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Kerma


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This article is about the ancient city. For other uses, see Kerma
(disambiguation) .

*Kerma* (now known as Doukki Gel—a Nubian term which can be roughly
translated as "red mound") was the capital city of the Kingdom of Kerma ,
in present day Egypt and Sudan , an archaeological site as old as 5,000
years. It became a real Nubian state during the 3rd millennium BC. Kerma
was about 435 miles (700 km) away from Aswan .


Contents

[hide ]

* 1 Early settlement 
* 2 The Nubian Town 
o 2.1 Building materials 
* 3 Archaeological find 
* 4 References 
* 5 See also 
* 6 External links 


[edit ] Early settlement

Human populations settled in the Kerma Basin at a very early date, as
witnessed by several Mesolithic and Neolithic sites^[1] . The earliest
traces of a human presence in the region date back some eight hundred
thousands years. From 7500 BC onward the remains become more significant:
semi-buried dwellings, various objects and tools, and graves.^[2] The
Neolithic phrase, from the late sixth to the fourth millennium BC, is much
better known and allows us to follow the stages of the spread of
agriculture and the domestication of cattle in this period. Around 3000 BC
a town grew up not far from the Neolithic dwellings place.


[edit ] The Nubian Town

In the past thirty years, archaeologist Charles Bonnet's systematic
excavation of Nubian Kerma has presented a picture of a capital city in
the third and second millennia BCE. The evolution of the residential area
is highly complex, yet it is possible to identify social differences and a
marked hierarchy. Furthermore, we might speculate about the general nature
of this town, which seems to correspond above all to a protected zone
reserved for an elite population. Whereas elsewhere in the kingdom we find
towns that centralized agricultural products and villages that were
situated alongside fields of crops, here in the capital we find spacious
homes inhabited by dignitaries who monitored the trade in merchandise
arriving from far-off lands, and who supervised shipments dispatched from
administrative buildings.


[edit ] Building materials

In the Old Kerma (2450-2050 BCE), religious buildings and special
workshops for preparing offerings were built using trunks of acacia trees,
and roofed with palm fibers. These plant-based materials, once encased in
hardened clay , could be painted in lively colors. The round huts were
usually made of wood and clay. This method of construction, inspired by
traditions dating back to prehistory , is still being used today.

Around 2200-2000 BCE, the builders began using unfired mud-bricks . Later,
the use of fired bricks constituted a significant change, because such
material remained almost unknown elsewhere along the Nile Valley until the
Late Period.


[edit ] Archaeological find

In 2003, a Swiss archaeological team working in northern Sudan uncovered
one of the most remarkable Egyptological finds in recent years. At the
site known as Kerma, near the third cataract of the Nile , archaeologist
Charles Bonnet and his team discovered a ditch within a temple from the
ancient city of Pnoubs, which contained seven monumental black granite
statues. Magnificently sculpted, and in an excellent state of
preservation, they portrayed five pharaonic rulers, including Taharqa and
Tantamani , the last two Pharaohs of the 'Nubian' Dynasty, when Egypt was
ruled by kings from the lands of modern-day Sudan. For over half a
century, the Nubian pharaohs governed a combined kingdom of Egypt and
Nubia, with an empire stretching from the Nile Delta to the upper reaches
of the Nile .^[3]


[edit ] References

1. *^ * Pre-Kerma

2. *^ * Bonnet, Charles, et al. /The Nubian Pharaohs:
Black Kings on the Nile/, AUC Press (February 22, 2007) - ISBN
977416010X 
3. *^ * Digging into Africa's past




Coordinates : 19°36′03″N 30°24′35″E
/ 19.600802°N 30.409731°E / 19.600802; 30.409731