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Abu Hamad Reach, Sudan

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Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa

Abstract

Surveys and excavations in the rugged terrain upstream from the Fourth Cataract of the Nile River in Sudan were rare until the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here, we report on Stone Age survey work done by the Arizona State University Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition between 2009 to 2016 on the right (north) bank west of Abu Hamad (the concession area being approximately 33 km in length along the Nile River and up to 3.8 km inland from the Nile). The most common occurrences, based on the attributes of lithic artifacts, are Later Stone Age, followed by Middle Stone Age, and then Early Stone Age occupations, totaling 109 site components. Most components were field recorded but not collected, although several sites were surface collected, and some lithics were recovered from excavations at later period sites.

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Acknowledgments

Fieldwork and lithic analysis for the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition from 2014 to 2016 were supported by grants to B. Baker from the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP 17) and a private donor. This work is conducted in cooperation with Sudan’s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums. We are grateful to Dr. Salaheldin Mohamed Ahmed (QSAP/NADO), Dr. Abdelrahman Ali Mohammed, El-Hassan Ahmed, Mohamed Saad, and Ahmed al-Ameen from NCAM, BONE team members, and the people of al-Qinifab, Asaliyah, and Wadi al-Qa’oud. Special thanks to Sidney Rempel for creating the map figures under difficult circumstances. All images belong to ASU BONE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Deborah I. Olszewski

  2. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Brenda J. Baker

Authors
  1. Deborah I. Olszewski
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  2. Brenda J. Baker
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Correspondence to Deborah I. Olszewski .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology and Center for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Amanuel Beyin

  2. Institute of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    David K. Wright

  3. Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Jayne Wilkins

  4. Department of Anthropology and Penn Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Deborah I. Olszewski

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Olszewski, D.I., Baker, B.J. (2023). Abu Hamad Reach, Sudan. In: Beyin, A., Wright, D.K., Wilkins, J., Olszewski, D.I. (eds) Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_62

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2_62

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