From the purely Egyptological standpoint there is much of value to be learned from the Sudan. The Egyptian penetration of the country began, according to the evidence of inscriptions, as early as the Old Empire. Under the 12th dynasty colonies were planted and fortresses established down to the Bahr-el-Hagar. During the 18th dynasty the political subjugation was completed, and the newly-won territories were studded with cities and temples as far south as the Fourth Cataract. Some 200 years later the priests of Amen, flying from Thebes, founded a quasi-Egyptian capital at Napata. But after this date Egypt played no part in the evolution of the country. Its history, therefore, as an independent civilization may be said to date from the 8th century B.C., though future researches may be able to carry its infant origins to a remoter past.
Of the 1,000 years or more of effective Egyptian occupation many monuments exist, but on a broad, general view it must be pronounced that they owe their fame more to the accident of sur vival than to any special intrinsic value. For, excepting Philae, which belongs as much to Egypt as to Ethiopia, Abu Simbel is the only temple which can be ranked among first-rate products of Egyptian genius; although Dr. Reisner's discoveries leave little doubt that the archaic culture first detected at Nagada and Abydos, and then at many points as far north as Giza, extended southwards into Nubia at least as far as Gerf Husein. This was wholly unexpected, and if, as seems probable, the evidence stands the test of criticism, it is a new historical fact of great impor tance. The government expedition found traces between Aswan and Korosko of all the principal periods from this early date down to the Christian era. The specimens obtained are kept in a separate room of the Cairo Museum, where they form a collection of great value.
The work of the Pennsylvanian expedition opened a new chap ter in the history of the African races. No records, indeed, were discovered of the founders of the first great Ethiopian kingdom from Piankhi to Tirhakah, nor has any fresh light been thrown upon the relations which that remarkable king, Ergamenes, main tained with the Egyptian Ptolemies. But the exploration of sites in the southern half of Lower Nubia has revealed the existence of a wholly unsuspected independent civilization which grew up dur ing the first six centuries after Christ. The history of the succeed ing periods, moreover, has been partially recovered and the study of architecture enriched by the excavation of numerous churches dating from the time of Justinian, when Nubia was first Chris tianized, down to the late mediaeval period when Christianity was extirpated by Mohammedanism.
The civilization of the first six centuries A.D. may be called "Romano-Nubian," a term which indicates its date and suggests something of its character. It is the product of a people living on the borders of the Roman empire who inherited much of the Hel lenistic tradition in minor arts, but combined it with a remarkable power of independent origination. The sites on which it has been observed range from Dakka to Halfa, that is to say, within the precise limits which late Latin and Greek writers assign to the Blemyes, and there is a good reason to identify the people that evolved it with this hitherto almost unknown barbarian nation. Apart from this, however, the greatest value of the new discoveries consists in the fact that they are laying the foundations for a new documentary record of past ages. For the graves yielded not only new types of statues, bronzes, ivory carvings and painted pottery —all of the highest artistic value—but also a large number of stone stelae inscribed with funerary formulae in the Meroitic script.
In the course of sixty years the small collection of Meroitic inscriptions made by Lepsius had not been enlarged and no prog ress had been made towards decipherment. But the cemeteries of Shablul and Karanog alone yielded 170 inscriptions on stone, besides some inscribed ostraka. This mass of material brought the task of decipherment within the range of possibility, and even without any bilingual record to assist him, Mr. F. Ll. Griffith rapidly succeeded in the first stages of translation. As further explorations bring more inscriptions to light the records of Ethi opia will gradually be placed on a firm documentary basis and the names and achievements of its greatest monarchs will take their place on the roll of history.
Ancient Monuments South of Halfa.—Ruins of pyramids, temples, churches and other monuments are found along both banks of the Nile, almost as far south as the Fourth Cataract, and again in the "Island of Meroe." In the following list the ruins are named as met with on the journey south from Wadi Halfa. Oppo site that town, on the east bank, are the remains of Bohon, a town founded under the 12th dynasty, and with a fine temple of z8th dynasty work. Forty-three miles farther south are the ruins of the twin fortresses of Kumma and Semna. At Amara, some 8o m.