🇬🇧 [2009-2013] Sedeinga

Excavations at the Meroitic necropolis (Sector II)

Under the direction of Claude Rilly (mission director, epigraphist) and Vincent Francigny (deputy director, archaeologist).

Team: Agathe Chen (anthropologist), Vincent Colard (archéologist, topographer), Romain David (céramologist), Hélène Delattre (pre- and protohistorian, archaeologist), Sandra Porez (draughtswoman), Elsa Yvanez (archaeologist), Haitham Mohamed Abdelrahman (NCAM inspector).

Sedeinga lies between the second and third cataracts, on the left bank of the Nile, around thirty kilometres south of Sai Island. The site was first known for the remains of the temple of Queen Tiye, the Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III. Unfortunately, this romantic ruin, with its single column still miraculously standing, is too fragile to be excavated without costly restoration of the powdered sandstone blocks that make it up.

The site also contains the remains of a 10th-century Christian church.

Between the temple and the grandiose desert that rises up from its Gebels to the west, an immense Napatan and Meroitic necropolis stretches out over almost 40 hectares, the largest one currently known and preserved in Nubia. Michela Schiff Giorgini began studying the Sedeinga site in 1963, under the aegis of the University of Pisa, as an adjunct to the Soleb site, which she had been appointed to direct. Excavations focused on the upper part of the western sector, where the rich burials of local notables (circa 200-250 AD) were unearthed. Jean Leclant took over in 1979, and Catherine Berger-El Naggar directed the excavations until 2008.

The Sedeinga Archaeological Unit (SEDAU), a French mission funded by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (CNRS/UMR 8152, Orient Méditerrannée, Mondes pharaoniques component), resumed their work in 2009 with a new director, a new team and a new research programme, focusing on the Meroitic cemetery. The four-year project focuses on Sector II of the necropolis, with the aim of understanding the chronology of burials and the development of this part of the cemetery.

Two perpendicular rows of Meroitic pyramids were uncovered in the 1990s. Having defined the northern (wadi) and eastern (sand quarry) boundaries of this funerary group, the current team is continuing to uncover the interior of the complex. Twenty-six pyramids and fifty-seven associated tombs have been discovered. Two of the pyramids have the same highly unusual internal “French formal garden” architecture, consisting of an empty internal dome and lateral reinforcements on the diagonals of the monuments. The number of pyramids with internal domes (with or without crosspieces) is now 6 at Sedeinga, this structure being attested elsewhere only by a single example at West Meroe.

Unfortunately, the tombs were systematically emptied almost entirely by repeated looting, sometimes marked by a Christian sherd. A few rare identifiable ceramics have made it possible to date the first use of these tombs to the classical Meroitic period (around the beginning of our era). The monuments were reused in the late Meroitic period, around the middle of the 3rd century AD, which is seen from the palaeographic study of the inscriptions found on this part of the site.

The layout of the burials in this area suggests a scenario for the development of the necropolis: it would not have spread uniformly from the west to the east, as previously suggested, but would have formed separate groups, sometimes contemporaneous, radiating out from one or two tutelary pyramids. Forthcoming campaigns should help to substantiate this hypothesis and further anthropological, ceramological and epigraphic research as new discoveries are made.

In addition to the objectives of the current four-year period, a number of surveys and test pits were carried out in 2010 and 2011. Half a dozen Neolithic and protohistoric sites were uncovered on the western margins of the site by Hélène Delattre. These included the discovery of a ceramic horizon close to the Pre-Kerma culture, associated with a series of storage pits.

Bibliography

• Berger el-Naggar, C., « Contribution de Sedeinga à l’histoire de la Nubie », dans W. Godlewski et A. Atjar (eds.), Between the Cataracts, Proceedings of the 11th Conference for Nubian studies, Warsaw University, 27 August – 2 September 2006, Part One : Main Papers, PAM Suppl. Series 2.1., Varsovie, 2008, p.179-194.
• Carrier, C., « Quelques inscriptions provenant du secteur II de la nécropole de Sedeinga », Meroitic Newsletter 28, 2001, p. 55-56.
• Janot, F., F. Cartier, « Un enfant de l’époque napatéenne à Sedeinga », BIFAO 98, 1998, p. 215-222.
• Janot, F., et alii, « Observations sur la phase d’activité napatéenne de la nécropole de Sedeinga », CRIPEL 17/2, 1997, 129-135.
• Leclant, J., « Taharqa à Sedeinga », dans F. Junge (éd.), Studien zu Sprache und Religion Ägyptens, Festschrift W. Westendorf, Göttingen, p. 1113-1119.
• Leclant, J., « Glass from the Meroitic Necropolis of Sedeinga (Sudanese Nubia) », Journal of Glass Studies, Corning, N.Y. 15, 1973, p. 52-68.
• Leclant, J., et G. Soukassian, « L’église de Nilwa à Sedeinga », dans P. Plumley, Nubian Studies, proceedings for the symposium for Nubian studies, Cambridge, 1982, p. 155-161.
• Reinold, J., « Les sépultures primitives de Sedeinga », dans C. Berger, G. Clerc et N. Grimal (eds.), Hommages à Jean Leclant 2, Le Caire, 1994, p. 351-369.
• Rilly, C., V. Francigny, « The Late Meroitic Cemetery at Sedeinga. Campaign 2010 », Sudan & Nubia 15, 2011, p. 72-79.
• Rilly, C., V. Francigny, « Excavations in Sedeinga. A New Start », Sudan & Nubia 14, 2010, p. 62-68.
• Schiff Giorgini, M., « Soleb-Sedeinga. Résumé des travaux de la Mission pendant les trois campagnes automne 1965-printemps 1968 », Kush 15, 1967-1968, p. 251-268.
• Schiff Giorgini, M., « Sedeinga 1964-1965 », Kush 14, 1966, p. 244-261.
• Schiff Giorgini, M., « Première campagne de fouilles à Sedeinga,1963-1964 », Kush 13, 1965, p. 112-130.

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