Exodus from Nubia [Reprint 2022 ed.] 9783112651964

Citation preview

SEDDENGA SOL EB SE SE

Ar go Is

D ong

OLD DONC

Kom Ombo

Aswan

New Kalabsha |¿gj New Es-Sebua New Amada • New Abu Simbel New Wadi Haifa Mecca

^

.

J A.

Sai

L eb E SEBI ^

Island «ÈSsf

0 m SN^/ T U M BUS KERMA ir go Island Í KAWA Gongola* \ ^ > ¡ § Í § É

Abu Hamed

Port Sudan

Suakin

Karima y% J. B A R K A L • NURI 3 N G O LA Merowe (Napata)

Berber Atbara

c

o f/^Jjià t h e ^

M

ME ROE Shendi MUSAWWARAT ES-SUFRA

7 OmdurmanNAQA

Kassala/

SOBA

Asmara

ad Medani Aksum Sennar El-Obeid

Exodus from Nubia

Exodus from Nubia Friedrich W. Hinkel

Akademie-Verlag • Berlin

Preface The decision to build the Aswan High Dam directly threatened a number of important monuments in Sudanese Nubia. Among them were four temples, several important rock-inscriptions, and a unique rock-tomb. During the campaign to save the archaeological remains of Sudanese Nubia, the Sudan Government Antiquities Service decided to remove those endangered monuments to Khartoum and to re-erect them in the garden of the Sudan National Museum. To this end, the indispensable services of Mr. F. W. Hinkel, the highly capable and competent architect of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic were obtained, thanks to the G D R authorities. These monuments were originally located along the Nile, and in order to give some idea of how they were originally placed, an artificial lake was dug as a symbol of the Nile, in the forecourt of the Sudan National Museum. The monuments were sited along the sides of the lake with the same orientation that they had originally. Mr. Hinkel, who is now the official architect of the Sudan Antiquities Service, supervised the dismantling, transportation and re-erection of all the monuments. He also designed the lay-out of the garden and the special movable structures which now protect the temples from the rains during summer in Khartoum. This very interesting book admirably and honestly records the great architectural activities which I have above referred to, and I am sure it will be a great success like the author's previous volume on the same subject, namely salvaging of the ancient monuments of Sudanese Nubia. In point of fact it vividly completes the salvage story started in the first work. Negm el-Din Mohammed Sherif COMMISSIONER FOR A R C H A E O L O G Y

5

This is the story of an endearing landscape in which dark hills and black rocks, fine-grained, golden-yellow sand and narrow green strips of palm groves and fields border and embrace the shore of a mighty river. It is the story of a peaceful people whose lives were shaped for thousands of years by the poor soil on which they lived, whose hard work and hospitality is well known and whose fate demanded of them many sacrifices. It is the story of a man-made, modern deluge which forced the world to look back and take upon itself the responsibility for mankind's heritage. Above all, it is the story of how the temples and monuments in the Sudanese part of Nubia were rescued from the rising waters of the Nile. This story is dedicated to all those who spent years of hard work helping to bear this responsibility for Nubia and the whole of mankind.

7

Abundance and Thirst "Aut Nilus aut nihil" - The Nile or nothing. This is a brief and yet very fitting description of the past, present, and future of the countries and people on the banks of the Nile in the north-east of Africa. The Nile stamps the landscape, the people and their human relations, determines the economy and politics, organizes a sense of community and causes disputes, conditions independence and, at the same time, presents a tremendous challenge. Its annual fluctuation from low level to flood always symbolized the stream of life and death, and in the eyes of those dependent upon it, it became a supernatural power, a god, an inevitable fate. Each year it demanded sacrifice and always received it. For those living on its lower reaches, the question of its source and why it periodically flooded its banks during the hottest months of the year remained a mystery for thousands of years. Only a century has passed since the heart and pulse of this life-giving stream was explored and became known. Its tiny source lies 2,000 metres high in the heart of Africa. The water running from this spring is the beginning of the life-story of the longest river on earth. 6,671 kilometres - more than the radius of the globe - is the length of its toilsome journey. For almost half its course it must make its way without tributary, and must struggle against loss from all sides. It is an exciting journey, loaded with dangers, expectation and adventures, with joy and suffering - like the life of the people living along its banks. The Nile spends its childhood with other juvenile brooks which converge in Lake Victoria. Here - on leaving this Lake - its foaming, youthful exuberance is tamed for the first time when it has to pass through the sluices of the Owen Falls Dam built in 1945. Tired and weakened, the slowly moving waters come almost to a standstill when they enter Lake Kyoga. Then it gathers strength to take a run and makes its way down 400 metres of waterfalls within only a few kilometres. At the end of this stretch it becomes the Victoria-Nile River, only a few metres wide and, with a thunderous roar, throws itself 40 metres down. Below the Murchison Falls the waters find new companions and gain strength from the tributaries of Lake Albert. Its visit to the Lake is only short, but long enough to continue with a new name: the Albert Nile. Finally, at Nimule the river crosses the border between Uganda and the Sudan. Full of zest, the river reaches the largest country in Africa, leaving it again 3,500 kilometres later ponderous and very calm. 9

The first 200 kilometres in the Sudan are marked by rapids and the loss of 160 metres in height. When the river, now named the Bahr el-Jebel, has ended the exciting descent after 1,900 kilometres of its course, its youthful high spirits give way to a struggle for existence. About 40,000 square kilometres of swamp and flooded area covered with papyrus plants and floating islands of water hyacinths hinder a smooth flow. Here the Nile spreads into many branches so that the sun, now in an almost vertical position during part of the day, can soak up its waters, and the innumerable large-leafed swamp plants also help to drink its life-blood. On this part of its course - the experts say - the Nile loses half of its water through evaporation and vegetation. Weakened and tired after the struggle in the Sudd, the river receives renewed strength from three tributaries emerging from the Ethiopian High Plateau; during the floods every summer, these tributaries supply almost nine-tenths of its waters. The river - now called the White Nile - receives its first reinforcement from the Sobat. Its basis is now sound again, but its youthful exuberance has passed; lethargic and prematurely aged, the stream loses only 12 metres height during the next 800 kilometres to Khartoum. It needs many weeks to make this journey, and in summer it may even have to halt altogether while the Blue Nile from the Ethiopian Highlands pushes huge quantities of rushing water along the river-bed and blocks the flow of the White Nile, forcing it to dam up j ust above Khartoum. Only four months later, when the power of the Blue Nile has weakened, does this backwater begin to drain away. For kilometres, because of the difference in their colour, one can recognize the waters of the broad Blue and of the narrow White Nile pressed to the west bank as they flow side by side until they slowly merge. It was probably this annual demonstration of power that led to the Blue Nile being described as the real source right up to the last century. James Bruce, the lone Scottish traveller reached it on 4th November 1770. His reports on his observations in Ethiopia sounded so fantastic to his contemporaries that he was mocked and derided. Completely overcome by what he felt was the significance of his discovery, he described the head-waters of the Blue Nile south of Lake Tana. He could not and would not believe that a Portuguese priest, Pedro Paez, had already been there 150 years earlier, on 21. 4. 1618 and had reported this fact. In modern times it was decided that the outlet of Lake Tana is the real beginning of the Blue Nile or the Abbai as it is called in Ethiopia and, therefore, the former Ripon Falls at what is now the Owen Falls Dam and the outlet of Lake Victoria was laid down as being the beginning of the White Nile. However, no matter from what standpoint one looks at it, the fact remains that both arms of the Nile originate from springs in the mountains 2,000 metres high, and that they gather their natural strength in the two lakes. The Blue Nile, too, throws itself only a few kilometres below Lake

SAUDI A R A B I A

1=3 H •

Cataract Barrage Dam

0

100 200 -100 400 500 k m

The drainage area of the Nile

Tana into a wild gorge, 45 metres deep, which determines its course for the next 500 kilometres. The scenery is overwhelming. In a long detour the river winds its way through mountains rising to a height of 4,000 metres in the Province of Goggiam. The steep cliffs of the inaccessible gorge are some 1,400 metres high. No one has ever managed to travel by boat or on foot along the whole of this part of the river. The summer rains make their way through the path cut deep into the Ethiopian Highlands with a thunderous, foaming roar. When it leaves the mountains and passes the gold-washings of Fazoghli, the river flows into the Sudan and prepares for its mating with the White Nile. In Khartoum, the Blue Nile begins to rise slowly in midMay. The speed of the increasing flow does not give the mud particles of Ethiopian soil a chance to settle, and the normally blue-tinted Ethiopian Nile appears a dirty brown when it meets the calm White Nile. The Nile mud, once so highly prized, is the dowery it brings. The flood reaches its climax during the last weeks of August and then at the latest the peasants in Nubia and Egypt know how bad or how good the harvest will be. During flood-time, the waters of the Blue Nile can increase sixtyfold and in extreme floods can be 300 times the amount of that in the river during low level. The White Nile, however, grows only three to fivefold during the highest flood. The combined Nile has now another 3,000 kilometres to travel and only once does it receive water from a tributary - after 300 kilometres - during high flood. The Atbara, too, gathers its strength in the Ethiopian Mountains and deserves attention. It contributes 22 per cent of the Nile water, while 68 per cent comes from the Blue Nile and 10 per cent from the White Nile. At low level, however, the Atbara dwindles into insignificance; the Blue and the White Nile give 17 and 83 per cent of the water. Strong and ready for the 2,700 kilometres facing it, the river now begins its course through dry steppe and through a desert of stone and sand-dunes in Nubia and Egypt. And here it cannot simply choose the shortest path. A huge S-bow lengthens its course; six obstacles of hard stone, of granite, gneiss and porphyr set in the Nubian sandstone must be approached and

Longitudinal profile and average low water-level of the Nile

f

g

'

N

g

K

Bahr el-Jebel

O w e n Falls D a m ( R i p o n Falls) Murchison Fails I Lake Albert L a k e Kyoga L a k e Victoria

M

W h i t e Nile

Lake No i M o u t h of

X

(United) Nile

J. Aulia D a m M o u t h of the M o u t h of the Blue Nile Atbara Khartoum \5th Cataract Kosti

3rd

Cataract 2nd Cataract A s w a n D a m

Cairo Rosetta

¡the Sobat

Mediterranean Horizontal to vertical scale 1:1000

Kilometres f r o m Nile source 1060

1884 1716

2693 2816

3606 3329 3646

3972

4401

5140

5491

6671

11

overcome. Again and again, the dominating north wind blows the fine desert sand into the river. Sandbanks and long-stretched islands set up barriers. The infamous Batn el-Hajar, the "Belly of/the Rocks" has to be passed for 100 kilometres above the Second Nile Cataract. The cliffs with their polished and worn rocks reach to the banks. A stony bed and rugged islands prevent a smooth flow. Only after it has passed Nubia and reached Egyptian soil does the river find peace for its last 1,000 kilometres in a soft bed of limestone and then, in majestic tranquility, it enjoys the memories of past adventures. Here, at its lower course, during a lone path through the deserts, viewing the green belt of palms and fields, of temples and pyramids on its banks, it realizes its importance and responsibility. It is I, it appears to be saying, who made possible one of the first high cultures of mankind. The people gratefully acknowledge its life-giving role, and even two and a half millenniums ago, Hecataeus of Miletus, the forerunner of all historiography, described Egypt as a "present from the Nile". It is not difficult to understand that this majestic life-giver was acknowledged and worshipped by people in prehistory as a mysterious miracle, as an expression of the power of a god, and even as a god itself. Surrounded by yellow desert and bizarre cliffs and hills, the narrow blue ribbon - bordered by thin strips of green - travels for hundreds of days. This immeasurable amount of precious water, which increases so enormously during the summer months, was an ideal trade route between north and south, it served as the path to conquests, and lured people suffering under a growing drought in the east and west desert areas to settle there. Conditions in the Egyptian Nile Valley and in the Delta demanded social division of labour from very early on, and this made it possible to produce an agricultural surplus. It was then that economic and social inequalities arose and led to the emergence of the Pharaohnic state five thousand years ago. For the Egyptian, the waters of the Nile have always meant life or death, so it is understandable that an age-old dream has been to control and possess its course. But it remained a dream for many reasons. The task was too big and what it involved was unknown for a very long time. Only at the end of the last century, Great Britain, as the colonial power, enforced a control system along the whole of the Nile - but certainly not with the main intention of securing water .o the Egyptian fellahin. The Pharaohs had to make do with less. For many centuries, the extended southern border of their kingdom was the First Cataract near Aswan, where present-day Nubia begins. For several reasons, they wanted the border placed further south: firstly, trade could thus be extended and better controlled; perhaps gold would be found there and finally it might be possible to discover earlier the height of the annual flood, for a knowledge about the extent of the expected flood was decisive for the future and the existence of the kingdom. A number of years with low flood could lead to catastrophe, while several high floods 12

could be equally destructive for Egypt's agriculture. A favourable high flood forecast a good harvest and abundance. While the Egyptians were unable to influence it, they were capable of making observations and forecasts; and the biblical Joseph who interpreted the Pharaoh's dreams to mean the coming of seven fat and then seven lean years could hardly have made a better prophecy. For thousands of years - its present course is estimated to be twenty to twenty-five thousands years old - the Nile has brought up to one millimetre of fertile mud from Ethiopia to the Egyptian fields each year. In some areas, this thick, black, alluvial soil is up to ten metres deep. Until recently it was the basis for Egyptian agriculture which used the annual flood to give its fields water and let the fine mud particles sink onto the soil. The harvest yield depended on the area of the flooded fields and the distribution of this natural fertilizer, the mud particles. The flood regulated the life and habits of the people. The new year commenced for the Egyptians with the beginning of the flood. The course of the river indicated the directions - north was equivalent to "down the river" and south was "up the river". Its many changes of direction are ignored by the population even today; they continue to speak of it flowing "north", even if in reality its course turns west or sometimes south-west for a brief stretch. In ancient times the Nile was worshipped as a god. Hapi - although not included in a theological system - was looked upon as the god of the Nile. He was depicted as a man with hanging breasts, dressed like the fishermen and boatmen with a short apron, his head crowned with water plants. Hapi's crown of papyrus plants pointed to his importance for Lower Egypt and a crown of lotus flowers his importance for Upper Egypt. It was believed that he lived in a cave on the Island of Bigeh, at the First Nile Cataract, where he poured water out of two jars, one to the heavens, the invisible world, and the other onto the earth. Sacrifices were made to Hapi just before the expected flood in the hope that he would make it 16 ells (about 8.40 metres) higher than the low level and thus bring a record harvest and abundance. A flood height of 15 ells meant security, 14 ells joy, 13 sufficiency, but a height of only 12 ells meant hunger and need. Thus ancient Egypt was closely linked to its unpredictable river and the annual floods over which no one had any control. Only during the last century did the importance of the high flood with its annual fertilization of the fields in Lower Egypt recede. Expeditions to the upper course of the White Nile, favoured by the conquest of the Sudan by Mohammed Ali in 1821, brought to light important facts about the Nile system. About 1840, work began on weirs and d a m s - a t first in the Delta. The first attempts to tame and control the river soon paid off. It became possible to harvest twice a year when the dammed-up water was distributed with the help of canals according to need. The Nile mud, considered a blessing for thousands of years, now became a hindrance; it / settled in the narrow irrigation channels and blocked them.

The proof of the advantage for the new system soon came. The British spinning mills had bought their cotton from the southern states of the USA, but were cut off from this source of raw material by the blockade erected against the Confederates by the northern states during the American Civil War (1861-65). Egypt used the chance to jump into the cotton market with its now double harvest. This was the beginning of Egypt's role as a source of high-quality cotton on the world market, a role it still holds. Since then, the conditions for using the waters of the Nile have changed very much indeed. It was no longer the height of the flood, but a balanced water economy that determined a good or bad year. The system of barrages with their weirs and canals was extended in the Delta and grew in size. The task was to balance out the "lean years", for instance 1913-14 when only 12 billion cubic metres flowed down the Nile, and the "fat years" such as 1878-79 when 155 billion cubic metres swelled the river. The Aswan Dam, built between 1899 and 1902 with a height of 30 metres, held 980 million cubic metres and flooded the Nile Valley for a length of 225 kilometres. In 1907-12, the dam was raised another five metres and then held 2.4 billion cubic metres. The next extension of the dam from 1929 to 1934 increased the capacity to some 5.3 billion cubic metres. At the same time, the flooded area reached up to the Sudanese border, covering the length of the Nile Valley for 320 kilometres. Contracts to make all this possible were signed with Ethiopia on 15th May 1902 and with the then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on 7th May 1929. A second reservoir was made available to the Egyptians when the Jebel Aulia Dam was inaugurated in 1937 south of Khartoum. But even the co-ordination of these two dams did not guarantee that the annual fluctuations in the amounts of water could be used to a maximum. On the one hand, the Aswan Dam was there to ensure the necessary water reserves, but on the other hand, the reservoir was too small to hold the water during a maximum flood. This meant that the sluices had to be opened at times of danger which led to undesired flooding. As a result, design-work on the project for a new dam was begun in 1950, but only after the corrupt rule of King Farouk was overthrown in 1952 did it become possible to take the first practical steps for its implementation. The huge project was seriously endangered when Sudan, after gaining independence in 1956, terminated a contract concluded by the British in the name of the Sudan in 1929. Understandably enough, Sudan wanted to ensure for itself a greater share in the Nile waters. Only after long negotiations between what was then the Republic of Egypt and the former Republic of the Sudan was a new Nile Water Agreement signed on 8th November 1959. A mutual compromise led to advantages for both parties. The contract assumes an average of 84 billion cubic metres mean waterflow at Aswan and of this, Egypt receives 55.5 instead of 48 billion as in the past, and the Sudan 18.5 instead of four billion annually. The remaining 10 billion cubic metres are written off in the contract for evaporation. Although the Sudan demonstrated that it was capable of increasing the utilization of

/Aswan

Monastery of St.SimeonJJr «—^ Elephantine Islanci

,Granite||^||: .quarries/ ; 'with'obelisk

Aswan Dam Philae cA

Aswan with its two dams

the water it received through the Sennar Dam on the Blue Nile - in operation since 1925 - and by constructing the dams at Roseires (Blue Nile) and Khashm el-Girba (Atbara) - constructed after 1959 - the existing installations are not by any means sufficient to use fully the water it has been guaranteed in the contract. At present Egypt is profiting from this by utilizing the "unused surplus" due to Sudan. Although not the largest of all dams created by man, the "Sudd el-Ali", which lies seven kilometres above the old Aswan Dam, is certainly huge. The crown of the dam lies 196 metres above sea level and extends for 3.6 kilometres from shore to shore. The artificial lake will have a length of more than 500 kilometres and hold 130 billion cubic metres of water when it reaches a height of 170 metres above sea level. Egyptian industry will benefit tremendously from the huge power station which will be operated through the controlled water. After the contract was signed by the two main users the project could no longer be endangered by the manipulations of John Foster Dulles, then US Secretary of State, and his rejection of Egypt's loan application to the World Bank. The political and economic blackmail of Egypt had become a thing of the past. The project was revised and simplified by Soviet engineers and experts, and with great help from the Soviet Union there began the tremendous work on the "wall against hunger" which should banish Pharaoh's dream of the "seven lean cows". Two months after the conclusion of the Nile Waters Agreement the air hammers began biting into the rock near Aswan, and Egypt began to build its "Sudd el-Ali", the High Dam. This meant the end of Lower Nubia. It would be wrong to cite only the positive sides of the project. A careful stock-taking must also note and record the losses, no matter how small when compared with the progress that the new dam would bring. On the credit side stand the ability to irrigate the fields in years of low flood, a 25 per cent increase of Egypt's arable land, production of 10 thousand million kilowatt hours annually, new industrial plants, jobs and homes, improvement in waterway traffic, protection from high and low water, and an overall increase in national income. Faced with these advantages, the Nubians had little chance of opposition. On the debit side stand the loss of villages and settlements, of palms and fields that would be flooded as the dam rose. The loss of their home and the resettlement of almost one hundred thousand Nubians - inconceivable as this might be for each individual - was a problem that had to be solved at the same time as the project for the dam was worked out; to a certain extent the problem could be expressed in figures. The ideal and cultural losses, however, cannot be expressed in cold figures. The governments of the two countries involved, and with them the whole of mankind, had the obligation to do everything possible to undertake thorough historic and scientific research into the area to be sacrificed, in order to rescue that which is unique and significant, and preserve it for future generations. 15

A man-made deluge was on the way, the downfall of Nubia was sealed. A historical stock-taking was needed and its importance was worthy of the new dam. The two countries involved, the thfen United Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of the Sudan, could not be left alone to cope with the problems. Blasting operations were already beginning on the site of the High Dam when Vittorino Veronese, Director-General of UNESCO, appealed to all states on 8th March 1960 to help rescue the ancient cultural treasures of Nubia. The optimists proved right; mankind hurried to save the threatened heritage in the Nile Valley. In some respects, the participation was greater than expected, but great difficulties had to be overcome. Looking back at the course of the whole campaign, it can be divided into three stages: the first and most urgent task was the survey. A mosaic of the latest air photographs facilitated the field work of surveying and recording on both sides of the 500 kilometres long banks of the river. No new and exciting discoveries were made in that part of Lower Nubia which lay in the Arab Republic of Egypt. This part of Nubia had been the scene of systematic archaeological research both at the beginning of this century when the Aswan Dam was first built, and again each time the dam was raised. It is one of the best known fields of Egyptian archaeology and the excavation reports dealing with the area fill more than 50 volumes. However, the situation of the Sudanese part of the future lake was different. The difficulties of gaining access to the area and above all the high costs involved had prevented expeditions working there in the past. Now, however, these last 180 kilometres became a centre for archaeological activities. Before the beginning of the Nubian campaign about one hundred settlements, cemeteries, refuse pits, fortresses, wall remains, temples, churches and convents, work sites, stone-quarries, rock-drawings and inscriptions had been found and registered; by the end of the campaign the number had risen to about one thousand five hundred. Air photographs and the archaeological maps based upon them, which included the final contour line of the projected lake, helped the archaeologists and expeditions in their research. The second stage of work included the excavation done by various archaeological missions. These used the results of the previous surveys and worked in the areas they had selected, and for which a licence to excavate was given by the Egyptian or Sudanese Antiquities Service. Scientific institutions, universities, academies, museums and national committees from some twenty-five countries participated in this race with the expected flood. Up to seventeen expeditions worked in Sudanese Nubia from 1961 to 1964. All faculties of historical research were represented, from prehistorians to scholars of the Coptic and Islamic periods. The archaeologists' spades dug into the hitherto untouched soil of Sudanese Nubia. The third and last task of the UNESCO campaign was to rescue and salvage those monuments whose unique cultural value justified both the complicated dismantling and the reconstruction elsewhere. This applied especially to the 16

Water-wheel on the banks of the Nile

Only a few metres between the Nile and the desert are

inhabitable

'JHSgt gfwBB

The yard of a Nubian

house

Dates are grown for export

Dried-up

soil after the Nile flood has receded

Egyptian part of Nubia, with its nineteen temples, kiosks and rock-hewn shrines already earmarked for transfer. Thé ancient monuments that were to be removed are listed in their geographic sequence from Aswan up the Nile: Aswan 1st Cataract [£ philae High dam Sudd el-Ali \

Debod

Debod Kertassi " A V Taphis Beit el-Wali * V Kalabsha

period, with extensions during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

Dendur Gerf Hussein J

Kertassi

D a k k a )fl M a h a r r a q a !ü)¡

Taphis

Wadi el-Sebua ¡C

Beit el-Wali

Kiosk from the Roman period and small sanctuary in a nearby stone-quarry. Northern temple from the Ptolemaic period. Rock-hewn

temple,

built under

Ramesses

II

(about 1290 to 1224 B.C.) with well-preserved coloured reliefs and inscriptions. The temple was

Amadas

Aniha

Temple of the goddess Isis from the Meroitic

r DerrTr^ Ellesiya s

used as a church during the Coptic period.

Korosko

,Qasr Ibrim

Kalabsha

Temple for the Nubian god Mandulis, built under Emperor Augustus (31 B.C. to 14 A . D . ) in place of an earlier temple from the period of Amenophis II.

Abu Simbel' J.el-Shems

Dendur . I

I

HI

I\

/

Aksha fll^ ^ U W ¡Debeira East y \ 0»)Wadi Haifa Buhen (Q 2nd

Gerf Hussein

Cataracm

Dakka Semna West

^Q Semna East (Kumma)

Dam

Dal Cataract

(j

Future lake

A

Temple

A

Rock-temple

•

R o c k - t o m b or shrine

+

Church

Temple built under Emperor Augustus and dedicated to various gods. Rock-hewn temple for the god Ptah, built under Ramesses II by Setau, viceroy of Cush. Temple of the god Thoth of Pnubs, built in the Meroitic period with additions made during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

Maharraqa

Wadi el-Sebua

Temple of the god Serapis, built during the Roman period. Temple of Amun and Re-Harakhti, partly hewn out of the rock under Ramesses II. Later converted into a church.

Location of the ancient monuments

Amada

Temple of Amun and Re-Harakhti from the 18th dynasty and used as a church during the Christian period.

Derr

Rock-hewn temple of the sun god Re-Harakhti, built under Ramesses II.

Ellesiya

Rock-hewn shrine from the period of Tuthmosis III (about 1490to 1439B.C.).

Qasrlbrim

Church from the Christian period standing within an important fortress dating to the Roman period and the Middle Ages, and remains of previous eras.

Qasrlbrim

Four rock-hewn shrines of the viceroys of Cush from the 18th dynasty (about 1554 to 1305 B.C.).

Aniba

Rock-hewn tomb of Penmit, a high official under Ramesses VI (about 1152 to 1145 B. C.).

Abu Simbel

Rock-hewn temple of the goddess Hathor and Queen Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II, worshipped as a goddess, and the rock-hewn temple for Amun, Re-Harakhti, Ptah and Ramesses II, also worshipped as a god, both built under Ramesses II.

Abu Oda

Rock-hewn shrine of Amun-Re and Thoth, built under King Haremhab (about 1332 to 1305 B.C.). Converted into a church during the Christian period.

Jebel el-Shems

Rock-hewn chapel of Pesiur, viceroy of Cush, under the reign of Haremhab.

In Sudan, four temples of Pharaohnic times were earmarked by the Antiquities Service and UNESCO experts for their removal. Aksha

Temple dedicated to the living image of Ramesses II and built during his reign.

Buhen

Temple of the falcon-headed god Horus, built in the 18th dynasty under Queen Hatshepsut (about 1490 to 1470 B.C.) and extended under TuthmosisIII.

Semna West

Temple of the Nubian god Dedwen and Sesostris III, worshipped as the divine conqueror of Cush, built under Tuthmosis III.

Semna East (Kumma)

Temple of the god Khnum, erected under Tuthmosis II, Queen Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, and Amenophis II.

18

Beit el-Wali Kertassi i Gerf Hussein Maharraqa Metres above Aswan Dam | Kalabsha sea-level II ¡DebodTaphisI I Denduri Dakkal Wadi el-Sebua

I

Sudd el-Ali

Amada Aniba 'Derr

Abu Simbel I ! Abu Oda

- SUDAN Normal floodlevel 2nd Cataract j End of Aksha Buhen Semna West i Semna East

backwater - 1 8 0 m above X sea-level

H o r i z o n t a l t o vertical scale 1 ; 5 0 0

Longitudinal profile of the Nile in the area to be flooded and the elevation of the endangered ancient monuments

While it was planned to reconstruct the monuments in the Egyptian part of Nubia simply at a higher site grouped in four places along the Nile, the Sudanese Government insisted that its four temples be set up in Khartoum. The more practical reasons for the new location put forward by the Sudan won the day over aesthetic and architectural arguments for leaving them in Nubia. It was argued that only few tourists would have access to the temples if rebuilt near the dam, while if reconstructed in Khartoum large numbers of the Sudanese population, too, would be able to gain an insight into their own history. The schools, the university and teachers' training centres - all of them in Khartoum - would benefit. After experts and advisers raised no further objection to setting the temples up in Khartoum, UNESCO agreed to the Sudanese request. In autumn 1960 the UNESCO appeal to the world began to bring the first results. Many gaps in our knowledge about prehistorical and historical periods in the middle Nile region had to be filled. Every square metre of the two banks of the river might give us information about settlements, about the people who had lived there and their culture, about ancient trade routes and centres between the deserts and about raids, conquests and wars. New findings and new questions about the history of the country and its people, about their origins and their destiny awaited the international group of scholars. Archaeologists and Egyptologists, prehistorians and Coptologists, ethnologists and geologists, architects, engineers, photographers and conservators met in Nubia to work together on this great task. Expeditions were equipped and excavations in the Sudan were carried out by many countries and institutions: the Sudan Antiquities Service, the Egypt Exploration Society (Great Britain), the People's Republic of Poland with an expedition from the University of Warsaw, a joint expedition of the four Scandinavian countries, the United States with expeditions from the universities of Chicago, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Kentucky, and the Brown University, the universities of Ghana, Geneva, Helsinki, and Lille as well as expeditions from Yugoslavia, Spain, and Argentina. Belgium carried out the photogrammetric work on the temples of Buhen, Semna West, and Semna East (Kumma). The rock-inscriptions and pictures were recorded by an expedition from the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, led by Prof.Dr.F.Hintze and Prof.Dr.K.-H.Otto. Prof.Dr.W.Y.Adams, who had carried out previous archaeological surveys on the west bank

and later headed excavation work on the Island of Meinarti for the Sudanese Antiquities Service, was sent by U N E S C O to co-ordinate the work and give scientific advice. His successor, A. J. Mills, explored both banks between the Second Cataract and Dal, the upper end of the endangered area. The ethnographical survey in the endangered area was carried out by the Sudan Government ethnograph Dr. A. Kronenberg who with the assistance of Mrs. W. Kronenberg recorded traditions and modern life of the Sudanese Nubians. The flooding of Nubia was now inescapable. The task then was to tear as many secrets as possible from the sand-covered land at the last minute. The question arose as to whether there was really any need for this big archaeological operation in Lower Nubia. What research results could be expected from the narrow Nile Valley? What factors were so urgent and convincing that they justified spending such a large su'm of money with a world organization like U N E S C O as organizer? Could one count on sensational discoveries and findings, on publicity and popularity? There certainly were sensational discoveries like the beautiful wall paintings of Faras found so unexpectedly by Polish scientists, brilliant technical projects were worked out, the most famous of which showed the ways and means to rescue the rock-hewn temples of Abu Simbel. Furthermore, the provision of public funds demanded that the results also be made public, for research should never be done for its own sake by a small group of scholars. The challenge of the situation in Nubia was that it provided a rare opportunity for detailed research in a limited area, for sober and scholarly work from various aspects from the beginning to the end. The geologists investigated the historical evolution of geological structures in the Nile Valley and gained information on the age of the river-bed, on the causes and effects of the centuries of average flood periods alternating with centuries of average low waters and the effects on the settlement of the banks. These investigations were carried out in connection with the recording of findings on Stone Age sites on terraces of varying levels on the banks of the river, together with remains of settlements from later periods. Changes of climate, alternation between dry and wet periods, and flora and fauna in the changing environment were investigated on the basis of information gained during the excavations. The anthropologists were able to determine the racial origins of the population once living in the Nile Valley by investigating thousands of skeletons and skulls from different cultural periods found in excavated graves. Specialists from one expedition received material from others which included no expert in that particular field. The large number of expeditions, their composition, scientific aims and close co-operation made it possible to concentrate the results. Their detailed work and notes gradually closed many of the gaps in our knowledge about the history of Nubia. Final excavation reports are now appearing slowly,

So far known areas where mesolithic and neolithic sites were found in Nubia and around Khartoum

but a glance at our present knowledge points to some of the gaps that have remained. There is no doubt that during the course of the palaeolithic era, the Early Stone Age, climatic changes took place on the African continent. This can be fairly easily determined on the basis of archaeological findings in the dry areas where even a temporary increase in the annual rainfall of only a few centimetres can cause visible modification and thus leave traces. Such observations are more difficult to be made in Central and Southern Sudan where heavier rainfall is normal and smaller differences thousands of years ago can no longer be so easily traced. Nubia with its dry climate was thus a favourable area for such observations. The prehistoric period is marked by the lack of written sources, and research is limited to the material remains of human culture: to tools, pottery, bones and grave objects, remains of settlements, graves and middens. The earliest human traces so far known in Nubia date from the palaeolithic era and date back to between one hundred thousand and ten thousand years B . C . Early Stone Age man is best known to us through the various techniques with which he worked his tools. The techniques in North East Africa are often similar to those known to us from cultures in Europe (Chellean, Acheulian, Mousterian). During the mesolithic era (Middle Stone Age) up to about 4000 B. C., a slow transition took place from the hunting and gathering economy of the Early Stone Age to partial settlement in camps along the Nile. The development in the manufacture of stone tools led to new, smaller and improved tools for specialized purposes. Until recently we knew about the mesolithic era from findings in Central Sudan, but not from Nubia. During the Nubian campaign our knowledge about that part of early history in this area was much enriched by discoveries of several mesolithic camp sites. The human intake of food seems to have been extended to fish; harpoons made of bone were found in the excavations. The development of such new habits for the people living in camps on the river-bank could be connected to a decrease in rainfall at that time, although compared to the present climate it was still much wetter, and compared to Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, this decrease came fairly late. Interesting here is the appearance of the first evidence of pottery-making; saw-like tools made of fish-bones were used to decorate the pots. The grind-stones found in Northern Sudan show the first beginnings of agriculture, of "food production" and its techniques, typical for the neolithic era, the Late Stone Age (from about 4000 B. C.). The first attempts at animal domestication probably belong to this period. The stone tools are of better quality and now polished. U p to then human life had not differed much from that in the Egyptian part of the Nile Valley, but now first signs of a specific and independent culture appeared in Nubia. For lack of a better name, the bearers of this culture were called the "A Group" by scholars. This first local Nubian culture is traceable for six to eight hundred years, up to about 2800 B . C . Techno-

logically, the A Group still belongs to the neolithic period, but already shows sporadically the use of copper tools which probably came from Egypt to Nubia through trade. Developments in neighbouring Egypt that led to the transition from primitive to class society and formation of the state took place over a very short period and resulted in the political and economic superiority of Egypt over the Nubian A Group. Cultural influence from the north - through goods exchange with Egypt - can be observed from the objects found in the graves of the A Group population. However, influences from the south, for instance, pottery decoration, are also visible. During the A Group period, Nubia seems to have played a certain role as go-between for trading. Ivory and ebony which presumably reached the north via Nubia were found in Egyptian graves of this period. That this trade was not always peaceful can be seen from the oldest relief scene from the Pharaohnic period in the Sudan, on the rock at Sheikh Suleiman, high above the Second Nile Cataract. It depicts a battle between the local population and Egyptians who had come there by boat. The name of King Jer, the third king of the 1st Egyptian dynasty, on the left edge of the three metres long scene, dates it at about 2900 B. C. The hands of the prisoner beside the king's name are tied behind his back with the bow-like hieroglyph "Seti", the oldest known name for the area of Nubia. Two wheel-like symbols indicate the Egyptian conquest of two settlements. Another prisoner tied to the bow of the ship and dead bodies floating in the water are further signs of a victory for the invaders.

This raid was followed by others during the Egyptian Old Kingdom (about 2650 to 2150 B. C.) and we even know some of the details of Nubian losses. The so-called Palermo stone describes the destruction of Ta Nehesi, the land of the southern peoples. It tells of the deportation of 7,000 prisoners and 200,000 head of cattle and sheep under King Sneferu (about 2600 B . C . ) , the father of King Cheops. Apparently, the population of Lower Nubia never recovered from this loss and their independent development was interrupted. A copper smelting workshop from the time of the Old Kingdom recently found in Buhen, may perhaps indicate the first temporary subordination of Nubian territory up to the Second Nile Cataract. After the first excavations in Nubia more than seventy years ago, it was believed that proof had been found for the existence of a so-called B Group which succeeded the A Group. In contrast to the A Group, the B Group had only poor and few grave objects and was considered to be the first of a

Examples

of A Group

pottery

So far known areas where sites from the C Group were found in Nubia

Examples

of C Group

pottery

number of waves of emigration from the African hinterland. Thanks to the results of the excavations during the Nubia campaign and through reconsideration of earlier excavation reports, the conclusion has been reached that a separate B Group culture never existed. The poorer graves must be assigned to the A Group culture, presumably originating from an underprivileged group of that culture. After resistance in Lower Nubia had been broken, the Egyptian rulers began the commercial exploitation of the area. Caravans began their journey to the south of Aswan. How far they penetrated into the country is unknown ; and whether they reached Darfur and Kordofan, is not known, but they will certainly have been familiar with the agriculturally rich area south of the Third Cataract. We also know something about the type of goods that reached Egypt by this route. Lion skins, ostrich feathers and eggs, ivory, ebony, incense and other rare goods were traded after many months of travel by the caravans. The Lower Nubian stone-quarries provided the material for the diorite statues of the Old Kingdom. Internal unrest at the end of the 6th dynasty shattered the Egyptian state and its centralized power. Lower Nubia with its areas called Wawat (First Cataract up to about Korosko), Irtet and Setiu (from Korosko up to about the Second Cataract) and Yam further south were independent for only a short time. The latest findings allow the conclusion that almost all of the oppressed descendants of the A Group population left Lower Nubia about 2600 B.C. and retreated to the south. During the period of internal unrest in Egypt, in the first interim period, a resettlement of Nubia by the so-called C Group is recognizable. According to the latest conclusions there is hardly any doubt that the C Group developed out of the A Group. Many of the features and properties of the A Group reappear in the culture of the C Group. The occupation sites of the A Group are preferred again by the C Group. One of the C Group's outstanding features is the "cattle complex". From objects found in their graves and from their funeral traditions, from the pottery and the many clay models of animals we must conclude that husbandry and cattle-breeding must have played an important role despite the already limited grazing areas. This was the population that the Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom (about 2134 to 1785 B.C.) found settled in Lower Nubia when they again tried to reconquer the area they had given up. During the course of the 11th dynasty (about 2134 to 1991 B.C.) Egypt's new foreign policy turned south. It probably led first to raids, then to military occupation in order to safeguard trade with the south and later to gold-mining in the Nubian mines. Around the year 2000 B.C., Nubia appears to have been conquered up to the Second Nile Cataract. One hundred years later, the southern border had been pushed some 50 kilometres further south to Semna. The C Group population will not have submitted peacefully. The conquerors were forced to build a chain of fortresses along the Nile from Semna to the First Cata-

ract. Six of altogether fifteen fortresses controlled the difficult terrain south of the Second Cataract. Three mighty fortresses were erected to secure the new southern border; the names themselves are a warning and indicate the hostile attitude of the C Group. The fort on the west bank is called "Khakaure (Sesostris III) is powerful" and that on the east bank "Warding off the Bows". These two, together with the fortress in Semna South ("Subduer of the Setiu Nubians") one kilometre further south on the west bank and together with the fortifications of Uronarti and Shelfak and the Askut fortress, all within sight of each other, emphasize the importance of this southern border of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and on into the New Kingdom. Four other fortifications that were intended to safeguard the water-way through the Second Cataract at Mirgissa and the trade and reloading centres below the rapids at Kor and Buhen, complete the list of military fortifications in this area. From Buhen downstream, the distances between the other six fortresses become longer; this is no longer the border district. A double fortification at Kubban protected the approach to the Wadi Allaqi with its important gold-mines and at Aniba, the fortress Ma'am controlled a larger area settled by the C Group population. The construction of these impressive fortresses in Lower Nubia was completed under Sesostris III (about 1878 to 1842 B . C . ) ; centuries later, his descendants acclaimed him for allegedly also conquering Nubia and he was worshipped as a god, for instance at the temple in Semna West. Walls of up to eight metres thick of sun-dried bricks of Nile mud made the fortresses appear impregnable at that time. Within the fortifications, provision was made to supply those within it from the waterside in case of siege, or to at least have a safe connection to the river. Within the walls and the inside battlements were the quarters of soldiers, officers, and commanders. The fortress was divided by main and secondary streets into squares. One of the quarters contained the stores and workshops. In each of these fortresses there was also a special district for the priests' sacrificial service, a shrine or a temple. For many of the Egyptian soldiers doing their military service in Nubia, far away from the green fields of their villages, far from friends and relations, it must have seemed like life exile. They were forced to serve in unfriendly, hilly country at the Second Cataract amid a strange people. Sometimes the monotony of guard duty may have been relieved by sallying out to collect tribute, check the trade caravans and ships going north or to protect the transport of gold that had been extracted and smelted in the hills of Nubia; but duty on this border was not popular. Egypt's territorial claims were marked by Sesostris III on his boundary stones in Semna: no southerner was allowed to pass this border on land or by water, with or without herds. The only exceptions were traders who could take their ships to the fortress of Mirgissa at the Second Cataract, or messengers.

Egyptian fortifications in Lower Nubia during the Middle and New Kingdom

The sight of such mighty fortresses, demonstrating the presence and power of Egypt, raises the question as to whether the occupiers did not feel like prisoners in their own strongholds. Whatever the answer may be, there is no evidence of fraternization between the Egyptians and the C Group population, or even of any noteworthy settlement and immigration by Egyptians . On the other hand, there are no reports of battles with the local population. The C Group culture seems to have been little influenced by the conquerors and maintained its own specific character. In their graves we find their own handmade pottery and also a number of imported objects from trade with Egypt, objects of bronze and alabaster, and ceramics made on a potter's wheel. The Egypt of the Middle Kingdom does not seem to have tried to extend its border at Semna further to the south. However, in the fertile area round Kerma, about 250 kilometres up-stream, native chieftains had gained in strength during the previous centuries, apparently respected by Egypt and regarded as an important trade partner. At the end of the Middle Kingdom Egypt was forced through the seizure of power by the Hyksos to abandon Nubia and its fortifications, and a kingdom named Cush developed to great prosperity on the southern border. It is possible that the area known to us from that period as Cush, with its cenSo far known areas where sites from the Kerma culture were found

tre in Kerma, is identical with the territory called "Yam" which was already known in the Old Kingdom, but not localized in modern times. The extent of the Kerma culture, especially towards the south, is not yet known. From the enormous tomb structures of tribal chiefs and rulers we know of cruel customs such as human sacrifice by burying his followers alive together with the body of the ruler on a wooden bedstead. Sometimes more than 300 people from the dead ruler's court would be sacrificed with him and hundreds of ox skulls decorated the southern edge of the huge grave that could have a diameter of up to 200 metres. One feature and leitmotif of Kerma culture on excavation sites is the highly developed artistic ceramic work in the form of thin, well-burnt and polished vessels with blackened edges. Pharaohnic hegemony in Lower Nubia was broken, and for the next two hundred years, Cush dominated the Nile Valley up to the First Cataract. But Egypt could not speedily forget the riches it once owned in the south. When the Kingdom again began to unite under the Theban kings and the

Examples of Kerma

pottery

Hyksos were pushed out of the northern parts of the country, it was decided to reconquer Nubia. As the 18th dynasty (about 1554 to 1305 B . C . ) gained in strength and the New Kingdom came into being (about 1554 to 1080 B . C . ) , Egypt under Pharaoh Tuthmosis I again penetrated into the south and past the First Cataract, reconquered the lost territories, destroyed the dominance of Cush, overran Kerma and penetrated beyond the Fourth Nile Cataract. A viceroy now ruled the country under the title of "King's Son in Cush". The fortresses in Lower Nubia were reoccupied, repaired, and improved. A few new fortifications wer£ erected in the newly conquered territory, for in-

stance on Sai Island and near Tumbus at the Third Cataract. It appears that this time the country was colonized; officials followed the army and Nubia was divided into two provinces. The province of Wawat lay between the First and Second Cataract, and Cush lay south of the Second Cataract. Both provinces were administered by representatives of the viceroy. The sons of the local nobility were taken to Egypt both as hostages and to be educated. In this way Egyptian influence penetrated all fields of life. Egyptian culture and religion gained a footing in Lower and Upper Nubia and this influence was dominant there for the next two thousand years. An active building policy started. Building, rebuilding, and repairing temples within the fortifications was considered the most urgent task. Queen Hatshepsut (about 1490 to 1470 B. C.) had a temple built in Buhen in praise of the falcon-headed god Horus. In Semna East she continued the work already begun and the temple once built of brown bricks of Nile mud and wood was now replaced by one made of sandstone blocks. The stones were brought from Sha'at at Sai Island, 125 kilometres upstream. Hatshepsut's successor, her nephew and step-brother, Tuthmosis III (about 1490 to 1439 B.C.), for whom she ruled when he was still a minor, completed and extended the temples in Buhen and Semna East, and built a shrine in the Semna West fortress. Pharaoh Amenophis II (about 1439 to 1413 B.C.) changed the lay-out of the Semna East temple and constructed a northern temple in the extended fortress of Buhen. The magnificient temple of Soleb and the smaller one near Seddenga were built under Amenophis III (about 1403 to 1365 B.C.). Amenophis IV had the temple of Sesebi built on the west bank near Delgo. Ramesses II (about 1290 to 1224 B.C.), famed in history for his building activities, also left traces in Nubia; his name is linked with the temples of Derr, Beit el-Wali, Abu Simbel, and Aksha. In the south of the occupied area, at the Jebel Barkal, Egypt's "holy mountain", the first temple was built in the 19th dynasty (about 1305 to 1196 B. C.), and in the thousand and more years that followed, more temples were added, making it a religious centre of the Napatan and Meroitic Kingdom. The gold gained from the mines and washings in Wawat province surpassed that of Cush. Under Tuthmosis III, Wawat, the northern of the two provinces, delivered between 200 and 300 kilograms annually, while Cush supplied only 10 to 30 kilograms of the precious metal in the form of rings, necklaces, bars, or gold-dust. Little was known until recently about the extent of the population in the Nile Valley during the New Kingdom. Theories varied between a continual decrease caused by changes in climate and environment, and assumptions of an increase. The grave goods showed a mixture of the old C Group, influences of Kerma culture, elements which possibly come from the south - and on all this Egyptian influence was superimposed. At least since the recent excavations in Lower Nubia we can assume that the population gradually decreased during the 19th and 20th Egyptian dynasties. Together with the decrease there were also fewer burials of Egyp-

of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III: Men-kheper-Re, and Djehuty-mes nefer-Kheperu

So far known areas where sites from the Napatan and Meroitic period were found in the northern Sudan

tians belonging to the occupation force or the administration, or of those who had come to Nubia to settle. Our knowledge of Nubia at the end of the 19th dynasty gradually becomes sparser. It appears that the Egyptians withdrew to the north, while the local population emigrated to the south. Almost all signs of human habitation in Lower Nubia are missing for a period of about one thousand years. The well-known archaeologist and Nubia expert, Prof. Dr. W. Y. Adams, explains this gap in the history of settlements between the First and Second Nile Cataracts with a decrease in the average annual Nile floods. This is all the more probable as Lower Nubia lies on a stretch of the Nile on which the small amount of arable land available can only be irrigated by mechanical means. Even the smallest decline in the flood height over a longer period would have made it impossible to irrigate the fields lying high above the Nile with the "shaduf" then available, a type of hand-operated water-lifting device. This vacuum in Lower Nubia influenced very negatively connections between the Mediterranean world and the African hinterland, and made it possible for a new power centre to grow in the area of Napata round Jebel Barkal in Upper Nubia now no longer controlled by Egypt. It is very likely that the local rulers allied themselves to the priests of Amun who had maintained their influence since the foundation of the large temple on the "holy mountain" of Barkal. As the patrons of the Amun cult, the local rulers took on the function of the Pharaoh and thus gained power and prestige in Nubia and Upper Egypt. This royal house, influenced by Egyptian culture and religion, had gained such power around the year 750 B.C. that it was able to centralize the land south and north of Napata, and its army, under King Piye (747 to 716 B.C.) could launch its march to the north and conquer Egypt. At this time, Egypt was torn by internal discord and incapable of opposing the army from Nubia with an army under central command. For almost one hundred years Piye and his four successors, Shabaqo, Shebitqo, Taharqo and Tanwetamani ruled over 3,000 kilometres of the Nile Valley as kings of the 25th dynasty in Upper and Lower Egypt. It seems that under their rule, artists and priests came to Napata from the north to decorate the temples and to carry out religious services. Even when King Tanwetamani had to abandon Egypt after heavy fighting against the Assyrians who had invaded the lower Nile Valley, the Egyptian court still remained the model for the kings of Napata and Meroe who continued to describe themselves as the rulers over Upper and Lower Egypt during the thousand years that followed. Lower Nubia, used as transit link with the north, does not appear to have been resettled during the Napatan period, although traces of some building activity by Napatan rulers can be seen on several 18th dynasty temples in this area. King Taharqo had a temple erected in the Semna West fortress which he dedicated to the Egyptian conqueror Sesostris III - an attitude that appears somewhat strange to us - whose successor he considered himself. During the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. the centre of Upper Nubia's power

and wealth obviously shifted further south to Meroe. However, during the

5*-

Initial a l e p h

next few centuries, the "holy mountain" near Napata remained the reli-

9

e

J

o

gious centre of this mighty kingdom, in which a whole number of dependent

»

ethnic groups must have lived, who were more or less strongly tied together by a royal house grown out of the Egyptian model. The main reason for the shift of central power from Napata to Meroe seems to have been the better conditions for agriculture and husbandry in

Hi

tR

I

v

the south, after the loss of Egypt and a growing isolation from the north. The Kingdom of Meroe concentrated more and more on Africa and transferred its centre to an area with a wealthier hinterland and better access to the trade routes of that time. Our scanty knowledge permits only a vague picture of the borders and size of the Meroitic Kingdom. It is known that there was temporary influence up to Roseires in the south and it could even have extended to Malakal. At some time, parts of Kordofan in the west could have been included in the Meroitic sphere of influence. During the course of the centuries, the Egyptian influence at court decreased as a result of the growing separation from the north, and the African and local elements which had remained alive among the population became stronger. A highlight of Meroitic cultural development is the creation of their own alphabet. The phonetic value of the letters was deciphered at the beginning of this century so that texts can be read, although the meaning cannot be understood with the exception of a few words and names. The earliest known use of this alphabet lies around 170 B. C. Its two forms developed out of the

\

^

1% X

Nasalized n

••,H

OJ

r

JÌ3

"7

l

0 a

kh

?

kh

w

s

W V

) ^

A, A

')

ra

)

ra

"y

X

sh k

q t te to

d

greatly simplified Egyptian hieroglyphics and their cursive form, the De-

Word separator

motic. In contrast to most Semitic alphabets, the Meroitic includes vowels;

The Meroitic alphabet: hieroglyphs, cursive letters, phonetic sound

it has a total of 23 letters. For the first time, single words are separated by special punctuation marks. The beginning of iron smelting was decisive for Meroitic influence. This new, revolutionary technology must have contributed greatly to the wealth of the royal family who probably had a monopoly on iron production and trade. Here, in the Meroitic home, all the conditions for the production of iron were present: fuel from the acacia forests and the highly ferruginous crust of the sandstone hills. This combination of hardwood and smeltable iron ore was the basis for a visible upsurge in the Meroitic economy around the 2nd century B.C. Iron, which had reached Egypt from Asia Minor centuries earlier, gradually replaced stone arrow-heads and widened the range of cosmetic articles at court. The slag heaps in Meroe, four to six metres high, show that the exploitation of the iron crust, with up to 70 per cent iron oxide, was exceedingly low. The thousand degrees centigrade needed for the second smelting process was produced in small, primitive furnaces with bellows and clay pipes. Meroitic forests, reported by ancient geographers and historians, must have been quickly exhausted by lavish use, and the lack of suitable fuel will have put an end to this flourishing "smelting industry".

Trade with Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt together with raids on the border at the First Cataract brought Greek and Roman influences to Meroe. The punitive expedition by the Roman general Petronius penetrated as far as Napata and brought much damage to the temples of Upper Nubia. Hundreds of Meroitic settlements and cemeteries in the Northern Sudan still await excavation and interpretation by archaeologists, in order to tell us more. At present our knowledge is limited mostly to the court and the succession of kings, but we need more information about the life of the people, their economic basis, their social and cultural conditions. The latest excavations indicate a greater resettlement of Lower Nubia from the 1st to 3rd century A. D. Meroitic settlements from this period do not have a thick occupation layer, which means they were populated only for a short period; layers of rubbish and rubble had no chance to grow. The objects found give no evidence of cultural or other development. The cultural periods layered above the Meroitic stratum, however, indicate a longer habitation and development. During the first three centuries of our era, Meroitic art and culture declined steadily, and this goes hand in hand with a progressive weakening of the kingdom. There may be a number of reasons for the disintegration of Meroitic central power. Trade with neighbouring countries seems to have been under royal monopoly so that export was limited mainly to raw materials and import to luxury goods for the royal household. Craftsmen worked for the court and not for an unknown market, which would have stimulated development of the productive forces. This meant that there was no home trade, no middle-man, no money. Private ownership of the means of production could not emerge, and this stagnation in social and economic conditions may have been one of the main reasons for the decrease in the influence and power of Meroe. When, in the 4th century A. D . , the Ethiopian king Aezana from Aksum invaded the Meroitic Kingdom, he marched along the river Atbara to the Nile and found himself confronted with the Noba tribes. In his victory report, Aezana speaks of the Noba tribe in the south and the red Noba - probably with a lighter skin - in the north. The Greek scholar, Eratosthenes, had already mentioned the "Nubai" about 200 B . C . , when writing of the people living on the west bank, south of the Egyptian border up to the great Nile bend. The word "Nubia" may, however, have been derived from the ancient Egyptian word for gold: "nub". A combination with the old Napata may have given rise to the name Nobatae, a people who were settled in Lower Nubia after the downfall of the Meroitic Kingdom at the invitation of the Roman conqueror Diocletian, in order to ward off invasions by the Blemmyes - today's Beja - from the eastern desert. A little later, however, the Nobatae joined the Blemmyes and together they plundered and pillaged Philae Island. A punitive expedition led to repacification of the area. The heirs of the Meroitic Kingdom were small tribal areas and principalities along the Nile. Tog'ether with the Nobatae in the north they were identi-

fied provisionally as the X Group. Anthropological investigations have shown that the composition of the X Group in Lower Nubia corresponds to the population from the Meroitic period. Whether the rulers of these small kingdoms also belonged to the same people could not yet be determined. The enormous grave mounds of the tribal chiefs show similarities in their mode of burial to the Kerma culture, the C Group and Meroitic culture. The X Group must have carried on a lively trade with Egypt. There is an obvious Greek influence on tools and decorative objects. Short swords as side-arms supplemented the bow and arrow, the main weapon. The ceramics of the X group show a continuation of Meroitic pottery. A state religion, comparable to the Meroitic does not appear to have existed. It must thus have been an easy task to Christianize the three Nubian kingdoms that probably arose at the end of the 4th century - Nobatia in Lower Nubia, Makouria in Upper Nubia and Aiwa where the Blue and the White Nile converge - about the year 570 by missionaries from Byzantium. It was probably about this time that the capital of the Kingdom of Nobatia was transferred to Faras, the Greek Pakhoras. Many churches and monasteries were built in these Christian kingdoms along the Nile. The archaeological evidences from this period and from about the 2nd century indicate a considerable increase in the population there which could be explained with a period of greater flow of the Nile. Another reason for the increased settlement is probably also that from the beginning of the Christian era the Persian water-wheel turned by donkeys or cattle, the "saqia" came into use in Nubia. This made possible a great extension of the area cultivated. Sherds of pottery vessels, called "qadus", made especially for the water-wheels, have been found from the time of the Meroitic resettlement of Lower Nubia and in all further culture strata. Christian Nubia enjoyed direct contact with the mother church in Byzantium for only a short period. Less than one hundred years later, in 641, this link was greatly hindered by the Arab conquest of Egypt. The Arab advance into Upper Egypt and the two attempts to invade Nubia, forced Makouria and Nobatia to join forces at the end of the 8th century. Right up to the 14th century, they were able to hold off attacks and the advance of Islam. The size and influence of Makouria were not confined to the narrow Nile Valley of Nubia. Remains of buildings and pottery from the Christian period have been found as far away as Darfur and Kordofan. From the period of Byzantine christianization, Greek remained in use as the church language, the local population continuing to speak Old Nubian which, in writing, is made up of Coptic and some Meroitic symbols. At the end of the 13th century, with the advance of the Arabs into Nubia, the influence of Islam grew. Makouria had been ruled by Kerenbes, a Moslem, since 1323; no more tribute was paid to Cairo, centuries of enmity ceased. One hundred and fifty years later, the Kingdom of Aiwa shared the fate of its northern Christian neighbour. Infiltration from the north, positions gained by marriage and matriarchal heritage through Moslem settlers

Examples

of X Group

pottery

N O B A T I AjffM A R I S) Faras.

The three Christian Kingdoms of Nubia and the distribution of areas so far known where Christian sites were found along the Nile

Examples of pottery from the Christian period in Nubia

Decorative forms of crosses from Christian

Nubia

together with pressure from the Kingdom of Funj - forming in the south near Sennar - on Aiwa, led to growing Islamization in Northern Sudan. The "black sultans" of Funj, whose territory at times reached as far as the Third Cataract, ruled with differing degrees of success. During the 18th century, however, Sennar gradually lost its position of power and disintegrated into small, more or less independent warring tribes. The army of Mohammed Ali, the new Egyptian ruler, encountered no serious resistance when it marched into the Sudan in search of gold and slaves, the "black gold" of earlier centuries. Sudan's modern history began with this invasion in 1821. As sketchy and incomplete the above brief survey of Nubia's history is, it makes clear the significance of this country for African history. And it also makes more comprehensible the need to use a last opportunity to dig up Nubia's sand in search of new knowledge, in order to rescue and preserve the irreplacable. When I first travelled to Egypt via Wadi Haifa and Nubia in April 1960 there was little sign of the coming flood. The new Nile Waters Agreement had been signed six months earlier and several months later the work in Aswan began. Only a few weeks had passed since the UNESCO appeal for international help in research into Nubia's history and the rescue of its ancient monuments. A scorching sun beat down upon the peaceful Nile Valley. The creak of turning water-wheels could be heard everywhere. The rhythm of work in the fields was the same as it had been for thousands of years. Life in Wadi Haifa was normal and no one seemed worried about the future. The steamer that took me from Wadi Haifa to Aswan stopped as usual at many villages on the banks, took on new passengers, delivered mail and parcels and loaded sacks with wheat, dates, and castor-oil beans. The Abu Simbel rock-temples, the fortresses at Qasr Ibrim and Kubban, the temples of Lower Nubia were reflected in the water and greeted us from the banks. A peaceful, bustling calm lay over the blue ribbon of the Nile and its shores. Two years later, in 1962, the scene had changed but little. The population could not believe that their home was to be inundated; there were no signs of uneasiness. At first sight there appeared to be an upsurge in business and trade. Nubia and in particular the town of Wadi Haifa once again experienced a specious prosperity - a sure sign of its coming destruction. This city - only seventy years old and terminal of a 923 kilometre long railway from Khartoum, reloading point for the steamer along the Nile to Egypt - now saw the arrival of hundreds of scientists who planned to make it their headquarters. Some of the excavations were so near to Wadi Haifa that they could be reached daily without much loss of time. Most expeditions, however, lived and worked far away from the town for many weeks and months. Another type of visitor was to be seen in Wadi Haifa at this time: char-

tered planes and steamers from Egypt brought tourists for one or two days to the doomed city. From there they travelled to the Abu Simbel temples and other nearby monuments. A trip to Nubia became fashionable. Proverbial Nubian hospitality did not change, even when the world came to witness its destruction. My second journey to Wadi Haifa in the spring of 1962 was directly connected with the big rescue undertaking. The plan that I had submitted to the Sudan Antiquities Service the year before on the architectural, technical, and financial possibilities for the reconstruction of the Lion Temple of Musawwarat es-Sufra near Khartoum led the Sudanese government to consider similar projects for four Nubian temples that then lay in the future flooded area. The Academy of Sciences of the G D R , at the request of the Antiquities Service, released me for this task. The questions of dismantling, packing, transport, and reconstruction had to be clarified within only a few weeks; everything had to be exactly measured and recorded, and exact calculations of costs and material had to be made. Such details plus blue-prints were needed in the Sudan as quickly as possible so that the U N E S C O Committee for Nubia could be informed at its next meeting what sums the Sudan would require. Those first days in Wadi Haifa were unforgettable. The problems that arose proved decisive for the next ten years of my life. The co-operation that began with Sayed Thabit Hassan Thabit, then head of the Sudan Antiquities Service, and his deputy and successor, Sayed Negm el-Din Mohammed Sherif, and their staff, developed into a firm friendship in the following very busy years. By sailing-boat, lorry, and jeep I made my way to the four temples in Aksha, Buhen, Semna East, and Semna West. Needed were drawings and blue-prints, lists of the various weight categories of temple blocks, columns, pillars and roof slabs, photos and sketches of details, lay-out plans of the work site, installation, estimates for urgent repairs of the tracks and accesses. These more technical details were fairly simple to work out. More difficult was the decision on the methods to be used for dismantling and packing the blocks and the transport route. In all these questions, the very bad quality of the temple blocks made of Nubian sandstone had to be taken into account. U N E S C O experts had already drawn attention to the fragile condition of the sandstone material and were opposed to its transport some 1,000 kilometres to Khartoum. However, when the Sudanese government insisted that these four temples be rebuilt in Khartoum, there was no alternative but to take precautions for the safest possible transport. Nubian sandstone has a very loose structure and the extreme climate had made it dry and weather-worn so that if its patina-like surface were damaged, it would easily be rubbed to sand between the fingers. My first visits to the temples showed me how important it would be for the whole project to find the best packing method and mode of transport. A r b a b Abd el-Hafiz, the accompanying technical assistant of the Anti-

Mounted desert police

To Wadi Haifa by ferry

Southern suburb of Wadi Haifa

Tailor's workshop

and lea-house in the

market

Grinding the corn

Protection and happiness - this is what the objects above the entrance of the house should bring

Only meat slaughtered in accordance with religious rites may be eaten

A baker-woman from Debeira proudly offers her wares

The men of the village being led in prayer by the "imam"

Special foods mark the fast month of "ramadan "

The women always observe events from a distance

The latest news are exchanged

over a cup of tea

quities Service, patiently held the tape-measure, organized hot tea and negotiated with the villagers for the use of their sailing boat to reach the other bank. At that time he too did not believe it would be possible to dismantle the temples stone by stone and reassemble them again in the capital. He failed to understand my efforts and worries. He listened doubtingly to my answers to his questions, nodded politely and then told the guard of the Antiquities Service and anyone willing to listen about the ideas of the "hawaja", the foreigner. Those first two to three weeks in Nubia brought disappointment and disillusion, and when I look back, they were for me the most difficult period. Ambitious plans to use mechanical aids or modern transport and machines, in short, modern technology, had to be abandoned and forgotten. The process of rethinking the techniques proceeded slowly. Those attractive dreams of flying the stones of the Semna temple to Wadi Haifa in a freight helicopter disappeared; the costs for such an undertaking proved astronomical. At first the river seemed the best means of transport from Nubia to Khartoum. The dangerous cataracts and rapids to be overcome soon made it clear that this too was impossible. Truck transport from Nubia to Khartoum across 900 kilometres of bad desert roads, sandy and mountainous tracks would take more than five days of careful driving; the dangers for the precious freight, the chances that trucks might break down on the many hundred kilometres of the uninhabited stretch of the Bayuda steppe were too great. Finally, there remained the railway. The temple blocks, the materials and the tools would have to be transported by train, which also meant reloading them several times on ships, ferries, and trucks to get them to the station at Wadi Haifa. The blocks would have to be packed to survive the badly suspended goods wagons and the shunting. The railway and harbour authorities supplied information on the facilities available, the prices, the use of cranes at the station, the number of wagons and workers available. The situation was similar with regard to the actual dismantlement of the temples. The idea of using a fast moving mobile crane had to be dropped because there were none in Wadi Haifa. Bringing one from Khartoum was possible, but very expensive. However, decisive for a decision was the suitability of such a crane for this work; it would be very difficult to transport it from one site to another, particularly on the west bank with its long, sandy stretches. In addition, there was no suitable workshop in Wadi Haifa to carry out possible repairs, and spare parts would be a problem. Wood for building the heavy scaffolding on the temples would have had to be ordered in Khartoum or Port Sudan, and as all softwood had to be imported, the costs would have been high. The short time available and the lack of carpenters to build such scaffoldings also had to be taken into account. The cost estimates were thus based on dismantling techniques similar to the building methods used in ancient Egypt at the time the temples were erected. The transport' was to take place on ramps and plank causeways,

Ancient Egyptian portrayal of a stone transport with the help of a sledge and oxen

sand filling in and around the temple was to replace the scaffolding, wooden sledges were to be used to move the blocks and would also be used for packing. When the prices for building material and wages were added, the estimates for transferring the temples were complete. From the many details there crystallized a practicable project which ensured quick, cheap, and safe dismantling and transport, based on the conditions existing in Nubia. These architectural, technical, and organizational proposals, the plans for material, labour power and transport and, of course, the estimated costs, were presented to UNESCO by the Sudan and approved. In the autumn of 1962, at the renewed invitation of the Sudanese Minister of Education, I began the work of dismantling the first temples in Nubia. The stock-taking in Lower Nubia began in the winter of 1962-63 with an estimate of the possessions of the population. Government commissions and the Resettlement Committee registered the population, houses, date palms, fields, water-wheels, and livestock. The time of resettlement drew nearer. Some villagers became thoughtful, but no one wanted to believe in the approaching disappearance of their home. Every rumour about the impracticability of building the huge dam at Aswan was eagerly taken up and spread. Of course much had been said in Khartoum and on the radio about the resettlement to Khashm el-Girba on the Atbara River; the Nile Waters Agreement of 1959 that allowed Egypt to build the new dam was also known. It was, however, difficult to imagine the effects of all this for each individual. There was talk that Sudanese soil was being given up irresponsibly by the government in Khartoum, and even of the betrayal of Nubia. And yet, or perhaps because of this, it seemed impossible and inconceivable to the Nubians that their home was to disappear. Even if one accepted the necessity of leaving, the question of where to go still remained. Although the military government under General Ibrahim Abboud had worked out plans as to where the Nubians could be resettled, the people were officially given free choice of a new home. The government preferred Khashm el-Girba. Here, and also in Roseires on the Blue Nile, there were plans to build a new dam which would make it possible to work the fertile soil. The government even declared its readiness to give priority to the Khashm el-Girba dam over the much more important project at Roseires. Such announcements made the Nubian people suspicious and they gained the feeling that their new home had already been decided upon. The resis34

tance to government policy grew and expressed itself in a national committee elected by the Nubians to represent their interests. In 1959 six different areas were still under discussion for resettlement, but at the beginning of 1960 the government limited them to three. These were Khashm el-Girba, an area north of Khartoum, and the virgin land in Wadi el-Khowi, east of Dongola. At the same time the government proclaimed the disadvantages of the latter two areas, without saying anything similar about Khashm el-Girba. Suspicion and resistance in Nubia grew against the repeated breach of government promises. A delegation from the National Committee toured all six proposed areas in April 1960, but could not reach agreement on any of them. A number of ballots finally led to a preference for an area south of Khartoum, one of the six areas originally named. Influential merchants and the richer peasants always gave preference to a resettlement to the north or south of Khartoum; it was obvious that they were thinking of their economic interests. The government in Khartoum had reasons enough to wish to prevent a resettlement near the capital. One of the reasons was a justified fear that large numbers of Nubians would move to the nearby city and thus endanger the whole project to open up new agricultural areas. It was therefore decided to offer the Nubians only one of two choices: Khashm el-Girba or Wadi el-Khowi. Bitterness against the government continued to increase in autumn 1960. A delegation of ministers sent to explain to the people in Wadi Haifa the advantages of Khashm el-Girba had to fly back after heated demonstrations without achieving anything. The people in Wadi Haifa showed their desperation on November 8,1960, the anniversary of the signing of the Nile Waters Agreement, by flying black flags on their houses and closing their shops. Only with great difficulty and under police protection were the authorities able to register the houses, land, and herds. In 1961, a few people began to show an interest in Khashm el-Girba. Delegations from a number of villages saw for themselves that the government was putting much work into the preparations and into the building of the dam, and also that the soil was fertile and good. In November 1962, an exhibition by the Ministry of Information about Khashm el-Girba and its future was opened in Wadi Haifa and encouraged many people to think seriously about shifting to the Atbara. The government decision appeared irrevocable. Day by day the inundation was coming nearer. From the start the Nubians had demanded a single self-contained settlement area, and this now led to a decision in favour of Khashm el-Girba. Needless to say, the government allowed every Nubian to resettle wherever he wanted in Sudan, but the sense of community, the desire to stay together and live together soon left them no choice but to shift to that area chosen and prepared for them by the government. The Nubians were known far beyond the borders of their home for their friendliness, hospitality, openness, honesty, and hard work. The often poor soil in their home, particularly in the Egyptian area, the fertile parts of 35

which had already been flooded by the old Aswan Dam, and in the Batn elHajar, the "Stone Belly" south of the Second Cataract, had driven the male population to Khartoum, Cairo, Beyrout, and Damascus in search of work as servants and cooks. Some of them had risen to high positions of trust in the palaces of Cairo and Alexandria. The Nubians were so successful in their services, whether as cooks and servants or as influential confidants at the courts of the Egyptian rulers and the mighty, who tended to mistrust their own people, that the children in the Nubian villages often considered "becoming a servant" their greatest goal. Nubians were attracted to Egypt, the Lebanon, and Syria. From there they sent money each month to their families in the villages, to their wives, parents, brothers and sisters who had to take over the field work. Nubians were more widely travelled and had more first-hand experience of other people than any other ethnic group in the Sudan. Those who returned had much to relate. None of them forgot their home, despite the many new impressions, and later, all that recalled their travels were yellowing photographs, newspaper articles and pictures on the walls of their houses. Behind the usually narrow stretch of arable land between the Nile and the desert lie the spacious Nubian houses. The long enclosing wall made of dried mud from the Nile is broken on the side facing the river by the door, stressed architecturally and by decoration. Geometric figures, cut into the mud plaster and painted white, blue and yellow, and plates and saucers pressed into the fresh plaster, symmetrically arrayed the door with its decorated wooden locks are sure signs of the modern architecture of Nubia. Scenes of a crocodile hunt and decorative motifs at the corners of the building and the flat slits for light and air in the big wall surfaces, complete the picture of calm earthiness. Wherever such decorative elements are seen in the Sudan, there is Nubia. The village artists invent their own motifs and find their colours in the stone of the nearby hills. In some settlements yellow is the dominating colour of the houses, and in others a blue-violet pigment was found nearby and became the dominant colour. In contrast to the rest of the Sudan, Nubia's climate favours the architectural and decorative adornment of the Nile mud houses. It hardly ever rains. Between 1902 and 1940, official observations for Wadi Haifa noted an annual average rainfall of 0.1 mm. The foundations of the houses, enlarged on the outside, are raised to seating height and on cold winter days serve as a "mastaba" where one can sit in the warming rays of the morning sun. During the day it allows the

JOOL 36

Operational principle (rear view) and decoration of a wooden Nubian door-lock

3

:, • Richly decorated house entrance in Ashkeit

older women td sit and work in shade and to enjoy the cool wind and participate in the life of the neighbouring houses. At sundown, the men sit there over a glass of tea for a chat about the events of the day, and rest in the evening quiet from the hard field work. Every passer-by is invited to join the group of dignified men with a friendly "faddal, oq'ud" - come here and sit down, and to drink tea with them. Sometimes friends meet at dusk on the edge of the village under the palms on the banks of the Nile to sip the clear and strong "araqi", spirits made from dates. The Moslem religion forbids true believers to drink intoxicating liquor, but it would be wrong to consider the Nubians bad Moslems for this infraction. The "imam", the preacher of the village, supervises the observance of religious rules and no doubt knows the "weaker brethren". He clearly has great influence. The five daily prayers, "ramadan", the month of fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca are observed if at all possible, to ensure heavenly reward for the trials and tribulations of life on earth. This implies the conclusion that those who already enjoy the earthly pleasures and are better off than others will probably go to hell. And this applies above all to the unbelievers, the Christians, who are also the merchants and businessmen in the Sudan. Poor Christians are rare. The following anecdote expresses this attitude. It comes from Sai Island whose population is renowned for its wit. A group of people from Sai had travelled to Wadi Haifa to sell their dates and was sitting at tables in front of a tea-house at the station. They were talking about how little their harvest had brought them when a poor Greek, dressed in rags, crossed the street in front of them. One of them called out to this unbeliever in a friendly manner: "Ya hawaja, ahsan tebqa moslem zey ana" - Stranger, you'd be better off as a Mohammedan like me (then at least you would be certain of going to heaven). The preservation and perpetuation of the Nubian language is left to the women and the mothers. The men speak with strangers in Arabic, although when they speak among themselves they find Nubian easier. In the late autumn, as the Nile flood is still falling, the "seluka" land, the steep bank of the Nile, is tilled to prepare it for the quickly-rooting castor plant. Wheat is grown on the narrow fields above the banks, as well as French and brown beans, tomatoes and onions. The sheep and goats must make do with the stunted grass in the valleys and ravines of the nearby hills and even old newspapers - if available - disappear into their stomachs. The work on the fields is hard. In the whole of northern Sudan it is only in Lower Nubia that women may be seen working in the fields. Their husbands and sons have often gone abroad to earn money to support their families. Only the harvest from the date palms in the late summer can ease the often critical economic position of the Nubians. Nubian dates have long been a desirable article for trade with Egypt. Mutual help and a sense of community are a matter of course and indispensable under such circumstances. The fields of family members who have

left to find work elsewhere must be cultivated. The water-wheels which raise the water up to six or eight metres to the irrigation canals have to be kept turning. The whole day is filled for the family/with hard work just to keep alive. There is little time to spare to send the children to central schools far away, where they could learn to read and write and count. The responsibilities within the extended family, the relations and neighbours are taken seriously. Weddings, births, circumcisions, illness and death are occasions for participation and visits to neighbouring villages to express joy or sympathy. Groups of women with babies on their hips may often be seen walking to distant villages to attend a wedding or a burial. They stay there for several days, see their relations and friends, and return home with the latest news. Child mortality in the outlying villages of Nubia is still very high. There are many reasons for this. One is the custom that if the mother becomes pregnant while still breast-feeding a child, she stops this immediately and gives her baby milk from an animal. Another is that the archaic practices of the "wise old women" in the villages often play a fatal part during birth and later at circumcision. The proverbial hospitality is pleasant but at the same time a burden for a stranger. Everyone in the village wants the stranger to be his guest, and it is difficult to refuse the friendly "faddal". It is a matter of course that a sheep be slaughtered to mark the arrival or the short visit of a relative or good friend. And it is quite unthinkable, despite the poverty of the hosts, to refuse a guest anything he may need or to ask when he will leave, even after months. The very strong family ties, often incomprehensible to us, and the dependency on the extended family arise from the difficult economic conditions and give the individual protection and security in times of need. In all spheres of life, drastic problems arose for the Nubians as a result of the planned resettlement; only a few will have grasped the full extent of the changes that would take place through this transplantation to a completely strange part of the country. While the big stock-taking was going on in Nubia and house after house was painted with a white circle at the door as a sign that the registration was complete, the new villages were being built some 1,000 kilometres away, in Khashm el-Girba. At the same time, a dam 500 metres long and almost 60 metres high was under construction. Its reservoir was to be 80 kilometres long and hold 1,300 million cubic metres of water. When in full operation the long main canal and its many branch channels would irrigate over 200,000 hectares of land. A power station was to supply electricity for the planned sugar factory and the homes. An experimental farm was visited by numbers of delegations from Nubia, making their first visit to the new area at the invitation of the Ministry of Agriculture. The village representatives and headmen, the "omdas", saw with their own eyes the fertile heavy soil and the efforts being made by the government to prepare the area for the new settlers. More despondently than ever, they returned home. 38

The land was generally flat; only here and there did a hilly ridge interrupt the broad landscape. The Atbara had water during the flood period, but the new villages were no longer directly on its banks. They would have to live in the neighbourhood of the unfriendly steppe, inhabited by the war-like and proud camel breeders of the Shukriya tribe, always in search of grazing areas. They never left their tents, covered with hand-woven camelhair rugs, without a knife and a sword. Village by village was to be resettled. It was intended to build a sugar factory with an annual production of 60,000 tons, fifteen elementary schools for boys and eight for girls, four intermediate schools for boys and one for girls as well as a technical institute, a small hospital, six out-patient clinics and twenty first-aid centres, veterinary services, ten slaughter-houses, a dairy, covered markets and water-work installations. Streets, telephones, and electricity were to connect the central town of New Haifa with its 26 neighbouring villages, each with 250 houses. It was planned to erect over 8,000 houses in the new area. The building costs were estimated at some 15 million Sudanese pounds. However, the new houses with two or three rooms were small and restricted compared to the spacious farmsteads they had in Nubia, mostly with two courtyards and the many surrounding rooms. In future the extended families would have to live apart and maintain separate households. Would the very marked human relations in the village, where one helped the other, still be maintained under these new conditions? The soil seemed fertile and promised good harvests. The work on the fields would be easier, the old water-wheels would not be needed in the irrigated fields. But new plants were to be sown, plants unknown to them. They would have to learn how to deal with sugar-cane and hemp, crops unknown in Nubia. But most dreaded of the many new conditions was the annual rainy season, and illnesses hitherto unknown such as malaria. These facts and considerations were confronted with the official report of the losses in Sudanese Nubia. Some 50,000 people must leave their land. Over 9,000 houses, almost 400,000 fruit-bearing and 250,000 non-fruiting date palms, 28,000 immature plants and more than 220,000 wild palms and trees would be swallowed by the waters. The Nubians, always fond of discussion, weighed up the pros and cons, and some of them began to show more interest in the advantages than the disadvantages.

39

Exodus from Nubia In winter 1962-63 there were still another twenty months to go before the first damming of the Nile flood was planned for Lower Nubia. Archaeological research on the threatened area had begun in all excavation concessions; the work of saving the Nubian monuments could commence. I had spent four weeks in Khartoum obtaining material and tools, searching for the necessary equipment with the help of Government Departments and on the "souk", the market. Bales of cotton had to be ordered from the Ministry of Agriculture, mahogany for packing from the Forestry Department, tools and other material from the government stores of the Ministry of Public Works for the work in Nubia. Negotiations had to be conducted with the Sudan Railways on transportation to Wadi Haifa, and later the provision of rolling-stock to move the temple blocks from Nubia to Khartoum. In the meantime, wood was sawn to the necessary sizes in the Forestry Administration's saw-mill; the lorries provided by the Sudan Antiquities Service collected the tools and material from the stores; boxes with equipment piled up in the small yard of the old Archaeological Museum on the road along the Blue Nile. Round bar steel, sheet steel, and steel pipes, screws, bolts and nails, steel cable and manilla rope, bales of cotton, a movable gantry with pulley-block, saws, picks, crowbars, spades and drills, boxes with tools for the carpenters, with measuring and office equipment, drawing material and filing cards, first-aid material, petroleum stoves and lamps, tents, spare parts for lorries and cars, baskets for carrying sand - an apparently endless list of objects. Nothing might be forgotten if delays in the work were to be avoided. The possibilities were small of being able to get forgotten objects in Wadi Haifa. Equipment ordered in Khartoum would take weeks to arrive. All equipment had to stand ready when work began. Only the transport of sawn wood would continue as we worked, arriving in the north in instalments. We needed some 160 cubic metres of hardwood, mainly mahogany planks, boards, squared timber - for packing, for plank causeways and other purposes, and all this had to be cut by the saw-mill. The price of softwood imported from Europe was far higher than the local hardwood, and this influenced the choice. But this meant that later the carpenters had to drill every nail hole in the hard dry wood. Relieved to get away from the unquiet weeks and the heat of Khartoum, and calmed that preparations for the work were already well under way, I 40

started on the thirty-hour train journey to Wadi Haifa. Soon we should test on the ground the practicability of the methods of dismantling worked out on paper in such detail. The next day the rays of the rising sun found our train in the midst of the Nubian desert. The rails, laid by Anglo-Egyptian troops in 1897 for the conquest of the Sudan, lost themselves in this endless lonely desert. The archaeological map of the Sudan marks here only the remains of ancient gold workings. Quite unexpectedly, a dark ribbon of palms lining the Nile suddenly broke the yellow of the desert sand. A little later the train arrived at Wadi Haifa. Osman Effendi Hassan and Khalid Effendi A h m e d , the two technical assistants of the Antiquities Service, awaited me. From now on they would help in this unusual task, but they confessed to me later when the work of dismantling had become almost routine that they had been very sceptical as to success. At the end of November sufficient material and equipment had arrived at Wadi Haifa to begin with the practical work. We made our first acquaintance with Nubian sandstone when extracting the rock-hewn tomb of Prince Djehuty-Hotep, a contemporary of Queen Hatshepsut. It lay 25 kilometres north of Wadi Haifa near Debeira East; although known since 1938, excavation and research on it began only in 1955. It contained hieroglyphic inscriptions on two door jambs and well-preserved wall-paintings with scenes from the life of the deceased. One shows Djehuty-Hotep in his garden. Workers and slaves, distinguishable by the colour of their skin as Egyptians, Nubians, and Nilotes, are shown gathering the fruits of doom palms and date trees. A monkey on one of the trees is holding a piece of fruit. Another scene shows a reception in the house of the deceased. Musicians and dancing girls entertain the guests, the host, his wife, and parents. In order to cut the wall-painting and the inscriptions from the rock, it was necessary to remove the cracked rock ceiling above the ante-chamber and carve an eight metre long work passage behind the painted wall. Only then could the selected scenes be cut in blocks weighing three tons each. Loss of painted surface through sawing should be kept to a minimum. We therefore cut the rock to the desired size with large cross-cut saws down lines marked beforehand. The strenuous work brought its reward. Only about two to three millimetres of the painting were lost in the process. This first practical work gave me much valuable experience of the organization, the tools, and the Nubian assistants. When the big blocks were packed and ready for transport, the people S e m n a West_Temple Y

from Debeira East, who up to then had simply watched the proceedings, became thoughtful. Twenty men from the village had been happy to find

Location of the ancient monuments dismantled in Sudanese Nubia between 1962 and 1968

temporary work with us. The people of Debeira had no reason to complain about the excavations. The Scandinavian expedition, excavating in Debeira East, had employed far more helpers from their ranks than we had. But there were still men who came to us daily in search of work, and on receiving a negative reply, s^t down to watch.

Garden scene from Prince Djehuty-Hotep's

With the arrival of Prof. Dr. Plenderleith, director of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome, the date for beginning the work on the temples drew nearer. Together with his two assistants, Dr. Mora and Dr. Toraka, he had come prepared to chemically strengthen the sandstone of the Buhen temple. This was necessary to prepare the surface of the blocks for transport, to fix on the stone the still remaining colour and to protect the monuments from the higher humidity that occurs in Khartoum during the rainy period. But in the harbour at Port Sudan not a trace could be found of the chemicals he had shipped out back in the summer. Only improvisation could prevent delay. Wadi Haifa and its market was the only hope. On the afternoon of 24th December - Christmas Eve - we went to the shopping quarter of this small border town. The main streets laying parallel to the Nile and the alleys running off them, had something for every taste and purse. Vendors of fruit, vegetables, spices, and sweets offered their wares near the mosque. Coffee and tea-houses, small hotels, restaurants and hairdressers were centred around the square in front of the station close to the steamer jetty, the passport and customs department and the post office. Between the station and the mosque was a colourful mixture of shops with high piles of cloth, of building material, tools, the pharmacy with medicines and photographic articles, and between them the workshops of tailors, carpenters, tinsmiths, and basket-weavers. Most of the shops seemed to wish to fulfill every possible demand and had a great range of goods from jam and toothpaste, manilla rope and padlocks to transistor radios and kerosene stoves. One of these stores helped us to solve our problem. Prof. Dr. Plenderleith and his two colleagues breathed a sigh of relief when they found shellac as a substitute for the missing chemicals in a small crammed shop. A four to eight per cent solution in methylated spirits would do the job just as well as the chemicals. Furthermore the reaction of sandstone to shellac was well42

Horus, Lord of Buhen

tomb

known, while its reaction to the new chemicals over a longer period was still untested. As we entered the shop, welcomed by the inevitable "faddal" to sit on the quickly brought chairs, we were greeted with a smell that reminded one of Christmas. Over "shai bi-qrumful" - tea with cloves - we did our business. The winter cold, the spicy tea and our joy at finding a parcel of shellac produced a Christmas mood. Fine cotton cloth and fish-glue, to bandage up cracked and fragile sandstone blocks were found without difficulty in the "souk". The "tob", an eight metre long garment in which the Sudanese women wrap themselves from top to toe in public, could be used in an alien capacity to protect the temple blocks with their reliefs and paintings. The next three weeks were spent applying the protective layer and bandaging the cracks in the walls of the Buhen temple. Dismantling could begin. In preparation a 60 metre ramp from the temple to the shore of the Nile, built on heaped-up sand, had already been constructed by the men working under Prof. Dr. W. B. Emery, director of the expedition from the Egypt Exploration Society, then digging at the Buhen fortress. We filled the whole of the temple area of some 600 square metres with sand from the surrounding desert so that only the upper layer of stones could be seen. This quicklymade platform saved us buying wood, transporting it to Wadi Haifa and building a scaffold. In addition, the layers buried under the sand were protected from damage during the dismantling of the upper layers. The Nubians engaged from the neighbouring village carried the sand into the temple in their basket, moving to the rhythm of a chanter's song. Gradually, the pillared forecourt and the walls with their wonderful painted reliefs disappeared under the yellow sand.

Operating principle of a lewis

Carpenters laid plank causeways over the sand-filling in the temple area, over which our gantry could then move on both sides of the temple walls and rows of columns. At the end of January, our most skilled carpenter began to chisel out a hole, fifteen centimetres deep and widening at the bottom, above the centre of gravity of the first column drum. The three-part steel lewis was inserted and fastened to the pulley. It would soon be seen whether the fragile stone could withstand the concentrated pressure between steel and sandstone on a small surface. A sigh from me, an inaudible "Bismillahi" (without which Allah does not give his blessing to any new work) fromOsman and our workers, and under the critical gaze of Prof. Dr. Emery and his assistants the chain of the pulley heaved the two-tons block from its place. When it had a thirty centimetre clearance, we carefully rolled the gantry with its burden over the mahogany sledge covered with a cotton padding. A few minutes later the first column drum was lowered to the sledge, the lewis removed, and then covered with further cotton padding and a wooden lid. The lid and sledge were pressed onto the stone with four bolted long round steel bars, ensuring that the block was well packed. This economical type of packing proved its worth throughout the work. It was considerably cheaper than the usual boxes. It also made it possible to

check the condition of the stone and note any possible cracks arising during transport. In all of us tension now relaxed; very soon, the first packed block from the Buhen temple was dragged by 30 Nubians with manilla ropes over the plank causeway to the river-bank eight metres lower. During the next few days improvements could be made in some details of the dismantling technique. Wetting the planks reduced the friction when the heavy blocks were pulled over them, and eased work of the transport team. As the carpenters gained practice in building the normed sledges, as the dismantling group became skilled at the pulley and as the transport team daily repeated the same motions, work moved faster. At the start only two to three temple blocks were moved in one day, but at the end the number increased to eight or ten. Before being lifted and drawn away, the blocks were numbered, levelled, measured, photographed and registered on file cards - and as work sped up, I, too, had to devote more time daily to this task. At the beginning the Wadi Haifa ferry-boat was available to us for two days a week to transport the blocks. A traffic jam soon developed, however, on the plank causeway because transport to the east bank did not keep step with the speed of dismantling and packing. With great effort we managed to rent a barge and a floating crane from the small ship repair-yard on the east bank. This rather dilapidated crane, built in 1902, also facilitated unloading work on the east bank where the blocks were stored near the railway line. Loading plans and good co-operation with the responsible officials of Sudan Railways gave us a share of freight space in the wagons which were needed increasingly for important goods being transported from the area to be flooded. A special loading team took over the stones, large numbers of which were now stored near the station. Every second day a goods wagon was loaded with ten to twelve temple blocks and column drums. They were then secured so they could not slip, and each week a load of 80 to 100 tons of temple stones left Wadi Haifa station, to be unloaded again and then stored about seven days later in Khartoum. Each time I lost three to four days on the building site for a flight to Khartoum to supervise the unloading and to see that everything was stored in such a way and order that future reconstruction would be easier. My two assistants, Osman Hassan and Khalid Ahmed, took over my work during my absence, and did it very well. Osman Hassan had worked as a technical assistant of the Sudan Antiquities Service for twenty years, and impressed both the workers and myself by his reliability and his practical experience. Quietly and efficiently he mastered all difficulties that arose. Khalid Ahmed was temperamentally quite different, and one could feel his elan and commitment in everything he did. Sometimes work was done simultaneously on three different sites. Then Osman Hassan supervised the one and Khalid Ahmed the other. When I was in Khartoum I knew that the building sites were in good hands. The temple of Aksha built under Ramesses II (1290-1224 B. C.) lay only

16 mm round steel bars l O x 10 cm s q u a r e d timber

J,

,

A.

4 cm Cotton

10 x 14 cm squared timber

Longitudinal and side view of a packed temple

block

irh

ra

R e m o v e d relief wall (Museum Khartoum)

Ground-plan of the Aksha Temple

a few centimetres above the annual Nile floodline; its foundations reached down into the ground water. Because the lower walls regularly became moist, the salts in the stone had crystallized on the surface and softened it. In addition, for several thousand years people from the neighbouring villages had taken fallen stones and the upper layers for building houses and making embankments for water-wheels. Only what was left of the west wall of the pillared forecourt was worth saving. As decoration the length of the whole wall was inscribed with a list of all the peoples and countries conquered by Ramesses II cut into the stone. These fifty interesting blocks were earmarked for rescue, but their bad condition delayed the course of the work. To protect each stone, the hardened vertical and horizontal joints had to be recut with cross-cut saws. Each sandstone block, carefully extracted from its bounding, received a linen bandage to support its brittle structure. Beforehand - as at the Buhen temple - each stone was chemically treated with a shellac solution. After all these preparations we were able to push two superposed steel sheets into the horizontal joints, somewhat broadened with wedges, under the blocks. The upper steel sheet, together with the stone, now had to be carefully pulled out and placed on a sledge. A crate-like construction, stuffed with cotton and straw, was then placed over it and the packing was complete. It was strenuous and slow work. Finally, in mid-February, the crates were linked up on a 200 metre long plank causeway between the temple and the Nile. Loading them on the ship and transporting the precious freight to Wadi Haifa was then just a trifle. Now the group working in Aksha was free to help dismantle the Buhen temple. Khalid went to Khartoum to take over the job of unloading and storage. The pressure of time dropped a little, but the temperature rose. In Buhen we shovelled out of the temple the sand earlier shovelled in. The lowest layer of stones was uncovered and ready for dismantling. As work progressed, parts of the enclosing wall, up to two metres thick, also had to be torn down in order to get at the built-in outer sandstone pillars. Heat hung over Buhen, with not a breath of wind. For days, the fine dust from the crumbling bricks of Nile mud hovered over the work site. The increased consumption of water left no time for the drinking-water to cool in the big clay pots, constantly refilled with warm liquid from the river. The donkeys on which the Nubians rode to work in the early morning, stood with drooping heads in the shade of the few acacia trees on the banks, waiting for their owners to finish work. Yet then they still had to wait. When work finished at 2 p.m. it was too hot also for the Nubians to undertake a journey of several kilometres. They rested in the shade of the rocks, took a break and waited until the midday heat - often 45° centigrade even in March - had passed. Despite the hard physical work and the heat, no one slackened. They made up for any lack of physical strength by energy and tenacity. It appears they were used to hard physical work in the fields and also to monotonous food, poor in vitamins. At first they had neither interest nor understanding for the new, unaccus-

tomed work on the temple stones of "min zaman" - from long ago. They looked at me incredulously when I told them of the age of the temple, its builders and about the history of their home. They rfemained convinced that the people who had quarried the stones and brought the heavy blocks weighing two to four tons to Buhen from the hills were at least twice as big as they were. The opportunity to earn money had obviously attracted them. Everywhere in the area it was now possible to earn additional money. The work of the many foreigners, who paid people to dig, could be explained only as a search for buried treasure. What other practical purpose could all this effort have? The ground was measured and marked, test trenches were dug, the earth moved hundreds of metres, skeletons and pots brought to light, old mud wall remnants were worked on with brush and spatula, again measured, sketched, noted, and photographed. Sometimes the foreigners squatted in a burial pit for hours, talking and themselves sketching the length of the stones and stratified earth-layers on the scraped walls. Others collected pottery sherds and worked stones found on the gravel ridges near the river. After a time they moved further along the Nile, renting houses in the nearest village, taking good workers with them, employing new ones. The work on dismantling the temples, however, was more easily comprehensible. Here, the possibility of their home finally disappearing in the flood came home to them. The weekly wage for the work was an additional reward that they received for having to leave Nubia. The money reminded them regularly each pay-day that their future was uncertain. In my house in Wadi Haifa, my cook, Jaafer Saleh Musa, had a meal ready when I came home in the afternoon from the west bank, tired and sweaty. Even in the greatest heat and lack of appetite, he always served me something tempting. The water, cooled in the big clay pots, was delicious. In the bathroom I freshened up by pouring buckets of water over myself. Drawing work, supervising the unloading of blocks from Buhen, shopping at the "souk", and repairing the equipment kept Osman, Khalid, and myself busy from afternoon to evening. The day almost always ended at one of the tea-houses at the station. The cool evening breezes from the nearby Nile, the talks with many friends and acquaintances over spiced tea or coffee remain unforgettable and an inseparable part of those years in Nubia. Without having to ask, one heard the latest news and rumours about how work was going on at the Sudd el-Ali, about the resettlement, about the work on the houses in Khashm el-Girba and how much compensation was to be paid for date palms and water-wheels. These were the obvious subjects of discussion. At the end of March 1963 - fifty-nine working-days after the first column drum was removed - the last sandstone block decorated with reliefs left the temple area. One month later, four hundred stones from Aksha, Debeira, and Buhen were stored in Khartoum. The railway had transported 800 tons for us, the experiment had been successful. Not a stone showed a crack or 46

faTpi^NAHMKTii?

St. Anna, Mother of Mary, from the Faras Cathedral

damage attributable to our work or the transport. Osman and Khalid had skillfully adapted themselves to the new tasks and the problems that arose. Their eagerness and understanding contributed largely to success. The financial statement showed that considerably less money had been spent than we had budgetted for. And I was particularly happy that even under the most difficult working conditions, it had been possible to avoid accidents. The French government had pledged itself to pay for the work on the Aksha temple, Great Britain and the USA for the work on the Buhen temple. On the basis of my annual statement of account, the Sudanese government was compensated by these countries for the money laid out. The foreign expeditions too concluded their work for that year. The Polish expedition headed by Prof. Dr. Michatowski was working feverishly only a few metres from the Egyptian border to salvage unexpected finds. Under the ruins of an Arab fortress they found buried in the sand the remains of the episcopal cathedral of the Kingdom of Notabia. Remains of walls and arches, the apse, the side aisles and narthex came to light as the sand was shovelled away. Paintings were found on the walls, and in the course of the work they grew into hundreds of scenes and depictions. The dry climate of Nubia had conserved the bright colours. The "miracle of Faras" hit world headlines and again drew public attention to the salvage operations going on in Nubia. Our knowledge of Coptic art was considerably increased. A list of the names of twenty-seven bishops in one of the wall paintings helped to reconstruct the history of Nobatia. The joint French-Argentinian expedition, headed by Prof. Dr. J. Vercoutter, investigated temples, urban lay-out, and cemeteries in Aksha. Prof. Dr.P.L.Shinnie and his helpers from the University of Ghana removed the sands of centuries from a monastery in Debeira West. The joint Scandinavian expedition of Prof. Dr. T. Save-Soderbergh found in Debeira East objects from all cultural stages in Nubian history. The fortresses of Mirgissa and Askut were the excavation sites for the French expedition and that of the University of California. The joint expedition from New Mexico Museum and the Colorado University was responsible for research at Stone Age sites as far south as the Second Cataract. Prof. Dr. R. Caminos from the Brown University (USA) did the strenuous detailed work of recording the reliefs and inscriptions in the temples of Buhen, Semna West, and Semna East. These are only some of the archaeological activities undertaken by scientists from all over the world for the rescue of ancient Nubian monuments. In autumn 1963, the race with the flood entered its last phase. News about delays in the work on the Aswan Dam proved, as often before, to be mere rumours. In the ten months left before the first damming, the houses in Khashm el-Girba had to be completed, the population resettled, and the archaeological work up to the Second Cataract as well as the dismantling of the monuments completed. In the north we now began the last big collection of single, smaller objects such as rock-inscriptions and architectural

elements. At the Hathor Rock of Faras our cross-cut saws bit into the soft sandstone to cut loose the inscription made by viceroy Setau in the period of Ramesses II. Five of the granite columns with their capitals and bases found by the Polish expedition in Faras Cathedral were packed and with great effort dispatched to Wadi Haifa and from there to Khartoum. We celebrated our second Christmas and New Year in Nubia at Jebel Sheikh Suleiman. The important relief, depicting a battle between the Egyptians under the rule of King Jer and the A Group populations, was parted from the living rock as our saws cut into the stone. The block, weighing three and a half tons, had to be moved from the mountain ridge over a ramp made of stone and planks down-hill to a lorry waiting below, dragged and braked by cable winches. An inscription from Pharaohnic time below the Abu Sir cliff was sawed down to transportable size and packed after the rock mass lying above it had been removed. Three sandstone pillars from the Isis temple in the Buhen fortress built under Amenophis II were sent on their way to Khartoum. Then came the collection from the small Wadi Halfa museum, packed in even more boxes. Once again, the freight was loaded into the goods trains, this time with a very "mixed" supply of Nubian antiquities. At last, at the beginning of January 1964, all monuments worth saving had been removed from the area between the border in the north and the Second Nile Cataract. No decision had yet been taken about continuing our work promptly south of the Second Cataract. The two temples in Semna would be threatened by the flood only by 1968-69-. It seemed as though immediate rescue work was unnecessary and there was ample time for dismantling and transport. However, it was planned to dismantle the railway line in late summer 1964, and the track between Wadi Haifa and Semna would be flooded by then. This would then bring new difficulties and increasing costs for our dismantling work. It did not seem advisable to rely on later lorry transport direct to Khartoum because of the great cost, the bad roads and the risk of damaging the blocks. In addition, the areas were to be evacuated by 1965, so that any work done on the temples after that would throw up the problem of labour and accommodation. For all these reasons, my plan for immediate dismantling was approved of the head of the Antiquities Service in January 1964. In the meantime, the Belgian and Dutch governments had also agreed to make a financial contribution. The transport of equipment and material to Semna began. I ordered additional wood, round bar steel, nails, cotton, and much more in Khartoum. South of the Second Cataract begins an area which is known in Arabic as the Batn el-Hajar or "Belly of the Rocks". Here the Nile forces its way through almost 100 kilometres of granite, gneiss, and porphyry, which permits the river little breadth and places obstacles in the form of islands and crags. The black cliffs on the banks shine brightly in the sun, polished for tens of thousands of years by the water. The cultivated area here becomes

Rock-drawings

at Abka (Gemai) at the Second Nile Cataract

A host of sand-carriers are needed for excavation

work

t^MV

Dismantling work on the Sheikh Suleiman rock with drawings depicting a battle from the first Egyptian Dynasty

Sawing out blocks from the rock-tomb of Prince

Djehuty-Hotep

The prisoners depicted on the Aksha Temple are part of a list set up under Ramesses II symbolizing

conquered areas or tribes

Excavation

work at the Aksha

Temple

Blocks from the Aksha

Temple being pulled along the plank causeway

and loaded onto the barge

The east bank of the Second Nile Cataract with the track to Semna

Hieroglyphic inscription on the Buhen Temple: Horus, Lord of Buhen

Buhen, an ancient Egyptian fortress on the bank of the Nile. The Queen Hatshepsut Temple lies behind the fortified wall to the north

Prof. Dr. W. B. Emery (right), who led the excavation of the Buhen Fortress, with the author (left)

Lifting the column drums and blocks from the walls of the Buhen

Temple

The blocks are prepared for

transport

The big sand-dune at Semna Tempie at the west bank of Semna, built under Tuthmosis

III

Tilt' Semna West Fortress, built (hiring the Middle The temple originates from the New Kingdom

Kingdom.

Our pontoon

made

A trip on the new pontoon attracts visitors from far and near

Transport

of material from the east to the west bank

begins

A view of the Semna West Temple through the southern fortress gate Relief and hieroglyphic inscription on one of the pillars of the eastern portico

After the temple has been filled with sand, the wall blocks, pillars, and columns are dismantled, packed, and transported

During the morning break, everyone enjoys an adventurous

tale about a crocodile

hunt

Our pontoon takes the packed temple blocks safely across the river

The temple in the fortress of Semna

East

tfcSt H N i • "í lÉ'fí

1

P'iyjfer^T' • i-

i

M

f

i

f--.

;kV 3

lilM

¡. p lfe cï&V Ü & El- v i

wmBMm

Main entrance to the Semna East Temple with the guard, Abd el-Rahman el-Shellali Inscription of Viceroy Seni who began erection, of the temple for Tuthmosis II

The Semna East Temple is dedicated to the ram-headed

God

Khnutn

The work-site

in Semna

East

Small objects, placed there as part of the foundation

ceremony, were found under the temple

Temple blocks from an earlier building period which were re-used under Pharaoh Amenophis

II

The predominant

north wind determines

the form of the

sand-dunes

even narrower, and often disappears altogether as the hills crowd in on the bank of the river. Yellow sand covers the heights on the west bank and falls in long, furrowed dunes to the river. The east bank, however, is grey and dusty, for the mainly north and north-east winds blow up the fine, dried Nile mud as dust which covers the area. The west bank seems to have played a greater role in the history of trade and communications in Nubia. A trade route - today scarcely used - leads from Egypt, west of the Nile Valley, through the Libyan desert as far as Kordofan and Darfur. With its oases and wells it makes up the famous "Darb el-Arba'in", the 40-day path along which passed a large part of the goods and slave trade with the African interior. Preference for the west bank in earlier times is shown by the old Egyptian fortresses most of which lie to the left of the river, and doubtless controlled more than the water route. In modern times, the east bank gained in significance. A motor track now runs for most of its length on the embankment built at the end of the last century for a railway line between Wadi Haifa and Kerma. Sometimes it leaves the river for as much as 15 kilometres to go around the black hills of the "Belly of the Rocks", for instance at Semna where at kilometre-stone 69 a sign-post gives the proud name "Semna Road" to the track through deep sand and over rocky ridges. The descent to the Nile Valley from here has a wild, romantic beauty. Between jagged and conical hills, the road takes a sharp turn from the main track to the west. At the end of this little-used track, one leaves the desert of stone and sand and is confronted with a fascinating view across the Semna Basin. On its northern side the Nile is narrowed down to about 45 metres and, forgetting its lethargy, overcomes the narrows as a raging torrent. Fortresses from Pharaohnic times lie on both sides of this natural obstacle. The mighty walls of the Semna West fortress rise from the gleaming red-brown porphyry rocks on the west bank; this is protected on the south by a second fortress. Opposite, on the black granite massive, the Semna East sister fortress - also named Kumma - borders on the steep rocky gorge. Before it, the Nile spreads and gathers strength. A narrow row of umbrella-like acacias and palms line the edge of the basin. The village consists of twenty-six houses on the west bank, built windwards on craggy rocks, hardly ten houses on the eastern bank, protected from the wind by trass. Two water-wheels on the opposite bank water a few wheat fields. Otherwise, we have only the "seluka" land here, a steep edge. As the waterlevel recedes in October, "qamsha", a type of tobacco, is sown, together with the castor-oil plant which clings to the steep slope with its quicklygrowing roots. Brown beans, the main food of the local inhabitants, are also grown. The poverty of the people living in the "Belly of the Rocks" is reflected in their houses. The yards become smaller, the proud decoration at the entrance, the colourful painted walls become fewer. There are only a few plates and saucers pressed into the still fresh plaster or a stuffed crocodile over the door. The me'agre harvest of dates, castor-oil beans and tobacco is

I — 1 0 x 10 cm s q u a r e d t i m b e r 10 x 15 cm s q u a r e d t i m b e r 2 n a r r o w g a u g e rails - 5 x 2 0 cm p l a n k s

^ • 0 1 6 m m r o u n d steel b a r s L o n g i t u d i n a l section

4 0 x 6 m m flat steel Side e l e v a t i o n

not enough to live upon. Only the money sent from the towns by husbands and sons makes it possible to buy necessities such as sugar, tea, millet, salt, matches, and cotton material. As our lorries arrived, bringing more and more material each day, the village people's expectation of being able to earn some money rose. At the end of January there came an event, news of which ran like wildfire up and down the river and lured hundreds of onlookers: the launch of our unusual ferry which was to help us to transport the sandstone blocks from the Semna West temple safely across the river. The lack of load-carrying motor-boats and ships between the Second and Third Cataract forced us to think up our own ways of transporting the heavy temple blocks, weighing up to fours tons. Some 200 tons of stone had to be taken to the east bank and loaded onto lorries to be brought to Wadi Haifa goods station. The small home-made sailing-boats used in Semna were not a suitable means of transport. The cheapest - and therefore most attractive - solution was to build a raft made of empty 220-litre oil barrels. The statics calculation showed a requirement for 50 barrels joined with the help of mahogany boards and reinforced by flat steel and round bars to gain a suitable loading surface of 4.5 x 6 metres. The maximum loading capacity would be six tons, whereby the tops of the barrels would still be 20 centimetres out of the water. The assumed loading capacity corresponded to the weight of our heaviest temple block together with twenty workers. At first the carpenters were rather incredulous, but they then worked with enthusiasm on making our raft. To reach the other bank was the aim for us all. On the morning of the launch there was still time for a short prayer by our Nubians, then a "Bismillahi" and a bottle of Sudanese "Camel" beer broke on the barrels. Our ark slid into the water to the applause of the onlookers. Even some women and girls observed the sensation from a distance and ventured to come nearer than usual. Each of the eighty workers wanted to be present on the maiden voyage, but only those few Nubians who could swim were chosen. The most difficult job still faced us. On the afternoon when we began the journey, a 500 metre manilla rope connected the ferry to the eastern bank. With hastily-made paddles, we tried to guide the raft, near the bank and against the current, up to Gindikol Island, in an endeavour then to reach the western bank, floating with the current and rowing. The first attempt failed. Despite all our efforts, our raft did not get beyond the middle of the river. A second attempt on the next day was more successful. With much shouting, admirable persistency of the rowers and

two swimmers, both roped to the raft, we managed to cross the current and throw one end of the rope around a rock on the west bank. The current had driven us 150 metres down-stream. At sundown, tired and exhausted, we worked our way back along the rope now made fast on both banks. During the following days we improved our position on the western bank and with great effort hauled the connecting rope, against the current, to a small bay which was to be the future landing-place for the pontoon. Then the manilla rope was replaced by a taut 400 metre steel cable with a diameter of 16 millimetres which was well anchored on both banks. A reliable connection across the Nile had been established and the ferry could begin operation. The cable ran over reels fastened to both ends of our floating platform and this eased the work of the crew and decreased friction. We could now haul ourselves across the river on the steel cable in ten or twelve minutes. When the first material began to arrive on the west bank we were able to start building a 500 metre long plank causeway linking the landing-place with the temple in the fortress. The small 3,500-year-old temple was situated in the bend of the L-shaped fortress and on the main road leading from the south to the north gate. The temple consisted of one single room and an eastern and western portico with most of the roof slabs preserved. The relief showed Tuthmosis III in front of the deified Sesostris III and the local Nubian god, Dedwen, together with scenes showing the gods Khnum,

Pontoon Sand-dunes

Semna Westfortress with temple

IGindikol Ijlsland

4

£s|Semna East., ' fortress with ' temple • ¡.:

Amun-Re, Thoth and the goddesses Satis, Isis, and Buto. To the left of the entrance, a Queen Katimala from the 21st or 22nd dynasty had an inscription cut into the wall which cannot be deciphered with any certainty because of its orthographic peculiarities. Remains of colour on the ceiling and the inside walls still had their original strength, as in the Buhen temple. Three

weeks after we landed on the west bank, preparations for the dismantling work were complete. The blocks had been chemically treated and the temple filled with sand inside and out. The carpenters had built the connecting plank causeway and material and tools had been taken to the west bank on the ferry. We began by dismantling roof slabs, weighing more than four tons. Their underside was painted blue and covered with five-pointed stars to depict the heavens as the home of the gods. The mighty roof slabs, the walls, the architraves and pillars soon moved on their sledges along the causeway as on an assembly line, through the north gate of the fortress, down to the landingplace on the bank. At the end of each day one could see clearly what had been done, and the transport team soon had its hands full trying to keep the end of the causeway free for the next sledges. The chanter pounded out the rhythm to his improvised song on an empty petrol tin and everyone joined in the chorus. "Hele, hele, kaman wahed da, hele, hele, ji bi-l-weled, hele, hele . . . " - Heave ho, and another, heave ho, bring the small one, heave ho . . . Harvesting on the poor soil had finished and there were enough workers who, for 30 piastres a day grasped the rope and pulled the loaded sledges over the moistened planks. Again and again, people from out-lying villages and settlements came to Semna on their donkeys to ask for work or at least to cross the river on the novel barrel-ferry. The variations of the Nile level were very visible at the two landing-places. The water-level sank steadily and several times we had to lengthen and adapt the short embankment to the ferry in order to be able to load the blocks in the changing situation. The sand-storms started in March. They came at regular intervals, interrupted by days of scorching heat without the slightest cooling breeze. The Nile lay before us like a mirror and the big water-pots had to be filled more often than before. We started work earlier: at 5.30 a.m. the ferry made its first journey to the west bank. At 9 o'clock the children arrived after travelling for miles to bring food to their fathers and timidly watched all these new goings-on. On Fridays, the Moslem day of rest, many archaeological expeditions visited us in Semna to look once again at the fortresses and the temples and to go swimming from the ferry which was pulled to the middle of the river. Diplomats from Khartoum, UNESCO representatives and tourists made the difficult journey to us in the wilds, and could see how the work was progressing. It was a welcome change during the long months in Batn el-Hajar. Each working-day the three lorries left our camp in the morning loaded with the temple blocks which had reached the east bank. After a careful, five-hour drive over 100 kilometres through dried river-beds, over stony tracks and sandy stretches, they arrived at last at Wadi Haifa station. When the precious blocks were unloaded, there was little time left for shopping. Materials, vegetables, meat, and bread all had to be bought in the town. Almost more important for me was the arrival of mail in far-off Semna.

Ground-plan and front elevation of Semna West Temple

Only during sundown did all work in our camp stop for a short period. Khalid and Osman, Jaafer the cook, I and the tool-store had found a home in the house built 40 years ago by Prof. Dr. G. Reisner when he excavated the two Semna fortresses. A few repairs had been sufficient to adapt it to the new conditions. At first, the straw-mat roof helped to keep up ventilation, but after the first sand-storms it was spread with mud from the Nile and provisionally dust-proofed. From my window, high above the Nile and right next to the Kumma temple inside the fortress area, I had an unforgettable view downstream. In the late afternoons, when the wind was generally still, the little square in front of our house was the meeting-place of the village elders. The new tobacco harvest had been good and, sitting on rocks and piles of wood, everyone was busy rolling cigarettes out of dried and rubbed leaves of "qamsha", the local tobacco. Jaafer passed around tea and "jebana", the spiced, sweet, Sudanese coffee. Village events on both river banks were discussed. Now and then attempts were made to get a relative onto our pay-roll, and a need was invented for urgent new posts for guards, water-carriers or ferry crew. The new easy connection with Wadi Haifa was taken as a matter of course, and something for the village seemed to be needed every day so that someone had to go there on our lorries. And then came the subject of resettlement. Evacuation from the villages in the north had begun. With every special train, 800 Nubians left their home. The empty zone along the banks grew, freight ships waited on the west bank to take the people across, fast goods trains transported their live-stock, and later trains took their goods and chattels to Khashm el-Girba. Compensation was paid out for the date palms and the unharvested fields. Lorries full of crates, bedding and cases, sacks of grain and household goods drove to the station. The Nubians said farewell to their poor soil and to their home. But for Abd el-Rahman el-Shellali, the small sly temple-guard, and for his neighbours in Semna, one wish, one deceptive hope still remained. Everyone had checked the long government list of land and date palms and knew by heart the exact figures of compensation for his own property. For every good quality fruiting date palm such as the "barakawi" or "gondeila", the government was to pay ten Sudanese pounds, for the inferior quality called "gaw" (which is good for distilling spirits) only five, and for every young palm only one pound. For "seluka" land 250 Sudanese pounds was to be paid, for "saqia" land (that had to be watered with water-wheels) 150 for each feddan (4,170 square metres). People who did not take the house allotted in New Haifa would receive a further 1,200 Sudanese pounds. My neighbours still did not believe that the flood would reach the level of the houses in the "Belly of the Rocks"; so they decided not to exchange their houses for new ones in Khashm el-Girba, but would stay where they were and take the value of the new house in cash. Even if the water did cover their present homes, new ones could easily be built on high land. Abd el-Rahman showed no outward sign of his inner 53

conflict about the work on the temple. He would, perhaps, lose his job guarding the antiquities. When the water rose and no more tourists came, he could not count on any more "baksheesh" from visitors. So it was better to send his sons to work to get at least some of the last money to be earned out of the temple. The sun went down. Abd el-Rahman and his friends prepared for the fourth prayer of the day, the "Maghreb". Standing in a row they bowed to the east in the direction of Mecca. "La ilaha ilia llah wa-Mohammed rasulu llah . . . " - There is no god except Allah, and Mohammed is his P r o p h e t . . . Within four weeks, the temple on the west bank had been dismantled down to its foundations and packed. Three weeks later the last stone reached the east bank undamaged. It was only when we had to do some excavation that had not been foreseen that the temple did reveal its last secret: the foundation deposits. Under the four corners of the main building and under the middle of both lateral walls lay plates, vases, pots, and beakers in small holes covered in sand, all of them in miniature size and made of baked clay. Often they were only potsherds. After laboriously assembling some four thousand potsherds we had altogether 547 objects. In addition, we found 193 copper models, only a few centimetres in size, of knives, saws, axes, chisels, mattocks, and brick moulds. Carved wood, gold foil showing re-

0 1 4 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 cm

liefs, symbols for grinding stones, the bones of sacrificed animals, the stones and pips of dates, grapes, figs and water-melons, thousands of fayence and carnelian beads. The hidden inscriptions referred to the goddess Seshat, known in Egyptian mythology as "Mistress of the house of archi-

D! 0 0

1

2

3 cm

tects" , who helped the king to determine the axis of the temple during the foundation ceremony. We had discovered the foundation deposits under the temple. They had been prepared before building began and now, 3,500

Foundation deposits of the Semna West Temple

years later, told the story of the foundation ceremony, shown in old scenes on Egyptian temples. Symbolically cleaned sand filled the foundation trenches, lined with bricks. Ceremonial objects were laid upon this sandy bed, representations of tools in model form used for building the temple, samples of the building material, bones of sacrificed animals (in Semna mainly the skulls of calves) and seeds. Heavy foundation blocks then covered and hid the trenches. Each new discovery increased our excitement and often the Nubians became impatient when the measuring, sketching, photographing, collecting and registration of the objects took too long, for we had to forbid stirring up sand nearby in the search for new deposits. There was no lack of work in the seclusion of Semna. Sketches, file cards, packing lists, accounts and preparations for the next jobs gave me no chance to be bored. The people of Semna and the vicinity, however, followed with anxiety the course of our work at the temple on the west bank and its coming completion. The opportunity to earn something, however little, in this isolated area was unexpected and welcome. There was therefore great joy when

Depiction of a shrine with the symbols of the Goddess Seshat and Lower Egypt, found among the objects in the foundation deposits of the Semna West Temple

work on the Semna East temple began at the end of April. By now, we had worked out a routine. We began chemically treating the sandstone, laying the stone-paved track over the sand-dunes to the foot of the hill below the fortress, the carpentry on the upper plank causeway, the filling of the temple with sand. The work became more difficult. Each day the sun stood higher in the heavens and the sand-storms grew in number and strength. Wind meant sand-storm, but calm meant heat and torture by thousands of flies. This temple was bigger and more complicated in its ground-plan. The weight of the blocks used was between 100 kilograms and three tons. The foundations of one side of the temple, dedicated to the god Khnum, reached to the neighbouring cliff, the other half stood on deposits of driven sand. As the foundations settled the walls had cracked, and this now made taking levels and measuring more difficult. Living conditions became more difficult for all of us. The area north of Wadi Haifa with its agricultural surplus had been cleared. Some shops in the town closed down and difficulties in provisioning increased. During the last weeks and months in Semna, Osman, Khalid, and I lived on pulses, rice, noodles, and badly-tasting bread. At the beginning of June, something else happened to interrupt the routine of dismantling work. In the lowest stone layers we found blocks that belonged to earlier building periods of the temple. Under the floor slabs of the two small back chambers was a second and older layer of stones, and even older, another, deeper layer of bricks of Nile mud. Our work was slowed down by the necessary additional sketching and measuring. On paper, we were now able to reconstruct, with the blocks found, the measurements for

0 1 2 3m Ground-plan Temple

of the Semna

East

what had once been two rooms. The present situation of the blocks which had been torn down under Amenophis II and used again, gave an insight into the changing history of the Semna East temple and will provide information about the sequence of rulers. These newly discovered relief blocks still had the bright original colours. Their surfaces, covered with reliefs and texts, told of the times of Queen Hatshepsut and the wilful destruction of her memory by her nephew and successor, Tuthmosis III, for whom she had held the reins of office in his youth. His hatred of the Queen, who had managed to exclude him from rule for many years, was shown in traces of reliefs which had been chiselled off and scenes altered on the stone blocks. After Hatshepsut's rule ended, Tuthmosis III had feminine endings in the hieroglyphic text changed into masculine endings. The memory of her regency was to be wiped out on the monuments and temples of Egypt and Nubia for all time. We learned more about the history of the temple through a further find for which I had fervently and secretly hoped. As at the Semna West temple, we also found here small pits with deposits from the foundation ceremony. This time there were eleven finding places where we discovered over three

to whom the Semna East was dedicated

Temple

thousand potsherds from which I was able to reconstruct and restore 326 fired pots, vases, and plates. There were also 67 objects formed from Nile

mud and unfired, 64 copper model tools and also bones from sacrificed animals, seeds, fayence and carnelian beads, carved wood and some incense. It was an exciting finish for our work in Nubia . . . The foundation deposits made possible comparisons with those in the Semna West temple from the same Egyptian dynasty^. The composition, amount, and material of the ceramics made especially for this reason, the differences in the forms, the variation in the objects, all this could be important later and help to uncover the secrets of the foundation ceremony and its significance. At the end of June, the last temple blocks were pulled along the plank causeway. Every day our lorries undertook the careful journey to Wadi Haifa with their heavy burden. In the evening or during the night they returned to be loaded again in the morning. At the same time, the loading at the railway station continued. But the goods wagons became scarcer, because the end of Nubia was very close. The discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of a resettlement roused the minds on our work site, too. For some years now, the people had hoped and believed that Nubia's sudden new pseudo-prosperity would continue. Hundreds of tourists had come to Wadi Haifa each week, dozens of expeditions had worked there for many months each year, rented houses, purchased material and food, employed cooks, servants, and workers. The Nubians no doubt felt their importance and the sudden world interest. However, the international atmosphere prevailing at the time, particularly in Wadi Haifa, only diverted attention from what was really happening. The well-earned but unexpected wages that disappeared on pay-day into the big pockets of the "jalabiyas" were merely additional compensation for giving up their homes; nobody should have been deceived about this. The first damming-up of the water, planned for July 1964, would drown nine villages and the town of Wadi Haifa, altogether effecting 33,000 people, that is two-thirds of the total population in the threatened Sudanese area. The resettlement for this first group was planned by the government to begin in September 1963. Eight months had been estimated for the transfer. Some 45 passenger trains and 65 goods trains had to be provided. Plans for evacuating each village had been worked out and lay ready in the office of the Resettlement Commission. However, by July it was clear that the dates on which the new houses were to be finished in Khashm el-Girba could not be met by the building firms. The date for the first train was postponed to November. Many of the Nubians had already packed in July and were prepared for departure. Now they had to wait. News about the progress of construction work in Khashm el-Girba was followed eagerly. The rumours of another postponement were then confirmed. Heavy rainfall in the new town had hindered the building work. There was talk of January and even March 1964 for the departure. There were discussions about setting up camps on the new bank of the Nile to house the people until their homes had been completed. Despair and

Two fragments of blocks that belong together with the names of Tuthmosis III and the God Khnum, found in the Semna East Temple

Excavations in Faras

The ruins of the Faras Cathedral stand on a small hill An examination of the wall paintings in Faras brought to light depictions from an earlier period which had been painted over during later renovation

miSFTM mmm MB m •4M

m

HEIKSI

ï

•f :

V

«SI

JBF y«**y / .,J¡¡ • '

£

«fi M

jMà

¡SB

fe

B li

pf « Jü B®ff 1

j t> g .-t . • L'ja S -wr

;

U I-

Portrayal of the birth of Christ Cross with a picture of Christ and the symbols Wall painting in the Faras Cathedral

of the four

Evangelists.

In Abu Simbel,

too, preparations

for dismantling

are under

way

The backwaters

of (he Nile rise for the first

time

Everyone

is eager to see the model o f their new village

Every resettler receives compensation

before leaving his home

The water from the dammed-up

Atbara River makes life in the new area possible

The Taka Hills at Kassala are part of the surroundings

of their future

home

harsh criticism of government measures spread again amongst the soretried people. The delays also meant that the traditional time for sowing had arrived. Not knowing what the future would bring, more and more Nubians began to sow their winter grain on the old fields on the Nile bank instead of saving the seed for the new fields in far-away Khashm el-Girba, as planned. Thanks to the efforts of Hassan Dafallas, the chairman of the Resettlement Commission, it was possible to avoid the worst, and gain the support of the relevant government offices for the homes to be built more quickly. January 1964 became the final date. And for those who in desperation had sown their winter grain in September a solution was also found. Their representatives received return train tickets to come back in April and gather the last harvest. The remains of Emir Osman Digna, a famous military leader during operations in the Eastern Sudan at the time of the Mahdi and Caliph Abd Allahi, was also transferred to a new grave. Between 1884 and 1898, Osman Digna was in command at seven mostly victorious battles against the British-Egyptian troops in the hills and on the coastal plains of the Red Sea and for many years besieged the port town of Suakin. He spent the last years of his life, from 1908 to 1926, as a prisoner in Wadi Haifa, where he was quietly buried. On 30. 8. 1963 his body was exhumed in solemn ceremony on government orders and with great public participation. He found his last resting place in Erkovit, his old headquarters and refuge in the Red Sea Hills, and I was asked to design a worthy memorial and small museum there. As with the registrations almost two years previously, the evacuations began in the northern villages on the Egyptian border. All available lorries were in service and the army gave its aid. The villagers' few belongings were piled on the streets in front of the houses. Bedding, tables and chairs, some cases and crates, cartons, baskets and sacks with wheat and dates from the last harvest were all intended for the start in the new villages. It is difficult to describe the people's feelings, particularly those of the older generation. The bitter fate of having to leave a home where they had gained a simple living and had their roots for thousands of years was not eased for the individual because he shared this fate with his community.- They could not forget their worries about the height of the Nile flood, about saving for a pump to irrigate the fields, about repairing the small boat to reach the fields on the Two wall blocks belonging together, found in the foundations of the Semna East Temple. Originally, Queen Hatshepsut was carved in front of the God Khnum. Under Tuthmosis III, the relief of the Queen was chiseled out, replaced by an offering table, and the text was changed

tiny island in the Nile. New worries about the strange life in such a far-away place pushed everything else into the background. People were understandably agitated. When the people from Debeira West had already crossed the river on freight boats and ferries, a small boy noticed as their belongings were being loaded onto the lorries that the motor-pump, jointly saved for and bought only three years beforehand, had been forgotten. Once more, they crossed the river to fetch that proud symbol of the community spirit of the village. Twice weekly, specihl live-stock trains left Wadi Haifa followed by trains

carrying the people and their luggage. Village by village stood deserted and only stray dogs could, for a short time, take possession of them. Ships travelling along the Nile carried those Nubians and their belongings who sought a new home with their relatives in the Egyptian resettlement area across the border. In July of 1964, once bustling Wadi Haifa presented a sad picture. Only the dismantling teams could be seen, salvaging steel girders, windows and doors from the deserted houses. The last offices prepared to leave or to retreat to the airport on higher ground. It was planned that the small fleet of Sudanese Nile steamers would be taken across the cataracts to Khartoum during the high flood in August. The railway was still running and we were very happy to load our last temple blocks onto goods wagons two weeks before the rails were to be taken up. Altogether over 1,300 boxes and stones weighing some 1,500 tons had been sent to Khartoum in 76 goods wagons. The people had given Lower Nubia back to the river. The future will show whether the Nubian language, their habits and customs, their special ethnic culture, will be preserved under the influences of their new home in Kom O m b o in the north and in Khashm el-Girba in the southeast. As the people left Nubia, archaeological field work also ended. In Abu Simbel, work was still going on as the two great temples were sawn out of the rock and moved. All other rescue work on the Nubian temples was finished in Egypt, too. As in Nubia the mud houses collapsed, as the manmade flood rose, the Nubians sowed their seed in the virgin soil of their new home and the work of re-erecting the Nubian antiquities commenced at Khartoum.

Nubia's Heritage Some 3,000 Nubians had chosen to stay near Wadi H a i f a and build new houses at higher and higher levels in the next few years as the water rose. T h e y m a d e up the core of the population who later lived in the new town of Haifa built at the terminal of the shortened railway line. In huts m a d e of mats, boards, and corrugated iron, taken f r o m the submerged old houses of W a d i H a i f a , they lived t h r o u g h a terrible period without any earnings. M a n y of t h e m used up the compensation they had been paid for their houses and fields. Their relatives and f o r m e r neighbours in K h a s h m el-Girba were better off. But there, too, the beginnings were difficult. T h e first years on the new soil were hard and full of deprivation. H o w e v e r , the most important thing was available : water flowed f r o m the main canal and the sowing did not have to wait. In time electricity was supplied right to the most r e m o t e village. T h e schools and medical service started their work. Buses linked the villages to the central town of New Haifa. It was difficult to get used to the unfamiliar rainy season and the small, badly built and crowded houses. T h e quality of these standardized dwellgassala

ings could have b e e n better. B a d f o u n d a t i o n s led to cracks in the walls, and too little gradient between house and street t u r n e d the yards into p o n d s during the rains. T h e corrugated iron roofs conducted the heat of the sun into the interior, while in the rainy season the drops drummed on the roof. My old cook, J a a f e r Saleh M u s a , told me all this when I visited him and many o t h e r friends t h r e e years later in N e w H a i f a . O n e day, I a p p e a r e d unexpectedly at his d o o r in village N o . 23. H e was very happy to see m e again after such a long time and the news of my arrival spread through the village like wildfire. Soon the courtyard was crowded with people who came to watch. M a n y of t h e m had tears in their eyes because my arrival h a d r e m i n d e d t h e m of their old h o m e . J a a f e r immediately thought of my favourite drink and in n o time a jug of " k e r k a d e " , a

Lay-out of resettlement area of New Haifa near Khashm el-Girba

refreshing infusion of the hibiscus petals, stood b e f o r e m e . T h e n he told me of the first period in the new house and about life in K h a s h m el-Girba. Despite all the aid given the resettlers things had been hard at the start. A f t e r having gained some experiences with the new crops, the harvest had improved and brought m o r e cash. J a a f e r earned some additional m o n e y working as a butcher. His two sons and one d a u g h t e r were now going to school for the first time. T h e neighbours continued to help each other with the field work as in thè old times in Nubia. 59

Jaafer Saleh Musa's in village No. 23 of the New Haifa resettlement area

The long streets, with their rows of similar houses, were difficult to distinguish at first. With a smile, Jaafer told me of the embarrassing situation that occurred when women returned home from the market or the fields and could not find their own house and opened the wrong door by mistake. The confusion cleared up only when people started painting their doors and walls in different colours. Many sons went to work in the sugar factory to earn additional money. Nobody was badly off who had exchanged his old house for a new one and received 5.5 hectares, his share of the new land. The numbers who had left again were negligible and now that the first difficulties had been overcome no such movement was to be expected. A journey through the green fields, divided up by irrigation channels showed the serious efforts to make the best of the new home. Only the future will show in how far the Nubian language and culture can be preserved at the Atbara and in the small, standardized houses and villages. The first signs of the speedy abandonment of Nubian characteristics and of adaptation to the new surroundings were already appearing. The old communities had generally moved into a new village together, but the old village names had already almost died out. People used the number which had designated the villages on the plans and blue-prints during their construction. Everyone spoke of village No. 1 and meant the people from Faras

house

East now living there, of No. 8 - Argin, of No. 23 - Haifa Degheim, of No. 33 - formerly Faras West. Hajir (Debeira North), Sharkutari, Ashawirqi, and all the other familiar Nubian village names had already been abandoned. More and more young women were wearing the "tob", usual in Central Sudan, and only the old women held fast to the Nubian "gargar". First changes occurred in wedding customs; up to then engagement presents had not been traditional. The words for north "bahri" (down-stream) and south "qubli" were replaced by "shamal" and "jenub", usual in Sudan. The traditional Nubian carved wooden bedsteads spanned by the ribs of palm leaves have already disappeared everywhere and been replaced by metal beds with steel springs. Everyone has become used to the rain, so important for agriculture, and now they complain when it is late in coming or is insufficient. We recalled old times and collected new impressions, but despite Jaafer's urgings to stay a few days more, I had to say good-bye and return to Khartoum. Khartoum, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Sudan, is only 150 years old and closely linked to the more recent history of the country. The oldest traces of human habitation in the area lie east of the present hospital. Excavations there during the second world war under Prof. Dr. A. J. Arkell, then head of the Antiquities Service, brought to light a mesolithic camp site. On the west bank of the Nile, however, in the district of Omdurman, the prehistoric finds go back to the Old Stone Age. Despite the favourable position - the Blue and White Nile flow together here - no settlement of significance formed there in past millenniums. Soba, the capital of the Christian kingdom of Aiwa, lay 25 kilometres upstream on the Blue Nile; Halfayat el-Muluk, a larger settlement from the Funj period, lay five kilometres below the confluence. When Khartoum was founded during the first years of Turkish-Egyptian occupation only a few people lived in huts on the river-banks. Mohammed Ali (1769-1849), confirmed as viceroy in Egypt by the Sublime Porte in Constantinople in 1805, prepared in 1819 the military expansion of his kingdom to the south. Amongst the reasons given for the invasion were the collapse of the Funj Kingdom of Sennar, internal quarrelling and wars between the many tribes in Sudan and the remnants of the Mamelukes who had fled before Mohammed Ali and were settling in Nubia. There were also other important reasons for a military intervention in the south. The army needed new soldiers, and it was hoped to conscript them from there. The state treasury needed gold, and it was hoped to find this also. And presence and control over the upper course of the Nile and on the Red Sea would also strengthen Mohammed Ali's position towards the Sublime Porte. In 1820, his army, commanded by his only son, Isma'il Kamil Pasha, marched across the border, along the Nile Valley up to the junction of the two Niles. The only resistance was offered by the Shaiqiya tribe be61

low the Fourth Cataract. In June 1821, Sennar, the capital of the Funj Kingdom, fell into the hands of the Egyptian army without a fight. In Kordofan, a second army corps broke all resistance. Sennar became army headquarters for a short time. The uncoordinated attacks by the people on army posts and camps all over the country increased during the 1821-22 winter, and the small detachment stationed on the Ras el-Khartoum was in danger of being surrounded. The name means the tip of the nose of animals like sheep or goats, but also a raised elephant's trunk. It was undoubtedly named after the pointed, curved form of the tongue of land between the Blue and the White Nile. Sudanese resistance against the well-equipped army grew with the suffering under the occupation, the ruthless tax-collecting and the arbitrary and corrupt nature of the occupation and administration. A visit to Shendi proved fatal for Isma'il Pasha, the new ruler and governor-general of the Sudan. His father, Mohammed Ali in Cairo, was not satisfied with the number of slaves being sent to him from the Sudan for his army. Isma'il was ill and intended to return to Cairo. On arrival in Shendi, he ordered Mek Nimr, the tribal chief there, to deliver immediately a grossly excessive quantity of gold, horses, camels, and grain. When Mek Nimr stated that it was impossible to provide such amounts, Isma'il Pasha insulted him by hitting him in the face with his long Turkish pipe. After promising to deliver the demanded tribute the next day, Mek Nimr left. During the feast that night in honour of the governor-general, piles of straw and twigs heaped around Isma'il Pasha's quarters began to burn. Mek Nimr had his revenge: Isma'il Pasha found a terrible death in the flames. As a result, Cairo ordered a pitiless punitive expedition which nipped in the bud all further smouldering revolts. The new commander of the Egyptian troops, Osman Bey, recognized the favourable military and administrative position of Khartoum and ordered the first official building, a citadel made of sun-dried bricks of mud. On 16.12.1824, the viceroy in Cairo agreed the headquarters for the provinces of Sennar and Kordofan should be built in Khartoum. This appears to be the foundation date for the city. In 1830 the first houses made of kilned bricks were built in Khartoum. These bricks were usually simply transported from the extensive ruins of nearby Soba. From 1833-34 this conquered country with its provinces was officially called "Sudan", and placed under the control of a "Sudan Iqlimi Mudiri", a governor for the Sudan area. Khartoum quickly grew to become the seat of administration. Craftsmen and merchants settled there and by 1837 some 15,000 people and 1,600 soldiers, with their families, are reported to have lived there. In 1838, the viceroy himself visited the Sudan in order to inform himself about gold production and other possibilities for exploiting the country. The growing number of new taxes, ruthlessly collected, caused resistance to the foreign government to grow quickly. Adventurers and merchants, and with them a whole structure of corrupt officials up to the governor-general, lived off the trade in 62

ivory and "ebony" as that valuable commodity, the human slave, was contemptuously and innocuously called. The main centres for slave-hunts were in the south on the Blue Nile and in the Nuba mountains. The opening up of the upper course of the White Nile extended the area in which it was possible to buy concessions for so-called trade centres, the markets for the "black goods". Geographic, geological, zoological, and botanical research in various parts of the country began in the forties. Of the pioneers reporting upon historical monuments we can only mention here the explorers G. Waddington and B.Hanbury (1821), F.Cailliaud (1820-22), Linant de Bellefonds (1821-22), G. A. Hoskins (1833) and the Royal Prussian Expedition under C. R.Lepsius (1843-44). Their publications laid the basis for our archaeological knowledge about North Sudan. The people suffered increasingly the pressure of foreign occupation and exploitation; hatred of the "Turks" spread. This was fertile soil for the words of the later Mahdi, the "divinely directed one", a strictly religious man whose family originated from Nubia. In May 1881, Mohammed Ahmed Abd Allah proclaimed his divine calling and collected supporters for the struggle against the blasphemous "Turks". He called for a return to the true, original Islam and demanded that religion be cleansed of all foreign influences and customs. His first victories against the government troops were decisive; an increasing number of supporters rallied around this Mahdi, who appeared to have supernatural powers, and his four newly appointed Caliphs. The whole country was in a state of rebellion. When ElObeid, the capital of Kordofan, fell after months of siégé and an army sent out from Khartoum to reconquer it was completely defeated near Sheikan, there was no serious resistance to the Mahdi except in Khartoum, the capital. In 1876 Egypt had been forced to proclaim its bankruptcy. From then until 1882, the French and English exercized financial control of the country. When the Egyptian patriot, Arabi Pasha, rebelled against the Khedive, Great Britain saw its chance, intervened and finally defeated the rebels. British officials took over leading posts in state, police, and army. Egypt became for Britain a source of raw materials and a market; and, of course, British control of Egypt meant control of the Suez Canal. At this time, the British crown was scarcely interested in the Sudan and it was decided to evacuate the territory and leave it to the Mahdi. General C.G.Gordon was the worst choice possible to carry out this task. On his arrival in Khartoum, this obstinate and pious general refused to concede a foot of land to the enemy without a fight or to hand over the city. He had the existing city walls strengthened and prepared for defence. After an eighty-day siege the town, weakened by starvation, was stormed on 26.1.1885 and General Gordon fell defending the palace. Two days later the advance guard of the relieving army dispatched and financed by Great Britain arrived at Khartoum along the Nile and was welcomed by the victors 63

with heavy fire. In their two small gunboats they were forced to withdraw. The die was cast in favour of the Mahdi. Only six months later, under the Caliph Abd Allahi, the successor to the Mahdi who had died in June, life in the city died out. The Mahdi had chosen Omdurman on the west bank of the Nile as the new capital, and this began to develop. The houses in Khartoum crumbled and were pulled down, material that was still usable was taken to Omdurman. For the next thirteen years, the Second Nile Cataract near Wadi Haifa once again became the southern border of Egypt. During this period when the Sudan ruled itself under Caliph Abd Allahi despite internal difficulties and external threats, news scarcely trickled across the border. Britain developed an interest in the Sudan in 1895-96 when rumours spread and information indicated that France wanted to establish a colonial belt from west to east straight across Central Africa. The Italian defeat at Adua in 1896, destroying dreams of an Italian Ethiopia, was the signal for the French to make a serious attempt to carry out their plan for a Congo-Sudan-Ethiopia axis. This, in its turn, caused the British to implement their idea of a vertical axis from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope. The French dream must be frustrated at all costs. The Sudan suddenly became a focal point of colonial interests. In the space of eighteen months (1896-98), the Egyptian army, financed and commanded by the British, gained control of the Sudan, with the exception of the Darfur area. The country's fate was decided in the battle at the Kerreri hills north of Omdurman on 2.9.1898. A few days later Lord Kitchener, the British commander, arrived on the upper course of the White Nile at Fashoda where Captain Marchand, coming from the Congo, had hoisted the French tricolor some two months before. Negotiations between the two military men were icy. The issue at stake was the north-south or the west-east axis. However, the government in Paris did not wish to risk a trial of strength and stepped down. The "entente cordiale" with London, in the offing at that time, was more important than a clash with Great Britain over the Sudan. The Anglo-Egyptian condominium was formed, a new type of protectorate in which the weaker partner, Egypt, "had the honour" of underwriting the Sudanese state budget, while the British ruled and controlled the country. The old Turkish-Egyptian system of provincial administration was reinstated. This time, however, it were British officers who held the key positions. From 1919, the national forces, led by the members of the secret "White Flag Society" began to mobilize. This movement reached a highpoint in 1924 with an armed revolt against the British and Egyptians under the leadership of several Sudanese officers. The revolt was defeated by British troops and Egyptian units were withdrawn from the Sudan. More and more concessions had to be made to the national movement. The first Sudanese parties were founded between 1942 and 1945, and from 1948 there existed a partly elected legislative assembly in which the Southern Sudan was repre64

sented by 15 members. The conclusion of the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement in February 1953 marked the beginning of a three-year period of withdrawal by the foreign powers and the first self-administration of the Sudan. It was not yet decided whether the Sudan wished to join Egypt or gain full state sovereignty. In the spring of 1955, Prime Minister Azhari decided in favour of an independent Republic of Sudan. The British had to withdraw their troops under pressure from this government. Finally, on 1.1.1956, the governments of Egypt and Great Britain had to recognize the Sudan as a sovereign state. Independence had been won. Since then, this young Republic had taken hesitant and sometimes faltering steps, seeking for that progressive path which it wants to tread. Enormous reforms implicating both the state and the people are needed to develop the country, use its natural wealth, build an economy according with the potentialities, eliminate illiteracy, ignorance, and disease. Every step forward is a struggle. The size of the country - 2,505,805 square kilometres - and the scanty communications form great obstacles to economic and social cohesion. Some 15 million people inhabit this area, a population density of six persons per square kilometre. Vast areas of desert and arid steppe are unpopulated or used only by nomads. Most of the people live on the Nile, in Kordofan, Darfur and in the cotton-growing area of Gezira between the Blue and the White Nile. Some half a million people are concentrated in the capital which consists of the three cities of Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North. Town-planning and architecture in the centre of Khartoum display to this day the colonial influence of the British conquerors. Parallel streets set at right-angles and the beginnings of diagonals dominate the present townscape and show the work of those who planned the city when it was artificially created 75 years ago. On the bank of the Blue Nile is a shady avenue lined by the University, the Palace of the Republic, many ministries, hotels, the zoo, the congress hall and now the newly-built National Museum. In the background and in the middle of the east-west stretch is the business centre, the market and the square of the great mosque. The north-south stretch runs down both sides of an axis, the Palace Road, and is bordered at the southern end by the station and the railway yards. Behind it, Khartoum has broadened out in the past thirty years and extended beyond its original bounds. Residential areas, divided into various classes of buildings, are spreading over the flat landscape, and entail a long journey to the bustling centre. Omdurman, however, has not lost its significance as a residential area. Here, too, as in Khartoum North, the city is increasingly spreading into the surrounding steppe. Bridges overcrowded with traffic form the links and bonds between the three parts of Khartoum. In 1964, as in the previous years, there was no break in our work of transferring the Nubian temples. The transport of the packed blocks over some 1,000 kilometres from Nubia to Khartoum had been completed by August. 1,500 stone blocks and boxes had survived the long journey undamaged and 65

were now stored, protected from the weather, in the unfinished building of the future National Museum. From about the beginning of the century, more official attention was paid in the Sudan to the protection of antiquities and the collection of archaeological objects. An exhibition of surface finds and objects from a number of excavations landed up, after a number of moves, in the former British officers' mess in 1947. Two years after independence, funds were made available for work to start on a new National Museum. The rearrangement of the railway network in Khartoum meant that the area of the old goods yards

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 a, b 12 a, b 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Entrance building Columns from Faras Cathedral Wall from Aksha Temple Buhen Temple Rock-inscriptions Semna West Temple Semna East Temple Rock-tomb of Prince Djehuty-Hotep Ram from Soba Lions from Basa Frogs from Basa Rams from Kawa Colossi from the Island of Argo Artificial lake Bridge Refreshment pavilion Museum building Laboratories, two storeys Administration building, three storeys Workshops Garages

Lay-out National

near the confluence of the Blue and White Nile could be used for building the museum. When planning and construction began there was no thought of transferring the Nubian temples to Khartoum, and the building site was not selected for this purpose. With great difficulty we finally managed to have the site enlarged by 35 metres to the west. Despite this extension many compromises had to be made when projecting the whole lay-out. Because of the limited space little room could be left between the temples. The dominant centrepiece of the whole project was an artificial basin, 200 metres long, that symbolized the Nile. The temples rescued from Nubia were to be re-erected along this basin. It even became possible to retain their old relations to one another and their original compass bearings. This plan made full use of the western side of the garden. On the eastern side, a refreshment pavilion and broad lawns should provide the necessary at-

of the Sudan Museum

in

Khartoum

Two of the reconstructed from Faras Cathedral

columns

mosphere. This lay-out made the most of the not very satisfactory situation and boundaries of the site. At that time the future purpose of the site was not yet visible. The site was covered with goods depots and mud huts in which hundreds of women worked pulverizing gum arabic. The railway tracks which had been so useful for our transport and for unloading our goods wagons crossed the future garden and had to be dismantled. The foundations and supply installations of the warehouses criss-crossed the ground and the work of demolition and clearance lasted until the end of 1964. Tenders, blue-prints, and contracts had to be drawn up for the first phase of construction: an enclosing wall around the site. An exact survey, levelling work and pegging made it possible to plan the garden in detail. The five granite columns from the Faras Cathedral were raised in December 1964 as the first signal of reconstruction. The bad sub-soil conditions - the alluvial deposits of the Nile were up to 12 metres thick - required both here and later very deep foundations to avoid the buildings settling and moving. The slim columns with their bases and capitals were erected on concrete foundations two metres deep. Steel dowels, laid in special stone cement, linked the base with the shaft of the column. A mobile crane helped to place the capitals on the 3.5 metre high monolithic columns. The first 15 tons of stone from our store were thus erected. Preparations to reconstruct the temples could begin. The Nubian stones were stored in three large ground-floor rooms in the completed shell of the museum building. The sandstone blocks from the temples of Buhen and Aksha as well as the rock-inscriptions and the boxes from Wadi Haifa Museum were in the later exhibition hall and in the lecture and film room. The stones from the two Semna temples were in the future museum store. Only narrow space remained between the stone groups and careful plans had to be made so that it would later be possible to quickly locate the 1,500 stones and boxes. Even the careful preparation for the technical course of reconstruction did not relieve me of the difficult question of how best to protect the temples from the weather. For 3,500 years they had stood in the climatic conditions of Nubia, near the stone-quarries which supplied the building material. The heat and lack of humidity had conserved them. They had almost never known rain. Removal to another climatic region with annual rains and an average rainfall of 170 millimetres demanded that measures be taken against the damp. Roofs, fixed or movable, had to be built which could protect the temples from the ravages of the weather. I decided on a sliding construction which would make it possible to show the temples in the open air during the dry season (October to May). The rays of the sun, shining directly on the temples, created light and shade which brought out the relief and the whole architectural ensemble of the temples. During the rains they would still be accessible under the sliding roofs, though lacking the contrast between relief and wall'. The limited funds available still made it possible to

0

5

10 m

plan a simple, appropriate, and uncomplicated construction. Drawings were made for light pavilions running on rails, and the static properties were checked. The surfaces between the steel joists were to be made of glass so that the construction would be more transparent. To keep the temperature inside the pavilions bearable for the visitors, varying ventilation fields and a roof membrane of highly-reflecting aluminium were planned. We received all important material like cement, bricks, wood, round steel, and cotton for building our open-air museum from the store of the Ministry of Public Works. Sometimes, however, lack of spare parts or special tools or chemicals to conserve the stones delayed the work. Then a trip to the Omdurman market generally became necessary. Long before we actually reached the "souk", we were slowed down by dense traffic, crowds of customers, and merchants taking their goods to the market. As in the European towns of the Middle Ages, the various crafts are concentrated in certain streets in Arab markets of today. After several visits we knew where to find the carpenters, rope-makers, where to buy colours and ironware. Despite the crowds, the craftsmen and merchants calmly went about their work. They were happy to show the hesitant purchaser their whole range of

goods. Often a glass of tea helped to overcome the hesitation. Once they had agreed on the price, the mutual "mabsut?" - the question as to whether purchaser and seller are satisfied - completed the transaction. Even if you went there for the sole purpose of buying quickly some very definite article your attention was always caught by the surroundings. On every visit you could see the new and desirable goods offered by shoemakers and leatherworkers, and above all by gold- and silversmiths and ivory carvers. On the way back to the car park you passed the stalls of the fruit and vegetable sellers, with their juicy oranges, mangoes, and grapefruit. Between the many different stalls a "qahwa" invited you to drink a strongly spiced, sweet coffee or tea. And amongst all these unfamiliar aromas came those from the spice stalls selling cardamom, aniseed, shatta (peperoni, either ground or whole), cinnamon, cloves, ginger, muscat, and many other spices unknown to us. Such a visit to a market was always a welcome change from the daily work on the building site. The digging and casting of the foundations for the two Semna temples continued. We had to do without any noticeable help from the ancient Egyptian goddess, Seshat, during the survey and setting up of the temple foundations. According to legend, she had guided the king 3,500 years ago in determining and pegging out the temple axis. Now, in Khartoum we had only the help of the level instrument, tape-measure, surveyor's staff and drawings for our work. To prevent settlement of the temples in the unfavourable black cotton-soil, the foundations were up to 2.3 metres deep and consisted of a reinforced concrete string course beam at top and bottom, and brick walls between them. Satisfied with the progress made, I was able to take a holiday for the first time in two years. A list of work for Osman Hassan and Khalid Ahmed made sure that they, with their sixty assistants, would have plenty to do during my absence. Most of our workers had been taken on in Khartoum only one year earlier. Our friends from Nubia had settled in New Haifa and gone back to farming; only a small number had come with us. Sa'id Bilal, Hassan Gassoum, and Abd el-Rahman had discovered their skill in handling the ancient stones and stayed with them. They turned into specialists for the chemical treatment, for the careful transport of the heavy blocks and for making holes for the lewis. Much depended on their skilled hands and they were always on the spot for any difficult work. When I returned in autumn 1965 there were no further obstacles to reerecting the Semna West temple. We sought our foundation blocks in the crammed store and hauled them along a plank causeway to the concrete foundations. The unpacked sandstone blocks were again treated with shellac, but this time on all sides to prevent penetration of the mortar water. Reconstruction began in the opposite sequence to dismantling. The existing wedge-shaped holes for the lewis could be used again, but it was impossible to work at the same speed as in Nubia. Accuracy to the millimetre was 69

needed to assemble the stones together so that the reliefs and inscriptions fitted into their proper place in all four directions. The measurements, taken levels and photogrammetric records could only be used with caution because during the 3,500 years of the temple history, the settling of the old foundation had caused cracks and fissures for which allowance had to be made. New drawings became necessary, based on horizontal roof blocks from which the foundation position could be calculated by counting down the individual height of stone layers. A layer of lead sheet one millimetre thick was placed over the foundations to protect the walls from ground damp. A few millimetres of mortar provided a soft bed for the wall blocks. At the beginning, our workers were completely unaccustomed to the accuracy now needed. They had never worked to the millimetre and they smiled with incomprehension when they heard my instructions. To prevent all misunderstandings, we introduced a new measurement, the thickness of a four millimetre thick fibre board. A curious language came into use on the building site. The words for the points of the compass were replaced by practical terms. For example, a sentence like "half a fibre board towards Tuti Island, a fibre board higher" meant that the stone had to be shifted north two millimetres and lifted by four. The brick-layers and other workers understood these apparently intricate instructions well. Every block laid made work in the store easier. At the start it was sometimes necessary to push several blocks aside in order to be able to haul the one we needed to the plank causeway. When the fourtons roof slabs were in place we all breathed a sigh of relief. Their span reached from outer wall to outer wall and their decorated front continued the relief on the outer walls. Every millimetre deviation from the vertical of the wall would have become visible as an edge at the top of the wall and would have entailed dismantling and rebuilding. A new and larger wheeled gantry which span over the interior and the two exterior walls made our work much easier. A mobile crane from the municipal electricity and water works helped us to place the remaining roof slabs at the east and west portico. For the Semna West temple, our test object, we had expended, simply for reconstruction, seventy working days with about forty workers. The Semna East temple was also re-erected before the rains began. Here, the larger and more complicated ground-plan caused more difficulties. The breadth of the new gantry determined the sequence of the work. After the gantry rails had been relaid four times, we again needed a mobile crane to place the roof slabs. The basic method used was the same as for the Semna West temple. Some of the stones had shown cracks during dismantling and were sent to Khartoum in separate pieces. For the reconstruction we joined them again with steel dowels and stone cement. The work on the walls with doorways took a very long time. Here it was literally a matter of millimetres to fit the lintel blocks with their reliefs properly into place. Even today we do not like to recall the back room of the temple with the two statue chambers behind it; the three doorways in two contiguous walls cost us 70

much sweat and labour. Several times corrections had to be made - mostly in the bottom layer of mortar - before the relief on the wall surface became continuous without any unevenness. The heat, which began in April and May, slowed us down and all of us were pleased when the last blocks of the temple were in place after one hundred days of work. Just two days before the first heavy rainfall, the pavilion rolled over the temple. "El-hamdu li-llahi'" The foundation work for the columns and pillars of the Buhen temple then lasted until June. Earlier, at the end of May, one of my assistants, Khalid Ahmed, went off to Wad Medani on the Blue Nile to prepare his wedding in the house of the parents of his bride. Despite the fact that his father had agreed some years earlier which girl should be his future wife, he had to wait until his older brother got married. His employment in the Sudan Antiquities Service gave his parents-in-law the assurance that the young family would be able to fend for itself. Now that all obstacles had been removed Khalid left us, radiant with happiness, after inviting us all to the wedding. Khalid did not celebrate the wedding in Argosab, his home on the northern end of Argo Island in

Nubia. His bride's family also originated from Argo Island, although they now lived in the Gezira, the cotton-growing area. It looked very much as though we should see a real Nubian wedding. Very early in the morning, I met Osman Hassan, Sa'id Bilal, Hassan Gassoum, and Mohammed Kheri at the bus station on the road leading to the south. Packed with my wedding presents, I tried to get a good seat so that I could see as much as possible of Gezira, which was unknown to me. The temperature was already 35° centigrade. I should have liked to see cottonfields in blossom, but the harvest was over months ago. On the harvested fields covering the broad plain you could see only the dancing and flickering of hot air above the fertile, black soil. Mirages gave the impression of huge pools of water. The monotony of the landscape, the rising temperature and the hot wind brought on a general exhaustion. Only when the bus stopped in Wad Medani did the lethargy of the previous hours disappear. Khalid met us and journeyed with us to Derdiq, a small village just a few kilometres away. Accommodated in the house of hospitable friends, we quickly recovered from the strains of the journey. Khalid, his parents, and closest relatives who had come from Nubia for the wedding, lived in the neighbouring houses. In front of the door a tent some 20 metres long had been erected across the street. Under it stood hundreds of chairs in long rows. The preparations for the wedding had begun the evening before. A calf had been slaughtered and the bridegroom had to undergo a henna ceremony. While he lay on a bed, his female relatives rubbed oil into the soles of his feet, palms, and fingers and then covered them with a paste of henna mixed with water. His unmarried friends then coloured their fingers with the rest of the paste, thus participating in the bridegroom's happiness. At wedding ceremonies in the agricultural areas of Nubia, the son's dowry in the form of land and date palms is publicly announced by the parents. On the eve of the wedding, the "nuqta", a collection of money and goods, takes place to help the bridegroom's mother cover the expenses. All the donations are called out loudly by a speaker and carefully entered into a book. Then the musicians play the drums for traditional dances until the early hours of the morning. Equal numbers of men and women face in two rows and move rhythmically towards each other. The women standing in the big circle surrounding the dancers break out in high-pitched warbling sounds to accompany the dance. In the bride's house there is no dancing on that evening. Here a sheep is slaughtered and the bride, too, undergoes the henna ceremony. On the afternoon of the wedding day, Khalid sends to the house only a few steps away new dresses for his bride. After the marriage agreement has been concluded in accordance with Islamic law, a calf is also slaughtered in the bride's house, accompanied by the shrill trills of the women. In the late evening we all took part in the big feast together with some 150 other guests, served in shifts in the rooms of the house and in the yard.

The tomb of the Mahdi in Omdurmun

- .symbol of

Khartoum

A busy street in the centre of the capital

The Khartoum market the Great Mosque

near

Girls who study at the University of Khartoum are no longer an exception

Reconstruction begins. The lead sheeting on the foundations penetrating the temple blocks from below

prevents moisture

from

The first stones are dragged from the store to the building site During the course of the work, the original form of the Semna West Temple gradually takes shape

Pillars and roof slabs - the last blocks for the Semna

West

Temple

A broken door jamb is joined with steel dowels and special stone cement Kemala Ishag, a Sudanese artist, copies the reliefs on the reconstructed Semna East Temple

The steel frames of the telescopic protective roof for the Buhen Temple are being erected

The reconstructed temple for the falcons-headed God Horus of Buhen

Hieroglyphic rock-inscription in Semna East, giving the height of the Nile flood in the 23rd year of reign of Pharaoh Amenemhet III (about 1842-1798 B. C.). Below is a priest's inscription

Cutting out the inscription of an overseer of the "royal guards" carved into the rock at Semna East

From various parts of the country objects are brought to Khartoum for exhibition in the National Museum. Cover of King Analamani's sarcophagus from the province museum of Merowe One of the lion sculptures found on the edge of the Meroitic water reservoir in Basa and the rediscovered giant frog

("hafir")

The lions from Basa are set up in the garden of the new

museum

Sayed N.egm el-Din Mohammed Sherif, director of the Sudan Antiquities Service, inspecting inscriptions on the Buhen temple

The artificial lake in the garden of the National Museum symbolizing the Nile

-

SsëË! ..

i ® ^

.- -

lg? :

The new building of Khartoum Museum with two rams from Kawa Temple decorating the entrance

I ! I

I I

IIII I I

¿

í?. *

J | x :# -O';«.

B i »

11111 « •• I H

t

¿s^gfe^^ .

?

.*•-•,„ »MMsi?jt-^wjsaj

A

•Iwmm^^y.*-

^m

!

!

1 'Hi

View of the central hall with the colossal statues of King Taharqo and King Atlanersa

Heads of two statues from

Meroe

During the feast, many of the guests went to Khalid's house to take him to Fatme, his bride. On arrival at the entrance, he was given a bowl of sweetened milk from which he had to drink seven times. The rest was drunk by his friends, toasting his health. Only then was Khalid allowed to see his bride for a few seconds. Several women accompanied him to Fatme's room and allowed him to touch her forehead. When he returned to us radiant with happiness, we all congratulated him. Soon afterwards, Khalid and Fatme sat on a small raised platform under the tent roof to receive the congratulations of the guests. We celebrated until dawn, watching the dancing. The two musicians played the guitar and violin. Even without alcohol, the mood soon reached a climax. People danced and sang to the music. The guests viitt \ong temembei this wedding. At noon next day the celebrations began again. The bride was taken to the bridegroom's room where he sprinkled with coins and sweets het head and she strewed his with roast grains of millet while the women shrilled and warbled. The children caught up the falling coins and sweets and ran off with their traditional booty. Thus the couple got rid of their audience. This was Khalid's opportunity to move his wife to speech in the "fat'hat elKhashm", the mouth-opening ceremony. He offered her money and raised the sum to a price previously agreed upon, whereupon Fatme began to speak. During the evening, when the dancing began again, Khalid appeared briefly among his guests. Fatme stayed at home and awaited him. I took the opportunity to say good-bye to Khalid, because I had to return to Khartoum the next morning. But the celebrations continued, and the third day will have begun with the slaughter of sheep in the bridegroom's house, while his parents sent meat, grain, eggs, and milk to the bride's house. The evening dancing and feasting is an essential part of the sevenday wedding celebrations, and the couple's parents take turns in providing the food. Thus on the fourth day the bride's mother traditionally has to invite the guests for dinner and serve roast doves. At last, on the seventh day, Khalid's mother will have prepared lunch for all the women among the relatives and guests, this time in the bride's house. Nubian custom now demands that after lunch, the hostess must be given presents. The women and girls now give her wheat and millet, ground and unground, brought for this purpose, and also money, in the name of their unmarried children or brothers and sisters. All the presents and the names of the donors are again conscientiously entered in a book so that corresponding presents of the same value can be made on a similar occasion. All this is part of the Nubian community spirit. The participation of the guests means that the high cost of a wedding is spread on the broad shoulders of the community, of the relatives, neighbours and friends, indeed the whole village. The gifts accepted entail corresponding presents, and in every Nubian household the books and notes about them are carefully kept. Work continued in Kbartoum. After the experience of erecting the two 73

smaller, but from a technical viewpoint more difficult Semna temples, the construction of the Buhen temple now appeared relatively easy. The workers, my untiring assistants Osman and Khalid dnd I had learned that it was simpler to fit a single two to three-ton temple block than reconstructing five or ten small stones with a total of the same volume. After we had all lost our fear of the huge blocks, the work on the Buhen temple turned out better than we had expected. Our transport team found it increasingly easy to deal with the blocks, they developed skill with the ropes, the rollers, leverage and inclined planes. Although we were well-prepared for the quick erection of the next 600 tons of stone, other difficulties over which we had no control arose. They lay in the construction of the protective roof structure. The 20 x 30 metre area of the Buhen temple required a structure which resembled the two pavilions over the Semna temples only in its retraction and in some other details. The limited area behind the Buhen temple forced us to construct the roof in separate segments, running on separate rails, which telescoped into one another. On the drawing board we envisaged three roof sections, each 10 metres long, with straddle legs and wheels resting on the rails. The span of the three roof sections was between 22 and 24 metres, crossed at intervals of 2.5 metres by a rib of steel section. The roofing was to be of aluminium and opaque plastic sheets. The mud brick wall which had surrounded the temple in Nubia was to be rebuilt only at the rear two-thirds. The front third was to have a large glass surface, like a shop-window, to give the future visitors to the museum gardens a view of the inside of the temple and its columned forecourt. Before we finally chose this method, other proposals had been considered, such as tented roofing or inflatable structures, treating all the blocks with silicon (so that protection could be dispensed with) or covering the building with transparent plastic plates. For various reasons, all of these ideas were rejected. In the winter of 1966-67, tenders for the work on the structure for the Buhen temple were published in the big Arabic and English language newspapers in the country. As such tenders are usually public in the Sudan, anyone may bid who pays the fee for the documents. This entails the risk that tenders may come from private persons or firms working in a completely different field. If such tenders are cheaper than those from the firms working in this special trade, it may happen that the Ministry of Finances, which has the power of decision for government commissions, awards the job to the lowest bidder. Six applications came in for the complicated roof construction of the Buhen temple. Two of them were from Greek steel-constructing firms, one from the Khartoum branch of a British firm and the other three were Sudanese, of whom two normally traded in food and cloth, and had nothing to do with construction work. When the six sealed envelopes containing the tender were opened, we were happy to see that the two merchants had the highest prices and the lowest was the third Sudanese bidder, the steel firm of Edris el-Hadi in Omdurman. It won the order. The reason for the slow progress of the work was mainly the difficulty in

obtaining the necessary material. For reasons of statics long steel girders, aluminium, and glass had to be imported. After the import licences had been granted and the orders placed in England and Czechoslovakia, the goods then made their way around Africa to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, the only Sudanese harbour. From there they had to be loaded onto the singletrack railway to be taken to Khartoum in the interior. Every single imported or exported object has to make this journey. Delivery times of six months between confirmation of the orders in Europe and arrival in Khartoum were considered very fast. In this time-consuming transport, the railway line between the harbour and the capital is the weakest link in the chain. The closing down of the Suez Canal after the Israeli war of Aggression in June 1967 brought further delays for shipping to the Sudan. The foundations for the Buhen temple roof consisted of 56 concrete piles up to five metres. On these rested the reinforced concrete beams which

would have to carry the rails with the steel construction that would weigh some 60 tons. We could begin reconstruction of the temple only when it was quite certain that the protective roof would really fulfill its function during the next rains. Furthermore, the back two-thirds of the temple area had to be kept free for the hoisting of the steel girders. During the 1967-68 winter we set up the columned forecourt in three stages, in May 1968 the western section and in the autumn-winter of 1969 the rest. Instead of the 10 months laid down in the contract, the whole process had taken 28 months. The sluggish progress of work of the protective roof meant that other work on the future museum garden was done in the meantime. The entrance hall to the street on the Blue Nile had been built during this time, the stones of the Aksha temple were erected, protected by a small rigid roof. The ground in and around the Semna temples had been paved with specially chosen rock slabs. Retaining walls and small steps were built into that part of the garden which descended towards the south. Jobs in Nubia and other parts of the Sudan occasionally interrupted the construction work in Khartoum. When I was officially taken into the employ of the Sudanese government in 1965, I was asked to go to Kordofan and Darfur, to the Red Sea coast and other areas in North Sudan, in order to inspect and repair antiquities there. One journey took me back to Semna, the "Belly of the Rocks". About one hundred rock-inscriptions had to be cut out of the granite with a newly acquired compressor and taken to Khartoum. Only a small, specially selected group of workers accompanied me to Nubia in spring 1968. A new town with some 3,000 inhabitants had arisen at the railway terminal in the desert. The old Wadi Haifa had disappeared under the water and only the tip of the minaret of the mosque was to be seen. Boards, mats, and corrugated iron were used for building by the remaining Nubians who, moving higher and higher as the water rose, waited for the day when their town would flourish again. Most of the day this sad sight was hidden from view by desert sand blown up by the wind. The railway administration was

Ground-plan and elevation of the protective roof for Aksha Temple

building a new station on the future banks of the lake. Grab excavators were digging a canal for ships as a link with the goods yard. A small new provincial museum needed to be planned. But many years would pass before life could become normal in the newly-founded town on the edge of the desert. N e w Wadi Haifa station

Lay-out design for the new town ofWadi

M a r k e t and W a t e r and electricity w o r k s shopping a r e a - / ' Hospital

Haifa

The road to the south, to Semna, had also been flooded for the first 50 kilometres so we could only reach our destination by a detour through the mountains and the Nubian desert. Abd el-Rahman el-Shellali and the inhabitants of the village welcomed us warmly. We had arrived not one moment too soon. The only access to the fortress at Semna East was a two-metre gap between the water and the steep cliff. As quickly as possible we began removing the many inscriptions that covered the rock just below the fortress. Particularly interesting were a number of engraved records about the height of the Nile waters during the time of the 12th dynasty (about 1991-1785 B.C.). The height of these inscriptions was about eight metres above the normal water-level before the damming in recent years and thus showed a much higher water-level at ancient times. Several explanations are given for this phenomenon, like exceptional high floods, swift erosion of the rocks in the narrow gorge and even an ancient dam-building project at that place is offered. Our last stay in this area took almost two months. With the rescue of the Semna rock-inscriptions and the water-level records all planned objects and some additional ones were rescued from Nubia. The people living in the "Belly of the Rocks", the most southern part of the future storage lake, could not be persuaded to leave their homes. Their houses were made of small stone slabs in dry-stone method, and as the water rose they intended simply to move them to a higher level. Confident that we would see them on future trips to Nubia, we took our leave. After the reconstruction of the four Nubian temples and their protective pavilions had been successfully completed, our work concentrated more and more on the future garden. A detailed plan was worked out in close cooperation with the Garden Section of Khartoum Province, locating the lawns, flower-beds, hedges, bushes, and trees. A pump on the Blue Nile provided water for the 2.5 hectares. Pipe trenches were dug; ditches and overspills criss-crossed the area. When the first stones marking the paths

were laid open, the shape of the future garden became visible. For months on end, the lorries brought hundreds of cubic metres of fresh Nile mud to the prepared areas. For the next two years, transport became the main work. Together with the landscaping in the eastern part of the site, we continued with the work of setting up the last of the blocks from Nubia still in store. Rock-inscriptions from Sheikh Suleiman and Faras found a new home under a protective roof on the lawn between the Buhen and Semna West temples. The stones from the rock-tomb in Debeira East were to be given a special place. A man-made hill was built opposite the Buhen temple inside which we reconstructed the main room of the tomb with its rescued wall paintings. The shape of the hill and the entrance cut deep into it were modelled upon the original .This man-made hill - at a focal point in the park - was an excellent place for a viewing platform from which the future visitors could survey the garden, the reconstructed temples and the artificial water basin. Steps let into the hill led up to the platform. The earth piled over the central construction was faced with brown, ferruginous flagstones from the hills near Omdurman in imitation of the slab-like surface of the Nubian mountains. The only larger measure still needed to complete the project was the water basin and the bridge. An unusual feature was that bridge-building began before there was a watercourse beneath it. Standing on concrete piles and beams, the girders of the bridge were, in winter 1969, only a few centimetres above the earth. Together with the bridge, the big terrace in front of the entrance hall was built. Only when the floor slabs had been laid and the railings fixed to the bridge girder were we able to use all hands and means of transport for building the basin. Brick-layers, carpenters, and unskilled workers began with the digging, form-work and concrete-casting of the 450 metres long retaining wall for our artificial Nile. The form-work moved eight metres forward each day, and the outline of the long basin became recognizable. It took five months to excavate and remove 1,800 cubic metres of earth, because we did not have suitable earthmoving equipment, and other departments could not help us. Our own four lorries were in use every day until the late afternoon, bringing up Nile mud for the garden and gravel for the concrete and taking away the earth dug out of the basin. In the course of summer 1970, the bottom of the basin was completed by putting in a layer of sand covered with a thin binding layer of concrete. Over this we spread long rolls of plastic sheet, glued together and extending over the retaining wall, to waterproof the basin. Then 15 to 20 centimetres of Nile mud were spread so that waterlilies and papyrus could be planted. For three whole days, the pump worked hard to fill our man-made Nile. Suddenly, the face of the garden was completely changed by the blue ribbon running through it. Each day brought new and obvious progress. To complete the landscaping, I was given permission to place sculptures of lions, two thousand years old, on both sides of the path between the bridge and the museum building. These Meroitic sculptures from the time 78

of King Amanikhabale (about 50 to 40 B. C.) lay overturned and ignored in front of a ruined temple and an old, artificial "hafir", a reservoir, 250 kilometres from Khartoum near Basa in the Butana grassland. We had no difficulty packing in one morning the six best-preserved lions, each weighing two tons, and loading them onto our lorries. The remains of the temple in Basa had been excavated and surveyed in 1907. By chance a 60 centimetres high statue of a crouching frog had been found in a large silted-up "hafir". It had then been photographed and again covered with sand. Although the published plan showed its approximate position, all later attempts to find it had failed. When our six lions had been loaded, we decided to have a short break before leaving and noticed a peculiarly-shaped stone protruding from the sand in the former reservoir. We quickly dug into the sand. A new and unknown huge statue of a frog came to light. Osman and I were now gripped by the fever of discovery and with our six assistants we began to remove the sand from an area of 30 square metres in that part of the reservoir where the frog was supposed to be. Five minutes later work came to a halt. The stone head of a frog appeared. We had found what we were looking for. A little later, the two frogs joined the lions on the journey to Khartoum. After unloading our "zoo", the lions were erected along the central access of the museum building. The two colossal frogs found suitable places at the two ends of the artificial basin. After a long interval, they can now once again look out over water covered with waterlilies and papyrus. As work on the museum garden neared its end in the winter of 1970-71, the government of the Democratic Republic of Sudan urged us to have it finished by the end of May 1971 in order to open it to the public for the celebrations of the second anniversary of the revolution. For the garden itself, this was possible with some effort. The situation regarding the museum itself was different. After the main constructional work had been completed in 1962, work had stopped for financial reasons. Only in 1967 was further interest shown in finishing it. In order to keep costs down to a minimum and make continuation of the work possible with reduced means, the tender documents had to be reviewed. Within a few days it became clear that simplification, the use of local materials, and the abandonment of unnecessary extravagance would reduce costs from £ 200,000 to £ 70,000. A considerable sum of foreign currency could be saved without too much sacrifice in quality. The marble, originally to be imported from Italy, would be replaced from the Red Sea Hills. Seven metre high sunbreakers made of aluminium for the north side of the building were cancelled as unnecessary. Special timber for interior decoration, originally to be imported, could be replaced by local wood. A not very reliable building contractor replied to the public tender with a low offer and the Ministry of Finances insisted on placing the order with this firm, despite its reputation for contract-breach and poor work. The work was to have been finished within 10 months according to the contract, but

this was not done. The plastering alone took over a year. Orders for the import of safety glass for show-cases and for the lighting equipment were 15 months late. The invoices from sub-contractors were not paid, whereupon they stopped work. During this period, the government decided to open the museum within three months. Fortunately, our plans for the archaeological exhibition had been ready for years. Material for the show-cases had already been purchased so that negotiations could start immediately and orders be placed with the carpentry workshops. The old archaeological museum in Khartoum had shown a small selection of ceramics and objects in a few narrow rooms. This museum and its store with hundreds of boxes and tens of thousands of objects had to be transferred into the new building. It would therefore not be difficult to set up an interesting and comprehensive exhibition in the large new hall. Still missing were some larger objects, stored elsewhere in the country and not yet brought to Khartoum, because there had been no room in the old museum. The planned date for the opening of the new museum caused the newly-appointed head of the Antiquities Service, Sayed Negm el-Din Mohammed Sherif, to press that 22 such objects be brought speedily from the small museum at Merowe. Most of these objects were from the Napatan period and had been found during excavations of the Jebel Barkal temples and the Nuri pyramids, 60 years previously. However, a few of them were too heavy for our vehicles. On government orders, the army came to our aid with heavy lorries. After all the necessary material and equipment had been assembled, an interesting task at Merowe began at the end of March. The smaller memorial stelae, life-size statues of kings and of rams carved out of granite were quickly packed and loaded. The small museum hall was emptied quickly and all that remained to be packed were the larger objects weighing between four and eight tons. Very carefully we began to lower from the vertical to the horizontal the granite statues, up to four metres high, of the kings Taharqo (690-664 B.C.) and Atlanersa (about 653-643 B.C.). All the pieces which had broken off in antiquity were carefully put aside. The Taharqo statue consisted of seven parts. After removing Atlanersa's head which had been broken off and simply placed on the neck, the huge torso still weighed some five tons. We needed one day to load each statue on to the Soviet MAZ 500 lorry. It was not possible to send the heavy statues and objects to Khartoum by train, because the motor-ferry across the Nile between Merowe and the railway station in Karima was not large enough to take the big vehicles. We prepared for the difficult journey through the Bayuda steppe to the south. With enough fuel for eight lorries, water and food for three days and 50 men, we started off from Merowe on the Nile at dawn. It was two days before we sighted the river again at Shendi. The precious freight forced us to drive slowly and carefully along the track, over the dry, sandy river beds, gravel ridges and stony mountain clefts. Every time a lorry got stuck in the 80

Palaeolithic period Foyer

Mesolithic period Neolithic period

C G r o u p culture

EE3CS32

ESI

A G r o u p culture

Kerma culture

Middle and New Kingdom

S t a t u e of S e b e k h o t e p III Stele f r o m Uronarti S t a t u e of Sesostris III Stele f r o m D e be ira W.

Sarcophagus from Soleb

C o l o s s a l s t a t u e of King A t l a n e r s a

X G r o u p culture

Colossal statue of King

and stelae Taharqo

O f f e r i n g t a b l e of King S i a s p i q a S t a t u e of O f f e r i n g vase A l t a r Amanimalel • < r f King ( g of A t l a n e r s a Siaspiqa'— O f f e r i n g t a b l e of Senkamanisken Sarcophagus from S p h i n x of Debeira Senkamanisken Sphinx f r o m Difeia

K i n g d o m of N a p a t a

T o the s t o r e

Obelisk of Piyi

K i n g d o m of M e r o e Jewellery room

0

1

2

3

4

5

Ground-plan of the archaeological exhibition hall of the Sudan National Museum

10

Stele of Senkamanisken S t a t u e of Anlamani

G r a n i t e s a r c o p h a g u s with lid of Stele of King A n l a m a n i K i n g Siaspiqa

15 m

sand, the whole column had to stop and it cost much sweat and strain to push it forward, metre by metre. But when the cool of evening came and we ate and drank spicy tea together round a camp fire, we could forget the toils of the day. The journey with our precious freight continued at dawn. On the whole 380 kilometre stretch there were only two wells at which nomads, camels, sheep, and goats were able to quench their thirst. On the third day our column drove along the west bank of the Nile to Omdurman. The stelae, statues, the sacrificial stones, the eight-ton granite sarcophagus - the cover alone weighed five tons - had arrived safely in Khartoum. At the beginning of May, the statues and objects from Merowe stood erect in the large museum hall. Here the building firm blocked with its scaffolding and equipment the space in which we had to assemble and decorate the show-cases, right until the very last week. Work went on day and night. Brick-layers, carpenters, glaziers, electricians, and painters were busy. The gardeners planted the last flower-beds in the park, the marble work on the big outdoor flight of steps was completed. Granite chips were spread on the paths. During the evening the best position for the spotlights was tried out. The big clean-up began. The preliminary end of eight years of work drew nearer every hour. Once again, all hands were needed to erect and position the show-cases. In the meantime, exhibits had been selected in the store and penmen had prepared the explanatory cards. Opening day came at last. On 28th May, 1971, at a special inauguration ceremony, the new Siidan National Museum was opened to the public in

celebration of the second anniversary of the revolution. Dr. Mohi el-Din Saber, Minister of Education, paid tribute to the efforts of the past years that had made it possible to provide this centre of culture and education for the Sudanese people. Sayed Negm el-Din Mohammed Sherif, Director of the Antiquities Service, also expressed his thanks to the many hands that had helped to carry out this great task and spoke of his confidence that this centre would make a decisive contribution towards the progressive development of Sudan and towards popular understanding of history. Prof. Dr. Joachim Herrmann, director of the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archaeology, brought a message of congratulations from the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic, which had followed the work of constructing Sudan National Museum with great interest and had given practical help in salvaging and reconstructing the historical and cultural treasures of the Democratic Republic of Sudan. With this ceremony, the work of rescuing Nubia's ancient monuments was completed. The efforts of the past years were over. However, this did not mean that there was nothing else to be done. The Sudanese government and the director of the Antiquities Service set us a further important task. For some 40 years, voices had been raised in the Sudan again and again, demanding that the two colossal statues lying on the Island of Argo be brought to Khartoum. They are the two largest sculptures in the Sudan. Seven metres tall, they each weigh almost 30 tons. Their size, weight and the distance from Khartoum had hitherto been convincing arguments against their transfer. Estimates made at the end of the thirties demanded some 40,000 Egyptian pounds and called for specially-built vehicles to transport them overland some 1,000 kilometres through sand and jagged hills to the capital. My proposal that the statues be raised and left in their old surroundings found no assent in Khartoum. It was not surprising that our small group, which had gathered so much experience in dealing with heavy loads during the Nubian campaign, was asked to take over the task of transporting and setting up these giants. After two visits to the statues lying near the village of Tebo on the Island, I worked out a project that provided estimates only a quarter of the previous sum. Both statues had been carved from the grey granite of the stone-quarries of Tumbus on the Third Nile Cataract and about two thousands years ago were taken upstream about 40 kilometres. From our knowledge of the technical methods used at the time it may be assumed that the colossi had been transported by water-way. Both statues show a number of similarities and there is no doubt that they were a pair made to decorate a temple built near Tebo during the Napatan period. During the Meroitic period this temple appears to have undergone considerable repair and the making and transport of the statues should be dated to this period. Unfortunately, neither figure bears an inscription and thus does not tell

Colossi from the Tebo Temple

us the names o f any kings. O n l y the style, the details of their dress and decorative elements lead us to assume that they represent K i n g N a t a k a m a n i

Li

(about 0-20 A . D . ) . N a t a k a m a n i is also k n o w n f o r his considerable building

oooooo o o o ==, o

ooooo Ooooo

o o

ogooo ooooo B

n

o o

OOOOOO

activities in N o r t h e r n Sudan and it can be assumed that only in times of great p o w e r f o r the ruler could building and artistry find such monumental expression. In recent years, h o w e v e r , the opinion spread m o r e and m o r e that the statues represent gods and not kings. T h e findings in T e b o m a k e possible interesting hypotheses about the his-

Tumbus Kerma

Abu Hamed

Railway line to Karima

I Island of A r g o D o r i g o l a ml

4th Cataract

Route for semi-trailer Karima

Merowe

5th Cataract Ed-Debba .

Berber

Shipping from the Island of A r g o to Karima

rAtbara Transport route from M e r o w e to K h a r t o u m x

BAYUDA

STEPPE

Shendi

6th

Cataract,

Omdurman i

0

20

40

60

80

100

Khartoum North Khartoum

200 km

Ways of

transport

of the colossi from

84

Tebo

the 30 kilometre long island and transport equipment and material to Tebo. On the other hand, it was impossible to send the statues along the Nile to Khartoum on big semi-trailers. The Nubian desert, sand and mountains, lack of tracks - particularly north of the Fourth Cataract - excluded such a dangerous undertaking. In addition, the only semi-trailer in the Sudan that was big enough had a working load of only 25 tons and would be overloaded on such a pathless journey. Shortening the journey by 500 kilometres by putting the vehicle on the ferry to the west bank and continuing through the Bayuda steppe also proved impossible because the small motor-ferries at Dongola or Karima could carry only 12 tons. So it was not out of reverence for ancient technology, but out of sheer necessity and utility that we were forced to plan transport by ship. Here, too, there were difficulties in the form of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, to pass which is possible but very dangerous at high water, and we could not obtain permission to do so from the Steamer Department of the Sudan Railways. The only possibility was to combine a short transport over the 1,000 metres from the temple in Tebo to the shore of Argo Island, transfer to a ship for Karima, and reload them there onto the railway to be taken the 750 kilometres to Khartoum. This alluring and difficult task kept me pre-occupied for the next 18 months. A number of stages in the work could be foreseen. In order to load properly a barge it had to be grounded at a suitable place on the shore. The technique was very similar to the methods used for transporting big statues and obelisks in antiquity. Our work began during the Nile flood at the end of August 1971 by anchoring a Nile barge with a loading capacity of 120 tons off the shore at Hag Zummar, west of Tebo. As the flood receded in the autumn, the barge came to rest on the flat bank, which later provided us with firm ground for the loading work. In the meantime, the drawings were made for the packing, based on our experiences of the past years. Again, we used a sledge construction. The mahogany beams previously used were replaced by steel girders to carry the heavy load. The sledges were constructed with such dimensions that they could later be used to lift the statues and set them upright without stresses coming to bear on the stone material of the statues. During the winter months, preparations were made in Khartoum. The steel girders were cut to size, welded and numbered, steel cables and fittings, winches, ropes and rollers obtained, and discussions held with the Railway and Steamer Departments involved. The President, Major-General Jaafer Mohammed Nimeiri, had instructed Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Khatim Ibrahim Mohammed of the army to help solve the transport problems. We were provided with the chassis of a heavy Soviet army lorry of the "Ural" type to pull the American semi-trailer provided by the Ministry of Agricultural Development. At the beginning of February 1972 Osman Effendi Hassan, a few workers and I arrived in Tebo with two lorries loaded with material and equipment. The work began in the concession of the archaeological expedition from Geneva University, arid its field director gave us all possible assistance. 85

Very soon, the cross-pieces of the sledges were placed under the statues and bolted to the heavy longitudinal girders. A road was cut through the embankment on the approaches to the island, and the dry river bed filled with earth, in order to later make it easier for the 15 metre long vehicle to cross. Fourteen small irrigation channels that crossed the trailer's path had to be covered and filled in. One of the main channels of the irrigation system for the fields lay between Tebo and the shore and formed a serious obstacle for our heavy load. Four six-metre long steel pipes, each 40 centimetres in diameter, had to be brought from Dongola with great difficulty and placed side by side in the channel. Covered with sand-bags, this provided a bridge for the semi-trailer loaded with 30 tons. Another group of helpers worked with picks and spades on the embankment where the barge lay to reduce the gradient to the shore. When the colossi lay on our sledges, we began to tilt them alternately with huge steel sections six metres long, thus lifting them by 50 centimetres. Iron bars and concrete were poured into the excavated ditches and formed the reinforced concrete beams on which the sculptures would later lie and be moved. A platform of differing beams was built on the deck of the barge in order to adjust the slight arching of the flooring and create a flat surface for loading. In the meantime, the semi-trailer and motor-tractor had been put on the train in Khartoum and brought to Karima. With the help of Beshir Mohammed Ali Omar, an experienced guide through the south-west of the Nubian desert, I searched for a good track on which the vehicle could be brought to Argo Island. At sunrise we met at the lonely well on the edge of the desert near to Beshir's hut. Then we began exploring. In accordance with government instructions, the police station in Dongola had been informed about our early departure. They would inform Karima, and if we did not arrive within a planned time of a maximum of eight hours, they would launch a search. Only the previous year, two policemen, travelling through that part of the desert, normally closed to traffic, had lost their way and died. I soon noticed that for long stretches there were few features for orientation, and often the only visible objects were the tips of mountains far away on the horizon. At such moments, when no fixed points gave a feeling of movement, I felt as though I was gliding over the endless yellow waves of sand and that I myself was the fixed point past which the earth's surface, the sea of sand, flew at high speed. Before our start and at every brief stop, Beshir spent many minutes calling for Allah's blessing. He always began with the "Fatiha", the first Sura of the Koran. "Bismillahi r-rahmani r-rahim. Elhamdu li-llahi rabbi l'alamin, er-rahmani r-rahim . . . " - In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful! Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, the Compassionate, the Merciful, King of the Last Judgement. You alone we worship, and to You alone we pray for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favoured, not of those who have incurred Your wrath nor of those who have gone astray. Beshir knew "his desert" very well and there was not a second's hesita86

tion when he indicated small corrections in our direction by a wave of his hand to the driver. Only twice did I decide to deviate just a little from the route proposed by Beshir to search for firmer sand and gravel ridges on a somewhat higher ground for our return trip with the trailer. We reached the Nile at Karima in the early afternoon. The soldiers were waiting for us with the trailer, and on the morning of the next day we returned across the desert. We were lucky, for there had been no storm to wipe away the tracks of our tyres left from the day before. With the sun now behind us, we had no difficulty in following the road and could relax and rest in the late evening when the trailer stood next to the colossi. The last important preparations were complete and the transport to the Nile barge could begin. A 30 metre long trench had been dug in front of the statues and the semi-trailer had to be backed into it, so that its loading platform was level with the concrete foundations under the statues. Steel rollers five centimetres in diameter made it easier to pull the statues onto the trailer. That day, even more visitors than usual turned up at the site. People from the neighbouring villages, Sheikh Zubeir Hamid el-Melek and the notables, teachers and school-classes, representatives of the provincial administration, reporters from the largest Danish daily newspaper and the British military attaché had arrived. Diplomats from our Embassy in Khartoum, the ambassadors from Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland had made the trip to the north by plane and Landrover to view the huge statues on the spot and the preparations for their transport. By the end of March the two colossi were safely loaded and firmly roped on the barge,. The traces of our work had been removed, the trenches refilled, the embankment restored and the semi-trailer sent back to Karima and Khartoum. In the general joy of the successful completion of work on Argo Island I wanted to inform my colleagues in Berlin and proudly sent them a telegram from the small post-office in El-Seir: THIRTY TONS STATUES L O A D E D ON NILE FERRY. When the telegram arrived in the Central Institute for Ancient History and Archaeology in Berlin it ran: THIRTY TONS STATUTES L O A D E D ON HIPPOPOTAMUSES. By "correcting" the incomprehensible text somebody had mutilated it. On the day before our final departure from Tebo, we celebrated the successful conclusion of our work with a "karama", a feast. Two fat sheep and all the necessary ingredients had been bargained for at the market in nearby Kudi. Most of us were busy preparing the meal, and soon after the animals were slaughtered according to Moslem rites, the cauldrons were bubbling on the shore next to the barge. Everyone was in a good mood and enjoyed the food. The strain was over after the difficult tasks during the last days. Soon we should be on our way home and the two months away from family and friends were over. The Nile flood could now come. But that year it came late, and the amount of water that it brought was much less than normal. It was only in the last days of Au87

gust 1972 - literally at the last minute - that the Nile barge with its load started to float. With the help of a steam-tug, it was taken up the Nile to Karima. Up to now we had always been forced to improvise, but this time a heavy hoist helped us for the first time. A railway crane reloaded the statues onto flat wagons and, after incomprehensible wanderings for 10 whole days, the statues arrived in Khartoum. For the first time in two thousand years, King Natakamani undertook a trip through his former lands. He had travelled along the Nile, lined by fields irrigated with the help of modern pumps, and had seen his former residence, his pyramid in Meroe and those of this forefathers and successors in El-Kurru, Jebel Barkal, Nuri, and Meroe from the ship and from the train. Now he was entering the modern capital of Khartoum. Palm branches and flags decorated his railway car. Dates from Argo Island were served to the guests who had come to the small reception held at the station to welcome the statues to Khartoum. Long before the technical solution had been found for bringing them to the capital, the press had discussed the most varied sites for them to stand. It was proposed to set them up on the square in front of the station, on public streets and squares in Omdurman and Khartoum, on the bank of the Nile and on both sides of the Republican Palace. They were finally put in the garden of the new Sudan National Museum. The Antiquities Service supported my proposal of this site, which accorded with the museum value of the sculptures, and offered a creative solution. Transfer from the railway car to the now familiar semi-trailer, the journey to the museum and the unloading and taking the statues to the five metre deep concrete piles which serve as foundations was now no problem. The largest mobile crane in Khartoum with a loading capacity of up to 20 tons erected the lower part of the broken statue on to the foundation. Several days later, the chest and head, weighing 10 tons and secured by strong ropes, were lifted on to the thousand-year-old fracture. In mid-December 1972, the 30 ton colossus followed. Revolving on its base, the crane, linked to the steel sledges construction, lifted the head end. For the first time, King Natakamani's granite statue stood upright. Thick manilla ropes linked the statue to the sledge construction as it was raised to the vertical, and were bound around the head like a bandage. Natakamani still could not see where he was. Again, the steel construction firm went to work. This time, the clumsy cage made of steel girders had to have a broader foot welded on to it. The statue, in its packing, still had to travel another 10 metres backwards over rollers to its final place against the wall of the museum building. The broad foot, spread out on all four sides like the stand for a Christmastree, prevented the statue falling from its standing position during the last stage of its journey. Centimetre by centimetre, the winches hauled the colossus backwards. The end of the work was near. After the figure had been adjusted, the concrete pedestal provided a firm base for the statue. 88

Elevation of the Sudan National Museum with the two colossi from Tebo

When the steel girders of the sledge construction had been removed, ^ t h g r Q p e s f e l l a w a y f r o m t h e h e a d a n d t o r s o o f t h e b o d y , the king

when

was able to see his new environment for the first time. Before his eyes were the artificial Nile, the temples of Nubia and the six lions and frogs from Basa; and the granite columns from Faras Cathedral were reflected in the water. No doubt a very unfamiliar place for him, but one which soon - 1 am sure - will awaken memories and be fitting for his august person. Even if this stone figure was meant to depict one of the Meroitic gods, he should be able to reconcile himself to his fate and that of Nubia. The successors of his former subjects in Nubia had done their best to maintain the heritage of a glorious past. The friendly and trusting co-operation in which I had been allowed to participate, had been fruitful. The help and support given by the German Democratic Republic to the young national state was demonstrated every day by the example of this campaign to rescue these unique works of art and architecture. Friendships which had sprung up during joint efforts had become firm during years of work together. To give our best for this tempting and challenging work had become a matter of course for us, and the knowledge that we had solved all the problems and overcome all difficulties involved gave each of us justified pride in his share in the joint undertaking. The campaign to save the antiquities had ended successfully in Egypt, as in the Sudan. The Nubia campaign, the exciting months and years of archaeological research before the Nile Valley flood was over. Looking back, the question remains as to the outcome of this great effort. How would the new museum in Khartoum enrich the path of development of the Sudanese people? Nubia, which had earlier scarcely figured in international headlines, had suddenly attracted interest. Many countries had given financial and practical aid to preserve for future generations, cultural treasures thousands of years old. Scientists, with much enthusiasm and laborious detailed work, toiled and collected knowledge which threw new light on the history of the Sudan. On the one hand, some questions about the history of certain periods in this country had been answered, and on the other hand, hitherto unknown problems had emerged. This campaign, the first one so aimed and concentrated, had stimulated a reconsideration of the history of the Sudan in the context of the African continent. The very diverse archaeological material was the basis for further research in this direction. The connections between the cultural and material

processes of the Nile Valley became recognizable. Overlapping traditions and influences from neighbouring areas helped to form an independent cultural development during the course of continual /struggles against the mighty kingdom in the north and the big hinterland in the south. The reciprocal influence from the north and also from the south - along the Nile Valley - and Nubia's mediating role, are probably the most important factor. Apart from the dominant factor of the natural paths of trade and conquest, the huge desert areas in the east and west of the fruitful strip along the Nile, although thinly populated, also needs to be taken into consideration. Raids from the Nubian desert, far-reaching trade relations to the coast on the Red Sea and along the old caravan routes at the southern edge of the Sahara must not be forgotten and are important for an all-round assessment of its history, just as is the cultural influence of Nubia. The basis for our understanding of the processes in the Nile Valley, the land of passage between Africa and the Mediterranean and the home of the Nubians for thousands of years, has absurdly come about because the population had to leave. The man-made flooding of 500 kilometres of the Nubian Nile Valley made it impossible to carry out further archaeological research in the area. The Nubians, exiled from the great river, will have to labour in alien surroundings to develop their new home. The destiny of the Nubian people, among whom I made so many friends, will lie in their own work, in the preservation of their language and cultural identity. The temples, the stony witnesses of their past, did not accompany them to the new home. They were rescued, but remained on the bank of the Nile. In accordance with their importance, they have received a new home in the capital which is much easier for many a Sudanese to reach. Here, where the Blue and the White Nile converge, the Sudan National Museum was built. The Nubian treasures make up an important part of the archaeological collection. The temples from Aksha, Buhen, S e m n a E a s t , and Semna West stemp the silhouette of the whole museum grounds. Since its opening it has been an attraction, not only for the people of Khartoum, but for visitors from all parts of the country. On Fridays there are mainly families who go there and on week-days one sees many schoolchildren, students, and future teachers. The outcome of the Nubian campaign has become an essential part of their view of history. The National Museum, a new possibility to see monumental witnesses of the past in an attractive green park landscape, now has a firm place in the lives of the Sudanese people.

90

At the El-Ehrid well in the Bayuda steppe

A short break and a glass of tea during the journey to the Island ofArgo

These houses in Tebo lie hidden under the tall date palms

Mill

Marks made thousands of years ago demonstrate the method applied to split the granite blocks in the abandoned quarry at Tumbus The head of the colossus from the Meroitic period is damaged and was probably left lying in the quarry for that reason

Preparing the 30-ton colossal statues lying in front of the temple at Tebofor transport

•

J

••^iSÊÊÈSÊÊH™8® ''SSMIr mm* - TmtStfSf&iffBfi

M

•il

• P

I

•00001,

•BSPwíil Maëffi/a «Hü

•'• MIMMI • I

•

•Jñ&í •

' :" •

1 1 •I

• ¡?Sm?¡'¿ W S W p f f i ä l l § § ¡ ¡ § ¡ 3

s WSSSàffîSÈ

¡S8 iínmmímm

ÊÈÊtF®

.

•

I

1

...

ÎsÊÊUSHimÊiSiK mmm

í¿g¡ S M B I

T

' 1

•'WmBÊm

ißSiOSäi

îssiMi lin • •

' '

VSlIiÊljîSSsSÎ!:WUiß *lliÊÊÊ9HiB§iU

The statue is carefully pulled onto the trailer and taken to the shore of the Island of Argo

The journey will continue on our barge

The successful loading work deserves a feast

Reloading from the ship to the railway in Karima

Some two thousand years passed before the statues were set upright

From their new home in the garden of the National Museum, the statues look down on the Nile and the rescued monuments of Nubia

One of the frogs from Basa, crouched

on the edge of the artificial

lake

•

A growing number of people is attracted to the Sudan National Museum and its garden with the reconstructed ancient monuments of Nubia

: -

Thanks are due to the press photographer Gunvor J0rgsholm, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark (65 photos) Sudan Survey D e p a r t m e n t , Khartoum (3 photos) Ministry of Culture and Information, Khartoum (5 photos) V E B D E F A - Studio for Popular Science Films, 1502 Potsdam-Babelsberg (2 photos) for placing photos at our disposal and providing permission to reproduce them. Illustrations to the text were taken from the following publications: W . Y . A d a m s , Kush 10, Khartoum 1962, p.255ff. (p. 31) E . Brunner-Traut & V. Hell, Aegypten, Stuttgart 1966, p. 642 (p. 14) G. Daressy, Annales du Service des Antiquités del'Égypte 11, Cairo 1911, p. 263 (p.34) W . B . E m e r y , Egypt in Nubia, London 1965, p. 126 (p.22), p. 138 (p.23), p. 164 (p. 25), p. 230 (p. 29), p.246/247 (p. 30) H. Jacquet-Gordon, C. Bonnet, J. Jacquet, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 55, London 1969, p. 105 (p. 83) W. Merrill, Sudan Notes and Records 45, Khartoum 1964, p. 30 (p.36), p. 32 (p.36) H. A. Nordstrom, Kush 10, Khartoum 1962, pl. XI, XII (p. 22, 23) O. R. Rostem, The Salvage of Philae, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte, Suppl. 20, Cairo 1955, fig. 12 (p. 19) T. Sàve-Sôderbergh, Kush 8, Khartoum 1960, p. 39 (p.42); Kush 10, Khartoum 1962, pl. XXIV (p. 23) P. L. Shinnie, Meroe, London 1967, p. 137 (p. 28) J. Vercoutter, Kush 10, Khartoum 1962, p. 111 (p.45) G . J . Verwers, Kush 10, Khartoum 1962, pl. Va, b (p.29, 30) M. Wenzel, House Decoration in Nubia, London 1972, p. 130 (p. 37) "Faras" - Exhibition catalogue of the State Museums of Berlin/National Museum Warsaw, Berlin (1968), (p. 31)

Published by the Akademie-Verlag, G D R - 1 0 8 6 Berlin, Leipziger Straße 3 - 4 © Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1978 Licence No.: 202 • 100/150/83 Subsidized by U N E S C O Lay-out: Willi Bellert Illustrations by Alfred Hunstock based on material provided by the author O r d e r N o . : 753 967 9 (6630) • LSV 5385 Printed in the G e r m a n Democratic Republic

Synchronoptical Time-Table World historical periods according! to the most advanced areas at that time

P

R

I

M

I

T

I

V

S O C I E

E

T

E A

Y

C L

O L D

World historical archaeological periods

S T O N E

Lower and middle Palaeolithic period

A G E

Upper Palaeolithic period

o o r*ì

o o o

O O O

B R O Chalcolith

Mesolithic Neolithic period period ©

o o o rn

Time scale in years

N E W S T O N E AGE

O O O

m

-w» C >>

O

Merimde • Memphis • Fayum -

£ fi

•eiGerzeh

ci

o3 o -a c 03 T2 Va "C "gO 03 C/5 C/i a 6-S c- 2 2 -c T "55 c 03 £ I >X Zo

^

03

a 3 O u

a

a3

u

a

Cu =5 O ia

"S3 Si Si -a

s ©

a3

©

5£ o a a3

3

a •t-i cd a a Z

aj O u. o

s

Kingdom of Kush

E C5 2c O X) C 3 o Z

c< / > l5 E

c C eP c3 ° « E E c ao03 2O z 5

co cS 00

X O S3 Zt

Xl

o -a 60

a

c/)5 •a X x 35u < U

»«T —

x

Ex Z3

5 X o a

.2 'C > 05 O < H

co cad 3 O u 3 L