Sai

Sai Island

Sai, the second largest island on the Nile, is situated approximately 600 km north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum and 200 km south of the border between Sudan and Egypt. Sai has thus a strategic position on the river between Egypt and the Mediterranean world to the north and Sudan and the African heartlands to the south. This location has made the island an important centre since the Bronze Age (2500-1500 BCE), when one of the earliest chiefdoms on the African continent was founded on the island, until today that Sai is the core area of the Sukkot, a Nubian-speaking sub-tribe. The monumental heritage of the island bespeaks of its importance through time: the Bronze Age tumuli, a Pharaonic temple, Meroitic pyramids, the columns of the so-called Cathedral of Sai, and the fortress of the Ottomans that was built on the ruins of their Christian and Pharaonic predecessors.

The Greek-Norwegian Mission

Sai Island belongs to the archaeological concession of the French University Charles de Gaulle, Lille 3. The Greek- Norwegian Mission (GNM) to the Sudan is an independent archaeological mission although working under the auspices of the French mission to Sai and the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums in Sudan. Our activities started in 2008 with general bibliographical research on the Medieval Period on Sai.

The first field season took place in January and 

February 2009. It focused on a thorough archaeological survey of the island, which produced the first comprehensive map of sites from the Medieval and post- Medieval centuries of Sai (c. 500-1800 CE). Furthermore, we made a catalogue of all the medieval objects already uncovered on the island and stored in the dig-house of the French Mission. This has already resulted in the publication of all the known Christian grave stelae of the island with the revelation of two hitherto unknown medieval bishops of Sai.

The second field season took place in January and 

February 2010. Then the epigraphic survey culminated by the recording of very interesting graffiti carved on a cliff overlooking the Nile immediately north of the fortress. On the site, GNM discovered remains of buoys for mooring boats and ships at levels of both high and low waters of the river. This identifies the site as one of the ports of the inhabitants of the island during the Middle Ages, and the graffiti seem to be associated with river and port activities.

The main focus of the season, however, was the 

beginning of excavations of the site with the granite columns, which has been suggested as the locality of the