Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961-1964)

SND-ID: SND 0944

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Carolin Johansson (magisterstudent) - Uppsala university, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History

Description

These data were collected for a master (Swedish "magister") thesis in Egyptology and are published with approval of the student's tutor (Daniel Löwenborg, Uppsala Uni.)
The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (SJE) was one of the substantial contributions of crucial salvage archaeology within the International Nubian Campaign which was pursued in conjunction with the building of the High Dam at Aswan in the early 1960’s. A large quantity of archaeological data was collected by the SJE in a continuous area of northernmost Sudan and published during the subsequent decades. The present study aimed at transferring the geographical aspects of that data into a digital format thus enabling spatial enquires to the archaeological information to be performed in a computerised manner within a geographical information system (GIS). The landscape of the concession area, which is now completely submerged by the water masses of Lake Nasser, was digitally reconstructed in order to approximate the physical environment which the human societies of ancient Nubia inhabited. Information on the nearly 5

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Language

English

Swedish

Research principal, contributors, and funding

Research principal

Uppsala University

Responsible department/unit

Department of Archaeology and Ancient History

Protection and ethical review
Method and time period
Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic location: Sudan

Geographic description: Ancient Nubia, North Sudan

Lowest geographic unit

Country

Highest geographic unit

Country

Publications

Johansson, Carolin (2014). Digital rekonstruktion av det arkeologiska landskapet i koncessionsområdet tillhörande den Samnordiska Expeditionen till Sudanska Nubien (1960-1964). Magisteruppsats i egyptologi. Institutionen för arkeologi och antik historia, Uppsala universitet.
DiVA

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Dataset 1
Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961-1964): Map Data

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Description

The dataset consists of seven shape files describing the area's topography and archaeological sites. All map data are digitized from The Egypt New Series Map 1:25000. The shape files consist of:

East Bank Spot Elevations: Points defining elevation above sea level in the East Bank of northern Sudan (SJE concession area);

Elevation Contours: Elevation contours representing topographical heights from 120 m.a.s.l. to 220 m.a.s.l. interspersed with 5 m or 10 m intervals, digitalised as polylines;

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Version 1.0

Citation

Carolin Johansson (magisterstudent). Uppsala University (2014). Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961-1964): Map Data. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/002087

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Data format / data structure

Still image

Geospatial

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Carolin Johansson (magisterstudent) - Uppsala university, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History

Collection methodology

The Egypt New Series map in the scale 1:25 000 was the base from which topographical information was drawn. The maps 1-6 of SJE volume 1:2 (Hellström, 1970b), indicating features such as ground cover and district divisions, were used for guidance.Seven map sheets from The Egypt New Series map were scanned into high resolution TIFF-files and imported into ArcGIS Desktop 10.0 software. They were georeferenced and rectified using the coordinate grid given on the maps and by adopting the predefined projected coordinate system Egypt Red Belt with a false northing of 810 km. The following features of the maps were digitalized into vector formats: The River Nile, elevation contours, lines of steepest descent and spot elevations (see dataset SND 0944-001).

Dataset 2
Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961-1964): Digital Elevation Model

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Description

The dataset comprises a digital elevation model in GeoTIFF format of the SJE concession area and the surrounding region, based on manually digitalised features from the Egypt New Series Map 1:25000.

Version 1.0

Citation

Carolin Johansson (magisterstudent). Uppsala University (2014). Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961-1964): Digital Elevation Model. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/002088

Download citation

Data format / data structure

Still image

Geospatial

Creator/Principal investigator(s)

Carolin Johansson (magisterstudent) - Uppsala university, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History

Collection methodology

The Egypt New Series map in the scale 1:25 000 was the base from which topographical information was drawn in order to digitally recreate the landscape of the concession area. The maps 1-6 of SJE volume 1:2 (Hellström, 1970b), indicating features such as ground cover and district divisions, were used for guidance. The map sheets were scanned into high resolution TIFF-files and imported into the ArcGIS for Desktop 10.0 software. They were georeferenced and rectified using the coordinate grid given on the maps and by adopting the predefined projected coordinate system Egypt Red Belt with a false northing of 810 km. The process was aided by a detailed map of the Abka-Gamai districts provided as a map through-out in SJE 1:2 (Hellström, 1970b). The following features of the maps were digitalized into vector formats: The River Nile, elevation contours, lines of steepest descent and spot elevations (see dataset SND 0944-001). A reconstruction of the topography in the concession area was made through the creation of a digital elevation model (DEM). In order to expand the coverage of the DEM, SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation data describing the topography of the deserts surrounding the inundated area was included. A DEM was constructed using the Spatial Analyst tool Topo to Raster (indata and settings are accounted for in the report, Johansson 2014).

Published: 2014-05-15
Last updated: 2020-02-14