Meroitic Studies

First published in Buzzle on 16th August 2006

Republished on the same day here:
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Republished on 23rd August 2006 and discussed in the forum below:
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At the moment the misinformed international community plans to spend so easily US $ 3 billion for Lebanon's reconstruction, it is essential to highlight that much less money would be enough to bring peace in the strategically crucial area of Eastern Sudan where the Blemmyes / Beja have started their struggle for self-determination and independence. Support to historically indigenous Beja would bring the Khartoum tyrants at the brink of collapse, opening the path of independence for the oppressed peoples of Sudan, and at the same time it would reshape the entire area of the Red Sea where historical nations demand international recognition.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the basins known from Meroïtic sites in Lower Nubia and Meroë Royal City (Sudan). These structures have not been adequately debated and the accepted explanation as to their function, that they were ‘wine-presses’, has not been subject to constructive challenge. On the contrary, that they represent the remains of a short-lived Meroïtic viticulture industry has been widely accepted in literature despite the thin state of the evidence. This discussion presents a critique of the accepted function of these Meroïtic basins and offers a detailed consideration of their leonine spouts.

As our understanding of Kushite culture deepens, the view promulgated by early scholars of Meroe, many of whom trained as Egyptologists, that Kushites follow Egyptian cultural traditions as closely as possible is increasingly revealed as flawed. Innovative re-workings of Egyptian sources, including images, and the introduction of Kushite ideas can be identified through a careful comparison of Egyptian sources and Meroitic use of them. A close analysis of early Meroitic pyramid chapels reveals that the priests who selected images for these monuments acted with comprehension of and an unexpected independence from Egyptian religion. They chose and sometimes manipulated Egyptian vignettes to express a combination of Kushite and Egyptian mortuary beliefs and also included scenes of Kushite libations and processions on chapel walls. Their program of decoration reveals focused beliefs based on an Osirian afterlife and a pragmatic sometimes non-Egyptian approach to providing for it. A desir...

An overview chapter examining issues of the 'Late Napatan' Period and its connections with Egypt under Achaemenid Persian rule.
The Bibliography was for the entire volume, hence its length. NB the article cited as Morkot forthcoming (Post-pharaonic Nubia...) never forthcame, but is effectively replaced by the chapter in James et al, Centuries of Darkness

Domestic architecture in the middle Nile valley has long remained far from scholarly interest, unlike temples, monumental civic buildings and cemeteries. More recently, however, researchers have attempted to clarify issues concerning the foundation and the development of Meroitic cities, particularly in the Butana region where a close network of towns was implemented along the Nile river at the beginning of the first century AD. The last two decades have seen an increasing interest in domestic architecture with the launch of substantial fieldworks on settlements.

Ethiopian history is notoriously a history abounded in mystifications, phantasms and de-Africanizations. A key aspect of these mystifying narratives is about the social origin of the so-called Ethiopic writing system. However, Ayele Bekerie's Ethiopic is the first break with reproduction of flaw. In his book about the history and principles of Ethiopic system, Bekerie exploits his ideographical, syllographical, astronomical, grammatological and theological knowledge and argues that Ethiopic is part of the Ancient African societies' philosophy. For the conservative Abyssinianists, Bekerie's work is disconcerting, while for the few relatively liberal Ethiopianists it is disillusioning. Yet, for a critical Africologist, it is a step in the right direction. Yet, for non-Semitic scholars and peoples in the Horn of Africa it is a swerve between the former two, Abyssinianism and Ethiopianism. In other words, it is reification-a history book without human agents. Using theories in historical linguistics, discourse analysis, social semiosis and history of philosophy, this paper attempts to unveil these anomalies in Bekerie's Ethiopic. Directions for future research are also pointed out.

It was with very heavy heart that we arrived in Khartoum February 20 for the beginning of our 2007 excavating season. Our beloved friend and colleague Patrice Lenoble lay dying of cancer in France. Patrice and I lived on opposite shores of the atlantic (he in Nantes and I in Boston). We could rarely meet face to face, but we had for some years found common entertainment in sharing our thoughts on life via e-mail. We laughed online about many things while lamenting the deplorable state of the world, the absurdities of american and French politics, and of the general decline of our respective civilizations. We sent each other our favorite books on various topics -all unrelated to archaeology. Despite my protests, Patrice preferred to write me in English, but his English expressions were so uniquely funny and precious that I dared not stop him. His writing was literary 'gourmet.' He had an enormous heart, a sweeping intellect, and a monumental sense of humor, seasoned with delicious irony, and I weep at the loss. Patrice's letters will always be a treasure to me. He kept sending me e-mails almost until his last breath. at the hospital he scrawled his messages to me on paper and gave them to Brigitte, his wife, to type and send. His last note came the day before he died : "Dear Tim : Don't feel bad. I am dying happy, satisfied ! I just received SudNub 10 from Derek ! He is great in timing! ato mlo [i.e. the meroitic funerary wish for "good water"] is my final solution, ankh-based upon morphine. Better than merissa & arraghi. Don't worry.

In several previous articles, I examined the parallel characteristics of the fake colonial states of Sudan (real Ethiopia) and Abyssinia (fake Ethiopia) that have been the end result of the Freemasonic Orientalist fallacies of Pan-Arabism and Ethiopianism.

In this article, I will examine a bogus-historical term that has been constructed by the Freemasonic Orientalist ateliers and academia of France and England to further spread confusion in the wider region, and – more importantly – consolidate the two fallacies in the area, namely the pseudo-doctrines of Pan-Arabism and Ethiopianism: Nubia.
First published in:
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Republished here:
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and
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The game related objects found in Kush illustrate both Egyptian and Greco-Roman influences. A group of graffiti boards and rows of holes that point at mancala games both present a later influence that may have an Arab or African origin, respectively. Together they illustrate a continuous outside influence on playing practices in Kush but little evidence for locally developed games.
The difficulty of dating graffiti boards and the absence of wooden boards in excavations so far prevent conclusions on the presence of African or Nubian games in the Kingdom of Kush. Yet, the complex dispersal of games at the borders of Africa, the Mediterranean and the Near East and the unknown distribution of, particularly mancala, games in ancient times make Kush an important crossroad for future research in board games.

Meroitic language is one of the most controversial ancient languages but one of the few having advanced writing systems. Some classify it Asian, European, non-African, Semitic, or 'unclassified'. This paper contends Meroe, similar to their Cushitic friends, are left victims of preconceived ideas based on an entirely argument from silence, an hegemonic epistemology that elevates a single perspective and silences other(s). This paper, thus, comparatively analyzes Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical and grammatical items with corresponding Oromo, a Cushitic family which, many classical and contemporary philologists/linguists argue derives from a unique vocabulary possibly the Ancient language of the Nile Valley and/or Horn of Africa. Meroitic and Old Nubian lexical, grammatical and epigraphic data were collected from secondary sources by Meroitic researchers. Oromo corpora are obtained both from classical and modern descriptions and native-speakers. Results indicate Oromo lexemes show significant level of cognates with not only Meroitic and Old Nubian, but also with the Ancient Egyptian to their northern part.

Presentation originally given at the Oromo Studies 2005 Conference

First published in: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articl ... leID=21760 

Subsequently published in: Oromo Studies Association, 2005 Conference Proceedings, Washington D.C., 2005, 10p 
Online mention: http://oromostudies.org/Proceedings/OSA.Proceeding.2005.pdf 
The present text has been slightly edited. 

This paper deals, among others, with the development of Meroitic studies, the Meroitic civilization, the destruction of the city of Meroe, the dispersal of the Meroitic people after the collapse of their state, the Christianization of the post Meroitic states in Ethiopia (i.e. Northern Sudan / it is to be reminded that the modern state of Abyssinia is fallaciously, illegally and criminally rebaptized 'Ethioipia'), the migration of the remnants of the Meroitic people in the direction of the Blue Nile, and their possible relation of ancestry with the modern Cushitic language speaking Oromo nation. It must be stated clearly at the outset that the issue of Meroitic ancestry of the Oromo nation has not yet been considered, much less published in an academic journal or scholarly books. The paper was first presented in an academic conference organized by the Oromo Studies Association. Footnotes have been added in view of the aforementioned publication (see Pdf).

investigate the signs used for pottery decoration. The fine Meroitic ware is characterized by applying painting and/or stamps and many of the patterns represent various symbols (ankh, atef-crown, solar discs, uraei and others). It is understood that such decoration on ceramics has both aesthetic and sacred meaning; however, in contrast to single marks, it can be considered primarily an instrument of decoration.

Abyssinianist historiography is notorious not only for its hypostatization, anachronism and de-Africanization of everything that is of Ancient Black African civilization but also that it leaves no stone unturned to make it so difficult and impossible for us to trace our (pre)history. Richard Pankhurst is one of the controversial Abbyssinianist historians known not only for their prolificacy but also fabrication of their own version of weird Ethiopian history. The aim of this paper is to critically analyze and show how Pankhurst uses etymology to dismantle and outsource the plausibility structure of the autochthonous people. The main focus is his article 'Early History of Ethiopian Horse-Names', short but prototypical of his historiography depicting his representation (of Ethiopia), style, attitude and full-life scholarship. A Deconstructivist Locational Model was adopted as a guiding evolutionary social science perspective. Activity Theory was adopted as meta-theoretical framework. Critical Discourse Analysis method was adopted with the intention to unraveling and explicating fallacies underlying deep Pankhurst's historiography. Explanations of the generative mechanisms, motivations and values of his Abbyssinianist scholarship are also presented. Finally, questions for further research on the Abyssinianist Model of 'history' are indicated for those interested in alternative 21 st century perspective for Ethiopian Studies.

The kingdom of Meroe (300 BCE – 350 CE) developed a truly unique textile tradition, represented by hundreds of preserved fabrics, tools and iconographic representations. Together, this vast body of historical data provides a great opportunity to study the patterns of textile production and consumption in the Meroitic society. This paper will first focus on restoring the textile implements to their archaeological locations in order to identify the different contexts and scales of textile manufacturing, primarily spinning and weaving. Far from homogenous, the Meroitic textile industry reflected the social complexity and the ethnic diversity of the kingdom. The paper’s second part will thus relate the settlement data on textile production to the finished products – fabrics and clothing – discovered in graves and depicted on reliefs and statues, thereby linking the textiles to the individuals using them. The role of the administrative and religious elite will particularly be discussed, both as commissioners and consumers of specific textile goods, as well as official relays in a state-controlled industry.

Hittite, in particular, and Anatolian, in general, encompasses both new insights and obscurantism.  Some point to African (‘Egyptian’) origin, others to Balkan and still some point, putatively and specifically, to Oromo-Cush origin. The general aim of this paper is to comparatively analyze Hittite and Oromo phonological, lexical and grammatical items. Hittite and Oromo, as well as, for historical and areal reasons, some Egyptian and (Proto-)Indo-European ((P-)IE), corpora are collected and comparatively analyzed. The results show significant level of phonological, lexical and grammatical resemblances. A large number of these are shared not only between and among the latter two but also Egyptian lexemes and (P-)IE roots and aspirates and pharyngeal reconstructions. The paper presents, in Section 1, the debates about the Ancient African and Anatolian relations will be briefly highlighted, justifying the causes of this study. In Section 2, comparative analysis and discussion of the data will be presented. In the final section, Section 3, conclusion and implications are drawn.

The paper looks at evidence from the Western and Eastern Deserts relating to Roman forts and routes, and Meroitic travel in the desert and challenges the assumption that long-distance travel was a late development. Dismissed by Roger Bagnall as 'speculative', Old and Middle Kingdom evidence from the Western Desert (Dakhla and Gilf Kebir) and New Kingdom evidence from the Eastern Desert of Nubia has shown quite clearly that desert travel extends back into the remote past.

'Neglect' of the most important piece of literature or opus magnum, recording therein the early history of AEthiopian kingship, government and socio-religious practices at the turn of History itself (1 st cent. A.D.), and answering the long contentious question, surely once and for all, viz. the relation between ancient AEgypt, lower Nubian Kush and Upper AEthiopia proper (Abyssinia) in the ancient/classical times, besides so many other unanswered conundrums; is the greatest tragedy not only for AEthiopia and its People, but for undermining impartial AEthiopian Historical and Academic Research. The work of which we speak is 'De rebus gestis a Beato Matthaeo Apostolo et Evangelista' (lib.vii) in 'De Historiae Certaminis Apostolici' by Abdias Bishop of Babylon, originally written in the Hebrew-language of the 1st Century, Translated into Greek, by his disciple Eutropius, then into Latin by the Church-Father, Sextus Julius Africanus in the late 2 nd /early 3 rd cent. (and later transferred into diverse tongues). It is essentially at its core a 'hagiographical-work' with a manuscript tradition stretching over vast portions of Europe; including Italia, Deutschland, England, France, and so on. Id est, from the very nations of which the institutional scholars who have sway in Ethiopian studies past and present issue forth, who from the 16 th /17 th to the 21 st centuries have all neglected and ignored a work of such magnitude (ramifications) that it can hardly be comprehended on the one hand or its importance overstated; for nothing if anything, is spoken of this 'Chronicle' in any of the international literatures penned and overseen by such scholars/institutions. The consequence of which has impacted 'academia at large' and the continual barrage of unsubstantiated (unscientific) repetition and even prejudice of six centuries, has dominated (shaped) Ethiopian studies itself. Furthermore, it is so grave it has defaced the very fabric of AEthiopian 'cultural heritage', 'identity' and its historicity and place in 'ancient, mediaeval, religious and world history'. In contrast, the paper deems to evidence the veracity of the manuscript tradition, shew rich aspects of its historical account, while in addition supplementing with Indigenous-oral-hagiographic and historical AEthiopian attestations. It will also highlight what impact it ought (will) have on the social sciences and wider context moving forward. 2

This article joins together a substantial survey of antiquarian and archaeological research at ancient Meroë (Sudan), capital of the Meroitic kingdom (ca. 7th century BC–4th century AD, most broadly), with an exploration of contemporaneous historical events in Sudan, Egypt and Europe. This contextual approach makes it possible to trace influences upon past archaeological research trends and the changing views upon Sudanese heritage within Sudan and internationally.

(Oromo Studies Association, 2005 Conference Proceedings, Washington D.C.) in: The Journal of Oromo Studies, vol. 14 no 1 (February/March 2007), p. 7 - 34
The volume containing the article is available online:
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Slightly edited, the article (under the title "The Kushitic / Meroitic Origins of the Oromo Nation") is also available independently here: 
https://www.academia.edu/24273923/The_Meroitic_Ethiopian_Origins_of_the_Modern_Oromo_Nation_-_By_Prof._Dr._Muhammad_Shamsaddin_Megalommatis and
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/the-meroitic-ethiopian-origins-of-the-modern-oromo-nation/

Kush, Kingship of (eahaa00438) "Interactions with the Classical World" Solange Ashby Word count: 4132 5000 words including references Abstract: The kings of Kush ruled a polity that was a 3000-year old, culturally continuous kingdom dominant in the Middle Nile Valley as Kerma, Napata, and Meroe. During the Napatan period, kings from Kush ruled Egypt as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. In the Meroitic period (300 BCE-300 CE), many of the most powerful rulers were, in fact, sole-ruling queens.

Successor to the kingdom of Napata that developed in Nubia down to the region of the 4th cataract after the withdrawal of the New Kingdom Egyptians, the Kingdom of Meroe emerged 500 km further south, between 5th and 6th cataracts. Centered on the fertile plain of Shendi, in the heart of the Butana region, the kingdom's capital, Meroe, is also the home of the royal necropolis, with the famous pyramids. A great majority of Meroitic urban sites contain a large number of palaces. This is the case in the capital, Meroe, with both buildings M294 and M295 in the ’royal city‘, and the large structure M750, close to the Amun temple.  Palaces are also found in several religious centers such as Jebel Barkal and Naqa. Medium-sized cities in the Island of Meroe such as Wad ben Naqa, el-Hassa or Muweis also contained palaces.  Although in many respects the Nubian buildings are very different from their Egyptian counterparts, there is, in the current state of research, a relative continuity of the symbolic value of the palatial building. The implementation of a new palace is a major event, because the building represents the creative role of the sovereign and restorer of the world order. The structure must embody these meanings by showing them in its functional aspects. Through a comparative approach, the palatial buildings are analyzed and placed in the urban network, especially in their relationship with the main temple of the city. These considerations resulting from excavation data, the situation presented here aims to be a first step towards a better understanding of palatial Nubia and Meroitic urbanism.

As our understanding of Kushite culture deepens, the view promulgated by early scholars of Meroe, many of whom trained as Egyptologists, that Kushites follow Egyptian cultural traditions as closely as possible is increasingly revealed as flawed. Innovative re-workings of Egyptian sources, including images, and the introduction of Kushite ideas can be identified through a careful comparison of Egyptian sources and Meroitic use of them. A close analysis of early Meroitic pyramid chapels reveals that the priests who selected images for these monuments acted with comprehension of and an unexpected independence from Egyptian religion. They chose and sometimes manipulated Egyptian vignettes to express a combination of Kushite and Egyptian mortuary beliefs and also included scenes of Kushite libations and processions on chapel walls. Their program of decoration reveals focused beliefs based on an Osirian afterlife and a pragmatic sometimes non-Egyptian approach to providing for it. A desir...

This article sets out to address questions concerning local religious traditions in ancient Nubia. Data concerning Egyptian gods in the Sudan are introduced, then the existence of unattested local pre-Meroitic gods is reconstructed using mainly external literary sources and an analysis of divine names. A review of other archaeological evidence from an iconographic point of view is also attempted, concluding with the presentation of Meroitic gods and their relation with earlier traditions. This study proposes that Egyptian religious beliefs were well integrated in both official and popular cults in Nubia. The Egyptian and the Sudanese cultures were constantly in contact in the border area and this nexus eased the transmission of traditions and iconographical elements in a bidirectional way. The Meroitic gods are directly reminiscent of the reconstructed indigenous Kushite pantheon in many aspects, and this fact attests to an attempt by the Meroitic rulers to recover their Nubian cultural identity.

The first royal burials in the Southern Cemetery at Meroe document a local family's rise to power culminating in Arkamani I's ascension to the Napatan throne.  Late Napatan pyramids built on the cemetery's eastern hilltop belong to Arkamani I's immediate ancestors while the first burials on the opposite northern hilltop belong to his immediate successors. Inscribed objects, decorated chapels and inscriptions from the last Southern Cemetery burials, particularly BEG S 10, offer insights into Arkamani's origins and the circumstances behind his ascendancy to national rule.

Recent studies on writing systems in Africa have revealed a tradition of script development that started in the early nineteenth century with at least thirty scripts. Of the twenty that were put into use those that were invented before
the 1930s appear to have been mainly syllabic and those of a later date
mainly alphabetic. This transition cannot be explained by individual language traits or the early lack of familiarity with alphabets but rather by transmission that existed within West Africa where several of the syllabic systems are still in use today.