This online research archive is dedicated to the rock art of the Middle Nile valley. Initially, it presents several thousand high resolution digital photographs, as well as video files, drawings and written information on the petroglyphs of the Fourth Nile Cataract region in northern Sudan. This riverine landscape has been lost in the waters of the Merowe Dam reservoir after the completion of the dam in 2008. Numerous national and international teams had been working on rescue projects concerned with the archaeology and ethnography of this area (link).

Petroglpyhs, rock art pecked or incised into the rock surfaces, are among the most common finds in the Fourth Cataract region. Thousands of petroglyph localities have been identified and recorded. Zoomporphs are the most commonly depicted motif types. They include numerous cattle and camel images, but also giraffes, birds, elephants and others. Anthropomorphs, boats and geometric motifs occur, as well as Medieval Christian and Arab inscriptions.

The rock art of the Fourth Nile Cataract also contains a strong acoustic component. At rock art sites numerous so-called 'rock gongs' were identified, resonant boulders that emnate sound when struck with a hard implement. Nearly 1000 slabs and bouders bearing traces of sound making were documented. Together with the rock art imagery, these percussion instruments give important information about the symbolic use of this Upper Nubian landscape over time.

The material presented here can be used for research purposes only; it is subjected to copyright (link).