Before the conflict which started in mid-April 2023, Soba was a part of the fastest growing region of Sudan – the Khartoum State. In medieval times, Soba was the capital of the kingdom of Alwa (5th/6th-15th-16th century) and since 2019, Polish-Sudanese research expedition has been studying the tangible and intangible heritage of the Alwan metropolis.
In 2022-2023 our program focused on conducting training programs, organised in cooperation with the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums in Sudan (NCAM), and on working with Soba residents to study and build awareness of the cultural heritage of Soba.
In December 2022, meetings were held with children in six elementary schools in Soba, after obtaining the necessary permissions and with the approval of the principals. The classroom activities included discussion and workshops which introduced the children to archaeology and its research methods. Conversations were held about Soba’s past and the contemporary stories relating to the past. Children drew objects, stories, events or people that they associated with ancient times. Our goal in such activities was to start a discussion about the past, while not imposing any specific vision of the past on the children. The team members involved were: Mariusz Drzewiecki, Maciej Kurcz, Joanna Ciesielska, Nagla Abdeen Mohammed, and Yassin Abdelmajid Bashir Suliman.
In January and February 2023, an ethnographic project on social communication through costume and the role of women in nurturing local traditions was carried out for three weeks. Twenty interviews were conducted with women living in Soba, which showed that women have a central role in maintaining and passing on old practices and customs. This is particularly evident in local costumes, dishes, styles of house decoration (interiors and exterior facades), household management, and the presence of items indoors and in the homestead that are of special value to the members of the household or the wider community. The team members involved were: Joanna Ciesielska, Agnes Dudek, and Fatima Idris Ali Mohmoud.
In February 2023, over the course of two weeks, six students from Al-Neelain University and NCAM worked alongside researchers from Poland learning about various methods of archaeological documentation, fieldwork techniques and approaches to analysis of archaeological heritage using Soba artifacts as case studies. In addition, thirteen experienced researchers (from five Sudanese institutions: NCAM, University of Khartoum, Al-Neelain University, University of Bahri and Shendi University) participated in a week-long workshop (February 2023) on the use of remote sensing methods and geographic information systems (GIS) in archaeology. The team members involved were: Włodzimierz Rączkowski, Mariusz Drzewiecki, Nagla Abdeen Mohammed, and Joanna Ciesielska.
This season the work of our team focused on getting to know the people of Soba and building professional relationships, in accordance with the adage that ‘science should serve the public’. Activities aiming at exchanging expertise between Sudanese and Polish researchers were the main point on our agenda.
More information is available at https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/SEIA/article/view/15321 and on the project website www.soba.uw.edu.pl
