Rediscovering African Kingdoms
For 3,000 years, in peaceful commerce and in barbarous war, in triumph and in defeat, the ancient African kingdoms of Nubia were Egypt's southern neighbors and rivals. Egyptian temples and pyramids have been visited by millions of tourists and are illustrated in fancy albums and history textbooks, but where is Nubia? Though there are more royal pyramids still standing in Nubia than there are in Egypt and though the temples of Musawwarat es Sufra and Naga in central Sudan are as worthy of a visit as the temples of Egypt or Greece, the modern world is almost entirely ignorant of Nubia's glorious past. It's as if Nubia lay not along the Nile to Egypt's south, but rather entirely in Egypt's shadow.
The ancient world was not so ignorant of a land that spawned several distinct cultures over the long span of 3800 B.C. to A.D. 600. The early Egyptians first knew the land as Ta-Seti(the Land of the Bow), then as Wawat and later as Meroe. The Bible speaks of Nubia as Kush. Still later, the Greeks and Romans called it Aethiopia (today's Ethiopia being known to them as Abyssinia), with the earliest Greek ‘historian’, Herodotus, accepting the accounts of tradition and calling the Nubians the ‘tallest and handsomest’ people in the world.
Accounting for our present ignorance is simple. The 19th-century scholars who opened up Egypt's past virtually created the profession of archaeology. They were brilliant and tenacious researchers, and the world is deeply in their debt. But they were so overwhelmed by Egypt that they could never properly see Nubia. In their eyes, anything Nubian was a pale reflection of things Egyptian. Many of the artifacts and buildings of Nubia do, indeed, show strong Egyptian influence, but what was overlooked was the local element in the material culture…and even more so in the spiritual culture. This Egyptocentric bias limited archaeological study of Nubian cultures and placed the few found Nubian artifacts merely as side attractions to Egyptian objects.
The study of Nubia was also hindered by the practical difficulties of reaching out-of-the-way sites and by a prejudice that deprecated black Africa's contribution to civilization. Today, fortunately, all of these factors are on the wane, and Nubian cultures are being studied in their own right, evaluated on their own terms and revealed in all their magnificence.
Indeed, during the last two years, several museums in North America Have opened permanent galleries or displayed temporary exhibitions devoted to the ancient cultures of Nubia. Popular culture, too, is catching up on the Nubian civilizations that once flourished in the faraway land on the Nile in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. A few years ago, the Nubian kingdom of Kush was discussed in an episode of the Cosby show. Nor is North America unique: Nubian exhibitions and galleries have also opened in recent years in London, Berlin, Geneva and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a large Nubian museum will soon open in Aswan, Egypt.
Most of the existing Nubian collections were created 30 years ago, when for one brief moment Nubia was on the front pages of the world press. The Egyptian government was building its great Aswan High Dam near the Nile's First Cataract, and the resulting artificial lake (Lake Nasser) was to flood entirely the land between the First and Second cataracts. The soon-to-be-covered land was Lower Nubia. Before the world lost much of its precious heritage, an international rescue campaign was organized under the auspices of the United Nations Scientific, Technical and Cultural organization (UNESCO). Participating foreign missions were
offered half of the discoveries that would otherwise have been permanently lost. Several American museums and universities participated in the UNESCO Salvage Campaign, and their share of finds forms the backbone of the major Nubian collections in this country.
The very concept of rescue archaeology--and the foundations of the Nubian collections at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and the oriental Museum of the University of Chicago--originated in Nubia at the beginning of the century, when the first (and smaller) dam was being erected near Aswan in 1906. The Egyptian Ministry of Public Works asked the eminent American Egyptologist George A. Reisner to organize an archaeological survey in order to record all of the antiquities in the region. This he did, in the process identifying for the first time several previously unknown cultures, strikingly different from Egyptian culture.
Reisner returned to Nubia for further explorations in 1913 as the director of the Harvard University Boston Museum of Fine Arts expedition. First, he explored at Kerma, south of the Third Cataract in Upper Nubia. Here he uncovered Nubia's earliest imperial history—though he did not realize it. Despite his brilliance as an archaeologist, Reisner's convictions (or possibly, prejudices) got the better of his judgment, and he concluded that the massive brick structure known as the Deffufa and other monuments of Kerma were built by and for the Egyptian governors ruling the native population.
In fact, the opposite was true: the Kerma people (2500-1550 B.C.) were so powerful that the Egyptians had to build a series of fortresses to protect Egypt's southern border, and the many Egyptian statues and other objects found at Kerma were not the representations of Egyptian
"governors," but rather Nubian war trophies.
(In recent years a Swiss team returned to Reisner's old site and carried out systematic excavations at Kerma, revealing the remains of one of the largest and earliest urban centers in Africa--indeed, in the world--dating back to about 2000 B.C.) From Kerma, Reisner transferred his operations to Jebel Barkal (ancient Napata), downriver from the Fourth Cataract. Here he found Egyptian temples from the time when Egypt ruled Nubia (1550-1080 B.C.). He also found the monumental remains of the far later Nubian kingdom of Kush (850 B.C. to A.D. 350). Within a short time after establishing themselves at Napata, these Nubian kings of Kush expanded their rule--first to southern Egypt and later on all the way to the Mediterranean coast. Nubia became one of the superpowers of the ancient world and remained so for about 75 years.
Expelled from Egypt by the Assyrians, Nubian kings returned to their native land and eventually moved their capital to Meroe, about 150 miles north of the modern Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The pyramids built by these kings around Napata and near Meroe are smaller than the Egyptian ones, but they have a certain slender elegance and are much more human in scale.
At the same time that Reisner conducted his archaeological survey in the northern part of Lower Nubia, two English archaeologists, David MacIver and Leonard Woolley, working for the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, were excavating Nubian sites near the Second Cataract. Among their finds were a large quantity of funerary inscriptions Written in the second-oldest writing system in Africa, called Meroitic after the capital site of Nubia, Meroe.
Ever since their conquest of Egypt, the Nubian kings had employed Egyptian hieroglyphics in their inscriptions. However, around 200 B.C., the people of Meroe developed a new writing system, which borrowed its individual characters from the Egyptian, but instead of using the multitude of hieroglyphic signs, it used an alphabet of 23 signs. Meroitic not only included vowel sounds, but also contained a sign marking the division of words, a rarity in ancient script.
Nubian civilization did not come to an end with the disappearance of the Meroitic culture. The postMeroitic period (about A.D. 350560), brought considerable change. Christianity spread throughout northeastern Africa, and while Egyptians in the north and Ethiopians in the south converted to the new faith, the Nubians stubbornly clung to the old beliefs and even went on pilgrimages to the temple of Isis on Philae Island, the last pagan temple in Christian Egypt.
New styles of pottery arose, and the use of domesticated camels changed the way war was conducted. Several small kingdoms came into existence at this time in various parts of Nubia's Nile Valley. Royal tombs from this era have been found near Ballana and Qustul in Egyptian Nubia, and the silver crowns and other royal insignia from them are now displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Quite recently, a Franco-Sudanese team discovered what seems to be the southern equivalent of the Ballana tombs at Hobagi, near Meroe.
Missionaries sent by the Byzantine emperors converted the post-Meroitic Nubian rulers to Christianity, and the land entered a new phase of its cultural and political history: the Christian period (5601312). During these years, the Nubians introduced another local writing system, known as old Nubian. The characters were borrowed from the Egyptian Coptic alphabet, which in turn originated from Greek. Some characters corresponding to unique Nubian sounds were added.
Reisner's scholarly excavations at Napata and Meroe produced an enormous wealth of historical information and cultural material. The latter was split evenly between the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Since Reisner explored the most important and richest archaeological sites in Nubia, the share of artifacts he acquired for Boston is rivaled only by the Khartoum collection.
A visit to the Museum of Fine Arts is a must for anyone seriously interested in Nubian civilization. There, a "history wall," with objects exhibited in chronological order from the earliest times until the end of Meroe, is balanced by a display devoted to funerary customs and objects, including hundreds of small funerary statuettes known as shawabtis. There are also cases highlighting individual objects, such as a magnificent silver mirror of King Amani-nataki-lebte (6th century B.C.), an impressive model of a royal pyramid, reliefs from a funerary chapel, and a case with gold jewelry. The breathtaking beauty of Kushite jewelry and Kerma ceramics is overwhelming. Another wonderful object is a translucent alabaster vessel in the shape of a bound antelope (7th century B.C.). Its simple, yet functional, form appeals to modern visitors, and photographs of the vessel have frequently illustrated articles and books on Nubia. The bulk of Nubian material in the University Museum in Philadelphia comes from MacIver and Woolley's excavations, though the University Museum also participated in the UNESCO Salvage Campaign in a joint mission with Yale University. Inscribed steles and offering tables are just a part of the Philadelphia collection. Though interesting, they are of less artistic merit than the pottery and sculpture.
The University Museum possesses perhaps the best collection of Meroitic painted ceramics in the world. Its temporary traveling exhibition, "Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa"--which shows only a selection of objects from the collection--will be on the road until 1996 and can
be viewed in at least six venues outside of Philadelphia (see sidebar "Ancient Nubia Across North America").
While the Philadelphia and Boston exhibitions end with the Meroitic period, the small temporary exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago covers the period between 3100 B.C. and the 10th century A.D. A decorated Egyptian incense burner discovered at a royal cemetery dating back 5,000 years is perhaps the single most important item in that show.
Like the University Museum, the Oriental Institute was involved twice in Nubian archaeology. In 1906 to 1907, a group led by James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute, traveled along the Nile from Khartoum to the Egyptian border. They photographed all of the important monuments and landscapes of Nubia, producing a wonderful record of this then unknown land. In the 1960s, the oriental Institute actively participated in the UNESCO Salvage Campaign, and one can only regret that due to a lack of space in the museum, its valuable Nubian collection is not displayed more often.
Canada prides itself on opening the first permanent Nubian gallery in North America at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Ontario Museum's approach differs from those of other museums; it incorporates a display of modern Nubian artifacts, one of which, a traditional musical instrument, was made specifically for the museum by a Nubian artisan. The display is arranged chronologically, from early Nubian cultures on, and includes a substantial number of Christian-period and medieval and post-medieval Islamic objects. Considerable space is devoted to the various writing systems used in Nubia.
Nubia's ancient technology is also highlighted, for Meroe was not only a cultural and political center, but also an industrial capital. The massive scale of iron production there is still evident from the numerous slag mounds dotting the landscape. This emphasis on technological achievement and daily life in Nubia is also conveyed through a display of objects found in the Nubian town of Jebel Adda, which was excavated from 1962 to 1966 by N.B. Millet, now a curator at the Royal Ontario Museum.
In addition to offering a display of beauty and cultural power, these four new exhibitions in leading North American museums should invigorate the study of black Africa's contribution to the ancient world. The cultures that seized the attention of Pharaoh Sneferu (2600 B.C.), of
the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (670 B.C.), and of figures justly renowned as architects of Western civilization, such as Herodotus (430 B.C.) and Juvenal (A.D. 100), are surely worthy of our attention.