Meroe

Archaeological sites of Meroe Island
UNESCO world heritage
	Pyramids of Meroe
National territory:	Sudan
Type:	Culture
Criteria :	ii, iii, iv, v
Surface:	2,357 ha
Reference No .:	1336
UNESCO region :	Arabic states
	History of enrollment
Enrollment:	2011 (session 35)

Meroe ( pronunciation : [ meroːə ]; Greek : Μερόη; Demotic : Mrwe; in Egyptian hieroglyphics : Mrw and Brw; Meroitic Medewi; Coptic Ⲡⲉⲣⲟⲩⲉ Alternatively sensitive Meroë ) was about v of 400th BC to 300 AD the capital of the historical empire of Kush . That is why the phase with Meroe as the capital is also known as the Kingdom of Meroe . The empire stretched from the great curve of the Nile in Nubia to the foot of the Abyssinian mountains and was destroyed around 350 AD.

The temple remains and three groups of pyramids of Meroe are 45 kilometers northeast of Shandi near the village of Begrawija in Sudan . The archaeological sites were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2011 at the suggestion of Sudan .

Building the city

Meroe and its cemeteries

The city consists of three parts:

the so-called royal city, which was surrounded by a wall and in which there were probably palaces, but also other important buildings,
the temple complex of Amun and
This is why the residential town of the normal population is rather loosely oriented.

Meroe - Royal City - Temple of Amun
Glance into the royal baths
Remains of the city

Roman bath

The city's palaces and administrative buildings were located in the royal city. Particularly noteworthy is the so-called Roman bath. A thermal bath in the Mediterranean style was built here. The bathroom was decorated with sculptures in a classical style and wall paintings, also in a classical style.

Temple complex of Amun

The large temple of Amun is oriented away from the Nile and looks more towards the rising sun. Various smaller temples are grouped around this temple. The necropolis with numerous pyramids can be found in the east of the residential and temple city just under four kilometers away.

The 'Temple of the Sun' (plan)

Sun temple

The so-called Sun Temple (M 250) is located halfway between Wohnstadt and the pyramids . This structure consisted of an inner temple around which columns were arranged. This facility was in turn surrounded by a wall. A picture of this complex was found on a relief in the temple, so that it can be reconstructed quite well. The so-called Temple 292 is also known as the Augustus Temple. Here a bronze head of the emperor Augustus was found , which is believed to be a piece of booty in the fight against the Romans. In the temple there were paintings that are only preserved today in copies.

Necropolis

North Cemetery (1.4 km east of the Khartoum-Atbara Highway)
South Cemetery (1.6 km east of the Khartoum-Atbara Highway)
West Cemetery (0.6 km west of the Khartoum-Atbara Highway)

Aerial view of the Nubian pyramids near Meroe 2001
Plan of the northern pyramid field
Pyramids of the Südfriedhof in the foreground
Pyramids of the Westfriedhof - Noble Tombs

history

Meroe in hieroglyphics

in Egyptian hieroglyphics
in an inscription from Arikamaninote

The word Mdewi (Medewi / Meroe) on the stele of the Amanirenas from Hamadab

The city's beginnings are in the dark. Simple huts were found during deep excavations. Objects with the names of the Napatan kings Aspelta and Senkamanisken , which indicate that the city was of some importance early on, date from a later period . During this time, high-ranking members of the royal family, for example Queen Mernua , were buried in the cemeteries . We know from Arikamaninote , under which the city is initially documented, that the king resided in Meroe and only traveled to Napata for his coronation and was buried there. Since Ergamenes the kings were buried in Meroe and built their pyramids here. Over 40 queens and kings were buried in Meroe during the Meroe period. Until the beginning of the 4th century AD, Meroe remained the capital of the empire. The exact end of the city is not known. While earlier research assumed that the city perished with the kingdom of Kush , there are now signs that it continued to exist for some time and was possibly the seat of a small kingdom. In the 4th century the city was also conquered by the Aksumites , but they probably did not establish a longer rule.

gallery

Pyramid of Queen Amanitore
Ornament plate at pyramid N12 (2005)
painted ceramic vessel made of Meroe
Queen Amanishakheto necklace

Royal baths - display wall, Apedemak figures

Columns around the accessible water basin

reception

The black queens. Documentation, Germany, 2005, 52 min, Director:. Dethlev Cordts, Nicola von Oppel, production: NDR , Summary ( Memento of 4 February 2008 at the Internet Archive ) of arte with four video clips

literature

William Y. Adams: Nubia. Corridor to Africa. Allen Lane, London 1977.
Hans Bonnet: Meroe. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 .
FW Hinkel: Meroe, cemetries. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 505-510.
FW Hinkel: Meroe, the "Sun Temple". In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 515-518.
Karl-Heinz Priese : The Meroitic language material in the Egyptian inscriptions of the kingdom of Kush. Berlin 1965 [machine-written dissertation].
Karl-Heinz Priese: Studies on the topography of the "Ethiopian" Nile valley in antiquity and on the Meroitic language. Berlin 1971 [typed habilitation thesis (dissertation B)].
PL Shinnie: Meroe. A civilization of the Sudan. Thames & Hudson, London 1967 ( Ancient Peoples and Places 55, ZDB -ID 418077-x ).
László Török : History of Meroe. A contribution about the sources and the state of research . In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World . Volume II, January 10, 1988, pp. 107-341 (with extensive references).
László Török: The Kingdom of Kush. Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic civilization. Brill, Leiden et al. 1997, ISBN 90-04-10448-8 ( Handbook of Oriental Studies. First section: Near and the Middle East. Vol. 31).
László Török: Meroe, city. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 510-515.
László Török: Meroitic culture. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 518-522.

Web links

Wiktionary: Meroe - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : Meroe - collection of images, videos and audio files

Meroë - Of Elephant Gods and Lion Temples SWR documentary, 15 min., From the series: Treasures of the World, online

Notes and individual references

↑ Meroë, Royal Baths. German Archaeological Institute, archived from the original on February 23, 2014 ; Retrieved February 20, 2016 .
↑ Computer reconstruction of the temple .
↑ PL Shinie, RJ Bradley: The Murals from the Augustus Temple, Meroe. In: William Kelly Simpson, Whitney M. Davis (Eds.): Studies in Ancient Egypt, The Aegean, and the Sudan. Essays in honor of Dows Dunham on the occasion of his 90th birthday, June 1, 1980. Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1981, ISBN 0-87846-197-3 , pp. 167-172 .

16.936388888889 33.710833333333Coordinates: 16 ° 56 ′ 11 ″ N , 33 ° 42 ′ 39 ″ E

[1] Meroë, Royal Baths. German Archaeological Institute, archived from the original on February 23, 2014 ; Retrieved February 20, 2016 .

[2] Computer reconstruction of the temple .

[3] PL Shinie, RJ Bradley: The Murals from the Augustus Temple, Meroe. In: William Kelly Simpson, Whitney M. Davis (Eds.): Studies in Ancient Egypt, The Aegean, and the Sudan. Essays in honor of Dows Dunham on the occasion of his 90th birthday, June 1, 1980. Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1981, ISBN 0-87846-197-3 , pp. 167-172 .