Sudan has even more pyramids than Egypt, but its cherished archaeological heritage is increasingly threatened by the brutal civil war.
Meroë, a city on the banks of the Nile and once the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, used to attract “intrepid tourists to see the carvings and hieroglyphs housed in some of the 200 pyramids” built nearly 2,500 years ago, said the Financial times. But since then The Civil War in Sudan broke out last year, the site has been “abandoned”. The sole caretaker of the pyramids, a woman named Fozia Khalid, is ‘the only person standing between some of the pyramids Sudan‘s greatest art treasures and raging armies accused of plundering priceless antiquities’.
“The militias are not far away,” Khalid said, referring to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group embroiled in a power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). “I’m afraid they will destroy centuries of history.”
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An amazing civilization
“Today, Sudan is a country synonymous with conflict,” Zeinab Badawi, a Sudanese-British author and chairman of the London School of Oriental and African Studies, told the FT. “But in the ancient world it was the center of an amazing civilization.”
Some of the earliest human settlements in Africa have been found in Sudan, dating back to 8000 BC. The Kingdom of Kush, which existed around 1070 B.C. emerged in what is now northern Sudan, was “a formidable entity that challenged the dominant powers of the time, including Egypt,” says Mohamed Albdri Sliman Bashir, associate professor of archeology at the University of Khartoum. . “At its height, the Kushite Empire stretched from the confluence of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea,” he wrote in an article on The conversation. Kush, a “central player in the ancient world”, was known for his distinctive pyramids at Meroë.
But by 300 A.D. the Kush empire was “in decline,” he said The independent. “Decreasing agriculture and increasing raids from Ethiopia and Rome spelled the end of their rule.” Now war is once again threatening Sudan’s centuries-old history. Nearly 12 million people have been displaced and at least 60,000 people have died, and hundreds of thousands more face famine. Much of Sudan’s underappreciated ancient heritage could be lost forever, Badawi said. “It breaks my heart. I can barely think about it.”
‘Unprecedented’ looting
In September, Sudanese national broadcaster SBC reported that the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum, considered one of the most important in Africa, was the target of a “large-scale looting and smuggling operation” by RSF soldiers.
“Tens of thousands of artifacts” were taken, an anonymous official at the institute said The Guardian, many of which were smuggled across Sudan’s southern border. “When we heard about the looting, we didn’t sleep for three or four days,” the official said. “These artifacts are our identity, the identity of the Sudanese people. Can you imagine what it feels like to lose your identity? You lose your existence in this world.”
But the RSF has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying its members were “simply protecting cultural Khartoum.” ArtNews. That statement was “challenged” by the publication. Middle eastern eyewho published a video showing RSF fighters “raiding” the bioarchaeology laboratory at the National Museum, including storage containers containing mummies from ancient Nubia. According to the Sudanese news website, the SAF is also accused of looting Dabanga.
Now locals say the RSF has troops within 20km of the pyramids, the FT wrote, and that RSF drones have been ‘shot down’ not far from Meroë. The war is destroying “Sudan’s future”, but also “Sudan’s past”. The mainland.
In September, UNESCO warned that the “threat to (Sudanese) culture appears to have reached unprecedented levels.” The UN Cultural Heritage Organization has warned the world’s art market not to buy any cultural property from Sudan. “Any illegal sale or movement of these cultural assets would result in the disappearance of part of Sudanese cultural identity and jeopardize the recovery of the country,” a statement in the newspaper said. Artdependence magazine.
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