News from England after the trip to England

We said in the previous post that we would be in England last weekend and that subjects related to Sudan would come out. After a first week of work at our base in Bergen, it is time to recollect these memories and present some further news from Old Albion.

The one of the main reasons for the trip to England was a visit to Manchester where Henriette would meet her supervisor Tim Insoll. We learnt that he will soon be opening an exhibition on Ghanaian archaeology in the museum of Manchester and it was no surprise when a related entry appeared in the famous blog “Egypt at the Manchester Museum”.

The fame of this blog has to do with the “mystery of the spinning statuette” that has attracted the attention of Egypt-lovers worldwide.

From the same blog we learnt that on the day of our return, that is on Monday the 14th of October, Derek Welsby would be giving a lecture on Kawa: “Excavations at Gematon: A Kushite City on the Nile“.

Unfortunately we missed this venue, but not the one that was the second main reason for our trip to England, namely the launch of Ali Askouri’s book: “Khazan Al Hamdab: Numozag El islam El Siyasi llifgar wa nahab Al Mawarid” or ( roughly) ” Hamadab dam: The Model of Political Islam for Impoverishment and Resources Looting” that took place on Saturday the 12th of October at Abrar House in London.

Ali Askouri decided to write his book in Arabic, among five other reasons, because he wished that the local people would read his analysis and become informed and empowered in front of other abusive development projects. You can see good parts of the launch (including Henriette’s intervention!) at YouTube. We just embed here the opening section:

Another new book related to Sudan is a publication on some of the treasures unearthed at Qasr Ibrim: “Agricultural Innovation at Qasr Ibrim (1000 BC – AD 1800)” by Peter Rowley-Conwy. The link will provide you not only with descriptions but also with original material to be downloaded online for free!

Last but not least, during the first days of November take place in Norwich this year’s AARD, namely the “African Archaeology Research Days” that we attended last year. We will not be able to participate, due to obligations in Bergen, but we will see what we can report at least for the topics of interest for Sudanology and Nubiology, like the panel to be chaired by Peter Mitchell and Charlie Arthur (see program HERE).

In fact, the organizers are headed by Anne Haour, and her group is very active in African archaeology. You can start exploring their great work both on the field and at home from here: http://crossroadsofempires.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/events/