Title: The Nile's other kingdom.
Author(s): Macleod, Scott
Source: Time; 09/15/97, Vol. 150 Issue 11, p102, 4p, 6c
Document Type: Article
Subject(s): NUBIANS
ARCHAEOLOGICAL expeditions
Geographic Term(s): SUDAN
Abstract: Reports on the significance of an archaeological
discovery of an intricately carved stones hidden in rubble in Sudan, by
an expedition led by archeologist Timothy Kendall. The stones as
forming
a tableau; The search for secrets of ancient Nubia, the world's first
black civilization; The discovery of remains as supporting the
conviction that Nubians were creators of an ancient and impressive
civilization of their own.
Full Text Word Count: 1405
ISSN: 0040781X
Accession Number: 9709113122
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Section THE ARTS/ARCHAEOLOGY
THE NILE'S OTHER KINGDOM
NUBIA, NOT EGYPT, MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST TRUE AFRICAN CIVILIZATION
PHOTO (COLOR): ROYAL TOMBS: There are more pyramids in Nubia, like
these
at Meroe, than in all of Egypt
Archaeologist Timothy Kendall was leading an expedition in northern
Sudan earlier this year when one of his diggers came across a slab of
intricately carved stone hidden in rubble. Soon after, another slab
turned up, and then another, until there were 25 in all, laid out in
the
sand like an archaeological jigsaw puzzle. Fitted together, the pieces
formed a dazzling tableau: golden stars set against an azure sky, with
crowned vultures flying off into the distance. Flying where, precisely?
Kendall, an associate curator at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, thinks
he
knows. And if his hunch is correct, he may be a few tons of rubble away
from a major archaeological find.
Kendall's breakthrough, when and if it comes, should be one of many
arising from that corner of Africa. Long considered an archaeological
afterthought by scientists exploring the more famous temples and
pyramids of Egypt, just to the north, Sudan is suddenly the hot place
to
be--and not just because of the equatorial temperatures that register
as
high as 100°F even during the prime winter digging season. At least 15
teams from the U.S., Europe and Sudan are sifting through the same
sands
for secrets of ancient Nubia, the world's first black civilization,
which at its height stretched more than 1,000 miles along the Nile
River, from what is today the central part of Sudan to the southern
reaches of Egypt.
Everything uncovered thus far supports the conviction that has been
building among scholars during the past 20 years that the Nubians were
not just vassals and trading partners of the Egyptian Pharaohs but also
the creators of an ancient and impressive civilization of their own,
with a homegrown culture that may have been the most complex and
cosmopolitan in all Africa.
That's why Kendall is particularly interested in the jigsaw tableau he
has laid out on the sand. The newly discovered blocks, he believes,
once
made up the vaulted ceiling of a passageway that led to a temple dug
into a 300-ft.-high hill known today as Jebel Barkal. It was there,
Kendall thinks, that rulers in the ancient Nubian kingdom of Napata and
Meroe, which dated from 900 B.C. to A.D. 350, practiced their
coronation
rites, climaxing in a crowning by the god Amun.
PHOTO (COLOR): PUZZLE These ceiling fragments, dug up at Jebel Barkal
may have led to a temple where Nubian kings were crowned
MAP: Showing both the ancient border between Egypt and Nubia and the
more mordern border
The passage Kendall discovered was, he believes, closed by an
earthquake
and rockslide sometime between A.D. 100 and A.D. 200. That's the bad
news--and the good news, for the same wall of rubble that separates
Kendall from his temple probably kept out treasure hunters as well.
Once
he manages to bore through a few huge boulders and track the flight of
those majestic vultures, he hopes to find that the temple's interior,
and whatever treasure it holds, has been preserved intact for 18
centuries.
Such findings, according to Dietrich Wildung, curator of the Egyptian
Museum in Berlin, represent "nothing less than the discovery of a new
dimension of the ancient world." The sense of breaking new ground, and
of taking archaeology in a new direction, has contributed to what
Wildung calls "the pioneer spirit in Sudan."
Archaeologists aren't the only ones who are rediscovering Sudan's
ancient treasures. One of the greatest exhibitions of Nubian art ever
assembled is currently touring France, Germany and the Netherlands. The
show, which will continue into next year, features statues, pottery,
jewelry and other artifacts that were recovered in excavations dating
back to 1842, when Karl Lepsius, a Prussian archaeologist, first
surveyed the region known in the Old Testament as Kush, in Greek
literature as Aethiopia and by the Romans as Nubia (possibly a
corruption of the Egyptian word for gold).
Although the early surveyors reported that Sudan contained more
pyramids
than did Egypt, the country remained what Wildung calls an
archaeological "no-man's-land" until quite recently. The first
excavators from Europe found Egypt to be less backward, less remote and
less prone to yellow fever, and thus far more pleasant and accessible.
Egypt's sites also proved to be so rich that there was little reason to
search farther up the Nile.
Another problem, scholars now firmly believe, was racial prejudice,
which turned many in the field away from cultures emanating from deeper
in Africa. Prominent Egyptologists --including the noted American
George
Reisner, who worked in Sudan--thought they were excavating the remains
of an offshoot of Egyptian culture. "They didn't believe black Africa
was capable of producing high civilization," says Kendall.
The latest crop of discoveries is helping put such ideas to rest.
French
archaeologists, for example, have found exquisite ceramic figurines,
bowls and funerary objects at sites that date from at least 8000 b.c.
They are as old as any Neolithic sites in Africa and predate
prehistoric
finds in Egypt by a staggering 3,000 years. This strongly suggests to
Hassan Hussein Idris, director of Sudan's National Board for
Antiquities
and Museums, that ancient Nubia might have been an important source of
Egypt's civilization, as well as the other way around.
Not all archaeologists are prepared to go that far. But there is now
enough evidence for a scientific consensus that ancient Nubia,
beginning
in the Stone Age, developed its own distinct civilization--or rather, a
series of overlapping civilizations--influenced by Africa, Arabia and
the Sahara as well as by Egypt. Moreover, many scholars believe these
Nubian kingdoms hold even more clues to the origins of African culture
than does Egypt, which, because of its unique position abutting Asia
and
the Mediterranean, is regarded by many archaeologists as having
developed independently from the rest of the continent.
The new perspective owes much to the work of Swiss archaeologist
Charles
Bonnet, who has spent the past 24 years excavating Kerma, the seat of
Africa's greatest empire (outside Egypt) between 2500 B.C. and 1500
B.C.
Bonnet acknowledges that he went to Sudan initially to find Egyptian
civilization. "But step by step," he confesses, "I came to understand
that the Nubian civilizations are really extraordinary. There might be
Egyptian influences, but there is a Nubian originality and a Nubian
identity."
Two years ago, Bonnet excavated a funerary temple in Kerma that
powerfully illustrates Nubia's synthesis of frontier influences. On one
interior wall he found Egyptian motifs, including Nile fishing boats,
bullfights and an enormous crocodile. Another wall was covered with
rows
of giraffes and hippopotamuses--African wildlife rarely seen in ancient
Egypt.
PHOTO (COLOR): TANTALIZING CLUES Painted hippos on a doorway from a
funerary temple at Kerma, found recently by Bonnet's team, reflect
Egypt's influence on Nubian culture
At Jebel Barkal, Kendall hopes to shed new light on the symbiotic
relationship of Nubian and Egyptian civilizations. The first temples
there were constructed between 1460 B.C. and 1200 B.C., during the
relatively brief period when Egypt ruled Nubia. Kendall believes the
Egyptians chose this particular craggy hill for a royal sanctuary
because, when seen from a distance, Jebel Barkal's silhouette
resembles,
even today, a crown adorned with a cobra, which is a symbol of royal
power. The Egyptians believed Jebel Barkal to be a prime residence of
the god Amun, the bestower of royal authority--a notion that was later
taken up by the Nubians. About 730 B.C., when the Nubians rose up and
conquered Egypt, establishing what became known as Egypt's 25th
dynasty,
they drew on the authority granted by Amun at Jebel Barkal to justify
their rule over both lands.
Kendall doesn't know what secrets the temple will yield when he finally
breaks through the pile of rubble separating him from the interior.
Will
he find cult goddesses? Jeweled crowns? Kingly scepters? Or perhaps the
remains of a priest or two, trapped for 18 centuries by that
earthquake?
Alas, there will be no answers until the next digging season begins in
January. It's still summer in Sudan, and much too hot for archaeology.
PHOTOS (COLOR): NOBLE PORTRAIT Piece of a stele decorated with a
queen's
likeness and an unknown text
PHOTO (COLOR): RITUAL GLASS This chalice, now repaired, may originally
have been broken at a funeral
~~~~~~~~
By SCOTT MACLEOD