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The lion of Thutmose I on the Hagr el-Merwa dating to around 1500 BC. |
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Amun was the main god of Ancient Egypt. Here on the Hagr el-Merwa he is shown ram-headed, his Nubian form. |
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The Hagr el-Merwa is a white quartzite outcrop which dominates the right bank of the Nile 40 kilometres upstream of the Nile bend at Abu Hamed. |
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Within the cemetery were over 300 tomb monuments, tumuli, cairns and box graves. The graves so far investigated appear to date from the Post-Meroitic and Medieval periods. |
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The joint SARS -British Museum project at Kurgus is investigating the mud-brick fort on the river bank, the cemetery and the Hagr el-Merwa. Carved and painted on the Hagr are many inscriptions of the Egyptian New Kingdom including two boundary stelae of the pharaohs, Thutmose I and his grandson, Thutmose III. This was the southern limit of the Ancient Egyptian Empire on the Nile. Later the area was occupied in the Post-Meroitic and Medieval periods and the fort and cemetery are of that date. |
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Team members: El-Tahrir El-Nour, Muawiya Ali, Vivian Davies (co-director), Renée Friedman, Margaret Judd, Joe Majer, Gillian Pyke, Isabella Welsby Sjöström (co-director), Derek Welsby. |
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Fieldwork |
