The first Aswan reservoir and the rescue of the antiquities of northern Nubia
The situation did not change even in the last years of the nineteenth century, when in 1899 the construction of the Aswan reservoir at the first cataract (the first cataract) began, which would have raised the level of the Nile in the emerging lake to 107 metres. Thus, the waters covered a part of Lower Nubia about two hundred kilometers long (until Jurf Hussein).
The fact that, shortly before, in 1897, Budge made his first trip to Sudan (Budge, 1907), his memoirs did not go beyond the notes of a passer-by, which may be of interest to anyone interested in the situation in the country in the last years of the nineteenth century. The chapter devoted to the antiquities of Napata does not contain much, as Budge lists the opinions and assessments of travelers who had seen these antiquities in the past, and to a large extent the reader is forced to be content with the basically superficial descriptions he provides. Only a specialist interested in studying or restoring any of the temples or pyramids can find in Budge’s book scattered details that are not available in other sources. The entire explanatory material, with the exception of a few photographs, is taken from other works, mainly from an atlas. Lepsius. In Gebel Barkal, Budge revealed one of the pyramids, but the excavation was conducted in an untested way, as was the report that was written about the work. When it collided with groundwater, it stopped working. Budge,1907
During his second trip in 1898, Budge visited Meroe, and during his third trip in 1903 he visited Soba, Wadbanga, Naqa, the Yellow Musawwarat and others. Then he revealed some pyramids with the aim of making it possible for “travelers to see them.” These excavations of his are also insignificant, just like the excavations he conducted in Nabta. Budge gives a description of the pyramids of the northern and southern necropolises at Meroe. If this description was important before the publication of the Reisner mission report, in that it represented an addition to Lepsius's works, now, like Budge's other works, it represents notational importance and nothing more.
Only when the decision was made to raise the Aswan reservoir by another seven metres, which would have meant flooding the Nile Valley up to Corsco, did the Egyptian Antiquities Service, then headed by J. Maspero, begin to conduct a regular survey of northern Nubia. Construction work began in 1907. In the years 1904-1905, Maspero made two specialized trips to identify antiquities in the area threatened by drowning. On the first trip, he reached Abu Simbel, and on the second, as far as Muharraqa. He was accompanied by A. Weigel, who was appointed first inspector for the Egyptian Antiquities Service. In 1906, Weigel was commissioned to conduct a comprehensive survey of the threatened area with the aim of determining the cost of maintaining the monuments and indicating future sites for excavation.
Weigall's report was the first archaeological description of Northern Nubia that met the demands of science. Weigall, 1907, although it was hasty, as Weigall himself admits, noting in his introduction, "The present report does not claim to be complete. It is merely a preliminary description of the effects and remains of the past, which must be studied later." During his two-month journey, Weigall collected enormous material. He gave a brief description of the temples of northern Nubia and the drawings that adorned them. He described the forts and cemeteries visible on the surface. He drew pottery sherds that were uncovered in the region. He also copied the rock inscriptions without claiming paleographic accuracy. He took a huge amount of photographs. The report became a precursor to a brief history of Northern Nubia from the Old Kingdom until the sixth century AD, as well as a specialized description of the burials of the C-Group, which was not yet known by that name. Weigel called these burials pan-graves. Similar burials had been uncovered shortly before by Flinders Petrie and A. Maysum in Upper Egypt. Weigel's work is still valuable today and is truly the first systematic review of the archaeology of a region that had been underestimated until that period. Much of what Weigel copied and photographed is now beyond the reach of science. Weigall,1907
Over the next several years, Dr. continued. Reisner worked on Weigel - 1907/1908 - Reisner, 1910 - and then - his assistant S. Firth, 1912. It is necessary to study and excavate as much as possible all the archaeological sites between the waterfall and Wadi Al-Seboua. In less interesting areas, it is assumed that surveying or conducting experimental probes is sufficient. The work was carried out in a controlled manner, for which credit goes to Reisner - one of the founders of the modern methodology in archaeological research. In the first year, an area extending 50 kilometers on both banks of the Nile between the waterfall and Tava was studied. Here 58 cemeteries were uncovered, many of them were excavated and the tombs were carefully described. On the basis of an analysis of the discovered material - primarily funerary materials, pottery, Reisner proposed a chronological table that, with scattered minor modifications, is still used today to study the history of Northern Nubia: Reisner,1910Firth,1912
1. The pre-dynastic period: early, middle, and late (as is the case in Egypt)
2. The early dynastic period (dynasties from the first to the fourth), approximately the culture of the A-Group
3. Old Kingdom (Fifth and Sixth Dynasties), approximately B-Group culture
4. Middle Kingdom (dynasties seven to sixteen), approximately C-Group culture
5. New Kingdom (Seventeenth to Twentieth Dynasties), D-Group culture; Its remains are no different from those of the New Kingdom of Egypt.
6. Late period (twentieth to thirtieth dynasties).
7. The Ptolemaic-Roman period.
8. Byzantine period (includes the Anonymous X-Group culture, i.e. the Nobadians, formerly called the Blemmyes).
9. Coptic period.
Such a sequence into periods is understandable. As is known, in the northern parts of the region between the first and second gondolas, i.e. “Dodekaschoinos” the twelfth region of Roman Egypt, there are virtually no traces of the Nabatean Meroitic period, while traces of the era of Ptolemaic and Roman sovereignty are well represented.
After a detailed description of the cemeteries and various burials, Reisner presents in the concluding three chapters a summary of his observations: in the first chapter he traces the forms of the cemeteries, in the second - burial patterns, and in the third he supports the chronological table proposed by him. The following year, Firth advanced further south - as far as Kashtamani, north of Dhaka, and his excavations included more than thirty cemeteries. In this part is the Middle Kingdom fortress of Ikur (Kur), whose fortifications were studied by Firth, as well as a series of residence sites between Jurf Hussein and Kashtamani. Firth confirmed the validity of Reisner's chronological hypotheses. Like most scholars, Firth assumed that the culture of the third group was brought from abroad by incoming tribes, and did not represent a natural development of the culture of the second group. It is worth noting that this hypothesis has been accepted for a long time and is generally accepted.
Excavation work was carried out in the following two years at a faster pace, as the area was close to sinking under the waters of the emerging lake. As a result, the excavations included half of northern Nubia. 44 other cemeteries were successfully cleaned, and traces of a huge residence site dating back to the early Christian period were found in Akmendi. In the last sector - from Dekka to Wadi Al-Seboua, the first Meroitic cemeteries dating back to the Greco-Roman era were uncovered. As was later emphasized, the authority of the Meroe kings extended in the Dodekaschoinos only intermittently for relatively short periods of time.
In 1908, Dr. Jarstang cemeteries of Dekka, Kuban, and Kashtamani. However, evaluating the results you obtain is possible only on the basis of a short summary report, Garstang, 1908. Also, the description of Breasted’s trip that he made to Northern Nubia was far from adding anything new, mentioning Breasted, 1906 and 1909. Garstang,1908Breasted,1906
While Reisner and Firth were excavating and studying archaeological sites, a group of scientists headed by J. Maspero in the study, restoration and description of the numerous northern Nubian temples located between Aswan and Abu Simbel. As a result of this joint effort over a period of thirty years (1909-1938), a fifteen-volume series “The Sunken Temples of Nubia” appeared, which contains an enormous amount of material of a diverse nature that remains completely unused today. Temples occupied a prominent position in the country's economic life. The inscriptions and drawings that covered the walls of the temples, halls, and sanctuaries contain countless historical information. It is thanks to the inscriptions in the Temple of Dikka that we know that Arkamani was a contemporary of Ptolemy IV, not Ptolemy II, as was previously believed based on the words of Diodorus. In some temples inscriptions of the Meroe kings and their names are preserved, for example Edkhir Amani in Debod. The two cartouches bearing the names of Ptolemy VII and VIII in the Temple of Debod indicate that they specifically, and not the kings of Meroe, controlled this region in the second century BC. The walls of the Kalabsha Temple preserved the well-known inscription of the Nobadian king Silku (sixth century), and finally, the numerous inscriptions - Hieroglyphics, Demotic, Meroe, Greek - often represent a source of information that is not found anywhere else. It is difficult not to evaluate these texts also in relation to the study of the Kush religion, especially in the Napata-Meroe era.
Simultaneously with the mission of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the work of the University of Pennsylvania mission began, in which the famous archaeologist L. Wally, and in publishing its reports - F. Griffiths. This mission focused its work on three sites: Arica, Karanog, and Buhen Randall-MacIver, 1911. In addition, early Christian temples were studied. Milcham, 1910. Excavations began in Arica in 1907 and continued until 1910. We must admit that such a quantity of Meroe era antiquities has never been uncovered in Northern Nubia at one time. Residence sites arose at Arika, Buhen, and Karanog, where a large dari center appears to have existed, in the era of the flourishing of the Meroitic culture. In fact, it is justified in that period, due to the lack of experience and expertise, and the scarcity of knowledge, that these antiquities were considered to belong to the Blemmyes. Randall-MacIver,1911Milcham,1910
In Arica, archaeologists uncovered a “fort” of a tribal leader dating back to the times of the Eighteenth Dynasty. What is striking is the great similarity of some parts of this building to the architecture of the tribes of Central and South Africa. The authors emphasize the significance of the local population, and point out in the introductory chapter that the current volume they publish belongs more to Africa than to Egypt, although due to the proximity of the latter, its influence and direct “colonial” influence cannot be denied, as they write. The published catalog of the pottery found on the surface in the cemeteries of Al-Jazira and Shabloul, as well as its description, served as a foundation for the study of Meroe pottery, which demonstrates a high level of skill and good taste that is admired today. Excavations in Karanog gained greater importance, as many artificial materials, decorative tools and pottery were uncovered at the residence site and in the cemetery, both of which date back to the Meroe era. Careful analysis of these finds and comparison with burial forms allowed for a series of important checks and adjustments to determine dates. A special chapter is devoted to questions related to chronology. By comparing the materials they collected with the testimonies of Greek and Roman writers and the Roman epigraph, the authors give an appendix to the third volume, a summary of the history of the Roman garrisons on the southern borders of Egypt, preceding the work of Lesquier, 1918. The "fort" of Karanog and the houses surrounding it provide rich material on the characteristics of a frontier administrative center of the Meroitic kingdom. The authors' conclusions and generalizations currently require a series of additions and major checks, primarily with regard to the error of the dates they propose. As we indicated, they attributed Karanog to the Blemmyes. Lesquier,1918
The excavations in Buhin added a lot to the information available in that period, which was mainly based on the annals of the Pharaohs and the inscriptions of Egyptian notables, which provided information about Northern Nubia when it was subject to Egypt, that is, in the era of the Middle and New Kingdoms. Temples were uncovered, especially the temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, as well as fortifications and cemeteries dating back to the Twelfth-Seventeenth Dynasty, which indicate the lives of the Egyptians who were sent here. Not many obelisks were discovered, but those found bore the names and titles of some important administrators, which helped clarify the administrative system that the invaders had planned. Here was found in that period one of the administrative centers.
As for settlement sites in the Meroe period, they were not apparently rich. Therefore, the mission limited itself to excavating only two houses and digging experimental sensors. The same can be said about the sanctuaries and small tombs located nearby. It is noted that Dr. Randall and McIver overcame the previous error and concluded that it belonged to the Kushites, not the Blemmyes.
Thus, it can be said that in the first decades of the twentieth century, active exploration operations took place in northern Nubia, where the Nile waters continued to rise from year to year with the rise of the Aswan reservoir. However, the situation south of the second cataract remained as it was without any significant change if we exclude Budge's work in Meroe, which cannot be considered serious work.
Garstang and the ruins of Meroe
In the years 1903-1908 Crawfoot made a series of visits to “Meroe Island” and left a hasty description of the ancient cities he visited (Meroe, Al-Basa, Soba, Jebel Qili and others) Crawfoot, 1911. This description included correct observations about the nature of the area, about the activities of the ancient inhabitants, about the caravan routes, and so on. Crofoot's description is accompanied by photographs and maps. On the basis of the information he collected, Crowfoot made an attempt to reconstruct the history of the Kingdom of Meroe, primarily its central region. But he did not succeed in presenting the frequency of events nor in highlighting the characteristics of the Meroe culture, as the data he possesses are still limited. However, his work has not lost its importance until now. Crawfoot,1911
Starting in 1909/1910, the mission headed by archaeologist Dr. Garstang was at work at Meroe, and work continued until the outbreak of World War I. Unfortunately, the results have not been fully published to date, and only preliminary reports on these works have been published.
In the first season of that mission, the temples of Amun, Isis, and Apademak - the lion-headed god of war, were cleaned, in addition to cemeteries. In subsequent years, the mission's activity was limited to worship buildings and palaces. Ordinary people have not been given attention to investigating their effects, and we do not yet know the type of population composition of the capital of the Kingdom of Meroe, what their activities are, and what their daily lifestyle is. The fact is that large quantities of iron ore remains were discovered on the outskirts of the city: furnaces and slag heaps. Thus became clear one of the reasons for Meroe's prosperity: here arose the most important mining center whose influence extended far to the south, south-west and south-east. The initial report written by Garstang was led by a summary of the history of the city of Meroe, based primarily on the works of Greek and Roman writers. Attached to the report is a chapter written by A. Sayce on the analysis of the Meroe writing symbols as proposed by Griffiths, and the report also included the inscriptions that were found during the excavation. We know about the following four seasons from short reports that give a general picture of the “Royal City”, which extends three hundred kilometers in length. Here, in addition to the aforementioned temples, other buildings for worship were uncovered, for example, a “classical temple” and a bath similar to what was found in Pirin, Greece, as well as another “royal” bath that is more modern and similar to the Roman baths, and the ruins of a building that may have been an observatory. Numerous Hellenistic and Roman pot sherds, including imported ones, allow the identification of pottery groups and help clarify the frequency of change in style and technique, and thus the chronological tabulation. The construction technology reflects the features of the era. What is distinctive is that the era of prosperity corresponds to the Hellenistic era, that is, it began approximately from the era of Arkamani, during which some remnants of primitive clan structures were eliminated, especially related to the ritual assassination of the king. Starting from the first century AD, the first features of the beginning of the collapse begin to appear, which become more clear with the passage of time. The mission succeeded in uncovering amazing traces of visual art - statues, fragments of icons that have not been published until now. The materials found in the observatory were not published, which is important material for the history of Meroitic culture and its relationship with ancient science. Garstang dates the founding of the city to the seventh century BC. When, he believed, King Aspalta ruled. But it seems that the residence originated there at an earlier time. Garstang also believes that Petroni arrived with his army in 23 BC. to Meroe and that the Roman garrison remained there for 10-12 years. This point of view is not supported by facts and has not been accepted by other scholars.
The many urns filled with ashes, the ashes of the buried dead, and the ruins of buildings remain a standard that indicates that even in a conservative field of ideology, such as religion, the influences of the Hellenistic world spread to the ruling classes. Some of the separate houses that were uncovered during the excavations seem to belong to wealthy groups, and were built with a layout characteristic of Eastern countries: a courtyard with living rooms surrounding it and a wall revolving around it. During a quick excavation of some of the craftsmen’s homes, traces of their activity were found, mainly pottery. Two or three kilometers away from the city, possibly a village on the outskirts of the city, he uncovered a large obelisk belonging to Queen Amani Reyna and Prince Aquinidad, whose initial deployment was prepared by Sais.
On the basis of the material obtained Garstang has compiled the following chronology for the history of Meroe: Early Meroe period 650-400 (?) BC; Middle Meroe period 300 BC; Late Meroe period, first year BC - 350 AD. However, this temporary classification, being artificial, did not last long.
Approximately in the same period - in the years 1910-1913 - the work of the Oxford University mission, headed by Griffiths, began in northern Nubia in the city of Faras, which was one of the main centers in the region. The mission also began work in the ancient capital of Kush, Napata, between the third and fourth gondolas. Only eight years after the completion of the work did he begin to publish short reports, after the results of Reisner's excavations at Gebel Barkal and elsewhere became known. Griffith thus had the opportunity to benefit from Reisner's preliminary conclusions, which had by then found their way into the pages of specialized journals and museum bulletins.
If the English archaeologists worked for two years in Persia, and comprehensively studied this city, where their interest was particularly attracted by the citadel dating back to the Christian period, then, in the wider Napata area, they limited their efforts to conducting a survey of the city in which their work continued for one year. Although little has been implemented here, it has been published in a very compact form.
The introductory chapter that serves as an introduction to the report is of a quotational nature, echoing the conclusions of Reisner Griffiths, and then briefly presenting the pragmatic history of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, relying on the Annals of Piia and other sources known at the time. It goes on to give a description of the Napata ruins site area and enumerates Egyptian texts in which the city is mentioned. Regarding the actual work of the mission, the results obtained were described, as we indicated, briefly. The temple in Sanam was cleaned, revealing many architectural details, a “treasure”, or rather, storehouses for storing surplus metals and weapons, and also a cemetery not designated for kings and their families, which is the only one of its kind studied so far among the cemeteries in the city area. The cemetery was used from approximately the time of Bey until the middle of the sixth century BC. When Napata was the capital of Kush. As for the later period - the Meroe - some scattered tombs were uncovered. In total, 1,500 tombs were studied, most of which had unfortunately been looted in earlier times. The vast majority of them, as indicated by the scarabs on which the names of the pharaohs are engraved, date back to the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth Dynasties. The report gave a description of the characteristics of some of the graves and an attempt was made to classify them. It also described the discovered materials: vessels - stone, bronze, and clay, tools, weapons, and decorative items. The difference in the graves was explained by the fact that they belonged to two tribal groups of the same people. The lack of an inventory of the funerary contents in the cemeteries hinders the possibility of determining the interrelationship in terms of wealth between the groups, which would be important for interpreting the social composition of the population. What is even more unfortunate is that, as we pointed out, the Sanam cemetery is the only one studied so far from the Nabatean era in this region.
Excavations in Persia yielded, in addition to traces of the Christian era, burials belonging to the Third Group, and fortifications dating back to the Middle Kingdom, in addition to a series of New Kingdom monuments, which characterize the period of Egyptian sovereignty over Kush.
German scholars in Northern Nubia
Exciting and important are the conclusions reached by the expedition of the Austrian Academy of Sciences headed by J. Junker as a result of her work in Northern Nubia in the years 1910-1912. Juncker did not differ from his predecessors, as the publication of the results of his expedition was delayed, which allowed him to read Reisner's work and reach more broad generalizations, primarily with regard to the culture of the third group, which in Juncker's view constitutes a local culture, just like the Kerma culture farther south. The first schism that affected the common Egyptian-Nubian culture occurred, in Juncker’s reading, in the middle of the pre-dynastic period. In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the features of the regions of the extension of Egyptian culture become clear, which coincide in time with the growing influence of the culture of the third group. These conclusions were initially reached by Juncker thanks to the results obtained through excavations in the Kabaniyah cemetery. The following year, the results of excavations in both Ermina and Toshka, especially the anthropological materials, confirmed the validity of Juncker’s conclusions.
In the same year that Juncker completed his research in northern Nubia, German scientists, led by J. Steindorff worked in Aniba (Miam in ancient Egyptian), south of Toshka. The work of this mission was interrupted as a result of the outbreak of World War I, and it began its work again only in the 1930/1931 season. The detailed report was published in the years 1935-1937. Hence, Steindorff had the opportunity to review the results obtained from previous work and base his opinion on them. The expedition headed by Steindorff did not reveal traces from the Napatan and Meroe periods, but it was important for the study of the history of Kush in earlier times. The sequence of events in the history of Kush was established according to the chronological table established by Reisner. Steindorf added some terminological modifications that had not been previously mentioned in scientific works. For example, he called the culture of the first and second groups with a new term, “Ancient Nubian,” which, according to his definition, ends with the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. The next phase, “Medieval Nubian,” includes the era of the Middle Kingdom and the second transitional phase (the period of the second decline of Egypt) - characterized by the dominance of the culture of the third group. In Aniba, the huge residence site of this culture was studied for the first time, and thus Steindorf was able to discover the dominance of local elements in that culture. In general, Steindorff defined this culture as Hochstand nubischen Eigenlebens, even though it was inferior to its contemporary Egyptian culture. If the first report, which began with a general summary of the history of Northern Nubia from the earliest times until the end of the New Kingdom, was devoted to describing cemeteries and local residence sites, the second report was a description of Egyptian antiquities, and contained many materials related to the Egyptian expansion into Kush and the mutual relations between the two countries. The detailed description and precise indexed inventory of the finds made this printed work one of the most important sources.
E.A.W.Budge 1907, The Egyptian Sudan,vol.I. London.
A.E.P.Weigall 1907, A Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia (the First Cataract to the Sudan Frontier) and their Condition in 1906-1907. Oxford.
G.A.Reisner 1910, The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1907-1908, vol.I. Archaeological Report. Cairo.
C.M.Firth 1912, The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1908/09. Cairo.
J.Garstang 1908, Excavations at Hierakonpolis, at Esna and in Nubia, Annales du Service des antiquités de l’Egypte 8.
J.H.Breasted 1908, The Monuments of Sudanese Nubia. American Journal of Semitic Languages and literatures 25.
J.H.Breasted 1909, A History of Egypt. London.
D.M.Randall-MacIver 1911, Buhen, vols. I-II. Philadelphia.
G.S.Milcham 1910, Churches in Lower Nubia. Philadelphia.
J.Lesquier 1918, L’armée romaine d’Egypte d’Auguste à Dioclétien. Le Caire.
J.W.Crowfoot 1911, The Island of Meroe. London.
Archaeological research south of the third waterfall
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