This government appeal “for the
rescuing of a piece of man’s cultural heritage” was responded to by
archaeological teams from Poland,
Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Hungary, and the United States. Among the principle archaeological missions are
the British Museum Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS), University of Chicago
Oriental Institute, Humboldt University Nubian Expedition (Germany), French Archaeological Section, and the
Gdansk Archaeological Museum Expedition (Poland).
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 kingdom of
Kush.[5] This new gold discovery has now compelled
researchers to alter their conclusions regarding the extent of Kushite
influence, which was thought to stretch only from Kerma (which was the seat of
the Kushite kingdom at the 3rd Cataract) north to the 1st
Cataract. The Hosh el-Geruf discovery has now made it clear that the influence
of Kush during the Kerma era extended hundreds of miles farther up the Nile beyond the 4th Cataract.
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 Kush were able to
expand their influence much further than was previously known.”[6] Gil Stein, Director of the Institute, added:
“This work is extremely exciting because it can give us our first look at the
economic organization of this very important, but little known ancient African
state.” He continued, “Until now,
virtually all that we have known about Kush
came from the historical records of their Egyptian neighbors, and from limited
explorations of monumental architecture at the Kushite capital city Kerma. The Oriental Institute excavations at Hosh
el-Guruf [sic] will allow scholars to understand the rural sources of the
riches of Kush.”[7]
Unfortunately, although these finds are critical to the total reassessment of
the influence and extent of the kingdom
of Kush, the vast
majority of the sites in this region will never be excavated or seriously
examined before the area is permanently flooded with the completion of the
dam.
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 Gdansk Archaeological
Museum in Poland, which identified and surveyed
an amazing 711 new ancient sites in 2003 alone.
In September 2006, the Telegraph
newspaper (London)
reported more evidence of these newly found archaeological sites. “Previously we thought the fourth cataract
was something of a backwater – it is wrong to say so,” said Julie Anderson of
the British Museum’s
Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.
“But in the last year alone 700 brand new sites have been discovered – an
indication of the untapped riches that exist. …Although Sudan is the largest country in Africa it has
often been in the shadow of Egypt. The fourth cataract is changing that
perception. It is exciting, as everything we find is brand new.”[8] Actually, there have been archeological teams
in the Fourth Cataract region since the mid-1990s, and the surveys indicate
that there may be as many as 2,500 archaeological sites that have to be
investigated in the area, but it is clear that only a tiny percentage of these
sites will ever be excavated. Indeed National
Geographic, which is supporting the Oriental Institute, stated earlier this
year that, “Archaeologists will only be able to excavate a fraction of the
estimated 2,500 sites in the area before the flooding begins.”[9] The evidence from these sites could very well
paint a picture of 10,000 years of continuous occupation in this region, with
settlement ruins, ceramics, cemeteries, rock art, and stone structures. One amazing find occurred in 2003, when a
joint British Museum SARS and University College London team unearthed a
Kushite pyramid (c. 8th-5th century BCE) at et-Tereif.[10]
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 Karima
with our driver and two local men from a nearby village (five of us in all),
and we were headed to sites such as Hosh el-Geruf and ed-Doma, among
others. The two local men were with us
to help give directions to the villages and to introduce us to the Manasir
people, because we were told that it would not be safe for us to visit them
without calling ahead and having security provided. These men told us that the Manasir were “very
aggressive,” as they had already kicked out archaeological teams and prevented
the Oriental Institute archaeologists from working in their area, because the
local Manasir people oppose the dam and they feel that the archaeologists are
part of reason for the dam being constructed.
We were also told that some Manasir men were caught with explosives in a
failed attempt to blow up the dam.
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 Merowe
region for the second day and the only roads or modern development was
associated with the Merowe Dam project.
We finally made it to the hard-hat area of the construction site and I
was struck by the large number of workers (particularly the Chinese), and the massive
size of the project itself.
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
region is all associated with the dam. For
example the roads, bridges, airport, and buildings with modern conveniences
such as air conditioning units, were all for the housing, movement and
transport of equipment, men, and supplies.
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.
Merowe Dam
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 Nile to travel in the dam construction site. I was amazed at how the taxi driver, Abdul
Haziz, could drive his small car over rocks, boulders, hills, sand, and ditches
as we were going up the Nile to the village areas. We drove the better part of the day but we
did not have any success finding the villages where people were still living,
and where they were refusing to leave their homeland. The only highlight of this day was that we
got an opportunity to see the Merowe Dam from the other side of the Nile and examine more of the massive ongoing construction
work. We also saw the Hamdab Village,
for which the dam project was originally named for, before it was changed to
the name “Merowe.” The Hamdab Village
is now abandoned and the local people have been relocated to one of the
resettlement areas. This was our second
day of not really having success of finding the villages and sites behind the
dam. Thus, it became clear to us that
there was no way to get to these areas unless we found a local person who
drives from the villages to Karima everyday, because these would be the only
people who knew the way there through the desert terrain. That night we finalized our plans and talked
with Abdul Haziz about what we needed to do to get to this 100-mile stretch of
land that will soon be flooded.
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
Sudan for a short while,
before he returned to Saudi
Arabia.
After we talked for a short while, he made a phone call and the
necessary arrangements for me to travel with a local driver to the area behind
the 4th Cataract. When I arrived
back to the hotel, Sarwat made sure that the arrangements were solid, and he confirmed
that a local driver from the Amri people would pick me up from the hotel later
that afternoon at 1:00 pm, and that I would spend the night in one of the
villages. My destination was to the area
of the Amri and Manasir people, this same latter group that we had been told
are “very aggressive” and that it may not be safe to visit their area without
security and prior notification of our arrival.
However, I did not concern myself with these matters because this was
the third day of trying to get to the area, and I was only focused on getting
to the sites and villages.
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 Polish Gdansk Archaeological
Museum and Oriental
Institute teams over the years, and he also gave me some interesting insight on
when the completed dam would flood the area.
He mentioned that he and others had conducted studies and concluded that
it will take longer than stated for the area to flood, and it was his belief
that the government is not telling the people exactly when the project will be
completed, because the government wants the people to leave the villages immediately. Babakir also mentioned that he has continued
to stay in el-Baba because many of the people have chosen to stay and he is
there with them to volunteer his time and talent as a teacher. He also said that one of his colleagues in
the village also decided to stay and volunteer his services to assist the
people.
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 Northern State.
I wanted to see this area were the gold deposits were because this was a
significant discovery, the source of Kushite gold. I was dropped off at the site and a young
teenager took me around to see and photograph the artifacts.
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 U.S.
media.
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 Nile in a motorboat and had a chance to visit the site of
ed-Doma, where there are burials and rock art from different historical
periods. This was the farthest site that
I traveled to (about 30 miles or so) behind the Merowe Dam. I briefly toured part of the ed-Doma archaeological
site to get an idea of the layout of the site and excavation area. In December 2006, teams working under SARS
(the British Museum organization) were forced by the
Monasir Higher Committee to abruptly leave five excavation sites in the ed-Doma
area because they were no longer welcome.
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 Nile behind the Merowe Dam. The experience was memorable because I got a
chance to see the numerous small villages, interacted with the local Amri and Manasir
people, and visited several of the archaeological sites. If we are able to visit the 100-mile flood
zone again before the completion of the dam, we will begin the fieldwork near
the Umm Gebeir area and work toward the end of the projected flood area at Mograt Island.
Samaa, a college student
from the Merowe area.
|
|
The
next day, on my return to the town of Karima,
I went to our hotel and checked in with my colleague Sarwat, and we decided
that the basic work behind the dam was done in terms of scouting and recording one-third
of the region in the flood zone. We decided
that our general work in the Merowe area was
successful and that we would continue and complete the work in our next visit
to the area in 2008. The many people
that I met and the significant monuments that we visited made this a very
special experience, but we had more work to do in the Khartoum area. However, the one issue that struck me about
the Merowe area is that the vast majority of
the people are thoroughly Africoid in
physical appearance. With the U.S. and British media hype about the “Arabs” in
the north versus the “Africans” in the west and south of Sudan, I had expected to see in this northern
region a large number of light-skinned Arabs that are similar in appearance to
those in neighboring Egypt. However, of the many thousands of people that
we saw in the northern area only a tiny percentage would be classified as
“Arab” in the U.S. In discussing racial identity, many people
often confuse phenotype (physical
appearance) with cultural traits such
as language or religion. Thus, many Sudanese
are called “Arab” in the Western press largely because they speak Arabic,
practice Islam, and may even identify with an Arab ancestry, yet their
phenotype is thoroughly African. Likewise, in the U.S. we often hear silly discussions
about the “Jews” as if they are an ethic group, when the fact is that a “Jew”
can be from any racial group. A “Jew” is
simply a practitioner of the Judaism religion, regardless of their ethnicity.[13]
MEETINGS IN KHARTOUM
When we arrived back in Khartoum, we met with
important people who were associated with the Merowe Dam project. Perhaps the most significant meeting was with
Mohamed Abdalla, the Sudanese Minister of Culture. We had a private meeting in his office for
about 20 minutes and I was able to share the purpose and focus of my Sudanese
visit. It was a very positive meeting as
we dialogued about the importance of the ancient Sudanese civilizations and
artifacts. I stated my concern that the
antiquity of the Kushite and Nubian civilizations is often minimized, and these
civilizations are discussed only as younger satellite cultures derived from
ancient Egypt. I added that the Merowe Dam will undoubtedly
flood any additional evidence that the Kushite and Nubian civilizations came before,
and influenced, ancient Egyptian civilization.
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 Egypt is older
than Sudanese civilizations. Abdalla made it clear that he welcomes new
research from U.S.
scholars. Our meeting ended very positive
and he was pleased with my project, and thus pledged to offer any necessary
support to my future work regarding ancient Sudanese civilizations.
Manu Ampim with Minister of Culture,
Mohamed Abdalla in his Khartoum
office
(Left to right) Security Guard Adel,
Manu Ampim, Mohamed Abdalla, and Khalid Nour
Another
important meeting that we had in Khartoum
was with archaeologist Khidir Ahmed, who has been working in the same areas as
myself. For years, Dr. Ahmed has been
raising concerns in several areas: the Merowe Dam flooding ancient Kushite
sites before they are excavated; Eurocentric Egyptologists and historians
explaining Sudanese civilizations only in reference to the Egyptian influence
on it; and the current salvage archaeology being carried out that is falsely promoted
as “comprehensive” archaeology. Indeed, the fieldwork conducted in recent years
by the various research teams can hardly be considered thorough and
comprehensive when there is an estimated 2,500 brand new sites that have been recently
identified, and yet the area is scheduled to be flooded in 2008.
Back: Adel (security guard who set up meeting) and Khalid
Nour.
Front: Dr. Ahmed, Manu Ampim, and Safaa
(English teacher) in Khartoum
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, Meroe,
Nuri, el-Kurru, and Gebel Barkal. Unfortunately,
these sites are of no real concern to most of the local people or to the
Sudanese government. For example, in the
Shendi area (northeast of Khartoum) at the Bagriweya pyramid site, Sarwat and I
were the only visitors there other than a few Chinese workers from the Merowe
Dam project who had a few days off and decided to tour the ruins.
Pyramids of Bagriweya (near Meroe)
Also, at the nearby royal city of
Meroe there is
no gate, no site security or personnel, and of course no tickets or permits
needed. This famous Meroe site was completely unoccupied by
anyone other than Sarwat and I. The only
evidence that Meroe was an important capital
city of ancient Kush is an old weathered
sign. We spent the rest of the afternoon
at the royal city examining the site. We
walked through the area and found countless potsherds, animal bones, remains of
various mud brick structures, the enclosure wall for the city, temples, and
possibly palaces. The highlight was the avenue of columns and ram-headed
sphinxes leading to the sanctuary of the Amen Temple. Iron smelting was also an important activity
at Meroe. This
ancient capital city and nearby cemeteries covered an extensive area that
supported a very large urban population, which has been estimated by the Royal
Ontario Museum (Toronto) curator and archaeologist Prof. Krysztof Grzymski to
have reached 20,000-25,000 residents.
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 National
Antiquities Museum
in Khartoum. Unfortunately,
there were few artifacts on display which could give any indication of the
powerful Kushite and Nubian civilizations of the past. The museum even closed early because of the
relatively modest rain that afternoon.
National Antiquities Museum
(Khartoum)
Kushite ruler (National Antiquities
Museum)
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 Sudan are not tourist locations,
and it is therefore easy for the public to ignore them. There is an estimated 223 pyramids in the Sudan (compared to only 110 in Egypt) and many
of these structures are still visible today.
Gebel Barkal pyramids and Amen Temple
Archaeological site of Nuri
Although there are many more
pyramids in the Sudan than
in Egypt,
there could not be a more obvious contrast between the two neighboring countries. While tourism in Egypt
is the number one revenue-producing industry which drew 9.1 million visitors in
2006 and provides 40% of the nation’s jobs, the tourism in Sudan is almost
nonexistent, despite the government’s current effort to develop Sudanese
tourism. As a result, the ancient
Sudanese monuments have virtually no impact on the economy or daily life in the
country. However, after visiting the
major sites, one cannot avoid being impressed with the Kushite legacy of
pyramid and temple building over a large area of the Sudan. Promoting and protecting this legacy grows
more important as the Merowe Dam’s completion and subsequent flooding behind
the 4th Cataract draws near.
Overall, my recent Sudan tour was
productive and very informative and I look forward to a 2008 tour before the
floodwaters caused by the Merowe Dam sweep through the 4th Cataract
region. I owe much to my Sudanese
brothers, Sarwat and Khalid, both of whom made the tour possible. Also, Sarwat’s family members Nasserdeen and
Ibrahim helped with logistical details to make sure that our travel plans were
carried out.
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 Sudan,
but there are currently two other controversial dam projects in the Nubian
territory of northern Sudan
that are drawing protests from the local Nubian people: the Kajbar and Dal
dams.
Sarwat, Khalid, and Ibrahim Nasserdeen
*See
PART II: “Racial Identity in the Sudan: Dispelling Popular Myths”
NOTES
In
August 2007, I visited the 
