Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses ethnographic perspectives on ancient cultivation practices and land-use in northern Sudan in the context of environmental change.

Paper long abstract:

Macrobotanical and microbotanical remains from the pharaonic town of Amara West (1300-1070 BC) are being studied to examine how subsistence systems were impacted by increased aridity and riverine changes in the late 2nd millennium BC. The town was originally located on an island, but a river channel north of the site dried up and this would have reduced the amount of suitable agricultural land. Ethnographic research in northern Sudan is revealing details of changing agricultural practices, crop choices and land-use over the past 100 years. Identifying which practices are more 'traditional' is helping to form a baseline for comparisons with the archaeological past. Details from interviews with elderly farmers have been augmented by the availability of detailed accounts of traditional agriculture in the early twentieth century. However, ethnographic studies provide new 'oral histories' for particular localities. Here we discuss narratives of agricultural land-use by farmers based on Ernetta Island. Nile islands have been important today and in the past as there are fewer areas of wide floodplain compared to further north in Egypt. Farmers described detailed categories of agricultural land-use. The interviews together with satellite imagery reveal how categories of cultivable land around Ernetta Island have changed greatly since the 1960s - indicating how environmental changes can impact farming strategies at annual, decadal and longer timescales. Other reasons for recent agricultural changes will also be discussed. Perspectives from present-day Ernetta Island are throwing light on ancient cultivation practices and land-use in the context of environmental change.