The forgotten pharaohs of Nubia*
Bruce Williams
Translated by: Fouad Akoud
The rediscovery of an ancient kingdom is usually a matter of intense interest, but when it comes to its primacy over the oldest monarchy - the confederation of Egypt in the fourth millennium BC - history itself is reborn. The place is ancient Nubia in Qastal, where research conducted on archaeological materials discovered during the great campaign efforts in the 1960s revealed the birthplace of a civilization that lasted for many generations prior to the rise of the first dynasty in the history of Pharaonic Egypt. These discoveries demonstrated the error of the previously prevailing assumption that political organization did not come to Nubia or to any place in southern Egypt until 2,500 years later.
Transforming prehistory into history is always a large and complex task, even in Egypt, whose early documents reveal such a transformation. The strict succession of contemporary records from one pharaoh to another quickly diminishes and becomes quite vague and ambiguous before the beginning of the First Dynasty. It is believed that this first dynasty, which was founded in about 3200-3150 BC - and was a landmark in the political unity of Upper and Lower Egypt - was the work of Aha, the first pharaoh of both regions of Egypt, in a conquest that was actually achieved by Narmer (Narmer). Most of the evidence related to this period, which lies on the frontiers of history, came from the great tombs attributed to Aha and his successors from the First Dynasty. It was found with the tombs of his successors Ka and Narmer in Abydos - the ancient city sacred to the god Osiris, a hundred miles from Luxor, and in Saqqara on the outskirts of Cairo, and in Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt. Another major discovery was made at the beginning of this century, the main cache that included the large stone stelae and the heads of scepters that were found with both Narmer and his other successor, the Scorpion King, even in more early times. The Narmer stone stela was the most important of these discoveries. Although it resembles in shape smaller stone panels that were used to grind perfumes, this panel reveals images of statues and symbols in a low-relief inscription that tells of the victory of the King of Upper Egypt over the King of Lower Egypt. The inscription also contains the name of King Narmer clearly stated at the top of the panel. In addition to all this evidence, other monuments to both Narmer and Scorpio support that monotheism made its way north. There are excavations now underway at Hierakonpolis that may add further evidence.
On the other hand, disappointingly vague fragments of pre-dynastic Serekh include the appearance of royal palace gates engraved on pottery as well as a small group of what appear to be royal paintings illustrating war or an early group depicting animal conflict. Since none of the stelae and club heads were found in their original locations, there is no chronological relationship that can be determined to establish a relationship between the various fragments (fractions). The lack of direct evidence in the past has made the study of these early sovereign states highly inconsistent. This has all changed over the past few years. Direct evidence of the kings in the Nile Valley before the reign of Narmer has finally appeared in terms of the surroundings and environment, in a place other than what we expect and within the framework of a culture that no one expected - this was specifically in Qastal in Lower Nubia - very close to the current border between Egypt and Sudan. For a long time, it was believed that the inhabitants of Lower Nubia in this period, whose cultural remains archaeologists call the first group, were bearers of an uncomplicated culture and constituted a population group of limited numbers that did not qualify them to establish and support complex and central political institutions that implied the inevitability of the existence of pharaohs.
The existing problem is how they were able to establish their own “Oli ruling family”? Even if the culture of the first group had come mainly from that culture present in Upper Egypt in the pre-dynastic era, that period which was called (Naqada I) or Amratian they passed through the middle and late pre-dynastic eras (Naqada II) and (Naqada III), or the era of Gerzean culture. The local crafts are not Egyptian, and many of them reveal distinctive features of Sudan. Based on the poverty of the country and the mixed nature of the culture, archaeologists have reached an agreement that the Nubians of Group I (A) are at most a scattered group of chiefdoms or, more likely, a loosely connected group of clan formations.
Strong evidence that reversed or overturned this thinking was discovered only after the results of the archaeological excavations conducted in Qastal were finally evaluated - in 1962 AD, when an international team of archaeologists set out at the last moment to rescue the ancient remains that were besieged by the rising waters of the Aswan Reservoir (High Dam) - the Qastal area near the river was considered an area not worthy of additional research. But Keith Seele, then director of the mission of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, thought otherwise. After cleaning a large cemetery, it included tombs belonging to the first group, similar to those in the “Ka” reality and the cemeteries of the pre-Islamic periods. Ciel was immediately strongly impressed by the importance of this site, which he classified (his code) as Cemetery (L), even though every tomb there had been looted, destroyed, and most of its contents burned. The enormous amount of material that was discovered refuted any opinion regarding the classification of the cemetery (L). Therefore, any field evaluation might be carried out on the basis of the thirty-three tombs and the recording of private materials in them. As a result, and due to the lack of clear and specific evidence of ownership that can be directly traced, the proposal The idea that these tombs may belong to pre-dynastic Nubian princes or kings has been completely ignored. Neither Qastal nor Al-Jabbana (L) were mentioned in the important discussions that took place recently about the first group or the pre-dynastic civilization.
By 1977 AD, unfortunately a few years after Keith Seale's untimely death, the project to publish the discoveries of the Nubian expedition of the Oriental Institute had turned into a systematic investigation of the remains of Cemetery (L). The first and most daunting task is how to understand the huge pile of fragments and fragments of stone vessels. In previous years, a great effort was made to examine these (connections), but due to lack of time it was not possible to make a comparison to isolate the unconnected sherds from each vessel. The process necessary to determine an approximate number of the original number of contents in the tombs, made it easy to distinguish each vessel from the other due to the distinctive designs of the huge number of colored bowls of the first group and the variable characteristic of the alabaster from which most stone vessels are made. Although volunteer Elizabeth Tieken, who had dedicated her efforts and examined the collection for several years in the past, warned that many of the pieces did not match one another, and no one even remotely expected the large number of contents that would appear, colored vessels are not common, and stone vessels are rare in other sites of the first collection. Over the course of weeks of comparison, counting, and re-review, it became increasingly clear that the Qustul collection contained a greater number of both types of vessels than had ever been found in Nubia (more than a thousand complete jars of colored pots with sherds, and more than a hundred stone vessels). The class or rank of these sherds and other sherds of the looted cemetery began to indicate what could be called royal wealth.
The pottery falls into five main groups, distinguished by their workmanship and decoration. To a large extent, the abundant painted pottery vessels are sometimes decorated with commemorative drawings - a practice that appears to have been abandoned at an earlier period in Egypt and was reintroduced to Lower Nubia from Sudan. Most of this pottery is decorated with geometric patterns or straight lines with horizontal bands that are not similar to any colored pottery of that period. It is possible that it was copied after the famous ribbon-decorated pottery from Sudan, or perhaps adapted from the models of net ropes used to carry vessels. One of the small groups of vessels may indeed have been made at Qustul, imitating a specific Sudanese style with wide bands engraved with a zigzag seal pattern well known in the south. The thick, soft, well-burned bowl with engravings and decorations stamped on a polished surface represents another tradition. Some of these bowls were decorated with snakes. A similar motif was also found in the face of the layer that filled the background. What is striking is the snakes found on the black engraved side (of the bowls) of the collection. The name given to the culture that occupied Lower Nubia from the late Old Kingdom until the New Kingdom (about 2300-1500 BC). These bowls are very similar to their counterparts from the third group (C) and must be considered a long-lasting part of an inextricable tradition. The manufacturing technique and style are completely different from any other material craftsmanship of the first group, which may have been imported from the homeland of the late third group, probably from the West.
Egyptian pottery is the most common after the colored vessels of the third group. The distinctive pieces also resemble the pottery of the Naqada III period, the final stage of pre-dynastic culture in Egypt. These pieces include “bowls” of various shapes, ranging from small to large, huge, narrow-necked bottles, and cylindrical jars decorated with wavy bands. One of the late tombs includes a lattice-shaped decorative pattern, and large, strong, heavy jars (23 of which were found intact in the trench of one of the important huge tombs), and four of these storage jars - of a modified shape and found in the last pre-dynastic royal tombs in Abydos - were engraved with an inscription representing Clearly an early form of hieroglyphic writing, the largest number of Egyptian vessels are colored vessels, most of them with the wavy lines characteristic of pre-dynastic vessel designs. A few of these pots are decorated with a group of shapes that indicate that they are of great importance and meaning.
The last group came from the East, and was made in the tradition of Syrian-Palestinian utensils, and dates back to the first early Byzantine period (before about 3200-3150 BC). Most of them were found in one tomb in Cemetery “L” and represent a style that was never found in Egypt, although something similar was found on the Asian coast.
In addition to the large collection of pottery and stone jars numbering one hundred jars, other severely damaged objects of local origin from the first group, Egyptian and Nubian, provided eloquent evidence of the complete and comprehensive plundering of the cemetery. Their special value and extraordinary number tell us a story and anecdote about some of the small stone panels of the first group (A). They were made of hard, polished and very well colored quartz, and were decorated with thick mortar to define the shapes on the very hard quartz, and at other times Simple spiral decoration is added, but most important are the incense burners characteristic of the first group. Cylindrical objects made of local sandstone, or a mixture of clay and marshmallow, were found at Qustul in large numbers, several times larger than before in all of Nubia. Many of these incense burners were engraved and then carved with images and symbols of Egyptian royal families, the decisive statement or indication of the true meaning of the size and richness of the Qustul tombs.
A small number of pieces also reflect a third tradition. The most common of these is the hook-like piece carved from seashell with delicate heads and fine-tipped stems that vary between long and short protrusion with a semi-circular carving. Hooks, buttons and coins of this type are relatively rare in Egypt, and appear only in some poor tombs, and are completely missing from excavations of any of the first group tombs in Nubia. The early forms of some of these pieces - mostly stone - are common in the Al-Shehinab region of Sudan, where this area was likely their original home. Although many of these small pieces were found throughout Cemetery L, the pile of shell artefacts that were not looted at all contained more than 1,650 pieces, in addition to 2,600 other pieces of objects whose purpose is not known. They are usually called “vessel stoppers.” They are also common in Al-Shehinab, but they are rare in Egypt and Lower Nubia. Although there is no clear evidence of the purpose of these small stoppers or buttons, they were not intended for use in large numbers. It is large and it is clear that most of the 4000 pieces found in this pile may have other material value.
Tombs of this size, richness, and history were immediately recognized in Egypt as royal tombs. The extraordinary diversity of its contents may be taken as evidence of the existence of a complex culture with extensive foreign contacts. However, because the discovery was made in Nubia at a time and place where it was thought impossible for kingship to exist, additional evidence of ownership becomes necessary. Fortunately, such corroborating and conclusive evidence exists in the form of engraved incense burners, “serkhs,” images of parts of the palace façade, and specific distinctive symbols of Egyptian kingship. Serkhs appear in late pre-dynastic times, often surrounding the falcon Horus, the symbol of the pharaoh, and were also recently used to encircle the Horus names of the pharaohs. Egyptians. And the use of the main royal name during the First and Second Dynasties. The image of the palace facade on incense burners is similar to the simplest examples found in inscriptions on pre-dynastic pottery in Egypt. Some of these facades coincide with ship processions, and are particularly detailed in two cases. In fact, they are the most interesting and valuable objects found at Qustul, the largest, finest, and most elaborately decorated in all the incense burners of the first group, and the best example of this decorative view we find in the form of the silhouette style attached to the drawing on stone, and it was found in one of the early and rich tombs of the tombs of the “L” cemetery, which dates back to about four or more generations before the era of the Egyptian king “Ka” and six or seven Generations before the start of the First Dynasty. The Oriental Institute has recognized that this incense burner shows a procession of three boats with their long sterns and curved prows heading towards the facade of the palace. Researchers have also noted the concentric curved design and the surprisingly concentric design of the serekh and the military crowds. However, because only one of the occupants of the three vessels is known, and the occupants of the other two vessels have become impossible to determine due to the impossibility of restoration, the Qustal incense burner remains a mystery. However, when the incense burner was recently re-examined in light of the apparent high royal status of the people buried in Coward "L" The necessary motivation for the missing factors immediately becomes clear.
The first boat shows a prisoner kneeling on a stretcher or stretcher, tied with a rope, held by a guard holding a scepter in his hand. Although the figure or image in the middle of the boat has been completely destroyed, the white crown of Upper Egypt appears clearly above the boat, with a falcon’s tail in front of it - another sign of royalty - and the crown suggests that the picture is that of the king. The falcon perched on the saddle should be read together with the distinctive image in early Egyptian families. There is also a rose-shaped architectural ornament in front of the falcon, a symbol of royalty before the First Dynasty. The two of them - the bound prisoner and the pharaoh - are well known in early Egyptian depictions, but they are represented here in some unusual way. In the First Dynasty period, the scenes of the two are fixed - the king and the prisoner - both of them standing on land, while they, on the Qastal incense burner generations ago, were transported by ship. The history of the Qustal incense burner makes clear the images that have a strong connection with middle and late pre-dynastic art. An unknown name for a treacherous divinity, “identify the falcon on the pillar,” and the man saluting in a pose and style that matches the composition of the vessels of “Naqada II.” The two animals, the deer and the carnivore, prancing playfully near the center of the royal boat, and they take in a distinctive way the position of animals in the early paintings that show groups of fighting animals. This style shows scenes of historical events, and the surrounding environment provides the history of the painting: style and composition. The Qastal incense burner provides an early and confirmed representation of the king in the Nile Valley or elsewhere. This finding is further supported by the numerous incense burners depicting the group of ships and palace facades in the royal procession. However, its design was so simple or poorly preserved that it was difficult to recognize it until the shutters of the Qustal incense burner were removed.
As the weeks and months passed, the continuous recalibration of Qustul vessels showed a successive chain that led generation after generation from Cemetery L until the time of the tombs of the last pre-dynastic dynasty in Abydos. The people buried in Qustul were kings of wealth worthy of kings, and they had a very broad culture with connections far greater than what was thought for such a remote place. But what is known about this new kingdom? What was the relationship that these first pharaohs had with their subjects and with the surrounding political entities? Perhaps the difficult question is why nothing is known about this kingdom until now. The fact is that the evidence - other than the tomb at Qustul - had been known for some time, but was either ignored or misinterpreted. The greatest example is the Jebel Sheikh Suleiman Monument located south of Qastal. There was a belief that this inscription was made by (Djer), the second king of the First Dynasty, and his identity was given with the name Horus in the serekh, which was borrowed to be the name (Djer), and it is in fact part of the animal common in the Nubian rock scribbles. In fact, there is no place for a name above this serekh, and it must be dated on the unknown serekh represented in the battlefield scene that includes the enemies thrown to the ground, the two bound prisoners, and the royal boat. These enemies They are given epithets and labels that make them unrelated to Nubia. In addition, one of them is physically restricted rather than being identified with a bow, which is significant, because the Land of the Bow is the early hieroglyphic name for the land of Nubia and later the actual name of most of the southern Egyptian state or province. By acting as a proxy for the pharaoh, the bow marks the ruler as one of Nubia, making him part of the group rather than an Egyptian monument.
The arch also appears elsewhere in Pharaonic memorials, for example on a seal impression found in a storeroom for the first group hidden in Siali, north of Qustul. These seals were incorrectly interpreted due to a crack in the original ivory or wooden seal, which made the centered serekh appear to be a plant. Accordingly, it was examined as a source of royal lineage. However, its main theme is undoubtedly that the serekh assembly was crowned with the usual falcon symbol, and although a number of aspects of this seal are still difficult to confirm its authenticity, a certain number of iconographic features are quite certain, including images of incense burners used, altars, or huge gates in the Pharaonic temple associated with the feast of Heb-sed, the silver jubilee that the first pharaoh celebrated in his thirtieth year, and periodically thereafter... as well as the seated man. On the chair salutes the symbol of the bow. However, at this time the arch that swung over the rectangle that had been lowered represented the land of this period. The obvious explanation is that the man revives the name of Nubia, “Ta-Seti” or “Land of the Bow,” as a royal land and a territorial state, so it is clear that Nubia was a high-level political system with real rule and not primitive rule.
There are three pieces from Cemetery “L” that are more directly related to the history of the Kingdom of “Ta-Siti.” The first piece is a large Egyptian “bowl” from Cemetery “L” (23) with a detailed, studied drawing of a procession scene leading to a shrine made of columns. It shows three eagles, two of which are holding snakes in their talons. An additional motif was also found on other utensils, and it appears in a simplified form on a series of famous ivory tools of pre-dynastic Egypt, decorated with various types of animals in detail. In addition to this connection and bond, the specific appearance of this motif on Qastal's "Sultaniya" gives us the opportunity to trace the chronological progression in the development of this motif on two other important pieces. One of them is also a large bowl and the other is an Egyptian storage jar with a faded patch of black ink on the shoulder of the jar from tomb “L6”, which is a cemetery for the animals shown in it, contemporary with tomb “L23”. Because this patch was placed after the burning, it is very likely that it may have been a vertical column with an oval shape being attacked by a slender bird resembling an eagle. The back and neck of the bird appeared in an exaggerated arc. The same was done for the tails, backs and necks of the eagles on the bowl from Tomb L23 The oval in which the bird attacks contains two diagonal lines that are clearly the mark of Nekhen or Hyracnopolis, the site of the late prehistoric period, the site that largely provided evidence of the rise of the Egyptian pharaohs.
The third piece of evidence from tomb “L19” is a large bowl somewhat smaller than the one found in tomb “L23”. On its sides there are drawings of fixed leading groups consisting of two giraffes facing a tree, and there is at least one animal in front of them and behind them. Groups of this type are well known from two memorial plaques, one depicting an early animal hunting group, the other from a late historical series. Both figures, giraffes and tree trunks, indicate that this representation belongs to the first group, and the drawing appears to have been made after the burning, as much of it has been removed and what remains is susceptible to spoilage once it comes into contact with water. Because the drawing is very sensitive, it is difficult to say that the drawing was placed anywhere other than the immediate vicinity of Qastal, as it cannot withstand the rigors of travel. In fact, much of the drawing has disappeared and the design has become difficult to trace as the background around the drawn area has faded, leaving a traceable shadow of the original design.
The most charming motif in the decoration is the top of the palm tree between the two giraffes, including the now familiar eagle. Here we find that the bird is not tearing apart a snake or a symbol, but a fallen human being, the group seen elsewhere in the “Lion Painting” in England, one of the late paintings that illustrate historical events. In Bowl L19, we find that the fallen man is marked below his knee with the familiar oval land mark, without the two skewed marks. Instead there is a plant extending in a western corner from the northern end of the oval, perhaps because it has been displaced from its upright position by the man's torso which is no longer visible, and the Napata has three opposite pairs of leaves (now partly obliterated) and a broad stem that has been intentionally curved sharply. Although the leaves are short and the stem is broad, Napata is clearly an early form of the symbol of Upper Egypt. The Napata or Tree, together on the oval ground can apparently be seen in only one way, the fallen enemy being marked as Ta-Shemu or Upper Egypt. Although the remaining group on this bowl is fainter than the first, we can see that the enemy fell on his back instead of on his face. The long, flat mark "land" extends from the enemy's knee, and the distinct, unobstructed vertical mark seems to make a sort of question mark. This mark is, in all probability, the mark of Ta-Tjemeh or Libya.
All these complex parts constitute the great heritage of the cemetery in Qustul, the eloquent remains of the wonderful civilization that is the origin of the legacy of both the Egyptian and Nubian civilizations and that had connections and relations with very distant regions such as Libya and West Asia. For a period of nine generations or more, according to the results of the tombs of Cemetery L, twelve kings in Qastal participated with other kings in Upper Egypt in creating a unified culture. They also helped Egypt model the Pharaonic civilization, and thus the legacy of the First Dynasty that amazed the world for a thousand years. As for Nubia, they established early political unity and led that state toward its first cultural distinction. By sifting through the industrial production of individuals, one can reconstruct a huge series of events from the shattered fragments.
We find in the first and second generation a Siali seal showing a king ruling Ta-Siti even before the unification of Upper Egypt. The actual king who appears in the third generation and who appears on the Mubkhar Qastal, is the link in the successive royal memorials in Nubia and Egypt, and which reaches its peak at the rise of the first dynasty as appeared in the Narmer stela. The faded ink-printed material of a storage jar from Qustul depicting the conflict with Hierakonpolis in Egypt, takes us to the fourth and most important generation, the oldest known recording of a historical event. In the fifth generation, this conflict intensifies ominously to include the possibility of a now united Upper Egypt. At about the same time, the monument to Sheikh Suleiman's generation appears to mark the places or people against whom the Ta-Sti pharaohs fought. Whether the events are real or merely propaganda, records of their victories have been consistently confirmed, and tombs of the first group, including one of royal size and design, have been found in Hierakonpolis itself. In the sixth generation, perhaps due to defeats in battle, the Qustul tombs decreased sharply in size to a degree that reflected a decline in the status of those buried in them.
Finally, it seems that the second generation was contemporary with the first royal cemeteries in Abydos, and the last pharaohs of Egypt before the First Dynasty, and in Qustul the royal cemetery continued for two more generations with ever-smaller tombs until they disappeared. The sites of the sacred relics were looted and burned, and apparently the inheritance of the throne through death or abdication in Qustul coincided with the campaign of Aha in Nubia, the first king of the First Dynasty of Egypt who recorded his strong blow to Ta-Seti. The civilization of the first group ceased to exist in Lower Nubia. Perhaps after this extraordinary adventure in political organization that began in Qustul and which had such decisive results for human history would have ended on this date. But the striking similarity between the royal cemetery at Kerma later, to the south near the third cataract, and Cemetery “L” reveals another possibility: perhaps those who survived from the first group moved south beyond the reach of the influence of the First Dynasty invaders to an area farther south than present-day Lake Nasser. Despite the chronological gap between the first group and Kerma is a large gap that needs to be filled by organized field research, the lack of evidence at the present time undoubtedly necessitates this possibility. However, the idea of the existence of a kingdom in Qustul was not an impossible idea at that time and in that place. Assuming such sudden assumptions completely defeats the existence of reason to believe that the knowledge that achieved achievements and supported Egyptian civilization had penetrated at an early time, even to the south of Qustul.
This matter requires new research and exploration.
* Arkamani can only extend its thanks to Brother Fouad Muhammad Akoud for this gesture of translating this work in response to the editor’s call that this effort will only succeed through the joint effort of specialists, especially those whose names were mentioned in the editorial of the site. Arkamani, if it is to fulfill the role it has set for itself, must transform into a collective project, so that the enormous amount of previous research and the results of ongoing field research work can be translated in the shortest time. Their names were mentioned in the editorial of the site
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