The region of the Fourth Nile Cataract in northern Sudan is a hitherto little researched part of the Nile valley which will soon be ?ooded by the rising waters of a large hydro-electric dam. The reservoir will cause the irreversible loss of the rich cultural heritage of this remote part of the Middle Nile. As an answer to this threat the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of the Sudan inaugurated the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, in which numerous international missions from several European countries and the United States participate. The volume assembles 20 papers from the ? elds of archaeology, ethnography and geography originally presented at the 2nd International Conference on the Archaeology of the 4th Nile Cataract held at Humboldt University Berlin in 2005. The contributions span a wide thematic and temporal range from general survey results and site excavation reports from different concessions to specialised articles on burial types, pottery, rock art, inscriptional material, site preservation and on the modern life of the Manasir people.