Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961–1964)

Abstract: The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (SJE) was one of the substantial contributions of crucial salvage archaeology within the International Nubian Campaign which was pursued in conjunction with the building of the High Dam at Aswan in the early 1960’s. A large quantity of archaeological data was collected by the SJE in a continuous area of northernmost Sudan and published during the subsequent decades. The present study aimed at transferring the geographical aspects of that data into a digital format thus enabling spatial enquires on the archaeological information to be performed in a computerised manner within a geographical information system (GIS). The landscape of the concession area, which is now completely submerged by the water masses of Lake Nasser, was digitally reconstructed in order to approximate the physical environment which the human societies of ancient Nubia inhabited. Information on the nearly 500 indexed archaeological sites of the SJE was classified and imported into the GIS. The potential of the system thereby established, validated against modern remote sensing data and aerial photography, was then demonstrated by a number of spatial analyses at an inter-site level. The resuls of those analyses contribute to discussions on various topics already raised within the SJE publication or elsewhere and includes issues on Nile palaeochannel reconstructions, seasonal habitation patterns and dedicatory orientation of elite tombs. The system hereby developed is intended to be used in further studies of the relevant and information-rich research fields of ancient Nubia for applications similar to those demonstrated in the present project or for educational and research purposes hitherto unpredicted.