Digging a royal city. Eight years of Ca' Foscari University of Venice research at Jebel Barkal

The Italian Archaeological Mission in Sudan has been working since 1973 at Jebel Barkal, investigating a specific area of the ancient Napata; here, king Natakamani (1st century AD) planned an impressive royal district, leaving the older palaces built since the Napatan period and creating a new vast Meroitic sector. The last five seasons have been particularly productive thanks to the support of the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP), that have allowed us to conduct more extended excavations and inspired also academic studies. In particular, a two-year postdoctoral work about the updating of Jebel Barkal documentation and bibliography is going on, preliminary to the final publication of the project. Furthermore two postgraduate researches are currently in progress: one concerning plasters and pigments used in the decoration of the royal palace of Natakamani, the other regarding its architectural features with a comparative approach. This paper intends to give an overview of the activities conducted in Sudan by the Italian Mission of Ca’ Foscari University, principally focusing on the latest seasons and on the results of the above-mentioned lines of investigation.