Re-examining Jebel Moya figurines: new directions for figurine studies in Sudan

ABSTRACT This paper builds upon the excavation work carried out to date at Jebel Moya, south-central Sudan. It focuses on the surviving figurine assemblage from Wellcome’s excavations (1911–1914), curated at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, and a recently re-discovered Wellcome Collection photographic archive. Too often in Sudan, parallels are drawn between sites far apart, something that is culture-historical in its essence. Drawing upon all extant information on context, the Jebel Moya figurines are examined here as part of the current project’s wider aims of understanding a complex multi-period site. A framework for continuing discussion on figurines that places them firmly within the local population is proposed. This methodology views figurines as objects inhabiting various and different worlds. It is therefore a move away from previous universalist treatments of Sudan north of Khartoum that obscure the role of figurines in local and wider social relations and can be applied at other sites.