THE VANISHING
EVIDENCE OF
CLASSICAL AFRICAN
CIVILIZATIONS:
THE CASE
OF THE MEROWE
DAM IN
Prof. Manu Ampim
12/31/07
Kushite ruler from
INTRODUCTION
In
August 2007, I visited the
Archaeological map Author and Sudanese colleague
Sarwat
The Merowe Dam (also called the
Hamdab Dam) is a $1.7 billion project and it is the largest dam project ever
constructed in the
Merowe Dam signs are in three languages:
Arabic, English, and Chinese
Two rows of energy transmission lines
The dam project is a major
international effort with engineering, management, and construction support
from
The Merowe Dam project could benefit many of the Sudanese people, but it has also raised major concerns among the local Sudanese and the international community, because of the environmental, archaeological, and social impact that it will have.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
SALVAGE EFFORT
The engineering work on the
Merowe Dam began in June 2003, but before this time the Sudanese government had
already made an international appeal to all experts and institutions
specialized in archaeology, history, ethnology, preservation and related fields
to contribute to the rescue of sites endangered by the construction of the
dam. The appeal was made by Hassan
Idriss, Director General of the National Corporation for Antiquities &
Museums (NCAM). Idriss indicated in his
appeal that under a 1999 antiquities ordinance that the incentive for the
participating institutions would be the right to own a representative portion
of the artifacts discovered.[3] In cooperation with NCAM’s effort of saving
the
This government appeal “for the
rescuing of a piece of man’s cultural heritage” was responded to by
archaeological teams from
In the past few years important
discoveries have been made above the 4th Cataract, such as the Oriental
Institute team’s early 2007 discovery of a gold-producing center at a remote
site called Hosh el-Geruf. The team
reported finding more than 55 grinding stones made of gneiss that were used to
crush and grind ore to recover the precious metal. The ground ore was likely washed with water
to separate the gold flakes. This organized gold production is estimated to
have flourished sometime between 2000 and 1500 BCE, during a classical period
of the
Hassan Ahmed Ali pans for gold in
al-Widay village Large broken
grindstones were found at Hosh el-Geruf
One of the 90 graves of a cemetery found
at Al-Widay. Many of the tomb objects are
thought to be produced of materials from the Kerma region to the north. (Excavation work of the Oriental Institute).
Near Hosh el-Geruf is the site of
Al-Widay, where a cemetery with 90 burials of local people were found, and
among the artifacts were pottery vessels, beads, and other items that appear to
be made in the center of the kingdom, in Kerma, some 225 miles downstream to
the north. Dr. Bruce Williams, co-leader
of the Oriental Institute’s expedition indicated, “Finds of Kerma materials at
the Fourth Cataract was one of the major surprises of the salvage effort, and
they suggest the leaders of
Unfortunately, although these finds are critical to the total reassessment of
the influence and extent of the
There is a race by the various
archaeological missions to excavate and save the artifacts at these sites, but
the quantity of newly discovered sites are too numerous to even scratch the
surface. For example, one of the most
comprehensive salvage operations has been conducted by groups under the
Kushite pyramid recently excavated at
et-Tereif
The region between the 4th and 5th cataracts is a rich archaeological area, but little is known about this region. In fact, if one checks standard archaeological site maps between these cataracts there is usually no indication of sites within the area, because this zone has never been excavated or studied until recently. When the Merowe Dam is completed and the area is flooded the lost to humanity will be incalculable. Further, it should not be assumed that the current archaeological work is in any way “comprehensive,” but rather it is merely salvage work that only skims the surface. It takes decades to excavate large sites and thus the current work is surface archaeology, rather than “comprehensive archaeology.” For instance, in my conversation with Sudanese archaeologist Dr. Khidir Ahmed during my August visit, he made the following point clear, that the island site of Kasr Ibrim in southern Egypt is the only in-situ archaeological site near the Aswan Dam at the First Cataract to have survived the flood waters from the dam’s completion in 1970, and yet the excavation work at Kasr Ibrim (which began in 1963) is still being carried out today, more than 40 years later.[11]
MY VISIT BEHIND THE DAM
In visiting the several archaeological sites behind the dam that will be flooded, I learned how difficult is to get to this remote region. There are no roads outside of small towns in the area such as Karima, and thus travel to this flood zone behind the dam must be by truck through the desert, and this takes at least 90 minutes even with the most experienced drivers. Sarwat and I had two days of major challenges in our effort to visit the sites and villages behind the Merowe Dam.
On the first day (August 6), we
left the town of
When we initially left Karima to travel behind the dam to these remote archaeological sites and villages, I had no idea that we were faced with three challenges: (1) We would have to drive through 100% desert for almost two hours before we would reach any of the modern villages; (2) neither our driver nor the two other men had ever driven through the desert before; and (3) our vehicle already had a bad clutch before we started on our journey. After the first 10 minutes of our journey, I recognized that there was nothing but desert in front of us for miles, and that the driver and the two local men were inexperienced navigating through the sand trying to avoid getting stuck in a sand pile. Of course, there were no roads in the desert and thus we could only follow the confusing various sets of tire tracks that were leading in the general direction of our destination. It was obvious that there were many other vehicles which had traveled this “road” before us, but the tracks were literally in various directions, so that it was clear that no inexperienced desert driver could possibly figure out this maze. It was not surprising that within 20-25 minutes our vehicle got stuck in a pile of sand. The five of us couldn’t get the tires free from the sand pile, and thus it eventually took two trucks with 17 men passing in the opposite direction to help us to get the tires free. This was an amazing experience because it took 22 men about 20 minutes to push and remove sand from the tires to get our vehicle free.
The group of men returning to their
trucks after helping to get our vehicle free from the sand pile.
We were finally on our way again but we were still faced with the problem of an inexperienced driver trying to navigate through the desert sands. Nevertheless, I was glad to be on the “road” again because it was getting hot in a hurry in the middle of the desert. However, our good fortune didn’t very last long because about 10-15 minutes later our truck broke down. The clutch went out! We were driving through the desert and the driver never told us that his truck recently had clutch problems until after it broke down. The news was too late because we were now stuck in the full desert without food, water, or a working cell phone. Thus, we had to be creative in figuring out how we were going to find help, because none of us could get cell phone reception to call back to the mechanic shop in Karima, and we had driven so far away from the main “road” (i.e. the main desert tire tracks) that although we could see at a distance two or three vehicles transporting local people to Karima for supplies, etc. they could not see us. It was mid-morning and getting hotter each half hour, and there was no easy solution. It was probably about 100 degrees, and we did not have any more water. Actually, the only water we had was the small bottle that I kept with me in case of an emergency. The lack of planning on this day was obvious. After about 90 minutes of deciding what to do and trying to repair the truck, one of the local guys from the village got an idea to walk about 1.5 – 2.0 miles to climb the nearby mountain in order to get cell phone reception and call for assistance. When he took off his shoes and started walking to the mountain in the scorching hot sand, I decided that I would give him the water because he would need it more than anyone else after he returned.
The clutch broke and our vehicle is
stuck in the middle of the desert with no obvious solution.
Here is the mountain about 1.5 miles
away, and I zoomed in to get a view of him when we reached the top.
He stayed on top of the mountain until he could reach the repair shop, and then made his way down and back through the hot sand, with periodic rest stops. By this time the sun was almost at its peak and there was little shade anywhere around the truck. When he returned, I gave him the little remaining water that I had because of his heroic effort. But to my surprise, he took only the smallest sip and gave the rest of the water (of all people) to the driver. I was losing energy at a steady rate but I could only imagine the energy he had to exert to walk miles back and forth to the mountain, and then climb up to the top, so I never thought twice about giving him our last water.
The driver drinking our last bottle of
water. To the left is Sarwat, and to the
right is the mountain climber.
However, I could hardly believe what I was seeing, that he barely drank the
water and gave the rest to the irresponsible driver. But it was too hard to focus on this matter,
because I was simply trying to conserve energy and keep from getting too hot. After another couple hours, there was still
no sign of help coming our way. This
time the other local guy walked about 2-3 miles each way to an old defunct
train station to get water for everyone.
Meanwhile Sarwat, the mountain climber, and the driver decided to walk
over and climb the mountain again to make another phone call. I decided to stay and sit next to the truck and
shelter under the little shaded area that was left. After a while the guy with the water came
back with a couple gallons, and the mountain phone calls were successful in
that they reached someone in town to describe our situation and general
location. When everyone returned, we
still waited a while and again no sign of help coming. By the time I found a mirror to signal other
vehicles passing by, the last vehicle of the day had already made its early
morning run. As we continued to wait for
help everyone in our group drank water, except me. It was now past noon, amazingly hot, and
there was no breeze, but the water was a strange and dirty color so I decided
not to drink any of it. I felt that I
was better off just trying to conserve energy until we could get help, rather
than risk getting sick by drinking the water.
I figured that although my energy was low, I would not be in any serious
risk of heat stroke or dehydration until probably the next day.
Finally, after about six hours from when we got stranded the repair truck and the mechanics came from Karima with the new clutch. They told us that they had been driving around in the desert for 2.5 hours because we were so far off the main “road” that they couldn’t find us. The mechanic crew wasted no time getting to the clutch repair. It was amazing because they made the repair without a jack or flashlight. The repair took at least two hours and in the meantime, I sat in the hot repair truck just hoping for all of this to end. The truck had no air conditioning, there was no clean water that I could drink, and there was no set time for our dilemma to finally end. Sarwat came over to try and get me to drink some of the water, but I refused. He said, “Brother, you don’t look well.” I replied, “I know but I will be all right.” He then insisted that I drink some of water, until I said, “I am not drinking that dirty water. I would rather be de-energized and weak, but healthy; rather than drink the water and know that I’m going to get sick.” Finally, at about 4 pm the mechanics finished the clutch repair. I had been in the desert heat for 8 hours without food or water, but I simply toughed it out until we could ride back into Karima. After this 30 minute drive back into town, I had never been happier to see the dirt and gravel streets of Karima. Once we arrived, my first order of business was to drink as much as I could to re-energize.
It turned out that as soon as we returned to Karima, Sarwat and I had to part with our driver because we could not come to terms on the clutch repair, agenda, and price. We had already paid several days in advance and contracted with him for four more days but things did not look too well, because this was only our second day using his services and there were going to be other problems and expenses along the way. Sarwat told me that after talking with the driver this situation was not going to be worked out. He insisted that we leave him and move forward with our agenda. Sarwat was right because it was almost 6 pm and it was going to get dark soon. We wanted to salvage the day and still be productive, so we took our bags and walked down the street. Fortunately, we found a taxi driver, Abdul Haziz, who knew the way to the Merowe Dam and agreed to take us before it got too dark to see the construction project. We drove down a rocky, bumpy, gravel road for some time before we reached the construction site. We could see from a distance that this was a massive project, but once there we had to first go through a series of check points and show our entry permit. The dam area seemed like a high security military base.
On our way through these check
points, we saw the local construction workers playing football (American
soccer) at the first check point, and as we passed through the area we reached
a paved road and saw many thousands of young men in the area who were
apparently off work. It was interesting to
see that we were in the 4th Cataract and
The
day actually turned out to be productive because we got a chance to visit the
Merowe Dam and tour the work site. We
stayed in the hard-hat area for about 90 minutes before it got dark, and then
stopped by the local dam site grocery store to pick up a few items, before we
headed back to Karima for the night. Our
walk through the dam construction site and the surrounding area was very informative,
because it is such a massive project and it is obvious that the only real
development in the 4th Cataract and
Merowe Dam Residential Town, with 70 houses for
engineers, consultants, and contractors; the town also has a two-story
VIP rest house and administration building.
Our
next day (August 7) was also a challenging one because we needed another set of
permits to pass through a series of check points on the other side of the
On August 8th, as we
were waking up to move forward with the third day of trying to get to the elusive
and remote area between the 4th-5th cataracts, Sarwat
informed me that he was very sick and felt terrible. We soon found out that he had dysentery (an intestinal
virus) and could not join me on this day. This was the most important day, because on
the two previous days we found out how not
to get to the sites and villages behind the dam. Also, arrangements had already been made for
us to talk with local people about our schedule and plan to visit the flood
zone area. Our travel plans seemed like a
go, because all we needed to do was finalize the details. However, although this was the day of our
greatest opportunity to make the entire trip worthwhile and visit the
soon-to-be-flooded sites, it was at the same time the biggest challenge because
my colleague was unable to join me. The
fact is that the Sudan trip came together because Sarwat made it all happen
through his contacts and negotiating skills, and yet he would be unable to join
me on the most crucial day.
Nevertheless, I moved forward.
Abdul Haziz took me around the
corner from our hotel to talk with a local guy in the market who was back home in
As planned an experienced driver,
Abdul Hawid, picked me up in his truck at 1:00 pm on his way back from Karima
to the small isolated Amri and Manasir villages to drop off passengers. It was a rough and bumpy ride through the
desert again, but this time with an experienced driver. Our journey was 1.5 hours through the desert
and another 30 minutes over sandy hills, rocks, mini-sand dunes, gravel, and
ditches to reach the first village. I
was truly surprised that we didn’t get stuck at least once, because the terrain
is so fierce. It would be impossible for
any inexperienced driver to make it through this difficult terrain and do so
without getting lost. The first community
where we dropped off, and picked up, passengers was el-Bada village. After the two-hour voyage to the first village
and a brief stop, the second small Amri village, called Umm Gebeir, was just a
short ride over the rocks and sandy hills, and I was pleasantly surprised to
meet Ahmed Babakir. Babakir spoke very
good English and he informed me of the archaeological work in the area that he
has been participating in. He has worked
with the
After making stops at a few other
small villages, with no more than 300 people in each location, we finally
arrived at Hosh el-Geruf, which is the last Amri village in the
A buried structure found by the author at
Hosh el-Geruf. Scattered potsherds at
Hosh el-Geruf
After
Hosh el-Geruf, Abdul Hawid took me to the first Manasir village, el-Jebel. He briefly introduced me to a group of men
and dropped me off at the village on his way to a neighboring village to stop
by his house. It was a very pleasant
visit with these so-called “very aggressive” people. I sat and talked with about 7-8 Manasir men
who didn’t know me from any other stranger in the world. Yet, they were very hospitable as we talked,
ate dates, and drank hot tea. They
informed me that about 700 Manasir people had left the area and have gone to
the Mukabrab resettlement area, and only 355 remained in the village. I told them about my mission of meeting the
people, seeing the villages, and recording and documenting all the artifacts
possible before the completion of the dam.
They in turn told me that there was no incentive for them to move
because they are farmers with plenty of date-palm trees that they showed me,
and that the government did not want to compensate them with the real value of
their fruit trees, and thus they refuse to leave. For example, they stated that the government
wants to give them 500 Sudanese pounds for a productive date-palm tree, when
the
real
value is ten times this amount, at 5,000 Sudanese pounds each.[12] The
most amusing part of our conversation was when I told them that I was warned
about visiting their area because they were supposedly hostile and aggressive
towards outsiders. We all had a big
laugh and continued to talk for a few more minutes before my driver returned to
take me to the next site.
Before I left, I asked this group of Manasir men to take their picture and document my visit with them. They said yes but they were eager to ensure that I took pictures of them in the field next to their crops, and that I also took photos of their many date trees. So they all got up from our sitting area and a few of them gathered some of the children to also join the picture.
Manasir people from el-Jebel village are classified as
“Arab” in the
Their date-palm trees can be seen in the
background.
After leaving el-Jebel and
stopping at several other small villages, I was ferried up the
Boatside view of a local village on Dirbi
Island Manasir boatman from es-Suweigat
Village
Christian era grave site at ed-Doma Close-up of grave
After leaving ed-Doma, I went to
the Manasir village of es-Suweigat to spend the night there with Abdul Hawit and the local men. We talked, watched local TV, and ate dinner
before sleeping a pleasant night under the stars. It was an informative experience up the
Samaa, a college student
from the
The
next day, on my return to the town of
MEETINGS IN
When we arrived back in
Minister Abdalla acknowledged
these concerns and then informed me that there was current research being
conducting by European teams regarding the greater antiquity of the Sudanese
civilizations, and that the American and British scholars are relying on
outdated research and ideas in their assertion that ancient
Manu Ampim with Minister of Culture,
Mohamed Abdalla in his
(Left to right) Security Guard Adel,
Manu Ampim, Mohamed Abdalla, and Khalid Nour
Another
important meeting that we had in
Back: Adel (security guard who set up meeting) and Khalid
Nour.
Front: Dr. Ahmed, Manu Ampim, and Safaa
(English teacher) in
OTHER ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES
As I indicated in the
Introduction, one of my goals for the tour was to visit ancient pyramid and
temple sites outside of the 4th Cataract flood area. We visited several of the major Kushite
sites, such as Bagriweya,
Pyramids of Bagriweya (near
Also, at the nearby royal city of
Royal City of Meroe and the main axis of
the Amen Temple
Likewise, we saw the complete
lack of appreciation for ancient Sudanese civilizations when my colleague and I
were the only visitors during our 2.5 hour stay at the
Kushite ruler (
Further, our experience was
similar at the el-Kurru and Gebel Barkal sites in the Karima area, as there was
no one present at these sites. These important
pyramid sites had no other visitors, site personnel, or security. Thus, there is absolutely no supervision or
protection of these sites. It does not
take long to learn that the ancient sites in
Gebel Barkal pyramids and
Archaeological site of Nuri
Although there are many more
pyramids in the
Overall, my recent
Lastly, the most important step
that the Western public can take at this time is to do everything possible to
save the ancient Sudanese artifacts and sites from being flooded, and offer
support to the local Sudanese who are being displaced from their
homelands. The Merowe Dam is the largest
hydroelectric project in the
Sarwat, Khalid, and Ibrahim Nasserdeen
*See PART II: “Racial Identity in the Sudan: Dispelling Popular Myths”
NOTES
[1] The
run downstream from the elevated regions in the south/southeast to the north.
[2] Merowe Dam Project / Dams Implementation Unit, http://merowedam.gov.sd/en/funding.html. Also, for local opposition
to the dam, see: Emad Mekay, “Sudan Hamadab Dam draws fresh fears of social unrest,” Sudan Tribune.com (May 4,
2005).
[3] NCAM is
a division of the
Archaeological Salvage Project appeal, www.sudarchrs.org.uk/Appeal.doc
[4]
[5] John
Wilford, “Scholars Race to Recover a Lost Kingdom on the
[6] William
Harms, “Discoveries in
[7]
early sub-Saharan kingdom.” (June 19, 2007). http://www.-news.uchicago.edu/releases/07/070619.sudan.shtml
[8] Pieter Tesch & Colin Freeman, “Race to
save first kingdoms in
[9] “
www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/060719-gold-nile_ 2.html
[10] For SARS excavation of the pyramid see: http://www.sudarchrs.org.uk/page9.html.
Also, http://www.sudarchrs.org.uk/page31.html, and Derek Welsby, “Excavations in the vicinity of ed-Doma (AKSE)
and et-Tereif
(AKSCW), 2006-2007”
[11] I met with Dr. Khidir Ahmed (Department of
Archaeology, El Neilain University) in
Also see the Egypt Exploration Society fieldwork at Kasr Ibrim, http://www.ees.ac.uk/fieldwork/qasribrim.htm.
[12] The amount of compensation that this Manasir group states is true. On its website, the Sudanese government states the
same compensation for date-palm trees as 50,000 dinar (500 pounds). In January 2007, the Sudanese dinar was
replaced
with the Sudanese pound. 50 dinar
= 1 pound. Also, 2 Sudanese pounds = $1
For the compensation of the people in the affected area, see the Dams Implementation Unit website:
http://merowedam.gov.sd/en/payments.html
[13] See PART II of this report: “Racial Identity in the Sudan: Dispelling Popular Myths”