Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!! I hope everyone enjoys their New Years Eve, sets great goals and resolutions, and opens the door to usher out the past negativity. But make sure to welcome in the good yet to come! I hope that everyone has safe travels, I will actually be hitting the open road today as well, so hopefully I have some great photos and stories to share once I return!
This week we are finishing out the year with the Pyramids of Meroë, Sudan! A hidden marvel of the world, this site has a rich history, full of culture, explosions, and thievery. We also talk about the Kingdoms of Kush, and give a bit of a geography lesson.
Image from iStock
TRANSCRIPT:
Feel that the sand the between your toes? It’s time for Architecture, Coffee, & Ink.
30 second Intro song
Hello, this is Hollywood C. and you’re listening to Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. A podcast dedicated to introducing concepts, detailing out designs, and tackling the architecture you might not realize the meaning behind. I’m your hostess and I am here today to start introducing you to the designs that make you wonder why.
tag line: So I ask you to brew your coffee, grab your sketch book and pen, and let’s begin.
Happy New Year!! And welcome to episode 12! I know that this episode comes out before the new year starts, but please enjoy your celebrations and have a safe and happy new year! The year is ending fast, and 2022 is loaming overhead-anyone else a little intimated about setting new resolutions? Maybe I should start introducing the podcast with the phrase: “Welcome to my resolution!” and follow up with the 2nd point-“Finishing up my thesis and graduating in May!” Just kidding, I will definitely set more goals and aspirations for the New Year, but let’s hear both your current goals and those New Year’s resolutions! Stay safe everyone, but take a moment to reflect on where you have been, and decide where you are going.
Before we begin the episode, I just want to disclaimer that next week’s episode will be coming out late, I will actually be traveling for the New Years! So while next week’s episode will happen, don’t worry, I am not skipping a week, it will be coming out on Thursday at 5AM, instead of Tuesday. Otherwise before we begin, just remember to always Check your sources, check your facts, and more importantly, check me!
So today we are going to be talking about the Pyramids of Meroë! So, you may have also heard it called the lost or forgotten pyramids of Meroë-or sometimes even the forgotten kingdom. I have heard several different pronunciations, especially when I was watching news clips for research, so, once again, I mean absolutely no disrespect if I mis-pronounce the name.
The Pyramids are actually located in Sudan, alongside the Nile River. The Pyramids are actually part of a larger grouping of pyramids-actually, you know what? Let’s take a moment and break down the history of the region and kingdoms, and then discuss and describe the Pyramids themselves. Let’s just take a moment and backtrack-because, this is a history that is not as well known. And it’s really not until you sit down to listen to it and hear about it that you realize just how wonderfully deep this topic is. This topic was actually suggested by my sister. So, thanks Scooby-Doo! But to all of you, my dear listeners, sit back and enjoy the episode.
So the history of this site actually starts way back with the Kingdoms of Kush. And yes, please notice I used the plural, as in more than one kingdom. Kush was actually centered around the Nile and was focused within the Nubia region, including Lake Nubia, the Cataracts, and the famous cities of Khartoum during the 25th dynasty. If you look on a series of maps-in history textbooks and online, you will notice that there is a shared border with the Egyptian Empire at one point, normally drawn around the Aswan and 1st Cataract. If you are not familiar with the region or haven’t studied Ancient Egypt in school, you may have noticed on the map, that it refers to the areas further inland as the ‘Upper’ regions, while the areas closer to the Mediterranean are called ‘Lower’ regions, this is in reference to the flow of the Nile, or rather, the Niles-again plural, The White Nile, Blue Nile, Red Nile and Mountain Nile and all of the other tributaries. We are going to be focusing today on the Kushite heartland, which is a slightly smaller region, that includes the cities of Meroë, Kerma, and Napata. Our site is actually located in what is now Sudan, so you may have actually heard them referred to as the Sudan Pyramids, as they were actually in the news not too long ago-something that we will be talking about in a bit. The Cataracts, are the rapids along the river, and have been used as important geographical points within both Wayfaring and storytelling. For us, it is going to be used to explain how far each part of the Kush Kingdom expanded during each part of time. So, to orient yourselves-the rapids closest to the Mediterranean sea is the 1st, while the ones further away are the 6st. Basically, the higher the number, the further away the rapids from the sea.
Within the Kingdom, each of the three major cities capitals rose within a certain time period-and as they arose to power, they are the point of reference used to distinguish between Eras of the Kingdom. So this is a bit like what we talked about last episode, where the locations of the pyramids and stone cities being built by the Maya changed as the Maya civilization evolved. So to keep it all straight, I will be talking about each city as the reference to each era-as to be totally honest, this is how the majority of the articles explained it.
Kerma was from 2450 BCE-1450 BCE-and was focused from the 1st through the 4th Cataracts. Napata is when the time of conquest really kicked off. While there are records of the Kerma period being called Kush in Egyptian records-so from the neighboring kingdom, I noticed that many sites also called it pre-Kush. Napata is when the 25th dynasty comes into play that I mentioned earlier. This period was largely from 1550-1070 BCE, and was a time full of exchange and interactions with their Northern Neighbors, Egypt. The 25th Dynasty actually refers to the 25th dynasty of Egypt which was full of Kush pharaohs ruling, starting with Piye. Despite the kingdom expanding basically to the Mediterranean at this point, culturally, there was still two distinctive identities. There was still a lot of sharing, of ideas and information, but a later invasion of other forces resulted in the deliberate erasure of Kush influences. Many works of art, history, etc, were later destroyed by both the Assyrian and Egyptians who later ruled after the 25th dynasty. This is an unfortunate trend, as many of you history bluffs may have caught the date, and realized that this would have been after the late Pharoah Hatsheptsut was attempted to be removed from the history books by her/their successor, Thutmose, in a quest to strengthen Thutmose’s own rule. However, the treatment was much the same; removing of the names, defacing the statues, the histories, etc.
The final kingdom/city/region was Meroë. Which as you may have guessed, was heavily influenced by everything that came before it, and the people and cultures that intertwined within and around it during the whole of the previous Kingdom of Kush. This period was from 300 BCE through 4 CE-but the impacts of it, echo to today. Including the main topic of today’s episode, the pyramids. As you may have inferred the Meroitic pyramids were heavily influenced by the Egyptians’ pyramids. However, the Egyptians were already building them, by the time that they were incorporated into the Kush. That being said, the sheer number of the pyramids being built and the changes to the design, truly causes this to stand out. While admittedly smaller in size, they had steeper roofs, but, it allowed for multitudes of them to be built. The whole of Meroë was abandoned around 350 CE. If you get the chance to learn more about them and their culture, please do. I know that my primary school focused more on Ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece-but they actually had an amazing trade, crafts, and culture that I unfortunately just won’t have the time in the episode to cover. But, if you do want to learn more and don’t know where to start, please check out either the blog page or reach out to me directly and I will be happy to steer you in a few places.
But, you may have noticed that within my history summary, I attributed the original idea of pyramids, or more the use of pyramids as burial to the Ancient Egyptians, with the 25th dynasty serving as the moment the exchange of ideas between the two kingdoms occurred. However, in 2017, a member of the Sudan government actually claimed that the Kush came first, and were the first to utilize the pyramids. His argument was based on the Quran-particularly using the book of Exodus as his proof, while another group actually uses the Merneptah stele to argue that the Meroë pyramids came first. Another point that was argued, is that one of Piye’s son was actually mentioned in the Hebrew bible as an ally for another.
My problem with these arguments comes down to the fact that they really just come down to a translation issue. There is a lot of flexibility-or no, that’s the wrong word, it’s more of a debate on the use and translation of key words. So, without agreement from everyone for both of those arguments, I just chose to share the history the way the majority of the evidence and carbon dating suggestions, and the way most of the articles and sources I read presented it. There is a rather famous series of mis-translations that occurred throughout the years, including the phrase ‘help-mate’ that changed a lot of history, or at least a lot of the way we look at history, so I will never speak in absolutes about any topic, as there is always room to learn more.
Overall, a lot of the history, and a lot of the interest and study in and around the Nubia area is really focused on the Egyptians. As I stated in the very beginning, this is called a lost or forgotten site. It wouldn’t be called that without good reason. So keep that in mind if you ever research the topic more on your own. It also has been called an assortment of names, each one changing slightly based on the frame of reference it came from. Some other names for the region are Ta-Seti, Ta-Nehesi, Nubia, Cush with a C, and Kush with a K.
But now, with the history of the Kingdom of Kush out of the way, let’s focus on the Pyramids themselves. So, the Meroë pyramids are actually a very specific set of what is now ruins, and considered to be part of the greater Nubian Pyramid whole. Remember, I mentioned earlier that while I and others are addressing each period by the capital, the whole regions is much larger than a single city. According to the UNESCO website, the official protected zone is the Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroë, and was in power from 8 BC to 4 CE, but wasn’t until the 3BCE that the site started serving as a burial grounds for royalty. Unlike the Egyptian Pyramids, these actually had the burial chambers beneath the pyramid. Due to the changes in the environment, they were a mixture of granite and sandstone.
Our particular site, is actually broken up into three major cemeteries, the South, North, and West Cemeteries. Sudan as a whole is reported to have roughly 2-3x the number of pyramids as Egypt. While overall, there are several hundred pyramids and buildings throughout the region, Wikipedia has the most concise summary of buildings per cemetery. To be honest, I really ignored the rest of the article, it wasn’t helpful to my research at all, but it does help with the maps and a rough estimate of what each cemetery has. So the West is the easiest-113 tombs, North has 44 tombs, and the South has 204 tombs roughly. Of the three, the North and the South have a mixture of classes, royalty and upper class, while the west is the only one without royalty. However, and this is a huge however, once there was a switch in the primary language, from Egyptian to Kush, a notable issues in clarity seemed to have arose. Several articles mentioned it off hand, like almost an aside, that once they changed the primary scripts being used, we as a modern society basically don’t understand it. Which to me, should be a much larger point, especially given that we know for a fact that there was a period of time were records were being actively destroyed and records changed. But this is probably why I am not an archaeologist, because I would write a book or make an episode of a Discovery or History Channel Show solely dedicated to arguing the validity of sources. And let’s be honest, no one needs that level of paranoia in their lives on the regular.
But, the pyramids, and who is housed in them, actually tell us a lot about the importance in hierarchy. So, queens were actually housed and clearly denoted as important, and many tombs had the remains of people, possessions, jewelry, and everything that would/could be needed for an enriched afterlife. Overall the site is situated roughly a mile from the Nile. Unfortunately, we have reached the part of the tale that is always the worse part to talk about. Due to the accessibility of the site, it was robed, multiple times. While yes, the site and later studies did recover artifacts, and find things, weapons, etc. the truth is that the site was likely raided multiple times over the years, including an infamous one by Giuseppe Ferlini, who blew the tops off several of the pyramids in the quest for treasure. He is in a series of articles, dubbing him the “Pyramid Destroyer”, “Pyramid Thief”, etc. and is a good example of why I always google figure’s names + conspiracy before talking about them. Overall, he destroyed over 40 of them, starting in 1834-but several other Europeans and other explorers are credited with having seen them, or published books. The difference is, he used dynamite, and sold whatever artifacts survived the explosion to the highest bidder. Including the history of many of the more famous queens. Eventually, historians stepped in, among the most notable including Harvard University, Boston, and the Reisner expedition that yielded the connection between the Kush, Greek, and Romans. All in all, while this site and culture remains open to the public, it is an hidden gem among the UNESCO sites, and one that was recently threatened with both storm damage, and flooding, vandalism and more.
The Necropolis was placed under the protection of UNESCO in 2003, and is also part of the Antiquities Protection Ordinance of 1905, and is managed by the National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums. If you are interested, check out the references I will be posting on the blog later today, I include the UNESCO site, which has the several of the management plans available to read, and see how they are planning to move the site forward.
I wish I had three more hours to talk about their culture and religions, and describe some of the symbolism, and images, but we really have run out of time this week. This is definitely one of the episodes, where I really could have gotten lost in rabbit hole after rabbit hole, and just spent hours talking about the information available-and what isn’t.
But thank you, for tuning in, and as always Once again a big thank you to all my listeners! I know I say this every week, but please: Please rate and review, share with your friends, neighbors, and family, your professor-whomever you think needs some architecture in their life. It really does help the show, and the more listeners, the more I can do. Please tell everyone, or tell me what I suck at. If you want more episodes, or longer ones, or shorter, let me know! We again have a Facebook page and private group, both of which are under the same name: Architecture, Coffee, & Ink. The answer to the question-who is the host-is Hollywood, like the city. And second question is just your opinion, and I might just use it as a recommendation for a show with a little shout out. If you want to either be featured, or have a case study suggestion or perhaps just want to share a story of your favorite design or experience, you can either find me at Architecture, Coffee, & Ink the website is: https://architectureink.design.blog/ . Insta is now architecturecoffeeandink! Just like the email address! Everything will be linked in the show notes. You can also email me at architecturecoffeeandink@gmail.com all spelt out without the ampersands or commas. I started a TikTok, under architecturecoffeeandink as well, and I have a few ideas on how I will be setting forward with that once the new year starts. But until then, have a wonderful new year and as always,
May your coffee mugs be full, and your ink wells never run dry. See you next year everyone.
60 secs end song re-looped.
SOURCES:
Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. “Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Accessed December 30, 2021. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1336/.
“Discover the Meroe Pyramids, Sudan.” Middle East Monitor, August 22, 2020. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200822-discover-the-meroe-pyramids-sudan/.
“Discovering Sudan’s Ancient Pyramids.” Corinthia. Accessed December 30, 2021. https://www.corinthia.com/khartoum/discover-khartoum/discovering-sudan-s-ancient-pyramids/.
El-Behary, Hend. “Sudan Claims Their Pyramids Are 2,000 Years Older than Egypt’s.” Egypt Independent, March 22, 2017. https://egyptindependent.com/sudan-claims-their-pyramids-are-2000-years-older-egypt-s/.
france24english. “Sudan’s Archaeological Treasures in Danger.” YouTube. YouTube, April 9, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgxATHOeOOs.
funktifyd. “Pyramids in Sudan | Sudan’s Pyramids of Meroe | Sudan | 2021.” YouTube. YouTube, February 23, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFuDm9cWXqo.
“Kingdom of Kush.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, December 23, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kush#Kush_and_Egyptology.
Magazine, Smithsonian. “Why Sudan’s Remarkable Ancient Civilization Has Been Overlooked by History.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, September 1, 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sudan-land-kush-meroe-ancient-civilization-overlooked-180975498/.
Mamo, Alessio. “Glimpses of Sudan’s Forgotten Pyramids.” The New York Times. The New York Times, March 22, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/22/travel/sudan-archaeology-meroe.html.
Melikian, Souren. “The Mysteries of Meroe.” The New York Times. The New York Times, May 21, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/22/arts/22iht-melik22.html.
“Meroe the Mysterious Kingdom.” YouTube. YouTube, October 19, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkL9pqI6db0.
“Meroe.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed December 30, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/place/Meroe.
National Geographic Society. “The Kingdoms of Kush.” National Geographic Society, July 2, 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/kingdoms-kush/.
“The Nubian Pyramids of Sudan – Intro Africa – Travel.” Intro Africa, July 3, 2020. https://intro.africa/story/the-nubian-pyramids-of-sudan/.
“Nubian Pyramids.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 28, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubian_pyramids.
“The Pyramids of Meroe in Sudan.” Suzanne Lovell Inc., July 13, 2020. https://suzannelovellinc.com/blog/the-pyramids-of-meroe-in-sudan/.
“Pyramids of Meroe.” Sacred Sites: World Pilgrimage Guide. Accessed December 30, 2021. https://sacredsites.com/africa/sudan/pyramids_of_meroe.html.
“Pyramids of Meroë.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, November 3, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramids_of_Mero%C3%AB.
“Sudan – the Cradle of Nile Civilizations.” YouTube. YouTube, November 20, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATugi2in588.
Taylor, Alan. “The Forgotten Pyramids of Meroë.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, May 4, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/05/the-forgotten-pyramids-of-meroe/392312/.
