proven that they were using tetracycline in ancient times as part of their advanced pharmacology

Yeap,nubians used it to in meroe.

Reaching for Sudan's Buried History


Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)

April 9, 2001
Posted to the web April 10, 2001

Yahya El Hassan
Khartoum, Sudan

Archaeologists in Sudan have celebrated a number of outstanding
ancient discoveries in the 2000-2001 excavation season as they
continue to unravel the country's buried history.

The latest excavations were conducted from early October through late
March, the cool season that suits archaeologists unaccustomed to the
hot summer of Sudan.

In focus was the monumental heritage of Napata and Merowe kingdoms of
ancient Sudan, both of them in the far north of the country.

A temple built by King Akhenaton for the worship of god Amon was
unearthed in Kerma, the capital of the Napata Kingdom that spans from
2500 to 1500 before Christ (BC). Kerma is some 200km south of the
Sudan-Egypt border.

According to Hassan Hussein, director of the National Corporation for
Antiquities and Museums (NCAM), the temple dates back to 1400 BC.
This period is known in Sudan's ancient history as the period when
Egyptian kings conquered and ruled Sudan.

Losing confidence in the multitude of gods worshipped in his kingdom,
Akhenaton unified all gods in one whom he named Amon. The link is
obvious between the words Amon and Amen.

The discovery was made by a mission of archaeologists from
Switzerland.

Among their findings were the temple, a number of houses in its
surroundings, a furnace for copper smelting, an earthen brick
workshop, a cemetery, human skeletons, earthen pottery, stamps and
axes.

There was also a collection of shaving razors, bronze weapons, golden
and silver jewellery, cushions and fans made of ostrich feathers as
well as a wooden bed in the shape of a standing horse, all coated in
gold. Some fragments of damaged statues were also unearthed.

A grave of one of the kingdom's princes was found in the vicinity of
the temple. Fortifications representing complex defence systems were
also found in the area.

Beneath the temple are several walls of baked mud bricks. Chalk was
used to make brick walls adhere.

Another landmark discovery was a building in the monumental area of
Musawwarat el Safra, one of the major cities of the Merowite Kingdom
of 800BC - 350AD, located 140km north of Khartoum and about 60km
south of the kingdom's capital in Bajrawiyya.

The building was discovered by a mission from the German
Archaeological Society led by Prof. Stefan Weing.

During a public lecture that attracted a wide audience in Khartoum
last week, Weing, using slide photographs, elaborately described what
his team unearthed.

"The monument is an enclosure that contained a garden, a number of
houses and a number of animal sheds.

"This represents a very sophisticated gardening system with a unique
irrigation technique in which pipes made of stone carried later from
a reservoir into canals built of bricks and then to the gardens," he
explained.

In the same area, Weing's team also came across an iron smelting
furnace and another for burning bricks.

"Iron smelting required the burning of a lot of firewood and that
might have caused the environmental degradation in this area that is
now an endless series of sand dunes," he observed.

The findings suggest that environmental degradation might have caused
the downfall of the Merowite kingdom.

Also, an ancient regional city of the Merowite Kingdom has been
discovered near the town of Berber, some 300km north of Khartoum.

NCAM excavations director, Salah Mohammed Ahmed said the 150 square
km city dates back to the second century BC.

The discovery was made by archaeologists from NCAM and the Ontario
Royal Museum in Canada.

Ahmed said digging will continue to unearth, but the work might take
years.

Kerma, Musawwarat el Safra, Bajrawiyya and Jebel el Barkal are
Sudan's important tourist attractions because of previous monumental
discoveries such as pyramids, temples and statues in these areas.

"We are about to conduct a nation-wide archaeological survey with aim
of drawing an archaeological map for the country," NCAM director
Hassan Hussein said.

"We want to close missing links and fill in the gaps in ancient
history," Hussein told PANA, explaining that priority was on areas
proposed for construction of dams and highways.

Hussein holds a conviction that civilisation started in Africa.
"Discoveries made in Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia - all
of them indicate human civilisation started here in Africa," he said.

Sudan's archaeologists, however, find their efforts often frustrated
by antiquities thieves.

Hussein said masked thieves recently attacked a monument guard at
Bajrawiyya, but were unable to run away with anything.

In a bid to check such thefts, the Ministry of the Interior in
Khartoum set up a special police unit to protect the monuments.

Meanwhile, Hussein has appealed for cooperation of neighbouring
countries in detecting and preventing the smuggling of stolen
monuments.


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Copyright © 2001 Panafrican News Agency. Distributed by AllAfrica
Global Media (allAfrica.com).


Musawwarat el Safra, one of the major cities of the Merowite Kingdom
of 800BC - 350AD, located 140km north of Khartoum and about 60km
south of the kingdom's capital in Bajrawiyya.

The building was discovered by a mission from the German
Archaeological Society led by Prof. Stefan Weing.

During a public lecture that attracted a wide audience in Khartoum
last week, Weing, using slide photographs, elaborately described what
his team unearthed.

"The monument is an enclosure that contained a garden, a number of
houses and a number of animal sheds.

"This represents a very sophisticated gardening system with a unique
irrigation technique in which pipes made of stone carried later from
a reservoir into canals built of bricks and then to the gardens," he
explained.

In the same area, Weing's team also came across an iron smelting
furnace and another for burning bricks.

"Iron smelting required the burning of a lot of firewood and that
might have caused the environmental degradation in this area that is
now an endless series of sand dunes," he observed.

The findings suggest that environmental degradation might have caused
the downfall of the Merowite kingdom

Beer, Antibiotics, Ancient Nubia?!

Take two beers and call me in 1,600 years
Natural History; New York; May 2000; George J Armelagos

http://www.ansteorra.org/pipermail/sca-cooks/2002-March/132224.html