🇬🇧 [2007-2012] Mouweis: excavations of the Meroitic city

Under the direction of Marie Millet

Mouweis is a major town situated on the banks of the Nile, 50 km south of Meroe. Its excavation by the Louvre’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities began in 2007.

The 16-hectare site, which is currently entirely surrounded by cultivated land, features a low central area framed by two eminences, which prospecting (including magnetic prospecting) and test pits have identified as a large town centre bordered by two residential and craft quarters.

The eastern quarter, tested with three boreholes, yielded a succession of houses dating from Classic Meroitic to Post-Meroitic times (boreholes B and Ka), as well as circular and semi-circular potters’ kilns (Fa). A rectangular kiln (Ka, phase 2), whose construction is reminiscent of Roman models, was used to fire bricks. Pits and dumps have yielded a rich material culture, including animal and human figurines, seal impressions, clay pendants, etc., as well as numerous traces of activity including ivory carving, weaving and iron metallurgy. The western eminence, only auger-tested, offers a stratigraphy 4 m high, the largest on the site.

The town centre comprises a series of large buildings from the Classic Meroitic period, built on two different phases of the Early Meroitic settlement.

To the south of the city lies a palace (A) that was originally 60 meters on each side. One can notice that the layout of the rooms is very reminiscent of that of Wad ben Naga; its southern and eastern margins have been destroyed, the building having suffered considerably from the recovery of its fired bricks, leaving only a core of unbaked brick. In the central zone, magnetic prospecting and surface scans have identified a large complex measuring around 70 x 60 m and bounded by an enclosure (R), as well as a series of buildings on the northeast side: a monumental gateway 9 m long (MF5), largely destroyed, located on an alley framed by two parallel walls; a building 20 m (?) on a side with a decorated door (NF22); a structure yet to be defined (PF1) and a small temple (J).

The latter, measuring 19.50 x 12 m, has a classic tripartite plan, with the end section itself divided into three, with a central naos with a pedestal, probably for a bark. It was created by the royal duo Natakamani-Amanitore, as fragments of decoration indicate. Excavation of the building has been completed and it is now being restored. Following a classic model, it was laid out along an alleyway leading to the main temple, which several clues show was dedicated to Amun – a few fragments of a ram statue were found in the rubble from J. This large temple is logically located within the vast perimeter delimited by the R enclosure, which the foundation level nevertheless indicates was built late in the history of the site.

The first phase of work (2007-2012), which consisted of an initial assessment of the site, outlining its urban structure, history and material culture, has now been completed and a publication is in preparation. The next phase will involve testing the western settlement area, excavating the perimeter of the large central complex and searching for the metallurgical furnaces in the north-eastern quarter.

Starting bibliography

• M. Baud, “The Meroitic royal city of Muweis: first steps into an urban settlement of riverine Upper Nubia”, Sudan & Nubia 12, 2008, p. 52-63.
• M. Baud, “Les fouilles du Louvre à Mouweis, Soudan : approches préliminaires d’un site urbain méroïtique”, in F. Raffaele, M. Nuzzolo & I. Incordino, Recent discoveries and latest researches in Egyptology. Proceedings of the 1^st Neapolitan Congress of Egyptology, Naples, June 18^th-20^th 2008, Wiesbaden, 2010, p. 1-12.
• M. Baud, “Méroé : un monde urbain”, in M. Baud (dir.), Catalogue d’exposition Méroé. Un empire sur le Nil, Paris & Milan, 2010, p. 211-214.
• M Baud, “Mouweis, une ville riveraine de la région de Méroé”, Les Dossiers de l’Archéologie H.S. 18, mars 2010, p. 14-19.
• M. Baud, “Le palais royal de Mouweis”, in V. Rondot, F. Alpi and F. Villeneuve (éd.), La pioche et la plume, hommages archéologiques à Patrice Lenoble, Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, 2011, p. 339-357.
• M. Baud, “Trois saisons à Mouweis : premier bilan archéologique”, in M. Zach (éd.), 11^th International Conference for Meroitic studies, 1^er-4 sept. 2008, Vienne, sous presse.
• M. Baud, “Downtown Muweis – a progress report (2007-2011)”, in D. Welsby & J.Anderson (éds.), Proceedings of the 12^th International Conference for Nubian Studies, 1^er-6 août 2010, British Museum, Londres, 2014.
• Le rapport 2010 est consultable sur le site web du musée du Louvre : http://www.louvre.fr/les-fouilles-du-departement-des-antiquites-egyptiennes-mouweis-soudan-saison-2010
• Voir aussi le documentaire “Mouweis, une ville sous le sable” réalisé par Stan Neumann et Catherine Adda, coproduction musée du Louvre / Camera Lucida, avec la participation de France Télévisions, 2010.

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