Excavating the Ancient Kushite Tombs of Modern Day Sudan

Flooded Tombs of the Nile

Directed by Katie Bauer (2021)

Film Review

Historians have focused mainly on ancient Egyptian civilization because they had written language. In reality the kingdom of Kush (modern day north Sudan) constructed far more public monuments. Unfortunately many of them are underwater due to dam building that elevated the Nile’s water table.

For centuries the Kushites ruled the Nubian desert (modern day north Sudan) buried their kings in Napata near Nuri (at the Fourth cataract of the Nile). Kush became a very powerful kingdom owing to its control of all the trade routes to the Mediterranean and Asia. Some the most valuable commodities they controlled were ivory, animal skins, precious stones and gold.

Egypt eventually invaded Kush in 1450, ruling them for 400 years. They also imposed their religion on Kush, with the Kushites become far more devout than the Egyptians. As Egypt began to decline, Kush conquered Egypt in 752 BC and put Kushite pharaohs in the Egyptian throne for 100 years as the 25th Dynasty.

This documentary follows the 2018 excavation by a crew of underwater archeologists of the tomb of king Nastasen. He was the last Kushite king to build himself a burial pyramid. After 315 BC, the Kuhites moved their center of power away from Napata. In one way the flooding of the Kushite pyramids was a blessing. Ir protected these tombs from grave robbers. The latter carried off, not only gold and historical artifacts, but the mummies of many Egyptian pharaohs.

Other archeologists are doing a dig in the desert around the tomb, uncovering a town where workers lived while they worked on the tomb. So far they have found evidence of 10 separate neighborhoods, each dominated by a multistory building. Their most significant find so so far is a mud jar stopper stamped with a local official’s seal. The need for local officials to approve stores of food suggests a fairly complex economic system.

During the filming, the archeologists dive to collect mud from the third chamber of the under water pyramid. On returning to the surface, they strain through wire mesh on returning to the surface. So far they’ve retrieved shakti (miniature images of the king meant to assist him in the afterlife), gold foil which once covered the shakti, animal bones and charcoal from burnt offerings, and leather (Kushite mummies were wrapped in a hide mat).

They have also discovered an immovable stone slab in the middle of chamber three which they believe covers the king’s sarcophagus.