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The Nineteenth-Century Colonial Archaeology of Suakin, Sudan

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Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the role of the built environment as a tool of nineteenth-century British colonial expression within the Red Sea island town of Suakin, Sudan. Within Suakin and its environs, four major European focal points were examined through the use of archaeological survey and excavation. These were; (1) waterfront development (2) centers of colonial management, (3) terrestrial and maritime communication and (4) defense. The central argument of the paper is that economic and social control was maintained through the creation of new urban morphologies and European domination of existing urban space.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Michael Mallinson and Lawrence Smith who facilitated fieldwork at Suakin and I am indebted to my supervisors Colin Breen and Rory Quinn of the Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Ulster. I am also grateful to Paul Lane and Elizabeth Jones who commented on early drafts of this paper, as well as the anonymous reviewers who offered some gratefully received comments and opinions.

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Rhodes, D. The Nineteenth-Century Colonial Archaeology of Suakin, Sudan. Int J Histor Archaeol 15, 162–189 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-010-0132-8

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