From Nimiti Paradise to Sand Dunes Dreamland

I have been working in Sudan as an archaeologist since 2004. I instantly fell in love with the country, its landscape, archaeology, and people, during my first visit in 2000 as a student. It is a privilege to work in this country with enthusiastic Sudanese colleagues and skilled workmen as well as friendly neighbours and hosts. 

From 2011 to 2017, I was fortunate to have the opportunity of working on Sai Island, stretching just five km across and 12 km long, in the Nile River between the second and third cataracts  – one of the most beautiful islands in Sudan and an extremely rich archaeological site. However, there is one awful thing about the island: nowhere else are the so-called nimiti flies as bad than on Sai.

Nimiti is the local name for a swarm of tiny black flies that only disappear at night and when it is too cold, too windy or too hot (above 40). They appear seasonally from January to March. Now, they are more and stay for longer – possibly since the Merowe Dam. They bite – not all of them, but still a lot. They are not normal flies; very tiny and they bite.

Especially at the French dig house, which we used during my missions, these tiny black biting flies appear in millions and torment people as well as animals during the day. They are just too difficult to bear. The nimiti problem has been getting worse over the recent years and I know that some tourist companies actually removed Sai from their tours since most people have problems enduring the annoyance of the flies for more than 10 minutes. How did we cope with it for 6-10 weeks of fieldwork? Only by being well equipped with mosquito nets for our heads and with a resilience strengthened by the paramount importance of our archaeological finds. I also started making fun of the nimiti nuisance, a typical Viennese attitude of self-mockery, which really helps (at least us, Austrians). As one example, we used to greet newcomers and visitors to our excavations with ‘Welcome to nimiti paradise!’ Of course, it was hell for all of us, but paradise for the flies.

Since 2018, I have had my own concession in Sudan, just a bit north of Sai, between the districts of Attab and Ferka. Archaeologically, it is an extremely rich area. We have hundreds of sites from Palaeolithic times to the Islamic era (mostly tombs, settlements, rock art) and some monuments from the time of the Anglo-Egyptian occupation. The landscape is stunningly beautiful and very diverse, with granite quarries in the north, gold mining sites on both riverbanks and several beautiful sandy islands with date trees. The right bank is dominated by a broad strip of modern agricultural land, small villages, and rocky hillsides. While the left bank is a desert region where high sand dunes and tamarisks cover the bank along the Nile, there are very few modern villages and houses, and an electrical power line was only recently set up. This beauty is marred by only one thing: the constant strong north wind. While excavating on the left bank, the wind was our strongest opponent, especially because of the abundance of sand on the surface, which makes the wind harsh and rough, often peeling the skin.

Amazingly, we almost have no nimiti flies in my current concession – having experienced ‘nimiti paradise’, this clearly feels like paradise for me. In the next years, we will learn how to deal better with the wind and sand on the left bank to continue unearthing the exciting archaeological remains of the region and thus provide material evidence for a better understanding of this part of the Middle Nile.

Thanks to the support of the locals, I had the permission to re-build an old, abandoned dwelling as our new excavation house. It is located in Ginis, very close to the main sites we are excavating. During our seasons, our local cook provides us with simple, but tasty dishes, and of course, we all love ful (fava beans) and have it regularly. In 2022, we had our first excavation season with a gang of local workmen. We were fortunate to have hired a group of experienced workmen who already worked with the British Mission at Amara West. They really know what they are doing and did a great job, especially in the newly discovered Kerma cemetery between Attab and Ginis. We are accompanied by a Sudanese inspector from the National Cooperation of Antiquities and Museums – in the past years, we were lucky to collaborate with my dear friend Huda Magzoub from Khartoum. Huda has already worked with me on Sai and is a specialist on the Egyptian New Kingdom.

Much support for my mission also comes from a special friend – Mr Magzoub, the owner of the Nubian Guesthouse at Abri, has helped me in many ways since 2018 since he knows everybody in the region. His help covers many categories, from supervising the construction work of our digging house, bringing delicious sweets his wife made, to organising bus tickets and letting us use his WLAN in the guesthouse (since the mobile connection in Ginis is much worse than in Abri) to friendly chats on a terrace above the Nile. Magzoub kindly keeps me updated about everything in the region while I am in Germany and I cannot wait to be back there with a view on the beautiful sand dunes.

Julia Budka is an archaeologist specialised in Egypt and Sudan, currently Professor at LMU Munich, Germany. For the blog of her current MUAFS project in Sudan, visit www.sudansurvey.gwi.uni-muenchen.de/