The Archaeological Museum of Stavanger (AmS) hosts a rich collection of archaeological finds and the documentation related to their discoveries.
Among those, there is a part of the finds made by the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia that was alloted to the AmS.
The deal during the UNESCO Aswan High-Dam campaign was that the host country (Egypt or Sudan) had to share half of the finds with the country of origin of the mission working in each area investigated archaeologically. The Scandinavians were responsible for the stretch of the east bank of the Nile between Faras and Gemai (all in Sudanese Nubia) and the finds that they got back to the North were split in three groups: the osteological material in Copenhagen (Denmark), the Late Nubian finds (that is from the post-Meroitic period onwards) to Stavanger (Norway), and all the rest in Uppsala (Sweden). The other half is at the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum.
First we skimmed through the documentation that consisted of a score of folders with dig notes, drawings, and photos, as well as with lists of sites, graves and finds; a box of pottery forms (prepared according to Adams’ typology), three boxes containing old-fashioned statistical data sets, a folder with the draft to one of the SJE publications, and three metal boxes with all the related museum entries.
Then, we concentrated our work on the boxes with the museum entries, in order to locate the objects interesting for our purpose. We will thus be able tomorrow to pick out from the storerooms those finds that would look most attractive to be displayed in the planned exhibition in Bergen. An exhibition that will attempt to show to its visitors the attractions and the significance of Sudan Archaeology in Scandinavia, Norway, and Bergen!
But this is just the beginning of a long way to go…
Medieval Sai Project 