Although so far away from Sudan, news from the country reach us daily from both the world of politics and the field of archaeology. It is to the latter again that we keep the attention focused today, by referring to two very interesting projects that gained promotion on the web: the works of Vincent Francigny and Claude Rilly at Sedeinga; and the works of Geoff Emberling at Kuru.
We have been working with Vincent on Sai Island in 2009 and 2010, but since then we have only been meeting by chance or through the Internet. We are very proud to see his work gaining well-deserved attention, but we wonder why should it be so that only when he crossed the Atlantic – he is now a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York – that the media got attracted by his always excellent work. Isn’t it interesting that also Geoff’s project is conducted under the auspices of the University of Michigan?
However, there is another project – of much smaller scale of course – that will be today’s entry’s breaking news 
Some ten kilometers upstream from Kuru, there lies the Holy Mountain of ancient Sudan, Jebel Barkal; the mountain with the characteristic pinnacle
is the home of perhaps the most impressive archaeological remains along the Middle Nile Valley.
Jebel Barkal and its antiquities in a Google Earth image
It has attracted visitors and archaeologists from very early and nowadays remains the target of fieldwork activities in Sudan by an Italian and an American mission. The latter is directed by Timothy Kendall who has linked his name with the interpretation of the mysteries of this site and who has also produced a very fine web page dedicated to Barkal:
At the site there is also a small museum.
This opened its gates to the public only after the works in 2004 and 2005 of Alexandros and the representative of N.C.A.M. in the region, Murtada Bushara.
They have also produced a small entry for the museum at
http://jebel-barkal-museum.museum.com
Since 2004 of course the Barkal museum has increased its exhibition areal and it has improved in many details of its display and daily function.
The latest touch in its decoration was the addition of a dozen of photographs from our exhibition “From Nubia to Sudan through the eyes of the Greek-Norwegian Archaeological Mission” that since this week found their place on the walls of the Barkal museum!
We proudly present two photos hereby, sent to us through facebook (mobile uploads) by Murtada:
The chief of technical staff at the Museum, Ahmed Musa, discussing a detail of one of the photos
We hope to be able to set up more activities at this museum, which is a very good example of excellent cooperation on the ground and with means gathered by local efforts exclusively.
such amazing jebel!!!
Indeed!
We really think it is time for you to visit Sudan…
inshallah!!! makari!!!!