Meroë

Meroë

thumb|280px|Near East in 200 BC, showing the Kingdom of Meroë and its neighbours.

Meroë was the southern capital of the Kingdom of Kush. The Kingdom of Kush spanned the period 800 BC – c. 350 AD. Initially, its main capital was farther north at Napata. King Aspelta moved the capital to Meroë, considerably farther south than Napata, possibly c. 591 BC, just after the sack of Napata by Egyptian Pharaoh Psamtik II.

Martin Meredith states the Kushite rulers chose Meroë, between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, because it was on the fringe of the summer rainfall belt, and the area was rich in iron ore and hardwood for iron working. The location also afforded access to trade routes to the Red Sea. The city of Meroë was located along the middle Nile which is of much importance due to the annual flooding of the Nile river valley and the connection to many major river systems such as the Niger which aided with the production of pottery and iron characteristic to the Meroitic kingdom that allowed for the rise in power of its people. with the native name of the city being Medewi.

First Meroitic Period (542–315 BC)

The Kings ruled over Napata and Meroë. The seat of government and the royal palace were in Meroë. The Main temple of Amun was located in Napata. Kings and many queens are buried in Nuri, some queens are buried in Meroë, in the West Cemetery. The earliest king was Analmaye (542–538 BC) and the last king of the first phase is Nastasen (335–315 BC)

In the fifth century BC, Greek historian Herodotus described it as "a great city...said to be the mother city of the other Ethiopians."

Excavations revealed evidence of important, high ranking Kushite burials from the Napatan Period (c. 800 – c. 280 BC) in the vicinity of the settlement called the Western Cemetery. The importance of the town gradually increased from the beginning of the Meroitic Period, especially from the reign of Arakamani (c. 280 BC) when the royal burial ground was transferred to Meroë from Napata (Gebel Barkal). Royal burials formed the Pyramids of Meroë, containing the remains of the Kings and Queens of Meroë from c. 300 BC to about 350 AD.

File:Karkamani's pyramid, Nuri, Sudan, North-east Africa.jpg|Karkamani's pyramid (513–503 BC), Nuri

File:Jewelry found on the Mummy of Nubian King AMANINATAKILEBTE (538-519 BC). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.jpg|Jewelry found on the mummy of Nubian King Amaninatakilebte (538–519 BC). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

File:LRM_20190101_130853-Pano.jpg|Stela of king Siaspiqa (487–468 BC).

File:Portrait_of_Nastasen,_with_Kushite_crown.jpg|Portrait of King Nastasen (330–310 BC)

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Second Meroitic Period (3rd century BC)

thumb|upright=0.5|The "Archer King", an unknown king of Meroë, 3rd century BC. [[National Museum of Sudan.]]

The seat of government and the royal palace are in Meroë. Kings and many queens are buried in Meroë, in the South Cemetery. Napata remained relevant for the Amun Temple.

thumb|upright|Relief of [[Amanitore|Kandake Amanitore, circa 50 AD]]

The next recorded contact between Rome and Meroë was in the autumn of 61 AD. The Emperor Nero sent a party of Praetorian soldiers under the command of a tribune and two centurions into this country, who reached the city of Meroë where they were given an escort, then proceeded up the White Nile until they encountered the swamps of the Sudd. This marked the limit of Roman penetration into Africa.

The period following Petronius' punitive expedition is marked by abundant trade finds at sites in Meroë. L. P. Kirwan provides a short list of finds from archeological sites in that country.

Meroë is mentioned briefly in the 1st century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea:

Fourth Meroitic Period (1st century4th century AD)

thumb|Lamp with handle in the shape of a horse, from the pyramid of Queen [[Amanikhatashan in Meroë ( AD). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]]

thumb|Necklace from Meroë. 50–320 AD. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Kings were buried in Meroë, in the North Cemetery, and Queens in West Cemetery. In 350 AD Meroë was destroyed by Axum. Another inscription in Greek gives the regnal claims of Ezana:

While some authorities interpret these inscriptions as proof that the Axumites destroyed the Kingdom of Kush, others note that archeological evidence points to an economic and political decline in Meroë around 300.

Meroë in Jewish legend

Jewish oral tradition avers that Moses, in his younger years, had led an Egyptian military expedition into Sudan (Kush), as far as the city of Meroë, which was then called Saba. The city was built near the confluence of two great rivers and was encircled by a formidable wall, and governed by a renegade king. To ensure the safety of his men who traversed that desert country, Moses had invented a stratagem whereby the Egyptian army would carry along with them baskets of sedge, each containing an ibis, only to be released when they approached the enemy's country. The purpose of the birds was to kill the deadly serpents that lay all about that country. Archibald Sayce reportedly referred to it as "the Birmingham of Africa", because of perceived vast production and trade of iron (a contention that is a matter of debate in modern scholarship). Meroë also exported textiles and jewelry. Their textiles were based on cotton and working on this product reached its highest achievement in Nubia around 400 BC. Furthermore, Nubia was very rich in gold. It is possible that the Egyptian word for gold, nub, was the source of name of Nubia. Trade in "exotic" animals from farther south in Africa was another feature of their economy.

Apart from the iron trade, pottery was a widespread and prominent industry in the Meroë kingdom. The production of fine and elaborately decorated wares was a strong tradition within the middle Nile. Such productions carried considerable social significance and are believed to be involved in mortuary rites. The long history of goods imported into the Meroitic empire and their subsequent distribution provides insight into the social and political workings of the Meroitic state. The major determinant of production was attributed to the availability of labor rather than the political power associated with land. Power was associated with control of people rather than control of territory.

At its peak, the rulers of Meroë controlled the Nile Valley north to south, over a straight-line distance of more than .

The King of Meroë was an autocratic ruler who shared his authority only with the Queen Mother, or Kandake. However, the role of the Queen Mother remains obscure. The administration consisted of treasurers, seal bearers, heads of archives and chief scribes, among others.

Although the people of Meroë also had southern deities such as Apedemak, the lion-son of Sekhmet (or Bast, depending upon the region), they also continued worshipping ancient Egyptian gods that they had brought with them. Among these deities were Amun, Tefnut, Horus, Isis, Thoth and Satis, though to a lesser extent.

The collapse of their external trade with other Nile Valley states may be considered one of the prime causes of the decline of royal power and disintegration of the Meroitic state in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.

By the 3rd century BC, a new indigenous alphabet, the Meroitic, consisting of twenty-three letters, replaced Egyptian script. The Meroitic script is an alphabetic script originally derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs, used to write the Meroitic language of the Kingdom of Kush. It was developed in the Napatan Period (c. 700 – 300 BC), and first appears in the 2nd century BC. For a time, it was also possibly used to write the Nubian language of the successor Nubian kingdoms.

It is uncertain to which language family the Meroitic language is related. Kirsty Rowan suggests that Meroitic, like the Egyptian language, belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family. She bases this on its sound inventory and phonotactics, which, she proposes, are similar to those of the Afro-Asiatic languages and dissimilar from those of the Nilo-Saharan languages. Claude Rilly, based on its syntax, morphology, and known vocabulary, proposes that Meroitic, like the Nobiin language, instead belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family.

Archaeology

right|400px|thumb|Plan of the North pyramid field at Meroë.

The site of Meroë was brought to the knowledge of Europeans in 1821 by the French mineralogist Frédéric Cailliaud (1787–1869), who published an illustrated in-folio describing the ruins. His work included the first publication of the southernmost known Latin inscription.

As Margoliouth notes in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, small scale excavations occurred in 1834, led by Giuseppe Ferlini, who, as Margoliouth states, "discovered (or professed to discover) various antiquities, chiefly in the form of jewelry, now in the museums of Berlin and Munich." Troops were furnished by Sir Reginald Wingate, governor of the Sudan, who made paths to and between the pyramids, and sank shafts, &c. It was found that the pyramids were regularly built over sepulchral chambers, containing the remains of bodies either burned or buried without being mummified. The most interesting objects found were the reliefs on the chapel walls, already described by Lepsius, and containing the names with representations of queens and some kings, with some chapters of the Book of the Dead; some steles with inscriptions in the Meroitic language, and some vessels of metal and earthenware. The best of the reliefs were taken down stone by stone in 1905, and set up partly in the British Museum and partly in the museum at Khartoum. In 1910, in consequence of a report by Professor Archibald Sayce, excavations were commenced in the mounds of the town and the necropolis by [[John Garstang|J[ohn] Garstang]] on behalf of the University of Liverpool, and the ruins of a palace and several temples were discovered, built by the Meroite kings.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

LearningSites.com – Gebel Barkal
UNESCO World Heritage – Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region
Voyage au pays des pharaons noirs Travel in Sudan and notes on Nubian history
Labelled map of the pyramids at Meroe
Sudan's forgotten pyramids – BBC News
Pictures of Meroë – An online slide show as part of a detailed travelogue (in German)