The ancient Kingdom of Kerma is one of the oldest known states in Africa, emerging in the third millennium BC from the urbanisation of pastoral communities in the Selim Basin of the Third Cataract of the Nile, and persisting until 1504 BC, when it was conquered by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose I. The Kermans built distinctive urban centres with monumental buildings and necropolises, although these have only been extensively studied around- the Third Cateract, with some funerary cites around the Fourth Cataract also known.
In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 1 December 2023, Piotr Osypiński of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Marta Osypińska of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wrocław, Justyna Kokolus, an independent researcher from Stara Dąbrowa in Poland, Paweł Wiktorowicz, also of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Roman Łopaciuk of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Amel Hassan Gismallah of the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums in Khartoum, describe a new archaeological site associated with the Kingdom of Kerma, from the Letti Basin of the Middle Nile Valley in Northern Sudan.
Osypiński et al. identified a number of new sites on the edge of the desert in the Letti Basin, sites which would have been located in close proximity to the seasonally overflowing Nile at the time when Kerma existed. Some of these sites appear to have been extensive settlements, from which were recovered characteristic Kerman ceramic objects, Animal bones, and stone tools, as well as carrying out excavations at one site, named Letti Desert 1.
Radiocarbon dates recovered from organic material at Letti Desert 1 suggest that the site was occupied for about 700 years, with the oldest dates being between 2205 and 2020 BC while the youngest come from between 1618 and 1497 BC, around the time of the Egyptian conquest.
A mud brick building with a surviving thickness of about one metre was established to have been constructed around the beginning of the second millennium BC. Neighbouring structures contained large storage vessels, and had foundations made from boulders up to 3 m in diameter. A granary area with a pavement of square stones was surrounded by post holes. Another area was interpreted to be a metal workshop, with fragments of a large melting pot, and several bronze smelts recovered.
Analysis of zooarchaeological remains from the site suggests that Cattle became progressively less important over time, with Sheep replacing them as the major form of livestock. This was probably associated with the drying of the local climate and spread of desert. Cattle are known to have remained culturally important, with the rulers of Kerma being buried with Cattle bucrania (the frontal part of the skull, with the horns) in the latest stages of the civilization. However, isotopic studies of these remains suggest that these Cattle came from outside the Nile Valley, possibly from North Kordofan to the south, from where Cattle could be driven to the Letti Basin via the dry channels of Wadi el Melik and Wadi Howar.
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