By
Nettie K. Adams
Nubia,
located in that part of the Nile Valley between the first and fourth cataracts
was inhabited an African people who, by 1800 BC, had developed a high
civilization. They were suppliers of ivory, ebony, gold, ostrich
feathers, animal skins, and slaves to peoples of the Mediterranean world, and
received in exchange a wide variety of manufactured goods.
By
the fourth century AD the center of power was located in the northern part of Nubia,
based largely on trade with Byzantine Egypt. Among the bronzes, glass vessels,
glazed pottery, carpets, and wine imported into Nubia, we also find silk.
Silk
continued to come into Nubia with Christianity. Ecclesiastical vestments,
silk palls, and various items of clothing originating in a number of locations
have been found. They underscore the wealth and power of the
medieval kingdoms, which dealt with the Mediterranean world on an equal basis.
The
Ottoman Turks conquered Nubia around 1559 AD. The garrisons continued
trading African goods to the north and east, and were able to import luxuries
from as far away as China. At the beginning of the occupation, the
soldiers were paid in gold, and could afford to import silk textiles from a
number of sources. But by 1700, the Ottoman government had turned its
attention elsewhere, and the neglected garrisons had to survive off the
land. Re-used silk cut into tiny and tinier pieces, and the general
dearth of luxuries reflect the decline of the area.
Nettie
Adams is Associate Curator in the Webb Museum of Anthropology at the University
of Kentucky. Together with her husband, she has done archaeological work
in the Nile Valley over a period of 29 years. Excavations in the Sudan
from 1959-1969 were undertaken as part of the UNESCO Nubian Monuments Campaign
to save the archaeological remains of Nubia before their flooding by the Aswan
High Dam. Beginning in 1976, she and her colleague, Elisabeth Crowfoot,
participated in excavations at Qasr Ibrim under license granted by the Egyptian
Antiquities Organization to the Egypt Exploration Society of London. The
results of this work have been reported at conferences in this country and
abroad, and published in various archaeological and textile journals.
Final reports are in preparation.