An archaeologist is racing to preserve Sudan’s heritage as war threatens to erase its cultural past

PARIS (AP) — In a dimly lit office in a corner of the French National Institute of Art History, Sudanese archaeologist Shadia Abdrabo talks about her country’s B.C. He examines a photograph of pottery made around 7,000 years ago. He carefully writes the description of the neolithic artifact into a spreadsheet.

As the war between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) continues in full swing, the curator of Sudan’s National Institute of Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) receives a one-year research fellowship in France with a single mission: to create an online database of the African country’s archaeological sites, museum collections and historical archives.

Shortly after the war Sudan Museums were looted and destroyed in the campaign that started in April 2023. It’s unclear what exactly is missing, but Abdrabo says it’s his mission to find it and time is of the essence.

“We must work quickly to secure our collections. We have already lost two museums and we do not want to lose more,” Abdrabo told The Associated Press.

He says two regional museums in El Geneina and Nyala were almost completely destroyed, while the National Museum in Khartoum, which housed about 100,000 objects before the war, was destroyed. searched by militia Those who post videos of their fighters in the warehouse on the Internet.

The National Museum had pieces from prehistoric times from the Kerma Kingdom and the Napatan period, when Kushite kings ruled the region, as well as from the Meroitic civilization that built Sudan’s pyramids. Other galleries later displayed Christian and Islamic objects.

Among their most valuable possessions were mummies dating back to 2,500 BC, the oldest and most archaeologically important mummies in the world, as well as royal Kushite treasures.

‘All archives were destroyed’

UNESCO I raised the alarm Reports of looting said “the threat to culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level.”

“I’m heartbroken, you know? It’s not just objects we’ve lost. We’ve lost research, we’ve lost studies, we’ve lost a lot of things,” Abdrabo said.

Last month hundreds people were left to die and more than 80,000 people were forced to be displaced following the RSF capture of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. For Abdrabo, the work is deeply personal.

“I am from Nubia, from the north, a region full of monuments, archaeological sites and ancient life,” he said. The region was home to some of the world’s oldest kingdoms, rivaling ancient Egypt in power and wealth.

He was working at the national museum in the capital Khartoum when the war started.

“We thought it would be over soon… but then life started to get really difficult: not only the bombing, but there was no electricity or water,” he said. She fled north with her three sisters; first to Atbara, then to Abri and finally to Port Sudan.

During this time, Abdrabo and his NCAM colleagues worked tirelessly to preserve Sudan’s 11 museums and sites, some of which have UNESCO World Heritage status, moving pieces to safe rooms and secret locations.

But Sudanese cultural heritage advocate Ali Nour said efforts to preserve Sudan’s art were too slow.

“The sites were being evacuated while the applications were being drafted. Entire archives disappeared while the risk assessments were being reviewed,” Nour wrote in an article for the UK-based International Institute for the Preservation of Historic and Artistic Works.

Emergency rescue efforts

While UNESCO stated that it conducted inventories to detect stolen antiquities and provided training to police and customs officers, it called on collectors to “refrain from importing, exporting or transferring ownership of cultural assets from Sudan or taking part in their import, export or transfer.”

But according to researcher Meryam Amarir, unlike similar cultural emergencies that followed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, “Sudan did not benefit from strong media coverage denouncing the degradation and looting of its cultural heritage.” “This lack of visibility dampened the international response.”

Ancient Sudan was linked to Egypt, the Mediterranean world and Mesopotamia through trade and military activities, and was the source of much of the gold found in the region, according to Geoff Emberling of the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archeology.

“If we’re interested in these ancient cultures, then we should also be interested in Sudan,” said Emberling, who is interested in recently established cultures. Sudan Cultural Emergency Recovery Fund.

The task force requested by NCAM aims to unite institutions, academics and donors around efforts to urgently recover Sudan’s heritage.

“What Shadia Abdrabo is doing is urgently important: identifying what’s missing,” Emberling told the AP. “And with a team of about 15 Sudanese currently working to clean and repair what was damaged at the museum in Khartoum, they will soon be able to compare what remains there.”

‘I’m crying while telling this’

Abdrabo has funding until April 2026 to complete compiling the data and building the platform, but worries that won’t be enough.

The work is painstaking. Some datasets come as spreadsheets, others as handwritten inventories or photos taken decades ago. Colleagues at the Louvre, the British Museum and others provide support, but he mostly works alone.

“I’m trying to finish this database, but it’s too much. I’ve done about 20% of the work. I’ve registered 1,080 objects so far for the national museums alone… and then I need to make other museums, sites, archives… I need to add images, identification numbers, coordinates…”

As winter approaches Paris, the crisis in Sudan spurs Abdrabo into action.

“We are trying to track down those who were looted,” he said. “I cry while telling this. “My only goal and message is to bring it back as much as possible, to do my best for Sudan, but this is not easy for us.”

It’s not just the war itself that could affect the country’s legacy, but also its consequences: “Militias, displaced people… it’s not safe for art to be in unsafe places,” he added.

“We don’t know what will happen until the war is over.”