Cult of beauty - Minerva

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as a place of pilgrimage, or even functioned
as a venue for hunting events.
Prof Steffen Wenig of the Musawwarat
Mission has written that ‘there is no
doubt as to the interpretation of the
Great Enclosure as a complex of sacred
purpose, complemented with palace,
magazine and workshops, and of the
central temple as a cultic installation’.
In addition to the ramps, there are
other unique features including courtyards
that contain no right-angled corners.
Nearby is the reconstructed Lion
Temple of Apedemak (Figs 12, 13).
Here again, in addition to depictions
of lions, many elephants are carved in
relief, both within the temple and on
the outer walls (Fig 15).
Accounts of the region have been
written mainly from an Egyptian perspective,
overlooking independent
developments in the area. Amadou-
Mahtar M’bow, former Director-
General of UNESCO, wrote: ‘African
societies were regarded as societies
without a history… Furthermore, the
African continent was virtually never
considered as a historical entity. On the
contrary, stress was laid on everything
which might give credence to the idea
of a division, since time immemorial,
between a “white Africa” and a “black
Africa”, each ignorant of the other...’
There is
evidence
that Ferlini
might have
deliberately
written that
he found
treasure in
the top of the
pyramid to
deflect future
treasureseekers
from
excavating
the chambers
Fig 12. This elephant
trunk at Musawwarat
es-Sufra is all that
remains of the
original relief.
Fig 13. Lion Temple
restored at
Musawwarat es-Sufra.
Fig 14. Entrance to
the complex at
Musawwarat es-Sufra.
Fig 15. Elephant
relief within the
Lion Temple at
Musawwarat es-Sufra.
(The UNESCO Courier, August/
September, 1979).
Various ‘revisionist’ books and articles
are now being written to redress
the balance, both to give weight to an
African point of view and to re-examine
the interpretation of Egyptian history.
Necia Harkless has suggested in
Nubian Pharaohs and Meroitic Kings:
The Kingdom of Kush (2006), that
‘Egypt was fundamentally African’.
Others, including Bruce Williams in
The Lost Pharaohs of Nubia in Egypt
(1989), have suggested that Egyptian
civilisation ‘may have moved from the
south to north, a concept which is contrary
to current thinking on the subject’.
There is thus much debate about
the extent of Egyptian influence on
Nubian culture, and vice versa. Lack
of funds for archaeological work seriously
hinders progress in Sudan: without
adequate funding, it is impossible
to investigate the culture, ethnography,
trade routes and all the social aspects
of the history of the region. David
Edwards, in The Nubian Past (2004)
suggests ‘we are now looking at archaeological
cultures and ancient settlement
landscapes’ that were ‘virtually
unsuspected’ before the 1960s.
Yet even for tourists visiting northern
Sudan without a complete knowledge
of the region’s ancient history, the
monuments are still breathtaking, and
set in a beautiful country with incredibly
welcoming and friendly hosts. It is
clear that long after they were defeated
and driven out of Egypt, the Nubians
retained many of the traditions from
the north, including burial in pyramids,
a practice that had ended in
Egypt 800 years earlier. n
Many thanks to SARS for giving me
permission to use their archives in
the British Museum.
Minerva May/June 2011 11
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