An Egyptian Villa with Animal Pens in New Kingdom Nubia: Reinterpreting Building H4 and Area H4W on Sai Island

In recent years, an increase in studies on settlement archaeology, households, cities, and urban patterns in Sudan, especially the period of the second millennium bc, is notable. These new studies include fieldwork as well as the reassessment of past excavations and archival material. Using a new digital, photorealistic, on-the-ground approach, this article presents the reinvestigation of a specific residential complex in Sai City in New Kingdom Nubia (modern Sudan). The previous reconstruction of this area based on 3D scans is challenged, and we suggest the presence of animal pens of a form that is, remarkably, only otherwise attested for ancient Egypt in the city of Amarna. Our reinterpretation of the adjacent building demonstrates that it was a traditional villa, paralleling those known from Amarna. Together, the villa and animal- pen area formed an enclosed estate that again finds strong parallels at Amarna, providing the opportunity to discuss aspects of ‘Egypt in microcosm’ beyond Egypt’s borders.