UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The civilization of Napata and Meroe
Generally speaking there existed in the Napata and Meroe periods the
same branches of agriculture as in ancient Egypt but in another relationship.
Animal husbandry dominated over agriculture, and garden and orchard
cultivation were less developed. But cotton started to be cultivated here
much earlier than in Egypt. So far as is known the agricultural products
were not exported as they were hardly sufficient for local consumption.
Mineral resources
During antiquity the empire of Kush has been considered one of the
richest countries of the known world. This renown was due more to the
mineral wealth of the border lands to the east of the Nile than to the core
of the kingdom itself.
Kush was one of the main gold-producing areas in the ancient world.
Gold was mined between the Nile and the Red Sea, mostly in the part
to the north of the eighteenth parallel where many traces of ancient mining
are to be found. Gold production must have been an important occupation
in the Meroitic empire and the temples seem to have owned large quantities
of it. Taharqa endowed one of his numerous temples with no kilogrammes
of gold in nine years. 42 Recent excavations at Meroe and
Mussawwarat es-Sufra revealed temples with walls and statues covered by
gold leaf. Gold and its export were not only one of the main sources of
the wealth and greatness of the kingdom but greatly influenced foreign
relations with Egypt and Rome. It has been computed that during antiquity
Kush produced about i 600 000 kilogrammes of pure gold. 43 Gold must also
have been prized by the nomadic peoples according to various reports.
King Nastasen, for instance, exacted nearly 300 kilogrammes of gold from
various peoples he fought near Meroe. 44
Although numerous silver and bronze objects have been found in burial
places, and offerings to temples very often comprised silver artefacts, sometimes
of high artistic quality, it seems that neither silver nor copper were
mined locally and must have been imported from outside.
On the other hand, the eastern desert was rich in various precious and
semi-precious stones such as amethyst, carbuncle, hyacinth, Chrysolith,
beryl and others. Even if these mines were not all controlled by the Meroitic
kingdom, in the last resort all their products went through Meroitic trade
channels, and so increased the fame of Meroe as one of the richest countries
in the ancient world.
The problem of iron working
The large mounds of slag found near the ancient town of Meroe and
42. J. Vercoutter, 1959, p. 137.
43. H. Quiring, p. 56.
44. H. Schäfer, 1901, pp. 20-1.
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