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E-book Travelling the Korosko Road : Archaeological Exploration in Sudan’s Eastern Desert

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Penilaian

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We wanted to have this experience to assess whether our hypotheses were well founded. Hassan, an old camel driver of few words but who knew all the “secrets” of a desert journey, served as our guide.From the expedition diary: 12 February 1990: “Since a few hours, we have been travelling on our teetering rides across an immense stony plain towards Jebel Maqran, a tiny outcrop that looms in the void and fades into nothingness.We realize that Hassan is following the trail of an old caravan route without losing sight of the jebel rising ephemerally before us. The track runs straight to our destination, which, like a lighthouse,1. Explorations in Sudan’s Eastern Nubian Desert, 1989 to 2006Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni shows us the shortest path.When we climb over the low hills and the jebel disappears from our view, we know by the marks left by countless animals that travelled the same route that we are going in the right direction.When the track disappears, erased by a sudden sandstorm, Hassan rides on confidently into the emptiness of the desert using Jebel Maqran - now floating in the overheated air and seemingly farther and farther away - as reference point. “How many kilometres?” we ask Hassan, who slows down and looks at us with surprise. “You mean how many days or hours!” he exclaimed. And so we learn our first lesson of the desert: distances are calculated in time and not kilometres. At some point, we realize that our guide is no longer following the direct route that we had travelled until then. We question him with a look. He does not answer but the explanation comes after a few kilometres. A well stands before us and Hassan, still silent, draws water for his camels. Perfectly adapted to the desert climate, a camel can withstand a weight loss of up to 40% from dehydration and quickly restore its water balance by consuming an amount of water equal to half of its weight. A thirsty camel can drink 100 litres of water in a few minutes. Watering our animals takes little time and we continue on our way.The second lesson of the desert comes at sunset, when Hassan stops to set up the night camp under the shelter of a sandstone slab that covers us like a roof. You do not travel at night in the desert and, usually, you stop at a place sheltered from the wind. The rock is engraved with graffiti of different periods. We see prehistoric signs, a barely visible hieroglyphic inscription erased by time and, scattered on the ground, pottery fragments. There is also Hassan’s name, scratched on the rock when he camped there the first time - a timeless place and tradition. We calculate the day’s travel: our camels covered about 27km in ten hours. It is a customary distance if the terrain is flat and unobstructed.” It is the confirmation of distances we already know: the Darb el-Arba’in, a track of 1200km, can be covered in 40 days at 30km a day. The Muheilatrack, 160km long, takes instead only six days at a little more than 25km a day.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

930.1624 CAS t

Penerbit

London : Archaeopress Publishing., 2020

Deskripsi Fisik

251 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781789698046

Klasifikasi

930.1624

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Archaeology in Sudan

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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