The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan

361 Pages·2004·6.71 MB·English

by  David N. Edwards

THE NUBIAN PAST
This volume presents a synthesis of the archaeology of Nubia and Sudan, a region
which for millennia has been where the Eurasian and sub-Saharan worlds met, and that
has produced the earliest states and some of the most spectacular archaeology in sub-
Saharan Africa. The first major work on this area for over 30 years, the book provides a
thoroughly up-to-date review, drawing on the results of the latest research, as well as
developing new interpretative frameworks.
The book breaks new ground in a number of ways, especially in moving beyond
often Egyptocentric and more traditional culture-histories of ‘Nubia’, isolated from
other areas of Africanist research. One particular concern has been to re-locate the early
civilizations of the region and their archaeology within their Sudanic African context.
The geographical range of the book extends far beyond the Nubian north to include
wide areas of the Middle Nile Basin and what has come to be the modern Sudan.
Through the period-based chapters, the distinctiveness, or otherwise, of the region’s
long-term history can be traced both in relation to the Sudanic world and the Egyptian
Lower Nile. New ground is also broken in exploring the potential for a more broadly
framed and inclusive ‘historical archaeology’, dealing with the Sudan’s more recent
past.
David N. Edwardsis an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the School of Archaeology and
Ancient History, University of Leicester. With extensive research experience in Sudan
and Nubia since 1985, he has worked widely in Britain as well as Libya, Egypt and
Jordan as a field archaeologist.

THE NUBIAN PAST
An archaeology of the Sudan
David N. Edwards
First published 2004
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2004 David N. Edwards
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage
or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Edwards, David N.
The Nubian past: an archaeology of the Sudan /
David N. Edwards.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sudan—Antiquities. 2. Archaeology—Sudan. I. Title.
DT154.8.E35 2004
939′.78—dc22
2003025443
ISBN 0-203-48276-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-68235-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–36987–8 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–36988–6 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vi
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xii
1 Nubia, the Sudan and Sudanic Africa 1
2 Hunters, fishers and gatherers (c.10,000–5000 BC) 21
3 The Neolithic: developing complexity and expanding worlds
(c.5000–3000 BC) 38
4 Kerma and Bronze Age Kush 75
5 The Kushite Revival: the XXVth Dynasty and the kingdom
of Napata 112
6 Meroitic Kush (c.300 BC–AD350) 141
7 Post-Meroitic transitions (c.AD350–550) 182
8 Medieval Nubia (c.AD500–1500) 212
9 Post-medieval Sudan and Islam (c.AD1500–1900) 256
Bibliography 288
Index 339
v
FIGURES
1.1 Nubia and the Sudan 2
1.2 Major archaeological sites in the Middle Nile 4
1.3 New Kingdom temple at Soleb 8
1.4 The royal pyramid cemetery outside Meroe 10
2.1 Vegetation zones across northern Africa in 18000 BPand
8000 BP 22
2.2 Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic settlement in the Middle Nile 25
2.3 Early pottery-bearing sites in northern Africa 26
2.4 Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic sites in the Khartoum region 28
2.5 Incised Wavy Line and impressed Wavy Line (Dotted Wavy
Line) pottery, harpoon fragments and lithics from the
Khartoum area 32
3.1 Vegetation zones across northern Africa in c.5000 BPand
‘modern’ times 39
3.2 The Neolithic in the Middle Nile 41
3.3 Neolithic sites in the Khartoum region 44
3.4 Neolithic settlement in the northern Dongola Reach 46
3.5 Neolithic pottery from the Dongola Reach 50
3.6 A-Group (a, b) and Neolithic (c) figurines 51
3.7 Rock drawings, from the southern Batn al-Hajar 52
3.8 Neolithic burial at Kadruka 55
3.9 Late prehistoric settlement in the southern Atbai 65
3.10 A-Group settlement in Lower Nubia 69
3.11 A-Group burial from Ashkeit, near the Second Cataract 71
4.1 Distribution of Kerma settlement 76
4.2 The mudbrick Deffufa and foundations of round ‘Public
Building’ at Kerma 82
4.3 Plan of Kerma town 83
4.4 Kerma pottery – Early Kerma (top), Classic Kerma (bottom) 85
4.5 An ‘Early Kerma’ burial 87
4.6 C-Group settlement in Lower Nubia 89
4.7 Middle Kerma burial 92
vi
FIGURES
4.8 Middle Kingdom forts in Nubia 93
4.9 Classic Kerma ‘palace’ at Kerma 95
4.10 Late C-Group enclosed settlement at Wadi es-Sebua 99
4.11 Inscription of Thutmosis III, Gezira Tombos on the Third
Cataract 104
5.1 The Middle Nile in the first half of the first millennium BC 113
5.2 Napatan cemetery at el-Kurru 119
5.3 Napatan settlement 123
5.4 Plan of Jebel Barkal temple/palace complex (top) and of
Tabo with Napatan and Meroitic temples (bottom) 125
5.5 Napatan building at Kerma 130
5.6 The Napatan Royal Cemetery at Nuri and queen’s pyramid
at el-Kurru 132
5.7 Early Napatan burial from the West Cemetery at Meroe,
probably laid on a bed 134
5.8 Common types of Napatan pottery 138
6.1 Major centres of the Meroitic period 142
6.2 Plan of Meroe and the surrounding area 146
6.3 Temple and urban housing at Hamadab, near Meroe 148
6.4 Settlement in the Meroitic heartlands 149
6.5 Plan of Naqa 151
6.6 Musawwarat es-Sufra 152
6.7 Main Meroitic centres of settlement north of the Third Cataract 157
6.8 Part of the Meroitic (and post-Meroitic) temple complex at
Qasr Ibrim 160
6.9 Meroitic Pottery 171
6.10 Reconstructed Meroitic burial from Gabati, central Sudan 176
6.11 Meroitic inscription in the temple of Philae (right) and grave
stele from Sedeinga (left) 177
6.12 Temple of Apedemak at Naqa 180
6.13 Colonnade of central temple at Musawwarat es-Sufra 180
7.1 Post-Meroitic Upper Nubia 186
7.2 Post-Meroitic pottery in central Sudan 190
7.3 Funerary equipment in elite early Post-Meroitic burial at
al-Hobaji 192
7.4 Post-Meroitic Lower Nubia, with spread of late sites south
of the Second Cataract 196
7.5 The Silko inscription at Kalabasha 197
7.6 Supposed representation of Silko at Kalabsha 198
7.7 Post-Meroitic pottery in Lower Nubia 199
7.8 Late Post-Meroitic tumulus cemetery below the fortified
hilltop of Jebel Sesi, Third Cataract region 201
7.9 Burial chambers of a royal Nobadian tomb (B.95) of the
late fifth century at Ballana 206
vii
FIGURES
8.1 The medieval Middle Nile 213
8.2 ‘Palatial’ building beside the main churches at Soba during
the 1985 excavations 221
8.3 Soba churches and palace 222
8.4 Medieval Alodian (handmade) pottery 223
8.5 Settlement in the Makurian heartlands 225
8.6 Medieval settlement north of the Third Cataract – only larger
sites shown 226
8.7 Early medieval ‘townsites’ at Ikhmindi and Sheikh Daoud 229
8.8 Plans of Arminna (top), and Meinarti c.AD1100 230
8.9 Later medieval ‘castle-house’ in the Third Cataract region 232
8.10 Decorated medieval pottery from the Dongola region 233
8.11 Nubian church plans: (a) ‘Church of the Granite Columns’,
Old Dongola; (b) Basilican Church; (c) ‘Classic Christian’
form; (d) and (e) ‘Late Christian’ forms 235
8.12 Church at Masida, near the Third Cataract. The rock at its
east end bears ancient rock drawings 242
8.13 The monastery at Qasr al-Wizz 243
8.14 The Cathedral of Qasr Ibrim, Lower Nubia, converted into a
mosque in the sixteenth century 246
9.1 The Post-medieval Middle Nile 257
9.2 Post-medieval ‘castle’, probably with a medieval core,
Gezira Tombos, Third Cataract region 263
9.3 Qubba tombs at the religious centre of ‘Aylafun on the
Lower Blue Nile 268
9.4 Funj large open bowls and jars 270
9.5 Mosque (top) and brick palace (bottom) at Old Shoba, North
Darfur, associated with Sultan Mohammed Tayrub c.1760 273
9.6 ‘Modern’ forms of Darfur pottery 274
9.7 Nineteenth-century fortified ‘Diffi’ in the Third Cataract
region 276
9.8 Turco-Egyptian mosque at al-Khandaq 279
9.9 Mahdist fortification at Jebel Wahaba, re-occupying a
medieval site overlooking the Third Cataract 283
Tables
4.1 General phasing of Kerma and C-Group periods 81
5.1 List of Napatan kings with approximate dates and location
of tombs at El Kurru, Nuri and Jebel Barkal 115
6.1 Meroitic kings and ruling queens, their known or supposed
burial place in the royal cemeteries 144
viii
PREFACE
What is today the Republic of Sudan has an extraordinarily rich and impressive
archaeological heritage. The home of the first great kingdoms of sub-Saharan
Africa, over millennia it has also produced rich and diverse cultural traditions,
as varied as its landscapes, ranging from the equatorial rain forests to the hyper-
arid Sahara. With its vast size, its different regions have had complex histories,
both internally as well as in their external relations, with links across Sudanic
Africa, across the Sahara to Egypt, to the Red Sea world, the Ethiopian
Highlands and East Africa. The long history of contacts between northern
Sudan – Nubia proper – and Egypt has also long attracted archaeological
interest in the region, leaving parts of it probably the best-known, archaeo-
logically, anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
This volume provides a new introduction to the archaeology of Nubia and
the wider Sudan. This is not a book about Egypt in Nubia, nor just those limited
areas of northern Nubia which came in contact with Ancient Egypt. The first
major work of synthesis which looked beyond such confines only emerged in
the late 1970s, with W. Y. Adams’s Nubia, Corridor to Africa. It still remains a
landmark study, summarizing the state of archaeological and historical
knowledge in the early 1970s in the immediate aftermath of the Nubian High
Dam Campaign. It was also a landmark in exploring the potential for a more
anthropological archaeology in a field largely dominated by Egyptological
research traditions.
A generation after Lower Nubia disappeared beneath Lake Nasser/Nubia,
much has changed. Where only a handful of sites had ever been excavated
elsewhere in the Sudan prior to the 1960s, we are now looking at archaeological
cultures and ancient settlement landscapes then virtually unsuspected and often
with little in common with those discovered by the pioneers of Nubian
archaeology in Lower Nubia. More and more, albeit tentative steps are also
being taken into what have been archaeologically unknown regions. In its scope,
this book can now draw on research across many parts of this vast country
and can at least aspire to represent an archaeology of the Sudan as a whole.
Unfortunately, our very uneven knowledge, especially with regard to its more
southerly regions, still makes it impossible to really fulfil this desire. The more
ix