Excavation – Jebel Barkal Archaeological Project

Tiny Traces, Careful Thinking – How Broken Pots Tell Human Stories

Archaeobotany, Ceramics / Rebecca Bradshaw / January 30, 2026

by Saskia Buechner-Matthews and Anna den Hollander Broken pottery sherds may look ordinary, but in archaeology they can open doors to entire past worlds—if we ask the right questions and listen carefully. Through organic residue analysis, archaeologists study traces of organic molecules such as lipids, proteins, DNA, and carbohydrates that become embedded in the ceramic […]

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JBAP in 2025: A Year Wrap-Up!

Community Engagement, Conservation, Events, Excavation, Funding, Ground Penetrating Radar, LiDAR, News, Publications / Rebecca Bradshaw / December 23, 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, we’ve taken time to reflect on a year of remarkable achievements, inspiring collaborations, and meaningful progress for the Jebel Barkal Archaeological Project. Despite challenges on the ground in Sudan, our team has been by far the most active international project in Sudan during the conflict, in terms of providing

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We’ve got some pretty exciting news!

Community Engagement, Excavation, LiDAR, News / Rebecca Bradshaw / November 18, 2025

We’re really pleased to report that the University of Michigan has released two major newsletters this fall—one from the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and one from the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology (UMMAA)—and both publications spotlight our ongoing work at Jebel Barkal! OK, that might sound dull and routine, but we strongly suggest you read until

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Upcoming AmSARC talk about recent Barkal excavations

Community Engagement, Excavation / Rebecca Bradshaw / June 12, 2025

Join us online! On Wednesday 25 June, JBAP team member Tohamy Abulgasim will give a talk for the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center. Titled, “Trowels and Tensions: Practicing Archaeology in Wartime Sudan”, Tohamy will talk about the preliminary results of the recent excavations he directed at Jebel Barkal between March and May, as well as the more

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The final push!

Excavation, Small Finds / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 30, 2025

Update: Geoff also wrote a nice piece about the season’s wrap-up for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology blog! We’re now down to our last couple of posts about the Spring 2025 season. If you’re thinking to yourself that it feels like the team have only been on site for a hot second (meaning ‘not very

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What might our new trench yield?

Excavation / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 26, 2025

It’s been two weeks since our last substantive excavation post, so we have a lot to catch up on! The first – perhaps most exciting – development for us has been the opening of a new trench, imaginatively titled, ‘Trench 2’. Around 20m away from Trench 1 and orientated north-south, it immediately yielded a *huge*

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Say ‘hi’ to the Spring 2025 team!

Excavation / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 21, 2025

A key characteristic of the JBAP team is its diversity and emphasis on equality. Over the past five years, we have ensured that each research and managerial position on the project is held jointly by a Sudanese scholar and an international scholar. This pragmatic and, for Sudan, so far unique decision demonstrates our conceptualisation of

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JBAP research featured in the ‘New Scientist’!

Excavation, News, Publications / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 19, 2025

A *very* quick note to share the news that the New Scientist wrote a feature about our research at Jebel Barkal! “Excavation in Sudan shows Roman Empire wasn’t as mighty as it claimed“ The article features interviews with JBAP team members Geoff Emberling, Sami Elamin, Tim Skuldbøl and Rebecca Bradshaw. For those who don’t subscribe

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We’re down to ancient layers!

Excavation, Small Finds / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 16, 2025

One thing they don’t tell you about archaeology is that occasionally you’ll have to go the extra mile to protect your excavation. Given the location of our trench on a dirt track, this is what our team have been doing rather more frequently than we’d like, mainly chasing down cars to stop them from driving

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“Digging Deeper: The Klinsky Expeditions” – Join us on April 17th!

Events, Excavation, Funding, News / Rebecca Bradshaw / April 15, 2025

UPDATE: If you missed this, you can always catch up and watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/live/6RhW1a1wevc Five months ago, JBAP was lucky enough to become recipients of funding provided by businessman and U-M alumnus, Steve Klinsky. Since then, we’ve been working harder than ever to ramp up our game – and we’ve begun in one of

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