Derek A Welsby - Böcker

This volume is the final report on the excavations of a Kerma Ancien cemetery discovered by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society during its Northern Dongola Reach Survey conducted between 1993 and 1997. It is one of the very few cemeteries of this date to have been fully excavated and provides interesting data on funerary culture as practised in a rural environment, to be compared with the extensive information available from investigations of the cemetery associated with the metropolis of Kerma 100km to the north. It includes a range of specialist reports on all categories of artefacts recovered as well as on the physical anthropology, archaeobotany and archaeozoology.

This volume is the first of several devoted to publishing the results of the Sudan Archaeological Research Society’s surveys and excavations in the region of the Fourth Cataract. This, a component of the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, was conducted along a 40km stretch of the river on the left bank and on the islands.Following an introduction to the project, chapters focus on the palaeoenvironment in the concession area between Amri and Kirbekan, on the flora and toponyms, and on the folklore, agricultural practices, architecture and the life styles of the Manasir and Shaqiya inhabitants immediately before the inundation of the region by the Merowe Dam.

This book contains four substantial studies scrutinising aspects of the evidence for the design and form of the curtain, milecastles and turrets of Hadrian’s Wall as preserved in the primary archaeological record. Together they constitute a fresh assessment of the original appearance of the Wall and its structures, a matter of long-running controversy since nowhere does any part of the Wall survive to full height. The nature of the top of the curtain, and the form of superstructures over milecastle gateways, are not simply structural details of merely academic interest: the contributors show that both have a profound impact on how we interpret the function of the linear barrier both in its initial conception and as used over three centuries by the Roman army.