An international team of archaeologists who have been working on the banks of the Nile in Sudan for many years has published data on numerous tombs of Nubian civilization. The study of scientists found that this culture developed in parallel with ancient Egypt and borrowed a lot from its neighbor. An article by one of the leaders of archeological work, Michelle R. Buson, appeared in The Conversation. She writes that thousands of years ago, Nubian culture in modern-day Sudan actively used underground tombs to bury their dead. These tombs have been excavated in the Tombos area, located on the banks of the Nile in northern Sudan. The excavations at the site have been going on for 20 years. Buson notes that the tombs were not the same. For example, some of them rise above the surface in the form of round mounds. This was not practiced in ancient Egypt, probably the original technology of the Nubians.
The mounds above protected the underground tombs, the construction of which began at least in 2500 BC. At that time this region was called the kingdom of Cush, and later was called Nubia. The new findings only confirmed the hypothesis that the ancient Kush prospered and successfully competed with Egypt, and sometimes even conquered it. But it so happened that the attention of researchers for the last two centuries has been focused on the study of ancient Egypt, and Sudan has stayed away. At the same time, researchers say that a civilization “parallel” to Ancient Egypt flourished here, whose achievements, including technical ones, sometimes surpassed those of the ancient Egyptians. By the way, archaeologists see in their discoveries the mutual cultural influence of the two powerful states of antiquity. Tombs built in the shape of pyramids were also discovered in Tombos. Maybe the Nubians just copied them from the famous pyramids of the pharaohs. But there is another version: the Cush pyramids could have been built by a dignitary of Ancient Egypt, who ruled Nubia during the New Kingdom around 1200 BC. “The tombs show us how people tried to present themselves and their families in public after death,” Buson wrote. – We can connect the position of the body of burials and the artifacts accompanying it in the grave with various cultural and religious practices. Thus, in one of the funerals of a middle-aged man, we found a bed and a coffin, which combine traditional Nubian and Egyptian customs. The tomb also contained bronze bowls, a decorated wooden box, a pile of amulets that were considered magical items, and a cache of iron weapons demonstrating the early use of iron in Nubia.
Photo: Michele R. Buzon / CC BY-ND
