The UCL Qatar research, investigating the iron industries of the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan, is attempting to identify 2000-year-old iron production workshops.
Working with colleagues from UCL Qatar, Dr Chris Carey, Senior Lecturer and part of the newly-established Archaeology Department at the University of Brighton, has applied novel methods that have enabled archaeologists to map structures and deposits deep underground.
These underground maps have been used to uncover iron production workshops complete with furnaces that were part of the economic engine room of the kingdom, which ruled northern Sudan and at certain times parts of Egypt between the 9thcentury BC and the 4thcentury AD. These workshops would have supplied the Kushites with iron tools and weapons and personal adornments.
The discoveries produced a Eureka moment for lead researcher Dr Jane Humphris (UCL Qatar). “Chris was able to tell us where to dig and how deep to dig and we soon found what we were looking for”.
“We had been searching for two years at other sites for workshops, without success, but this time was different. We uncovered a workshop with two furnace structures – only the third workshop of its kind ever to be found at the Royal City of Meroe.
“It was a very, very exciting moment. I texted Chris in Brighton immediately with the news.”