Acknowledgments
The term “Early Makuria” was coined with the help of Prof. Włodzimierz Godlewski, to whom I owe much for his unwavering support and encouragement, while the idea of the Early Makuria Research Project came to life as a natural outcome of the surveys and excavations undertaken in the Dongola Reach and as part of the Fourth Nile Cataract Salvage Campaign. It would not have been possible to implement the project in the field without the approval, cooperation, and steadfast support of both the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw (PCMA) and the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums in Khartoum (NCAM). I am, therefore, extremely grateful to the former directors of the PCMA, Prof. Michał Gawlikowski, Prof. Piotr Bieliński, Prof. Tomasz Waliszewski and the present director, Assist. Prof. Artur Obłuski, as well as to the former directors of the NCAM, Dr. Hassan H. Idris and Dr. Abedelrahman A. Mohamed.
I am also greatly indebted to the Qatar Museums Authority and the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project for sponsoring four seasons of fieldwork and contributing to this publication.
Unlimited gratitude is due to several institutions for their generous funding of scientific analysis and post-excavation research:
Isotope Analysis and Radiocarbon Dating of Human Remains from El-Zuma
This research was conducted as part of the Environmental Changes and the Collapse of the Kingdom of Meroe project, which received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 665778, and the National Science Centre, Poland, under the POLONEZ grant agreement no. 2016/21/P/HS3/00893.
Paleogenomic Analysis of El-Zuma Samples
These data were collected and analysed as part of a larger project, Paleogenomic Investigation of Ancient Nubian Populations in the Past 3,000 Years, funded by the National Geographic Society EC-224R-18, GR-000039064.
Animals in Funerary Rituals at the El-Zuma Cemetery
This research was conducted as part of the Opportunities for the El-Zuma/El-Detti and Tanqasi microregions economy research on the basis of animal bone remains from the funerary context, which received funding from the National Science Centre, Poland, under the PRELUDIUM grant agreement no. 2014/13/N/HS3/04620.
Ornaments and Personal Adornments
The study of the El-Zuma objects is part of a broader research project aimed at the interdisciplinary analysis of Nubian personal adornments funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, grant agreement no. DEC-2013/09/D/HS3/04508.
The local community in El-Zuma was always extremely welcoming and supportive of our mission. Our heartfelt thanks go to them for their unfailing help, friendship, and warm hospitality. They made all members of the team feel at home, which made our work a great pleasure.
Mahmoud El-Tayeb
Warsaw, 2020