Compiled by Helmut Satzinger
With a foreword by Julia Budka
Every archaeologist working in northern Sudan has experienced this: puzzled looks by Nubian workmen addressed with some obviously un- comprehensive instructions and, vice- versa, confusion because the workmen are speaking something very difficult to understand... well – in the Land of the Mahas people, Nobiin is of course frequently found at archaeological excavations! This may therefore cause quite some problems, especially for excavators used to learn the colloquial language ‘on site’ in various regions, e.g. in Upper Egypt.
With my background of excavating in Egypt since 1997 and starting work on Sai Island in 2011, I quickly noted down as my personal wish to assimi- late new vocabulary necessary for the work in northern Sudan. Back in my first season, I even had problems with such basics as addressing my beloved and numerous pottery sherds for the workmen because fukh r was not un- derstandable for all. To support a better mutual understanding, I was thinking about how useful a swift vocabulary list could be for checking basic archae- ological terms needed in fieldwork, not only in the local Sudani Arabic, but also in Nobiin. During the European Research Council AcrossBorders project and its field seasons on Sai Island from 2013 to 2017, this wish for such a wordlist became eventually more structured and received some outlines...
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