What is it about?
This study reconstructs 12,500 years of Nile landscape change at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jebel Barkal in Sudan, home to ancient pyramids, temples and the former city of Napata. Using sediment cores, luminescence dating, radiocarbon dating and archaeology, we show how long-term river stability helped shape the environmental setting in which this ancient center of Kush developed.
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Photo by Shelby Murphy Figueroa on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The study shows how river and sediment dynamics can help explain where complex societies emerged and endured. It also offers a new environmental perspective on one of Africa’s great ancient civilizations and demonstrates how changing landscapes shaped places now preserved as world heritage.
Perspectives
This research grew from years of fieldwork among the floodplains, temples and pyramids of Jebel Barkal, and from a fascination with how rivers shape both landscapes and human history. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects was seeing geomorphology, geochronology and archaeology come together to reveal the buried landscape that helped sustain an ancient city.
Jan Peeters
University of Michigan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Holocene Nile dynamics shaped the physical and cultural landscape of ancient Nubia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2529986123.
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