Wadi Abu Dom Investigations – El Rum Oasis

Basic data for this project

Description

The Oasis of el Rum is located in the lower Wadi Abu Dom in the Bayuda Desert in Sudan, about 330 km northwest of Khartoum. There are at least four important ancient building complexes (which, after initial preliminary investigations, may date from the Late Antiquity), several necropolises especially of the first millennium BC and the first millennium AD, as well as various settlements of different periods. The oasis agriculture was and is made possible by a system of wells.A day's journey from the Nile, the oasis is – at least geographically – part of the hinterland of the region of Napata, religious center and major metropolis of the kingdom of Kush, the land of the "Black Pharaohs" (ca. 750 BC - 350 AD). Despite this topographical proximity, the oasis of el Rum shows a strong cultural autonomy and little reference to Napata.Within the former project "Wadi Abu Dom Itinerary" of the University of Münster, a systematic archaeological survey of the entire region of the Wadi Abu Dom was carried out between 2009 and 2016, including the oasis of Rum and its vicinity. The results of this survey indicate the existence of an independent cultural complex in the relatively fertile wadis and the oases of Bayuda. This cultural complex is economically based partly on oasis agriculture, but mainly on pastoral economics and a close linkage of sedentary and mobile life and economic concepts. Despite the geographical proximity of el Rum to Napata, there are indications that the local population has during the different historical periods been incorporated rather into this independent cultural "Bayuda complex" shaped by the conditions of the desert.The four large buildings are predominantly made of stone, but partly also of mud bricks. They all consist of long stretched room structures (partly in several rows), as well as corridors and courtyards. The project "el Rum Oasis" focuses on the archaeological exploration of these buildings. This includes the investigation of the history of their construction and use, but above all the clarification of their still unclear function.Another focal point is the closer exploration of the wells from which the oasis is still irrigated. Surface investigations showed that they originate at least from the Middle Ages. The question of water management during the time of late-scale large-scale buildings is, however, hitherto totally unclear and is being explored in this project both by archaeological and hydrogeological methods.