El-Hobagi. A necropolis of imperial rank in Central Sudan. Two of seven burial mounds.
IFAO| N° d'inventaire | 21340 |
| Format | |
| Détails | 352 p., 116 figures, 85 color photographs, bound. |
| Publication | Cairo, 2018 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The Late Meroe period is well known in Nubia, through the royal tombs of Qustoul and Ballana, and through the excavations of capitals at Faras and Gebel Adda. To document the period in the Meroe region itself, the French Section surveyed the monuments at the el-Hobagi site in 1987-1990. Of the seven large royal burial mounds, all enclosed by a highly original enclosure wall, two were excavated. Each tomb yields an exceptional weaponry, emblematic of Meroitic royalty. There is also an astonishing series of bronze vessels engraved with motifs or scenes and used for worship. One of them bears the latest hieroglyphic inscription of the Empire (REM 1222). Dating of the material and radiocarbon dating place el-Hobagi in the 4th century, at the beginning, and therefore of the pivotal period, of the transfer of the capital to Soba. The cemetery of el-Hobagi is later than the northern cemetery of the qore of Meroe, and contemporary with both the last pyramids of the western cemetery and the Garstang cemeteries 400 and 500. It underlines the persistence of a Meroitic state in central Sudan, when Nubia seceded. The interpretation does not allow us to affirm that el-Hobagi succeeded Meroe; however, by their funerary rites, the figures buried there – perhaps Noba ethnarchs comparable to the Nobad kings of Nubia – affirm their belonging to the Meroitic Empire.
The Late Meroe period is well known in Nubia, through the royal tombs of Qustoul and Ballana, and through the excavations of capitals at Faras and Gebel Adda. To document the period in the Meroe region itself, the French Section surveyed the monuments at the el-Hobagi site in 1987-1990. Of the seven large royal burial mounds, all enclosed by a highly original enclosure wall, two were excavated. Each tomb yields an exceptional weaponry, emblematic of Meroitic royalty. There is also an astonishing series of bronze vessels engraved with motifs or scenes and used for worship. One of them bears the latest hieroglyphic inscription of the Empire (REM 1222). Dating of the material and radiocarbon dating place el-Hobagi in the 4th century, at the beginning, and therefore of the pivotal period, of the transfer of the capital to Soba. The cemetery of el-Hobagi is later than the northern cemetery of the qore of Meroe, and contemporary with both the last pyramids of the western cemetery and the Garstang cemeteries 400 and 500. It underlines the persistence of a Meroitic state in central Sudan, when Nubia seceded. The interpretation does not allow us to affirm that el-Hobagi succeeded Meroe; however, by their funerary rites, the figures buried there – perhaps Noba ethnarchs comparable to the Nobad kings of Nubia – affirm their belonging to the Meroitic Empire.