EUME
2023/ 2024

Ahmed Adam

Sudanese Archaeological Heritage in a Changing World

Ahmed Adam is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Khartoum. He has previously been the Head of the Directorate of University Museums and the Head of the Department of Archaeology at University of Khartoum. He has directed and co-directed several archaeological fieldwork projects in Sudan: among others, the Red Sea Project for Archaeological, Cultural, and Environmental Studies, and the UCL UofK Expedition to central Sudan. Ahmed is coordinator and board member of the General Union of Arab Archaeologists, and has received Fellowships and grants, for example, at the University della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, and at the Forum Transregionale Studien in 2015/16 in the framework of the research program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices, and has been Honorary Associate at University of Exeter. He has published several articles within the field of archaeology in regional and international magazines. In the academic year 2023/24, Ahmed is a EUME Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien and is affiliated with the German Archaeological Institute and the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

Sudanese Archaeological Heritage in a Changing World

German Museums hold among the world’s most important collections of Sudanese archaeological and ethnographic material. These Sudanese collections represent a great resource for the study of aspects of Sudanese culture that are virtually unknown in Sudan itself. They have been used relatively little, even by specialists in the field of Sudanology. These collections include material from different geographical areas and historical periods of Sudan’s history. The collections of German Museums offer the potential to contribute to imagining and displaying the diversity and plurality of Sudan in new ways. My project intends to expand knowledge of these collections beyond the confines of the German Museums for a Sudanese public, to map their contents, revisit their presentation, and discuss their significance for a more plural and inclusive Sudan – beyond its historical and political fragmentation. I will try to contribute to a better access and information on the archaeological, historical, and ethnographic material in Germany, and will focus on the history and heritage of Sudan and its diversity over time and within different regions, and thus contribute to the development and teaching of museology in Sudan.