Excavations in Lakes Province, Southern Sudan

Summary

The results of excavations at several sites east of Rumbek situated on or near the ecotone between seasonally flooded grassland and savanna woodland are reported. The earliest pottery is characterised by comb-impressed decoration often with a zigzag motif. Deposits at Jokpel with undecorated open and hemispherical bowls, but no evidence of iron-working, are probably of later date. Evidence for iron-working is first recorded in association with pottery decorated with woven-mat impressions covering almost all the outer surface of the vessel, and dated to the second half of the first millennium AD. A possible change in settlement patterning occurs during the period when this impressed pottery was in use. There appears to be a hiatus in settlement between roughly the end of the first millennium AD and the recent past, when several sites were re-occupied as Dinka cattle-camps. Throughout the entire sequence faunal remains include bones of domestic livestock and of a wide range of wild species, as well as plentiful fish bones. Comparisons with sites excavated previously allow the identification of a cultural tradition widespread across the toich regions in the later first millennium AD. The excavation results are considered with reference to the available ethno-historical information. Pottery from a site east of the Nile is linked to the Turkwel tradition of north-western Kenya.