{"id":162472,"date":"2025-12-02T16:36:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assayha.net\/en\/?p=162472"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:36:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T14:36:15","slug":"an-archaeologist-is-racing-to-preserve-sudans-heritage-as-war-threatens-to-erase-its-cultural-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assayha.net\/en\/162472\/","title":{"rendered":"An archaeologist is racing to preserve Sudan\u2019s heritage as war threatens to erase its cultural past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Author of the article:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article content<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Louise Dewast<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PARIS (AP) \u2014 In a dimly lit office in a corner of the French National Institute for Art History, Sudanese archaeologist ShadiaAbdrabo studies a photograph of pottery made in her country around 7,000 B.C. She carefully types a description of the Neolithic artifactinto a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) rages on, the curator from Sudan\u2019s National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) is on a yearlong research grant in France with one mission: to build an online database of the African nation\u2019s archaeological sites, museum collections and historical archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after the war in Sudan started, in April 2023, museums were looted and destroyed. It\u2019s unclear what exactly went missing, but Abdrabo says her task is to find out \u2014 and time is of the essence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to work fast to secure our collections. We\u2019ve already lost two museums and we don\u2019t want to lose more,\u201d Abdrabotold The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says two regional museums in El Geneinaand Nyala, were almost completely destroyed, in addition to a third in Khartoum, the National Museum _ which held an estimated 100,000 objects before the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Museum had pieces dating back to prehistoric times, including from the KermaKingdom and the Napatan era when Kushite kings ruled the region as well as from the Meroitic civilization that built Sudan\u2019s pyramids. Other galleries displayed later Christian and Islamic objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among its most valuable items were mummies dating back to 2,500 B.C., some of the oldest and most archaeologically significant in the world as well as royal Kushite treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Entire Archives Vanished\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNESCO raised the alarm on reports of plundering saying the \u201cthreat to culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy heart was broken, you know? It\u2019s not just objects that we lost. We lost research, we lost studies, we lost many things,\u201d Abdrabo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, hundreds of people were left dead and more than 80,000 others forced into displacement. For Abdrabo the work is deeply personal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Nubia, from the north, an area filled with monuments, archaeological sites and ancient life,\u201d she said. The region was home to some of the world\u2019s earliest kingdoms that rivaled ancient Egypt in power and wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was working at the national museum in the capital Khartoum when the war started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought it would finish soon \u2026 but then life started getting really difficult: not just the bombing, but there was no electricity, no water,\u201d she said. With her three sisters, she fled north \u2014 first to Atbara, then to Abri, and eventually to Port Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that time, Abdrabo and her NCAM colleagues worked tirelessly to try and protect Sudan\u2019s 11 museums and sites \u2014 some designated with UNESCO World Heritage status \u2014 moving pieces to safe rooms and secret locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But efforts to protect Sudan\u2019s art were too slow, said Ali Nour, a Sudanese cultural heritage advocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile applications were being drafted, sites were being emptied. While risk assessments were reviewed, entire archives vanished,\u201d Nour wrote in an article for the U.K.-based International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urgent Recovery Efforts <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNESCO said it carried out inventories, trained police and customs officers to recognize stolen antiquities, while appealing to collectors \u201cto refrain from acquiring or taking part in the import, export or transfer of ownership of cultural property from Sudan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, unlike similar cultural emergencies that followed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, \u201cSudan has not benefited from strong media coverage denouncing the degradation and plundering of its cultural heritage,\u201d according to researcher Meryam Amarir. \u201dThis lack of visibility has reduced the international response.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancient Sudan was connected, through trade and military activity, with Egypt, the Mediterranean world and Mesopotamia, and was the source of much of the gold available in the region, according to Geoff Emberling of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re interested in these ancient cultures, then we have to be interested in Sudan,\u201d said Emberling, who is involved with the recently established Sudan Cultural Emergency Recovery Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task force, requested by NCAM, aims to unite institutions, scholars, and donors around the urgent recovery efforts of Sudan\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat Shadia Abdrabo is doing is urgently essential _ establishing what\u2019s missing,\u201d Emberling told the AP. \u201cAnd with a team of about 15 Sudanese now working in the museum in Khartoum to clean and restore what has been damaged, they will soon be able to compare what remains there now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I cry when I talk about this<\/strong>\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdrabo has funding until April 2026 to finish compiling the data and building a platform, but she worries it won\u2019t be enough time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work is painstaking. Some datasets arrive as spreadsheets, others as handwritten inventories or photographs taken decades ago. Colleagues at the Louvre, the British Museum and others lend support but she works mostly alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to finish this database but it\u2019s a lot. I\u2019ve done about 20% of the work. Just for the national museums, I\u2019ve recorded 1,080 objects so far \u2026 and then I have to do other museums, sites, archives\u2026 I need to add pictures, ID numbers, coordinates \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the winter settles over Paris, the crisis in Sudan drives Abdrabo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working on tracking what has been looted,\u201d she said. \u201cI cry when I talk about this. My only goal and message is to bring back as much as possible, to do as much as I can for Sudan, but it\u2019s not easy for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the war itself, but the consequences of it that could affect the country\u2019s heritage: \u201cmilitias, people displaced\u2026 it\u2019s not safe for the art to be in unsecure locations,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUntil the war finishes we just don\u2019t know what is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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