Kushite Pyramid Complex Being Excavated

I'm sure you've read this news by now.  The Mail Online has several good photographs of some of the gravesites and objects recovered. What I find interesting is that this complex, dating back around 2,000 years, was created and continued to be built upon about 400 years AFTER the Kushites were expelled from Egypt.  Of course, trade ties continued between the two kingdoms, even after the Romans took over Egypt, and who knows, maybe even after the last of the Egyptian temples was closed in the 5th century CE, perhaps even after the Muslims took over in the 7th century CE. 

Mini-pyramids of the kingdom of Kush: Archaeologists discover 35 burial chambers in Sudan desert with fascinating links to Ancient Egypt

By Daniel Miller
PUBLISHED:13:17 EST, 7 February 2013| UPDATED:05:06 EST, 8 February 2013


Archaeologists excavating a site in Sudan have discovered 35 pyramids revealing fascinating links between the bygone Kingdom of Kush that once existed there and ancient Egypt.

The pyramids, which date back around 2,000 years, are smaller than most Egyptian examples with the largest being 22 feet in width and the smallest, likely constructed for the burial of a child, being just 30 inches.

The site in Sedeinga, northern Sudan, was part of the ancient kingdom of Kush which shared a border with Egypt and, later on, the Roman Empire.

One factor that has surprised the team was how densely concentrated the pyramids were. In a single area of 5,381 square feet, roughly the size of a basketball court, they found 13 pyramids.

Packed: One feature that surprised the team was how densely concentrated the pyramids were. In a single area of 5,381 square feet, roughly the size of a basketball court, they found 13 pyramids.

Sadly the condition of the pyramids has suffered from the presence of a camel caravan route and the long passage of time and none of the top sections remain intact.

Capstones, depicting either a bird or a lotus flower on top of a solar orb, who [would] have originally been placed at the top of the pyramids.

Graves were discovered beside the pyramids in tomb chambers which were often found to have held more than one body.  Sadly these graves had all been plundered, possibly many hundreds of years ago, howver the archaeologists did find skeletal remains and some artifacts.

The archaelogical team believes building of pyramids at Sedeinga continued for centuries and was strongly influenced by Egyptian funerary architecture. Vincent Francigny, a research associate with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told LiveScience: 'The density of the pyramids is huge. Because it lasted for hundreds of years they built more, more, more pyramids and after centuries they started to fill all the spaces that were still available in the necropolis.

'They reached a point where it was so filled with people and graves that they had to reuse the oldest one.'

Some of the pyramids were found to have been built with cross-braces connecting the corners to an inner circle. Interestigly only one pyramid outside of Sedeinga is known to have been built in this way.

Mr Francigny believes that when pyramid building came into fashion at Sedeinga it could have been combined with a local circle-building tradition called tumulus construction, resulting in pyramids with circles within them.

He added: 'What we found this year is very intriguing. A grave of a child and it was covered by only a kind of circle, almost complete, of brick.'

Among the artifacts discovered were depictions of Egyptian gods including Bes who is associated with children and pregnant mothers.

Treasures: An amulet of the
Egyptian god Bes who was
often associated with children
and pregnant mothers

One of the most interesting finds was an offering table depicting the jackal-headed god Anubis and a goddess believed to be Isis.

A dedication to a woman named 'Aba-la,' which researchers belive may be a nickname for 'grandmother,' was inscribed with ancient Meroitic writing - a script derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs.  It reads:

Oh Isis! Oh Osiris!
It is Aba-la.
Make her drink plentiful water;
Make her eat plentiful bread;
Make her be served a good meal.

Amen, Grandmother, amen. 

The Rape of Meroe

Excerpted from The New York Times:

Full Review
The Mysteries of Meroe
By SOUREN MELIKIAN
Published: May 21, 2010

In 1772, the Scotsman James Bruce caught sight of broken obelisks and barely discernible traces of pyramids as he traveled back from the source of the Blue Nile. These, he reckoned, had to be the remains of Meroe, known to Ancient Greek historians.

It was the Frenchman Frédéric Caillaud who, on the morning of April 25, 1822, first saw “a host of pyramids.” He accurately drew and described these in his book “A Trip to Meroe on the White River,” published in 1826. The consequences were disastrous. Antique hunters rushed to loot the site.

In 1834, Giuseppe Ferlini destroyed several pyramids. As he blew up one of these, the Italian dealer laid hands on a fantastic treasure that turned out to have belonged to Kandake (Queen) Amanishakheto. The priceless historical documentation that a proper archaeological investigation would have yielded was pulverized by the explosion and the objects were sold to museums in Munich in 1839, and Berlin in 1844.

Eventually, archaeologists stepped in. The Prussian Karl Richard Lepsius, who conducted a three-year-long campaign, produced an exemplary study of the standing monuments.

In the 20th century, a mission funded by Harvard University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts worked out the chronological succession of the Kushite rulers of Meroe. Bronzes and ivories came to light, as well as gold jewels inlaid with mother-of-pearl and semi-precious stones that had been overlooked by looters in damaged tombs, and others preserved in funerary caches that had escaped destruction.

More important, the American expedition led by George Reisner opened up a new chapter of cultural history. No one had expected Greek and Roman objects to be found deep in black Africa. The northern necropolis of Meroe yielded a wine vessel in the form of an Amazon figure riding a rearing horse and holding a pouring vessel of the type called rhyton. This is a fifth-century B.C. piece, signed by Sotades, a potter from Athens. Stylistically reminiscent of the Parthenon marble riders, the artefact, fit for kings, was found in a royal tomb. A Roman silver wine cup of the first century A.D. from Italy turned up in the landfill of another pyramid.

And more - much, much more... [Image: © Jürgen Liepe, from National Museum of Sudan at Khartoum, "royal archer."]

Imagine another Egypt, with a marked black African component. This is Meroe, in present-day Sudan. In art, ancient Egyptian deities appear alongside others, unknown elsewhere. The Meroitic cursive script has been deciphered, revealing that it transcribes an African language. It is related to others spoken today, like Taman in parts of Darfur and Chad, Nyima in the Sudanese Nuba mounts, or Nubian in upper Egypt and Sudan. For the moment though, it is only beginning to be partially understood.

The day a bilingual text sufficiently long to give at last a key to the Meroitic language turns up surprises are to be expected. The latest discoveries displayed at the Louvre suggest that it might not be too far off.

Méroé, un empire sur le Nil. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Through Sept. 6.

From the Lourve Museum website:  Meroe, Empire on the Nile

Ancient Statues May Hold Clues to Meroitic Script

Great news for those of us interested in ancient languages and linguistics: Sudan statue find gives clues to ancient language Tue 16 Dec 2008, 15:11 GMT By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Archaeologists said on Tuesday they had discovered three ancient statues in Sudan with inscriptions that could bring them closer to deciphering one of Africa's oldest languages. The stone rams, representing the god Amun, were carved during the Meroe empire, a period of kingly rule that lasted from about 300 BC to AD 450 and left hundreds of remains along the River Nile north of Khartoum. Vincent Rondot, director of the dig carried out by the French Section of Sudan's Directorate of Antiquities, said each statue displayed an inscription written in Meroitic script, the oldest written language in sub-Saharan Africa. "It is one of the last antique languages that we still don't understand ... we can read it. We have no problem pronouncing the letters. But we can't understand it, apart from a few long words and the names of people," he told reporters in Khartoum. Sudan has more pyramids than neighbouring Egypt [this may be true, but they are not giant pyramids like those at Giza and Saqqara], but few people visit its remote sites, and repeated internal conflicts have made excavation difficult. Rondot said the dig at el-Hassa, the site of a Meroitic town, had uncovered the first complete version of a royal dedication, previously found only on fragments of carvings from the same period. He said experts were still trying to work out the meaning of the words by comparing them with broken remnants of similar royal dedications in the same script. "It's an important discovery ... quite an achievement," Rondot said. The statues were found three weeks ago under a sand dune at the site of a temple to the god Amun, an all-powerful deity represented by the ram in Sudan. The site is close to Sudan's Meroe pyramids, a cluster of more than 50 granite tombs 200 kms (120 miles) north of the capital that are one of the main attractions for Sudan's few tourists. Rondot said the dig, funded by the French foreign ministry, would also provide vital information on the reign of a little-known king, Amanakhareqerem, mentioned in the inscriptions on the rams. "Before we started the dig we only had four documents in his name ... We don't even know where he was buried," he said. "We are beginning to understand the importance of that king." (Editing by Katie Nguyen and Tim Pearce) © Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.