Sudan's fabled city on the Lower Nile is being excavated, conserved, and prepared for tourism, reports Jill Kamil In a lecture at the Canadian Institute of Archaeology in Cairo last month, Krzys Grzymski of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) described the use of modern technology to uncover the origins and topography, history and development of Meroe, an African kingdom which developed along the upper reaches of the Nile about 200km north of Khartoum between 800 BC and 350 AD. "We began our operations in October 1999, and ancient Meroe is slowly coming to light," Grzymski said. "We first carried out a comprehensive survey of the area, and we are doing our work slowly and thoroughly. There is probably no greater danger to the preservation of an ancient site than hasty excavations, and much of our first season was spent walking over the entire area and recording surface material." This exercise produced a number of surprises which included errors in earlier published plans of various buildings, numerous unrecorded inscriptions, some graffiti, and many beautifully carved blocks. "Perhaps the most exciting discovery was a stone block bearing the name of King Anlamani (c. 620-600 BC), one of the earliest datable objects ever found at Meroe," Grzymski said. The UNESCO operations sponsored by the Egyptian and Sudanese governments in the 1960s, when the High Dam in Aswan was destined to inundate all of Nubia, did not include Meroe because it did not fall into the threatened area. Those salvage operations did, however, revive interest in the ancient capital city of Kush, and excavations were resumed in 1965 under the directorship of Peter Shinnie. At first these were on behalf of the University of Khartoum, and later in a joint mission with Canada's University of Calgary. Domestic and industrial areas were unearthed, several iron-smelting furnaces discovered. Also located were temples dedicated to Isis and the Nubian lion-god Apedemak. Excavations revealed what appeared to be part of a processional avenue leading to a large temple. Also found was a prison, so-called because Herodotus, in the sixth century BC, alluded to prisoners kept in chains of gold. Although new light is being cast on Meroe, mysteries remain. And it is with a view to drawing back the veil of uncertainty on the African kingdom that Krzys Grzymski and co-director Ali Osman are proceeding to excavate two areas of the ancient city: mound M 712, which was identified, but not excavated, by John Garstang, and parts of the Amun temple, the largest building in the city of Meroe which was never adequately studied. Modern archaeological surveys are not limited to observing the structures visible on the surface. "Thanks to technological developments, it is now possible to identify structures hidden underground by means of a geophysical survey," Grzymski said. Several different techniques are being used, including a magnetic survey based on identifying anomalies in the ground and a resistivity survey which detects differences in the electrical resistivity of the soil. Power-point presentations greatly facilitate understanding, but magnetic maps are not for the lay public. Grzymski had to point to part of the area known as the "royal city" (which revealed a large rectangular structure which is possibly a palace), a double row of circles near the city's southern gate which was at first thought to be a monumental colonnade but was later identified as brick-lined pits filled with rich soil brought up from the Nile's banks. "Our magnetic map revealed the existence of similar tree pits at the southern gate," Grzymski said, adding that, "this avenue of verdant trees would have been an impressive sight." The project is called the "Meroitic revival" and the aim of the team, in contrast to earlier archaeologists who concentrated exclusively on excavations, is site preservation and conservation. Meroe lies within the rain belt, and during the July-September rainy season its soft Nubian sandstone buildings are exposed to serious water erosion, a hazard unknown further north. It is a seriously threatened area. "Prior to excavations, and on the recommendation of our conservators, we set about trimming trees and removing some of the spoil heaps left by previous excavators," Grzymski said. "This not only makes the site more attractive to visitors but helps to redirect the flow of water away from endangered structures, and moreover it keeps goats from climbing on and destroying the remaining walls." Meroe has become a popular tourist destination, largely because the sight of archaeologists at work is ever a tourist attraction, and also because there are not many alternatives within reach of Khartoum which is only a couple of hours away by car. "We have had to take the increased flow of Sudanese and foreign visitors into account and provide facilities for them," Grzymski said. Nubiology is now a recognised discipline. "The study of Nubia extends beyond the Nilotic sites in Egyptian and Sudanese Nubia, into the Eastern Desert as far as the Red Sea coast, and across the Western Desert to include the oases," Grzymski explained.
