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From holes to huts: reconstructing an extinct type of architecture at the Sixth Nile Cataract

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Ladislav Varadzin ,
Lenka Varadzinová  and
Jan Pacina
Ladislav Varadzin
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, v.v.i., Letenská 4, 118 01 Prague 1, Czech Republic
Lenka Varadzinová*
Affiliation:
Czech Institute of Egyptology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Celetná 20, 110 00 Prague 1, Czech Republic
Jan Pacina
Affiliation:
Department of Informatics and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Environment, J.E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Králova výšina 7, 400 96 Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: sukova.lenka@gmail.com)
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Abstract

Evidence for light architecture characteristic of mobile and semi-mobile societies is difficult to detect archaeologically. This article investigates such evidence in the form of narrow cylindrical holes discovered on rock walls at the archaeological site of Sphinx, in the Sixth Nile Cataract (central Sudan). Using innovative experimental reconstruction, these holes are interpreted as features associated with wooden pole-built structures, some of which may have been dwellings. This research highlights a significant category of North African archaeological evidence which has, to date, received limited attention.

Keywords

North AfricaSudanSixth Nile CataractMesolithicarchitecturedrilled holes
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 357 , June 2017 , pp. 589 - 604
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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