Back to the Sudan: The White Nile Valley and Jebel Marra Volcano (1973–1983)

Abstract

Don Adamson and I resume work in the lower White Nile valley in early 1972. Desmond Clark and his team of archaeologists join us in early 1973 and excavate Mesolithic , Neolithic and younger sites at Jebel Tomat , Jebel Moya and Shabona . In late 1976, Bill Morton and Frances fly in to Khartoum from Ethiopia to join Don Adamson and myself. We proceed to Nyala in Darfur to assist Dr David Parry , a reconnaissance soil surveyor with my old firm Hunting Technical Services Limited, make sense of the complex array of sediments and soils on and around Jebel Marra volcano . We find evidence of substantially wetter conditions in this region during Early Stone Age times, and are able to reconstruct a sequence of environmental changes spanning almost the last half million years. In late 1982 and early 1983, Don Adamson and I return to the site of Esh Shawal in the lower White Nile valley and uncover a flood record extending back several hundred thousand years. An outbreak of mob hysteria and potential violence at Esh Shawal circumvented by cool and decisive police action. We confirm that the last major flood event in the White Nile valley began quite suddenly 14,500 years ago with the abrupt return of the summer monsoon.