🇬🇧 Kerma-Doukki Gel

Kerma-Doukki Gel, capital of the Kingdom of Kush and sacred city of the Black Pharaohs

The sites of Kerma and Doukki Gel form a vast archaeological complex that extends over more than 22 hectares, 12 km upstream from the 3^rd Cataract of the Nile, in the present-day Northern Province (الشمالية/ash-Shimaliyah) of the Republic of Sudan. Separated by about a kilometre, the two urban settlements are closely linked, as much by geography as by history. They occupy a strategic position along the valley, at the crossroads of important trade routes that link the regions of sub-Saharan Africa to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The remains uncovered so far at the two sites bear witness to continuous occupation over almost three millennia, between the Early Kerma period (2500-2050 BC) and the Meroitic period (290 BC-350 AD).

The joint Swiss-French-Sudanese mission at Kerma-Doukki Gel was set up in 2013 at the request of the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM). It is the heir to the pioneering work undertaken under the aegis of the University of Geneva, first at Tabo under the direction of Charles Maystre in 1965, then at Kerma 10 years later under the leadership of Charles Bonnet. It is currently co-directed by Séverine Marchi, Xavier Droux, and Abd el-Hay Abd el-Sawy. The multi-disciplinary team assembled for this project is the result of international collaboration between archaeologists, historians, epigraphists, architects and researchers specialising in archaeometallurgy, palaeobotany, geomorphology and archaeometry.

The ancient city of Kerma

The first archaeological work on the site of the ancient city was undertaken in 1913 by the American archaeologist George A. Reisner. His work focused on the imposing mud-brick monument at the centre of the settlement, known to the Sudanese population as “the deffufa“. This edifice and its ancillary buildings had been interpreted as the headquarters of an Egyptian trading post from the 12th dynasty. In 1975, excavations were resumed under the direction of Charles Bonnet, a professor at the University of Geneva. These campaigns demonstrated that the deffufa was in fact the religious centre of the capital of the independent kingdom of Kush, which at its height extended between the First and Fifth Cataracts.

Extensive excavations and urban topography studies carried out across the entire concession have made it possible to draw up a plan that is among the most complete in the Nile Valley. The town was established at the northern end of a strip of land surrounded by canals that are now dry and filled in, but which could have been filled with water for part of the year. These canals and the system of elaborate fortifications that surrounded the town thus contributed to the effective protection of the establishment, located in a relatively flat environment. Several traffic routes, in particular a north-south axis that crosses the town, establish the urban fabric. Around the main temple and its outbuildings, residential quarters, royal residences, administrative buildings, a large circular audience hall and chapels have been found.

Craft production workshops have been highlighted at several points on the site, particularly around places of worship. Like a large cross-shaped oven, intended to produce bronze plaques, which was discovered at the foot of the deffufa, these devices bear witness to the specific know-how of Nubian craftsmen in the field of metallurgy and the production of earthenware and ceramics.

The Doukki Gel site

To the north of Kerma, the remains of Doukki Gel have been the subject of systematic research since 1992. These studies first focused on the Meroitic levels, with the excavation of a large residence and a temple, then on the excavation of several Egyptian temples from the New Kingdom, and finally on the discovery of monuments of a particular architecture dating from the Kerma periods.

Geophysical surveys and surveys carried out in recent years have highlighted the extension of the site towards the north and a stratigraphy more than two metres thick. The levels uncovered in one of these surveys have yielded remains of temporary dwellings made of perishable materials (huts) alternating with the levelled remains of massive towers, bastions and surrounding walls. The latter show that the city was protected by a powerful fortified system, from the Middle Kerma and throughout its history.

The city of the Classic Kerma period is characterised by an urban core supplied with water by two large wells and surrounded by a surrounding wall with several entrances flanked by circular towers. In the western part of this urban core, a large quadrangular building was built, interpreted as a building with a ceremonial and military purpose. Several large oval or circular buildings are built outside this enclosure and are themselves protected by a second fortification.

This complex was almost completely razed to the ground at the time of the conquest of Upper Nubia by the armies of Thutmose I, who destroyed the capital and also subjugated the rural settlements of the rich hinterland of Kerma. Thutmose I then had a menenu established at Doukki Gel, a fortified royal foundation in conquered foreign territory, intended to assert Egyptian domination over the region as well as to store and protect the tributes intended for the central services. Several temples and palaces and an imposing system of fortifications were built on the razed remains of the monuments of the previous period.

Archaeological research has established that the Egyptian settlement of Doukki Gel, unlike Kerma which was abandoned and then transformed into a cemetery, was regularly rebuilt and modified until the Meroitic period.

One of the notable discoveries made at Doukki Gel is a set of seven monumental statues, broken and buried in a pit dug in the religious complex from the Kushite period. Dating from the 7th-6th centuries BC, they represent five sovereigns from the end of the 25th dynasty and the Napatan period: Taharqa, Tanoutamun (two statues), Anlamani, Senkamanisken (two statues) and Aspelta.

The work recently carried out at Doukki Gel aims to continue extensive clearances in the still unknown areas of the site, in order to complete our knowledge of the urban topography of this ceremonial city. Architectural studies and material analyses will allow us to better understand the architecture of the different types of buildings constructed from raw bricks at Kerma and Doukki Gel, and to attempt to establish the origin of certain original construction elements. The remains discovered at both sites bear witness to multiple influences and constant adaptations that it seems important to better define by cross-referencing data from studies conducted by specialists from the different disciplines involved in the project. Study programs on the use of earth, wood and plants in architecture (ANR Nile’s Earth project), on the operating chain of bronze and earthenware and on food storage are underway and will be continued in the years to come.

Another objective is the conservation and enhancement of the sites through annual operations to protect the remains and the development of preservation protocols adapted to each environment. An information center presenting plans, 3D restitutions and aerial photos of the remains by period was opened in 2022 in Doukki Gel. Intended for the local population and foreign visitors passing through, it enriches the tour route offered at the Kerma museum.

Further reading

The mission is supported by the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM-SD), the Advisory Commission for Archaeological Research Abroad of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (FR), the State Secretariat for Training, Research and Innovation (SEFRI), via the Kerma Foundation (CH), the CNRS and Sorbonne University (FR) (UMR 8167 – Orient et Méditerranée, Mondes Pharaoniques team) and by the ANR (project ANR-21-CE27-0019-01: Nile’s Earth).

Bibliography

Summary works

• Ch. Bonnet, D. Valbelle et S. Marchi, « Le jujubier », ville sacrée des pharaons noirs, Paris, Khéops, 2021.
• Ch. Bonnet, The Black Kingdom of the Nile, Cambridge (Ma), London, Harvard University Press, 2019.
• Ch. Bonnet et D. Valbelle, Les temples égyptiens de Panébès « le jujubier » à Doukki Gel, Soudan, Éditions Khéops, Paris, 2018.
• Ch. Bonnet, La ville de Kerma. Une capitale nubienne au sud de l’Egypte, Lausanne, 2014.

Selection of articles

• Ch. Bonnet, “The cities of Kerma and Pnubs-Dokki Gel”, dans G. Emberling et Br. Williams (éd.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Oxford, 2021, p. 201- 212.
• Ch. Bonnet, « Une mission archéologique au Soudan durant 50 années », dans S. Vuilleumier et P. Meyrat (éd.), Sur les pistes du désert, Mélanges offerts à Michel Valloggia, 2019, p. 11‑17.
• Ch. Bonnet, « Doukki Gel, une ville africaine aux frontières de l’Égypte », CRAIB, nov.‑déc. 2017, Paris, p. 1347-1366.
• Ch. Bonnet, S. Marchi et D. Valbelle, « Les sites de Kerma et de Doukki Gel » dans Cinquantenaire de la SFDAS, Soleb-Bleu Autour, 2020, p. 71-95.
• Ch. Bonnet et S. Marchi, “The Egyptian occupation and the indigenous city of Dokki Gel in the early 18^th Dynasty”, Sudan and Nubia 23, 2019, p. 135-143.
• S. Marchi, « Découvertes récentes sur le site de Doukki Gel : les fortifications de la période Kerma », dans M. Maillot (éd.), Actualité de la recherche archéologique française au Soudan, Les routes de l’Orient ancien. Hors-Série 3, 2018, p. 31-45.
• S. Marchi, « Entre arrière-pays et capitale, l’approvisionnement et le stockage des céréales dans le royaume de Kerma (Soudan) », dans A. Bats (éd.), Les céréales dans le monde antique, Nehet 5, 2018, p. 197-216.
• S. Marchi, « Le royaume de Kerma à la fin du Moyen Empire », dans G. Andreu-Lanoë et Fl. Morfoisse (éd.), Sésostris III et la fin du Moyen Empire, CRIPEL 31, 2017, p. 85-102.
• P. Meyrat, « Un corpus d’empreintes de sceaux de Doukki Gel », BIFAO 123, 2023, p. 335-380 [https://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/123/12/]
• D. Valbelle, « Sièges nominatifs et chapelles ‘de confréries’ », BIFAO 120, Le Caire, 2020, p. 449-478.
• D. Valbelle, « Inbt, snbt et mnnw : des dispositifs défensifs particuliers aux frontières de l’Égypte », dans Sandrine Vuilleumier et Pierre Meyrat (éd), Sur les pistes du désert, Mélanges offerts à Michel Valloggia, Gollion, 2019, p. 243‑253.
• Fr. W. Rademakers, G. Verly, P. Degryse, Fr. Vanhaecke, S. Marchi, Ch. Bonnet, « Copper at ancient Kerma: a diachronic investigation of alloys and raw materials », Advances in Archaeomaterials 1, 2021.

---

---