Ritual Deposit at Bir Nurayet: Fertility Cult at the Foot of Gebel Magardi, Sudan

Abstract Bir Nurayet is a place in the Red Sea Hills at the foot of Jebel Magardi. One of the most significant rock art galleries on the African continent exists near this beautiful isolated mountain. In 2010, a stone chest was discovered in one of the valleys, containing a deposit of several dozen clay figurines, mostly phallic-shaped with a few representations of animals, miniature vessels and their fragments, as well as bronze products. Thanks to the radiocarbon date obtained from charcoal, the chronology of the collection was set in the second half of the 6th century AD . The discovery of votive goods is of great value – it allows us to look into the very obscure sphere of rituals of the Blemmyean community that inhabited these areas at that time. Without a doubt, we are dealing here with one of the manifestations of the fertility cult, which was common in the past in many different versions.