The Archaeology and History of the Sudan
Derek A. Welsby
Our knowledge of the archaeology of the Sudan is almost totally confined
to the northern third of the country; that is, to the desert and
semi-desert regions. Initially interest was focused principally on the
Nile Valley and the large upstanding monuments of the Kerma culture, the
Pharaonic Egyptians, the Kushites and the medieval Christian kingdoms. The
work of Henry Wellcome in the Sennar region on the Upper Blue Nile in
1910–14 marked the advent of a much
wider archaeological interest and showed an appreciation of the value of
excavating sites which were not of themselves visually impressive. After
the First World War men such as W. Shaw and D. Newbold ranged far and wide
outside the Nile Valley recording the presence of abundant remains of
prehistoric occupation in what is now barren desert. They were followed by
A.J. Arkell who, with the publication of his excavations at Khartoum
Hospital (1944–5) and esh-Shaheinab
(1949), set the foundations on which the archaeology of prehistoric Sudan
is based. Today there is a much more holistic approach to the archaeology
of the region with teams working at the major historic sites in the Nile
Valley, and over the Eastern and Western Deserts from the borders of Chad
and Libya to the Red Sea coast.
Many of the cultures which flourished in the Sudan, both along the Nile
and in the regions to the east and west, are identical to, or closely
connected with, those known from Egypt. The modern border between the two
countries at latitude 22ºN serves to arbitrarily divide these cultures,
at least in terms of archaeologists working on the ground. Many of the
earliest archaeologists to
work in the Sudan were trained as Egyptologists and saw their work as an
adjunct to their activities in Egypt. The situation today is very
different, with archaeologists working in the Sudan having backgrounds in
many different fields.
This has led to a much greater focus on the indigenous roots of Sudanese
cultures, and the influences from Egypt during the Pharaonic and
subsequent periods are now seen in their correct perspective as foreign
elements. Although interaction between the cultures of Egypt and the Sudan
has been of immense significance in the Nile Valley, other areas of the
Sudan were little
if at all affected by Egyptian or indeed by other Nile Valley cultures. To
the west of the valley there are strong cultural links with the Chad
Basin, although similar strong links between the cultures of eastern Sudan
and the Ethiopian plateau remain elusive. The relationship between the
northern and southern
Sudan is almost entirely unknown as virtually no archaeology has been
undertaken in the south, initially through a lack of interest and latterly
as a result of the poor security situation.
The conquest of the Sudan by the Ottoman armies of Mohammed Ali Pasha in
the 1820s opened up the country to European antiquarians. The publications
of such works as Waddington and Hanbury’s Journal of a Visit to Some
Parts of Ethiopia (1822), Cailliaud’s Voyage à Meroé (1826–7)
and the twelve monumental volumes of Denkmaler Aus Aegypten und Äthiopien
by Lepsius (1849–53) focused attention on the Sudan’s ancient
heritage. The work of these scholars was mainly that of recording
upstanding monuments. On the conquest of the country by the
Anglo-Egyptian forces between 1896 and 1898, a new phase in the study of
the Sudan’s ancient cultures began. As early as 1897 Wallace Budge was
sent by the Trustees of the British Museum, with the approval of the
Anglo-Egyptian authorities, to undertake work at Jebel Barkal. This
brought about the advent in the Sudanese Nile Valley of excavation as a
major tool for expanding our knowledge of the past.
One of the driving forces behind archaeology in the Sudan has been the
need to react to rescue situations. The heightenings of the Aswan Dam,
although not directly affecting Sudanese territory, brought to light a
vast amount of material relevant to its cultures. Archaeologists involved
in those rescue activities, G. Reisner in particular, but also many others
then moved their activities south of the border. There were contemporary
threats in the Sudan and Arkell’s work on the Khartoum Hospital site
prior to the building’s construction was the first rescue archaeology
project. However, it was the construction of the Aswan High Dam that
really made an impact on Sudanese archaeology, destroying forever a vast
tract of the river valley while at the same time offering unprecedented
opportunities for archaeological research.
The Sudan is now a rapidly developing country and increasingly archaeology
is focused on rescue activities prior to the expansion of agriculture and
housing, to the construction of roads, and again prior to the construction
of dams: that currently under construction at the Fourth Cataract will
inundate 170 km of the valley.
Whilst being mindful of the limitations placed on our knowledge of the
Sudan’s ancient cultures by the dearth of work south of latitude 12ºN,
there is a considerable and ever-growing body of evidence which provides
an understanding of human activity in the Sudan over the last 200,000
years or more. This study also has a wider significance in that man’s
adaptation to his environment provides a sensitive indicator of climatic
and environmental change, particularly
in the regions where phases of hyper-aridity have fluctuated with pluvial
periods – the expansion and retraction of the Sahara Desert is not a
phenomenon confined to the later twentieth century.
The earliest artefactual evidence for the presence of humans in the Sudan
comes from the Early Palaeolithic, about 300,000 years ago. Middle
Palaeolithic occupation, from about 70,000 years ago, is widespread,
represented in the archaeological record by a developed stone toolkit. By
the later Palaeolithic, about 50–40,000 years ago, a number of different
cultural groups can be
identified which, owing to the hyper-arid phase, are principally in the
Nile Valley.
The early Holocene, around the eighth millennium BC, saw the onset of more
clement conditions with the spread of people across much of what is now
the Sahara Desert. It was at this time that one of the most ubiquitous of
human inventions – pottery – appears, along with the domestication of
animals. Agriculture followed thereafter, offering considerable advantages
for human development, but with it a greater reliance on a stable,
predictable climatic cycle. By the
sixth millennium BC the early Holocene pluvial period was coming to an end
and, at least in the northern Sudan, there was a gradual shift of
population and/or change in subsistence strategy as the increasingly dry
conditions prevailed. The river began to assume a pre-eminence, becoming
the longest oasis in the world.
Contemporary with the creation of a complex state in Egypt, a process
completed by around 3200 BC, the development of a more complex society can
be observed in northern Sudan with the rise to prominence of certain
individuals, visible in the archaeological record through their rich
graves. Already these developments had been observed during the Neolithic
(fifth–fourth millennia BC) and can be documented at Kadruka. To the
south of the ancient Egyptian border, in an area known to the Egyptians as
Wawat, the rich culture of what is known as the A-Group can be recognized
in the archaeological record from about 3700 BC.
The A-Group people, situated between the First and Second Cataracts, were
distinguished by the presence of numerous imported Egyptian goods,
settlements containing storage pits and small huts of wooden construction,
and distinctive burial customs. Among the products of the A-Group are very
fine eggshell pottery; thereafter pottery remained one of the finest
products of the northern and central Sudanese Nile Valley (Nubia) up to
the end of the medieval period over
4,000 years later.
Around 3000 BC the Egyptians were drawn into the region, lured by their
quest for raw materials and their desire to access the riches of
sub-Saharan Africa. An Early Dynastic king (3100–2686 BC) left an
inscription by the Second Cataract, and under the Old Kingdom (2686–2181
BC) a settlement was established nearby at Buhen. This was broadly
contemporary with the growth further upstream of an indigenous culture,
christened by archaeologists the ‘Kerma culture’ (c.
2500–1500 BC), which developed out of the pre-existing Late
Neolithic cultures. First attested at the eponymous site Kerma in the
Northern Dongola Reach, the cultural assemblage is found over a vast area
at least from Sai to a little above the Fourth Cataract. During the Middle
Kingdom (2055–1650 BC) the Egyptians pushed south, advancing their
frontier at least as far upstream as Semna, 60 km beyond the Second
Cataract with, perhaps, an outpost on the northern tip of Sai Island. A
series of massive forts was built which testifies to the respect the
Egyptians felt for their southern neighbours in the Kingdom of Kush. By
this time Kerma had developed into a massive metropolis, the first in
sub-Saharan Africa, with elaborate defences enclosing a dense
agglomeration of dwellings, palaces, storehouses and temples.
With the withdrawal of the Egyptians at the end of the Middle Kingdom the
kings of Kush rapidly filled the power vacuum and, allied with the Hyksos
in the Nile Delta, posed a formidable threat to the small Egyptian state
centred on Thebes. At that time the kings of Kush ruled a state extending
at least from the First Cataract perhaps as far upstream as the Fifth
Cataract. Their wealth is indicated by the impressive remains of their
capital, while their power is highlighted by their burials, where up to
400 individuals were sacrificed on their deaths. The resurgence of
Egyptian power, begun by Kamose (1555–1550 BC) and confirmed by Ahmose
(1550–1525 BC), led to a power struggle between Egypt and Kush
culminating in the conquest of the latter by Thutmose I (1504–1492 BC)
and the establishment of the border of the empire at Kurgus, south of
AbuHamed. Further to the south the Neolithic cultures appear to have
remained, while those to the west, far beyond the writ of the Nile
Valley’s rulers, looked to the Chad Basin for their cultural contacts.
The Egyptian conquest had an important impact on the Nile Valley but, on
their withdrawal in the early eleventh century BC, many of the indigenous
cultural traits, particularly with regard to pottery manufacture and
funerary customs, reasserted themselves. By the ninth century BC a new
regime had emerged, known to us initially from the burials of the earliest
rulers at el-Kurru.
Development appears to have been rapid; by the mid-eighth century BC King
Kashta, as the champion of the Egyptian god Amun who had been adopted by
the rulers of this second Kingdom of Kush, extended his control to Thebes
and his successor Piye (Piankhy) went on to conquer the whole of the
Egyptian Nile valley. Under Piye and his immediate successors, known in
Egyptian history as the pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty, the Kushites ruled
an empire stretching from the borders of Palestine perhaps as far upstream
as the Blue and White Niles. Kushite control of Egypt was short-lived but
after they were ousted from Egypt Kush still remained a major power for
over a thousand years. Kushite culture is a rich amalgam of that of Egypt,
whether Pharaonic, Persian, Hellenistic or Roman and indigenous African
traditions.
The Kushite empire broke up during the fourth century AD leading to the
abandonment of much of the society’s Egyptian veneer. Once again we see
the emergence of royal burials under tumuli, and human sacrifice again
becomes prominent. By the mid-sixth century AD the political situation had
stabilized and three kingdoms controlled the Nile Valley from the First
Cataract to the Blue and White Niles: Nobatia in the north with its
capital at Faras, Makuria in the centre based at Old Dongola and Alwa in
the south with its capital at Soba East. It was at this time that the most
fundamental of cultural changes, at least since the arrival of the
pharaonic Egyptians, made itself felt – the conversion of these kingdoms
to Christianity. Within a short period of time the worship of the old
pharaonic/Kushite gods disappeared, along with temples and grandiose
burials accompanied by rich and abundant grave goods. Instead we see the
arrival of the church, humble burials – even of the rulers – and what
appears to be a dramatic increase in literacy in Greek, Coptic, Old Nubian
and later Arabic. After a spirited resistance against the armies of Islam
during the seventh century AD the Christian kingdoms developed a rich and
varied culture before dynastic strife, along with Ayyubid and Mameluke
aggression from the north and the expansion of the Funj from the south,
brought about their collapse and the
Islamization of the country by around AD 1500. Thereafter the north and
the Red Sea littoral fell under Ottoman control, and central Sudan was
ruled by the sultans of the Funj based at Sennar on the Blue Nile.
The modern state of the Sudan owes its present territorial boundaries
largely to the conquests initiated by Mohammed Ali who dispatched his
armies up the Nile in AD 1819–20. The Turqiya, as this period is known,
was brought to an end by the nationalist movement of the Mahdi whose
triumphant capture of Khartoum in January AD 1885 was to lead to
Anglo-Egyptian involvement in Sudan a decade later and the birth of the
present Republic of the Sudan.
This exhibition charts the development of human culture within the Sudan
from its earliest manifestations in the Palaeolithic until the late
nineteenth century AD. Principally following a chronological progression,
leading experts in the field have contributed general introductions to
each period which are illustrated by a number of type sites. Descriptions
of the type sites have,
wherever possible, been written by those archaeologists who have excavated
them or continue to do so. As many of the sites featured are still under
excavation this exhibition and catalogue is only an interim statement
reflecting the present state of our knowledge. With over thirty
archaeological missions currently active in the Sudan, new and often
important discoveries relating to many different periods and issues are
made every year. Another facet of the exhibition focuses on themes,
highlighting continuity and change in pottery production and
funerary culture, the importance of the Sudan as a source of gold, and the
nature of Kushite religion.
The Sudan has an extremely rich and varied cultural history illustrated by
a wealth of fine artefacts and dramatic archaeological sites. Ancient
civilization on the Nile does not cease at the First Cataract, nor is it
reliant on those cultures which flourished in Ancient Egypt. It is hoped
that this exhibition and catalogue will serve to highlight the Sudan’s
past glories, its wealth of archaeological sites, and the superb
collections housed within the National
Museum in Khartoum and the regional museums.
DON'T MISS
Sudan: Ancient Treasures
An exhibition of recent discoveries
9 September 2004 – 9 January 2005 Room 5 (
West Wing )
Admission free but a donation to Oxfam & Save the Children is
suggested.
Sudan is the largest country in Africa covering over 2.5 million square
kilometres. For millennia it has been the zone of contact between Central
Africa and the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. Yet Sudan is the
forgotten civilisation of the Nile, long eclipsed by its better known
neighbour, Egypt. This exhibition, focussing on recent archaeological
discoveries, will highlight
the extremely rich and diverse cultures which flourished in the country,
which made it not only Egypt's rival, but even at times its ruler.
All of the objects in the exhibition have been loaned from the National
Museum in Khartoum which houses one of the finest collections of
antiquities from the Nile Valley. Many of these treasures will go on
public display for the first time outside the Sudan and most are recent
discoveries. Sudan boasts sites of great archaeological interest, Kerma is
the site of a major urban centre, the earliest known by several millennia
in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Kushite sites
at Jebel Barkal, Meroe and Naqa, dating from the 8th century BC into the
4th century AD, feature impressive monuments, temples, palaces and even
pyramids - there are more pyramids in Sudan than there are in Egypt.
The exhibition will display some of the finest Sudanese objects produced
during all phases of human settlement from the Palaeolithic through to the
Islamic period (from 200,000 years ago to AD 1885). Key objects include
large stone sculptures – massive lions devouring bound prisoners and
statues of Egyptian gods – beautiful gold statues of Kushite kings,
exquisite gold jewellery, inscriptions in Egyptian, Meroitic, Greek and
Arabic, and superb pottery. Maps, plans and photographs will help to set
the objects in their archaeological and environmental context. The objects
on display will reveal the many different aspects of Sudanese history,
from the worldly power of the Kerma kings - accompanied to their death by
400 human sacrifices - to the humble graves of Christian rulers; from the
grandiose temples built by the Egyptian Pharaohs to the churches and
mosques of later periods.
The exhibition closes with a look at the current major threat to Sudan’s
archaeology, the construction of a new dam which will flood 170 kilometres
of the Nile Valley by 2008. Details of the international rescue efforts
being made in the Fourth Cataract will be included.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue Sudan: Ancient Treasures,
priced £35 and edited by the exhibition curators, Derek Welsby and Julie
R. Anderson, and by a shorter book of highlights Treasures from Sudan
edited by Julie R. Anderson, priced £6. Both are published by British
Museum Press.
*The exhibition will be complimented by Sudanese objects from the
British
Museum’s collections on public display in galleries 4, 65 & 70. A
trail will be
available to guide the visitor around these collections.
*Timewatch: The Black Pharaohs coincides with the major British Museum
exhibition, Sudan: Ancient Treasures, and reveals the secrets of the
ancient Kingdom
of Kush. It is the previously untold story of a black African civilisation
that flourished for three thousand years, and the team of archaeologists
who are
still retrieving the secrets of this ancient empire from the hostile lands
of
Northern Sudan. BBC 2, early October 2004.
