Studia Etnologiczne i Antropologiczne, t. 23, nr 1 ISSN 2353-9860 (czasopismo elektroniczne) https://doi.org/10.31261/SEIA.2023.23.01.01 Mariusz Drzewiecki University of Warsaw https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1290-9425 Joanna Ciesielska University of Warsaw https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8087-3079 Maciej Kurcz University of Silesia in Katowice https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9505-7311 Agnes Dudek Adam Mickiewicz Institute https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2467-2544 Soba Expedition Preliminary Fieldwork Report (2022–2023) The fieldwork was focused on activities involving the communities living in Soba. In the previous seasons (2019–2020 and 2021–2022), it became clear that most of the current residents of modern Marabiyya, Gana’ab, and Salama (the districts of Soba closest and overlaying the ar- chaeological remains of the former metropolis) have settled in the region in the last decades. They came from various regions of Sudan and the neighbouring countries (mainly South Sudan, Eritrea, Egypt, and Ethiopia). On the one hand, these rapidly growing communities with their own histories, traditions, and customs attempt to form ties with the new place of residence and seek to understand the surrounding landscape. On the other hand, the archaeological site is being overbuilt with mod- ern settlement and is constantly under threat of urban and rural expan- sion. In this context, our aim was to integrate various researchers (both from Poland and Sudan) with local communities, making the first steps towards sustainability in heritage studies in Soba. The purpose of the program was to meet the largest group of resi- dents, in this case these were school-age children as well as community Nagla Abdeen Mohammed National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan Yassin Abdelmajid Bashir Suliman freelance