Table Of ContentL OF THEOLOGY AT CLAREMON
“WLAN
ANCIENT
Egypt's Rival
in Africa
David O’Connor
AAS
Sy
CLAREMONT
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
LIBRARY
Given by
Ernest W. Tune
cy) 1325 North College Avenve
Claremont, CA 9171)
ANCIENT NUBIA
Jar from Karanog grave 566
Meroitic Period.
E 8183
>“W 4h
Leypt’s Rival
in Africa
David O’Connor
AAR
Sy
The University Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Pennsylvania
Theology Libra ry
Claremant
f Theclegy
3 mont, CA
Editing
Publications Department, The University Museum
Design and Production
Bagnell & Socha
Printing
Cypher Press
The logo of three birds and an alligator appearing
on the cover and title page of this volume was taken
from the engraved bezel of a Meroitic ring (p. 151,
pl. 116, E 8068).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
O’Connor, David.
Ancient Nubia : Egypt’s rival in Africa / by
David O’Connor.
Pp, cm.
Includes index.
1. Nubia—History. I. Title.
DT159.6.N83025 1993 939’.78—dc20 93-4769 CIP
ISBN 0-924171-28-6
Publication of this volume was made possible
through generous grants from The Pew Charitable
Trusts and the National Endowment for the
Humanities, a federal granting agency.
N=
Copyright © 1993
The University Museum
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
PAP ULGS 35. doce neta ga te .tett ete kee ear Vil
HOPE WOU gee eae coanyrtc re ia al eee me eee ee 1X
An Introduction to Ancient Nubia.................. xl
Nubia and Egypt
The Discovery of Nubia
1. Understanding Ancient Nubia: s:nse ]
Approaches to Nubia
People, Places, and Things
Discovering the Nubians
An Introductory Outline
2. Chiefs and Kings in Early Nubia................ 10
A Regional Perspective on the Lower Nile in
Prehistoric Times
A-Group Communities of Lower Nubia
The Royal Capital of Qustul
The End of the A-Group
34 The Lion and the Crocodile 152i ....ccrssecs 24
Mysteries of the Early Bronze Age
The C-Group and Kerma-Group Peoples
The Earliest Nubian State?
The Kingdom of Kush
The Desert Kingdoms and the Land of Punt
4. Nubian Life in the Middle Bronze Age.....46
Areika: A C-Group Nubian Community
Nubia’s Earliest City
Egyptians and Nubians
5. Colonialism and a Reborn State
LIND DUA ces. ccaveet ces astayedaraunnessgseaseangatanatn 58
The Conquest and Governance of Nubia
Nubians in Colonial Nubia
The Independent Rulers of Southern Nubia
The Mysterious Tombs of Kurru
Table of Contents
6. The Great Kingdom: Napata and
The Challenge of Napata and Meroe
The Land and Its People
The Kingship
Gods and Goddesses of Nubia
Egypt and Nubia in Napatan-Meroitic Times
Joa lie PeOple ot KalanOg eine accesses 86
Lower Nubia in Meroitic Times
The Pattern of Settlement and the Region of
Nalote
Karanog/Nalote: The Town and Its Cemetery
The People of Karanog/Nalote
The World of the Mind in Nalote
SwAtter Meroe: s)he Great Divide. 2... ..:: 108
Nubia and Christianity
Meroe’s Successor Kingdoms
The Kings of Post-Meroitic Nubia
EI CLOLES sitacn- sna, Seam un een eeeea ee 114
DUC SSC: REACINOS cacao ee 120
Compendium of Objects in Exhibition
“Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa” ...... 126
CGOTICOVOANCE cccreaceccreartatec clsetteeee 173
Color Plates following pages 26 and 98
Figures
Introduction Chapter 5
Intro.1. Map of Nubia and contiguous See The presentation of Nubian tribute
GrOT e eae eas Se ey ee epee ee x from the tomb of the Viceroy of
TRUS heS ecorteresn te tere tere ee ene 63
Chapter 1
Ore: iPhestombsau uci eee eee 67
ink: Map of sites mentioned in text.......... XIV
Chapter 6
2 Archaeological coverage of Nubia....... 7
6.1. INIiMervoitiemrule x,c ts.tee oer 76
Chapter 2
6.2. A Meroitic period royal cemetery .....78
ra A late Neolithietburialicise.c.s.cscssseretse: 13 6.3. The Nubian god Apedemak............... 80
2:2: The A-Group cemetery 277 ..:....:... Lr? 6.4 Meroitic Alphabet .£.25s0er.s. cee 82
ad: An A-Group ruler siburialit....i.08.c 19
Chapter 7
vga Incense burner from Terminal
A-Group cemetery L, Qustul.............. 22 Lake Plan of a tomb at Karanog .............04 92
ie, Map of Karanog tOwn f.srcct-.sc-20s2s00008 U5
Chapter 3
7.3A,
o.L Burial in Early Bronze Age B,C. The distribution of artifacts in
COMELCTY ALONEA l cco: succsaccspereer-stccese 28 Karanog Cemeterys:.¢ec..0 vac. sees 94
5.2. Kerma and C-Group grave styles........ 30 7.4, The social structure of the Karanog
CEMMELEN Yeh oad sect n-saeoeceenseestoureeeass 97
ReR ee Aniba, C-Group cemetery N;
PAGES WN 2 Da tesceecrensmesantnmasecnicers 34 fesy The two palaces of the governors
at KRarang siicccd...ssqrneee sen 100
5:4. The stela of Sepedhor Za.5.iGeecocress 40
7.6. Design on a bronze bowl from
KaranOg ee). sieondcitecnsitterdeac ensntasecoaeneenets 104
Cipav ter 4
4.1. A reconstruction of Areika..............0 47 Chapter §
Ae2: A Classic Kerma royal tomb ............... De
Sl ChuxchtateAmnoalaminasee tees 109
a3. The cemetery of Kerma: Classic
Sag: Map of post-Meroitic Nubia..........:.. 111
vil
Foreword
his book is a study of ancient Nubia written in conjunction with the
exhibition of the same name, “Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in
Africa.” As a discussion of the evolution of Nubian culture and history
through the Bronze Age, and the Napatan-Meroitic Period, the
volume forms an independent entity of value in its own right, devel-
oping the themes found in the exhibition; it also documents every
artifact in a compendium of black-and-white photographs.
The two earliest known African civilizations are those of
Egypt and Nubia. Over the very long span of time represented in this
book, the two civilizations interacted in many ways, sometimes collab-
orating, for example, in trading relationships, but often competing
with each other for territory or other advantages. Despite these inter-
relationships, Egyptian civilization and Nubian civilization differed
from each other in many important ways, each showing a strong
inner vitality of its own. Even in Napatan-Meroitic times, when many
aspects of Egyptian culture were integrated into Nubian civilization,
the latter still differed strongly from that of Egypt.
This book is about ancient Nubia, rather than about Nubia
and Egypt, and in it the author describes the important aspects of
each phase of Nubian civilization and discusses the many mysteries
that still remain to be solved about Nubia. Some of the ideas he pre-
sents are controversial, and differ from more customary scholarly
notions about Nubian history and culture; but he always bases these
new ways of looking at Nubia on a careful consideration of the evi-
dence, and always describes theories that differ from his own.
That this book and the exhibition with which it is associat-
ed should be produced by The University Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania is very appropri-
ate, for two reasons. First, The University Museum has had a long
institutional involvement in the archaeological exploration of
Nubia—two of its curators, David Randall-Maclver and Leonard
Woolley, were among the archaeological pioneers in Nubia (1907-
1910), and William Kelly Simpson directed a combined expedition of
Yale University and The University Museum during the last great cam-
paign of salvage archaeology in Nubia, in 1962-1963. Randall-
Maclver, Woolley, and Simpson made some of the most important
archaeological finds in Nubia, revealing distinctively Nubian cultural
developments in both the Bronze Age and Napatan-Meroitic periods.
vu
