Qasr Ibrim
Qasr Ibrim is located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Nile, some 116km north of the Egyptian-Sudanese border and 238km south of Aswan (22°39′ N, 32°00′ E). Its occupation spans circa 1000 BC to AD 1813. It is the only substantial ancient site to have survived the flooding of Lower Nubia with the construction of the Aswan High Dam. At the highest lake levels (which were recorded in 1979-80) around 70 percent of the walled town remained unflooded. The hyperarid conditions of Lower Nubia, combined with the elevated position of the site above the Nile, have resulted in the exceptional preservation of organic materials. Numerous textiles, baskets, leather and wooden artifacts have been recovered. Biological residues include seeds, coprolites and lipids, as well as soft animal tissues. Texts are preserved on papyrus, parchment and paper as well as on stone, pottery and wood and as grafitti. The main languages or scripts found on the site are hieroglyphic, hieratic, Demotic, Meroitic, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Old Nubian, Arabic and Turkish.
The area was known in medieval and modern times as Ibrim, with the place-name of Qal’at or Qasr Ibrim applied to the fortress. Ibrim is probably a corruption of Primis, Prima and Premnis, names given by classical authors, which themselves are probably versions of the Meroitic Pedeme. The Egyptian version of the name is not known; as the site lay within the pharaonic locality of Mi’am, this may have been applied to both sides of the river.
The earliest remains come not from the hilltop, but cut into the side of the rock-face at river level. Six shrines were recorded by Ricardo Caminos in 1961, before they were removed to Wadi es-Sebua with the flooding of the lake; four commemorate viceroys of Kush and range in date from Tuthmose III to Ramesses II. On another headland to the south, there was a rock-cut inscription of Seti I and his viceroy, Amenemope, as well as a series of New Kingdom grafitti. These most probably relate to the important site of Aniba, the residency of the viceroy, located on the west bank, almost opposite to Ibrim, but now completely flooded.
New Kingdom occupation on the hilltop itself remains unproven. Several pieces of carved stone of New Kingdom date have been excavated from the site; none is from early contexts, and it must be assumed that they have been brought from elsewhere during post-pharaonic times. Among notable finds is a small granite obelisk of Hatshepsut, laid in a stairway of Christian date, a door lintel of Amenhotep II, set at the entrance to the Meroitic temple and a stela of Amenhotep I, found in the Cathedral.
Stratified deposits belong to the early first millennium BC, on the basis of radiocarbon dates. A fortification was built around the cliff, with an entrance facing to the southeast. The wall was built with outer and inner faces of mudbrick and a core of pitched stones; an internal stair suggests that there was also a walkway at an upper level. The entrance was subsequently modified, then encased in a large stone tower, which was in turn surrounded by a mudbrick bastion. A stone terrace, which was built against this bastion, contains a mudbrick temple with sandstone column drums bearing the cartouche of Taharka. Within the fortress, a number of mudbrick structures of a domestic and administrative nature have been found with associated deposits containing mainly Napatan (25 th Dynasty) pottery. This sequence contradicts the received interpretation that Lower Nubia was abandoned at the end of the New Kingdom; at Ibrim, it seems that fortifications were maintained in good order until the 25th Dynasty. These levels have also provided evidence for the early use of domestic camel.
There was considerable building activity at the site between the 25 th Dynasty and the Roman occupation; this may be Ptolemaic or very early Meroitic. Remains include the construction of the South Gate, the Podium, a large stone temple and a further phase of defensive wall. The Podium is a notable structure, similar in plan to temple quays, known from Karnak, Kalabsha and Philae. The Ibrim example, however, is located 70m above the Nile and faced a dry wadi rather than the Nile. It remains undated except through its stratigraphic association, although it does contain a Greek inscription (unread).
The Roman military occupation at Ibrim is documented both by classical sources (notably Strabo and Cassius Dio) and by archaeological evidence. The campaign against the Meroites concluded with a peace treaty in 21 BC, which established the southern frontier of Egypt at Maharraqa, north of Ibrim. In the intervening period, Gaius Petronius, the Roman prefect, fortified and garrisoned Ibrim, with sufficient food for 400 men for two years and "made the place thoroughly secure by sundry devices." The existing walls were heightened, and a large bastion was constructed facing upriver. Military artifacts have been found, notably by the southern defensive wall. Here textiles, baskets, leather, including sandals, imported amphorae and terra sigillata and a small number of coins were dumped around 21 BC, when the garrison moved out. Manuscripts have also been found, including a papyrus containing nine lines of elegaic verse, which have been attributed to Petronius’s predecessor as prefect, Cornelius Gallus. Excavation within the fortress has revealed scant remains of buildings associated with the military occupation, although survey of an adjacent area of desert plateau identified two Roman siege camps.
Nubian people seem to have moved in after the Roman evacuation. The main evidence comes from the eastern terraces of the site, which have produced sizable assemblages of first century BC/AD Meroitic pottery. The survey of the desert to the rear of the site has yielded further examples of this pottery, often associated with robbed burial sites and dry stonewalled structures. This area seems to have been a cemetery and possibly a festival ground. By AD 250, Ibrim was a major Meroitic center. A new stone temple was constructed with extensive magazines on one side. A further unexcavated temple may also belong to this period, with a processional way cut through the rock to link the two structures. On the south and east sides of the site, mudbrick buildings suggest a permanent population. Considerable numbers of Meroitic papyri have been excavated, which, while remaining largely unread, point to the importance of the site as an administrative as well as a religious center. A number of significant innovations can be noted in the late Meroitic period, including the cultivation of summer crops, the use of the saqqiya irrigation and the local use of cotton cloth.
The transition to the X-Group period around AD 400 resulted in few changes in the use of the fortress. Houses were now built on a more extensive scale; the storage areas incorporated within them have produced a wealth of sealed artifacts, environmental material as well as pottery. The population remained strongly pagan; at least one more temple was constructed in stone, and possibly a second in mudbrick, making a total of six on the site. The extensive barrow cemeteries in the valleys below excavated by Walter Emery in 1961 date to this period. Texts, including correspondence between kings of the Nobatae and the Blemmyes, suggest that Ibrim remained an important administrative center.
Christianity seems to have been introduced relatively peacefully during the latter part of the sixth century, and it is just possible that Ibrim was chosen by the early monophysite missionary Longinus as his residence in Nobatae during circa 569-75; an ostracon apparently bearing his name has been found at the site. There is some evidence for a transitional phase between paganism and Christianity at Ibrim, including a richly furnished X-Group tomb, decorated with a single rock-cut cross, and a tomb within the Cathedral containing X-Group grave goods. One pagan temple was clearly ransacked at the conversion, with a few objects safely buried in nearby storage pits. The Taharka temple, however, was converted to a church, on ceramic evidence during the late sixth century. Two other surviving churches, the Period One Cathedral and the Church on the Point, may also date to the late sixth or seventh century. From the latter church, possible sixth-century liturgical objects, including a book cover, have been found. The Cathedral was largely constructed from stones taken from the Meroitic temples nearby; the nave was flanked by granite columns and capitals brought from Aswan, which are stylistically very close to those used in the sixth-century church at Philae.
The Cathedral was later rebuilt on an even grander scale, and repaired again, possibly after an Ayyubid raid of 1172-3. Outside the Cathedral, the robbed tombs of bishops have also been found, containing their stelae in Coptic as well as the remains of shrouds made from tiraz cloth of Fatimid date. The only intact burial of a bishop found on the site was that of Timouthias, buried inside the Cathedral, with his testimonial letters, dating to shortly after 1378. The last bishop of Ibrim is noted in a document from Gebel Adda dated 1484; it is likely that around this time the Christian occupation ceased. Apart from the Cathedral and its bishop, Ibrim was also the residence of the Eparch, the Christian official appointed by the king of Makurra, to regulate trade with the Muslim north as was set out in the bagt treaty. Official correspondence has been found documenting this trade, including an Arabic letter, dated AD 759, listing violations. Later correspondence dates to the Fatimid period and notes such places as Aidhab on the Red Sea and Soba to the south at the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. Artifacts from long-distance trade include glass, ceramics (including luster wares) and cloth. The archaeological sequence has been divided into the Early (600-850), Classic (850-1170) and Late Christian periods (1170-1500) on the basis of Nubian ceramics; numerous houses, with associated occupation deposits containing both artifacts and documents, have been found. The main languages in use were Old Nubian, Coptic and Arabic.
The final occupation was as a military fortress, forming part of the southern frontier of the Ottoman empire, established circa 1560-70, by the creation of a sanjak between the First and Second Cataracts; Ibrim was a supply point with Sai, to the south, acting as the forward base. In 1589 there were around seventy soldiers in the garrison and these numbers seem to have been maintained until 1650, largely on a hereditary basis. The earliest Turkish document from Ibrim dates to 1576; in the decades thereafter, numerous documents have been found representing vouchers, pay chits, letters and legal documents written in both Arabic and Turkish. The Ottoman levels have also produced the widest range of artifactual material, including textiles, leather, basketry and wooden objects. Along with the documentary evidence, these permit a minute reconstruction of daily life during this period.
Biennial excavations have taken place at Qasr Ibrim, under the aegis of the Egypt Exploration Society of London, since 1961. Results have been reported in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, as well as in specialist monographs published by the Society.
Qau el-Kebir (Antaeopolis), Dynastic sites
Archaeological sites at Qau el-Kebir (26°54′ N, 31°31′ E) dating to pharaonic times are in the following locations:
1 An area to the east of the village of Qau with a 6th Dynasty mastaba (tomb superstructure), which is now destroyed. To the south of this mastaba are two cemeteries. The northern cemetery, Cemetery 400, is near the modern village. The southern one is known as the "Southern Cemetery."
2 An area on the slopes of the local limestone cliffs to the south of the prehistoric site at Hemamieh, with rock-cut tombs of Middle Kingdom nomarchs and other less important officials.
3 Two areas with burials dating to the Late and Graeco-Roman periods. Cemetery A-H is located near the rock-cut tombs of Ibu and Wahka II. The other cemetery (1450) is at the base of the limestone cliffs. There is also some archaeological evidence here from the Middle and New Kingdoms.
4 A quarrying area northeast of the rock-cut tombs with evidence of use during the New Kingdom and Graeco-Roman times.
5 An area to the southwest of the village of Qau with a Ptolemaic period temple that was recorded in 1820 but is now destroyed.
There is very little archaeological evidence at Qau el-Kebir from the Old Kingdom. A few hieratic inscriptions on potsherds, including two with the name of Pepi II (6th Dynasty), can be dated from the 4th to 11th Dynasties.
During the Middle Kingdom the region was particularly important, which can be inferred from the large tombs belonging to three nomarchs: Wahka I, Ibu and Wahka II (Ibu’s brother). These three tombs are located in the western sector of the Middle Kingdom cemetery. The tomb of Ibu is about 50m to the east of that of Wahka I, and the tomb of Wahka II is about 130m from that of Ibu. A small tomb belonging to Sobekhotep is near the tomb of Wahka II.
The Qau el-Kebir tombs were excavated in the first half of this century by the Italian Archaeological Mission (1905-6), the Ernst von Sieglin Expedition (1913-14), and the British School of Archaeology in Egypt (1923-4). The well equipped tombs contained large, inscribed limestone sarcophagi, and statues in limestone, granite and diorite. Tomb scenes of great artistic skill were painted or carved in relief. Such evidence confirms the high status of these Middle Kingdom nomarchs (governors), and they have been compared in quality to contemporaneous ones belonging to Khnumhotep (Beni Hasan), Djehutyhotep (Deir el-Bersha) and Sarenput (Aswan).
Artifacts from the three nomarchs’ tombs at Qau el-Kebir are now in the Egyptian collections in Turin, Leipzig and London (University College). Unfortunately, a comprehensive study of these tombs has yet to be published.
There are many problems concerning the dating of the three tombs. Flinders Petrie noted that the name "Wahka" appears 197 times in inscriptions from the 6th through the 12th Dynasties (including the owner of Cairo stela 20549). Petrie suggested that the name "Wahka" is derived from the name of King Khetj (Wah-ka-Re) of the 9th Dynasty. This could be supported by the epithet "Wah-ka-nefer" ("the good ka endures"), which appears on many scarabs before the 12th Dynasty.
The earliest of the three nomarchs’ tombs at Qau el-Kebir (Tomb 7) belonged to Wahka I. A stela in the Drovetti Collection, and a life-size statue from the tomb now in the Egyptian Museum, Turin, record the names of his father (Sobek-djjw), mother (Neferhotep) and wife (Sobek-djjt). Georg Steindorff suggested that the tomb dates to the reign of Amenemhat II (12th Dynasty). While the inscriptions could date to the 11th or early 12th Dynasty, the sculptures seem to be later in style.
A 12th Dynasty date could be supported by the name of Wahka II’s son, Senusret-ankh, suggesting a direct link with the Theban royal family of this dynasty. A stela in Stockholm, from the reign of Amenemhat III, mentions the nomarch Wahka, who was the son of the nomarch Nakht. A fragment of Nakht’s wooden coffin was found by the Italian Archaeological Mission in the tomb of Wahka II. On the basis of this evidence the tombs of Ibu and Wahka II have been dated to mid-12th Dynasty. The earlier tomb of Ibu dates to the reign of Senusret III.
The architecture of the three nomarchs’ tombs includes a lower courtyard entered by a covered passageway carved at the foot of the cliffs. Stairs connect the courtyard with an upper porch, with columns or pilasters, connected to a hall with pilasters. To the right of this hall is a small room, probably for storage. An outer chapel with a barrel vault was located beyond the pilastered hall. Beyond this is an inner chapel with a central niche for the statue of the tomb owner. In a hall around this chapel are shafts to burial chambers. The plan of the tomb of Wahka I is the simplest one, with the burial chambers aligned parallel to the main axis of the tomb. The plans of the tombs of Ibu and Wahka II are more complex.
Polychrome paintings on the ceiling of the tomb of Wahka II, of geometric and vegetal motifs, are remarkable, as are the reliefs and statues in the three tombs. Reliefs include offering scenes, and scenes of hunting and fishing in the marshes. The statues, usually life-size, were carved in granite or limestone and painted. Unfortunately, only a statue of Wahka I in the Egyptian Museum, Turin, and another one still in situ in his tomb, beneath the stairs from the lower court to the porch, are completely preserved.
Other tomb furnishings include sarcophagi, offering tables and the base of an altar. The sarcophagi are rectangular in section with lids that are arched inside. Tomb goods include canopic jars, which contained the viscera, and pottery with a red slip. Inscriptions on the walls of a small burial chamber in the tomb of Wahka II, belonging to a man named Henib, are particularly interesting. They record some topics of the Theology of [the god] Shu, the Heliopolitan Cosmology and some excerpts from the Pyramid Texts. An inscribed stela and pots of scented unguent for the deceased are painted on one wall of this chamber.
Near the tomb of Wahka II is Tomb 14, which belonged to Sobekhotep. This tomb is certainly less impressive than those of Wahka I, Ibu and Wahka II. It includes a hall that leads to a chapel with a niche for the deceased’s statue, and a shaft to the burial chamber, which contained a limestone sarcophagus. Other tombs recorded here by Petrie (2-6, 912, 15 and 17) are even more simple in design than that of Sobekhotep.
Some evidence suggests that this cemetery was also used sporadically after the Middle Kingdom. In a tomb near Tomb 12 were some fragments of reliefs and inscriptions with the name Nubkhaes, and alabaster vessels dating to the 17th Dynasty, now in University College London. Some fragments of a sarcophagus with the name Mai, dating to the 19th Dynasty, were discovered to the southeast of the tomb of Wahka II. In the area of the quarries, to the northwest of the Middle Kingdom tombs, a passageway was excavated with mudbrick walls and the cartouches of Amenhotep III (18th Dynasty).
Most burials between the tombs of Wahka II and Ibu, and at the base of the limestone cliffs, date to the Graeco-Roman period. They consist of simple pits, often coffin-shaped, and shaft tombs with a plastered and painted burial chamber. Sometimes they are decorated with vine motifs. Rectangular or square funerary chapels in mudbrick are also found here. Some chapels have barrel vaults and niches, usually on the west side, but less frequently on the east. Coffins from these tombs are made of clay or stone, and less frequently of wood. A sarcophagus belonging to an "overseer of the [scented] unguents," Petosiris, is particularly notable.
Other artifacts dating to the early first millennium AD, from robbed tombs, have also been collected here. These include potsherds, amulets, fragments of plaster mummy masks and ornaments, vessels of faience or bronze, and ceramic lamps decorated with the figure of a frog. The frog was a propitious symbol for the continued existence of the deceased in the afterlife. Graeco-Roman period evidence was also found in the area of the quarries, to the east of the rock-cut tombs. An image here of the local god Antaeus, from which the Greek name of the town (Antaeopolis) is derived, is particularly remarkable.
Quarrying
The land of Egypt is rich with a readily available variety of hard and soft stones which lend themselves to exploitation by the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, in contrast to ancient Mesopotamia, where stone of any kind is scarce. The principal stones native to Egypt are alabaster (Egyptian alabaster is calcite, not gypsum alabaster), limestone, sandstone, diorite, granite and quartzite.
The two types of quarrying carried out in Egypt can be classified as open and covered cutting. Where the stone was of good quality and consistent density on or near the surface, it could be exposed from the top and sides of cliffs, but occasionally it was necessary to cut tunnels and galleries to follow the veins of material of best quality. The open method was obviously the most efficient and least complicated procedure, whereas the tunneling method was complicated by problems of lighting, dust and safety. The extensive galleries in the limestone quarries of Tura, east of Cairo, provide considerable evidence of the techniques of covered cutting.
The earliest utilization of stone was restricted to the crude adaptation and alteration of material found loose, or pieces which had naturally become detached from a matrix, such as large pebbles, stones and boulders. Early in the Dynastic period, with the wider availability of copper tools, the possibility of separating and removing large pieces of stone from the natural rock formations became more practical and could be accomplished with a higher degree of efficiency. The discovery of the technique of hardening copper by hammering and tempering it by annealing made it possible to use metal even more efficiently in the quarrying process. Hammering increased the hardness of copper by about one-third, thus making it a much more useful cutting material.
The only evidence preserved as to the actual methods employed to remove stone from a quarry are the traces left in the ancient beds and on the surfaces of unfinished blocks, where the characteristic marks of picks, saws and chisels can be recognized. With the more common use of metal at the beginning of pharaonic history, it became possible to deal with soft stones such as limestone and alabaster with greater ease. Whereas soft-stone quarrying apparently employed metal as well as stone tools, it is likely that the process of hard-stone quarrying always employed a system of pounding and pecking with balls of yet harder stone, such as dolerite. Until recently it was usually assumed that stones such as granite and diorite were detached from the quarry bed through a process which involved cutting rows of slots, inserting wooden wedges into the slots and wetting the wood to cause it to swell, thus forcing the stone to crack along the predetermined lines. It is now considered by many scholars that the work was done by pounding with stone tools and with the use of large levers, rather than the inserted wedges, to detach the block which had been undercut. The use of fire and water for alternate heating and quenching has also been suggested for the splitting or detaching of hard stones and it seems possible that fire heating was used for the removal of a surface layer of lesser quality stone in order to reveal the more solid and consistent material below.
Hard stones such as flint, chert and crystalline limestone were fashioned with wooden handles into picks or mauls; these were employed in the working of softer stones. It is entirely possible that small points of flint and chert were used in the production of inscriptions and reliefs in soft stone. The ready availability of flint and chert as inclusions in limestone beds, taken together with the fact that representations of stone workers using stone tools are known and actual examples of such tools have been found, all suggest that stone was used as a tool material long after the introduction of metal.
The basic method for quarrying all kinds of stone began with the identification of an unflawed area of material. The desired block was then isolated by cutting small trenches around it. It was detached from its bed with the use of levers. These techniques have been ascertained by the inspection of the remains of ancient quarries, particularly where the outline of the blocks have not been completely removed, as in the limestone quarries north of the Khafre pyramid at Giza or where the block itself is still in place, as is the famous unfinished obelisk preserved in the granite quarry at Aswan.
In most cases, building blocks were partially dressed in the quarry and material intended for use as objects such as sarcophagi or sculpture was partly carved to reduce weight in transportation. In construction the stone was generally cut and fit on the building site, thus reducing the time that would have been needed for the care involved in producing standardized units at the quarry. Readily available stone in nearby derelict buildings, already cut to cubic units, could be re-employed at great saving of time and labor, but even irregular blocks and statue parts were often used as fill material. There is some indication that the reuse of stone from monuments of predecessors might have political or religious significance as well. This tactic, typically used in ancient Egyptian construction, was employed time and time again, to obvious economy in the building process.
