ancient napata

7/27/2019 Ancient Napata

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Museum of Fine Arts BulletinPublished Bi-monthly. Subscription price, 50 cents p e r year postpaid.Entered July 2 , 1903, at Boston, Mass.. as Second-Class Matter, under Act of Congressof July 16, 1894Single copier, 10 cents

Vol. XV BOSTON, UNE, 1917 No. 89

Fi g . 1 . V i e w of Barkal , looking north

Excavations at Napata, the Capital of the great table mountain of sandstone called GebelEthiopia Barkal (Fig. 1), he landmark by which th e districtwas first known to modern travelers. Among theUniversity - Museu m of Fine ArtsEgyptianExpedit ion ancients it was venerated as th e Holy Mount,in which dwelt Amon of Napata. Under theN the winter of 1915-1916,after the conclu- precipitous eastern wall of this mountain the ruinsI sion of the work at the Giza Pyramids, th e of th e great temples have always been visible;Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expe- and on the low hills to the southwest fifteen smalldition resumed the exploration of the ancient sites pyramids could be counted, some of them withof Dongola Province which it had begun in the casing nearly intact. Since early in the last1912-1913. Negotiations with the Sudan De- century Gebel Barkal has drawn the attention ofpartment of Antiquities, opened previous to the all the great European travelers who came up the

war, had resulted in the grant of a permit to make Nile looking for the ancient Meroe and for theexcavations at Napata, the ancient capital of older Napata. Hanbury and Waddington, Cail-Ethiopia, the Kush of the Old Testament. The liaud, Hoskins and Lepsius all attempted surveyssite is in the Dongola Province, but over two and descriptions of its temples and monuments.hundred miles up-stream from our excavations at Many pieces of sculpture and a number of his-Kerma. A great bend in the river lies between torical inscriptions of great importance have beenthe two places (see map in Bulletin of April, carried away from the site to enrich the great1914), so that the current, which runs northward Egyptian museums of Cairo and other cities.at Kerma, flows almost southward at Napata. Nevertheless, the Gebel Barkal temples, and aboveThe city of Napata appears to have lain on both all, th e pyramids beside the mount, had neversides of the Nile, but the part on the western bank been systematically explored.is that best known in modern times. Here stands A t Kerma our excavations had to do with the

Report of Dr. George A. Reisner, Director of the Harvard


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XV, 26 MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETINolder period of Ethiopian history, the Egyptian kings and appointing kings, sending out the armyoccupation of the Sudan in the Middle Empire to fight and take booty, and exacting a fair share(2000 B.C.) and the development of the remark- for the temple service of all the income of the landable Egypto-Nubian civilization of this isolated from trade or war or natural production. It iscommunity. At Napata it is a later period, after small wonder that the Ethiopians, when they hadthe Egyptian reconquest of the Sudan in the six- overrun Egypt at the command of Amon, wereteenth century before Christ, which is the subject ready to boast that it was Amon-Re of Ethiopia,of our investigation. abiding in the Holy Mount of Napata, who

For about five centuries after its reconquest the had now added Egypt to his domain, and that, incountry was under a series of Egyptian governors fact, the Amon worshippers of Egypt were them-whose title at first was Kings Son, Governor of selves originally Ethiopians.the Southern Countries,**and later, Kings Son Out of an obscure background of faith in theof Kush (Ethiopia), Governor of the Southern great god of Napata and his oracles given in hisCountries, often with the added title, Fan-bearer temple, the men of this miserable land wereon the right hand of the King. The first governor spurred by local successes to attempt the impossible,of Ethiopia known to us during this period was and, as so often happens, found the impossible comingnamed Thury, who, in the eighth year of Ameno- to pass. The military leaders and the priests whophis I (about 1550 B.C.), made his inscription controlled the oracles were no doubt largely ofrecording his names and titles as viceroy on the Egyptian descent, bu t the mass of the levies mustrocks of the Island of Uranarti in the Second have been Nubians or negroes. Egypt fell intoCataract. After him the names of the viceroys their hands and the kings of Napata ruled overare known with an occasional break down to the Egypt and Ethiopia. The great conqueror wasend of the Nineteenth Dynasty, or for nearly three Piankhy and his successors were Shabaka,hundred years. The administration of Ethiopia Shabatoka, Tirhaka and Tanutamon. Shabakaby this long line of viceroys resulted in a thorough attempted to stem the Assyrian conquest ofEgyptianizing of the country. Egyptian officials Western Asia by assisting Hezekiah of Judah andand soldiers were scattered about the land ; tem- the other small Palestinian states. Tirhakah (asples to Egyptian gods were built in all large Shabakas commander-in-chief) is mentioned intowns; and Egyptian learning, as well as the II Kings as fighting against Sennacherib; and thepractice of Egyptian handicrafts, was widespread. Assyrian inscriptions tell of hi s wars with Esar-During the Twentieth Dynasty our list is less secure, haddon and Ashurbanipal. H e lost Egypt toand finally ends with the name of Herihor, the Esarhaddon, won it back and lost it again tohigh priest who supplanted the last of the twelve Ashurbanipal. His successor, Tanutamon, restoredkings named Ramses. the Ethiopian domination over Egypt, but he wasIt has been inferred from very meagre inscrip- apparently the last of the great kings of Ethiopia.tional evidence that Ramses II, or one of his After a gallant struggle against an empire withpredecessors, made over the Southern Countries to myriads of soldiers and the wealth of WesternAmon, that is, to the Amon priesthood. Another Asia at its disposal, the little Ethiopian theocracypoint not yet clear is the reference to the office of was driven back to its narrow home, a strip ofthe viceroy of Kush in the funerary tablet of black land stretching a few hundred miles alongNesikhonsu, Queen of Pinezem II of the Twenty- the Nile. Its greatest asset was the command of thefirst Egyptian Dynasty. It is clear, however, that three great caravan roads trod by those who carriedthe Amon priesthood who controlled the appoint- the trade with Central Africa and Abyssinia. Itsment of the king and his officials in Egypt must population was less than half a million. It ishave exercised an equal power over the appoint- doubtful whether, in its resources of men andments in the Southern Countries. In the troubled natural wealth, Ethiopia was much better off thantimes of the Twentieth to the Twenty-third Judah or Israel.Dynasties, Egypt was often divided into two After the retirement of Tanutamon to Napata,separate administrations, of which the Southern or the Ethiopian monarchy still held to its theocraticTheban principality was usually under the more notions and to the fiction of its world power, andor less independent control of the high priest of the kings chosen by the great god still carried onAmon. Whatever the political status of Ethiopia, successful wars (probably to the south) in the namethere must always have existed a certain sympathy of Amon, and filled the temples of Napata withand intercourse between the priests of Amon-Re loot. They made their statues after the Egyptianof Napata and the priests of Amon-Re of Thebes. manner and held to the traditions of Egyptian artsEthiopia reappears in a blaze of power and All our information about Ethiopia after the lossauthority as the land of Amon par excellence, of Egypt came from five Egyptian inscriptions fromclaiming even to be the original home of Amon the great temple at Gebel Barkal. These inscrip-and of the Egyptians. The will of the god, tions describe the selection by Amon of Espalut asexpressed by his manifestations in his temple at king of Ethiopia, the reign of a king, Harsiotef,Napata, was the supreme law of the land, deposing and the accession of a king, Nastesen. From

After an obscurity lasting three centuries, and crafts as well as those of religion.


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Fig. 2. P y r a m i d IV. Stairway and Chapel, looking west

Fig. 3. Barka l . Pyrami d IV. Meroitic reliefs on interior wall of chapel


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XV, 28 MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETINgold in perfect condition, a pledge of the richeswhich all these pyramids must once have contained,The fragments from the pyramid chambers permitteda very fair reconstruction of the arts and crafts ofthe period, and a determination of the approximatedate of the pyramids. They were Meroitic ofabout the first century B.C., (Fig. 3) and notthe burial places of the earlier kings of Ethiopia.This conclusion was consoling, for it left us the hopethat some of the other known groups of pyramidsat Kuru, Tangassi, Zuma, or Nuri would prove tobe the cemetery of the great kings of Ethiopia, andperhaps less plundered than the Barkal pyramids.Having cleared the pyramids, attention wasdirected to the great temple on the river side ofthe mountain (Fig. 6). This was no doubt the verytemple of Amon in which the divine decrees hadbeen given which sent the older kings to conquerEgypt and fight with Assyria. In the midst of it,from the days of the first European visitors, a blackgranite pedestal and a gray granite altar have beenvisible. The pedestal bore the name of Piankhy,the first Ethiopian conquerer of Egypt, and the

Fig . 4. Barkal . P y r a m i d X I. Stairway, gray altar the name of Tirhaka, who fought withSennacherib. It is a vast place, equal to any ofthe great Egyptian temples except Karnak, andthe work of disposing of the debris caused usdifficulties. The temple was surrounded by otherbuildings on all but the mountain side. On thatside the ground was strewn with blocks fallen fromthe cliff, so that we had to make preliminarytrenches to determine whether there were anyremains between the temple and the mountain.First of all we examined the ground just north ofthe outer pylon and found the floor of the lastMeroitic enclosure; then, just when it had begunto appear that we might safely make our dump-heap here, we cleared out a hole in the floor tofind a number of broken life-size statues of thegreat kings of Ethiopia. That put an end to theplan of making a dumping-place on this side.From these fragments we afterwards put togethera practically complete statue of King Espalut, whoreigned soon after Tanutamon, and a statue ofTirhaka, of which the head was missing: AS Ilooked at the vast plain around the temple the

seen from underground chamber looking upother short or fragmentary inscriptions the namesof five or six other kings of this period were known,but there our knowledge ended. A few centurieslater the capital of Ethiopia was shifted south-wards to Meroe, sixty miles above the mouth ofthe Atbara. The Meroitic kingdom persisted tothe days of the Greeks and Romans, but its historymust be sought at Meroe, not at Napata.

It was at Napata, the capital of the theocraticmonarchy of Ethiopia, that the expedition beganwork in January last. The first undertaking wasthe penetration of the burial chambers of the smallpyramids (Fig. 2) behind the Holy Mount whichhad hitherto defied all attempts of European archae-ologists. The mystery was solved the first day bythe excavation of a small ruined pyramid. Theentrance to the buried chambers under the pyramidswas found to be by means of a stairway on theeastern side of the pyramid (Fig. 4). The reason forprevious failures was that the search had been con-fined to the proximity of the pyramid, whereas thenearest end of the stairway lay some meters outsidethe doorway of the pyramid chapel. In four days wehad found the entrances of seven pyramids. In fiveweeks we had entered and cleared the undergroundchambers of twenty-five pyramids. But they hadall been plundered a thousand years or more before(Fig. 5), and all but one were empty except for frag-mentsof objects. The one exception had been onlypartially plundered owing to its dangerous roof-so dangerous that we waited until the roof fellbefore entering. This added perhaps twenty tonsof debris to our task, bu t twenty tons is not much F i g . 5. B a r k a l . Pyramid XVII. Doorwayin the course of the work. In this pyramid wefound a wonderful hinged bracelet of enameled at foo t of stair with door-block of mudbrick, showing thieves ntrance


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MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETIN XV, 9

Fig. 6. Barkal. T h e great temple of A m o n , showing th e excavation o f back rooms

F i g . 7. Barkal. R o o m 904 with the head o f Tirhaka and the second group of broken statues


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chance of finding the head of the Tirhaka statue one of the rooms of an older abandoned mud-brickseemed to me hardly worth thinking about. W e temple which lay beside an Ethiopian temple (NO.cleared the immediate neighborhood very carefully 800), the men suddenly came on an enormousup to the wall of the pylon and came to the con- black granite head of Tirhaka and an hour laterclusion that the fragments had been thrown out of on the broken torsos of five statues and some otherthe temple at some restoration which was made a fragments (Fig. 7). It hardly seemed possible thatgood deal earlier than its last Meroitic occupation. the Tirhaka head could belong to the body foundThe hole through which we had descended had on the north. Such a freak of chance was toobeen made by people of the late pre-Christian extraordinary for belief; but when after some daysperiod in digging a grave. The group of fragments we found that other pieces of the two groups fittedextended under the Meroitic floor, much beyond together, we mustered up courage to test the fact.the limits of this hole. The head was too heavy to move for the purpose,Baffled on the north in our search for a dumping so we took an outline of the break on paper andplace, we turned to the southern side, where the found that the head actually fitted on the Tirhakaremains of three or four temples lay in an inde- body (Fig. 8). The inscription on the stone sup-scribable state of destruction. The subsoil showed port of the head joined on that of the supportin places, and the surface was a series of holes left of the body and gave the five names of Tirhaka asby treasure hunters, sebakh diggers and European known from other inscriptions. When the work ofexcavators. Near the cliff stood a small temple fitting together was finished, there were five nearlyfrom whose pylon Cailliaud had copied an inscrip- complete royal statues, with their heads- irhaka,tion of a king named Senka-amon-seken. The Tanutamon, Amonanal, Espalut and Senka-amon-back part of this temple was covered with huge seken - and four headless statues, two of Tanu-blocks of stone fallen from the cliff and had not tamon and one each of Amonanal and a queen,been excavated in modern times owing to the Amonmernefer (Fig. 9). The first two were amongphysical difficulty of dealing with the fallen cliff. the great kings of Ethiopia already known from theHowever, in spite of the labor involved, it was Egyptian, the Assyrian and the Biblical documents.determined to clear this whole area. A place was Espalut is known from the two famous inscriptionsfound between the so-called Senka-amon-seken mentioned above, which came from the greattemple and Tirhaka's cave temple to the goddess temple at Barkal, and Amonanal was his fatherMut where our trenches showed there were no and predecessor. The statues of all these earliermonuments. Here the debris was thrown, and, kings are of first-class Egyptian workmanship andstarting along a line fifty meters south of the back show how completely the Egyptian traditions ofpart of the great temple, the ground was cleared art were kept up during their time. The statuesover an area about fifty by one hundred meters in of Senka-amon-seken show a certain deterioration,size. Five temples were exposed as far as they a loss of skill or the loss of means with which towere preserved, and part of a stone-paved roadway employ skill. The statue of the queen is in thewinding about among the temples. The interesting same size and style as one of those of Senka-point historically was that all these temples had amon-seken and appears to have been paired withbeen restored or rebuilt at different periods. The it. The work at the so-called Senka-amon-sekenearliest foundations were of the new Empire(1500 B.C.), as was shown by inscribed stonesof Thothmes III and foundation deposits ofThothmes IV. The latest buildings were lateMeroitic, later even than the pyramids. But theentire period of the theocratic monarchy was rep-resented. The whole of this chronological serieswas also found in the back part of the great temple,of which we were able to clear a few rooms atthe end of the season. In fact, the great temple,as drawn by Cailliaud and Lepsius, was the finalMeroitic form of five reconstructions and restora-tions of a building of the early Eighteenth Dynasty.

Thus from the most ruined part of the site wehave recovered plans and dated masonry for thewhole of the theocratic period. Both the templeplans and the masonry are of great interest andopen the road to a history of Ethiopian architecture.There were two events in the course of thiswork especially worthy of mention : (1) the findingof a second heap of fragments of royal statues fromthe great temple, and (2) the excavation of theso-called temple of Senka-amon-seken. In clearing Fig. 8. Barkal. The head of Tirhaka


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out of the way, th e temple was found to be filledwith detritus washed down from the cliff. O nclearing this away the inmost sanctuary wasexposed as it had been on the day the cliff fell.A small sandstone statue and a black granitestatuette of Amon took up the greater part of thelimited space in the sanctuary, and many smallvotive offerings of the same period as the pyramidswere lying just as they had been cast into theroom. To give a probable date, the building hadlain buried since about the beginning of the Christianera. In the middle of the room next to the sanctuarywas a large black granite altar inscribed on all foursides with traditional Egyptian scenes and religioustexts (Fig. 10). The altar had been dedicatedto Amon by Atlanersa and records a speech ofthe god to his beloved son Atlanersa, saying, I have given thee the South and the North asa reward for this monument**(Fig. 11). ButSenka-amon-seken had inscribed his name on thefront beside the name of Atlanersa. The columnsin this room also bore the name of Atlanersa,although the pylon was inscribed by Senka-amon-seken. Under the back wall we found thefoundation deposits which showed that the originalbuilder of the temple was Atlanersa. An exami-nation of the masonry, the inscriptions and theother evidence proved that Atlanersa had built thetemple, but on a very unfortunate site. The clifffell and smashed his work. Senka-amon-sekenthen rebuilt the temple, setting his name on thenew walls. Again the cliff fell, this time wreckingonly the back of the temple, and again some kingrestored it, rebuilding the sanctuary and the roomof the granite altar. But tie has left no inscription.Yet a curious incident gives a hint that the thirdrestoration took place in the days of the Meroiticking whose official name was Neb-maat-re; forwe found in th e sanctuary along with the Meroiticstatuettes, a statuette of Amenophis III of Egypt( 411-1375 B.C.) on which the name of Amonand theretore th e name of Amenophis had beenscratched out during the well known attempt ofAmenophis IV to destroy the power of the Amonpriesthood. These erasures left only the officialname of Amenophis, which was Neb-maat-re.This suggests that the statuette, having been foundin the ruins of one of the older temples, was placedin the sanctuary in the days of the Meroitic Neb-maat-re, or soon thereafter, under theimpression that the statuette was a portrait of him.The finding of the statuette may even have beenmagnified into a portent.During the work at Barkal I visited some of theother royal cemeteries in the district and gainedthe impression that the pyramid group at Nuri wasone of the greatest importance. Near the end ofthe season a gang was put to work there andcleared the chapel and stairway of one of thepyramids. From a battered inscription in thechapel and certain fragments of funerary figures infaience this pyramid was identified as the tomb of

Fig. 9. Barkal. S ta tu e of the Queen Amonmemefer .Clothing lef t rough io receive gold f o i l

temple, to be described in the next paragraph,proved that Senka-amon-seken was separated byat least one king from Espalut ; and the poverty ofthe craftsmanship shown by these later statuesprobably marks the failing of the great periodbegun by Piankhy about 740 B.C.The second event of unusual interest was theexcavation of the so-called temple Senka-amon-seken, but really the temple of a predecessor namedAtlanersa. As noted above, the cliff had fallenon the back part of the temple, and no modernexcavator had ventured to undertake the laborinvolved in removing the huge blocks of red sand-stone. Several of them were well over twentytons in weight, and the soft but obstinate stonewas very little given to splitting. Our men fairlyhad to pound them to pieces. Once they were


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Fi g . I O . Barkal. The t empl e of Atlanersa, showing the granitealtar in posit ion

Fi g . I I . Barka l . Th e left side of the granite altar of Atlanersa

King Espalut (Fig. 12). I t had been plundered in by the thieves as the result of a hasty exit. Per-the same manner as those at Gebel Barkal, by sink- haps the collapse of the roof forced them to fleeing a shaft, now filled with sand, through the deep for their lives. The roof of the second room hadend of the stairway to the top of the door. We, also collapsed and its excavation was too difficulthowever, came down the steps and when we to attempt at the end of a season. So the outerreached the door found that the roof of the outer chamber and the stair were filled in with sand toroom had caved in. I t was therefore necessary to prevent accidents, a guard was set and the placeclear a way down through the roof from above. was left until the next season.When the outer room was cleared, the walls were The discovery of the tomb of Espalut markedfound to be of good gray sandstone masonry and the site of Nuri as a royal cemetery of the greatinscribed with funerary texts. On the floor were period of the Ethiopian monarchy. The pyramidscattered a number of alabaster vases, some deco- of Espalut is one of fourteen of nearly equal sizerated gold cylinders, a quantity of gold foil and which are surrounded by over twenty quite smallbeads of gold, beryl, and carnelian (Figs. 13, 14). pyramids. The field is dominated by one pyramidI t seemed as if the smaller objects had been dropped which is twice as large as any of the others and


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F i g . 12. Nuri. The pyramid of King Espalut, showing also chapel and end of stairway

Fig . 13. Nur i . Three of the gold cylinders of KingEsp alut . Sca le, one-third natural size Fig . 14. Bark al . Th e enameled gold bracelet fro mBarkal VIII. and the decorated gold to p of analabaster vase from the tomb of Espalut, Nuri


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XV, 34 MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BULLETINapparently the earliest of them all. This massive A committee under the chairmanship of FitzRoyruin must be the tomb of one of the most power- Carrington, Curator of Prints at this Museum, onful kings of the dynasty-in all probability one Opportunities of Museum Training and Service.of the five who ruled over Egypt as well as Renewed consideration of the publication of aEthiopia. journal to be devoted to the interests of allThus it falls to the lot of the expedition not only American museums resulted in a vote to issueto make the first systematic examination of the during the coming year a small leaflet to be calledgreat Barkal temples, but also to excavate a royal The Museum News Letter.** A number iscemetery of the great period of the Ethiopian planned for each month, publication being omittedmonarchy. during the vacation season. The general editor isHarold L. Madison, Curator of the Park MuseumTh e thanks of the expedition are due to the in Providence; the associate editor for science isSudan Government, the local provincial authori- Frederick L. Lewton, of the Smithsonian Institution ;ties and the railway authorities for the usual for art, Miss Margaret T. Jackson ; and for history,facilities granted to scientific work in the Sudan, Dr. Frank A. Severance, Secretary of the Buffaloand for many personal courtesies. G. A. R. Historical Society.

For several years the Association has receivedreports upon efforts to utilize museum objects forthe instruction of children in the history of civiliza-tion. One session of the meeting was almostwholly devoted to further reports showing a vigorous

Resignation ofMr. William Endicott,Treasurer of the MuseumMr.WILLIAM ENDICOTT, Treasurer of prosecution and extension of this work in Newthe Museum, resigned as Treasurer and England and New York.Trustee on May 23. The week following Mr.Endicott left Boston for service abroad in connec-tion with the American Red Cross.At a meeting of the Trustees held on May 31,Mr. Endicott's resignation as Treasurer was ac-cepted and the following minute was adopted :The Trustees have received the resignation ofMr. William Endicott as Treasurer and as Trusteeof the Museum. In accepting his resignation asTreasurer they desire to place on record theiradmiration for the spirit of devotion which hasactuated Mr. Endicott in accepting the opportunityof important service in France, and to express alsotheir sense of loss in his necessary withdrawal asaccept Mr. Endicott's resignation as Trustee, andhope that in a not distant future the Museummay again have the advantage of his services.**

Another session was devoted to the discussionof methods of display in museums of art, andanother to the relations of the museum to the artistand the dealer in works of art.The voting privilege in the Association is atpresent restricted to those occupying positions ofresponsibility in museums. On the second day ofthe meeting an amendment to the constitution wasproposed, doing away with this restriction and per-mitting any persons interested in museum work toshare in the management of the Association. Inview of the importance of the proposal, action uponthe amendment was postponed by the Council tothe next meeting.Treasurer. They find themselves unwilling to

NotesAT THE INVITATIONof the Department of FineArts of the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Mr.

Kojiro Tomita, Assistant Curator of Chinese andAmerican Association of Museums Japanese Art at the Museum, gave an illustratedAnnual Meeting n New York MayI to 23 lecture on Child Life in Japan at the Instituteon April 20 before an audience of children. OnThe Association met on May 21 and 23 account of the demand for tickets, the lecture wasin the American Museum of Natural History, repeated, the two audiences numbering some twelveand on May 22 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. hundred children.

THE ORTRAIT called My Uncle Daniel andIn pursuance of recommendations by a specialcommittee on Training for Museum Workers, the His Family,**by Ignacio Zuloaga, has been re-following committees were appointed to gather ceived at the Museum and is shown in Galleryinformation on related topics :H. Carpenter f the Art Institute of Chicago,on was announced in the Bulletin of December, 1916.Methods of Administration in American Museums, It was included in the exhibition of the artistsA committee under the chairmanshipof Henry work recently shown in Boston and other cities.W. Kent, Secretary of the Metropolitan Museum, AN EXHIBITIONf Textiles, Pottery, Glass andon a Bibliography of Museum Literature. Silver from Mexico, lent by Mr. and Mrs. EmanA committee under the chairmanship of Frederic L. Beck, long resident in the City of Mexico, wasA. Whiting, Director of the Cleveland Museum of opened May 29 in the Forecourt Room. TheArt, on Plans for New Museum Buildings. exhibition will continue during the summer.

A committee under the chairmanship of Newton VII. Th e purchase of the portraitby the Museum

ancient napata

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