Jens Weschenfelder

Since I was a teenager the stories of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, two famous movie archaeologists, have fascinated me. After finishing school, I left my home on Ruegen, the biggest of Germany’s islands, where I was born, and went to Berlin, the capital of Germany. At first I tried to apply to study art, but due to different circumstances I started to study the archaeology of Egypt and Sudan, as well as the archaeology of Europe. During my time at University I focused more and more on the Kerma period, the Bronze Age culture of the Middle Nile region, and the analysis of pottery from different periods of Sudanese (pre)history. Since 2008 I have been working with Cornelia Kleinitz on the graffiti in Musawwarat es-Sufra.

After graduating recently I had the opportunity to start working on the Mograt Island Archaeological Mission. During fieldwork I concentrate on the Kerma cemetery near al-Karmal. In the campaigns that we hope will follow I want to go on excavating in al-Karmal as well as to start to survey the whole island, evaluating the other Kerma cemetery sites.

In Berlin I used to live with my sister, who is also an archaeologist as well as ethnologist (an ethnologists is a scientist who works and interacts with different people around the world to better understand their culture). Now that she has moved to England to work, I live alone in a quiet area near the centre of Berlin. I have been playing volleyball for more than 20 years and want to go on as long as possible. I have also been a trainer for volleyball and beach volleyball for about 15 years. To work in Sudan as well as Germany allows me to work in the best weather conditions of both countries and gives me the opportunity to be part of ongoing cultural exchange with different communities. My Arabic is awful but every time I’m in Sudan I try to improve it!