El Tuweina - Inventory of a residence in the the desert

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Angelika Lohwasser
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442805421

The settlement complex of El Tuweina is located in the central Bayuda Desert in North Sudan in the southern catchment area of the upper Wadi Abu Dom, about halfway between the modern cities of Merowe and Atbara. It consists of a coherent complex of three structures, partly made of stone walls, partly made of mud brick walls, which were excavated in 2013 (architectural test soundings) and 2017-2019 (large-scale excavation) by the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster.The building ensemble dates back to the late Meroitic period (ca. 3rd century A.D.); during this time, the central Bayuda was a peripheral area of this culture, which is mainly native to the Nile Valley. According to previous findings, architecture and other material culture have a clear degree of autonomy. The results of the survey project "Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary" (2009-2016) of the WWU Münster point to a predominantly pastoral economy with a close interlinking of sedentary and mobile lifestyle and economic concepts for the upper Wadi Abu Dom.The analysis of the find material recovered in El Tuweina between 2017 and 2019 is intended to verify these general assumptions about the social and economic history of the central Bayuda, as well as to investigate the role of el Tuweina settlement complex within the middle as well as long ranged cultural landscape.The analysis of ceramics and small finds from El Tuweina is intended above all to answer the question about the extent of the cultural connection of the cultures of the central Bayuda to the interregionally dominant Meroitic culture. This also allows indirect conclusions about the political-administrative influence of the state structures of the Meroitic Empire towards the sparsely populated periphery.The analysis of botanical and zoological samples is primarily intended to answer the question of the economic basis of the population of that time. The main question is whether the previous impression of a subsistence economy, which is mainly characterized by pastoral structures and mobility patterns with only marginal dependence on the Nile Valley, are to be verified. Another particular question is whether the population of the central Bayuda during the Meroitic period are part of the so-called "cattle complex" cultures (which would also imply socio-cultural continuities to recent Nilotic or Fulani speaking communities).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants