Aswan-Kom Ombo (Egypt)

Archaeological mission coordinator/director

Antonio Curci (DiSCi, University of Bologna), Maria Carmela Gatto (AUC, American University in Cairo).

Research Area and ERC Panels

• Archaeology from pre and proto history to medieval age
• SH6 The Study of the Human Past: Archaeology and history (3^rd level 12)

Activation date of the campaign

• Starting date: 2005 (AKAP)
• Starting collaboration date (Unibo): 2008

Overview

The Aswan-Kom Ombo Archaeological Project works in the Aswan region, located in the southern part of Egypt. One the most important aims of the project is the analysis of the links between Egypt and Nubia, because the area under consideration represents the frontier region between these two cultural units. Egypt and Nubia have always interacted and mixed up, despite their differences from the settlement, funerary and cultural points of view: this is the area which testifies better than others these relationships. The region is characterised by the presence of the First Cataract formed by granite outcrops, while the Nile valley is extremely narrow and agriculture presents many problems. In contrast to this, mineral resources are quite numerous in the region and have always been highly exploited. In last decades, however, many sites are threatened by growing urban expansion and continuous mining activity, particularly desert and rock art sites. In order to document the archaeological heritage and assure its conservation, if possible, AKAP began a series of surveys and excavations using both traditional methods and remote sensing techniques. Moreover, geospatial analysis, digital survey and documentation, as well as virtual 3D reconstruction, are undertaken.

The project has an international team, specialising in Nubian and Egyptian pottery, lithic analysis, palaeobotany, geomorphology and anthropology. AKAP concession areas are large and are spread in the wadis, which linked the Western Desert oases and the Nile valley on the one hand and, on the other one, the Red Sea and the Eastern Desert. Many archaeological sites have been documented: the oldest ones can be dated to the Palaeolithic period (ca. 14.000 BC). Thanks to satellite and on field surveys, settlements, isolated tombs and necropolises, drivelines and quarries have been documented. The excavation of the Predynastic settlement and necropolis in Nag el-Qarmila has brought to light the evidence of a mixed village, both Nubian and Egyptian in its material culture. Moreover, the earliest archaeological evidence of scurvy has been detected in the tomb of a 1-year old child. Finally, rock art sites such as Nag el-Hamdulab and Khor Abu Subeira South are of great importance, because they date back to the end of the Predynastic period.

In 2018, AKAP began the excavation of a Pan Grave necropolis, which is still ongoing: in spite of the huge modern disturbance of the site, well preserved tomb belonging to a young woman who was found pregnant. She was buried with a Nubian bowl, an Egyptian restricted jar, ostrich eggshell fragments with traces linked to the production of beads and a huge quantity of ostrich eggshell beads.