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Nubian Studies 1998
Proceedings of the Ninth Conference
of the
International Society of Nubian Studies
August 21-26, 1998
Boston, Massachusetts
Timothy Kendall
Editor
With technical assistance by
Mey Abdullah Saied, Esam Eddin al-Hadi,
Jean Hong, and Michael Maffie
Department of African-American Studies
Northeastern University, Boston
2004
First edition
First printing
Copyright © 2004 Northeastern University, Boston
Published by the
Department of African-American Studies
132 Nightingale Hall
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115-5000
Telephone 617-373-3148
Fax: 617-373-2625 www.afrostudies.neu.edu
ISBN 0-9761221-0-3
Ordering information
To purchase copies of this volume, or to view an online edition, go to www.afrostudies.neu.edu/Nubia
Cover Photo: Elevated view of the entrance of the
Temple of Mut (B 300) at Jebel Barkal, March 2002.
ii
Table of Contents
Abbreviations used in the Text, Footnotes, and Bibliography vi
Kendall, Timothy viii
Editor’s Preface
Bailey, Ronald xii
Introduction
Idress, Hassan Hussein xvi
Welcoming Remarks to the Public Symposium by the Director General,
National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums, Sudan
Main Papers:
Bourriau, Janine 3
Egyptian Pottery Found in Kerma Ancien, Kerma Moyen, and Kerma
Classique Graves at Kerma
Burstein, Stanley: 14
Rome and Kush: A New Interpretation.
Gänsicke, Susanne and Kendall, Timothy 24
A Fresh Look at the Cylinder Sheaths from Nuri, Sudan
Garcea, Elena A. A. 34
Beyond Napata: The Late Prehistoric Evidence in the Napata Region
Geus, Francis 46
Pre-Kerma Storage Pits on Sai Island
Godlewski, Wlodzimierz 52
The Rise of Makuria (late 5th-8th century AD)
Gratien, Brigitte 74
From Egypt to Kush: Administrative Practices and Movements of Goods
during the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period
Honegger, Matthieu 83
The Pre-Kerma Settlement: New Elements Throw Light on the Rise of the
First Nubian Kingdom
Keding, Birgit 95
The Yellow Nile: Settlement Shifts in the Wadi Howar Region (Sudanese
Eastern Sahara) and Adjacent Areas from between the Sixth to the First
Millennium BC
iii
Kormysheva, Eleonora 109
On the Origin and Evolution of the Amun Cult in Nubia
Nordstöm, Hans-¹ke 134
The Nubian A-Group: Perceiving a Social Landscape
Privati, Béatrice 145
Kerma: classification des céramiques de la nécropole
Török, László 157
Sacred Landscape, Historical Identity and Memory: Aspects of Napatan
and Meroitic Urban Architecture
Valbelle, Dominique 176
The Cultural Significance of Iconographic and Epigraphic Data Found in
the Kingdom of Kerma
Papers of the General Session:
Abdel Wareth Abdel Magid, Ossama 186
The New Nubia Museum at Aswan.
Adams, William Y., Adams, Nettie K., 191
Van Gerven, Dennis P. and Greene, David L.
The Early Medieval Cemeteries of Kulubnarti
Ahmed, Khidir A. 201
An Asbestos Shroud from Naga
Ahmed, Salah el-Din M. 205
A Meroitic Temple at the Site of Doukki Gel (Kerma): A Preliminary
Report (Seasons 96-97, 97-98, 98-99)
Ayad, Mariam 214
Towards an Edition of the Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu
Berenguer, Francesca 223
Excavations at the New Royal Cemetery at Gebel Barkal (Karima, Sudan)
Bersina, Svetlana 228
Une paire de cruches en argent de Qustul
Blitz, Stephanie J. and Anderson, Julie R. 232
Excavations at North Kom, Hambukol (Upper Nubia): 1996 and
1997 Seasons
Bonnet, Charles 237
The Archaeological Excavations at Kerma (Northern State, Sudan): Recent
Discoveries, 1996-1998
iv
De Simone, Maria Costanza 242
The C-Group: Tradition and Acculturation
Eisa, Khidir Adam 247
Archaeology South of Khartoum: Future Prospects of the White Nile
Fantusati, Eugenio 250
Remarks on a Meroitic Painting
Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn 256
Nubian Queens in the Nile Valley and Afro-Asiatic Cultural History
Fuller, Dorian and Smith, Laurence 265
The Prehistory of the Bayuda: New Evidence from the Wadi Muqaddam
Gasmelseed, Ali Ahmed, 282
The Signification of the Palm Leaf in Meroitic Religious Scenes
Giuliani, Serena 286
Some Cultural Aspects of the Medja of the Eastern Desert
Harkless, Necia Desiree 291
Ethiopia (Nubia) and the Great Traditions
Jesse, Friederike 296
No Link Between the Central Sahara and the Nile Valley? (Dotted) Wavy
Line Ceramics in the Wadi Howar, Sudan
Judd, Margaret 309
Rural Nubians of the Kerma Period
Lange, Mathias 315
Wadi Shaw 82/52: a Peridynastic Settlement site in the Western Desert
and its Relations to the Nile Valley
Lauche, Gerald 325
The Life and Work of Samuel Ali Hiseen (1863-1927)
Lenoble, Patrice 332
Satyres Extravagants
Lobban, Richard 341
Greeks, Nubians, and Mapping the Ancient Nile
Mallinson, Michael 349
The SARS Survey from Omdurman to Gabolab 1997
Michaux-Colombot, Daniele 353
Geographical Enigmas Related to Nubia, Medja, Punt, Meluñña and Magan
Osman, Faiz Hassan 364
Jebel Barkal: Past and Present.
v
Phillips, Jacke 371
Southern Dongola Reach Survey 1998: A Review of the Ceramics and
Other Finds
Pomerantseva, Natalia 376
Christian Nubia – Reflections on a little-known volume written by Prof.
A. W. Rozov, published in Kiev in 1890
Roccati, Alessandro 384
Hellenism at Napata.
Sackho-Autissier, Aminata 389
Sur quelles amulettes napatéennes de la necropole d’el-Kurru
Soghayroun El-Zein, Intisar 397
Islamic Qubbas as Archaeological Artifact: Origins, Features and their
Cultural Significance
Spaulding, Jay 314
Medieval Nubian Dynastic Succession
Usai, Donatella 419
Early Khartoum and Related Groups
Wolf, Pawel 436
Steps toward the Interpretation of the Great Enclosure of
Musawwarat es-Sufra
Yurco, Frank 446
Kerma, the Hyksos, Medja, and Dynasty 17
Zach, Michael H. 449
Sanakadañete
Karola Zibelius-Chen 465
Politische Vorstellungen und Herrschaftstechniken in Reich von Kusch
Zurawski, Bogdan 472
The Southern Dongola Reach Survey: A First (1998) Season
vi
List of Abbreviations used in the Text, Footnotes, and Bibliography
ÄAT Ägypten und Altes Testament, Wiesbaden
ADAW Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin
AEt Annales d’Éthiopie, Paris
ANL Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome
ANM Archéologie du Nil Moyen, Lille
Ann.CF Annuaire du Collège de France, Paris
ARCE American Research Center in Egypt, Cairo
ASAE Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, Cairo
BAR British Archaeological Reports, Oxford
BdÉ Bibliothèque d’Étude, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, Cairo
BJb Berliner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Berlin
BIEA British Institute in East Africa, Nairobi/London
BIFAO Bulletin de l’Institut Français archéologie orientale, Cairo
BiOr Bibliotheca Orientali, Leiden
B.J.Linn.Soc Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. New York
BN Biblische Notizen, Bamberg
BSAC Bulletin de la Societé d'archéologie copte, Cairo
BSFE Bulletin de la Societé française d’égyptologie, Paris
BzS Beiträge zur Sudanforschung, Vienna
CdE Chronique d’Égypte, Brussels
CEDAE Centre de l’Étude et Documentation sur l’Ancienne Égypte,
Collection Scientifique, Cairo
CRAIBL Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Comptes Rendus, Paris
CRIPEL Cahier de recherches de l’Institut de Payrologie et d’Égyptologie de
Lille, Lille
ET Études et Travaux, Warsaw
FHN Fontes Historiae Nubiorum (4 vols), Bergen
GM Göttinger Misczellen, Göttingen
HAB Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge, Hildesheim
HAS Harvard African Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society,
Baltimore/Boston/New Haven
JARCE Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt,
Boston/Princeton/New York
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, London
JEOL Jaarbericht van het Voorasiatisch-Egyptisch genootschap "ex Orient
Lux", Leiden
JJP The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, Warsaw
JNES Journal of the Near Eastern Studies, Chicago
JRS Journal of Roman Studies, London
vii
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London
KAU Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki, Warsaw
LÄ Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Wiesbaden
LAAA Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Liverpool
LD Richard Lepsius, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Berlin
1842-45
MDAIK Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts Abteilung
Kairo, Mainz
MGH AA Monumenta Germaniae Historica. (Auctores Antiquissimi)
MIFAO Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’Institut français
d’archéologie orientale du Caire, Cairo
MIO Mitteilungen des Instituts für Orientforschung, Berlin
MittSAG Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin,
Berlin
NARCE Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt,
New York/Cairo
OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, Freiburg/Göttingen
OINE Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition, Chicago
OLA Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Louvain
PAM Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, Warsaw
PM B. Porter and R. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient
Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, vols 1-7, Oxford
RAPH Recherches d’archéologie, de philologie et d’histoire, Cairo
RCK Dows Dunham, Royal Cemeteries of Kush, vols. 1-5, Boston
REG Revue des Études Grécques, Paris
RdE Revue d’Égyptologie, Paris
REL Revue des Études Latines, Paris
RMNW Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie, Warsaw
SAE Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, Cairo
SAK Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur, Hamburg
SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization, Chicago
SARS The Sudan Archaeolgical Research Society, London
SAS Sudan Antiquities Service, Khartoum
SbWien Sitzungsberichten der Oesterreiches Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Vienna
SNR Sudan Notes and Records, Khartoum
SUGIA Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, Frankfurt/Cologne
VA Varia Aegyptiaca, San Antonio
WZKM Wiener Zeitschrift fur Kunden des Morgenlandes, Vienna
ZA Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete bzw.
Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Berlin
ZÄS Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, Berlin
viii
Editor’s Preface
The Ninth International Conference of Nubian Studies was held in Boston, August 21-26,
1998, and was hosted jointly by the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, and the African-
American Studies Department of Northeastern University. This was the ninth meeting of the
International Society of Nubian Studies (ISNS), which has traditionally convened at least
every four years since 1972 to bring together the leading specialists worldwide in the ancient
history and archaeology of Nubia (i.e. southern Egypt and northern Sudan). The Boston
conference was the first in the history of the Society held in the United States.
The ISNS was founded - and held its first meeting - in Warsaw in 1972.1 At that time the
interest of the Polish founders of the Society was primarily the study of Christian Nubia, of
which they were the leading specialists. Almost immediately, however, the group came to
embrace all branches and periods of Nubian history and archaeology. The Society's earliest
members were chiefly the archaeologists who had comprised the forty-eight international
teams that had collaborated throughout the 1960's in the massive UNESCO salvage
campaign. Their mission had been to rescue the monuments and to interpret the
archaeological record of Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia before they were flooded forever by
the newly constructed Aswan Dam.
By the time of the Warsaw conference, the fieldwork of the UNESCO campaign had nearly
been completed, and the move toward analysis, synthesis, and publication of the data had
begun. The Society was organized to ensure that periodic regular meetings of this scholarly
community would continue and that new knowledge of the important ancient culture areas of
the Middle Nile would be regularly shared and disseminated. Meetings were subsequently
held in Chantilly (1975), Cambridge (1978), the Hague (1979), Heidelberg (1982), Uppsala
(1986), Geneva (1990), and Lille (1994).2 As the UNESCO campaign receded into history,
the focus of the Society gradually shifted from the flooded areas of Egyptian Nubia
southward into the Sudan, an area that in the 1970’s and 80's still remained as poorly known
archaeologically as had been the Lake Nasser basin in the 1960's.
Today the focus of the ISNS may really be said to comprise Egyptian Nubia and the deserts
on either side of it as well as the entire Sudan north of the equatorial provinces, from the Red
Sea coasts to the borders of Chad. The current members of the Society are primarily
academics, representing European, North American, African and Middle Eastern universities,
scientific academies or organizations. Many are also the archaeologists representing the
British, French, German, Spanish, Swiss, Scandinavian, Italian, Polish, Canadian, and
American teams working in these areas. A great many, of course, are Sudanese scholars and
archaeologists representing the Sudanese universities and the Sudan's National Corporation
for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM).
Today, the Society is larger and more active than ever before in its history. At the time of the
Boston conference, it had approximately 350 members, representing 22 countries, of whom
1 For a brief history of modern Nubian exploration and of the International Society of Nubian Studies, see L.
Török, The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden, New York, Köln, 1997,
pp. 20-23, especially n. 99.
2 The publications of the earlier Nubian Conferences are: K. Michalowski, ed. Nubia: Récentes recherches.
Warsaw: 1975; J. Leclant and J. Vercoutter, eds Études nubiennes. Colloque de Chantilly 2-6 juillet 1975 (BdÉ),
Cairo, 1978; J. M. Plumley, ed. Nubian Studies. Warminster, 1982; M. Krause, ed. Nubische Studien. Mainz,
1986; T. Hägg, ed. Nubian Culture Past and Present, Stockholm, 1987; C. Bonnet, ed. Études nubiennes.
Conference de Genève. Actes du viie congrès international d’études nubiennes 3-8 septembre 1990. Vols I-II,
Geneva, 1992-94; D. Valbelle, F. Le Saout, B. Gratien, and F. Geus, eds. Actes de la VIIIe Conférence
Internationale des Études Nubiennes, Lille 11-17 septembre 1994. CRIPEL 17, Lille: 1995.
ix
162 expressed their intention to attend. 108 members presented papers.3 Of these, 58 (singly
or jointly) submitted papers to be published, and these are presented in the present volume.
The conference was honored by the presence of the antiquities directors of both the Sudan and
Egypt: Mr. Hassan Hussein Idress, Director of the Sudan National Corporation of Antiquities
and Museums (NCAM), and Dr. Gaballa Ali Gaballa, President of the Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA), Egypt. Thirteen other Sudanese and two other Egyptian scholars were
welcomed at the conference, whose attendance was made possible through generous grants
both from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) and from Citicorp, through the
kind efforts of Prof. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University.
The conference was officially convened Friday morning, August 21.4 The attendees were
welcomed by Malcolm Rogers, Director of the MFA (in absentia); by Dr. Rita Freed, Curator
of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art of the MFA; by Dr Gaballa Ali Gaballa,
President of the SCA, Egypt; by Prof. Jean Leclant, Secrétaire Perpétuel of the Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut de France, and President Emeritus of the ISNS; by Dr.
Charles Bonnet, then President of the ISNS, and by Mr. Hassan Hussein Idress, Director
General of NCAM, Sudan. This ceremony commenced five and one half days of stimulating
and exciting reports on the achievements made in the last several seasons of Nubian
archaeological exploration and interpretation.
Following its tradition, the conference was organized into plenary sessions devoted to the
different cultural or historical phases of Nubian antiquity: Prehistoric, Bronze Age, Pharaonic,
Napatan, Meroitic, Christian, and Islamic (although this year there was no Islamic plenary
session). As has become the tradition, each of these sessions featured a "main paper" or
cluster of papers on a special topic. Since their objective is to summarize the present state of
our knowledge on a particular aspect of the period discussed, it is intended that these papers
be heard by all the participants. Thus the plenary sessions were held in the mornings in the
Remis Auditorium of the MFA, while there were three simultaneous afternoon sessions held
in the Egan Center, Northeastern University. These included papers and archaeological
reports organized around the same periods or other specialized topics.
While keeping the main conference open to all those with scholarly interests in Nubia, the
organizers also presented a free simultaneous public symposium at the MFA, held Saturday
and Sunday afternoons, August 22 and 23. This was made possible by means of a generous
grant from the NEH. For this symposium, certain specialists were invited to present lectures,
geared to an American general audience, that introduced the phases of Nubian cultural history
and highlighted some of the most recent and exciting discoveries. The aim of the symposium
was to bring to the lay community a greater appreciation of the complexity, richness, and
antiquity of the Middle Nile Valley than it might previously have had. This symposium was
very well attended, with some individuals traveling from as far away as Buffalo, NY just to
be present.
The conference was organized primarily by the members of the Department of Ancient
Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art at the MFA, under the direction of Curator Rita
Freed. Her staff at the time consisted of myself, Dr. Peter Der Manuelian, Dr. Peter Lacovara,
Sue D’Auria, Joyce Haynes, Yvonne Markowitz, Geoffrey Graham and Midori Ferris. Huge
credit for planning many of the social, logistical and non-academic details must also go to
3 See T. Kendall and P.D. Manuelian, eds., International Society for Nubian Studies: Ninth International
Conference, August 21-26, 1998, Abstracts of Papers. Boston (Museum of Fine Arts), 1998.
4 The irony of this date was that it was the day after the United States government chose to bomb the Al-Shifa
pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum and two days after the arrival in Boston of the Sudanese delegation. It is hard to
describe the deep embarrassment and shame felt by the conference organizers at this time, feelings that have only
increased with time, as it has been shown convincingly that the official reasons for the bombing were groundless
and based on faulty intelligence. See http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/biblio.htm; http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/ sep1998/sud-s12.shtml.
x
special assistants Meg Robbins, McCall Credle-Rosenthal, and Sophia Yanakakis. From
Northeastern University, Prof. Ronald Bailey, Prof. Robert Hall, and Ms. Leslye Smyth of the
Dept. of African-American Studies organized the Egan conference center, arranged the audiovisual
needs, the residences and dining facilities, and subsequently supported the effort to
publish this volume.
The Society also owes a great debt of appreciation to Mr. and Mrs. Clarke Hinkley, who,
during the mid-week conference break and field trip, treated all the attendees to an
unforgettably magnificent dinner at their lovely country home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
We are also deeply grateful to Prof. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard University, who not only
secured a grant from Citicorp, making it possible for several members of the Sudanese
delegation to travel to the conference, but also treated the conference to a splendid reception
at Harvard’s Barker Center at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute. The kindness of Prof. and Mrs.
Gates additionally included a delightful dinner for the conference organizers and select guests
at their home the night before the conference began. We also thank Dr. Edmund Barry
Gaither, Director of Boston’s Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, for
moderating a session of the public symposium and for opening his museum to the attendees
for a special viewing of his 1/1 recreation of the burial chamber of Aspelta, King of Kush
(modeled after his tomb at Nuri, Sudan, pyramid Nu. 8). The conference, of course, could
never have come to fruition without the strong support of the NEH, and without the constant
involvement and excellent advice given throughout the planning process by Prof. Charles
Bonnet of the University of Geneva, then President of the ISNS, and Prof. Dominique
Valbelle of the Université Charles De Gaulle, Lille, who organized the conference in 1994.
To all of them, we are deeply grateful.
The publication of the conference papers would never have been possible without generous
financial assistance, and this was provided by five individuals and/or foundations. First, Prof.
William Kelly Simpson of Yale University (former Curator of Egyptian and Ancient Near
Eastern Art at the MFA), secured for the Society a grant from the Marilyn M. Simpson
Foundation, NY. Mr. Barry Harris of Charlotte, NC made a generous personal donation,
which was matched by the Bank of America Foundation, and Mr. Alan May of Dallas, TX
also made a generous personal donation. When these funds were exhausted, a fourth donor
came forward anonymously to pay the balance of the costs in order to get the volume into
print without further delay. We thank them all profoundly as well as Professors Ronald
Bailey, Robert Hall, and Kwamina Panford of Northeastern University for their great support
in this endeavor.
The preparation of this volume, which brought together papers from many parts of the globe
and from many different computer platforms, was filled with complexities. To help me solve
some of the editing and technical problems, I relied along the way on many patient and
extraordinary people. First, Prof. Miriam Burstein kindly assisted me with a preliminary
reading and editing of one the most difficult manuscripts. Ms. Mey A. Saied scanned all of
the images for the volume (although it must be emphasized that many of the submitted
images were not of the quality we would have wished, and they could not be improved). Mr.
Esam Eddin Al-Hadi donated many weeks of his time to create a uniform layout for the
documents and to convert all of them to PDF files. He then created a web-site so that the
papers could be viewed on-line in 2002 at the time of the Tenth International Nubian Studies
Conference in Rome. Then Ms. Jean Hong worked with me to create the final layouts and
brought the papers nearly to completed form. But just before we could finish the process, she
was suddenly called away to a new job in California, leaving me still to solve a number of
minor, if stubborn, problems. In the end, my good friend Michael Maffie took over the
trouble-shooting, and he and I worked together to complete the job. It was he who also
created the final cover design and shepherded the volume to press. All of these dedicated
people deserve the deepest gratitude of the Society.
xi
I should state that I have not felt it necessary to render uniform the variant spellings of certain
American- and British-English words appearing herein, since both are technically correct in
their respective locales, and we are, after all, an international organization. (The British
spellings were preferred by the majority of the colleagues, who are, after all, Europeans or
from the formerly Anglicized Sudan.) Nor did I attempt to render uniform the different
spellings of certain Arabic names (for example Gebel/Jebel Barkal), since the variants are
now all in popular usage. As much as possible, I have tried to respect the preferences of the
authors, while trying to improve their English (if they were non-native speakers). I only hope
I have succeeded, while being faithful to their meaning.
Timothy Kendall
Vice President
International Society of Nubian Studies
(in 1998)
Adjunct Research Professor
Department of African-American Studies
Northeastern University
xii
Introduction
Ronald W. Bailey, Ph.D.
Northeastern University, Boston
I am pleased to be able to write an introduction for this important collection of papers, which
were presented at the Ninth International Conference of Nubian Studies in Boston in 1998.
With this volume, the reader will be able to explore the latest discoveries in the history and
antiquity of southern Egypt and northern Sudan (“Nubia”), an important region of Africa and
the world that was, until just a few decades ago, largely neglected by archaeologists and
historians.
Just over ten years ago in 1992, the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, announced that it
would open a permanent gallery of ancient objects from Nubia. While all applauded this
decision, I and many other African Americans felt strongly that the announcement raised
important concerns central to those of us who specialized in African and African American
Studies.
Since the 1920s, the MFA has housed the largest collection of Nubian artifacts outside of the
Sudan. This remarkable collection was built upon the extensive archaeological finds of
George A. Reisner, the archaeologist who led the pioneering joint Harvard University-MFA
expedition to the Sudan, beginning in 1913.1 For every duplicate antiquity he found, Reisner
was given permission to bring back the other to Boston. Although his finds numbered in the
tens of thousands, few were ever shown by the Museum. Why, we asked? To be sure, many
of these objects required complex conservation to make them exhibitable, and the collection
also demanded a major allotment of gallery space – always in short supply at the Museum. At
the root of the omission, however, was also another, more troubling factor. This was early
twentieth century racism, which had left the collection largely in limbo since Reisner’s day.
In an essay, “Racism and the Rediscovery of Ancient Nubia,” written for a Public
Broadcasting website,2 Dr. T. Kendall wrote:
While Reisner’s deductions (in his Sudan fieldwork) still strike us as astonishing for their
brilliance and essential correctness, we are equally appalled to discover his inability to
accept that the monuments he excavated were built by bona fide black men. Using
entirely specious evidence, he formulated a theory that the founders of the 25th or
“Ethiopian” Dynasty of Egypt were not black Sudanese but rather a branch of the
“Egypto-Libyan” (by which he meant “fair-skinned”) ruling class of Dynasty 22, and
that they were called “Ethiopians” by the Greeks simply because they dominated a
darker-skinned native “negroid” population, which, as he stated, “had never developed
either its trade or any industry worthy of mention.” Like (Bayard) Taylor and(Richard)
Lepsius (scholars before him), believing absolutely that skin pigmentation was a
determinant of intellectual ability and enlightenment, Reisner attributed the apparent
cultural decline of the Napatan phase of the Kushite culture (ca. 660-300 B.C.) to the
“deadening effects” of racial intermarriage between his imagined light-skinned elite and
darker-skinned hoi polloi. The Meroitic cultural renaissance (after ca. 300 B.C.) he
explained as simply the result of new influxes of Egyptians. Nubian cultures, he reasoned,
were not as developed as the Egyptian because the people were of mixed race, yet by
virtue of their relationship to the superior Egyptian race, they were elevated far above
the “the inert mass of the black races of Africa.”
This was Reisner at his worst. Such unabashed racist interpretations, widely published in
scholarly journals at the time and accepted as gospel by the popular press, today offend
1 For a fascinating account of Reisner and his early excavations, see the multimedia Giza Archives Project directed
by Peter Manuelian at www.mfa.org/giza
2 www.pbs.org/wonders/Episodes/Epi1/1_retel1.htm
xiii
and embarrass all of us. Yet it is interesting to note how such pervasive racism then
affected the discipline of Nubian Studies in America. Reisner, very much a product of his
time, seems to have had an unconscious need to believe that his Kushite kings were
“white” (or “white men” in darker skin, or dark men with “white souls”) in order to
make them and their culture more worthy of study to himself and more acceptable to the
contemporary scholarly and museum-going public – and perhaps even to his financial
backers at the Museum of Fine Arts. Yet whether judged as “white” or “black,” Nubian
civilization could not have received much popular interest at the time. If it were merely
an offshoot of a “white” Egypt in central Africa, as Reisner theorized, then it would
inevitably be judged as late, decadent, and “peripheral” (i.e., to the Egypt-centered and
Euro-centered universe). If it were “black,” then in the minds of his contemporaries it
would be utterly irrelevant to history. In either case, it seemed to offer few attractions as
an area of study for Egypologists of that generation, and almost none pursued it.
Contemporary books on Egyptian history virtually ignored it.
What were the consequences and implications of keeping such valuable objects of ancient
African civilization out of the public eye? How did this distort our collective understanding
of the place of Africa among world civilizations at a time when too many questions remained
about the significance of Black peoples’ achievements and contributions, then and now?
The impact of this “stunted” historical knowledge has been particularly harmful to
subsequent scholarship, an issue that is still being sorted out and debated. Despite a
significant reversal of scholarly opinion about the importance of Nubian civilization in the
1960’s and 70’s, and the torrent of new scholarship that followed at that time, some African-
American scholars, gaining familiarity only with the older literature, imagined that the same
biases were still current in the 1980’s-90’s. Because they did not have equal access to
academic opportunities, research support, and field work in archaeology, some wrote things
about Nubia that greatly exaggerated or misunderstood its significance. Old American
attitudes about race—racism—and Black nationalism can both distort our understanding of
the ancient setting if they are not based on scientific investigation.
Some non-African American scholars have continued to propagate biased views. In his
book We Are All Multiculturalists Now (Harvard University Press, 1997), Harvard’s Nathan
Glazer had this to say in his chapter on “The Rediscovery of Nubia and Kush”:
One [odd result] is the recovery of the history of Nubia and Kush, areas south of Egypt,
influenced by Egypt, but hitherto in the wings as far as Egyptian history is concerned. No
longer. This area of Africa is now thrust onto center stage. One cannot help but believe
that the reason for this prominence is that otherwise sub-Saharan Africa would play too
little a role in world history for too long a time… Egypt has now been swallowed up by
Nubia/Kush.
Rather than discuss the modern work of leading scholars in the field, Glazer cited only a New
York Times article as his source, choosing to emphasize “political correctness” rather than
rigorous scholarship and the new scientific findings pouring forth from this region of the
world. Ironically, he seems to have been unaware of Reisner’s archaeological expeditions,
which had been partly funded by his (Glazer’s) own university!
The papers in the present volume should help Professor Glazer and others get the story
straight – and remove from it the American racial polemic. I and my colleagues at
Northeastern are thus very pleased to have participated as co-sponsors of the conference in
which these papers were presented. Individually and collectively, they represent the
continuing contribution of Nubiologists to our understanding of the place of this
extraordinary cultural region in the ancient world and its continuing significance.
It was in the early 1990’s that I and my colleagues became personally interested in Nubia.
Although not specialists, we, as African-American scholars, were passionately involved in
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studying and revealing the global Black experience. We felt strongly that what was lacking
was a broader dialogue between those conducting primary research and archaeological
excavation in Nubia and those - especially those of African descent - teaching African
Studies in our universities who seldom had the chance to participate in field research and
whose knowledge of Nubia lagged years behind. With this as impetus, I set out to build a
network of people who might be able to bring the new knowledge more rapidly to those who
needed it most–our public school teachers.
One of my first discussions was with Marcia Baynes, who was my daughter Malika’s eighth
grade Social Studies teacher at Longfellow School, a middle school in the Cambridge,
Massachusetts public school system. When I asked her, “What do you know about Nubia?”
she responded, “Not much, but I am willing to learn!” She has since become a remarkable
resource for Nubian Studies at the middle school level. Another key contact was Dr. Timothy
Kendall, the editor of this volume, an archaeologist and Nubian specialist, who was then
Associate Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern at the MFA. Together, the
three of us—a Black Studies professor in a university, a public school teacher, and a
professional archaeologist—collaborated to launch a series of initiatives and projects that are
still bearing fruit. One, of course, was the collaboration between Northeastern University and
the Museum of Fine Arts to co-host, in 1998, the Nubian Studies Conference at which these
papers were presented. Another is this very volume. But there were and are others.
As a way of bringing up-to-date knowledge of Nubian history and archaeology to scholars,
teachers, students, and the lay public, we developed, between 1998 and 2000, a website, www.nubianet.org, as a resource “for the Study of Ancient African and World Civilizations.”
The project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Here the
reader will find a basic illustrated overview of Nubia’s history, development, and
achievements, an archive of writings, images, educational resources on ancient Nubia, and
links to other resources, even – for the very young - puzzles, games and a coloring book. The
site provided students the opportunities to use the Internet and gave them a new technology
with which to explore the humanities as well as new and exciting topics in African and
African-American Studies.
In 1995 we prepared a 5-hour teleconference, “Nubia, Ancient and Majestic”, which was
broadcast over MCET (the Massachusetts Educational Telecommunications Network). These
programs were produced by Michelle Halsell, hosted by Marcia Baynes, and featured such
distinguished scholars as Prof. William Y. and Mrs. Nettie Adams.
In 1993 and 1994 we organized and held two “Nubia Institutes” at Northeastern University.
These were each a series of ten weekly illustrated seminars for Middle and High School
teachers in the Boston area. These, also funded by the NEH, were presented by such scholars
as Dr. Kendall, Dr. Anne M. Jennings, Dr. Richard Lobban, Dr. Carolyn Fleuhr-Lobban, Dr.
and Mrs. Adams, Dr. Jay Spaulding, and Dr. Frank Snowden. Most important, we were
especially pleased to have worked with dozens of school teachers who are continuing to
present information about Nubia to their students and colleagues across the United States.
Yet another initiative that grew out of this collaboration was one entitled “DigNubia”, which
was developed between 2000 and 2001 and funded by a grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF) through the non-profit firm Education Development Center (EDC), Inc. in
Newton, Massachusetts. After convincing EDC that it form a branch called “The Center for
Understanding the Black Experience,” I proposed a project for funding called “The Science,
Mathematics, Engineering and Technology of Discovery: Unlocking the Secrets of Nubian
Culture.” The project proposed to develop educational resource tools, primarily for inner-city
Black children, to teach them aspects of science by using Nubian Culture and Archaeology as
the medium. The idea was that the subject of Nubia might make them more eager to learn,
especially science, while at the same time they would also imbibe important awareness of the
xv
richness, great age, and sophistication of African civilization. My main collaborators were my
colleagues at EDC, Glenn Kleiman and Kristin Bjork. Dr. Kendall, Ms. Baynes, and many
others made important contributions. The project resulted in the creation of a new website www.dignubia.org (designed by Michelle Halsell of Missing Pixel, Inc., New York), a
traveling, hands-on archaeological exhibition, a video documentary (produced in the Sudan
by Judith McCray of Juneteenth Productions, Chicago), and various educational materials.
Finally, Dr. Kendall was appointed Adjunct Research Professor at Northeastern
University’s Department of African American Studies. This cements a continuing
collaboration, and we intend to keep reporting our activities at http://www.afrostudies.neu.edu/Nubia. In all these projects, and in others we may undertake
in the future, our reasoning builds upon the same four core ideas that were stated in our initial
proposal to the NEH:
(1) Nubia is an important ancient civilization in its own right; together, Nubia, Egypt and
other Nile Valley civilizations comprise significant chapters in the evolution of the
ancient world.
(2) Nubia offers a unique opportunity to study the history of an ancient civilization while
research and knowledge about it is unfolding, and as new information is being interpreted
and presented to the public.
(3) There is an active national debate over the role of Africa in world history that has served
to spark public interest in humanities scholarship in this area; this project can lay a solid
and objective foundation upon which to continue these discussions.
(4) There has been increased attention to the content of the school curriculum, especially with
regard to what constitutes the core body of knowledge that is needed by an educated
citizenry in an increasingly global society. This project will promote an increased
understanding of diverse cultures, as well as technology literacy.
These goals today are as important as ever. There are announcements every year of
important new discoveries resulting from continued research in Africa. Among the most
exciting are those coming almost annually from the Sudan, which has proven to be the seat of
several of the world’s earliest and most fascinating high cultures.
Events in the contemporary world, especially the political turmoil in such places as Iraq,
Afghanistan, Sudan, and elsewhere, demand that we pay attention to preserving the brilliant
contributions of all of the world’s people. This is a contribution to strengthening a collective
cultural heritage that belongs to all of us and will contribute to making the world a better
place. The papers presented in this volume represent a contribution to that process, and we
appreciate the opportunity to have played a small role in this effort.
xvi
Welcoming Remarks to the Public Symposium,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 21, 1998
Hassan Hussein Idress
Director General, National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), Sudan
Honorable guests, ladies and gentlemen, and members of the International Society of Nubian
Studies, good morning. It is a great pleasure and honor for me to address you on the occasion
of the Ninth International Conference of Nubian Studies, organized by the Nubian Studies
Society and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in conjunction with Northeastern University.
On behalf of the Sudan delegation, I would like to thank the Committee of the Nubian Society
and the Organizing Committee of the Conference, and the entire staff of the Museum of Fine
Arts, in particular Drs. Rita Freed and Timothy Kendall, as well as Drs. Robert Hall, Acting
Chairman of the Dept. of African-American Studies, and Ronald Bailey, Northeastern
University, for preparing and hosting the conference. Also I would like to take this
opportunity to express our deep gratitude and indebtedness to all the archaeologists and
historians who have worked in the Sudan since the beginning of this century, in particular the
mission sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard University, directed by Dr.
George A. Reisner, which worked in the Sudan between 1913 and 1932.
It is with deep regret that I draw the attention of the Society and conference participants to the
sad passing of three important archaeologists and directors of SAS/NCAM who died after the
Lille conference. These were Thabit Hassan Thabit, the first Sudanese Director of the
Antiquities Service (1960-70), who died in June 1996; Nigm El-Din Mohamed Sherif, who
was Director of the Antiquities Service (1970-87), who died in Sept. 1994; and Ahmed M.
Ali Hakem, who was Director of NCAM from 1990 to 1994 and who died in February 1996.
This is a great loss for us, and their great contributions to the archaeology of the Sudan have
been immeasurable and will not be forgotten.
Nubian Studies has drawn the attention and interest of many archaeologists and historians
since the beginning of this century, especially since the 1960’s. The research and fieldwork of
these dedicated scholars have led not only to the formation of many important archaeological
collections both inside and outside the Sudan, but also - and more importantly - to quantities
of important archaeological data, which have shed ever increasing understanding of the
extraordinary contributions made to the history of civilization by the peoples of the ancient
Sudan.
The role of NCAM, as expressed in the 1952 Antiquities Ordinance of the Sudan and the
NCAM 1991 Act, is to preserve and safeguard the precious historical heritage of the Sudan by
protecting historical sites and monuments, by encouraging and facilitating archaeological
exploration of the country, by building museum collections and creating permanent and
temporary museum exhibitions, by providing educational and cultural programs, and by
encouraging tourism. With increased population and the need for new housing and expanded
farm lands and irrigation systems, the archaeological sites and cultural heritage of the Sudan
are in many areas under threat as never before. One of NCAM’s primary duties is to
safeguard imperiled sites and to ensure that land development is regulated to ensure that our
archaeological heritage is protected. One of the greatest threats is that now posed by the
planned Merowe Dam at the Fourth Cataract. NCAM, thus, in 1988 launched an international
appeal for archaeological missions to join the rescue campaign for the endangered areas. In
order to fulfill its role and objectives in preservation, presentation and scientific research,
NCAM has adopted a system of cooperation with national and international institutions and
universities working in the field of archaeology, museology and conservation. Now about
twenty seven foreign missions, as well as missions of the University of Khartoum and NCAM
xvii
and a joint mission of the Universities of Khartoum and Dongola, are working in different
parts of the Sudan in order to increase knowledge of our ancient cultures. In the coming years
NCAM will direct its efforts to rescue and conservation projects and will continue to support
archaeological work at the ancient capitals of Kerma, Napata, Meroe, Soba and Sennar, so as
to recover information on the political, social and economic structures and to complete and
fill the gaps in the history of the Sudan. We also look forward to inaugurating a new program
of archaeological surveys in the southern and western regions.
We believe that the Sudan can serve as an example of how people of different ethnic,
religious, and linguistic groups can live in harmony. It has become clear to us that increased
public knowledge of ancient Sudanese cultures could play a very important role not only in
unifying the Sudanese but also in enriching contemporary civilization on a global scale. I
thank you for attending our conference and wish you a fascinating and enjoyable program.

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