of architecture enriched by the excavation of numerous churches dating from the time of Justinian, when Nubia was first Christianized, down to the late medieval period when Christianity was extirpated by Mahommedanism.
The civilization of the first six centuries A.D. may be called “Romano-Nubian,” a term which indicates its date and suggests something of its character. It is the product of a people living on the borders of the Roman Empire who inherited much of the Hellenistic tradition in minor arts but combined it with a remarkable power of independent origination. The sites on which it has been observed range from Dakka to Halfa, that is to say within the precise limits which late Latin and Greek writers assign to the Blemyes, and there is good reason to identify the people that evolved it with this hitherto almost unknown barbarian nation. Apart from this, however, the greatest value of the new discoveries will consist in the fact that they may lay the foundations for a new documentary record of past ages. For the graves yielded not only new types of statues, bronzes, ivory carvings and painted pottery—all of the highest artistic value—but also a large number of stone stelae inscribed with funerary formulae in the Meroitic script.
In the course of sixty years the small collection of Meroitic inscriptions made by Lepsius had not been enlarged and no progress had been made towards decipherment. But the cemeteries of Shablul and Karanog alone yielded 170 inscriptions on stone, besides some inscribed ostraka. This mass of material brought the task of decipherment within the range of possibility, and even without any bilingual record to assist him, Mr F. Ll. Griffith rapidly succeeded in the first stages of translation. As further explorations bring more inscriptions to light the records of Ethiopia will gradually be placed on a firm documentary basis and the names and achievements of its greatest monarchs will take their place on the roll of history.
Bibliography.—C. R. Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien (1849), Abh. vi., Briefe aus Aegypten, Aethiopien, &c. (1852), Nubische Grammatik (1880); H. Brugsch, Zeitschrift fur aegyptische Sprache (1887); F. Cailliaud, Voyage à Méroé et au Fleuve Blanc (1826); E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Sudân (1907); G. A. Reisner and C. M. Firth, Reports on The Archaeological Survey of Nubia; G. Elliott Smith and F. Wood Jones, ibid. vol. ii. “The Human Remains” (1910); J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt (1906–1907), A History of Egypt (1905), Temples of Lower Nubia (1906), Monuments of Sudanese Nubia (1908); D. Randall-MacIver and C. L. Woolley, Reports of the Eckley B. Coxe, jun. expedition, viz. vol. i. Areika. (1909), vols. iii., iv., v. Karanog (vol. iii. “The Romano-Nubian Cemetery,” text, vol. iv. ibid., plates, 1910), vol. vii. Behen; G. S. Mileham, Reports of the Eckley B. Coxe, jun., expedition, vol. ii. Churches in Lower Nubia (1910); F. Ll. Griffith, Reports on the Eckley B. Coxe, jun., expedition, vol. vi. Meroitic Inscriptions from Shablul and Karanog, Meroitic Inscriptions, and 2 vols. on Tombs of El Amarna; and the “Archaeological Survey” of the Egypt Exploration Fund. (D. R.-M.)
Ancient Monuments south of Halfa.—Ruins of pyramids, temples, churches and other monuments are found along both banks of the Nile almost as far south as the Fourth Cataract, and again in the “Island of Meroë.” In the following list the ruins are named as met with on the journey south from Wadi Halfa. Opposite that town on the east bank are the remains of Bohon, where was found the stele, now at Florence, commemorating the conquest of the region by Senwosri (Usertesen) I. of Egypt (c. 2750 B.C.). Forty-three miles farther south are the ruins of the twin fortresses of Kumma and Semna. Here the Nile narrows and passes the Semna cataract, and graven on the rocks are ancient records of “high Nile.” At Amara, some 80 m. above Semna, are the ruins of a temple with Meroitic hieroglyphics. At Sai Island, 130 m. above Halfa, are remains of a town and of a Christian church. Thirteen miles south of Sai at Soleb are the ruins of a fine temple commemorating Amenophis (Amenhotep) III. (c. 1414 B.C.) to whose queen Taia was dedicated a temple at Sedeinga, a few miles to the north. At Sesebi, 40 m. higher up the Nile, is a temple of the heretic king Akhenaton re-worked by Seti I. (c. 1327 B.C.). Opposite Hannek at the Third Cataract on Tombos Island are extensive ancient granite quarries, in one of which lies an unfinished colossus. On the east side of the river near Kerma are the remains of an Egyptian city. Argo Island, a short distance higher up, abounds in ruins, and those at Old Dongola, 320 m. from Halfa, afford evidence of the town having been of considerable size during the time of the Christian kingdom of Dongola. From Old Dongola to Merawi (a distance of 100 m. by the river) are numerous ruins of monasteries, churches and fortresses of the Christian era in Nubia—notably at Jebel Deka and Magal. In the immediate neighbourhood of Jebel Barkal (the “holy mountain” of the ancient Egyptians), a flat-topped hill which rises abruptly from the desert on the right bank of the Nile a mile or two above the existing village of Merawi (Merowe), are many pyramids and six temples, the pyramids having a height of from 35 to 60 ft. Pyramids are also found at Zuma and Kurru on the right bank, and at Tangassi on the left bank of the river, these places being about 20 m. below Merawi. That village is identified by some archaeologists with the ancient Napata, which is known to have been situated near the “holy mountain.” On the left bank of the Nile opposite Merawi are the pyramids of Nuri, and a few miles distant in the Wadi Ghazal are the ruins of a great Christian monastery, where were found gravestones with inscriptions in Greek and Coptic. Ruins of various ages extend from Merawi to the Fourth Cataract.
Leaving the Nile at this point and striking direct across the Bayuda Desert, the river is regained at a point above the Atbara confluence. Thirty miles north of the town of Shendi are the pyramids of Meroë (or Assur) in three distinct groups. From one of these pyramids was taken “the treasure of Queen Candace,” now in the Berlin Museum. Many of the pyramids have a small shrine on the eastern side inscribed with debased Egyptian or Meroite hieroglyphics. These pyramids are on the right bank of the Nile, that is in the “Island of Meroë.” Portions (including a harbour) of the site of the city of Meroë, at Begerawia, not far from the pyramids named, were excavated in 1909–1910 (see Meroë). In this region, and distant from the river, are the remains of several cities, notably Naga, where are ruins of four temples, one in the Classic style. On the east bank of the Blue Nile, about 13 m. above Khartum at Soba, are ruins of a Christian basilica. Farther south still, at Ceteina on the White Nile (in 1904), and at Wad el-Hadad, some miles north of Sennar, on the Blue Nile (in 1908), Christian remains have been observed.
Between the Nile at Wadi Halfa and the Red Sea are the remains of towns inhabited by the ancient miners who worked the district. The most striking of these towns is Deraheib (Castle Beautiful), so named from the picturesque situation of the castle, a large square building with pointed arches. The walls of some 500 houses still stand.
For a popular account (with many illustrations) of these ruins see J. Ward, Our Sudan: Its Pyramids and Progress (London, 1905). (F. R. C.)
History
A. From the Earliest Time to the Egyptian Conquest.—The southern regions of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan are without recorded history until the era of the Egyptian conquest in the 19th century. In the northern regions, known as Ethiopia or Nubia, Egyptian influence made itself felt as early as the Old Empire. In process of time powerful states grew up with capitals at Napata and Meroë (see ante § Archaeology and Ethiopia and Egypt). The Nubians—that is the dwellers in the Nile valley between Egypt and Abyssinia—did not embrace Christianity until the 6th century, considerably later than their Abyssinian neighbours. The Arab invasion of North Africa in the 7th century, which turned Egypt into a Mahommedan country, had not the same effect in Nubia, the Moslems, though they frequently raided the country, being unable to hold it. Christian Kingdoms of Nubia. On the ruins of the ancient Ethiopian states arose the Christian kingdoms of Dongola and Aloa, with capitals at Dongola and Soba (corresponding roughly to Napata and Meroë). These kingdoms continued to exist until the middle of the 14th century or later (see Dongola: Mudiria). Meanwhile Arabs of the Beni Omayya tribe, under pressure from the Beni Abbas, had begun to cross the Red Sea
