Archaeological investigations of the region between Gash and the Atbara rivers were conducted in the Eighties by the Italian Archaeological Mission to the Sudan (Kassala) of the Istituto Universitario Orientale and the Butana Archaeological Project of University of Khartoum and Southern Methodist University (Dallas). This apparently marginal region was very rich in terms of archaeological heritage (256 sites were recorded from 1980 to 1995) and crucial for understanding relevant processes, such as the domestication of Sahelian crops, the relations between Nile valley and the Ethio-Eritrean highlands, the development of the hierarchical societies, the emerging of long-distance exchange networks and the origins of the nomadism in the Horn of Africa. In particular, this region was characterized by a very distinctive cultural tradition since the 6th millennium BC. In the 4th millennium BC Eastern Sudan was part of the area where the process of domestication of sorghum took place. In the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC it may have been part of the land of Punt, from where Egyptians were importing incense and other commodities. In the 1st millennium BC-1st millennium AD the region was inhabited by mobile groups of herders which were interacting with the Eastern Desert as well as with the Kingdom of Kush of the Middle Nile valley and the pre-Aksumite and Aksumite kingdoms of the Ethio-Eritrean highland. Mahal Teglinos is the largest site of the region and was extensively excavated by the Italian Mission. It mainly dates to the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC and is characterized by settlement areas and large cemeteries, where tombs were marked by monolithic stelae.
Prof. Andrea Manzo, archaeologist and historian of Nubia and Ethiopia and director of the Italian Archaeological Expedition to the Eastern Sudan and Eritrea of “L’Orientale” and ISMEO since 2010, is the lead researcher for this Shelby White and Leon Levy Program project.
