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Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) - Politics (5) - Nairaland

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Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Horus(m): 11:29am On Dec 05, 2010
A statue made of basalt, of the earliest known Egyptian found, showed him with a beard and a short kilt covering his private parts. The remarkable thing about this statue is, it looks like one of the male servants of the Benin culture’s statues, of West Africa, proving again they are all the same family. I say that because, everytime you look in an encyclopedia, you’ll find they never mention Egypt with Africa, as if it is not part of the African continent. How racist and ridiculous in this time.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Nobody: 2:46am On Dec 07, 2010
Interesting observation, Horus.  smiley
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Abagworo(m): 3:56am On Dec 07, 2010
Even though an evidence is yet to be found,I have a personal belief that the Benin,Nok and Igbouku civilization were remnants of what was left of the ancient Egypt after the Babylonian invasion.I also believe that there were people already in existence in Sub-Saharan Africa who were met by these Egyptian cultured Bini,Igbouku and Nok.The Benin were able to retain a fashion very much like that of the ancient Egypt.The difference I believe is because the materials used in Egypt were out of reach and they had to adapt.

1 Like

Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by koruji(m): 4:21am On Dec 07, 2010
Your conjecture may be right or wrong, but you are way off in grouping the Bini,Nok and Igboukwu cultures, as well as leaving the Yoruba from mention. The Nok predated both the Bini & Igboukwu by millenia, and the Yorubas are the most directly linked to the Nok by archaeological evidence. But of course, the kingdom of Benin had a Yoruba connection - despite the silly re-writing of history that has been going on in recent years.

Abagworo:

Even though an evidence is yet to be found,I have a personal belief that the Benin,Nok and Igbouku civilization were remnants of what was left of the ancient Egypt after the Babylonian invasion.I also believe that there were people already in existence in Sub-Saharan Africa who were met by these Egyptian cultured Bini,Igbouku and Nok.The Benin were able to retain a fashion very much like that of the ancient Egypt.The difference I believe is because the materials used in Egypt were out of reach and they had to adapt.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Abagworo(m): 8:59am On Dec 07, 2010
koruji:

Your conjecture may be right or wrong, but you are way off in grouping the Bini,Nok and Igboukwu cultures, as well as leaving the Yoruba from mention. The Nok predated both the Bini & Igboukwu by millenia, and the Yorubas are the most directly linked to the Nok by archaeological evidence. But of course, the kingdom of Benin had a Yoruba connection - despite the silly re-writing of history that has been going on in recent years.


My bad I excluded Ife.I think by Yoruba,you probably meant Ife.The Nok culture comprised a lot of peoples.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 5:25pm On Mar 13, 2011
I will start my opening post with this one here. It's my first one ever on Nairaland, by the way. So maybe after this I can shed some light.

Then a king will come from the South,
Ameny, the justified, my name,
Son of a woman of Ta-Seti, child of Upper Egypt,
He will take the white crown,
he willjoin the Two Mighty Ones (the two crowns)

Asiatics will fall to his sword,
Libyans will fall to his flame,
Rebels to his wrath, traitors to his might,
As the serpent on his brow subdues the rebels for him,
One will build the Walls-of-the-Ruler,
To bar Asiatics from entering Egypt,

The Oxford history of ancient Egypt

"Then a king will come from the South"

http:///352q2km

http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/organisation/people/shawi.htm
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 5:38pm On Mar 13, 2011
Repost the link of the book.

[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=092jP1lBhtoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=.+history+of+ancient+Egypt%C2%A0Door+Ian+Shaw&hl=nl&ei=nfB8TeayFoSeOuuM3Z0H&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Then%20a%20king%20will%20come%20from%20the%20South&f=false[/url]


Now, let's begin with recent scientifical evidence.


                     
The nubian mesolithic: A consideration of the Wadi Halfa remains

Meredith F. Small*

Department of anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder,


Morphological variation of the skeletal remains of ancient Nubia has been traditionally explained as a product of multiple migrations into the Nile Valley. In contrast, various researchers have noted a continuity in craniofacial variation from Mesolithic through Neolithic times. This apparent continuity could be explained by in situ cultural evolution producing shifts in selective pressures which may act on teeth, the facial complex, and the cranial vault.

A series of 13 Mesolithic skulls from Wadi Halfa, Sudan, are compared to Nubian Neolithic remains by means of extended canonical analysis. Results support recent research which suggests consistent trends of facial reduction and cranial vault expansion from Mesolithic through Neolithic times.


Focus on Archeology ACADEMIA, No. 1 (1) 2004.

The Megaliths of Nabta Playa Mysteries of the South Western Desert


"The Late and Final Neolithic societies of the South Western Desert lived in a symbiotic relationship with their agricultural counter- parts in the Upper Nile Valley. This relation- ship is clearly seen in the presence of many imported goods from the Nile Valley, and perhaps also in a multiethnic character of the desert population. Yet the ceremonial center of Nabta Playa also shows that at least some of the roots of ancient Egyptian be- liefs, magic and religion are present there."

"Perhaps the most convincing tie between the myths and religion of Ancient Egypt and the Cattle Herders of the South Western Desert are the groups of Nabta Basin stelae. The stelae here face the circumpolar region of the he- avens. According to the early Egyptian mortu- ary texts known as Pyramid Texts, this is a pla- ce where the stars never die and where there is no death at all. This is the region of Dāt, the goal of the deceased, the Field of Offerings, in which the departed will live as an “effective” spirit."

"The well-organized and usually very worrisome desert herders, probably speaking the same or a similar language as the people in the Nile Valley, when pu- shed towards the relatively crowded Valley inhabited by traditionally peaceful peasant societies, may have served as catalysts for these processes."

http://www.academia.pan.pl/pdfen/beginnings_10-15+Schild.pdf
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Nobody: 5:45pm On Mar 13, 2011
Ish Gebor said:

I will start my opening post with this one here. It's my first one ever on Nairaland, by the way. So maybe after this I can shed some light.

Then a king will come from the South,
Ameny, the justified, my name,
Son of a woman of Ta-Seti, child of Upper Egypt,
He will take the white crown,
he willjoin the Two Mighty Ones (the two crowns)

Asiatics will fall to his sword,
Libyans will fall to his flame,
Rebels to his wrath, traitors to his might,
As the serpent on his brow subdues the rebels for him,
One will build the Walls-of-the-Ruler,
To bar Asiatics from entering Egypt,

The Oxford history of ancient Egypt

"Then a king will come from the South"

http:///352q2km

http://www.liv.ac.uk/sace/organisation/people/shawi.htm

Nice one Ish Gebor.

That's an ancient Egyptian prophecy relating to the rise to power of Pharaoh Amenemet I around 1985 BC.



Like the other black pharaohs before him, he had two main duties - developing the country, and keeping the Asiatics and whites OUT.


Excerpts:

Even though Egypt was prosperous and united under the previous dynasty, Amenemhet I reorganized the country administration. In some cases he divided the nomes into different townships and reallocated power to those to those nomarchs (governors) who supported him. During most of the First Intermediate Period, the local rulers of the nomes had risen to almost absolute power, with little respect (or even attention) to the central government in Thebes.

It was for this reason that he founded a new administrative center on the border of Upper and Lower Egypt. He named this new capital Itjtawyamenemhet ("Amenemhet is seizer of the two lands"wink, probably located near Lisht, where he built his pyramid.

Like nearly every pharaoh before him, Amenemhet continued to war against the Libyans and Asiatics. In the Sinai, he erected the "Wall of the Prince" to guard the eastern borders of Egypt. Other than that, though, his military exploits were fairly uneventful.

http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn12/01amenemhet1.html
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 5:46pm On Mar 13, 2011
First of all we should understand that Africans are most diverse in phenotype and genotype. And traces of several ethic groups are found in KMT (ancient Egypt).  



Stature estimation in ancient Egyptians: A new technique based on anatomical reconstruction of stature


American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volume 136, Issue 2, pages 147–155, June 2008

Michelle H. Raxter1,*, Christopher B. Ruff2, Ayman Azab3, Moushira Erfan3, Muhammad Soliman3, Aly El-Sawaf3


"We also compare Egyptian body proportions to those of modern American Blacks and Whites,  Long bone stature regression equations were then derived for each sex. Our results confirm that, although ancient Egyptians are closer in body proportion to modern American Blacks than they are to American Whites, proportions in Blacks and Egyptians are not identical,  Intralimb indices are not significantly different between Egyptians and American Blacks, brachial indices are definitely more ‘African’,  There is no evidence for significant variation in proportions among temporal or social groupings; thus, the new formula may be broadly applicable to ancient Egyptian remains." ("Stature estimation in ancient Egyptians: A new technique based on anatomical reconstruction of stature." Michelle H. Raxter, Christopher B. Ruff, Ayman Azab, Moushira Erfan, Muhammad Soliman, Aly El-Sawaf,(Am J Phys Anthropol. 2008, Jun;136(2):147-5


http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.20790/abstract
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 5:51pm On Mar 13, 2011
An Examination of Nubian and Egyptian biological distances: Support for biological diffusion or in situ development?

Homo. 2009;60(5):389-404. Epub 2009 Sep 19.

Godde K. et al.

Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 250 South Stadium Hall, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA. kgodde@utk.edu


"The clustering of the Nubian and Egyptian samples together supports this paper's hypothesis and demonstrates that there may be a close relationship between the two populations. This relationship is consistent with Berry and Berry (1972), among others, who noted a similarity between Nubians and Egyptians. If Nubians and Egyptians were not biologically similar, one would expect the scores to separately cluster by population (e.g. Nubians compared to Nubians would have small biological distances, and Nubians compared to Egyptians would have high biological distances). However, this was not the case in the current analysis and the Results suggest homogeneity between the two populations."


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19766993
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 5:54pm On Mar 13, 2011
ROSSIKE:

Ish Gebor said:

Nice one Ish Gebor.

That's an ancient Egyptian prophecy relating to the rise to power of Pharaoh Amenemet I around 1985 BC.

Like the other black pharaohs before him, he had two main duties - developing the country, and keeping the Asiatics and whites OUT.


Excerpts:

Even though Egypt was prosperous and united under the previous dynasty, Amenemhet I reorganized the country administration. In some cases he divided the nomes into different townships and reallocated power to those to those nomarchs (governors) who supported him. During most of the First Intermediate Period, the local rulers of the nomes had risen to almost absolute power, with little respect (or even attention) to the central government in Thebes.

It was for this reason that he founded a new administrative center on the border of Upper and Lower Egypt. He named this new capital Itjtawyamenemhet ("Amenemhet is seizer of the two lands"wink, probably located near Lisht, where he built his pyramid.

Like nearly every pharaoh before him, Amenemhet continued to war against the Libyans and Asiatics. In the Sinai, he erected the "Wall of the Prince" to guard the eastern borders of Egypt. Other than that, though, his military exploits were fairly uneventful.

http://www.phouka.com/pharaoh/pharaoh/dynasties/dyn12/01amenemhet1.html




Thanks for your response. And additional info, You have quite some excellent posts on here.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:01pm On Mar 13, 2011
In order to understand how and why the Nile became important as a rise of Nile Culture we need to know the climatic conditions of that time, so here we go.

These ancient cults can be taken deeper into the Saharan/ Sahelian cultures. And these cults eventually did lead to the ancient Nile civilization.


Ancient humans 'followed rains'

By Helen Briggs

Science reporter, BBC News



Prehistoric humans roamed the world's largest desert for some 5,000 years, archaeologists have revealed.

The Eastern Sahara of Egypt, Sudan, Libya and Chad was home to nomadic people who followed rains that turned the desert into grassland.

When the landscape dried up about 7,000 years ago, there was a mass exodus to the Nile and other parts of Africa.

The close link between human settlement and climate has lessons for today, researchers report in Science.

"Even modern day conflicts such as Dafur are caused by environmental degradation as it has been in the past," Dr Stefan Kropelin of the University of Cologne, Germany, told the BBC News website.

"The basic struggle for food, water and pasture is still a big problem in the Sahara zone. This process started thousands of years ago and has a long tradition."

Jigsaw puzzle

The Eastern Sahara, which covers more than 2 million sq km, an area the size of Western Europe, is now almost uninhabited by people or animals, providing a unique window into the past.

Dr Kropelin and colleague Dr Rudolph Kuper pieced together the 10,000-year jigsaw of human migration and settlement; studying more than 100 archaeological sites over the course of 30 years.

In the largest study of its kind, they built up a detailed picture of human evolution in the world's largest desert. They found that far from the inhospitable climate of today, the area was once semi-humid.

Between about 14,000 and 13,000 years ago, the area was very dry. But a drastic switch in environmental conditions some 10,500 years ago brought rain and monsoon-like conditions.

Nomadic human settlers moved in from the south, taking up residence beside rivers and lakes. They were hunter-gatherers at first, living off plants and wild game.

Eventually they became more settled, domesticating cattle for the first time, and making intricate pottery.

Neolithic farmers

Humid conditions prevailed until about 6,000 years ago, when the Sahara abruptly dried out. There was then a gradual exodus of people to the Nile Valley and other parts of the African continent.

“ The domestication of cattle was invented in the Sahara in the humid phase and was then slowly pushed over the rest of Africa ”.


Dr Stefan Kropelin of the University of Cologne


"The Nile Valley was almost devoid of settlement until about exactly the time that the Egyptian Sahara was so dry people could not live there anymore," Dr Kropelin told the BBC News website.

"People preferred to live on savannah land. Only when this wasn't possible they migrated towards southern Sudan and the Nile.

"They brought all their know-how to the rest of the continent - the domestication of cattle was invented in the Sahara in the humid phase and was then slowly pushed over the rest of Africa.

"This Neolithic way of life, which still is a way of life in a sense; preservation of food for the dry season and many other such cultural elements, was introduced to central and southern Africa from the Sahara."

'Motor of evolution'

Dr Kuper said the distribution of people and languages, which is so politically important today, has its roots in the desiccation of the Sahara.

The switch in environmental conditions acted as a "motor of Africa's evolution," he said.

"It happened during these 5,000 years of the savannah that people changed from hunter-gathers to cattle keepers," he said.

"This important step in human history has been made for the first time in the African Sahara."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/5192410.stm
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:08pm On Mar 13, 2011
Sahara cave may hold clues to dawn of Egypt



By Patrick Werr

CAIRO (Reuters) - Archaeologists are studying prehistoric rock drawings discovered in a remote cave in 2002, including dancing figures and strange headless beasts, as they seek new clues about the rise of Egyptian civilisation.


Amateur explorers stumbled across the cave, which includes 5,000 images painted or engraved into stone, in the vast, empty desert near Egypt's southwest border with Libya and Sudan.

Rudolph Kuper, a German archaeologist, said the detail depicted in the "Cave of the Beasts" indicate the site is at least 8,000 years old, likely the work of hunter-gatherers whose descendants may have been among the early settlers of the then-swampy and inhospitable Nile Valley.

The cave is 10 km (6 miles) from the "Cave of the Swimmers" romanticised in the film the "English Patient", but with far more, and better preserved, images.

By studying the sandstone cave and other nearby sites, the archaeologists are trying to build a timeline to compare the culture and technologies of the peoples who inhabited the area.

"It is the most amazing cave ,  in North Africa and Egypt," said Karin Kindermann, member of a German-led team that recently made a trip to the site 900 km (560 miles) southwest of Cairo.

"You take a piece of the puzzle and see where it could fit. This is an important piece," she said.

The Eastern Sahara, a region the size of Western Europe that extends from Egypt into Libya, Sudan and Chad, is the world's largest warm, dry desert. Rainfall in the desert's centre averages less than 2 millimetres a year.

The region was once much less arid.

About 8500 BC, seasonal rainfall appeared in the region, creating a savanna and attracting hunter-gatherers. By 5300 BC, the rains had stopped and human settlements receded to highland areas. By 3500 BC, the settlements disappeared entirely.

MOVING TOWARDS THE NILE VALLEY

"After 3-4,000 years of savanna life environment in the Sahara, the desert returned and people were forced to move eastwards to the Nile Valley, contributing to the foundation of Egyptian civilisation, and southwards to the African continent," said Kuper, an expert at Germany's Heinrich Barth Institute.

The mass exodus corresponds with the rise of sedentary life along the Nile that later blossomed into pharaonic civilisation that dominated the region for thousands of years and whose art, architecture and government helped shape Western culture.

"It was a movement, I think, step-by-step, because the desert didn't rush in. The rains would withdraw, then return, and so on. But step by step it became more dry, and people moved toward the Nile Valley or toward the south," Kuper said.

Kuper and his team are recording the geological, botanic and archaeological evidence around the cave, including stone tools and pottery, and will compare it to other sites in the Eastern Sahara region, adding new pieces to a prehistoric puzzle.

"It seems that the paintings of the Cave of the Beasts pre-date the introduction of domesticated animals. That means they predate 6000 BC," said Kuper, who led his first field trip to the cave in April 2009. "That is what we dare to say."

The visible art work covers a surface 18 metres wide and 6 metres high. In October, Kuper's team scanned the cave by laser to capture high-definition, three-dimensional images.

A test dig a few weeks ago during the team's third expedition to the sandstone cave uncovered yet more drawings that extend down 80 cms below the sand, Kindermann said.

"Now we have increasing evidence how rich the prehistoric culture in the Eastern Sahara was," Kuper said.

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE64N09L20100524
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:27pm On Mar 13, 2011
More on the climatic conditions.


Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa


Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa


Isla S. Castañedaa,1, Stefan Mulitzab, Enno Schefußb, Raquel A. Lopes dos Santosa, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damstéa and Stefan Schoutena+ Author Affiliations

aDepartment of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P. O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands; and bCenter for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Leobener Strasse, D-28359 Bremen, Germany

Edited by Thure E. Cerling, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, and approved October 1, 2009 (received for review May 25, 2009)


The Sahara desert is known to have undergone major, and possibly abrupt, hydrological fluctuations and was vegetated at times in the past (1, 2). During a wet phase in the Early Holocene known as the African Humid Period (AHP), the region currently occupied by the Sahara desert was vegetated, contained forests, grasslands, and permanent lakes, and was occupied by human populations (2).

Here is the complete study:

http://www.pnas.org/content/106/48/20159.full
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:32pm On Mar 13, 2011
Determination of optimal rehydration, fixation and staining methods for histological and immunohistochemical analysis of mummified soft tissues.


Biotechnic & Histochemistry 2005, 80(1): 7_/13

Department of Biology I, Biodiversity Research/Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. a.mekota@lrz.uni-muenchen.de


"Materials and methods In 1997, the German Institute for Archaeology headed an excavation of the tombs of the nobles in Thebes-West, Upper Egypt. At this time, three types of tissues were sampled from different mummies: meniscus (fibrocartilage), skin, and placenta. Archaeological findings suggest that the mummies dated from the New Kingdom (approximately 1550_/1080 BC),  The basal epithelial cells were packed with melanin as expected for specimens of neriod origin."


Abstract

During an excavation headed by the German Institute for Archaeology, Cairo, at the tombs of the nobles in Thebes-West, Upper Egypt, three types of tissues from different mummies were sampled to compare 13 well known rehydration methods for mummified tissue with three newly developed methods. Furthermore, three fixatives were tested with each of the rehydration fluids. Meniscus (fibrocartilage), skin, and a placenta were used for this study. The rehydration and fixation procedures were uniform for all methods. The stains used were standard hematoxylin and eosin, elastica van Gieson, periodic acid-Schiff, and Grocott, and five commercially obtained immunohistochemical stains including pancytokeratin, vimentin, alpha-smooth-muscle-actin, basement membrane collagen type IV, and S-100 protein. The sections were examined by transmitted light microscopy. Our study showed that preservation of the tissue is dependent on the quality and effectiveness of the combination of the rehydration and fixation solutions, and that the quality of the histological and histochemical stains is dependent on the tissue quality. In addition, preservation of the antigens in the tissues is dependent on tissue quality, and fungal permeation had no influence on the tissue. Finally, the results are tissue specific. For placenta the best solution combination was Sandison and solution III (both fixed with formaldehyde) while results for skin were best with Ruffer I (using formaldehyde and Schaffer as fixatives), Grupe et al. (using formaldehyde as a fixative) and solution III (in combination with formaldehyde and Bouin fixatives). Ruffer II (using formaldehyde as a fixative) and solution III (in combination with Schaffer fixative) gave the best results for fibrocartilage.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15804821
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Nobody: 6:46pm On Mar 13, 2011
God knows the number of cities buried under those Saharan sands.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:48pm On Mar 13, 2011
Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt Supported by the William K. and Marilyn M. Simpson Endowment for Egyptology

The Wadi of the Horus Qa-a: A Tableau of Royal Ritual Power in the Theban Western Desert


John Coleman Darnell


For more info:


http://www.yale.edu/egyptology/ae_alamat_wadi_horus.htm


The NCAM (former MFA, Boston) Jebel Barkal Archaeological Mission:  
Staff, Activities, and Bibliography:  summary by season.



Napata and its Amun sanctuary remained the kingdom’s chief religious center and the premier site of all royal coronations. Well into the Common era, Jebel Barkal was thought to be the main Nubian seat of the god Amun, who conferred kingship upon the rulers of Kush – a kingship believed by its possessors to have descended, in that place, directly from the sun god Re at the beginning of time.

http://www.jebelbarkal.org/

III. A. The Nature of Amun and the Mysteries of Jebel Barkal.(Amen)

It is clear from a complex surviving iconographic and textual record that from early Dynasty 18 the Egyptians assigned Jebel Barkal an outsized religious and political significance because of its peculiar shape.  It is perhaps the unique Egyptian religious site that allows us to perceive how Egyptian religious beliefs were influenced by the natural landscape.  The isolated hill evoked in the Egyptian mind the Primeval Mound of popular myth, on which Creation was thought to have taken place.  “Proof” of the presence here of Amun as Creator was evident to ancient onlookers in the towering, statue-like pinnacle on its south corner (fig. 23), which, when viewed from different angles at different times of the day, suggested to them the forms of many different divine beings or aspects, all of which combined to confirm the presence and protean nature of the god, whose very name meant “Hidden.”

http://www.jebelbarkal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=62
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 6:53pm On Mar 13, 2011
Mission archéologique suisse au Soudan Université de Neuchâtel

Institut de Préhistoire et des Sciences de l’Antiquité Matthieu Honegger


Three scale models—of the Mesolithic hut of el-Barga (7500 B.C.), the proto-urban agglomeration of the Pre-Kerma (3000 B.C.) and the ancient city of Kerma (2500-1500 B.C.)—give a glimpse of the world of the living. They show the evolution of settlements for each of the key periods in Nubian history. Huts indicate the birth of a sedentary way of life, the agglomeration confirms the settling of populations on a territory and the capital of the Kingdom of Kerma marks the culmination of the complexification of Nubian architecture with its ever more monumental constructions. The three models were created in Switzerland by Hugo Lienhard and were installed in the museum in January 2009.

Project Director : Prof. Matthieu Honegger

For more info:

http://www.kerma.ch/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=45&lang=en


Nubia's Oldest House?

Some of the most important evidence of early man in Nubia was discovered recently by an expedition of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, under the direction of Dr. Kryzstof Grzymski, on the east bank of the Nile, about 70 miles (116 km) south of Dongola, Sudan. During the early 1990's, this team discovered several sites containing hundreds of Paleolithic hand axes. At one site, however, the team identified an apparent stone tool workshop, where thousands of sandstone hand axes and flakes lay on the ground around a row of large stones set in a line, suggesting the remains of a shelter. This seems to be the earliest "habitation" site yet discovered in the Nile Valley and may be up to 70,000 years old.

What the Nubian environment was like throughout these distant times, we cannot know with certainty, but it must have changed many times. For many thousands of years it was probably far different than what it is today. Between about 50,000 to 25,000 years ago, the hand axe gradually disappeared and was replaced with numerous distinctive chipped stone industries that varied from region to region, suggesting the presence in Nubia of many different peoples or tribal groups dwelling in close proximity to each other. When we first encounter skeletal remains in Nubia, they are those of modern man: homo sapiens.



Ronald Bailey

Professor of African American Studies and History,
Northeastern University

Timothy Kendall

Former Associate Curator, Dept. of Ancient Egyptian,
Nubian, and Near Eastern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;

And Vice President, International Nubian Studies Society


For more info:

http://www.nubianet.org/about/about_history1.html
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by crispgg: 8:17pm On Mar 13, 2011
This thread is simply wonderful. I have heard before now of the pharoahs of egypt being black, but ive never come across any thorough information on this. I suggest that the moderator should put this on the front page permanently to educate our brothers and sisters on our origins.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by IshGebor: 8:46pm On Mar 13, 2011
ROSSIKE:

God knows the number of cities buried under those Saharan sands.


You are certainly right, here is one example.


Jenne-jeno, an ancient African city

Susan Keech McIntosh and Roderick J. McIntosh

Roderick and Susan McIntosh excavated at Jenne-jeno and neighboring sites in 1977 and 1981 and returned in 1994 for coring and more survey, with funding from the National Science Foundation of the United States, the American Association of University Women, and the National Geographic Society (1994). This research formed the basis of their Ph.D. dissertations at Cambridge University and the University of California at Santa Barbara, respectively. The McIntoshes have published two monographs and numerous articles on their archaeological research in the Middle Niger. They are professors of anthropology at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and they continue to collaborate with Malian colleagues from the Institut des Sciences Humaines on research along the Middle Niger.

For centuries, the upper Inland Niger Delta of the Middle Niger between modern Mopti and Segou has been a vital crossroads for trade. Historical sources, such as the 1828 account of the French explorer Rene Caillié, as well as local Tarikhs (histories written in Arabic) detail for us the central role that Jenne played in the commercial activities of the Western Sudan during the last 500 years. The seventeenth century author of the Tarikh es-Sudan, al-Sadi, wrote that "it is because of this blessed town that camel caravans come to Timbuktu from all points of the horizon". In the famous "Golden Trade of the Moors", gold from mines far to the south was transported overland to Jenne, then trans-shipped on broad-bottom canoes (pirogues) to Timbuktu, and thence by camel to markets in North Africa and Europe. Leo Africanus reported in 1512 that the extensive boat trade on the Middle Niger involved massive amounts of cereals and dried fish shipped from Jenne to provision arid Timbuktu. Today, the stunning mud architecture of Jenne in distinctive Sudanic style is a legacy of its early trade ties with North Africa. Three kilometers to the southeast, the large mound called Jenne-jeno (ancient Jenne) or Djoboro (Pl. 1)  is claimed by oral traditions as the original settlement of Jenne. Barren and carpeted by a thick layer of broken pottery, Jenne-jeno lay mute for decades, its history and significance totally unknown. Scientific excavations in the 1970's and 1980's revealed that the mound is composed of over five meters of debris accumulated during sixteen centuries of occupation that began c. 200 B.C.E. These excavations, in addition to more than doubling the period of known history for this region, provided some surprises regarding the local development of society. The results indicated that earlier assumptions about the emergence of complex social organization in urban settlements and the development of long-distance trade as innovations appearing only after the arrival of the Arabs in North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries were incorrect. The archaeology of Jenne- jeno and the surrounding area clearly showed an early, indigenous growth of trade and social complexity. The importance of this discovery has resulted in the entry of Jenne- jeno, along with Jenne, on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

 

The early settlement at Jenne-jeno.

It appears that permanent settlement first became possible in the upper Inland Niger Delta in about the third century B.C.E. Prior to that time, the flood regime of the Niger was apparently much more active, meaning that the annual floodwaters rose higher and perhaps stayed longer than they do today, such that there was no high land that regularly escaped inundation. Under these wetter circumstances, diseases carried by insects, especially tsetse fly, would have discouraged occupation. Between 200 B.C.E. and 100 C.E., the Sahel experienced significant dry episodes, that were part of the general drying trend seriously underway since 1000 B.C.E. Prior to that time, significant numbers of herders and farmers lived in what is today the southern Sahara desert, where they raised cattle, sheep and goat, grew millet, hunted, and fished in an environment of shallow lakes and grassy plains. As the environment became markedly drier after 1000 B.C.E., these populations moved southward with their stock in search of more reliable water sources. Oral traditions of groups from the Serer and Wolof of Senegal to the Soninke of Mali trace their origins back to regions of southern Mauritania that are now desert. As these stone-tool-using populations slowly moved along southward-draining river systems, they found various more congenial environments. One of these was the great interior floodplain of the Middle Niger, with its rich alluvial soil and a flood regime that was well-suited to the cultivation of rice. The earliest deposits, nearly six meters deep at Jenne- jeno  (Pl. 2)  have yielded the hulls of domesticated rice, sorghum, millet, and various wild swamp grasses. The population that settled at Jenne-jeno used and worked iron, fashioning the metal into both jewelry and tools. This is interesting , since there are no sources of iron ore in the floodplain. The earliest inhabitants of Jenne-jeno were already trading with areas outside the region. They also imported stone grinders and beads. The presence of two Roman or Hellenistic beads in the early levels suggests that a few very small trade goods were reaching West Africa, probably after changing hands through many intermediaries. We have not detected any evidence of influences from the Mediterranean world on the local societies at this time.

The original settlement appears to have occurred on a small patch of relatively high ground, and was probably restricted to a few circular huts of straw coated with mud daub. We find many pieces of burnt daub with mat impressions on them in the earliest levels. The pottery associated with this early material is from small, finely-made vessels with thin walls. Artifacts and housing material of this kind persist until c. 450 C.E., occurring over progressive larger area of Jenne-jeno. This indicates that the site was growing larger. In fact, by 450 C.E., the settlement had expanded to at least 25 hectares (over 60 acres).

 
Jenne-jeno's floruit: 450-1100 C.E.

In the deposits dated from the fifth century, there are definite indications that the organization of society is changing. We find organized cemeteries, with interments in large burial urns (Pl. 3)   as well as inhumations outside of urns in simple pits, on the edge of the settlement. From an excavation unit on the western edge of Jenne-jeno, we found evidence that the site was enlarged by quarrying clay from the floodplain and mounding it at the edge of the site New trade items appear, such as copper, imported from sources a minimum of several hundred kilometers away, and gold from even more distance mines. A smithy was installed near one of our central excavation units around 800 C.E. to mold copper and bronze into ornaments, and to forge iron. Smithing continued in this locale for the next 600 years, suggesting that craftsmen had become organized in castes and operated in specific locales, much as we see in Jenne today.

The round houses at Jenne-jeno were constructed with tauf, or puddled mud, foundations, from the fifth to the ninth century. During this time, the settlement continued to grow, reaching its maximum area of 33 hectares by 850 C.E. We know that this is so because sherds of the distinctive painted pottery that was produced at Jenne-jeno only between 450-850 C.E. are present in all our excavation units, even those near the edge of the mound. And we find them at the neighboring mound of Hambarketolo, too, suggesting that these two connected sites totaling 41 hectares (100 acres) functioned as part of a single town complex (Pl. 4).


In the ninth century, two noticeable changes occur (Pl. 5)  : tauf house foundations are replaced by cylindrical brick architecture, and painted pottery is replaced by pottery with impressed and stamped decoration. The source of these novelties is unknown, although we can say that they did not involve any fundamental shift in the form or general layout of either houses or pottery. So it is unlikely that any major change in the ethnic composition of Jenne-jeno was associated with the changes. Change with continuity was the prevailing pattern. One of the earliest structures built using the new cylindrical brick technology (Pl. 6)  was apparently the city wall, which was 3.7 meters wide at its base and ran almost two kilometers around the town. All these indications of increasingly complex social organization are particularly important in helping us understand the indigenous context of the Empire of Ghana, an influential confederation that consolidated power within large areas to the north and west of the Inland Niger Delta sometime after 500 C.E,  To date, Jenne-jeno provides our only insight into the nature of change and complexity in the Sahel prior to the establishment of the trans-Saharan trade. Although some excavations have been conducted at the presumed capital of Ghana, Kumbi Saleh (in southeastern Mauritania), these focused on the stone-built ruins dating to the period of the trans-Saharan trade.


As we currently understand the archaeology of the entire Jenne region, where over 60 archaeological sites rise from the floodplain within a 4 kilometer radius of the modern town (Pl. 7)   , many of these sites were occupied at the time of Jenne-jeno's floruit between 800-1000 C.E,  We have suggested that this extraordinary settlement clustering resulted from a clumping of population around a rare conjunction of highly desirable features (Pl. cool  : excellent rice-growing soils, levees for pasture in the flood season, deep basin for pasture in the dry season and access to both major river channels and the entire inland system of secondary and tertiary marigots from communication and trade.

 

Decline: C.E. 1200-1400

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the first unambiguous evidence of North African or Islamic influences appears at Jenne-jeno in the form of brass, spindle whorls, and rectilinear houses. This occurs within a century of the traditional date of 1180 C.E. for the conversion of Jenne's king (Koi) Konboro to Islam, according to the Tarikh es-Sudan. After this point, Jenne-jeno begins a 200-year long period of decline and gradual abandonment, before it becomes a ghost town by 1400. We can speculate that Jenne-jeno declined at the expense of Jenne, perhaps related to the ascendancy of the new religion, Islam, over traditional practice. The continued practice of urn burial at Jenne-jeno through the fourteenth century tells us that many of the site's occupants did not convert to Islam. The production of terracotta statuettes in great numbers throughout the period and even into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries elsewhere in the Inland Niger Delta may mark loci of resistance, within the context of traditional religious practice, to Islam or the leaders who practiced it. Whatever the cause of Jenne-jeno's abandonment, it was part of a larger process whereby most of the settlements occupied around Jenne in 1000 C.E. lay deserted by 1400. What caused such a realignment of the local population? Again, we can only speculate. Some people likely converted to Islam and moved to Jenne, where wealth and commercial opportunities were increasingly concentrated. But there is also the fact that the climate grew increasingly dry from 1200 C.E., causing tremendous political upheavals further north, and prompting virtual abandonment of whole regions (e.g., the Mema, studied by Malian archaeologist Tereba Togola) that could no longer sustain herds and agriculture. Some, if not all, of these factors were probably implicated in the decline of Jenne-jeno.

Jenne-jeno is easy to reach from Jenne, and its surface traces of ancient houses and pottery are evocative of its rich history. Peering into the deep erosion gullies that scar the surface, one literally looks backward in time over 1000 years.

 
Sources:

Jenne-Jeno, an African City.

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/arch/niger/broch-eng.html

Rice News: The Pillaging of Ancient Africa
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 8:33am On Mar 17, 2011
Hello I registered on this site sometime ago but never have made any post here. This is an interesting topic. I have some images and some good info on this topic. Need help in how to post images in my post Any advise would be greatly appreciated.Thanks
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 7:20pm On Mar 19, 2011
Here is an image
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by PROUDIGBO(m): 1:39am On Mar 20, 2011
THEMOOR:

Here is an image

^^^ Where's the image?

The question that goes through my mind on viewing the pics on the first page and seeing as Egypt is the cradle of civilisation is:at what point did we as blacks begin to rest on our oars/laurels,and allow the caucasians and arabs to not only overtake us, but (to add insult to injury) enslave us as well?

Just look at the way we as blacks are perceived and treated in North Africa and the arab world,using Libya as a case study: they prefer to be called arabs rather than blacks and see us as sub-human.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Nobody: 3:20am On Mar 20, 2011
PROUD-IGBO said:

The question that goes through my mind on viewing the pics on the first page and seeing as Egypt is the cradle of civilisation is:at what point did we as blacks begin to rest on our oars/laurels,and allow the caucasians and arabs to not only overtake us, but (to add insult to injury) enslave us as well?

Just look at the way we as blacks are perceived and treated in North Africa and the arab world,using Libya as a case study: they prefer to be called arabs rather than blacks and see us as sub-human.

Great question. The straight answer to me is that Egypt became militarily complacent. She had virtually ruled the world unopposed for over a thousand years, building huge pyramids, temples, and public works, before she began to be attacked by foreign forces like the Assyrians, the Hyksos, and other white/Asiatic groups. After she repelled those attacks over several centuries, she eventually became complacent in her victories, even as the whites/Asians, were refining their military capacity, replacing the popular flint and copper armoury with iron weapons, whose superior efficacy the Egyptians were aware of, but the development of which their ruling classes hesitated to pursue as vigorously as their foreign neighbours hell-bent on usurping the riches of the Nile.

Eventually, the Egyptians were defeated and overrun, and their populations sacked, first by the Greeks, and then by the Arabs. With each foreign victory, thousands of nationals from the invading nation would flood Egypt to settle, and in time, became ''Egyptians''. Intermarriage with remnants of the Egyptian population produced a yellow, hybrid ''Egyptian'' race that became as anti-African as any Greek or Asiatic peoples.

The Yorubas have a legend that their ancestors fled Egypt and headed southwards as refugees following ''a great war'', in which they were forced to flee to protect their Ifa religion. I suspect this war was the Arab invasion of Egypt under General El Has in 639 AD.

Once the Africans lost Egypt, they became hemmed in within the continent.

Cut off from direct control of the north African trade access routes to the Mediterranean and Asia, they became isolated and vulnerable.

The rest is history.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 5:01am On Mar 20, 2011
Kedu to all. Sorry about the pic for some reason I am having problems with posting pics on this forum. Can any help me or give some step by step advice on how to do this. Thanks
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by EzeUche2(m): 5:09am On Mar 20, 2011
With all this focus on Ancient Egypt, why not focus on Kush, which had a far older civilization than that of Egypt?

How about the Kingdom of Aksum? Another powerful African kingdom, that had a direct impact on Mohammed's life. A few years before he was born, the Aksumite kingdom sent an army to capture Mecca.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by PROUDIGBO(m): 2:08pm On Mar 20, 2011
ROSSIKE:

PROUD-IGBO said:

Great question. The straight answer to me is that Egypt became militarily complacent. She had virtually ruled the world unopposed for over a thousand years, building huge pyramids, temples, and public works, before she began to be attacked by foreign forces like the Assyrians, the Hyksos, and other white/Asiatic groups. After she repelled those attacks over several centuries, she eventually became complacent in her victories, even as the whites/Asians, were refining their military capacity, replacing the popular flint and copper armoury with iron weapons, whose superior efficacy the Egyptians were aware of, but the development of which their ruling classes hesitated to pursue as vigorously as their foreign neighbours hell-bent on usurping the riches of the Nile.

Eventually, the Egyptians were defeated and overrun, and their populations sacked, first by the Greeks, and then by the Arabs. With each foreign victory, thousands of nationals from the invading nation would flood Egypt to settle, and in time, became ''Egyptians''. Intermarriage with remnants of the Egyptian population produced a yellow, hybrid ''Egyptian'' race that became as anti-African as any Greek or Asiatic peoples.

The Yorubas have a legend that their ancestors fled Egypt and headed southwards as refugees following ''a great war'', in which they were forced to flee to protect their Ifa religion. I suspect this war was the Arab invasion of Egypt under General El Has in 639 AD.

Once the Africans lost Egypt, they became hemmed in within the continent.

Cut off from direct control of the north African trade access routes to the Mediterranean and Asia, they became isolated and vulnerable.

The rest is history.




Thanks Rossike. Quite revealing.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Horus(m): 2:58pm On Mar 20, 2011
[img]http://mathildasanthropologyblog.files./2008/07/nubian-mummy.jpg[/img]
Maiherpri Mummy

Maiherpri was buried in a Royal Tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the royal necropolis. The mummy was unwrapped in March 1901, revealing a very dark skin with woolly hair. In Maiherperi's tomb, a papyrus was found depicting him with literally "blackish" skin. The papyrus in question was the Book of the Dead.


Papyrus of Maiherpri
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 5:47pm On Mar 21, 2011
EzeUche_:

With all this focus on Ancient Egypt, why not focus on Kush, which had a far older civilization than that of Egypt?

How about the Kingdom of Aksum? Another powerful African kingdom, that had a direct impact on Mohammed's life. A few years before he was born, the Aksumite kingdom sent an army to capture Mecca.

]

Are you referring to the ancient kingdom of Ta-Seti (Land of the Bow) from 3800 to 3100 BC. Many believe Africa oldest kingdom is Kmt it is not. The Ta Seti kingdom is the oldest known kingdom in Africa. It preceded Kmt by six to seven generation (approximately 200 years) before the start of the First Dynasty in Kmt, 3150 B.C. Ancient. Evidence of the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history. preceding the rise of the earliest Kmt kings by several generation. has been discovered in artifacts from ancient Nubia Ta-Seti in lower Nubia at a site call Qutsul. Long before Namer/Menes or scropion.


Pre-Aksumite 700-400 BC Proto-Aksumite 400-50 BC Early Aksumite 50 BC-AD 150
I don' t know very much indepth info about Akum empire. I do remember that they invaded sudan and I think they brought the end to that kingdom. They also had to states on the Arabian Peninsula. But I do remember them helping or sheltering Muhammad's first believers in some shape or form.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 6:16pm On Mar 21, 2011
Posted by: ROSSIKE

The Yorubas have a legend that their ancestors fled Egypt and headed southwards as refugees following ''a great war'', in which they were forced to flee to protect their Ifa religion. I suspect this war was the Arab invasion of Egypt under General El Has in 639 AD

Are you referring to general Amru ibn Al-Aas who was the Arab Commander of the army that Umar ibn Al-Khattab (RAA) sent to conquer Egypt. Amru ibn Al-Aas was black-skinned and he was from the noble Arab tribe of Quraish. Ibn Kathir says in his book Al-Bidaaya Wa Al-Nihaaya He (Amru ibn Al-Aas) was black-skinned, tall, and bald. May Allah be content with him.
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by THEMOOR: 6:44pm On Mar 21, 2011
http://realhistoryww.com/
The above site has some good pic of African people being the originators of many countries. Ancient Kmt is the first set of pics.


Beaware of the Egyptian forgeries
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Egypt_Pre_historic.htm

THE VANISHING EVIDENCE OF
CLASSICAL AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS
http://manuampim.com/Part_I.htm

Sethos I and the goddess Hathor
The real image in his tomb
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=9416

Sethos I and the goddess Hathor the fake image
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225339&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225339&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500807&bmU ID=1184113963395&bmLocale=en


Gentleman beaware of the fake images
Re: Tomb Art From Ancient Egypt: A Black African Civilization (pics) by Nobody: 10:30pm On Mar 21, 2011
EzeUche said:

With all this focus on Ancient Egypt, why not focus on Kush, which had a far older civilization than that of Egypt?

Here's why: Egypt was the culmination and peak of African civilizational achievement, which although initiated from the south in Ta Seti (Kush), reached its most glorious realization on the banks of the Nile Delta, in the land known as Kemetu (land of blacks), which came to be known as ''Egypt''. The mighty cities of Amon, Memphis, and Thebes, their temple ruins and columns standing testaments to African majesty, will not be abandoned to usurpers. The knowledge and memory of their ancient glory must be shared with Africans, present and yet unborn - forever.

Any study of African history can never be complete without a filial connection to the civilization of Kemetu (Egypt).

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