Debeira is an archaeological site in Sudan situated on the eastern bank of the Nile some 20 kilometres north of

Wadi Halfa Wādī Ḥalfā ( ar, وادي حلفا) is a city in the Northern state of Sudan on the shores of Lake Nubia near the border with Egypt. It is the terminus of a rail line from Khartoum and the point where goods are transferred from rail to ferr ...

Early period

Excavations brought to light a necropolis of the

C-Group culture The C-Group culture is an archaeological culture found in Lower Nubia, which dates from ca. 2400 BCE to ca. 1550 BCE. It was named by George A. Reisner. With no central site and no written evidence about what these people called themselves, Reis ...

Jean Vercoutter Jean Vercoutter (20 January 1911 – 16 July 2000) was a French Egyptologist. One of the pioneers of archaeological research into Sudan from 1953, he was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale from 1977 to 1981. Biography Bo ...

, New Egyptian Inscriptions, Kush nr. IV,1956, pp.66-86. The necropolis site dates to ca. 2400–1550 BCE. At Debeira-East a wall-painted funerary chapel of the Nubian prince (''chief of Teh-khet'') Djehutyhotep from the time of

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, aft ...

and

Thutmosis III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 ...

was found. Other finds include a painted sarcophagus with iconography of the

Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...

. The sarcophagus and the painted scenes of the burial chamber were taken to the

Sudan National Museum The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum, abbreviated SNM, is a two-story building constructed in 1955 and established as a museum in 1971. The building and its surrounding gardens house the largest and most comprehensive Nubian ar ...

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

prior to the flooding of Debeira by

Lake Nasser Lake Nasser ( ar, بحيرة ناصر ', ) is a vast reservoir in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world. Before construction, Sudan was against the building of Lake Nasser because it would encro ...

Middle ages

The site was occupied by a small town or large village in the middle ages. Excavations between 1961 and 1964 by the University of Ghana showed the existence of a town with churches, a cemetery, and several large buildings. The site was inhabited between the 7th and 9th century, and abandoned after a decline that continued into the tenth century. The site was later redeveloped in the 11th century. The community consisted of several hundred people during this period. P. L. and M. Shinnie, ''New Light on Medieval Nubia'', The Journal of African History, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1965), pp. 263-273, Cambridge University Press,

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Sudan Nubia Former populated places in Egypt