Jenail Marshall

This project examined how communities in northern Sudan, across Tombos, Kerma, and Abu Fatima, understand and sustain their relationship to archaeological heritage, working in partnership with the Tombos Council and Sudanese scholars, Remah Abdelrahim Kabashi (Al Neelein University) and Dr. Shadia Abd Rabo (Sudan National Museum). Rather than treating heritage as a collection of objects to be excavated and cataloged, this research asked what heritage means to the people who live alongside it every day. Through approximately 56 interviews, community workshops, participatory engagement, and a Nubian basket-weaving session in which elder women taught younger women ancestral craft techniques, the project documented a living archive of memory, ritual, collective labor, and care. Conducting in part during Sudan’s ongoing proxy War, which began shortly after the research period began, the research revealed that heritage persists not because of institutional preservation but because of people. Highlights include workshops at Al-Salam University with tourism students from Kerma and Abu Fatima, collaboration with Tombos Primary School on culturally grounded educational materials, and work to incorporate the Mahasi Nubian language Nobiin, that is systemically marginalized by the Arabic language, into written materials. The project calls for a more just, reciprocal model of archaeological practice in Africa; one that begins and ends with the communities who have always been heritage’s true custodians.