Zuma (el-Zuma) is an archaeological site including a village and burial ground about downstream from

Jebel Barkal Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal () is a mesa or large rock outcrop located 400 km north of Khartoum, next to Karima in Northern State in Sudan, on the Nile River, in the region that is sometimes called Nubia. The jebel is 104 m tall, has a f ...

in what is now

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

. It lies about south of

El-Kurru El-Kurru was the first of the three royal cemeteries used by the Kingdom of Kush, Kushite royals of Napata, also referred to as Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Egypt's 25th Dynasty, and is home to some of the royal Nubian pyramids, Nubian Pyramid ...

, in the Napatan Region, on the right side of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

. The

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

was visited several times by researchers in the last two hundred years, but there were only brief descriptions written, and no excavations. The

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

field at el-Zuma has been known, erroneously, as the “El-Zuma Pyramids” since the first half of the 20th century. A plan was drawn up during the expedition of

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

inscribed Zuma's 20 hectares as a world cultural heritage site in 2003. Modern, systematic excavations began in December 2004 by a Polish-Sudanese team led by Mahmoud el-Tayeb from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw within the "Early

Makuria Makuria ( Old Nubian: , ''Dotawo''; ; ) was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Its capital was Dongola (Old Nubian: ') in the fertile Dongola Reach, and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of ...

Research Project". On the surface, 29 grave mounds (tumuli) are seen. Three grave types are distinguished, mainly based on the grave mound. Type I consists of hills, which are completely covered with stones. The grave mounds have a diameter of and were high. The hills of type II have a diameter of . They are built of sand and loose stones. A stone ring that goes around the hill keeps them together. The underground burial shaft is M-shaped (when viewed from above) and has two chambers, one for the funeral and the other for the grave goods. The hills of type III are flat and less than high. They have a diameter of and only a single grave chamber. The same types were distinguished for tumuli graves at El-Detti, which is also studied as part of the "Early Makuria Research Project". All grave at el-Zuma chambers were robbed. However, they showed evidence of having contained pottery, beads, metal fragments and animal bones.Obluski, Artur
"Remarks on a Survey of the Tumuli Field at El-Zuma", appendix to El-Tayeb, Mahmoud: "Early Maukrua Research Project, Excavations at El-Zuma, Preliminart Report". In: ''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', XVI (2004), pp. 400–403
/ref> Ceramics found in the graves dated late 5th and early 6th centuries. The differences between the three types of graves point to the different social standing of the people buried in them rather than to a different chronology. The eight largest tumuli probably belonged to the representatives of the elite. The most spectacular are Tumuli 6 and 7 where the tunnels are divided by a row of pillars. These two graves are located in the highest part of the site.

References

* El-Tayeb, Mahmoud
"Early Makuria Research Project. Excavations at el-Zuma, 2017. Preliminary report". In: ''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'' 26 (2017), 339–354
*El-Tayeb, Mahmoud
"Early Maukrua Research Project, Excavations at El-Zuma, Preliminart Report". In: ''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', XVI (2004), pp. 389–399
* Obluski, Artur
"Remarks on a Survey of the Tumuli Field at El-Zuma", appendix to El-Tayeb, Mahmoud: "Early Maukrua Research Project, Excavations at El-Zuma, Preliminart Report". In: ''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'', XVI (2004), pp. 400–403
* Osypinska, Marta
"Animal Bones from the Excavations at Ez-Zuma". In: ''Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean'' XVI (2004), pp. 404–408

Footnotes

External links

Research plan of Karl Richard LepsiusEl Zuma
{{coord, 18.366667, 31.75, display=title Archaeological sites in Sudan Kingdom of Kush