From raw resources to food processing: Archaeobotanical and ethnographic insights from New Kingdom Amara West and present-day Ernetta Island in Northern Sudan

Archaeobotanical evidence from Amara West is being studied to investigate diet and agriculture in a New Kingdom colonial town (Fig. 2.1). The archaeobotanical record for food from settlement sites most commonly provides evidence for the raw resources and stages of preparation, by-products and waste as opposed to finished foodstuffs. An ethnobotanical study of agriculture and diet in Nubian villages, and especially on Ernetta Island nearby Amara West, is providing insight into crop cultivation, processing and food preparation in a Nile island environment (Fig. 2.2).