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OT: historical data from morocco
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: [QB] More about the tradition of house building in Nubia (a national symbol in Sudan): [QUOTE] "A miracle in architecture passed all but unnoticed until the time had come for it to disappear. This happened in Nubia in 1933, when the Aswan Dam was elevated for the second time and all the villages of Nubia were to be submerged. The Egyptian government had allotted the relatively trivial sum of LE 750.000 as an indemnity to the Nubians for the 35.000 houses which were to be destroyed. It was only natural that the Nubians resented and were reluctant to accept this indemnity, and, in consequence, they started negotiating with the government. Finally the Nubians accepted the government's offer with reluctance and started building just one year before their houses were to be submerged. In no more than twelve months, they rebuilt their houses. No two houses were the same, each was more beautiful than the last; each village created its own character. Construction in the villages went ahead unimpeded. All were built at the same time at normal cost price. This happened because the Nubians, being remotely situated and living in isolated villages, had always depended on their own resources to build their houses. They had no contractors, engineers or architects to help them. If they managed, it was mainly because they had retained a technique for roofing in mud brick, using vaults and domes, which had been passed down to them from their forefathers... " ..... The homes in Nubia which made up the nugu (village) extended 320 Km along the Nile at irregular intervals in a staggered line more or less parallel to the river"... Traditional Nubian house Traditional Nubian house "Throughout Nubia, the principal entrance to the houses faced the river, whether they were on the east or west banks of the Nile".... "The threshold was highly decorated. It symbolized the heritage of the household and was the chief feature of ornamentation, which might be carried from the doorway on throughout the whole house. Usually the designs were inspired by nature"... "The main entrance led into an open courtyard or haush, with rooms adjoining the exterior walls on one or more of its sides"... "Some living rooms had a high wall-to-wall opening above the door or would be completely open on to the courtyard. [b]In front of these rooms there was a flat roofed space known as the khayma (literally "tent"), covered with palm stems and branches... it was a covered sitting area along the open courtyard"...[/b] "The guest room or mandara usually had separate entrances, allowing the guest freedom of movement, while sustaining the privacy of the inner family quarters. The mandara was considered an important part of the house, as was hospitality, which continues to be an important obligation to Nubians"... "In the South were the Nile was wider and alluvional mud was plentiful, a method know as the galos or tuf technique of construction prevailed. The walls were made of mud, mud brick (adobe) or stone, and were a dira'a (half an arm's length) thick"... "They constructed their roofs by using split palm trunks and acacia wood beams"... "The women and the children of the household plastered and decorated the interior and the exterior of their homes with bright, bold and colorful designs representing man-made objects such as cars, airplanes, trains, and ships, or sometimes depicted the owner's pilgrimage to the holy city of Makka". [/QUOTE] http://www.numibia.net/nubia/nubia.htm And this is just what we see today and is nothing compared to what was lost when the dam was flooded in terms of ancient housing sites. Not only that but there are hundreds of other sites throughout Sudan of mudbrick and stone architecture that is literally rotting in the sun. A second dam is going to submerge more of this history. Sites stretching back to pharoanic times are all over the Nile. Also there are all the remains of the cities that were built in the Medeival period in Dongola. In modern Nubian houses you see the style of housing like that of ancient Egypt and you see a tradition of houses that is indeed ancient in Africa and has nothing to do with foreigners. Models of houses in Egyptian tombs shows the antiquity of houses like these in Africa and this style can be found all over from Egypt to West Africa. (But ignored by most scholars.) [QUOTE] The same architectural finishes on 20th-century walls and gateways—blind arches over doors, openwork in the shape of tented bricks as a running wall cornice, and square cross reliefs—were also found north in Faras and south in Old Dongola in houses dating from Nubia’s Christian period (sixth to 14th centuries). Some historians say that many elements of Nubian folklore, such as immersing newborns in the river, crossing their foreheads with kohl, and rattling a copper mortar and pestle in their ears, also date from this period. [/QUOTE] http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200604/the.decorated.houses.of.nubia.htm (And that just goes back to the 6th century.) Those traditions are thousands of years older. Also note how they say that these houses are becoming more like the Arabs. Please. The Arab houses are copying the African. More good photos at the Nubia Museum site..... Note the dress of the women and the man with the tambourine like those guys in the videos in Morocco. Aside from the veils, the women's dress is an ancient style from the Nile Valley. As I have said before, the style of dress that people consider Middle Eastern (the simple shawl with a slit neck and the other more fancy designs like those in Morocco) are Egyptian. Egypt was the main provider of Linen in dynastic times and this is the basis for the widespread adoptation of the style throughout the Levant. As far as culture is concerned you can go from Morocco to Ethiopia and see similar traditions of dance and song throughout Africa as seen in Morocco. There are stick dances, sword dances, Marriage dances and all sorts of other dances. The point is that the Moroccan form is just a variation of the African dance tradition along with other traditions. A pdf with a nice set of photos. Note the man on the first page wearing the traditional semitransparent gown seen in Ancient Egypt. http://www.saharasafaris.org/dwnld/koteiba-journey2nubia.pdf This is all about continuity and the fact that nothing in Africa is new and that most traditions said to be introduced by foreigners are actually ancient in Africa. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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