ISAC is delighted to share that Beads from Excavations at Qustul, Adindan, Serra East, Dorginarti, Ballana, and Kalabsha: A-Group, Post-A-Group, C-Group, N-Type, P-Type, Pan Grave, Kerma, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom, by Joanna Then-Obłuska, published in 2022 as volume 11 in the Nubian Expedition series, has received an exceptionally positive review in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa. Reviewer Carla Klehm commends Joanna Then-Obłuska’s “magnificent volume” for its meticulous scholarship, exemplary organization, and beautifully illustrated catalog of ancient beads excavated by ISAC teams in the 1960s across Nubian sites including Qustul, Adindan, Serra East, Dorginarti, and Ballana. The review highlights the book’s significance for researchers and educators alike, celebrating it as an invaluable open-access resource that deepens understanding of Northeast African archaeology and material culture. Concluding the review Klehm writes:
"Comprehensive volumes of this kind are hard to find, but lead to new, and better, syntheses of major cultural traditions, craft production and a variety of other topics. Beads from Excavations at Qustul, Adindan, Serra East, Dorgininarti, Ballana, and Kalabsha is comprehensive, well-organised, user-friendly and written by a leading bead specialist and expert in the archaeology of Northeast Africa. Previous publications on the topic and these collections do not have nearly the same level of detail nor anything like this number of colour images. The groundwork that it would take to appreciate the extent of the collection and range of materials, let alone locate, organise and study the data would not only require an in-person visit to the Oriental Institute in Chicago, but also potentially weeks — if not months — of time. Even for a more casual reader, this catalogue should raise awareness of, and access to, these exquisite, elaborately crafted artefacts from ancient Nubia’s past."
The review is available via subscription through Taylor & Francis Online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0067270X.2025.2529111.
