Sedeinga: An African City of the Dead

The continent of Africa was and still is home to a diverse array of cultures.  The most notable of these include the ancient Egyptians and the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe, as well as modern groups, including the Azande and Nuer.  Today's blog post will focus on another great African culture through an amazing site in northern Sudan, the Kush site of Sedeinga.  This great necropolis, city of the dead, has yielded a great deal of information about the Kush's mortuary traditions and assimilation with Egyptian culture, as well as Egyptian ideology.

Figure 1: Aerial view of the site of Sedeinga

 
The site of Sedeinga (Figure 1) is located just south of the Egyptian border in northern Sudan and located near the Nile River.  The site was originally "discovered" in the 1800s by French explorers, but it has been recently excavated more in depth since 2009.  The site covers 25 hectares and includes the remnants of 80 pyramids and 100 tombs.  The pyramids vary in size, from 22 feet across to 2.5 feet across (this is the smallest pyramid and is atop a child's tomb).  Sedeinga is a large cemetery that included burials of royal families of the Kush and ancient Egyptians, as well as upper classes of the Kush culture.  In addition, several stelae, temples, and lintels (tops of doorways) also exist at the site.  Temples for specific Egyptian gods, including Hathor, Maat, Osiris, and others were dedicated at the site, as well as specific areas reserved for noble and royal families.  One such temple was actually dedicated to Queen Tiye, who ruled equally along side her husband, King Amenhotep III, between 1386 and 1349 BCE.  Tiye and Amenhotep III were the grandparents of the well known King Tut.

The Kush occupied the site beginning in seventh century BC.  They were inspired to construct pyramids at the site after the Kush conquered and ruled Egypt.  They saw the large Pyramids at Giza that had long since been abandoned by the Egyptians and adopted the custom as their own.  The original pyramids at Sedeinga were reserved for the tombs of royals, but as time went on this rule relaxed and any noble family could erect a pyramid as part of their mortuary tradition.  These pyramids were unique, though, as they include a circular structure within them, which is believed to be an incorporation of local mortuary tradition with the newly adopted Egyptian one (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Circular structure within pyramid at Sedeinga

Sedeinga as it remains today does not accurately depict the site during its occupation.  The site existed along a major trade route between the Kush and Egyptian Kingdoms, which enabled the residents of the site to gain quite a bit of wealth.  This wealth is demonstrated through the remaining grave goods that were not looted and pillaged over the years.  This looting also accounts for the loss of pyramids as the stone was quarried for other building projects.  Tablets with ancient Meroitic text, the oldest African language spoken on the continent but is currently extinct, provides insights into the cultural traditions of the people, particularly the mortuary traditions.  Many of these are still being translated, but from what has been translated scholars know that Egyptian mummification and interment traditions were also adopted by the Kush.

Excavations and analysis of the contents of the site continues through a French team, which will bring about additional and new information about the site and its inhabitants.  But what we currently know demonstrates a rich culture that assimilated with ancient Egyptian culture throughout many centuries.  This also provides insights into cultural change in action, and hopefully the exact mechanisms driving that change will be found through further study.


Bibliography

Davis, Josh.  2018.  “Tablets Inscribed with Mysterious Extinct Language Unearthed at Ancient African City of the Dead.”  IFLScience.

No Author.  2018.  “Ancient Nubia (present-day Sudan) : In the footsteps of the Napata and Meroe kingdoms.”  Press Release.  CNRS.

Powell, E.  2013.  “Miniature Pyramids of Sudan.”  Archaeology Magazine.

Wiener, Noah.  2013.  “The Nubian Pyramids of Sedeinga.”  Biblical Archaeology.