For You Lot Data - A Mighty Egyptian Fortress Revealed

Since he in addition to his squad began excavating the ancient Egyptian colony of Tombos inwards Sudanese Nubia, Stuart Tyson Smith has made a host of discoveries. But something eluded the UC Santa Barbara professor of anthropology: evidence of the fortifications typical of a settlement on the frontier.

A caput from a woman's coffin dating to the 18th Dynasty, roughly 1400 BC. 
It came from tomb nigh Tombos [Credit: Stuart Tyson Smith/UCSB]

No longer. In a chapter of a novel book, From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Individual households in addition to cities inwards Ancient Arab Republic of Egypt in addition to Nubia (Sidestone Press, 2018), Smith in addition to his co-author, Michele Buzon, a professor of anthropology at Purdue University, item their regain of the foundations of a fortress at Tombos that probable dates to the colony’s founding closed to 1450 BC.

The regain of massive fortifications — 400 meters a side — helps cement Tombos’ house every bit an of import Egyptian colony of the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BC), said Smith, who has excavated the site inwards Sudan amongst Buzon since 2000.

“Karoy was a lost fortress — nobody knew just where it was in addition to the probable candidates all had other names,” Smith said. “Once nosotros started excavating inwards the cemetery people started speculating that it mightiness last at Tombos, but at that topographic point was no sign of a fort. It was puzzling, because it didn’t jibe the bill; it was explicitly called a fortress, thus it had to last fortified. Once nosotros establish a fortification, I went, ‘Aha! Here’s the smoking gun that lets us know that this is the house mentioned yesteryear the Vizier Merymose over 3,300 years agone at the border of the colonized zone of Nubia.’ ”

UCSB alum Mohamed Faroug Abdelrahman Ali, who supervised the town earthworks inwards Tombos,
 stands inwards a dry out moat, utilisation of an ancient fortification [Credit: Stuart Tyson Smith/UCSB]

In “The Fortified Settlement at Tombos in addition to Egyptian Colonial Strategy inwards New Kingdom Nubia,” Smith in addition to Buzon write that the showtime hints of a fortress at Tombos engagement to the showtime years of the 16th century BC, when the pharaoh Thutmose I conquered Kush in addition to incorporated Nubia into an empire that would concluding through the halt of the New Kingdom.

Not long after, Thutmose I ordered inscriptions carved on granite outcrops at Tombos, which Smith in addition to others convey argued signified an internal boundary inside Egypt’s Nubian empire at the headwaters of the Third Cataract. Interpreters of the inscription convey said it refers to the construction of a menenu, or fortress, at the site — although no fortification had been found.

Fast-forward to a greater extent than than 3,500 years. Beginning inwards 2013 in addition to continuing through the 2015-17 champaign seasons at Tombos, Smith in addition to Buzon discovered evidence of buildings in addition to what they termed “a massive novel fortification.” Distinctive pottery types, inscriptions in addition to radiocarbon dates dot that it was built closed to l years after the conquest, in all probability commissioned nether the articulation reign of Queen Hatshepsut in addition to her stepson Thutmose III (c. 1578-1458 BC).

Inscriptions carved into granite outcroppings at the Third Cataract of the Nile. They're almost 100 yards northward
of the Tombos fortress in addition to commemorate Thutmose I's conquest of the Kingdom of Kush inwards 1502 BC
[Credit: Stuart Tyson Smith/UCSB]

“One of our goals was to honour the town where people were living,” Smith said. “We knew it was somewhere nether the (modern) hamlet because we’ve seen pottery in addition to we’ve done a duad of lilliputian tests in addition to establish some foundations inwards ane spot, a bunch of pottery inwards other places. And thus nosotros decided to become all inwards in addition to but start digging inwards every opened upward infinite the villagers would allow us dig in. And they were rattling dainty almost it, which I convey to tell is typical of the Nubian people who convey been our hosts all these years.

“Initially, nosotros establish this weird feature,” he continued. “It looked similar a subterranean edifice of some kind.” Below ground, it was a trench lined amongst mud brick walls in addition to had mud floors on a rock foundation. It was likewise filled amongst “heaps in addition to heaps of pottery, thus at that topographic point were a lot of people living nearby.”

Smith in addition to Buzon weren’t certain what it was, but inwards the adjacent 2 seasons they kept next it inwards both directions. They dug a lay out of exam trenches to come across how far it went through the village. “It but kept going in addition to going,” said Smith, noting it ran far yesteryear the southern border of the modern hamlet in addition to out to the Nile to the west, a bridge of to a greater extent than than 200 meters to a side. It is, he said, larger than whatsoever of the other fortified colonies going dorsum to the Middle Kingdom (c. 2050-1710 BC).

This view scarab from the tomb of a adult woman named Weret, was inscribed amongst a acre from the Book of the Dead that
prevented a person's view from testifying against them inwards the divine judgement. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 scarab amongst a person's
head is rarer than the purely insect type [Credit: Elizabeth Drolet/UCSB]

Why such a large fortress at Tombos? Buttressing the newly discovered importance of the site, Smith said, was the before regain of an elaborate tomb for an Egyptian official named Siamun. Originally arrayed across the façade of the tomb were funereal cones referring to him every bit “scribe-reckoner of the golden of Kush.”

Smith said he suspects Siamun was inwards accuse of the annual payment of tribute to the pharaoh, probable golden every bit his championship suggests, but likewise other products similar cattle, ivory in addition to ebony. He described it every bit taxation framed every bit reciprocity: furnish for the manlike individual monarch in addition to he’ll assure your safety. It’s a mutual practise across cultures, Smith noted, ane typically described every bit ritualized tribute framed every bit a variety of gift exchange.

Although the empire’s formal boundary lay far upstream nigh the Fifth Cataract of the Nile, Tombos’ location on the eastward banking corporation of the Nile at the Third Cataract in addition to its massive fortifications, Smith said, would convey made it a powerful symbol of the kingdom’s ability in addition to influence at a symbolic internal boundary inside the empire, exclusively 10 kilometers northward of the conquered uppercase at Kerma. Downstream the Egyptians inserted a serial of fortified colonies similar Tombos, but upstream they adopted a to a greater extent than hands-off policy, allowing a score of local autonomy.

Two New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BC) tombs excavated nigh Tombos
[Credit: Stuart Tyson Smith/UCSB]

Smith estimates the fortress was an active defensive construction for 100-200 years, after which the trench begins to fill upward amongst trash. Why? The respond may prevarication inwards what he calls the “cultural entanglement” — the procedure yesteryear which colonizing powers in addition to indigenous people influence ane some other in addition to alter over fourth dimension — of Arab Republic of Egypt in addition to Nubia.

Smith in addition to Buzon’s operate inwards the cemetery but exterior Tombos has provided potent evidence of such closed integration betwixt the Egyptian colonizers in addition to their Nubian subjects that their cultural entanglement led to a blurring of cultural identities. With that, Smith suspects, the threat from Nubia — in addition to the need for a slap-up fortress — would convey evaporated inwards the desert heat.

“It’s quite possible that afterwards on,” Smith said, “Egyptian command of Nubia was thus strong, in addition to Nubia was thus good integrated into the empire, in addition to to a greater extent than broadly Egyptian society, that inwards fact the need for fortifications disappears, at to the lowest degree on the eastward banking corporation at Tombos, since the New Kingdom colonies to the north, all located on the due west bank, nevertheless maintained fortifications. Of course, it’s likewise possible they built some other ane in addition to nosotros haven’t establish it.”

Looking ahead, Smith said he wants to search for the temple in addition to houses that would convey been a utilisation of the fortress. Tombos, it turns out, is the gift that keeps on giving.

“Oh, it is,” he said. “It’s amazing, in addition to I went into it initially thinking, ‘Oh, it’s perchance a five-year earthworks campaign; we’ll figure out what’s going on hither in addition to thus motility on to something else.’ But nosotros but kept finding to a greater extent than in addition to more.”

Author: Jim Logan | Source: UC Santa Barbara [September 13, 2018]


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