Jebel Moya is an archaeological site in the southern Gezira Plain, Sudan, approximately 250 km (150 miles) south southeast of Khartoum.

Present day flood levels were in place by 3500 BCE, as the area transitioned from swampy conditions to a savanna as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone moved south.

This places the environment of Jebel Moya close to transitional belts, in both modern day, and likely the Classic and Meroitic periods.

[5] The Jebel Moya massif is a geological granite outcrop of the Gezira Plain's underlying Basement Complex, which breaks through the above Sandstone Formation.

The Basement Complex contains an underground aquifer, which results in fresh water rising to the surface/ground level around outcrops like Jebel Moya.

[4] Excavations at Jebel Moya began 29 January 1911 and continued until April 1914 when further plans were abandoned due to the onset of World War I.

In total, 3137 individuals were excavated, which marks Jebel Moya as the largest burial complex yet found in sub-Saharan Africa.

Unable to continue after the Second World War, the project to complete osteological work was transferred to J.C. Trevor, who employed R. Mukherjee and C.R.

[6] During the 41 years in between excavating and the 1955 study[7] re-examining the remains from Jebel Moya, a significant amount of material was lost due to poor storage conditions.

[9] Despite the setbacks caused by these conditions, the 1955 report was groundbreaking for its use of the now common Mahalanobis D2 distance to craniometric data; according to the Mukherjee, “The result was a measure of group divergence between Jebel Moya and 19 other African samples.”[7] Due to errors with stratigraphic information from the original excavations, Addison's original dating (1000-400 BCE)[8] for occupation and use of the site was inaccurate.

In 1994, Rudolf Gerharz’ reinterpretation of the dating of Jebel Moya, based on Addison's data, included three more accurate time phases for the site.

[10] Current hypotheses posit that a network of craft communities allowed the spread of ideas and animals into central/south-central Sudan between 6000 and 5000 BCE.

[4] Accelerator Mass Spectrometry dating of bone samples from Jebel Moya were unsuccessful due to lack of collagen.

The lack of data from the rest of the valley prevents a concrete answer pertaining to the potentiality of a permanent settlement or a seasonal one during Phase II.

According to Addison's report, “There was little evidence of a standard mortuary practice; tomb types differed in appearance, body position varied widely, and graves ‘were oriented to every point of the compass.

[6] There is some type of spatial relationship present in the Northeast Sector of the cemetery, where a higher percentage of “rich” burials are found, and fewer “poor” ones.

While there is a large amount of uniformity in artifact categories, there is a distinct pattern unique to "rich" burials, creating an area of prestige.

[7] Artifacts found at habitation sites include lip studs, beads and other ornaments, hundreds of stone tools, some imported objects, and ‘several tons of potsherds’.

[8] Artifacts associated with the graves include: amulets, anklets, armlets, beads, bone point implements, borers, bowls, bracelets, celts, clips, coils, earrings, earstuds, grindstones, hair clips, hair ornaments, knives, lipstuds, maceheads, needles, nosestuds, pebbles, pendant, pins, quirms, rings, rubbers, scarabs, shells, and statuettes.

Burials 263 and 524 in the East and Northeast sectors respectively, each contained a bronze statuette of the Egyptian god Shu, dating either during the Napatan or Meroitic period.

A scarab in a burial in the Northeast Sector of the site was described by Frank Addison as a steatite scaraboid, “engraved on both the back and the base.

In 2017, domesticated-type sorghum chaff imprints in ceramics and other clay artifacts have been reported from the area of Atbara River (eastern Sudan).

A number of hand made pottery forms likened to that found at Jebel Moya indicate a trade network and contemporary existence between it and Abu Geili.

[6] Three Period 3 sherds of pottery were petrographically tested; they all had common characteristics, which include “abundant, poorly-sorted, generally angular inclusions of quartz and feldspar in a non-calcareous clay matrix”.

Craniometric testing by Murkhajee and Rao concluded that "physical characters of the Jebel Moyans are reliably represented by the mean values for the sample" (Mukherjee); that is, the population was stable in a heterogeneous composition over time (3000 years).

Irish et al. was modeled on the original craniometric testing done by Murkhajee and Rao, and results were similar; ‘indications of outside biological influence’.

Gerharz theory suggests that Jebel Moya was an ‘annual meeting place of widely distributed segmentary family units, the common identity of which was maintained by their periodical cohabitation there’.

Culturally, there appears to be a mosaic of northern, southern, and western influences, incorporated into a distinct Jebel Moya Complex.

Her dental anthropological study of occlusal macrowear, buccal microwear, and carious lesions give evidence that the inhabitants of Jebel Moya were pastoralists.

[5] It is unknown why Jebel Moya was abandoned; one possibility, according to M. Brass, is the alteration of trade and social networks in the southern Gezira Plain due to the spread of Christianity during the 600s CE.