Antaeus - Communicationes ex Instituto Archaeologico Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 16/1987 [antikvár]

Preface by Sir Laurence Kirwan The post-IVIeroitic period is the darl est age in the ancient history of the Nile Valley to the south of Egypt. The area covered by this book extends as far south as the middle reaches of the Blue Nile. Its post-Meroitic history is beset by problems and limitations. In the first place, the ending of Meroitic sovereignty appears not to have been uniform in either time or place. Archaeological evidence, for example, from sites such as Kawa and Sanam between the Third and Fifth Cataract suggests that Meroe may have lost control over much if not all of this reach of the Nile Valley well before the end of Meroe's royal dynasty and the final disintegration of the kingdom in the fourth century A.D. Then there are the limitations imposed on the historian by the amount of archaeological and other evidence available. Lower Nubia and its cultural and economic extension to the Third Cataract has proved rich in post-Meroitic discoveries, notably the royal tombs at Ballana and QustuI excavated by W. B. Emery and myself over fifty years ago. There are also numerous references to this northern zone in contemporary classical literature. There are inscriptions and most recently papyri from the hill fortress at Qasr Ibrim, the only historic site in Egyptian Nubia to have escaped total flooding by the High Dam at Aswan. But the position farther south above the Third Cataract is very different. Post-Meroitic discoveries in the Nile Valley between the Third and the Fifth Cataract are virtually limited to two groups of mound tombs at Tanqasi and Zume near Gebel Barkal. Further south recent discoveries by the French Archaeological Unit in the Sudan have begun to shed some light on the post-Meroitic period in the Meroe-Shendi and the Khartoum regions. But this is only a beginning and there are innumerable sites to be explored. Little attention has yet been paid to post-Meroitic levels at Meroe, the capital, and the so-called Necropolis there has yet to be rediscovered. Its cemeteries, only partially excavated and scantily and inadequately published early this century, appear to contain many transitional and post-Meroitic graves which could provide important clues to developments in the capital. There is also a dearth of inscriptional evidence with one notable exception — that is the great stela in Ethiopic of Ezana, king of Axum, describing his campaign in and around the island of Meroe in the mid-fourth century A.D. Found at Axum many years ago this stela, precise in its geographical detail, sets the scene for the post-Meroitic period in this southern region. The dearth of references to these southern territories during the post-Meroitic period in contemporary classical literature is understandable. The kingdom of Meroe had been a Roman protectorate since the end of the first century B.C. and in the north, in Lower Nubia, adjoined a frontier zone incorporated with Upper Egypt and defended by the Roman army. However, after Rome's withdrawal from Lower Nubia three centuries later, leaving this frontier zone in the hands of federates — Blemmyes and Noubades (Nubians) — Upper Nubia above the Third Cataract was relegated to