Ancient Sudan (Kush or Ethiopia), Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia in Late Antiquity. Part I
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
June 04, 2010
(Links to all fifteen articles can be found here: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/from-napatan-kush-to-meroitic-ethiopia-motherland-to-oromos-sidamas-arabic-speaking-sudanese.html)
All three nations constitute today the quasi-totality of Eastern Africa´s populations, in the area between a) the Mediterranean and b) the northernmost confines of Somalia and the Occupied Afar Land, and the Great Lakes Region.
Egyptians
Today´s Egyptians, either Coptic or Muslim, are the descendants of the Ancient Egyptians, and despite their particular, linguistic arabization, they are totally unrelated to Arabs and Semites.
Nubians and all the Nilo-Saharan peoples
Today´s Nubians, either they live in Egypt (south of Luxor) or Sudan (from the Egyptian – Sudanese border to Debbah), are descendants of the Ancient Nubians. Similarly, descendants of the Ancient Nubians are the Nuba (in Kordofan), the Nuer, the Dinka, the Shilluk, the Luo, and the other Nilo-Saharan populations of Sudan and Kenya.
Kushites - - Ethiopians
The descendants of the Ancient Kushites are characterized today by an even greater diversity; this is due to the constant phenomenon of migration that we attest in the millennia long History of Ancient Kush / Ethiopia.
1. Arabic-speaking Sudanese
In Sudan, the descendents of the Ancient Kushites / Ethiopians are today´s Arabic-speaking Sudanese who dwell Sudan´s central provinces; they are ethnically, linguistically and historically unrelated with
a) the modern Nubians of the North (descendants of the Ancient Nubians),
b) the modern Bejas of the East (descendants of the Ancient Blemmyes, a Hamitic – Kushitic nation known since the Antiquity),
c) the modern Furis, Nuba, Shilluk, Dinka, Nuer, Anuak and other Nilo-Saharan nations that inhabit Darfur, Kordofan and the South, and
d) the Hausa and Fulani-speaking populations that are scattered throughout Sudan and are of Western Hamitic background.
Today´s Arabic-speaking Sudanese are only one part of the genuine descendants of the Ancient Kushites / Ethiopians, who in the aftermath the destruction of Meroe, the capital of Late Antiquity Ancient Kush / Ethiopia, shaped the long-lived Christian states of Makuria and Alodia, before accepting Islam, following the advance of the Caliphate from the North, and later the expansion of the Funj who attacked from the West (Sahara). Their linguistic arabization was the consequence of their adhesion to Islam before 500 to 700 years, and was devoid of any ethnic or cultural dimension.
2. Modern Oromos, Sidamas, Kaffas, Shekachos, Kambaatas and Hadiyas
However, the modern Arabic-speaking Sudanese are not the only descendants of the Ancient Kushites /Ethiopians. Modern Oromos, Sidamas, Kaffas, Shekachos, Kambaatas and Hadiyas originate also from the Ancient Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia (which is totally unrelated to the racist and totalitarian modern state of Abyssinia that unlawfully usurped the name of Ethiopia). Through the ages, waves of migration to places further in the South became a customary reaction of the Ancient Kushites / Ethiopians.
Kushitic Migrations to the South
A. First Migration (1500 – 1200 BCE)
The bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population was located in the area of Kerma as early as the first half of the second millennium BCE. Following the Egyptian expansion (ca. 1500 BCE), the bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population gradually migrated further to the South and settled mainly around the area of the fourth cataract and Napata (today´s Karima).
B. Second Migration (600 – 400 BCE)
The bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population was located in the area of Karima when the Kushitic / Ethiopian dynasty ruled Egypt in the late eighth and early seventh century BCE. Following the two successive destructions of Napata (592 BCE by Psammetichus II; 525 BCE by Kambujiya / Cambyses of Iran) the bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population migrated further to the South and settled mainly in the area where Atbarah river meets the Nile between the fifth and the sixth cataracts (with their capital at Merw.t known as Meroe to Ancient Greeks and Romans, nearby today´s town of Bagrawiyah).
C. Third Migration (360 – 400 CE – following Abyssinian invasion by Ezana)
The bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population was located in the area of Meroe for many centuries until the fourth century CE. Following the destruction of Meroe by Ezana of Axum, the bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population migrated further to the South alongside the Blue Nile, and dispersed in mountains and valleys that were out of reach for the Axumite Abyssinians (centered between Axum and Adoulis, the famous Red Sea harbour); they thus progressively inhabited the mountainous area, east of the White Nile basin, down to today´s North Kenya.
D. Fourth Migration (1275 – 1400 CE)
The remainder of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population, which did not migrate, gradually adhered to Christianity; this religion was diffused in today´s Sudan (Kush / Ethiopia) from the North (Roman Egypt), not the Southeast (Axumite Abyssinia). Less than 100 years after Meroe´s destruction (ca, 450 CE), the bulk of the Kushitic / Ethiopian population, which did not migrate, was around two major centers, namely Dunqulah Agouza (the capital of the Christian Kushitic / Ethiopian state of Makuria between the third and the fourth cataracts) and Soba (the capital of the Christian Kushitic / Ethiopian state of Alodia, in Khartoum´s southern suburbs).
Makuria and Alodia, the two Christian Kushitic / Ethiopian states, ancestral to today´s Arabic-speaking Sudanese, Oromos, Hadiyas and other Kushitic peoples, prospered for many centuries before the 13th – 14th century Islamic expansion of Mameluk-ruled Egypt drove them to extinction. The process lasted more than a century and produced further Kushitic / Ethiopian waves of migration to the South of Alodia.
The pseudo-Christian Abyssinian kingdom of those days (ruled by the fallacious Solomonic dynasty) did not bother to offer help – for the ximple reason that it was not Ethiopian and it was not Christian. The relations of the Christian Kushitic Ethiopian states with the Christian Semitic Abyssinian kingdom will be the subject of another series of articles, as there was never any alliance among them, and the Kushites always considered the Semitic Abyssinians as an alien, non – African element, just as today´s Oromos, Hadiyas, Afars and Sidamas revile the barbaric Amhara and Tigray tribes.
The present series of articles will cover the period of the Meroitic Kingdom of Ethiopia (with capital at Meroe, today´s Bagrawiyah, ca. 1300 km south of the present Egyptian – Sudanese border: 315 BCE – 355 CE), and starts at the point the previous series ended, namely the reign of Nastasen (335 – 315 BCE) who was the successor of Akhratan and reigned at the times of Alexander the Great. During this new series of articles, I will provide with further evidence that the non-Egyptian antiquities of the Egyptian South and the Sudanese North should not be called "Nubian" but Kushitic – Ethiopian, and that the Ancient Nubians were rebellious and inimical to the Ancient Kushites / Ethiopians.
Nastasen of Ethiopia, the Rise of Meroe, Alexander the Great, and the Ptolemies
Nastasen reigned at the critical times of the end of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran that controlled Western Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, and Egypt up to the borders of Kush / Ethiopia. The campaigns of Alexander the Great of Macedonia and the formation of a substitute empire spanning from Macedonia, Greece, the Aegean Sea and Egypt to the confines of Central Asia and Northern India were not necessarily of so great historical impact as his short-lived kingdom´s split to four successive empires that shaped developments in Africa, Asia and Europe for several hundreds of years.
More particularly for the Sudanese Kingdom of Kush / Ethiopia, the developments mattered greatly because the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt offered a real independence and reinvigoration at the socioeconomic, cultural, religious and political levels. When the Macedonian Emperor died, after having made Babylon the capital of his vast state, Egypt and Libya were given to one of his generals, Ptolemy, who became a Pharaoh in Egypt and ruled from Memphis and Alexandria. This meant that the northern neighbor of Kush / Ethiopia, Kemet (as was the ancient name of Egypt), would be ruled locally and not as a province of a vast kingdom (as the Achaemenid Iran was) with a capital located more than a thousand of kilometers afar).
Alexander´s interest for Egypt was primary; not only did he worship Amun at Siwah but he also had Amun´s temple at Luxor renovated and extended. This act would augur good relations with Meroe, the Ethiopian capital at the immediate south of Alexander´s empire. By founding Alexandria, Alexander offered Egypt the possibility to possess an important port of call that could eventually turn out to be a major commercial and cultural center in an increasingly interconnected world. The infrastructure was already there; the Achaemenids had many roads built to interconnect their empire´s provinces. Communications had tremendously increased, and post service were there. In addition, Darius I reopened the old Suez canal that linked the Nile with the Red Sea (contrarily with the modern canal), explored all coasts of the Red Sea, and inaugurated regular maritime service between Egypt and Fars (lit. Persia, politically the central province of the Iranian empire, with control of the Persian Gulf´s northern coastline) through circumnavigation of the Arabic peninsula. The Ptolemies managed to perfectly materialize Alexander´s greatest dreams as regards Egypt.
All this greatly increased the importance of the geo-strategic position of Kush / Ethiopia. With all the European, Asiatic and African borderlines of Alexander´s immense empire taken into consideration, Meroe was the most significant capital of a neighboring state. This was a unique moment in the History of Kush / Ethiopia (today´s Sudan) because the country was in fact one of the three most important countries west of China.
Carthage was important as well, but her influence covered Western Mediterranean, Northwest Africa, and Iberia. Rome was still marginal; the Yemenite kingdoms of Qataban, Himyar, Sheba, and Hadhramawt were relatively small and powerful only in terms of Indian Ocean navigation, and Arabian peninsula land and desert trade routes. Azania (most of today´s Somalia, plus Kenya´s and Tanzania´s coastlands) was a Yemenite colony already, and the numerous small, pre-Asokan, Indian states did not have the importance of Meroe.
Similarly, the marginal, tiny and insignificant kingdom of Axumite Abyssinia was limited in the arid mountains between Adulis (its harbour located nearby today´s Massawa in Eritrea) and Axum (nearby Mekelle in today´s Abyssinia).
Contrarily to the isolated kingdom of Axum, Ethiopia with Meroe as its capital, was of great value to Ptolemaic Egypt because of its control over all African trade routes through the Sahara to the westernmost confines of the continent.
Meroitic Ethiopia was never a Red Sea maritime power; the Kushites / Ethiopians were a river- and desert-trade nation with little interest for maritime navigation. On the contrary, Kush / Ethiopia was of seminal importance for commercial and cultural exchanges throughout Central and Western Africa. Every monument that testifies to Egyptian influence throughout the Sahara to the Niger basin and delta area is due to communication with or through Kush / Ethiopia. In fact, many of the indications of Egyptian influence throughout Africa bear witness to diffusion not of Egyptian but Kushitic / Ethiopian influence, as the two cultures were almost identical.
As the Seleucid capital Antioch (in today´s Southern Turkey) highly portrayed the Asiatic Oriental Heritage, Alexandria profiled the African Heritage thanks to the commercial contacts that the Ptolemaic dynasty maintained with the great capital Meroe, ancestral land of today´s Oromos, Sidamas and Arabic-speaking Sudanese.
The excellent and durable Kushitic / Ethiopian – Egyptian relations are evidenced by thousands of excavated monuments and heralded indeed the perfect Kushitic / Ethiopian – Roman relations; due to ruling family´s familiarity with Greek language and art, and because of the stressed Greek character of Alexandria, main Ptolemaic capital, we attest in Meroe a certain acquaintance with Greek language and art as well.
The channels of Kushitic / Ethiopian – Egyptian communication were double: through the Nile, and through the Red Sea. The Ptolemies established a port of call and African trade center at Ptolemais Theron (a royal name meaning Ptolemais of the Hunters) at today´s Suakin (also spelt as Sawakin), 50 km south of Port Sudan, and from there a great part of the Meroitic Ethiopian – Ptolemaic Egyptian trade was transferred. Although on today´s Sudanese soil and evidently close (less than 300 km) to Ethiopia´s capital, Meroe, Ptolemais Theron was an Egyptian colony.
The Reign of Nastasen (335 - 315 BCE)
This new chapter of North-Eastern African History started with Nastasen. Despite the importance of his reign, not many monuments have been excavated thus far from the period of his ca. 20 years long reign. Most probably, he was son to Harsiyotef and Pelekh, a secondary royal wife. Nastasen´s wife was Kandake Sakhmakh.
The most important monument from Nastasen´s reign was excavated at Kawa, nearby Dunqulah (Dongola), but is believed to have initially been erected at Napata (the old Kushitic capital, nearby today´s Karima). It is a round-topped stele dating in his 8th year of reign; it features a scene with several figures and a 68 lines text in Egyptian Hieroglyphics that were composed as a sort of royal Annals. The names of Nastasen´s mother and wife are mentioned in this text, which provides with a description of Nastasen´s coronation.
Nastasen had been called by Amun of Napata, and he therefore traveled to the old Kushitic / Ethiopian capital, and was crowned in the Amun Temple. Following the coronation, a great feast took place, and then the new Qore (King in the Meroitic Ethiopian language) proceeded to the other great cities of Ancient Sudan (Ethiopia), namely Gematon (today´s Kawa), Pnubs (today´s Tabo), and thence back to Napata and Tar.
Nastasen´s stele features also a description of Nastasen´s war with Khambeswten, an Upper Egyptian upstart ruler, who is also known through other textual documentation as well. Khambeswten (also known as Khababash and Khabbash) led an Upper Egyptian revolution against the Achaemenid Iranian rule and controlled some territory for three years (338 – 335 BCE).
The official pharaonic name of Khambeswten, as known through a later text, namely a decree issued by Ptolemy I, Senen setep en Ptah, sheds some light onto Khambeswten´s possible faith, belief and religious ideology; this name brings the Upper Egyptian upstart closer to the Memphitic Ptah polytheistic religion and ideology, at the antipodes of Alexander´s and Ptolemy´s religious policies, and perception of Egyptian religion.
The battle must have taken place in the Northern Meroitic provinces, probably between today´s Kerma (3rd cataract) and Wadi Halfa (2nd cataract); it must have been quite difficult for Nastasen probably because of the alliance that the Upper Egyptian upstart Khambeswten may have stricken with Nubian tribes (Medyay - Mdyy). Indeed, after his victory and the offerings he made to Meroitic gods, Nastasen had to pursue the Nubian tribesmen who are said to have caused troubles to the Meroitic / Ethiopian inhabitants of the Nile valley.
Immediately after his victory, Nastasen had this stele erected, which shows the importance of the event.
The Meroitic Ethiopian victory had an important side-effect that explains Nastasen´s easiness to have excellent relations with Alexander the Great and Ptolemy I, who controlled Egypt until the end of the Meroitic Ethiopian Qore´s reign. With Khambeswten eliminated, the invading armies of Alexander did not find any local ruler to oppose them, and they thus eliminated the Iranian garrisons quickly, and annexed Egypt and Libya as provinces of the rising empire.
Had Khambeswten been victorious over Nastasen, he would have certainly consolidated his control over Upper Egypt, and expanded his authority to the North (Lower Egypt) by eliminating the Iranian garrisons; these developments would then have enabled him to organize a strong national Egyptian opposition to and defense against Alexander.
In Nastasen´s reign date the earliest Meroitic Hieroglyphic texts. Although he reigned from Meroe, Nastasen was buried in Nuri (tomb 15), the late Kushitic necropolis on the Nile´s bank opposite to Napata; a silver handle of mirror and several shawabti (ushebti) figurines have been unearthed there.
In a forthcoming article, I will focus on Nastasen´;s successors down to Arqamani.
Further readings:
1. Stela of King Nastasen
335-315 B.C. (Gen. 27), Granite, Berlin, Agyptisches Museum 2268
http://wysinger.homestead.com/nastasen.html
Description: On the front of a large, polished, round-topped stela is a double scene with several figures above the first twenty-six lines of a sixty-eight-line text in Egyptian hieroglyphs, which is continued on the back of the stela. Over the scene is a winged sun disk from which extend two uraei, wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and enclosing a cartouche with the name of the king.
The scene below is divided by two columns of hieroglyphs. On each side is a figure of the god Amun, shown on the left with a human head and on the right with a ram's head. Both figures hold a was-scepter in one outstretched hand and an ankh-sign in the other. On each side. King Nastasen approaches the god and offers a ball-bead necklace and a pectoral hanging from a long band. The king wears a pointed Egyptian kilt, a diadem with uraeus and streamers, a broad collar, and wide armlets and bracelets. An animal's tail hangs from his belt. On the left, he is accompanied by his mother, Pelekh; on the right, his wife, Sakhmakh, follows him. Both women wear ankle-length garments that come to a point in back, and each has a diadem with a uraeus. They both hold a sistrum in one hand and pour a libation with the other. The hieroglyphic captions give the names and titles of the figures and describe their action.
Although it was found at Dongola, the stela of King Nastasen probably comes from the Great Temple of Amun at Gebel Barkal (Schafer 1901,1-6), where five similar stelae, now in Cairo, were found. The present stela is not only an important artistic monument of the later Napatan Period, it is a major historical document as well. Reisner's (1923d) chronology of the kings of the late fourth century B.C., based on the architectural history of the pyramids of Nuri and Meroe, was confirmed, above all, by Hintze (1959.17-20), who established that the hostile Prince Khambes-wten who is named in the inscription of this stela is the same as the King Khababash who ruled Egypt for a short time, 31st Dynasty 338-335 B.C.
The inscription is dated in the eighth regnal year of the king and contains the annals of his reign. It begins with a list of the king's titles. The text then describes how Nastasen learned that he had been called to the throne by the god Amun of Napata and how he traveled to Napata to be crowned in the Amun Temple there. A huge feast in the coronation city was followed by a royal progress to Gematon (Kawa), Pnubs (Tebo), back to Napata, and finally to a place called Tar. Then follows a list of offerings made by the king to Amun. Most of the inscription consists of a detailed description of the king's wars and campaigns against numerous enemies; in the first of these wars is mentioned a battle against Khababash. It must have been a difficult one for Nastasen, for after his victory he made offerings to the gods. Other enemies were nomads from the surrounding deserts, who had often caused trouble to the inhabitants of the Nile Valley and against whose incursions Nastasen had to protect his land. The inscription ends with praise for Amun, to whom the king owes his victories.
Reference:
Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan, Steffen Wenig, Brooklyn Museum, p. 163 (1978)
2. Al Meragh Discovery and General Description
By Timothy Kendall
http://www.learningsites.com/Meragh/AM_text/AM_site-description.html
The last great royal historical document written in Egyptian is that of Nastasen (ca 335-315 BC), who enumerates many victories over various peoples on his frontiers. Most of these peoples are identified by very specific names, perhaps district or tribal section names, which are not otherwise known. What is interesting to note, though, is the enormous wealth in cattle the Kushite king claims to have captured from them. Typical among these entries is the following: "I had the bowmen go against the rebels of Rebala and Akulakuro. I caused a great slaughter. I seized its chief Luboden, all his property in abundant gold, beyond reckoning, long-horned oxen: 203,216 (head), livestock: 603, 107 (head), all the women, and all that with which a person is kept alive. I gave him, (this) chief, to Amun of Napata, my good father."
The huge numbers of animals listed seem to be inconceivable, but we certainly understand that a large quantity was intended. One gets the feeling that Nastasen may not actually have taken these animals captive; he may simply have taken over the lands of these people, counted up the livestock, property, and residents, and considered all of them his own. The large store of gold, "beyond reckoning," of the ruler makes us wonder what form it took, whether raw or worked. Such comments, in any case, suggest that the regional desert chieftains were not necessarily culturally or materially impoverished. Whether any of these entries refers to the people of the Wadi Muqaddam, we cannot know, but as the wadi was one of the more fertile areas on the Meroitic periphery, we must assume that it was heavily populated and prosperous (a fact confirmed by our archaeological survey) and that it played a central historical role.
Later in Nastasen's text, a people called the Mdyy are said to have raided the temple of Kawa and to have stolen the treasures donated to it centuries earlier by Aspelta. Because Kawa lies on the east bank of the Nile, about 200 km downstream from Korti, it has generally been assumed that the name Mdyy and Mdd referred to the same people, and that, like the modern Beja, they lived on the east bank of the Nile.
3. Stela of Queen Sakhmakh
335-315 BC
Material: Granite; Gebel Barkal, Great Temple of Amun (B 551)
Collection: Khartoum, Sudan National Museum 1853
http://wysinger.homestead.com/sakhmakh.html
Description: On the pediment of this round-topped stela is a winged sun disk over a five-column inscription containing an offering formula. The main body of the stela is designed as a chapel; a polished strip imitates the torus molding, and slightly sunk horizontal strips represent pilasters. A winged sun disk takes the place of the cavetto cornice below the upper "torus" and is repeated above it. The whole is crowned by a frieze of uraei, as in divine shrines. A cult scene is incised in the more deeply sunk central panel. On the right stands a queen wearing a long robe and two tall feathers on her head. She holds a sistrum, apparently lion-headed, in one raised hand and pours a libation with the other. In front of her is enthroned the god Osiris, an atef-crown on his head and crook and flail in his hands. Behind him stands the goddess Isis with an ankh-sign in her left hand and her right hand raised in salutation. The scene is surmounted by incised captions similar to those on the"pilasters." Beneath the scene, on a polished raised panel, is a five-line inscription with an offering formula.
The stela has the usual form, with rounded top and winged sun disk, but the design of the surface as a chapel, imitating the back wall of a Meroitic funerary chapel, is without parallel and betrays a lively artistic imagination.
Sakhmakh was a wife of King Nastasen. He was buried in Pyramid Nuri 15, and a large stela for him was erected in the Great Temple of Amun at Gebel Barkal. Since it would be unreasonable to imagine that Sakhmakh's stela, which, considering the subject represented, must have belonged to her tomb, was hauled from Nuri across the river to Gebel Barkal about ten miles away merely to be reused as building material, we must assume that Sakhmakh, unlike her spouse, was buried not at Nuri but in one of the pyramids of the period at Gebel Barkal. The form of the hieroglyphs is so similar on both stelae that one suspects they were carved by the same stonemason.
4. The Meroitic State: Nubia as a Hellenistic African State. 300 BC 350 AD
By Timothy Kendall
http://www.numibia.net/nubia/meroe.htm
http://www.nubianet.org/about/about_history8.html
(NOTE: the text is useful for the info included, except the term Nubian, instead of Kushitic and Meroitic Ethiopian, is wrong. Similarly wrong is the colonial, anti-African term "Hellenistic" instead of "Late Antiquity"; despite his strong archeological skills, Timothy Kendall ascribes to the racist Greco-Romano-centric dogma of 19th century Orientalists, which has been rejected as a historical falsification of disproportionate and vicious hatred).
The Meroitic Period
The Napatan Phase of the Nubian culture ended when the royal cemetery was transferred from Napata (Nuri) to Mero´ in the mid- third century BC. This inaugurated the phase called the "Meroitic Period," in which the culture seemed to free itself from the strict bonds of Egyptian norms and developed many original traits as well as accepting many ideals from the Greco-Roman world of the Mediterranean. The terms "Napatan" and "Meroitic" refer to cultural phases of the same kingdom.
The change of culture in Kush almost certainly had to do with an event recorded by the Greek historian Diodorus in the first century BC. He stated that before the reign of a Kushite king named Ergamenes, who lived at the time of Ptolemy II of Egypt (285-246 BC), it had been the custom for the high priests, probably at Napata, to send a message to the king, supposedly from the great god Amun himself. This message told him that the time of his rule on earth was finished and that he must die. Traditionally, according to Diodorus, the kings had dutifully obeyed the divine orders and had taken their own lives. Ergamenes, however, "who had received instruction in Greek philosophy, was the first to disdain this command. With the determination worthy of a king he came with an armed force to the forbidden place where the golden temple of the Aithiopians was situated and slaughtered all the priests, abolished this tradition, and instituted practices at his own discretion." Interestingly, it was about this time that the first royal tomb was built at Mero´, which belonged to a king named Arkamani (= "Ergamanes"). Soon thereafter, Kushite art and architecture began to develop individualistic styles. The royal family appeared much more central African in their images and in their standards of beauty. The royal costumes and crowns were unique. A lion god named Apedemak, unknown in the Egyptian pantheon, became pre-eminent in the southern part of the kingdom. And Egyptian language and writing were largely abandoned and replaced by the native Nubian language (called "Meroitic"), which was for the first time written down in newly devised hieroglyphic and cursive alphabets of 23 letters.
Mero´ seems to have been a flourishing town at least as early as the eighth century BC. It was situated at the junction of several main river and caravan routes, connecting central Africa, via the Blue and White Niles, with Egypt, and the Upper Nile region with western Sudan, the Red Sea and the Ethiopian highlands. Since it lay within the rainbelt, its land was seasonally more productive than the region of Napata, and it was thus a more pleasant place to live. By the third century BC it was only one of several large towns that had arisen in the same region. Bounded to the west by the Nile, the north by the River Atbara and to the south by the Blue Nile, this area, now known as the Butana Steppe, was the heartland of the later Kushite kingdom and came to be known in classical literature as "the Island of Mero´."
Our historical knowledge of Meroitic history is scant. When the kings ceased writing in Egyptian and began writing in their own Meroitic language, we suddenly cease being able to read their offical inscriptions. Meroitic, unfortunately, has not yet been deciphered; the key has never yet been found. All our knowledge of Meroitic history is thus based on the few surviving Greek and Roman reports, and on data recovered archaeologically.
The Meroitic rulers were contemporaries with the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Caesars. In the third century BC, they maintained friendly relations with the Ptolemies, since the kings of the two neighboring Nile kingdoms collaborated in renovating the temples of Lower Nubia, which were sacred to both Kush and Egypt.
Agents of the Ptolemies also traveled up the Nile as explorers and emissaries, some perhaps traveling to Mero´ to haggle with the Kushite ruler over the price of war-elephants, which they sought to purchase for the armies of Egypt. The Roman historian Pliny preserves the names of several Greeks who actually resided at Mero´. One, named Simonides, was said to have lived there five years and to have written a book about his adventures. There was obviously a brisk trade between Mero´ and Egypt and even beyond, since numerous Greek and Roman objects have been found at Mero´: for example, a wine jar stamped with a mark indicating it had come from a region of Algeria or a Greek vase made in Athens. By the first century AD some of the Meroitic gods even began appearing in the guise of the Olympian deities; some temples were actually built using Greek measurement and incorporated Hellenistic features and ornament. Obviously Mero´ was in communication with the rest of the Greco-Roman world and incorporated many of its most popular or "modern" features.
The City of Mero´
Scanty, but certainly accurate accounts of the capital Mero´ have come down to us in the works of the Roman writers Pliny and Strabo, both of whom had at their disposal the reports of the team of explorers sent to Mero´ by Nero about 60 AD to seek the source of the Nile. Pliny stated that Mero´ was in an area where the grass became greener, where scrub forest first began to appear and where elephants and rhinoceros could be seen in small numbers. The buildings in the town, at that time, he said, "were few in number," but there were temples to "Jupiter Hammon" (Amun), besides "smaller shrines erected in his honor throughout all the country." Strabo also noted that the palace at Mero´ had a garden full of fruit trees, and that the houses of the common folk were constructed of bricks or "interwoven pieces of split palm wood." (They were, in other words, probably little different from the houses of the Sudanese in the same region today).
Today Mero´ is the largest archaeological site in the Sudan. Lying about _ mi (1 km) from the river, the city ruins alone cover about a square mile in area. Today they lie in a forest of stunted acacia trees. Most prominent among the ruins is the huge stone-walled enclosure containing the tumbled remains of the palace and government buildings, several small temples (one with painted frescoes), and a so-called "Roman bath". Immediately behind it sprawls another walled compound enclosing the Amun Temple, a near copy of the one at Gebel Barkal. The remains of several other major sanctuaries lie nearby among the trees. Between these and the palace compound there are the extensive unexcavated mounds of the settlement, and on the east end of the city, on the edge of the desert, there are great slag heaps which have suggested that Mero´ was an important iron working center.
Farther east is the great ruined temple complex known popularly (but incorrectly) as the "Sun Temple," with the cemeteries beyond (see below). While cattle raising and the farming of millet and barley seem to have been the major occupations of the people at large, the city prospered by its river and overland trade. According to Strabo this trade probably involved the procurement and trans-shipment of salt, copper, iron, gold, various kinds of precious stones, valuable woods and animal products such as ivory and the skins of lion and leopard. Oddly enough, unlike the principalities within the Greco-Roman sphere, Mero´ never made use of coinage and instead did all business in barter.
The Pyramids of Mero´
Behind Mero´ to the east lie its huge cemeteries. Those nearest the town were reserved for the common people. Those about 1 _ mi (2.5 km) further east bear the small masonry pyramids of the nobles and lesser members of the royal family. Finally, about 3 mi (5 km) away, lining the tops of two ridges, are the towering pyramids of the rulers.
The royal tombs at Meroe were excavated between 1920 and 1924 by George A. Reisner and his Boston team. From the 1960's to the present, the pyramids have been carefully studied, and many reconstructed, by the German scholar-architect Dr. Friedrich W. Hinkel, working together with the Sudan Antiquities Dept
Many of the tombs at Mero´ contained multiple human skeletons, again reminding us of the Kerma burials in which people were sacrificed to accompany the dead. Obviously by Meroitic times, the Egyptian custom of burying shawabtis as servants in the tombs was abandoned, and important people reverted to the old custom of burying their real servants with them. Writing in the first century BC, the Greek historian Diodorus remarked of the Meroites that it was "customary for the comrades of the kings even to die with them of their own accord and that such a death is an honorable one and proof of true friendship." He added also that "it was for that reason that a conspiracy against the king is not easily raised among the Aithiopians, all his friends being concerned both for his safety and for their own." Excavations have revealed that it was not only the kings who took others with them in death. Many tombs of lesser importance contained small groups of subsidiary skeletons, and it was clear that many wealthy persons were buried with servants. In the royal burials, animals too were slaughtered and usually placed at the bottoms of the deep stairways leading to the sealed entrances of the burial chamber. In some cases the remains of yoked horses, oxen, camels and dogs, and even the bodies of their keepers have been found.
Some Important Meroitic Archaeological Sites
If Mero´ was the major city of the kingdom, it was not the only one. The Butana Steppe (east of the Nile north of Khartoum) is dotted with other Meroitic townsites, some up to sixty miles (100 km) east of the Nile. Other settlements have been identified further south along the Blue and White Niles, and many important Meroitic settlements arose in Lower Nubia, some barely a hundred miles south of Aswan. Apart from the capital, the most monumental sites are three, which lie between 40 and 50 mi (66 and 82 km) south of Mero´. At Wad Ban Naga, on the east bank of the Nile, there are the ruins of an enormous palace, together with two temples and a town. The palace was occupied by the great Meroitic queen Amanishakheto, a contemporary of the Roman emperor Augustus. Her spectacular tomb treasure, found in 1833 by an Italian adventurer named Ferlini, is now divided between the Berlin and Munich Museums.
Wad Ban Naga was apparently a river port leading to two important inland centers, now called Naga and Musawwarat es-Sufra, which were built on the plain beneath a ridge of low mountains some 12 to 18 mi (20 to 30 km) inland. Naga was clear1y an important religious center, for it possesses the ruins of at least seven stone temples, a town, and a cemetery, all datable to the first century AD. On-going excavations here by Dr. Dietrich Wildung and his team from the Egyptian Museum in Berlin have revealed that the town was also surrounded by numerous manor houses with plantations.
Musawwarat es-Sufra, 10 mi to the north, was also an important cult center, but it remains as enigmatic as it is awesome to behold. The most spectacular site in the Butana, Musawwarat contains the sprawling ruin known as the "Great Enclosure," a strange labyrinth of stone temples and courtyards surrounded by walls and connected by corridors and ramps. Tremendous stone walls partition the complex into no less than twenty separate compounds. Excavations there by an expedition of Humboldt University of Berlin under the direction of Dr. Steffen Wenig have recently shown that some of these courtyards contained gardens of trees, all brought, together with their soil, from the banks of the Nile and watered by an elaborate underground pipe system. The function of the complex was clearly religious, but the lack of carved reliefs on the interior walls of the buildings makes their purpose difficult to determine. Adding to the mystery is the fact that the walls are covered by hundreds of drawings and graffiti of ancient visitors.
While the sites of Naga and Musawwarat now lie in virtual desert, careful management of somewhat greater rainfall in ancient times made the area much more fertile than it is today. Huge artificial lakes, called hafirs, were constructed at each site to collect the annual rainwater and hold it until needed. The largest hafir at Musawwarat is 800 ft. (243 m) across and 20 ft. (3 to 4 m) high. Stone statues of guardian lions and frogs ringed many of these artificial lakes, perhaps intended magically to protect their contents.
The major god of the region of Mero´ was a divinity of local origin, called Apedemak. He was perhaps a lion form of Amun and was often identified with the moon. He normally took the form of a powerful lion-headed man, dressed in armor and often appeared in the reliefs of his temples standing or seated on a throne or on an elephant, grasping prisoners and weapons of war, or holding elephants and lions on leashes.
Magnificent temples in Apedemak's honor were built at every major site in the Butana, the finest surviving examples being those at Naga and Musawwarat. The Apedemak Temple at Naga is adorned with reliefs depicting the imposing figures of its builders, King Natakamani and Queen Amanitore doing homage to the lion god. This royal pair, who lived at about the time of Christ, seem to have presided over a Meroitic Golden Age, as the remains of numerous buildings bear their names. In the decorative scheme of this temple the figure of the queen appears just as prominently as that of her husband, providing a clear indication of the unusual status accorded women in the Meroitic monarchy.
Mero´ and Rome
In 24 BC, soon after Rome had wrested Egypt from Anthony and Cleopatra, the Kushites invaded Lower Nubia, attacked and plundered Aswan, and seized the statues of the emperor Augustus to test the new northern power. This is the only incident in which Mero´ appears directly on the stage of Roman history.
Following this challenge to Augustus' authority, the Roman general Petronius was immediately dispatched to Nubia. He met and defeated a Meroitic army and drove on to Napata, which he is said to have captured and destroyed, enslaving its inhabitants. The Meroites and Romans ultimately made a peace treaty, however, which endured for three centuries. The Romans claimed a victory, but so apparently did the Meroites. A victory stela, now in the British Museum, was set up in the capital by Amanirenas, the ruling queen of the time, and although it is inscribed in Meroitic, the name of Rome can clearly be read. In one of the temples in the city, a bronze head of Augustus was found buried beneath the entrance steps so that all who entered would step on this foreign ruler, who was only dimly known to Kush. Figures of Roman soldiers pierced with swords or arrows also adorned numerous magical objects and appeared in painted frescoes.
The Queens of Mero´
Judging by the many large pyramids of queens and the remains of buildings bearing their names exclusively, Mero´ after the third century BC seems to have been ruled by many queens in their own right, although they were probably mothers of future kings too young to rule. Classical writers were so impressed with the presence of queens at Meroe that they often assumed that Mero´ was ruled exclusively by women, whom they thought always bore the name "Candace." This name, the origin of our modern female name, was in fact a Meroitic queenly title. As was explained by the Christian theologian Oecumenius in the 6th century (probably quoting one of the early Greek travelers to Mero´ of the second century BC), "Candace is what the Aithiopians call every mother of a king, since they do not refer to the fatherÉ (Her son) is traditionally regarded as a son of the sun god." In Meroitic texts the title "Candace" appears as "Kedeke."
In the Roman account of the war with Kush in 24 BC, it was noted that the Kushites were led by a queen who was "a very masculine sort of woman and blind in one eye." This strange description is given substance by the even stranger portrayals of these ladies that appear in reliefs in their tomb chapels and temples. The successive queens Amanirenas, Amanishakheto and Amanitore, for example, all of whom are nearly contemporary with Petronius' campaign, are depicted as massive, powerful figures, enormously fat, covered with jewels and ornament and elaborate fringed and tasseled robes.
5. Naga'a (Middle Sudan)
http://www.muzarp.poznan.pl/muzeum/muz_eng/nagaa.htm
Naga Project (Central Sudan)
The archaeological project at Naga in Central Sudan, was initiated in 1995 by the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collections (Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) in Berlin. It is directed by Professor Dietrich Wildung and is financed by the German Research Council (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Due to many years of cooperation in the field of archaeology between Professor Wildung and Professor Lech Krzyżaniak, a small group of Polish archaeologists from Poznan lead by Professor Krzyżaniak are also taking part in this field-work.
Naga is a huge archaeological site, one of the largest in the Sudan. It is situated some 170 km to the north-north-east of Khartoum and some 50 km to the east of the main Nile. It is placed in the strategic centre of an extensive network of wadis of the Butana plateau. The first and - until recently - only extensive recording of this site was made in 1843 by the famous Prussian expedition directed by Richard Lepsius. Since this time it is known that Naga comprises several Meroitic temples (Meroe culture/civilization, 4 century BC - 4 century AD), ruins of apparently an urban agglomeration and several burial grounds. It has been often thought that Naga was one of the most important centres of this first civilization of Black Africa.
As a results of five seasons of excavations so far we know now much more of the site than was recorded by Lepsius. The field-work focuses on the temple of the ram god Amon (01), some 100 metres in length. After approaching the temple by a major ramp from the west the Meroites passed through a first alley of ram statues placed on plinths (02) which were followed by the so-called kiosk, a kind of way-station before the main gateway to the temple. After this the second ram alley leads to the main gate of the temple building. Originally statuettes of the king Natakamani (who founded this temple at the beginning of the 1st century AD together with his wife queen Amanitore) stood between the forelegs of the ram but all of these have been broken off and seemed lost in the past. It was then one of the happiest days for the expedition to discover several such statuettes which had been hidden in different parts of the temple in unknown circumstances. There is no question that they represent some of the finest pieces of Meroitic art (03). In a few cases it was possible to find out to which ram statues they had actually belonged originally as it is demonstrated by Professor Dietrich Wildung (04) and Dr Karla Kroeper (05).
Sensational results occurred during the winter season of 1999. It was decided to explore the area of the sanctuary (naos) of the temple where originally the main statue of the god was kept. To the greatest surprise and delight of the excavators a unique, beautifully carved stone altar was found in the centre of this chamber (09). The decoration of the sides of this altar/base includes iconography and names (written in hieroglyphs) of the king Natakamani and his wife Amanitore, founders of this temple (07). A fifth statue of the king Natakamani (08), also originally a part of a ram statue, was discovered in this chamber and is being shown here by a happy Professor Dietrich Wildung (10). In the same temple, in the large hypostyle room another surprise discovery was made: a commemorative stone stela of the queen Amanishaketo who - it is thought - was ruling the Meroites prior to the royal couple Natakamani-Amanitore. This is really a genuine piece of the best Meroitic art (11, 12); its obverse shows a delicate sunk relief of the queen and a goddess who was a partner of the Meroitic lion god Apademak (13). The reverse and sides of the stela show an extensive text written in as yet undeciphered Meroitic writing (14, 15).
During the earlier stage of the Naga project a programme of clearing the Amon temple and small-scale trial testing of another temple dedicated to the Meroitic lion god Apademak was effected. Outer and inner walls of this impressive and rather mysterious temple are covered with reliefs of gods and Meroitic hieroglyphic texts (fig. 12) referring to the founders - the royal couple Natekamani-Amanitore. In other parts of the Naga site the outlines of more temples and other large scale buildings, possibly palaces, have been recorded on the surface of the ground.
The Naga project comprises also an extensive programme of conservation and restoration of architecture and other relics. This part of the project has focussed so far mainly on the Amon temple. Finally, it should be stressed that after excavating so far mostly prehistoric settlement in the Sudan, due to the participation in the Naga project the Poznan archaeologists have now had the first opportunity to gain experience of excavating a large and complex Meroitic site.
6. Meroitic Kedurma
http://www.spicey.demon.co.uk/Nubianpage/kedurma.htm
Meroitic settlement in the Mahas region appears to have been quite limited, especially in the rocky cataract zone. A small Meroitic cemetery (probably dating to the 1st-2nd century BCE) has been excavated at Soleb, close to the important New Kingdom temple. The only major settlement site so far identified is one at Kedurma, a little to the north of the Third Cataract on the east bank of the river. Located in an area with little agricultural potential, and still sparsely inhabited, the site has much in common with other Meroitic sites of northern Nubia and may have been concerned primarily with the control and administration of long-distance trade to Egypt. During the 2000 field season a hitherto unknown Meroitic (and Napatan) cemetery was found at Arduan (Arduan island) as well as a small Meroitic cemetery at Fad, near Nauri.
The Meroitic Settlement
A view across the settlement site at Kedurma. In the foreground are the ruins of a large building, apparently partially cleared during the 1930's. As yet no major excavations have been carried out here. A large sand-covered mound beyond masks another major building.
The cemetery
The construction of a raised irrigation channel cutting across the cemetery damaged several graves. Remnants of the mudbrick superstructure (possibly a small pyramid) can be seen here, partially covered by the earth bank on the left. In the foreground are the foundations of a small brick niche/chapel in front of the tomb. The sandy patch behind indicates that the grave has previously been robbed - probably in antiquity. Within the area of the Meroitic cemetery, a number of low mounds covered with small black stones seem likely to mark a small Kerma period cemetery, more than 1,500 years older than the Meroitic graves.
Meroitic pottery
Pottery from the cemetery area includes a range of decorated wares, mainly jars, cups and bowls. The decoration of some (left, bottom row) closely matchs that found on small globular jars with long necks recovered from Sedeinga, and a few sites further north in Lower Nubia proper (Leclant 1995). On current evidence these may well all be the products of a single production centre, perhaps located somewhere between the Third Cataract and the Batn el Hajar. Some of the material may date to the last centuries BC but most is likely to date to the first and second centuries AD
Within the settlement area, handmade wares are more in evidence. Impressed decoration is quite common on these types, which seem mainly to represent jars and large bowls. However, in the absence of detailed studies of such pottery from other Meroitic settlements, the date and significance of such products remains uncertain
7. Meroïtic alphabet
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/meroitic.htm
Origin
The Meroïtic alphabet was derived from ancient Egyptian writing sometime during the 4th century BC in around 315 BC. A cursive form developed in 185 BC and the alphabet was used until about 440 AD. The alphabet was deciphered by the British Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith in 1909.
Notable features
There are two versions of the alphabet - one based on the Egyptian hieroglyphic script, the other a cursive version based on the Egyptian demotic script.
The hieroglyphic form of the alphabet was written in vertical columns from top to bottom and from right to left, while the cursive form was generally written in horizontal lines running from right to left.
Used to write:
Meroïtic, an extinct language that was spoken in the Nile valley and northern Sudan until about the 4th century AD, after which time it was gradually replaced with Nubian. Linguists are unsure about how Meroïtic is related to other languages and have therefore been unable to make any sense of the Meroïtic inscriptions.
Further Online Bibliography:
http://www.numibia.net/nubia/ptolemies.htm (in Italian)
http://www.numibia.net/nubia/meroe.htm
http://www.sudarchrs.org.uk/
http://www.pcma.uw.edu.pl/
http://www2.hu-berlin.de/daralmanasir/projekt.htm
http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/research/excavations.html
http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/publications.html
http://www.archaeologie-online.de/magazin/fundpunkt/forschung/2003/von-der-stele-zur-stadt/ (in German)
http://wysinger.homestead.com/mapofnubia.html
http://www.sudanplanet.org/pag2001_eng.htm
Note
Picture: Stela of King Nastasen, followed by his wife, Sakhmakh, offers to Amun of Napata a ball-bead necklace and a pectoral hanging from a long band.
From: http://wysinger.homestead.com/nastasen.html
Print
Email
