More re recent discoveries re economic organization of Kush
The University of Chicago Chronicle (William Harms)
Archaeologists from the Oriental Institute have discovered a gold-processing center along the middle Nile in the Sudan, an installation that produced the precious metal sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C. The center, along with a cemetery they discovered, documents extensive control by the first sub-Saharan kingdom, the kingdom of Kush.
The team found more than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss along the Nile at the site of Hosh el-Guruf, about 225 miles north of Khartoum. The region also was known as Nubia in ancient times. Groups of similar grinding stones have been found on desert sites, mostly in Egypt, where they were used to grind ore to recover the precious metal. The ground ore was likely washed with water nearby to separate the gold flakes. “This large number of grinding stones and other tools used to crush and grind ore shows that the site was a center for organized gold production,” said Geoff Emberling, Director of the Oriental Institute Museum and a co-leader of the expedition. The research was funded by the National Geographic Society and the Packard Humanities Institute, which also offered to support all the other teams working in the Fourth Cataract salvage project, the location of the University’s expedition.
- Online: Bir Umm Fawakhir
Oriental Institute (1993 season) Oriental Institute (1996-1997 season) Bir Umm Fawakhir Survey Project 1993: A Byzantine Gold-Mining Town in Egypt. C. Meyer, L.A. Heidorn, W.E. Kaegi, and T. Wilfong. The Oriental Institute continued its survey of the...
- Ancient Egypt Had Powerful Sudan Rival, British Museum Dig Shows
The Telegraph, UK (Stephen Adams) The Second Kushite Kingdom controlled the whole Nile valley from Khartoum to the Mediterranean from 720BC to 660BC. Now archaeologists have discovered that a region of northern Sudan once considered a forgotten backwater...
- New Gold Processing Centre On Middle Nile
Archaeologists Discover Gold Processing Center On The Nile Archaeologists from the University of Chicago have discovered a gold processing center along the middle Nile, an installation that produced the precious metal sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C....
- Scholars Race To Recover A Lost Kingdom On The Nile
New York TimesThe rescue archaeology being carried out in the fourth cataract area of the Nile, in advance of the completion of the Meroe Dam, is the somewhat demoralizing subject of this article on the above page (accompanied by maps and photographs)....
- Ancient Nubia In Chicago
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/060216/nubia.shtml"Some of the world’s most significant artifacts from Nubia, an ancient African civilization that had important connections to Egypt, will go on display Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Museum of the Oriental...