palm
+leaves in the manufacture of ropes, shoes, also were used as hangers
+called locally "*mashlaib*" which are used to place food utensils in
+high areas of the ground and *Tabag* which used for the covering food.
+In the internal homescape of Sudanese houses wood is also used to
+manufacture what is called "Sahara" which is used to store clothes,
+decorative items, and other items inside homes. In addition, human
+clothing is made from materials that come directly or indirectly from
+plant fibers, and there is much evidence of textiles made from cotton
+and linen reported from archaeological sites in Sudan. In the process
+of preparing foods, there are many household tools in which wood and
+plants are the basic elements in their manufacture, such as what is
+called "*fondoak*" and "*maddak*" which are used to grinding grains
+and other food items. Other tools that were used in the homes such as
+spoons and handles for knives were made from the plants.
+
+There is no doubt that plants are an essential element in the
+manufacture of equipment and tools in agricultural societies from
+ancient Sudan. The archaeological record of many sites in Sudan
+provides much evidence of composite agricultural tools, i.e. wood and
+plants formed part of them, such as the *shadoof* and the *saqiya*,
+which wood and plants form the basic elements in the manufacture of
+all parts, as well as other agricultural tools, such as shovels,
+sickles, rakes, garden hoes, shears, and mattock.
+
+In terms of daily lifestyle, the remains of grains and cereals
+provided evidence of the types of plants that were used as a part of
+human foods and drinks. There are two types of plant foods and drinks
+in Sudan; fermented and unfermented foods, which include bread,
+porridge, and *Kisra*, and drinks such as local wine, *Hulu-mur*,
+*Abreh*, *Sharbat* and others.
+
+# Area of study
+
+The El Mahas region lies along the Nile, in northern Sudan (Fig.1)
+beginning at the north end of the Dongola Reach and extending from the
+area of the villages of Hannik (west bank) and Tombos (east bank), at
+the top of the Third Cataract, downriver as far as the area of Jebel
+Dosha (west bank) and Wawa (east bank), in the north. Its northern
+boundary is most visibly marked by the cliff-face known as Jebel Dosha
+which overlooks the west bank of the river some five kilometers
+downstream of Soleb, the end of a long ridge that runs approximately
+three kilometers into the desert to the west-north- west, forming a
+prominent natural feature, the region extends over a distance of
+approximately 141 kilometers (ca. 88 miles) from Hannik to Wawa.
+Within this area, the landscape is highly varied, including some very
+fertile localities with abundant alluvial soils but also many
+extremely barren and inhospitable areas (Osman and Edwards 2012: 6-7).
+The Mahas Archaeological Project, directed by Prof. Ali Osman,
+identified four Christian mudbrick sites located in the different
+three main areas (north, middle, and south) of the El Mahas region in
+April 2019. I chose these four sites to serve as case studies for the
+study of mudbrick inclusions in Christian Sudan.
+
+These four sites can be described in brief as follows:
+
+**Site (1) TMB016** (19°42.935/30°22.72)**:** This site was located
+near the north end of Dabaki island on a prominent rock outcrop
+overlooking the river. Here, the denuded remains of a massively built
+mudbrick enclosure, measuring approximately 75 x 35 meters, aligned
+approximately east-west. The only large areas of brickwork which
+survive are in the western corner towers and in the southeast quadrant
+where the walls measure over 3.5 meters thick and more than 4 meters
+high in some places. Perhaps they were elements of a fortified gateway
+opening to the south. Built on a very irregular surface, parts of the
+walls have substantial stone foundations, while other parts were built
+directly onto granite boulders. The builders used large bricks
+measuring approximately 39 x 20 x 11 centimeters. Within the
+enclosure, the only surviving structure is a small mudbrick church
+measuring 16.5 x 10.3 meters, with walls standing up to 2 meters high,
+constructed on a substantial mudbrick platform In the southwest corner
+the lower part of a stairway survives rising over a small vaulted
+chamber. Most of the surface sherds appear to date to the Christian
+period (Osman and Edwards 2012) (Fig.2a).
+
+**Site (2) MAS021** (19°53.012/30°23.575)**:** The site is a medieval
+church built amongst large boulders of a small rocky spur running west
+from Jebel Barja. This small, well-preserved mudbrick church measures
+approximately 8.5 x 9.5 meters and in places stands over 4 meters
+tall. Its east end is built against a massive boulder with rock
+drawings of a large human figure and two animals. The base of a small
+central dome survives, and traces of inscribed texts and wall
+paintings are visible on mud wall plaster. One local name for the site
+is Hambujneen Kisse (Osman and Edwards 2012) (Fig.2b).
+
+**Site (3) DFF008** (19°56.932/30°30.138)**:** The site is situated on
+a rocky hillock, with modern buildings on lower ground below the hill.
+It is a well-preserved medieval settlement known by local people as
+Tinutti. At least five substantial mudbrick structures can be
+identified. It is well-preserved. Several rooms still retain their
+barrel vaulting and parts of the central structure stand nearly 5
+meters high.
+
+The more fragmentary remains of additional structures, including
+rougher stone-built buildings, surround these upstanding remains. None
+of the visible buildings appears to have been a church. Test
+excavations by the University of Khartoum in Building A, a poorly
+preserved structure, revealed most of its plan. Excavations also
+revealed stone foundations beneath the mudbrick superstructure of
+Building A. Aerial photos from the 1930s show that additional
+substantial upstanding remains survived on the site at the time
+(Fig.2c).[^8]
+
+**Site (4) DFF009** (19°56.491/30°30.479)**:** This site was located
+on bare rocks on the north side of the thin band of cultivation in an
+otherwise inhospitable area of Haleeba. The main structure is a small
+tower-house ('castle-house') with thick stone foundations up to two
+meters high. Parts of its mudbrick superstructure still survive up to
+six meters high in its northwest corner. Some traces of its internal
+vaulted ceilings survive. No clearly defined entrance is visible in
+the bottom story. Most of the lower rooms were probably accessible
+only from above. Little surface pottery was found but the little that
+survived appears to be 'Late' and 'Terminal Christian' ceramic types.
+Outside this structure are traces of less substantial structures
+surviving as a few courses of rough stone walling (Fig.2d).[^9]
+
+![The area of study.](../static/images/hamdeen/Fig1.jpg "The area of study.")
+
+**~~Figure 1. The area of study.~~**
+
+![The four sites discussed in the chapter: a) TMB016. b) MAS021. c) DFF008. d) DFF009 (photos by Eng. Omer).](../static/images/hamdeen/Fig2.jpg "The four sites discussed in the chapter: a) TMB016. b) MAS021. c) DFF008. d) DFF009 (photos by Eng. Omer).")
+
+**~~Figure 2. The four sites discussed in the chapter: a) TMB016. b) MAS021. c) DFF008. d) DFF009 (photos by Eng. Omer).~~**
+
+
+# Materials and Methods
+
+The samples were collected from the mud-brick constructions from the
+four sites (TMB016, MAS021, DFF008, and DFF009). The total volume of the
+materials was approximately 4 kilograms (1 kilogram from each site). The
+organic residues of plants and animals could be easily observed in the
+samples before they floated in the water. The material was soaked in
+water for six hours to dissolve the hard mud and to allow the wet
+sieving to separate the plant\'s remains that were floated above the mud
+and sand. Two metal sieves with a mesh size of 0.5 and 1 millimetres
+were used for the wet sieving to separate the plant remains. The
+separated material was dried and examined under binoculars in the
+Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, University of Al Neelain
+(Sudan), and Institute of Archaeology, University of Nicolas Copernicus,
+(Poland). To aid with identification, we used fresh seeds as a reference
+collection alongside determination literature. Some animal dung and
+insect remains were separated during the sorting processing of the plant
+macro-remains.
+
+# Results and Discussion
+
+## Results of extracted plant remains from the Homescape
+
+Seven plant species were encountered as seeds\\fruits were extracted and
+identified from the mudbrick samples. The assemblage of seeds and fruits
+were preserved by desiccation. Table (1) shows the Latin names of the
+determined species and their distribution in the sites. The cereal
+appeared clearly and can be identified from the seeds of the *Triticum
+aestivum* (Fig.3a)*, Hordeum vulgare* (Fig.3b) added to some parts of
+spikelets, chaffs, and glume fragments for those two cereals. *Sorghum
+bicolor* was presented from spikelet with grain inside (Fig.4c) and
+*Setaria italica* was also represented from their seeds. (Fig.3d)
+*Adansonia digitate* appeared from small fragments of the fruit pulp
+shell (Fig.3e) *Acacia nilotica* was identified from the seed remains
+(Fig.3f) the *Cyperus rotundus* which appeared in the materials from the
+complete purple nutsedge roots (Fig.3g). Some animal remains, animal
+dung (Fig. 3h) and insect remains (Fig.3i) appeared in the samples. More
+analysis for identification will be done at a later date.
+
+![A table showing plant species that were identified from the Samples.](../static/images/hafsaas/Table1.jpg "A table showing plant species that were identified from the Samples.")
+
+**~~Table 1. Plant species that were identified from the Samples.~~**
+
+![The figure presents the plant and animal remains that were identified; a. Triticum aestivum; b. Hordeum vulgare; c. Sorghum bicolor, d. Setaria italica; e. Adansonia digitata, f. Acacia nilotica; g. Cyperus rotundus; h. Animal dung; i. Insect remains (Photo: H.M. Hamdeen).](../static/images/hamdeen/Fig3.jpg "The figure presents the plant and animal remains that were identified; a. Triticum aestivum; b. Hordeum vulgare; c. Sorghum bicolor, d. Setaria italica; e. Adansonia digitata, f. Acacia nilotica; g. Cyperus rotundus; h. Animal dung; i. Insect remains (Photo: H.M. Hamdeen).")
+
+**~~Figure 3. The figure presents the plant and animal remains that were identified; a. Triticum aestivum; b. Hordeum vulgare; c. Sorghum bicolor, d. Setaria italica; e. Adansonia digitata, f. Acacia nilotica; g. Cyperus rotundus; h. Animal dung; i. Insect remains (Photo: H.M. Hamdeen).~~**
+
+## Mudbrick as source of the plant remains
+
+The material from mudbricks is an important source of archaeobotanical
+and palaeoecological data of the crops, weeds, and other vegetation
+along the Nile floodplain. The mixture of the plant macro remains in
+mudbrick is heterogeneous because they came from different origins.
+These differences originate partly from the clay itself, partly from the
+plant materials added to the adobe as a temper, and partly from the
+vegetation surrounding the site of brick manufacture.[^10]
+
+The identified plant species were added to the adobes either as a part
+of the temper or as an unintentional admixture coming into the mud
+material during the adobe processing. The fibers serve a number of key
+functions. First, they hinder cracking upon drying by distributing
+tension throughout the bulk of the brick. Second, they accelerate
+drying by improving outward drainage of moisture to the surface of the
+brick. Third, they significantly reduce the bulk density of the brick,
+lightening its weight and reducing its thermal conductivity. Most
+importantly, they increase the tensile strength of the brick, the lack
+of which is one of the inherent disadvantages of mudbrick.[^11] The
+necessity of temper may vary depending on the quality of the sediment,
+clay, and organic material that was added to the mudbrick.
+
+Experts in Sudan rarely study the archaeobotanical remains from
+mudbrick. Sergeev *et al* studied the considerable potential of
+mudbricks as a source of the history, cultural practices, and
+technologies of ancient societies that developed in a specific natural
+environment.[^12] Their analysis focused on comparing two collections of
+mudbricks from ancient capital regions of Egypt (Giza) and Sudan (Abu
+Erteila). There were significantly different numbers of plant varieties
+recovered between these two sites. More than 7500 plant macro remains
+were recovered at Giza and only 430 at Abu Erteila. The difference was
+pronounced in the concentration of macroremains of cultivated plants
+which are common at Giza and are very rare in Abu Erteila. In addition,
+carbonized archaeobotanical materials common in mudbricks from Egypt are
+practically absent in all the samples from Sudan. Among the possible
+reasons for the imbalance could be the humble vegetation and a lower
+intensity of economic activity around Abu Erteila during the Meroitic
+Period. Alternatively, the Meroitic people may have preferred to use
+valuable organic waste from the processing of crops in other production
+spheres such as, for example, animal husbandry.
+
+The evidence from Christian mudbrick from the Third Cataract shows
+that there is a high density of plant remains. This could be that
+Christian people in this area preferred to use valuable organic waste
+from the processing of crops in mudbrick production. This demonstrates
+that there was a different mudbrick technique used at the Meroitic
+sites in Central Sudan.
+
+***The floral landscape in the third cataract during Christian period***
+
+### Cultivated flora
+
+The archaeobotanical remains from the four Christian mudbrick
+buildings in El Mahas region show four cultivated plants *Triticum
+aestivum*, *Hordeum vulgare, Sorghum bicolor,* and *Setaria italica*.
+These cereals are packed with starch that contains an appreciable
+amount of protein. Food production in the Mediterranean basin, Europe,
+the non-tropical parts of Asia, and (to some extent) the highlands of
+Ethiopia, was based primarily on wheat and barley.[^13] The remains of
+*Triticum aestivum* and *Hordeum vulgare* present as grains and
+spikelets in the mudbrick samples from the four Christian sites. These
+two plants have been reported at many archaeological sites in Sudan.
+The analyses of phytoliths and starch grains from human dental
+calculus of the Early and Middle Neolithic Sudanese cemeteries of
+Ghaba in the Shandi reach and at R12 in the Dongola reach in Northern
+Sudan, provide evidence of wheat and barley. This evidence suggests
+that these domesticated taxa were introduced into Africa in the early
+Neolithic. The pillow-like grave deposits provide information about
+the role of plants in the burial ceremony, at site 8-B-52-A in Sai
+Island, the site that dates to the pre-Kerma period.[^14] Also, the
+pharaonic town at Amara West dates to 1250-1070 BCE.[^15] Remains of
+*Triticum diococcum* have been reported at the Napatan site HP736 in
+the Wadi Umm Rahau at the Fourth Nile Cataract, in the Egyptian and
+Napatan site in Kawa, and from the same period outside the Nile
+Valley, at Gala Abu Ahmad, located about 110 kilometers west of the
+river in Wadi Howar, Meroe.[^16] These remains have also been found at
+Christian sites such as Soba (Cartwright 1998; Van der Veen 1991),
+Nauri (Fuller and Edwards 2001), El Hamra (Madani et al 2015), El
+Mireibiet (Hamdeen et al 2018), and Banganarti (Hamdeen and Pokorny
+2022). This domesticated cereal constitutes the main source of
+calories for mankind. Cereals thrive in open ground and complete their
+life cycle in less than a year. The nutritional value of their grains
+generally is high, and the seeds can be stored for long periods. These two cereals remain common crops
+in northern Sudan today. They provide important proteins for both
+people and animals.
+
+Other cereal remains can be found in this material. For example,
+*Sorghum bicolor* is present in seed form from sites TMB016 and
+Dff009. This plant is considered one of the world's five most
+important cereals, but its origins are less well understood than the
+others (namely rice, wheat, barley, maize).[^17] Sorghum is especially
+important in the semiarid tropics of Africa and South Asia, with
+significant production also in China, Southeast Asia, and the
+Americas.[^18] There is clear evidence for the use of wild sorghum in
+the eastern Sahara as early 6000 BCE and by Neolithic populations in
+central Sudan by the fourth millennium BCE.[^19] Evidence for the
+transition from wild sorghum to domesticated sorghum can be sequenced
+in the stratigraphy of Qasr Ibrim. It suggests that domestication may
+have been as late as the first centuries CE.[^20] Research from
+eastern Sudan indicates sorghum was domesticated in the Fourth
+Millennium BC, based on spikelet morphology from the ceramic
+impression of the Butana Group (site KG 23) near Khashim el
+Girba.[^21]
+
+The last species of cereal type, *Setaria italica, was* reported as
+seeds from two sites, MAS021 and DFF009. One of the pieces of evidence
+in the area for this *Setaria* sp. was recovered from settlement
+contexts at site Abu Darbien in central Sudan date back to 7860 cal.
+BP.[^22] In the eastern Sudan from sites K1 I 5, S14d, 3-S5 dated to
+Gash group 1500--1400 BCE. *Setaria* sp. was identified on the
+exterior surface of pottery and not far from that site. *Setaria* sp.
+also was recorded from site SEG 42 R 5 and dating to Hagiz Group 500
+BCE--500 CE.[^23] Some remains of *Setaria* sp. have been identified
+also in the organic residues in pots from early Meroitic cemetery at
+Amir Abdallah.[^24] *Setaria italica* remains appeared together with a
+related wild weedy grass identified as *Setaria cf. sphaceleata* at
+the Christian site at Nauri on the opposite bank of the site
+DF009.[^25] This evidence suggests that *Setaria* sp. is common in
+this area of Sudan and that there may be some connection between these
+two sites during Christian period.
+
+The evidence of domesticated plants from our sites in the Third
+Cataract provided a strong indication of the agricultural production
+of these crops during the early, classic, and late Christian period.
+The evidence of Nubia therefore suggests that the original agriculture
+in Nubia focused on winter cultivation based on receding Nile floods.
+The summer season of low flood would not have been conducive to
+cultivation without irrigation, except over very limited land areas or
+of very tolerant crops.[^26] But all this was ch[a]{.underline}nged
+when the *saqiya* was introduced to Sudan during the Meriotic
+period.[^27] More land was made available and more crops could be
+produced. This development has important implications for the
+potential density of the population, as more land will require more
+labor, and two seasons 'winter and summer' of cultivation will tie
+laborers to the land for a greater proportion of the year, thus
+potentially removing some of their ability to be part- time
+specialists during the non-agricultural seasons as potters.[^28] This
+was confirmed by the high density of pottery sherds, kilns, and
+several houses noted and documented on the Christian sites in the
+Third Cataract and Dongola region.
+
+The evidence of these cereals from the mud-building sites in the Third
+Cataract indicates that these plants played a major role in the
+economy and foods for humans and animals during the Christian 6th
+to the 16th century CE in the Third Cataract region and northern
+Sudan. This suggestion can be confirmed by historical texts dating to
+this same period and other plants remains from Christian sites in
+north and Central Sudan.[^29]
+
+### Riverine wild flora
+
+The material under discussion also contained wild plant species, a few
+of which have medical and ethnographic value. These plants were
+probably collected or available for this purpose by people living in
+the Christian settlements in the Third Cataract region. One of these
+riverine wild floras is *Cyperus rotundus,* a type of grass that
+appear from the complete purple nutsedge roots from site TMB016,
+DFF008 and DFF009. This species has been in association with humans
+from remote pre-history to the present. It was consumed as a food for
+thousands of years in prehistoric times, but is viewed as a
+troublesome weed in modern times. Abundant remains of *C. rotundus*
+tuber, thought to have been collected as food, were found at the
+18,000-year-old site of Wadi Kubbaniya, near Aswan, Egypt, and at
+later sites at Al Khiday, 25 kilometers south of Omdurman.[^30] The
+complex of burial sites has yielded dental calculus samples from
+pre-Mesolithic, Neolithic, Late Meroitic, and Mesolithic ages,
+covering more than 7000 years, Cyperaceae tuber was recoded from the
+Kushite site at Kawa dating back to Napatan period 750-400 BCE.[^31]
+
+Ecologically, *Cyperus rotundus* is commonly found in cultivated
+areas, disturbed areas, roadsides, lawns, parks, and wastelands, and
+is favored by moist, fertile soil conditions, and a warm climate.[^32]
+Moisture and temperature are reported to be the most important factors
+in restricting its possible distribution in agroecosystems.[^33]
+Plants of *C. rotundus* continuously produce new tubers and successive
+plants until the occurrence of frost over winter, which burns the
+leaves and causes the tubers to enter into a state of dormancy.
+*Cyperus rotundus* tubers are sensitive to saline conditions, low
+temperatures, and shade.[^34] The extraction of chemical compounds and
+microfossils from dental calculus derived from prehistoric skeletons
+from the site of Al Khiday indicates that the tubers of *C. rotundus*
+were used as food and may have served as a carbohydrate staple for
+millennia. The evidence of this plant in the Third Cataract indicates
+that the plants may have been used as food or a part of local
+traditional perfume made by a woman in Sudan called (*Kunfer*).[^35]
+
+Large deposits belong to glumes of wild grasses (family: *Poaceae*)
+were presented in the samples from the four sites, but the species
+remains unidentified. Generally, grasses have a high nutritional
+value, and they have been collected for animal fodder or a part of the
+clay and probably mixed with clay during the production of the
+mudbrick.
+
+### Wild trees
+
+The remains of *Adansonia digitate* appear from small fragments of the
+fruit pulp in the site TMB 016 and site MAS 021. The ecological
+conditions of this plant lead it to mainly grow in the hot and dry
+savanna areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The plant is very effective in
+preventing water loss and can flourish in sandy soils. In East Africa,
+the trees grow in the shrublands and coastal areas. *Adansonia
+digitata* is a traditional food plant in East and sub-Saharan Africa.
+It has a rich medicinal and nutritional value, this species was
+indigenous to West Africa and brought to Eastern Africa by a movement
+of pastoralists.[^36] In the arid and semi-arid areas of sub-Saharan
+Africa, the *Adansonia digitata* provides a variety of foodstuffs to
+local communities, as well as fodder, fibers for weaving and
+rope-making, gum, seed oil, natural medicine, materials for dishes,
+and water storage.[^37] It can also be used for shelter and as a
+gathering point for humans and their livestock.[^38] All across the
+African continent, the sight of *A. digitata* has inspired tales,
+poetry, songs, and legends. *A. digitata* have often commanded
+compassion and even devotion.[^39]
+
+The earliest archaeobotanical record from Sudan and northeast Africa
+for this species came from site K1 IX in Kassala and dates to the Late
+Gash Group context. This evidence was the charred seeds of *Adansonia
+digitata* L. These findings suggest that this tree had already been
+transferred from west to east across the savanna by the early second
+millennium BCE.[^40] The evidence from the Third Cataract is
+considered the second record for this species in the Sudan and
+North-East Africa dating back to the early Christian period (sixth
+century CE).
+
+The *Acacia nilotica* belongs to the family Fabaceae. It is a widely
+spread tree in the central and northern parts of the Sudan, known in
+Sudanese folk medicine as *kaarad*.[^41] The species of Acacia is
+found all over the world distributed in dry tropical and sub-tropical
+regions. In Sudanese folk medicine, the fruits (pods) of *Acacia
+nilotica* are used as aqueous macerates or in a powder form for the
+treatment of pneumonia, tonsillitis, dysentery, diarrhea, and
+malaria.[^42] The phytochemical studies on the pods of *Acacia
+nilotica* showed some bioactive principles such as tannins, saponins,
+glycosides, and flavonoids.[^43] Some studies showed that the pods of
+*Acacia nilotica* have potential antioxidants and are found effective
+in protecting plasmid DNA and human serum albumin protein oxidation
+induced by hydroxyl radicals.[^44] It can be also used as fodder for
+livestock in the dry lands of Sudan.[^45] The *Acacia sp*. remains
+were recorded from many archaeological sites in this region such as at
+Kawa, Nauri, and Banganarti.[^46] In the samples from the area study
+the evidence of *Acacia nilotica* represented as seeds. Some tree bark
+probably related to *Acacia sp*. were also reported. This plant had
+medical uses in Sudan, but the archaeological evidence for plants
+employed for medicinal purposes in Sudan is not clear. However,
+physical anthropological analysis of human bones shows many diseases
+during the Christian period, and according to ethnobotanical and
+laboratory studies, some of these diseases could be cured by certain
+plant species.[^47] Depending on the field observation, it is likely
+that this plant was used for the medical value, animal fodder, fire
+fuel and using for building houses and animal stockyard in the third
+cataract region.
+
+Lastly, the archaeobotanical evidence from the Christian mudbrick
+sites in the El Mahas region provided some evidence of the flora
+landscape. It can be divided into three types; riverine wild flora,
+cultivated flora, and wild trees. It also a new perspective for
+applying the technique of extorted plants remains from mudbrick in
+Sudan and how the characteristics of mudbrick offer good conditions
+for preserving organic remains. Some of the plant remains are still
+undetermined, including some fragments of branches, charcoal, and
+wood. Further palynological, carpological, and xylological analyses
+studies in the future should provide a new data relating to the
+domestication and natural vegetation of the area.
+
+# Conclusions
+
+The plant remains that were reported from the four Christian sites in
+the Third Cataract region provide to us some information about the
+homescape and landscape of this area. Evidences of *Triticum
+aestivum*, *Hordeum vulgare, Sorghum bicolor,* and *Setaria italica*
+show that they were probably used as some of the primary sources of
+foodstuff for human and animal populations during the Christian
+period. Many cereals, legumes, roots and tubers, fruits, nuts, and
+leaves belonging to those species provided valuable and fundamental
+diets for consumption to human foods and fodder for animals.
+
+Our plant remains provided some evidence of the external and internal
+homescape of the Third Cataract during the Christian period. *Acacia*
+sp. and *Adansonia* sp. could be used as building materials in both
+the exterior and interior shelters and homes. Some of these materials
+are wood, timber, and straw, as well as hard trunks and tree branches
+probably used as roofs and walls in the houses. Furniture was commonly
+composed of *Acacia* woods.
+
+From ancient times till nowadays, people used traditional herbal
+medicines to treat their ailments; particularly in our materials
+*Acacia nilotica* was presented and probably used for medical
+purposes. The remains of the *Adansonia digitata* from the Third
+Cataract was probably used in a variety of ways during the Christian
+period for water storage, medical needs, and shelter as well. Today
+Sudanese women employ *Cyperus rotundus* for cosmetic and perfumery
+purposes, and it may have been used during the Christian period also.
+
+There are three flora landscape in the area of study based on our
+plant remains, cultivated flora which include the four cereals:
+*Triticum aestivum*, *Hordeum vulgare, Sorghum bicolor,* and *Setaria
+italica*. Riverine wild flora which can noted clearly form the remains
+of *Cyperus rotundus* and some wild grasses, and lastly *Acacia
+nilotica and Adansonia digitata*, which can be considered as two
+models representing wild trees in the Third Cataract region during the
+Christian period.
+
+# Acknowledgements
+
+Special thanks go to the El-Mahas Archaeological Project team in the
+2019 season, and the director Prof Ali Osman Mohamed Salih, and the
+people of Mashakiela village for their hospitality and generosity. The
+following persons are also thanked: Eng. Omer for taking drone photos.
+Eng. Medhat Mohamed Osman. Mr Basim Ali, Mr. Ahmed Ali Osman, and Mr.
+Musaab Khair for their assistance with the fieldwork.
+
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+Trigger, B. G.. *History and Settlement in Lower Nubia*. Yale
+University Publication in Anthropology 69. New Haven, CT: Yale University, 1965.
+
+Van Beek, G. W. and O. Van Beek. *Glorious Mud! Ancient and
+Contemporary Earthen Design and Construction in North Africa, Western
+Europe, the Near East, and Southwest Asia*. Washington, DC: Smithsonian
+Institute Scholarly, 2008.
+
+Van der Veen, M. "The Plant Remains." In *Soba: Archaeological Research at a Medieval Capital on
+the Blue Nile*, edited by D.A. Welsby and C. M. Daniels, pp. 264--74. British Institute in Eastern Africa Monograph 12.
+London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1991.
+
+Vantini, G. *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*. Warsaw and Heidelberg: Polish Academy of Sciences and
+Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1975.
+
+Van Wyk B.E. *Food Plants of the World: an Illustrated Guide*.
+Portland: Timber Press, 2006.
+
+Venter F. and J.A. Venter. *Making the Most of Indigenous Trees*.
+Pretoria: Briza Publications, 1996.
+
+Wasylikowa, Krystyna and Jeff Dahlberg. "Sorghum in the Economy
+of the Early Neolithic Nomadic Tribes at Nabta Playa, Southern Egypt."
+In *The exploitation of plant resources in
+ancient Africa*, edited by M. van der Veen, pp. 11--32. New York: Kluwer, 1999.
+
+Walsh, R.P.D. "Climate, Hydrology, and Water Resources." In *The agriculture of the Sudan*, edited by G.M. Craig,
+pp. 19--53. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
+
+Wenkel, A. *Im Schatten des Baobabs*. Berlin: Jaja Verlag, 2014.
+
+Wilcox, G. and S. Fornite. 1999. "Impressions of Wild Cereal Chaff in
+Pise from the 10th Millennium Uncal B.P. at Jerf Ahmar and Mureybet:
+Northern Syria." *Vegetation History and Archaeobotany* 8 (1999): pp. 21--24.
+
+Winchell, F., Stevens, C., Murphy, C., Fuller, D.Q., Manzo, A. and
+A. Beldados. "Evidence for Sorghum Domestication in Fourth
+Millennium BC Eastern Sudan: Spikelet Morphology from Ceramic
+Impressions of the Butana Group". *Current Anthropology* 58 (2017): pp. 673--83.
+
+Zohary, D. and M. Hopf. *Domestications of Plants in the Old
+World, the Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe
+and the Nile Valley*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
+
+
+[^1]: Alvaro et al., "The Study of the Fourth Millennium Mudbricks at Arslantepe"; Arpin and Goldberg, "Using Optical Microscopy to Evaluate
+Human History"; Morgenstein and Redmount, "Mudbrick Typology, Sources and Sedimentological Composition."
+
+[^2]: On the active role of architecture as material culture, see Love
+    "Architecture as Material Culture"; Riggs, *The Architecture of Grasshopper Pueblo*. On mudbrick as a good source for botanical
+    evidence, see Henn et al., "Desiccated Diaspores from Building Materials." On chaff impressions, see Wilcox and
+    Fornite, "Impressions of Wild Cereal Chaff." On phytoliths, see Ryan, "The Phytolith Evidence." On diatoms, see Flower,
+"Diatoms in Ancient Building Materials." On pollen, see Ayyad et al., "Mudbrick as Bearer of
+Agricultural Information"; O' Rourke, "Pollen from Adobe Brick."
+
+[^3]: Pumpelly, *Explorations in Turkestan*.
+
+[^4]: Minke *Building with Earth Design and Technology of a
+Sustainable Architecture*, pp. 11--12.
+
+[^5]: Van Beek and Van Beek *Glorious Mud!*, p. 135.
+
+[^6]: Hillman, "Traditional Husbandry and Processing of Archaic
+Cereals in Recent Times," pp. 127--8.
+
+[^7]: Homsher, "Mudbricks and the Process of Construction in the
+Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant," p. 3.
+
+[^8]: Mohammed, *A Survey of the Third Cataract Region*, p. 55; Osman and Edwards, *The Archaeology of a Nubian Frontier*.
+
+[^9]: Mohammed, *A Survey of the Third Cataract Region*, pp. 53-- 4; Osman and Edwards, *The Archaeology of a Nubian Frontier*.
+
+[^10]: Pokorná and Beneš, "Plant Macroremains from the Old Kingdom
+Mudbrick Construction of the Werkaure Tomb."
+
+[^11]: Homsher , "Mudbricks and the Process of Construction in the
+Middle Bronze Age Southern Levant"; Houben and Guillaud, *Earth Construction*, p. 82.
+
+[^12]: Sergeev et al., "Mudbricks from Giza and Abu Erteila."
+
+[^13]: Zohary and Hopf, *Domestications of Plants in the Old World*, p. 13.
+
+[^14]: On the use of plants during the burial ceremony, see Out et al.,
+    "Plant Exploitation in Neolithic Sudan"; On the dating of the site, see Geus, "Two Seasons in Sai Island."
+
+[^15]: Ryan et al., "Archaeobotanical Research in a Pharaonic Town in Ancient Nubia."
+
+[^16]: On the Napatan site HP736 in the Wadi Umm Rahau at the Fourth
+    Nile Cataract, see Badura, "Plant Remains from the Napatan Settlement in Wadi
+Umm-Rahau." On the Egyptian and Napatan site in
+    Kawa, see Fuller, "Early Kushite Agriculture." On Gala Abu Ahmad, see Kahlheber, "Archaeobotanical Investigations at the Gala Abu
+Ahmed Fortress in Lower Wadi Howar, Northern Sudan." On
+    Meroe, see Shinnie and Anderson, *The Capital of Kush 2*, p. 366.
+
+[^17]: Fuller et al., 2014.
+
+[^18]: Doggett, *Sorghum*; Hulse et al., *Sorghum and Millets*; Snowden, *The Cultivated Races of Sorghum*.
+
+[^19]: On the Eastern Sahara, see Wasylikowa et al, 1999. On Central
+    Sudan, see Stemler, "A Scanning Electron Microscopic Analysis of Plant Impressions in Pottery."
+
+[^20]: Rowley-Conwy, "Sorghum from Qasr Ibrim"; Rowley-Conwy et al., "Ancient DNA from
+Archaeological Sorghum (Sorghum bicolour) from Qasr Ibrim."
+
+[^21]: Winchell et al., "Evidence for Sorghum Domestication in Fourth
+Millennium BC Eastern Sudan."
+
+[^22]: Magid, "Exploitation of Plants in the Eastern Sahel (Sudan)."
+
+[^23]: Beldados, "Millets in Eastern Sudan," pp. 507, 509.
+
+[^24]: Fernandez, *La Cultura Alto-Meroitica del Norte de Nubia*.
+
+[^25]: Fuller and Edwards, "Medieval Plant Economy in Middle Nubia."
+
+[^26]: Fuller, "The Economic Basis of the Qustul Splinter State."
+
+[^27]: Adams, *Nubia: Corridor to African*; Trigger, *History and Settlement in Lower Nubia*.
+
+[^28]: Fuller, "The Economic Basis of the Qustul Splinter State."
+
+[^29]: On the historical texts, see Vantini, *Oriental Sources Concerning Nubia*.
+
+[^30]: Wadi Kubbaniya, near Aswan, Egypt, see Hardy and Kubiak-Martens, *Wild Harvest*.
+
+[^31]: On the complex of burial sites, see Buckley et al., "Dental
+Calculus." On Kawa, see Fuller, "Early Kushite Agriculture," p. 71.
+
+[^32]: Auld and Medd 1987. THIS REFERENCE IS NOT IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY; Parsons and Cuthbertson 2001. THIS REFERENCE IS NOT IN THE BIBLIOGRAPHY.
+
+[^33]: Bendixen and Nandihalli, "Worldwide Distribution of Purple
+and Yellow Nutsedge."
+
+[^34]: Gunasekera and Fernando, "Agricultural Importance,
+Biology, Control and Utilization Cyperus rotundus."
+
+[^35]: Buckley et al., "Dental Calculus"; Hamdeen, "Preliminary Observation on the Plant Remains."
+
+[^36]: On the medicinal and nutritional values, see Andrews, *The Flowering Plants of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan*;
+    Mabberley, *A Portable Dictionary of Plants*. On importation by pastorialists, see Pock Tsy et al., "Chloroplast DNA Phylogeography."
+
+[^37]: On foodstuffs to local communities, see Van Wyk, *Food Plants of the World*; Kabore et
+    al., "A Review of Baobab (*Adansonia digitata*) Products." On fodder, see Venter and Venter, *Making the Most of Indigenous Trees*; De Caluwe, *Market Chain Analysis of Baobab*;
+    Bekele-Tesemma, *Useful Trees and Shrubs of Ethiopia*. On fibers for weaving and rope-making, see
+    Teel and Hirst, *A pocket directory of trees and seeds in Kenya*. On gum, see Roberts, *Indigenous healing plants*; Nussinovitch, *Plant Gum Exudates of the World*. On
+    seed oil, see Osman,  "Chemical and Nutrient Analysis of Baobab"; Kamatou et al., "An Updated Review of Adansonia Digitata." On natural medicine,
+    see Mueller and Mechler, *Medicinal Plants in Tropical Countries*; Iwu, *Handbook of African Medicinal Plants*; Lim, *Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants*. On materials for
+    dishes, see Schütt and Wolf, "Adansonia Digitata." On water storage, see Walsh, "Climate, Hydrology, and Water Resources."
+
+[^38]: Gebauer and Ebert, "Tropische Wildobstarten."
+
+[^39]: Buthelezi, *Baobab*; Wenkel, *Im Schatten des Baobabs*.
+
+[^40]: Beldados, "Millets in Eastern Sudan."
+
+[^41]: Abd-El-Nabi et al., "Antimicrobial Activity of *Acacia nilotica*."
+
+[^42]: Ebrahim et al., "Study on Selected Trace Elements and Heavy
+Metals in Some Popular Medicinal Plants from Sudan."
+
+[^43]: Auwal et al., "Antibacterial Properties."
+
+[^44]: Singh et al., "Antioxidant and Anti-Quorum Sensing Activities."
+
+[^45]: Abdalla et al., "Fodder Potential."
+
+[^46]: On Kawa, see Fuller, "Early Kushite Agriculture," p. 71. On Nauri, see Fuller and Edwards, "Medieval Plant Economy in Middle Nubia," p. 99.
+    On Banganarti, see Hamdeen and Pokorny, "Plant Impressions," p. 208.
+
+[^47]: Hamdeen and Pokorny, "Plant Impressions."

content/article/schrader.md

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+---
+title: "A Bioarchaeological Approach to Everyday Life: Squatting Facets at Abu Fatima"
+authors: ["schrader.md"]
+abstract: This paper offers a bioarchaeological approach to everyday life at Abu Fatim through an examination of squatting facets of the ancient population of Nubia.
+keywords: ["bioarchaeology", "everyday life", "Nubia", "squatting"]
+---
+
+
+# Introduction
+
+Everyday life in Nubia involves activities such as, cooking, cleaning,
+planting seeds, harvesting crops, watching a football match, chatting
+with friends, monitoring children, eating delicious foods, and drinking
+tea. If we conjure up images of these quotidian actions from personal
+experiences, many of these activities are performed in a squatting
+position (Fig. 1). When a chair or mat is not available, modern Nubians
+will frequently assume a squatting position, with hips, knees, and
+ankles bent, to create temporary respite. As many of us that are not
+commonly in this position can attest to, it requires a degree of
+flexibility that no doubt comes with years of habituation and practice.
+
+Using bioarchaeological methods, we are able to assess whether or not
+ancient populations also frequently assumed a squatting position. The
+lower leg bone (tibia) has been shown to possess accessory articulating
+facets when the ankle joint is regularly hyperdorsiflexed (i.e., when
+toes are drawn towards shins; Fig. 1). There have been a few
+bioarchaeological publications using this approach, however, they are
+mainly limited to case studies.[^1] I argue that the squatting facets
+method has broader theoretical importance as it can be used as an
+indicator of everyday life in the *longue durée*. We have a window into
+how people spent their days, inside and outside of the home, and
+potentially a temporal line of continuity between ancient and modern
+populations.
+
+![Squatting Position and Skeletal Consequences of Habitual Squatting (modified from Trinkaus 1975).](../static/images/schrader/Fig1.jpg "Squatting Position and Skeletal Consequences of Habitual Squatting (modified from Trinkaus 1975).")
+
+**~~Figure 1. Squatting Position and Skeletal Consequences of Habitual Squatting (modified from Trinkaus 1975)[^2]~~**
+
+# Bioarchaeology of the Everyday
+
+Everyday life is vitally important to the development of individual and
+communal identities as well as to agentive action and social change.
+While certain major life events (e.g., wedding, funeral, war, etc.) may
+create a more marked memory, the majority of lived experiences are those
+that we might consider mundane. It is these minutiae that scholars of
+practice theory suggest are the most crucial---these everyday actions
+can be minor acts of resistance to an overarching social system that,
+with enough support and continuity, can go on to change entire social
+structures.[^3] In this way, these everyday lives of everyday people are
+anything but mundane, but rather consist of a series of critical ways of
+operating.[^4]
+
+Archaeologists have long argued that understanding everyday life in the
+past is essential. Moving away from temples and tombs, archaeologists
+became interested in how everyday people lived in their day-to-day
+milieu. Additionally, archaeology is ideally situated to study this
+everyday past given the material record that everyday life creates.
+Interpretations of everyday practice have been achieved through studies
+of midden deposits, architecture, debitage, landscape modification, and
+ceramics. Footprints at the ancient Mayan site of Chan Nòohol were even
+used to recreate movements and personal interactions within this
+community.[^5] The archaeology of everyday life in ancient Nubia has
+been examined through several lenses, including, but not limited to
+architecture and use of space, foodways, and identity expression.[^6]
+
+Skeletal data has the ability to provide unique insight into everyday
+life in the ancient world. Contrary to popular belief, bones are not as
+unmalleable as we might assume. Rather, the skeletal frame adapts
+throughout one's life, slowly remodeling on a cellular level. It is
+estimated that it takes approximately 10 years for the skeleton to
+completely remodel.[^7] This process also facilitates a record of life
+events, embodied in the bones themselves. This is frequently referred to
+as embodiment theory in bioarchaeology and speaks to the biosocial
+nature of bioarchaeologyn[^8] The discipline goes beyond looking at
+broken bones or diseases to assessing lived experience in the ancient
+past, how it changed during periods of political, economic, and social
+upheaval, and how these data can be used to inform our understanding of
+our modern world.
+
+In previous work I have used this embodiment framework to examine
+everyday life in ancient Nubia.[^9] By examining skeletal indicators of
+activity (osteoarthritis and muscle attachment sites) as well as
+biomolecular approaches to diet (carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis),
+I was able to document how everyday life changed for Nubians living
+under colonial New Kingdom rule as well as in a post-colonial and
+Napatan landscape. By integrating a theoretical framework grounded in
+practice theory into bioarchaeological data, I was able to interpret
+relatively subtle diachronic changes in activity and diet as acts of
+agency and resistance. For example, bioarchaeological activity markers
+indicate that the post-colonial Third-Intermediate and Napatan period
+population may have indeed been engaging in more physically strenuous
+everyday movements than New Kingdom colonial Egypto-Nubian populations
+(at the site of Tombos, Third Cataract). However, this need not be
+interpreted as something negative, but rather can be framed as a newly
+independent community utilizing local raw materials (e.g., quarrying,
+mining) and building new communities and connections (e.g., construction
+efforts; new trading partners and political allies).[^10]
+
+# Squatting Facets
+
+As discussed above, squatting facets are an articulation between the
+shin bone (distal tibia) and foot (talus) that are thought to be
+acquired in life. When an individual squats down for extended periods of
+time, the two bones begin to touch, where in a normal anatomical
+position, they would not. This creates a new joint, or articulation, and
+is an example of how the skeleton can adapt during life (Fig. 2). Note
+that changes can also be seen on the femur, patella, talus, and
+metatarsals, however, most commonly the distal tibia is affected and
+studied.[^11]
+
+![Images of Different Types of Squatting Facets on Distal Tibiae (modified from Singh 1959).](../static/images/schrader/Fig2.jpg "Images of Different Types of Squatting Facets on Distal Tibiae (modified from Singh 1959).")
+
+**~~Figure 2. Images of Different Types of Squatting Facets on Distal Tibiae (modified from Singh 1959)[^12]~~**
+
+Squatting facets have been studied for decades both from a clinical and
+bioarchaeological perspective. Clinicians have examined the prevalence
+of squatting facets in modern populations as well as associated the
+presence of squatting facets with the potential for subsequent
+injury.[^13] Several papers have reported the presence of squatting
+facets both in adults as well as fetuses. The interest in fetal
+squatting facets stems from the question, are squatting facets the
+product of activity, acquired through one's life? In which case we would
+expect to find them only on adult remains. Or are squatting facets
+inherited? In which case we would find them on both adults and fetuses.
+Furthermore, does the frequency of squatting facets vary across
+genetically heterogeneous populations? Singh, for example, compares
+adult and fetal squatting facets prevalence in an Indian population and
+notes that, while adults do have higher frequencies, fetuses do indeed
+possess squatting facets.[^14] Singh does state that the presence of
+squatting facets in fetuses is low in this sample, it is also variable
+between other samples published in previous works (22.6% Indian; 23%
+European; 3.1% Japanese). Barnett, however, provides an explanation for
+these findings. Barnett argues that these traits can indeed be
+inherited, however, if the activities that maintain this articulation
+(i.e., squatting) are not maintained throughout the lifecourse, they
+will become obliterated as bone turnover occurs.[^15] While this
+explanation does explain the presence of squatting facets on both fetal
+and adult remains, the matter is still a topic of debate today.
+
+Bioarchaeological studies have contributed to this research by looking
+at changes in squatting facet frequency through time as well as sexual
+division of labor in the past. Squatting facets have been found in early
+hominin remains, including Neanderthals.[^16] Broadly speaking, we see a
+decrease in squatting facets through time, and a notable decrease during
+the medieval period. Boule examined 543 tibiae from French and American
+archaeological sites (1st-20th centuries CE), and found that prior to
+the Middle Ages, squatting was quite common; however, with the dawn of
+the Middle Ages, there was a steady decrease in the frequency of
+squatting facets.[^17] Similarly, Dlamini and Morris found that
+squatting facets were common in Late Stone Age (1st millennium BCE)
+South Africa, but almost nonexistent in comparative modern skeletal and
+cadaver samples.[^18] Molleson reports high incidence of squatting
+facets at Abu Hureyra, Syria (Mesolithic/Neolithic) and Çatalhöyük,
+Turkey (Neolithic) and suggests that a saddle quern or mortar were used
+to process the grains that were being harvested.[^19] Molleson also
+suggests the potential sexual division of labor, indicating that women
+and girls may have been responsible for preparing foodstuffs, whereas
+men and boys, who exhibited higher rates of squatting facets, were
+likely working with their hands while squatting, possibly making baskets
+and preparing cord.[^20]
+
+# Squatting Facets in Nubia
+
+To my knowledge squatting facets have not been systematically studied in
+Nubian remains. Here I present squatting facet data from the Kerma, or
+Kushite, period site of Abu Fatima (*ca*. 2500-1500 BCE). Abu Fatima is
+located near the Third Cataract of the Nile near Tombos and modern day
+Kerma (Fig. 3) and is currently being excavated by Dr. Stuart Tyson
+Smith (University California, Santa Barbara) and myself. Given its
+location and size, it has been proposed that Abu Fatima was a suburban
+community, which would have been a long walk (approximately 10km) to the
+ancient capital city Kerma.[^21] The community is thought to have
+participated in agricultural and animal husbandry practices, but also
+may have produced pottery, constructed homes, and manufactured other
+trade goods.
+
+![Map of Abu Fatima.](../static/images/schrader/Fig3.jpg "Map of Abu Fatima.")
+
+**~~Figure 3. Map of Abu Fatima.~~**
+
+Analysis of squatting facets was conducted according to presence or
+absence of the trait.[^22] All available adult skeletons from Abu Fatima
+were analyzed. In some cases, no tibiae were preserved, for which
+squatting facets could not be assessed. In other instances, only one
+tibia (left or right) was preserved and, thus, only one data point was
+collected for said individual(s). Analysis of sex and age-at-death were
+performed according to accepted bioarchaeological standards.[^23]
+
+The ethics of handling and studying human skeletal remains were taken
+into considering at all stages of this research, including excavation,
+curation, and analysis.[^24] The project worked closely with the
+National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) of Sudan as well
+as the local community of Abu Fatima, who were both supportive of this
+research. This analysis was non-destructive, so the remains were
+macroscopically analyzed and then returned to conservator boxes in a
+temperature- and humidity-controlled environment at the Faculty of
+Archaeology, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
+
+# Did Ancient Nubians Squat?
+
+A total of 21 individuals from the Abu Fatima collection had at least
+one preserved distal tibia (Table 1). Of these, only one individual did
+not possess squatting facets (Burial 4E1). The vast majority of the Abu
+Fatima population (20/21, or 95%) did have the very clear presence of
+squatting facets. This is markedly higher than many previously published
+comparative studies (Table 2). Note that this list is limited to those
+studies that focus on tibial squatting facets, as opposed to femoral,
+patellar, tarsal, or metatarsal facets.
+
+<br/>
+
+Table 1. Demographic Distribution of Squatting Facets at Abu Fatima
+
+|||||||
+|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---|:---|
+|||||||
+| ID \# | Squatting Facets | | Sex | Age-at-Death | Locality |
+| | Left | Right | | | |
+| 1A1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 1B1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 50+ | Local |
+| 1E1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 18-34 | Local |
+| 1F1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 1F2 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 2A1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 35-49 | Non-Local |
+| 2A2 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 2B1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 2C1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 18-34 | Non-Local |
+| 2D1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 50+ | Local |
+| 2F1 | n/o | ✓ | Female | 35-49 | Local |
+| 3A1 | n/o | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 4A1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 18-34 | Local |
+| 4B2 | n/o | ✓ | Female | 35-49 | Unknown |
+| 4C1 | ✓ | n/o | Female | 50+ | Local |
+| 4D1 | n/o | ✓ | Female | 35-49 | Non-Local |
+| 4E1 |  |  | Probable Male | 35-49 | Local |
+| 5B1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 18-34 | Local |
+| 8A2 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 50+ | Non-Local |
+| 8B1 | ✓ | ✓ | Female | 35-49 | Local |
+| 9A1 | ✓ | ✓ | Male | 35-49 | Non-Local |
+|||||||
+
+n/o=Not observable; Locality assessed via strontium isotope analysis
+(see Schrader et al., "Intraregional 87Sr/86Sr Variation in Nubia" for additional information)
+
+<br/>
+
+
+<br/>
+
+Table 2. Frequency of Squatting Facets in Other Populations
+
+|||||
+|:---|:---|:---|:---|
+|||||
+| Population | Squatting Facet Presence | Sample Size | Citation |
+| Abu Fatima | 95% | 21| Present study |
+| Ancient Egypt | 96% | 300 | Satinoff [^25] |
+| Ancient Egypt | 33% | 3 | Thomson et al. [^26] |
+| Byzantine (13th century CE) | 48% | 100 | Ari et al. [^27] |
+| Late Stone Age (1st millennium BCE), South Africa | 50% | 56 | Dlamini and Morris [^28] |
+| Early farming (5th-19th centuries CE), South Africa | 77% | 17 | Dlamini and Morris [^29] |
+| 18th century Cape Town | 5% | 21 | Dlamini and Morris [^30] |
+| 20th century Cape Town cadavers | 0% | 29 | Dlamini and Morris [^31] |
+| South African (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 27% | 11 | Thomson [^32] |
+| Neanderthals (Europe, Near East) | 91% | 11 | Trinkaus [^33] |
+| European (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 13% | 40 | Thomson [^34] |
+| Scottish (Anatomical Department, University of Edinburgh) | 17% | 118 | Wood [^35] |
+| Asian (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 48% | 23 | Thomson [^36] |
+| Native American (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 37% | 19 | Thomson [^37] |
+| Polynesia (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 75% | 4 | Thomson [^38] |
+| Melanesia (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 71%  | 38 | Thomson [^39] |
+| Australian (Oxford/Royal College of Surgeons' Museum) | 79% | 14 | Thomson [^40] |
+| Australian (Collection of Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh) | 81% | 236 | Wood [^41] |
+| Indian (20th century) cadavers and "museum specimens" | 77% | 292 | Singh [^42] |
+| Panjabi, Indian | 87% | 52 | Charles [^43] |
+|||||
+
+<br/>
+
+One interpretation of these data is that the people of ancient Kush,
+just like modern Nubians, spent much of their everyday life in a
+squatting position. This may have involved both occupational as well as
+leisure activities. It is also interesting that both males and females
+exhibit squatting facets, suggesting both sexes were participating in
+this position. All adult age categories, young, middle, and old adults,
+also possess evidence for squatting. This suggests that the activity was
+continued throughout life; if, for example, an individual was a squatter
+in childhood or young adulthood but then stopped, the facet would be
+obliterated by bone remodeling as they aged. In short, it would appear
+that a large portion of the Abu Fatima community, of both sexes and all
+age groups, were spending much of their everyday life in a squatting
+position.
+
+It is also interesting to note that previous bioarchaeological research
+of the Abu Fatima collection indicates that approximately 25% of this
+population were of non-local origin, meaning they migrated from
+someplace else and eventually died and were buried at Abu Fatima.[^44]
+This was assessed via strontium isotope analysis, which compares
+strontium values from dental enamel (produced during childhood) to local
+geology; if these values are similar, we can deduce that the individual
+was local to the region, however, if these values differ, it is possible
+that they migrated into this community. Interestingly, all non-local
+individuals also possessed squatting facets. This suggests that the
+patterns exhibited here at Abu Fatima, may not be limited to just this
+community, but rather may a more pan-Nubian pattern. Using strontium
+isotope analysis, it is impossible to pinpoint the point of origin for
+an individual, so we cannot say where these non-locals came from. But it
+does appear that throughout their life they were habitually
+participating in a squatting behavior.
+
+The one individual in the Abu Fatima collection that did not possess
+squatting facets (4E1) is a bit of an oddity. This was a probable male,
+dating to the Ancient Kerma period (2,500-2,050 BCE), who likely died
+between 35-50. The grave was looted in antiquity and was quite
+disturbed, with no skeletal elements remained *in situ*. Despite this,
+there is evidence to suggest that this individual may have been
+originally been buried with numerous and varied grave goods. Three
+lithic blades forming a Nubian-style arrowhead, rawhide sandals, faience
+beads, and intricate leatherwork and basketry were all found in this
+burial pit. Although it is difficult to say with any certainty given the
+looting, it is possible this grave could have belonged to an elite
+individual or an individual of a special class (e.g., occupation). For
+example, if individual 4E1 were elite, perhaps they didn't squat, but
+rather sat in chairs. If they were not participating in common tasks
+because of their status, they could have found other positions of
+relaxation. Another possible explanation is that this person had an
+occupation (e.g., warrior), or daily life, that did not require
+squatting. It could also be as simple as this individual did not enjoy
+squatting or perhaps an injury, unidentifiable in the skeletal remains,
+prevented them from assuming this position.
+
+If we turn to archaeological evidence for squatting in the Nile Valley,
+there are a few examples. It is interesting to note that most of these
+samples are associated with the non-elite, working class. For example,
+there is an Old Kingdom (probably 6th Dynasty, *ca* 2,345-2,125 BCE)
+pottery statuette of a squatting man who appears to be naked and
+emaciated (Fig. 4). There is a similar figure, on display at the
+Egyptian Museum in Cairo, of an emaciated old squatting man grasping an
+ivory staff. There are also multiple examples of figures grinding grain,
+like this one, a statuette from the 5th Dynasty (*ca.* 2,465-2,323
+BCE; Giza; Fig. 5). Figures such as these exhibit scenes from everyday
+life and were thought to provide resources for deceased in the
+afterlife. They can also provide some insight into the types of
+activities Nile Valley inhabitants may have done while in a squatting
+position.
+
+In other squatting facet studies, bioarchaeologists have concluded that
+individuals with squatting facets may have regularly participated in
+grinding, basketmaking, spinning, weaving, baking, milking animals,
+preparing dung, knitting rugs, sitting around a fire, and working in the
+fields.[^45] There is also some evidence within Egypt to suggest that
+scribes may have frequently taken a squatting position.[^46]
+Archaeological evidence in Nubia indicates that percussion instruments
+were used in a squatting position.[^47] Lastly, there are many
+iconographic examples from Ancient Egypt of women given birth in a
+squatting position.[^48] However, for the skeleton to modify it would
+need to be a highly repetitive behavior. It's certainly possible that
+childbirth contributed to the development of squatting facets, it was
+probably in combination with other activities.
+
+![Statuette of Squatting Man (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6; Image ©National Museums Scotland A.1954.10: https://www.nms.ac.uk/search-our-collections/collection-search-results?entry=300275).](../static/images/schrader/Fig4.jpg "Statuette of Squatting Man (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6; Image ©National Museums Scotland A.1954.10: https://www.nms.ac.uk/search-our-collections/collection-search-results?entry=300275).")
+
+**~~Figure 4. Statuette of Squatting Man (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6; Image ©National Museums Scotland A.1954.10: https://www.nms.ac.uk/search-our-collections/collection-search-results?entry=300275).~~**
+
+
+![Statuette of Woman Grinding Grain (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5 Image © Boston Museum of Fine Arts 21.2601: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/144023).](../static/images/schrader/Fig5.jpg "Statuette of Woman Grinding Grain (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5 Image © Boston Museum of Fine Arts 21.2601: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/144023).")
+
+**~~Figure 5. Statuette of Woman Grinding Grain (Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5 Image © Boston Museum of Fine Arts 21.2601: https://collections.mfa.org/objects/144023).~~**
+
+Satinoff conducted a study of squatting facets in an Egyptian
+sample.[^49] The origins of the skeletal material remain unclear as the
+only documentation provided is that they were housed at the Institute of
+Anthropology at the University of Turin; however, no chronological or
+spatial information was provided. Satinoff found that of the 300 male
+and female remains analyzed 96% did in fact have squatting facets. This
+is very much congruent with the findings presented here from Abu Fatima.
+It does beg the question about genetic predisposition to said facets,
+given the relatively genetic homogeneity between Egyptian and Nubians.
+Skeletal analysis of additional samples, with well-documented
+chronologies and cemetery locations, would be useful to better
+understand if the majority of Egyptians and Nubians had squatting
+facets, or if the similar values between Abu Fatima and the results
+presented by Satinoff are coincidence. Additionally, additional skeletal
+analysis of non-adult remains, particularly neonates and infants, could
+be used to address the genetic predisposition theory.
+
+# Conclusions
+
+These data provide a novel perspective on everyday life in ancient
+Nubia. Up until now, the Nubian quotidian had been examined via built
+space, everyday life objects, refuse, as well as skeletal indicators of
+physically strenuous activity and dietary practices. This study presents
+a unique line of embodied continuity between the ancient Kushites,
+inhabiting the Third Cataract region *ca*. 4,000 years ago and the
+Nubians that inhabit the region today. While it is impossible to specify
+what activities these individuals were engaging while assuming the
+squatting posture, these data suggest that both men and women were
+regularly squatting at Abu Fatima during the Kushite period. As Abu
+Fatima is considered a suburban space, these interpretations are further
+evidence for how the ordinary, non-elite population would have lived
+their daily lives, both inside and outside of the home. This may have
+involved squatting around a fire, preparing food (e.g., grinding,
+cooking), playing musical instruments, weaving, flint-knapping, or just
+chatting with friends.
+
+# Acknowledgements
+
+My thoughts are with the people of Sudan as the country, at the time of
+writing, is in the midst of a horrific war. This publication is part of
+the project Embodied Inequality (VI.Vidi.201.153) of the Research
+Programme VIDI which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
+
+# References
+
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+Institut, 2008.
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+Molleson, Theya. "Bones of Work at the Origins of Labour." In
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+Hamilton, Ruth D. Whitehouse, and Katherine I. Wright. New York:
+Routledge, 2007.
+
+Molleson, Theya. "Seed Preparation in the Mesolithic: The Osteological
+Evidence." *Antiquity* 63, no. 239 (1989): pp. 356--62.
+
+Peltt, W. Paul van. "Revising Egypto-Nubian Relations in New Kingdom
+Lower Nubia: From Egyptianization to Cultural Entanglement." *Cambridge
+Archaeological Journal* 23, no. 3 (2013): pp. 523--50.
+
+Robb, J. "Skeletal Signs of Activity in the Italian Metal Ages:
+Methodological and Interpretative Notes." *Human Evolution* 9, no. 3
+(1994): pp. 215--29.
+
+Robin, C. *Everyday Life Matters: Maya Farmers at Chan*. Gainesville:
+University Press of Florida, 2013.
+
+Satinoff, Merton I. "Study of the Squatting Facets of the Talus and
+Tibia in Ancient Egyptians." *Journal of Human Evolution* 1, no. 2
+(1972): pp. 209--10. 
+https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(72)90021-8.
+
+Schatzki, Theodore. "Materiality and Social Life." *Nature and Culture*
+5, no. 2 (June 1, 2010): pp. 123--49.
+https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2010.050202.
+
+Schrader, S. A., and Stuart Tyson Smith. "Socializing Violence:
+Interpersonal Violence Recidivism at Abu Fatima (Sudan)." In *Broken
+Bones, Broken Bodies: Bioarchaeological and Forensic Approaches for
+Accumulative Trauma and Violence*, edited by C. E. Tegtmeyer and D. L.
+Martin, pp. 27--42. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2017.
+
+Schrader, Sarah. *Activity, Diet and Social Practice: Addressing
+Everyday Life in Human Skeletal Remains*. Cham: Springer, 2019.
+
+Schrader, Sarah A., and Michele R. Buzon. "Everyday Life after Collapse:
+A Bioarchaeological Examination of Entheseal Change and Accidental
+Injury in Postcolonial Nubia." *Bioarchaeology International* 1, no. 1/2
+(2017): pp. 19--34. http://dx.doi.org/10.5744/bi.2017.1000.
+
+Schrader, Sarah A., Michele R. Buzon, Loretta Corcoran, and Antonio
+Simonetti. "Intraregional 87Sr/86Sr Variation in Nubia: New Insights
+from the Third Cataract." *Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports*
+24 (2019): pp. 373--9.
+
+Schrader, Sarah A, Tomomi Fushiya, Mohamed Saad, and El Hassan Ahmed
+Mohamed. "Decolonizing Bioarchaeology in Sudan." *Journal of African
+Archaeology*, 2024: pp- 1--17.
+
+Schrader, Sarah, and Christina Torres-Rouff. "Embodying Bioarchaeology:
+Theory and Practice." In *Theoretical Approaches to Bioarchaeology*,
+edited by C. M. Cheverko, J. Prince-Buitenhuys, and M. Hubbe, pp. 15--27.
+New York: Taylor Francies, 2021.
+
+Singh, I. "Squatting Facets on the Talus and Tibia in Indian Foetuses."
+*Acta Anatomica* 54 (1963): pp. 137--44. https://doi.org/10.1159/000142441.
+
+Singh, Inderbir. "Squatting Facets on the Talus and Tibia in Indians."
+*Journal of Anatomy* 93, no. 4 (1959): pp. 540--50.
+
+Smith, Stuart Tyson. "A Potter's Wheelhead from Askut and the
+Organization of the Egyptian Ceramic Industry in Nubia." *Journal of the
+American Research Center in Egypt* 50 (2014): pp. 103--21.
+
+Smith, Stuart Tyson. "Pharoahs, Feasts, and Foreigners: Cooking, Foodways, and
+Agency on Ancient Egypt's Southern Frontier." In *The Archaeology and
+Politics of Food and Feasting in Early States and Empires*, edited by T.
+Bray, pp. 39--64. New York: Plenum Publishers, 2003.
+
+Smith, Stuart Tyson. "The Nubian Experience of Egyptian Domination during the New
+Kingdom." In *The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia*, edited by Geoff
+Emberling and Bruce Beyer Williams, pp. 369--94. Oxford: Oxford University
+Press, 2021. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.20.
+
+Smith, Stuart Tyson. *Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt's
+Nubian Empire*. London: Routledge, 2003.
+
+Spencer, Neal, Anna Stevens, and Michaela Binder, eds. *Nubia in the New
+Kingdom: Lived Experience, Pharaonic Control and Indigenous Traditions*.
+Leuven: Peeters, 2017.
+
+Thomson, Arthur, M.A. Oxon, and M.B. Edin. "The Influence of Posture on the
+Form of the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragalus in the
+Different Races of Man and the Higher Apes." *Journal of Anatomy and
+Physiology* 23 (1889): pp. 616--39.
+
+Trinkaus, Erik. "Squatting among the Neandertals: A Problem in the
+Behavioral Interpretation of Skeletal Morphology." *Journal of
+Archaeological Science* 2, no. 4 (1975): pp. 327--51.
+
+Wood, W.Q. "The Tibia of the Australian Aborigine." *Journal of Anatomy*
+54 (1920): pp. 232--57.
+
+[^1]: Ari, Oygucu, and Sendemir, "The Squatting Facets on the Tibia of
+    Byzantine (13th) Skeletons"; Boulle, "Osteological Features
+    Associatd with Ankle Hyperdorsiflexion"; Dlamini and Morris, "An
+    Investigation of the Frequency of Suatting Facets in Later Stone Age
+    Foragers from South Africa"; Molleson, "Seed Preparation in the
+    Mesolithic"; Molleson, "Bones of Work at
+    the Origins of Labour"; Robb, "Skeletal Signs of Activity in the
+    Italian Metal Ages";
+    Trinkaus, "Squatting among the Neandertals."
+
+[^2]: Trinkaus, "Squatting among the Neandertals," p. 330.
+
+[^3]: Bourdieu, *Outline of the Theory of Practice*; Giddens, *The
+    Constitution of Society*;
+    Schatzki, "Materiality and Social Life."
+
+[^4]: de Certeau, *The Practice of Everyday Life*.
+
+[^5]: Robin, *Everyday Life Matters: Maya Farmers at Chan*.
+
+[^6]: Agha, "Nubia Still Exists";
+    Budka and Doyen, "Life in New Kindom Towns in Upper Nubia"; Haaland, "Changing
+    Food Ways as Indicators of Emerging Complexity in Sudanese Nubia";
+    Smith, "Pharoahs, Feasts, and Foreigners"; Smith, *Wretched Kush*; Smith,
+    "A Potter's Wheelhead from Askut and the Organization of the
+    Egyptian Ceramic Industry in Nubia"; Smith, "The Nubian Experience
+    of Egyptian Domination during the New Kingdom"; van Peltt, "Revising
+    Egypto-Nubian Relations in New Kingdom Lower Nubia"; Spencer, Stevens, and
+    Binder, *Nubia in the New Kingdom*.
+
+[^7]: Hedges et al., "Collagen Turnover in the Adult Femoral Mid-Shaft."
+
+[^8]: Schrader and Torres-Rouff, "Embodying Bioarchaeology."
+
+[^9]: Schrader, *Activity, Diet and Social Practice*.
+
+[^10]: Schrader and Buzon, "Everyday Life after Collapse."
+
+[^11]: Boulle, "Osteological Features Associatd with Ankle
+    Hyperdorsiflexion"; Molleson, "Seed Preparation in the Mesolithic."
+
+[^12]: Singh, "Squatting Facets on the Talus and Tibia in Indians," p.
+    545
+
+[^13]: Massada, "Ankle Overuse Injuries in Soccer Players."
+
+[^14]: Singh, "Squatting Facets on the Talus and Tibia in Indian
+    Foetuses."
+
+[^15]: Barnett, "Squatting Facets on the European Talus."
+
+[^16]: Trinkaus, "Squatting among the Neandertals."
+
+[^17]: Boulle, "Evolution of Two Human Skeletal Markers of the Squatting
+    Positoin."
+
+[^18]: Dlamini and Morris, "An Investigation of the Frequency of
+    Suatting Facets in Later Stone Age Foragers from South Africa."
+
+[^19]: Molleson, "Seed Preparation in the Mesolithic."
+
+[^20]: Molleson, "Bones of Work at the Origins of Labour."
+
+[^21]: Schrader and Smith, "Socializing Violence."
+
+[^22]: Mann, Hunt, and Lozanoff, *Photographic Regional Atlas of
+    Non-Metric Traits and Anatomical Variants in the Human Skeleton*.
+
+[^23]: Buikstra and Ubelaker, *Standards for Data Collection from Human
+    Skeletal Remains*.
+
+[^24]: Schrader et al., "Decolonizing Bioarchaeology in Sudan."
+
+[^25]: Satinoff, "Study of the Squatting Facets of the Talus and Tibia
+    in Ancient Egyptians."
+
+[^26]: Thomson, Oxon, and Edin, "The Influence of Posture on the Form of
+    the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragalus in the Different
+    Races of Man and the Higher Apes."
+
+[^27]: Ari, Oygucu, and Sendemir, "The Squatting Facets on the Tibia of
+    Byzantine (13th) Skeletons."
+
+[^28]: Dlamini and Morris, "An Investigation of the Frequency of
+    Suatting Facets in Later Stone Age Foragers from South Africa."
+
+[^29]: Dlamini and Morris.
+
+[^30]: Ibid.
+
+[^31]: Ibid.
+
+[^32]: Thomson, Oxon, and Edin, "The Influence of Posture on the Form of
+    the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragalus in the Different
+    Races of Man and the Higher Apes."
+
+[^33]: Trinkaus, "Squatting among the Neandertals."
+
+[^34]: Thomson, Oxon, and Edin, "The Influence of Posture on the Form of
+    the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragalus in the Different
+    Races of Man and the Higher Apes."
+
+[^35]: Wood, "The Tibia of the Australian Aborigine."
+
+[^36]: Thomson, Oxon, and Edin, "The Influence of Posture on the Form of
+    the Articular Surfaces of the Tibia and Astragalus in the Different
+    Races of Man and the Higher Apes."
+
+[^37]: Ibid.
+
+[^38]: Ibid.
+
+[^39]: Ibid.
+
+[^40]: Ibid.
+
+[^41]: Wood, "The Tibia of the Australian Aborigine."
+
+[^42]: Singh, "Squatting Facets on the Talus and Tibia in Indians."
+
+[^43]: Charles, "The Influence of Function, as Exemplified in the
+    Morphology of the Lower Extremity of the Panjabi."
+
+[^44]: Schrader et al., "Intraregional 87Sr/86Sr Variation in Nubia."
+
+[^45]: Baykara et al., "Squatting Facet"; Dlamini and Morris, "An
+    Investigation of the Frequency of Suatting Facets in Later Stone Age
+    Foragers from South Africa"; Molleson, "Bones of Work at the Origins
+    of Labour."
+
+[^46]: Casson, *Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt*.
+
+[^47]: Kleinitz, "Soundscapes of the Nubian Nile Valley."
+
+[^48]: Haimov-Kochman, Sciaky-Tamir, and Hurwitz, "Reproduction Concepts
+    and Practices in Ancient Egypt Mirrored by Modern Medicine."
+
+[^49]: Satinoff, "Study of the Squatting Facets of the Talus and Tibia
+    in Ancient Egyptians."

content/article/yvanez.md

@@ -0,0 +1,915 @@
+---
+title: "Textiles Activities in Context. An Example of Craft Organization in Meroitic Sudan"
+authors: ["elsayvanez.md"]
+abstract: In Sudan and Nubia, textile implements such as spindle whorls and loom weights are common finds, especially in the excavations of both rural and urban Meroitic settlements. This paper will focus on restoring the textile implements to their archeological locations in order to identify and understand the context of textile activities within the two settlements of Tila Island and Meroe-city. The two sites - a small rural settlement on one hand and the royal capital city on the other hand - offer various examples of how craft production was integrated amidst the Meroitic urban landscape. From domestic production inside living quarters to the creation of multi-tasking industrial areas, the making of textiles was tightly woven into the economic fabric of the Meroitic kingdom.
+keywords: ["Nubia", "Meroe", "tools", "Meroitic settlements", "craft organization", "textile production"]
+---
+
+# Introduction [^1]
+
+The past two decades have seen the significant development of settlement
+excavations in Sudan, especially in the Meroitic heartland, in a region
+encompassing the capital city of Meroe, the surrounding riverine areas,
+and the Butana hinterlands. Along the eastern bank of the Nile, the
+Meroitic urban landscape is now defined by a chain of cities regularly
+spaced every *c.*10 km, from Dangeil in the North to Wad ben Naga in the
+South.[^2] Recent discoveries in Central Sudan and the Gebel Barkal
+region, as well as renewed studies of previous excavation results from
+Nubia and the city of Meroe, have noticeably increased our knowledge of
+the Meroitic urban life.[^3] Meroitic town structure and organization
+are also better understood, thanks to the excavation of various
+settlements such as el-Hassa,[^4] Damboya,[^5] Hamadab,[^6] or
+Muweis.[^7] These settlements show a consistent urban model built around
+a monumental center -- consisting of a temple, a palace, and/or an
+administrative building -- incorporated into residential quarters with
+domestic and industrial functions. The study of the material unearthed
+in these settlements has prompted a renewed interest in crafts and their
+integration in the economy of the Meroitic kingdom.[^8] Among the
+various crafts represented, textile activities are certainly ubiquitous:
+textile implements are common finds, mainly characterized by a large
+number of spindle whorls and loom weights.[^9] This body of evidence
+offers particularly interesting counterpoints to other textile
+implements discovered in Lower Nubia, which tend to come more often from
+funerary contexts. The sum of this material, added to the thousands of
+well-preserved textile fragments from the Meroitic and Postmeroitic
+periods, paint a vivid image of textile production and uses in ancient
+Sudan and Nubia.
+
+The spectrum of data coming from the entire geographical span of the
+Meroitic kingdom presents the rare opportunity to proceed to a
+modern-standard post-excavation analysis of textile production. We now
+have at our disposal a vast number of sources recording textile
+manufacturing and uses: raw material (textile fibers and
+archaeobotanical remains), textile production implements, finished
+fabrics, pieces of both clothing and furnishing textiles, archaeological
+information on the contexts of textile use and reuse, and iconographic
+representations of people wearing different types of garments.[^10] In
+fact, the only "missing" sources are iconographic representations of the
+craft itself (scenes showing the process of spinning and weaving for
+example) and textual data such as written accounts or literary
+sources.[^11]
+
+The study of these different archaeological sources can lead to a
+comprehensive overview of textile production, which shows that textiles
+were deeply embedded in the social fabric of Meroitic life. This
+Meroitic "textile network" encompassed various spheres of the society,
+from agriculture and fiber collection to the cloth's manufacturing
+*chaîne opératoire*, all the way through the multiple every day uses and
+reuses of the fabrics to their final internment with the deceased. The
+sources and their relations can be summarized in a diagram displaying
+the interdependence between textiles and their production context
+(Fig.1).
+
+![Textile production as interactions between resources, technology and society (adapted from Andersson Strand et al. 2010: 151).](../static/images/yvanez/fig1.jpg "Textile production as interactions between resources, technology and society (adapted from Andersson Strand et al. 2010: 151)")
+**~~Figure 1. Textile production as interactions between resources, technology and society (adapted from Andersson Strand et al. 2010: 151).~~**
+
+Despite the inherent limitations of such theoretical models, this
+diagram successfully illustrates the textile artefacts within their own
+production environment. It highlights the results of a complex *chaîne
+opératoire* based on the interactions between resources (both raw
+materials and human resources), technology, and society. This outlook
+has been the underlying theme of recent research in ancient textile
+studies, which has led to noticeable advances in our understanding of
+past economies.[^12] However, its application in the Nile valley remains
+restricted, with the exception of Barry Kemp and Gillian
+Vogelsang-Eastwood's study on the New Kingdom textile industries of
+Amarna.[^13]
+
+At the crossroads between Meroitic archaeology and ancient textile
+studies, this paper aims to explore the relationship between textile
+activities and the economy by focusing on the organization of textile
+production, especially on its integration into the living environment of
+the Meroitic population. Tila Island and the city of Meroe will provide
+two helpful case studies: by replacing textile implements in their
+archaeological locations -- within houses and settlements -- the present
+author hopes to identify the different types and scales of textile
+production occurring in Sudan.
+
+# Sources Documenting Textile Production in Meroitic Settlements
+
+Spinning tools are by far the most prominent material source, especially
+the spindle whorls, which survived in the archaeological record in a
+much greater number than other wooden or metallic spindle pieces. Found
+at Ballana in grave B58, a complete spindle[^14] provides a reliable
+example of this type of tools, its construction and use (Fig. 2). 
+
+![Complete spindle, Ballana, tomb B58. (Reproduced from Williams 1991: vol. 1, 159, fig. 61e. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago).](../static/images/yvanez/fig2.jpg "Complete spindle, Ballana, tomb B58. (Reproduced from Williams 1991: vol. 1, 159, fig. 61e. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)")
+**~~Figure 2. Complete spindle, Ballana, tomb B58. (Reproduced from Williams 1991: vol. 1, 159, fig. 61e. Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago).~~**
+
+This simple tool is composed of a spindle shaft and a whorl, placed at the
+top and secured by the insertion of a metal hook that was used to attach
+the newly formed yarn. In the hand or suspended and then set in motion,
+the tool rotates to twist the fibers together and form the thread.
+Regardless of the specific spinning technique, the spindle whorl acts as
+a flywheel, which increases the momentum of the spindle and maintains a
+longer and faster rotation. In Meroitic Sudan, spindle whorls were made
+of various materials such as ceramic, unbaked clay, wood, bone, stone,
+or pierced potsherds.[^15] Despite this apparent material diversity,
+there is an interesting dichotomy between the artefacts recovered in
+Nubia, which favored turned wooden whorls, and those from Central Sudan,
+where decorated ceramic was clearly preferred (see Figs. 3, 5, 8).
+
+![Tila Island, House VI: map and location of textile tools (photographs and drawings E.Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 113, fig. 36).](../static/images/yvanez/fig3.jpg "Complete spindle, Ballana, tomb B58. Tila Island, House VI: map and location of textile tools (photographs and drawings E.Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 113, fig. 36)")
+**~~Figure 3. Tila Island, House VI: map and location of textile tools (photographs and drawings E.Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 113, fig. 36).~~**
+
+![Tila Island, House II: bone points (drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries).](../static/images/yvanez/fig5.jpg "Tila Island, House II: bone points (drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries)")
+**~~Figure 5. Tila Island, House II: bone points (drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries).~~**
+
+![Ceramic spindle whorl from Meroe-city with pattern of a sorgho plant, from oven area M260. SNM 604 (photograph E. Yvanez, courtesy of the Sudan National Museum).](../static/images/yvanez/fig8.jpg "Ceramic spindle whorl from Meroe-city with pattern of a sorgho plant, from oven area M260. SNM 604 (photograph E. Yvanez, courtesy of the Sudan National Museum)")
+**~~Figure 8. Ceramic spindle whorl from Meroe-city with pattern of a sorgho plant, from oven area M260. SNM 604 (photograph E. Yvanez, courtesy of the Sudan National Museum).~~**
+
+Other types of implements -- used for weaving this time -- contribute
+additional material evidence of textile production. Due to the rare
+preservation of organic material on settlement sites, it has proved
+impossible to recognize with any certainty the wooden beams that made up
+ancient looms. However, frequent discoveries of pear-shaped weights
+indicate that, in Meroitic Sudan and Nubia, most weaving was done on a
+vertical loom called the "warp-weighted loom", in which the warp threads
+were drawn tight by a series of loom weights.[^16] Often found in sets,
+loom weights could be made of stone or more commonly unbaked clay (see
+Figs. 4, 7). Small picks or spatulas made of bone or wood (see Fig. 5)
+have also frequently been associated with weaving, but their exact use
+remains unclear and open to debate.[^17] They may have been used to pack
+the threads down on small and delicate areas of the weave or to correct
+mistakes and seem particularly useful for tapestry weaving.
+
+During settlement excavations, spindle whorls, loom weights, and weaving
+picks are generally found in the filling of rooms and passageways, or in
+refuse deposits. They are seldom clearly associated with one specific
+context of floor level preserved *in situ*. This situation is
+particularly true in dense habitation quarters and long-lived towns,
+where many centuries of continued occupation and blowing sands have
+obscured the stratigraphy. For example, at Qasr Ibrim, hundreds of
+spindle whorls, as well as many loom weights and several comb beaters
+were found in the refuse deposits and the storage pits that filled the
+houses along "Tavern Street" and the alley itself.[^18] Nevertheless,
+the careful study of selected contexts of discovery at Tila and Meroe,
+both well preserved and documented, can be combined with knowledge on
+the Meroitic textile *chaîne opératoire* to offer engaging elements of
+interpretation.
+
+# Textile Activities on Tila Island
+
+The rocky island of Tila was located between the Semna and Attiri
+rapids, offering a small and protected bay where it was possible to
+anchor boats during the crossing of the Batn el-Haggar cataract. This
+enviable situation led researchers to identify Tila as a station on the
+Nilotic trading route to the Aniba basin and then towards Egypt.[^19]
+Facing the bay, this small Meroitic settlement was located on a rocky
+outcrop. It was excavated by A.J. Mills and J. Knustad between 1966 and
+1968, as part as the UNESCO-Sudan Antiquities Service survey, and then
+extensively studied by D.N. Edwards.[^20] The excavation revealed a
+settlement surrounded by a substantial enclosure wall covering a surface
+of about 2.25 hectares. It contains 11 buildings or building complexes
+dated from the 1st century to the end of the 3rd century C.E.
+According to estimations, Tila's population remained quite limited,
+totaling between 56 and 102 people at a time, divided into about 20
+households. Despite the small scale of Tila's settlement, an important
+number of textile implements were discovered scattered in the different
+buildings. The cross-study of excavation dairies, object inventories,
+and available drawings and plans, led to the localization of most of the
+tools and the reconstitution of their original context of use and
+discovery. This article will focus on four significant examples: houses
+VI, V, II and I.
+
+*House VI* (Fig. 3)
+
+House VI is formed by several living units and presents the same
+standardized house plan visible in other houses at Tila: a series of
+small rooms distributed around a central courtyard and directly opened
+to this outdoor space.[^21] This architectural model, well suited to the
+Nubian climate, was coined by the excavators "house with loggia". A
+total of four bone picks were discovered in House VI: one in an open
+courtyard (room 9) and three scattered across the building. Two spindle
+whorls and two loom weights were also found in the filling. The
+excavation of House VI revealed several floor layers preserved *in
+situ*. In the northern house unit, level 1 gave us one spindle whorl and
+a set of three loom weights in a "loggia" type of room (room 3), open to
+the courtyard (room 4), while another set was found in an adjacent
+storage room (room 1). Level 2 gave us a second set of three loom
+weights, also found in a room open to the central courtyard (room 5).
+
+*House V*
+
+House V[^22] continues to illustrate the use of the central courtyard
+for light textile work such as sewing. A long copper alloy needle was
+discovered in the large open space. In a small room, a bone pick was
+found inside a jar half-buried in the floor and containing small
+nail-like metal objects and a pin. This vessel was clearly used as a
+storage container for small, pointed objects, which could all have
+fulfilled similar functions.
+
+*House I* (Fig. 4)
+
+![Tila Island, House I: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 106, fig. 30).](../static/images/yvanez/fig4.jpg "Tila Island, House I: map and location of textile tools [drawings E. Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 106, fig. 30)")
+**~~Figure 4. Tila Island, House I: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez. from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries, map reproduced from Edwards 1996: 106, fig. 30).~~**
+
+The first occupation level in House I was relatively well preserved
+under brick rubble.[^23] The structure consists of a roughly rectangular
+building centered around a courtyard, with a series of three utilitarian
+rooms along the west side for storage and cooking activities, one room
+on the north side, a large single room on the east side, and a possible
+staircase to the roof. The eastern room -- the "loggia" -- was most
+likely opened at least partially to the courtyard. An interesting group
+of varied textile implements was found in House I, directly *in situ* or
+inside the fill layers above the floors:
+
+House exterior, directly along the southern wall: two sets of
+respectively 3 and 20 loom weights.
+
+Central courtyard (room 8): 1 loom weight and 1 bone pick.
+
+Kitchen area (room 3): 1 loom weight.
+
+Storage area (room 5): 1 set of 3 loom weights.
+
+"Loggia" (rooms 12-13): 3 loom weights and another "large group of loom
+weights" (excavation diaries, number unspecified).
+
+It is unfortunate not to have a precise number for the "large group of
+loom weights" found in the "loggia", as this information could have
+helped us determine the number and size of the looms that could have
+been working at the same time in this building. However, it is clear
+that the "loggia", with its protected but well-lit space, would have
+been perfectly suited to weaving activities. The concentration of these
+different types of textile tools and the possible presence of several
+looms in the loggia are rather striking for a small structure such as
+House I.
+
+*House II* (Figs. 5-6-7)
+
+![Tila Island, House II: spindle whorls and bone point discarded in latrines (room 7) (photograph and drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries).](../static/images/yvanez/fig6.jpg "Tila Island, House II: spindle whorls and bone point discarded in latrines (room 7) (photograph and drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries)")
+**~~Figure 6. Tila Island, House II: spindle whorls and bone point discarded in latrines (room 7) (photograph and drawings E. Yvanez from A.J. Mills’s excavation diaries).~~**
+
+![Tila Island, “House II collection of loom weights” (excavation photograph ref. F/445: 6, A.J. Mills archives, courtesy of David Edwards).](../static/images/yvanez/fig7.jpg "Tila Island, “House II collection of loom weights” (excavation photograph ref. F/445: 6, A.J. Mills archives, courtesy of David Edwards)")
+**~~Figure 7. Tila Island, “House II collection of loom weights” (excavation photograph ref. F/445: 6, A.J. Mills archives, courtesy of David Edwards).~~**
+
+House II is a building complex formed by at least nine different housing
+units.[^24] Textile tools were found dispersed without distinction
+throughout many rooms and occupation levels. The inventories
+specifically list seven bone picks (Fig. 5), two spindle whorls, and one
+needle. The various locations of their discovery offer another
+illustration of the different kinds of storage and/or refuse contexts
+where textile implements can be found. In the case of House II, they
+appeared in the kitchen area, in a small, vaulted storage chamber, and
+in a storage area with jars. A group of two spindle whorls and one bone
+pick was also discovered discarded in a small cellar, which appears to
+have been used as a latrine (Fig. 6).
+
+Beside the tools listed in the inventories, the archives also provided a
+very useful excavation photograph that comes to complete the object list
+from House II. The image (Fig. 7) shows about 350 loom weights, all
+pear-shaped and made of unbaked clay, neatly arranged in small groups of
+about ten specimens on a sandy surface overlooking the building remains.
+Taken shortly after the excavation of the complex in March 1968, the
+photograph (ref. F/445: 6) is captioned "House II collection of loom
+weights". In the present state of the documentation, it is difficult to
+be absolutely sure that all loom weights shown on the photograph were
+indeed found in House II, or if they correspond to different groups
+unearthed on the site since the previous year excavations (such as the
+"large group of loom weights found in House I?) and only collected
+there. The caption seems however to point towards a sole discovery in
+House II. In any case, it seems that a very big group of loom weights
+was indeed found in this large complex, possibly spread around different
+rooms and/or occupation layers.
+
+If we attempt to summarize the data relative to loom weights, we reach a
+total of at least 389 specimens, which doesn't include the groups of
+unspecified number found in Houses I and VI. To our knowledge, it is the
+largest group of such implements ever discovered in Sudan and Nubia.
+
+
+![Summary count of loom weights per structure at Tila Island.](../static/images/yvanez/table1.jpg "Summary count of loom weights per structure at Tila Island.")
+**~~Table 1. Summary count of loom weights per structure at Tila Island.~~**
+
+
+As a whole, information related to textile production at Tila shows that
+spinning, weaving, and sewing were all practiced together within the
+same domestic structures. Spinning was carried out everywhere in the
+house, probably at the same time as other domestic activities such as
+food preparation. On the other hand, weaving is much more reliant on
+adequate positioning of the loom, sufficient space, and optimal lighting
+conditions. At Tila, it occurred within well-lit spaces, in the open or
+semi-open rooms leading to the courtyard (e.g. the "loggias") or on one
+occasion directly alongside the house perimeter, thereby taking
+advantage of the Nubian climate and domestic architecture. The looms
+were most likely leaning against the wall, protected from direct
+sunlight by the "loggia's" roof or a light structure such as an awning.
+When not in use, textile implements could be placed in storage and
+service areas often associated with culinary functions. Attested in both
+Sudan and other geo-historical areas, the frequent association of
+textile implements with remains of other household tasks, such as food
+preparation, led some researchers to believe that textile making must
+have been a primarily female activity[^25] and linked it to the basic
+sustenance strategy of the household.
+
+However, the number of textile implements at Tila, especially associated
+to weaving, seems to tell a rather different story. On one hand, Houses
+V and VI, with their rather limited corpus, could point towards a
+domestic production with no specialization of space or person. There,
+the scale of the production seems to have been limited, the data clearly
+indicating a local manufacture and consumption. On the other hand, the
+large groups of loom weights found in House II and presumably House I
+could have supplied the installation of several looms, conjointly
+operated by a small group of weavers working on different pieces of
+fabric at the same time. The production output would have increased
+significantly, becoming easily superior to the households' needs. The
+sum of this data clearly shows the importance of textile activities on
+Tila Island, which is particularly noticeable and surprising for such a
+small settlement.
+
+# Textile Activities at Meroe
+
+Textile activities are well represented in the capital city of Meroe.
+The objects were mainly discovered between 1965 and 1984 during P.L.
+Shinnie's excavations[^26] and, to a lesser extent, during earlier works
+conducted by J. Garstang in the Amun temple,[^27] as well as recent
+excavations.[^28] Most of the textile implements, predominantly spindle
+whorls, were sent to the Sudan National Museum while a smaller group
+joined the collections of the Petrie Museum in London. Research in those
+two museums, as well as through the publications and object inventories,
+have led to the identification of 238 spindle whorls, 110 loom weights,
+1 needle, and 1 spool with cotton threads still attached.[^29] This
+corpus of material forms the second largest group of textile-related
+tools in Sudan. Its quantity is significant but by no means very large;
+by comparison, the biggest corpus is estimated at about 3000 spindle
+whorls and comes from the southern site of Abu Geili.[^30] Outside of a
+small group of spindle whorls and loom weights without context
+information, it was possible to locate most of the artefacts discovered
+during excavations, mainly along trenches and test pits:
+
+
+![Summary of textile tools per context, Meroe.](../static/images/yvanez/table2.jpg "Summary of textile tools per context, Meroe.")
+**~~Table 2. Summary of textile tools per context, Meroe.~~**
+
+
+
+The Meroe spindle whorls form a homogeneous group made of well-burnished
+ceramic in conical or biconical shapes, with the upper surface almost
+always decorated by incised or impressed patterns (Fig. 8). The
+specimens from the oven area (M260) were likely found within their
+manufacturing context, as they were accompanied by several other small
+faience and ceramic objects produced within the temple's temenos.
+
+*Mound H*
+
+The seven spindle whorls and two loom weights from Mound H belong to
+domestic occupation levels, built on top of several layers of iron
+scories, wind-blown sand, and domestic refuse. The mudbrick structures
+offered a number of small rooms equipped with cooking installations. In
+this case, this test pit seems to reveal a small-scale textile
+production, probably linked to domestic activities, and integrated in a
+residential reoccupation level.
+
+*Trench TT6*
+
+A similar production profile emerges from the trench TT6 (Fig. 9). The
+majority of the tools found *in situ* belong to the oldest occupation
+level in two or three house buildings dated to the Early Meroitic
+period.[^31] Scattered throughout the buildings were sixteen spindle
+whorls, five loom weights, and one needle, thereby attesting three of
+the main stages of the textile *chaîne opératoire*. For example, the
+house located in the I/J50 square contained six spindle whorls and two
+loom weights, while the neighboring building in the H/G50 square had
+three whorls and one weight. The other artefacts came from small
+residential refuse deposits, often placed in pits, or abandoned
+buildings, which the excavator dated to the Classic and Late Meroitic
+periods. These houses included many rooms and covered a significant
+surface that probably accommodated numerous people. It is therefore not
+surprising to find within their walls a great number of textile tools,
+accumulated by several generations. The context of textile production is
+still domestic, here distributed along a residential street of Meroe.
+
+![Meroe-city, trench TT6 between I and G 50/51: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez, reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 8, fig. 81-82, 216-217).](../static/images/yvanez/fig9.jpg "Meroe-city, trench TT6 between I and G 50/51: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez, reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 8, fig. 81-82, 216-217)")
+**~~Figure 9. Meroe-city, trench TT6 between I and G 50/51: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez, reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 8, fig. 81-82, 216-217).~~**
+
+*North mound*
+
+The northern part of the North mound was explored by three main trenches
+that revealed a dense settlement, organized into several building units
+separated by narrow alleys. The numerous textile implements (128 spindle
+whorls and 79 loom weights listed) were discovered scattered over the
+different structures as well as inside intrusive layers of abandonment
+and refuse deposits. The results of the first excavation campaigns,
+along the trench 79/80, provide us with the best contextual information.
+While many of the tools come from multifunctional areas linked to
+cooking and food storage, several groups of tools are associated to
+specific spaces.
+
+For example, an interesting group of approximately thirty spindle whorls
+was discovered in a large open-air space in front of buildings II.A and
+II.B. Other crafts such as faience manufacturing and minor metallurgy
+work were also carried out on the same terrace. This particular location
+seems to have been used as a multifunctional public space, where Meroe's
+inhabitants could practice small crafts and industries. Spinning, a very
+portable activity, would have obviously been perfectly suited to this
+type of multifunctional open space. It also reminds us of the
+fundamental social dimension of spinning: it is long and fastidious
+work, but it does not continuously engage one's attention, so it becomes
+easy and much more agreeable to accomplish this task while chatting or
+sharing small chores with other members of the community. Often
+interpreted as a female activity, this "courtyard sisterhood" can be
+observed in many populations, both ancient and modern.[^32] In African
+cotton-producing countries, such as Mali for example, sorting cotton
+balls, fiber preparation, and spinning traditionally take place in
+courtyards and communal spaces where women gather to share the work and
+exchange words.[^33]
+
+Another group of textile implements came from building I.A, in squares
+O79/80 and N79/80, a large structure distinguished by its peculiar
+internal organization (Fig. 10).[^34] The building possesses an
+important number of small rooms, probably storage rooms, and a large
+L-shaped open courtyard where two spindle whorls were found. Its main
+feature was the construction of a hydraulic system, west of the
+courtyard. The structure started by a very deep well, which fed two
+succeeding basins connected between each other by a narrow slopping
+ramp, covered with waterproof plaster. Its exact function remains
+unknown but its sole presence indicates the industrial character of the
+building. A total of eighteen spindle whorls, three loom weights, and
+one needle was found scattered throughout the rooms, to which we can
+tentatively add a grinding stone fragment reused as a weight. It is very
+tempting to link this group of textile implements to the hydraulic
+artisanal installation and postulate the presence of a textile workshop
+with decantation vats for dyeing. Unfortunately, the stratigraphic
+evidence is not sufficient to pursue this attractive hypothesis any
+further. No traces of dyes, pigments or hearth have been reported for
+this specific space, therefore its use for dye preparation or leather
+work remains one theory amidst others. It seems clear however, that
+textile activities were an important aspect of the life of this
+building, and that they were inserted within a mixed domestic and
+industrial urban environment.
+
+![Meroe-city, north mount building I.A: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 23, fig. 81-82, 216-217).](../static/images/yvanez/fig10.jpg "Meroe-city, north mount building I.A: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 23, fig. 81-82, 216-217)")
+**~~Figure 10. Meroe-city, north mount building I.A: map and location of textile tools (drawings E. Yvanez reproduced from Shinnie & Bradley 1980: fig. 23, fig. 81-82, 216-217).~~**
+
+# Discussion
+
+Despite the geographic distance between Tila and Meroe and their
+fundamental difference in nature, the two settlements present a coherent
+image of textile production in two regions of the Meroitic kingdom. As
+in Tila, spinning, weaving, and sewing were all practiced together at
+Meroe, within the same spaces and structures, resulting in tools
+scattered amongst the buildings and public areas. Spinning is
+particularly well attested in open-air spaces (such as courtyards,
+streets, and alleys). As a whole, spinning and weaving were present in
+both domestic and industrial or semi-industrial areas.
+
+The data from Meroe is difficult to interpret with any certainty, as the
+excavation campaigns differed in scale and methods. Trenches, squares,
+and test pits provided windows into occupation phases that are now
+difficult to reconcile. Building an overall understanding of each
+structure remains elusive to this day. On such shaky grounds, one can
+only propose a preliminary hypothesis stating the existence, at Meroe,
+of two types of textile production. First, a limited production would
+have occurred in domestic residential areas to fulfill the household's
+needs, most probably without involving special workers or locations. The
+second type of textile manufacturing appears to be a small-scale
+industrial production taking place on the North mound, still in domestic
+settings or semi-industrial areas embedded in a residential
+neighborhood. The number of tools alone indicates a larger output of
+textile production, maybe a limited surplus, which may have answered the
+demands of the local administrative and religious elite. However, as far
+as we know from the available data, textile making occurred in
+multifunctional areas used for various crafts.
+
+We have tried in this paper to describe the artefacts related to textile
+production and to assign them to clear *loci* in the Meroitic urban
+environment. We have also attempted to replace this production in the
+larger textile economy. However, it is crucial to realize that this
+evidence cannot be a true indicator of the scale of production in any
+absolute terms.[^35] If tools can help us trace different stages of the
+manufacturing process, many aspects of the Meroitic "textile market"
+remains little known, such as the question of maintenance and reuse,
+centralization of the production, or trade and exchange.[^36] A general
+panorama can be drawn in broad strokes, merging different sources. It
+seems that textile making was organized as either a domestic activity or
+a small-scale industry, with a seemingly limited production output. No
+true textile workshop has been identified yet in Meroitic Sudan. The
+only location where such a production type was hypothesized is the Isis
+temple at Qasr Ibrim, in levels dated to the very end of the
+Postmeroitic era.[^37] The question of how to define a textile workshop
+in a Meroitic context is difficult to answer, as the current theoretical
+models do not apply to this type of region and socio-economic
+organization.[^38] In the case of the Isis temple, the building did not
+offer a specialized space or installation, and the production was
+probably restricted to the temple's needs. In this framework, the
+involvement of the central power and religious administration in the
+control of textile production very much is still an open topic.
+Nonetheless, the creation of a cohesive and distinct Meroitic tradition
+(or "style") shows that textile production still obeyed a certain degree
+of standardization, which agents and dynamics remain unknown. This small
+industry was no doubt an important one, producing luxury fabrics in
+cotton with blue decorations in tapestry and embroideries for the
+confection of elite and royal clothing.[^39]
+
+At first glance, this seems difficult to fit with the archaeological
+context of tools found principally in domestic contexts. In many ways,
+the data presented in this paper illustrates how deeply embedded textile
+production was in the everyday life of the Meroites. Spinning and
+weaving appear fully integrated in domestic spaces, either in share
+public areas or in the house itself, regardless of the structure's size.
+This proves to hold for both densely populated settlements such as Meroe
+or spread around compounds in more rural settings such as Tila.
+Furthermore, textile activities were not separated from other daily
+tasks, but mixed with food production and other small crafts. We can
+therefore infer that, whatever the size or economic weight of the
+Meroitic textile industry, it rested principally on the domestic sphere
+with a household-based workforce (either direct members of the family or
+associated retainers).
+
+How did textile activities affect the daily life of people living in
+these settlements? In the absence of written account, we need to rely on
+our knowledge of the textile *chaîne opératoire* and Meroitic settlement
+organization to get a glimpse of the life experiences of textile craft
+people. The number of tools from places such as Tila, Meroe's North
+Mound, or Abu Geili certainly indicates that many people dedicated a
+vast amount of time to process fibres and threads.[^40] Because spindle
+whorls appear in varied contexts across settlements and because spinning
+is a portable and time-consuming activity, we can imagine that several
+individuals could be seen spinning in streets and other communal spaces
+on a very regular basis. During the harvest season, we can also picture
+a heighten activity involving more people and more time, as well as
+installations to store the unprocessed fibres. Weaving on the other hand
+seems to have been attached more often to a specific domestic structure,
+especially to spaces open or semi-open to light and air. These
+courtyards or "loggias" provided an ideal environment to weave in
+relatively protected conditions, while still being able to interrupt
+one's work and tend to other tasks, such as food processing or child
+rearing.[^41] They are also vast enough to build looms accommodating
+several weavers, if needed, and provided just enough space to keep a
+loom active while not being in the way of other people or activities.
+Thus, the rhythmic sounds of the loom weights and the shuttle can be
+added to our sensory reconstruction of the Meroitic courtyards.
+
+However, to precise this picture and truly understand the socio-economic
+dimensions of textile activities, we need to learn more about who was
+making textiles and what output could they possibly produce. We
+therefore hope that new data coming from recent settlement excavations
+and archival work will further enhance our understanding of textile and
+craft activities, and the Meroitic domestic and economic landscapes.
+
+# Bibliography
+
+Adams, Nettie K. "Sacred Textiles from an Ancient Nubian Temple." In
+*Sacred and Ceremonial Textiles, Proceedings of the Textile Society of
+America Biennial Symposium*, pp. 259--68. Chicago: The Art Institute of
+Chicago, 1996.
+
+Adams, William Y., and Nettie K. Adams. *Qasr Ibrim: The Ballaña Phase*.
+EES Excavation Memoir 104. London: The Egypt Exploration Society,
+2013.
+
+Andersson Strand, Eva. "Engendering Central Places: Some Aspects of the
+Organisation of Textile Production during Viking Age." In
+*Archäologische Textilfunde -- Archaeological Textiles, NESAT IX*,
+edited by Antoinette Rast-Eicher and Renata Windler, pp.
+148--53. Ennenda: ArcheoTex, 2007.
+
+Andersson Strand, Eva, Karin Frei. Margarita Gleba, Ulla Mannering,
+Marie-Louise Nosch, and Irene Skals. "Old Textiles, New Possibilities."
+*European Journal of Archaeology* 13.2 (2010): pp. 149--73.
+
+Barber, Elizabeth J.W. *Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth
+in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean*.
+Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
+
+Barber, Elizabeth J.W. *Women's Work: The First 20000 Years. Women,
+Cloth, and Society in Early Times*. New York: W.W. Norton and Company,
+1994.
+
+Baud, Michel. "The Meroitic Royal City of Muweis: First Steps into an
+Urban Settlement of Riverine Upper Nubia." *Sudan & Nubia* 12 (2008):
+pp. 52--63.
+
+Baud, Michel. "Méroé, un monde urbain." In *Méroé, Un empire sur le
+Nil,* edited by Michel Baud, pp. 211--17. Paris: Louvre -
+Officina Libraria, 2010.
+
+Bender Jørgensen, Lise. "Textiles from Mons Claudianus, 'Abu Sha'ar and
+Other Roman Sites in the Eastern Desert." In *The Eastern Desert of
+Egypt During the Greco-Roman Period: Archaeological Reports*, edited by
+Jean-Pierre Brun, Thomas Faucher, Bérangère Redon, and Steven
+Sidebotham. Paris: Collège de France, 2018.
+<https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cdf.5234>.
+
+Bowen, Gillian. "Texts and Textiles: a Study of the Textile Industry at
+Ancient Kellis." *The Artefact: The Journal of the Archaeological and
+Anthropological Society of Victoria* 24 (2001): pp. 18--28.
+
+Choimet, Gabrielle. \"Habitat et urbanisme
+méroïtiques en Nubie et au Soudan central : état des lieux, actualité et
+carences de la recherche.\" *Routes De l'Orient hors-série* 3 (2018):
+pp. 78--102.
+
+Choimet, Gabrielle. "The Meroitic Settlement
+at Damboya: Preliminary Results." *Sudan & Nubia* 24 (2020): pp. 190--7.
+
+Edwards, David N. "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island."
+In *The Archaeology of the Meroitic State: new perspectives on its
+social and political organization*, edited by David N. Edwards, pp. 106-14. Cambridge Monographs in African
+Archaeology 38. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1996.
+
+Flohr, Miko. "Working and Living under One Roof: Workshops in Pompeian
+Atrium Houses." In *Privata luxuria: towards an archaeology of
+intimacy*, edited by Anna Anguissola, pp. 51--72. Munich: Herbert Utz
+Verlag, 2012.
+
+Flohr, Miko. "The Textile Economy of Pompeii." *Journal of Roman
+Archaeology* 26 (2013): pp. 53--78.
+
+Grzymski, Krzysztof. "The City of Meroe." In *The Oxford Handbook of
+Ancient Nubia*, edited by Geoff Emberling, and Bruce B.
+Williams, pp. 545--561. Oxford: Oxford Academic,
+2021. <https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.26>, accessed
+3 Sept. 2024.
+
+Harlow, Mary, and Marie-Louise Nosch. "Weaving the
+Threads: Methodologies in Textile and Dress Research for the Greek and
+Roman world -- the State of the Art and the Case for
+Cross-Disciplinarity." In *Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress, Ancient
+Textiles Series* 19, edited by Mary Harlow and Marie-Louise Nosch, pp.
+1--33. Oxford: Oxbow books, 2014.
+
+Kemp, Barry J., and Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood. *The Ancient Textile
+Industry in Amarna*. EES Excavation Memoir 68. London: Burlington Press,
+2001.
+
+Maillot, Marc. "The Archaeological Site of
+Damboya in the Shendi Reach. First Season." *Sudan & Nubia* 24 (2020):
+pp. 181--9.
+
+Mann, Lilianne, and Ben van den Bercken. "Shokan. Revival of a
+Forgotten Village." *Sudan & Nubia* 24 (2020): pp. 24--30.
+
+Millet, Marie. "Mouweis, une ville de l'Empire de Méroé." *Bulletin de
+la Société Française d'Egyptologie* 186/187 (2013): pp. 83--98.
+
+Nosch, Marie-Louise, Henriette Koefoed, and Eva Andersson Strand (Eds.).
+*Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East:
+Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography.* Ancient Textiles Series 12.
+Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2013.
+
+Nowotnick, Ulrike. *Ceramic Technology, Production and Use in an Urban
+Settlement on the Middle Nile: The Pottery Assemblage from Late Meroitic
+Hamadab, Sudan (2nd to 4th Century A.D.)*. Archäologische Forschungen
+in Afrika 1. Berlin: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, 2022.
+
+Picton, John, and John Mack. *African textiles: Looms, Weaving and
+Design*. London: The British Museum Press, 1979.
+
+Rondot, Vincent. "El-Hassa : un temple à Amon dans l'île de Méroé au
+1er siècle de notre ère." *Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des
+Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres* 156/I (2012): pp. 167--82.
+
+Shinnie, Peter L., and Julie R. Anderson. *The Capital of Kush II, Meroë
+Excavations 1973-1984*. Meroitica 20. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,
+2004.
+
+Shinnie, Peter L., and Rebecca Bradley. *The Capital of Kush I*, *Meroe
+Excavations 1965-1972*. Meroitica 4. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1980.
+
+Spinazzi-Lucchesi, Chiara. *The Unwound Yarn. Birth and Development of
+Textile Tools between Levant and Egypt*. Venice: Edizioni Ca\' Foscari,
+2018.
+
+Spinazzi-Lucchesi, Chiara, and Elsa Yvanez. "Textile Workshops in the
+Nile Valley? Questioning the Concepts and Sources." In *The Common
+Thread. Collected Essays in Honour of Eva Andersson Strand*, edited by
+Ulla Mannering, Marie-Louise Nosch, and Anne
+Drewsen, pp. 117--32. Turnhout: Brepols, 2024.
+
+Thomas, Thelma K. *Textiles from Karanis, Egypt in the Kelsey Museum of
+Archaeology: Artifacts of Everyday Life*. Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum,
+2001.
+
+Török, László. *Meroe City, an Ancient African Capital, John Garstang\'s
+Excavations in the Sudan, vol. I-II*. EES Occasional Publications 12.
+London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1997.
+
+Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. "Textiles." In *Ancient Egyptian Materials
+and Technology*, edited by Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw, pp. 268-98.
+Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
+
+Wild, Felicity C. "Fringes and Aprons -- Meroitic Clothing: An Update
+from Qasr Ibrim." In *Dress Accessories of the 1st Millennium AD from
+Egypt*, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cecilia Flück, pp. 110--9. Tielt:
+Lannoo, 2011.
+
+Williams, Bruce B. *Meroitic Remains from Qustul, Cemetery Q, Ballana,
+Cemetery B and a Ballana Settlement*. OINE VIII, vol. 1-2. Chicago: The
+Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1991.
+
+Wolf, Pawel,and Ulrike Nowotnick. "Hamadab -- A Meroitic
+Urban Settlement. Excavations 2001-2003." *Archéologie du Nil Moyen* 10
+(2006): pp. 257--72.
+
+Wolf, Pawel, and Ulrike Nowotnick. "The Meroitic
+Heartland." In *The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia*, edited by Geoff
+Emberling, and Bruce B. Williams, pp. 511--44.
+Oxford: Oxford Academic, 2021.
+<https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.25>, accessed 3
+Sept. 2024.
+
+Wolf, Pawel, Ulrike Nowotnick, and David N.
+Edwards. \"Settlement in the Meroitic Kingdom\". In *Handbook of Ancient
+Nubia*, edited by Dietrich Raue, pp. 713--82. Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter,
+2019. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110420388-031>, accessed 3 Sept.
+2024.
+
+Yvanez, Elsa. "De fil en aiguille : aspects de l'artisanat textile
+méroïtique." *Egypte, Afrique et Orient* 78 (2015): pp. 63--6.
+
+Yvanez, Elsa. "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan. Textile Implements from Abu
+Geili." *Dotawo* 3 (2016): pp. 153--78.
+
+Yvanez, Elsa. "Clothing the Elite? Patterns of Textile Production and
+Consumption in Ancient Sudan and Nubia." In *Dynamics and Organisation
+of Textile Production in Past Societies in Europe and the
+Mediterranean*, edited by Agata Ulanowska, Malgorzata Siennicka, and
+Malgorzata Grupa, pp. 81--92. Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae 31.
+Warsaw: Polish Academy of Science, 2018.
+
+Yvanez, Elsa. "Precious Textiles and Diplomatic Gift-Giving in Late
+Antique Nubia (c. A.D. 350-550)." In *Gaben, Waren und Tribute:
+Stoffkreisläufe und antike Textilökonomie*, edited by Beate Wagner-Hasel
+and Marie-Louise Nosch, pp. 457--75. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag,
+2019.
+
+Yvanez, Elsa, and Magdalena M. Wozniak. "Cotton in Ancient Sudan and
+Nubia: Archaeological Sources and Historical Implications." In *Cotton
+in the Old World: Domestication, Cultivation, Use and Trade*, edited by
+Charlène Bouchaud and Elsa Yvanez. Revue d'Ethnoécologie 15. Paris:
+Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 2019.
+<https://doi.org/10.4000/ethnoecologie.4429>, accessed 3 Sept. 2024.
+
+[^1]: This paper is the updated publication of a talk given at the
+    12th International Conference for Meroitic Studies, organized by
+    Pavel Onderka at Prague in September 2016, and reworked in 2022 as
+    part of the *Fashioning Sudan* project (ERC 101039416), funded by
+    the European Union. I thank the organizers of both the conference
+    and the present volume for their support.
+
+[^2]: Baud, "Méroé, un monde urbain"; Wolf and Nowotnick, "The Meroitic
+    Heartland"; Grzymski, "The city of Meroe."
+
+[^3]: Wolf, Nowotnick, and Edwards, "Settlement in the Meroitic
+    Kingdom." 
+
+[^4]: Rondot, "El-Hassa: un temple à Amon dans l'île de Méroé."
+
+[^5]: Maillot, "The archaeological site of Damboya"; Choimet, "The
+    Meroitic settlement at Damboya."
+
+[^6]: Wolf and Nowotnick, "Hamadab -- A Meroitic Urban Settlement";
+    Nowotnick, *Ceramic Technology, Production and Use*,
+    passim.
+
+[^7]: Baud, "The Meroitic royal city of Muweis"; Millet, "Mouweis, une
+    ville de l'Empire de Méroé."
+
+[^8]: This volume is a perfect incarnation of this renewed interest, as
+    well as ongoing research projects such as the one on metallurgy led
+    by Jane Humphris (UCL Qatar) or G. Choimet's doctoral work, see
+    Choimet, "Habitat et urbanisme méroïtiques en Nubie et au Soudan
+    central." Reappraisal of archival documentation from the Nubian
+    campaign are also bringing new light on craft activities, notably
+    textiles (see Mann and van den Bercken, "Shokan. Revival of a
+    forgotten village." A similar dynamic was also at the root of the
+    Meroe Archival Project, reexamining the excavation archives of Peter
+    L. Shinnie from his work in settlement areas at Meroe.
+
+[^9]: For a description of textile implements and activities in a
+    Meroitic and Postmeroitic context, see for example Adams and Adams,
+    *Qasr Ibrim: The Ballana Phase*, pp. 97--8., Yvanez, "De fil en
+    aiguille : aspects de l'artisanat textile méroïtique."
+
+[^10]: Yvanez, "Clothing the elite? Patterns of textile production and
+    consumption."
+
+[^11]: These sources are however well known for textile production in
+    pharaonic Egypt (e.g. Vogelsang-Eastwood, "Textiles") or the Ancient
+    Near East (Nosch, Koefoed and Andersson Strand.
+    *Textile Production and consumption in the Ancient Near East*).
+
+[^12]: The aims and methods of recent textile research are usefully
+    exposed in Andersson Strand et al., "Old Textiles -- New
+    Possibilities" and Harlow and Nosch, "Weaving the Threads:
+    methodologies in textile and dress research."
+
+[^13]: Kemp and Vogelsand-Eastwood. *The Ancient Textile Industry in
+    Amarna*. Studies developing a similar scope are however blossoming,
+    see e.g. the Marie Skłodowska Curie project EgYarn, led by C.
+    Spinazzi-Lucchesi (MSCA 890144. *Unravelling the thread: textile
+    production in New Kingdom Egypt*, Centre for Textile Research, Saxo
+    institute, University of Copenhagen, 2021-2022). Many Egyptian urban
+    sites continue to bring evidence of an extensive textile production,
+    contemporary with the Meroitic period in Sudan. See for example the
+    cases of Karanis (Thomas, *Textiles from Karanis*), Kellis (Bowen,
+    "A study of the textile industry at ancient Kellis"), or the
+    Roman-period forts of the Eastern desert (for a comprehensive
+    bibliography, see Bender Jørgensen, "Textiles from Mons Claudianus,
+    'Abu Sha'ar and other Roman sites").
+
+[^14]: Williams, *Meroitic Remains from Qustul and Ballana*, vol. 1, p.
+    159, fig. 61e.
+
+[^15]: Yvanez, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan".
+
+[^16]: For a description of the warp-weighted loom and its use, see
+    Barber, *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 91--113.
+
+[^17]: [Kemp]{.smallcaps} and Vogelsand-Eastwood. *The Ancient Textile
+    Industry in Amarna*, pp. 358-73. See also Spinazzi-Lucchesi, *The
+    Unwound Thread*, pp. 91--3.
+
+[^18]: Adams and Adams, *Qasr Ibrim: The Ballaña Phase*, p. 98.
+
+[^19]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island".
+
+[^20]: Full publication of the archives forthcoming. I would like to
+    express all my gratitude to David N. Edwards who accepted to share
+    with me all the archival data pertaining to textile manufacture on
+    the site, and to dissect the archives to understand the exact
+    conditions of the tools' discovery.
+
+[^21]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island",
+    pp. 112--3.
+
+[^22]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
+    112, fig. 35.
+
+[^23]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
+    106, fig. 30.
+
+[^24]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
+    108-11, figs. 31, 32.
+
+[^25]: Gender studies have always been an important part of ancient
+    textiles research (see for example "Women's Work", *in*
+    Barber[,]{.smallcaps} *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 283--98.). For a
+    modern scholarly perspective and references, see Harlow and Nosch
+    "Weaving the Threads: methodologies in textile and
+    dress research", pp. 10--11. If the link with the
+    household is clearly established in ancient Sudanese contexts, no
+    data pertaining to gender and a gendered differentiation of labor
+    has come to light.
+
+[^26]: Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*, and Shinnie and
+    Anderson, *The Capital of Kush II.*
+
+[^27]: Török, *Meroe City, an ancient African capital*.
+
+[^28]: More spindle whorls have been discovered during Jane Humphris's
+    excavations at Meroe for the UCL Qatar Sudan archaeological project.
+    Found in different contexts and under current study, these objects
+    have not been added to the present paper.
+
+[^29]: At the time of this study, I was unfortunately unable to locate
+    any loom weight, nor the needle and spool, which whereabouts remain
+    unknown. Further investigations in the site storage rooms and in the
+    Khartoum University collections, as part of the Meroe Archival
+    Project, might increase and precise the present list (A. Boozer,
+    pers. comm.).
+
+[^30]: Yvanez, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan."
+
+[^31]: Focused on test pits and trenches, the methodology followed by
+    P.L. Shinnie didn't allow for the excavation of complete building
+    structures. The objects are therefore attached to numbered
+    "squares", making their attribution to specific houses difficult and
+    hypothetical. For a description of excavation techniques and maps,
+    see Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*.
+
+[^32]: Barber, *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 84--6.
+
+[^33]: Picton and Mack, *African Textiles*, p. 31.
+
+[^34]: Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*, pp. 64--5.
+
+[^35]: Even in much better documented contexts, such as Pompeii,
+    relating traces of crafts to a greater economic organization remains
+    difficult, see Flohr, "The textile economy of Pompeii."
+
+[^36]: Yvanez, "Precious textiles"; "Clothing the elite"; and Yvanez and
+    Wozniak, "Cotton in ancient Sudan and Nubia."
+
+[^37]: Adams, "Sacred Textiles"; Adams and Adams, *Qasr Ibrim, The
+    Ballana Phase*, pp. 60--1, 129--37.
+
+[^38]: Spinazzi-Lucchesi and Yvanez, "Textile workshops in the Nile
+    valley?".
+
+[^39]: For a comprehensive view of Meroitic textile technics and
+    clothing, see Adams, "Sacred Textiles"; Wild, "Fringes
+    and Aprons"; Yvanez, "De fil en aiguille : aspects de l'artisanat
+    textile méroïtique" and "Clothing the elite? Patterns of Textile
+    Production and Consumption."
+
+[^40]: Yvanez, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan."
+
+[^41]: Barber, *Women's work*. Textile crafts (especially
+    weaving) are frequently associated to mixed activities in domestic
+    settings, from contexts and production scales as different as Roman
+    Pompeii or Viking Age long houses, see Flohr, "Working
+    and Living Under One Roof" and Andersson Strand,
+    "Engendering Central Places."

content/author/agha.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Menna Agha
+affiliation: Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, Carleton University
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Dr. Menna Agha is an architect and researcher who has recently been coordinating the spatial justice agenda at the Flanders Architecture Institute in Belgium. She joins the Azrieli School to promote pedagogy and research in the newly established area of Design and Spatial Justice. She is cross-appointed at Carleton University’s Institute for African Studies. Menna holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp, and a Master of Arts in Gender and Design from Köln International School of Design. In 2019/2020, she was the Spatial Justice Fellow and a visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon. She is a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian, a legacy that infuses her research interests in race, gender, space, and territory. Among her publications are: *Nubia still exists: The Utility of the Nostalgic Space*; *The Non-work of the Unimportant: The shadow economy of Nubian women in displacement*.

content/author/asmaataha.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Asmaa Taha
+affiliation: University of Houston
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Dr. Taha is a proud Nubian applied linguistics researcher and an Arabic lecturer at the University of Houston (UH). Before joining UH, Dr. Taha taught at various institutions, including the University of Mississippi, and served as an Educational Manager and Teacher Trainer at Al-Azhar English Training Centre. Taha holds a B.A. in English Language, Literature, and Simultaneous Interpretation from Al-Azhar University; an M.A. in Teaching Arabic from Middlebury College; an M.A. in Teaching English; and a Ph.D. in Second Language Studies with a specialization in Applied Linguistics from the University of Mississippi. In 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and worked as a Graduate Instructor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Taha graduated with honors and was the Doctoral Class Marshal for the University of Mississippi, Class of 2020. Her research interests include Nubian studies, language endangerment and revitalization, discourse analysis, syntax, Arabic sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.

content/author/elsayvanez.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Elsa Yvanez
+affiliation: Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Elsa Yvanez is an archaeologist specialised in the textile production of ancient Sudan and Nubia, in the chaine opératoire and economic significance of spinning and weaving, as well as in the use of textiles for clothing and burial. She is currently employed as an associate professor at the Centre for Textile Research/Saxo institute, at the University of Copenhagen, where she is leading the 5-year research project Fashioning Sudan. Archaeology of dress practices along the Middle Nile (ERC StG 101039416). 

content/author/habbob.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Maher Habbob
+affiliation: Independent researcher
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Maher Habbob is

content/author/hamadhamdeen.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+title: Hamad Hamdeen
+affiliation: Al Neelain University, Khartoum, Sudan
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Hamad Mohamed Hamdeen is an Associate Professor of Environmental Archaeology and the Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of El Neelain (Sudan). He holds a BA (2011) in Archaeology, an MA (2015), and a PhD (2017) in Environmental Archaeology, all from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Khartoum. He also obtained a diploma from the Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland.
+He has participated in several archaeological projects, including the El Ga’ab Archaeological Project and the Czech Institute of Egyptology’s mission at the Sabaloka Cataract. He has also worked at Banagnarti, in the Third Cataract region, at Shaqadud, and on other projects. He is the director of the archaeological research and paleoenvironmental project for the White Nile state, as well as the work in the Western Desert within the framework of the Third Cataract region project.
+He has published and presented more than 50 articles in journals and conferences and has authored unpublished fieldwork reports and booklets. He was awarded the Scientific Superiority of Young Arab Archaeologists Award from the General Union of Arab Archaeologists (2016) and the UNESCO/Poland Co-Sponsored Fellowships Programme in Archaeology and Conservation Edition 2019/2020.

content/author/katefulcher.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Kate Fulcher
+affiliation: Institute of Archaeology, University College London
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Kate Fulcher has a background in Egyptology and conservation science. Her PhD was a study of painting materials from an ancient Egyptian town in Nubia (Sudan). She then did a post-doc at the British Museum in London on the analysis of the ritual black residue poured over ancient Egyptian coffins. Following that she held a position as Heritage Scientist at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, studying pigments in Byzantine and Japanese manuscripts. She is now a Lecturer in Conservation at UCL Institute of Archaeology.

content/author/schrader.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Sarah Schrader
+affiliation: Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University
+---
+
+# Biography
+
+Sarah Schrader is a bioarchaeologist.

content/issue/dotawo9.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 title: "Dotawo 9: Nubian Homescapes from Antiquity to the Present"
 editors: ["annaboozer.md", "annejennings.md"]
-has_articles: ["sadeq.md", "tsakoswelsby.md"]
+has_articles: ["boozerintro.md", "hamdeen.md", "schrader.med", "yvanez.md", "fulcher.md", "agha.md", "habbob.med", "sadeq.md", "asmaataha.md", "tsakoswelsby.md"]
 keywords: ["homescape", "home", "homeland", "household", "homelife", "diaspora", "displacement", "tahgeer" ,"Nubia", "Nubian", "Aswan High Dam Campaign", "war", "genocide", "resettlement", "Kom Ombo", "stereotype", "longue durée"]
 ---