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Africa, where the human race began.

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Nearly a billion people live here.

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And it's a continent

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with an incredible diversity
of communities and cultures.

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Yet we know less of its history
than almost anywhere else on earth.

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But that's beginning to change.

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In the last few decades,
researchers and archaeologists

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have begun to uncover a
range of histories

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as impressive and extraordinary
as anywhere else on earth.

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It's a history which has been
neglected for years,

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and it's largely without written
records.

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But it is preserved for us in the
gold and statues, in the culture,

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art and legends of the people.

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My name is Gus Casely-Hayford.

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Over many years I've studied the
history and culture of Africa.

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As an art historian,
I'm used to drawing stories

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from mute objects from the past.

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I'm going to discover the history
and find out what really happened

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to the Lost Kingdoms of Africa.

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I'm beginning my search in the far
north of the continent,

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in what is now known as the Sudan.

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I'm looking for the
legendary kingdom of Nubia.

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Nubia is the traditional name
for the northern part of Sudan,

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near the Egyptian border.

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For thousands of
years, a civilisation

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dominated the area there
in what's now the eastern Sahara.

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It's first mentioned by the ancient
Egyptians as a primitive outpost,

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a source of slaves and treasure,
dancing girls and wrestlers.

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To the Romans, too,
it was a barbarian wasteland.

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Yet these people were
conquerors in their own right,

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ultimately defeated not by their
rivals but by their environment.

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Nubia has left us some of the most
spectacular monuments

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not only in Africa,
but in the whole world.

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There are more pyramids here
than there are in Egypt.

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This was a major civilisation, but
its history is barely remembered.

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So what was Nubia actually like?

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How powerful was it
and what happened to it in the end?

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To begin my search, I'm leaving
the Sudanese capital, Khartoum,

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and flying north into Nubia.

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This is every schoolboy's dream.

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This ancient old helicopter is
going to take us up to see some

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of the ancient Nubian sites.

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And I've got this fantastic guide
here. This is Mahmoud,

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who's going to tell me
what some of the sites mean.

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Mahmoud Bashir is one of Sudan's
most respected archaeologists.

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He's taking me on a journey not just
through space, but time, going back

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nearly 10,000 years, to the time
when humans first began to plant

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crops, and to keep domestic animals.

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We're going northwards
along the Nile.

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If it weren't for the Nile

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and its irrigation
this whole scene would be desert.

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And from the air it's
easy to see how narrow

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the cultivation strip really is.

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But Mahmoud tells me we're going to

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leave the green corridor of the Nile
and head out into the desert proper.

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Out here is one of the
toughest places on earth.

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The temperature here is more
than 120 degrees Fahrenheit,

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and yet there are still
people working here.

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This is where I'm going
to start my journey,

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right in the back of beyond.

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We've flown more than 250 miles
north from Khartoum

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into the middle
of the Nubian desert.

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15,000 square miles
of arid sandstone,

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with scarcely a single oasis.

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From here, we're going to
drive across the scorching sands.

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Mahmoud tells me we're
going to start

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with the very beginnings
of Nubian culture...

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..more than 7,000 years ago.

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Oh, it's hot.

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It's baking.

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What are you doing to me?
I can't believe we've come out here.

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It feels like the middle of nowhere.

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It's one of the driest, most remote
places I've ever been, but Mahmoud

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says that here there's something
that makes all the suffering

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we've gone through really
worthwhile.

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So let's have a look.

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But why did you bring me out here?

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Something interesting.

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Oh, it's a bell.

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So how old is this, Mahmoud?

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5,000 years. Wow!

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So I'm playing a 5000 BC instrument.
Yes.

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The actual sound is the natural
result of the consistency of the

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rock, but it's been worn smooth
by the actions of people playing it

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more than 7,000 years ago,

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long before the Romans,
long before the Pharaohs.

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This is a sign of
human civilisation.

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So would they sing along to this?

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More dancing.

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In the last few years,
archaeologists have

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found hundreds of rock gongs like
this in the Nubian desert,

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possible evidence of a sizable
population.

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I imagine you'd be able to
hear it from a long distance.

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Archaeologists think the people here

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may have used the rock gongs to
communicate across the valleys.

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And that this is the beginning
of the Nubian culture.

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But why here?
This is the middle of one of the

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harshest deserts in the world.

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Mahmoud has something to show me.

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It's been a secret until recently.

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Oh, wow!

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That's amazing. It's cattle.

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Yeah. How old is that?

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BC? 5000-6000!

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It's just astounding.

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When were these discovered?

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Last March?
We are in August. Five months ago.

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So not many people have seen them?

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Really? Really.

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Rock art is the oldest form of
pictorial representation known.

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Research has shown
that the pictures are unlikely to be

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just a depiction of everyday life.

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Instead,
they concentrate on subjects

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that are of great significance
to the people who made them.

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So I'm amazed to discover
that out here,

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deep in the Nubian desert, they
should be making images of cattle.

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But this is desert though.

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Mahmoud tells me it's a story of
catastrophic climate change.

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Recent research has shown that
some 7,000 years ago

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most of the Sahara
was in fact green.

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You can see the outlines
of dry valleys, or wadis.

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They were once big rivers
which flowed into the Nile.

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And between them stretched grassland
savannahs of the kind that you have

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to go much further
south to see today.

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So this area here,

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once upon a time, would have had
grass and it would have been lush,

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it would have supported cattle
and probably complex communities?

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What kind of animals?

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So the wildlife and the ecology of

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sub-Saharan Africa
once existed here?

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Yes. That's amazing.

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And this is the proof of that.

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So you can imagine, sort of,
the cattle - well, with a stretch of

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the imagination - the cattle in this
valley, the river just down there.

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Yes.
And people, someone, at some point,

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coming up here, and with one of
these stones just making this mark.

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It took thousands of years for
the desert to dry out completely.

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So the cattle herding or pastoralist
society which created the rock art

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was able to develop into a
much more complex community.

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And I'm told that they produced
something quite spectacular,

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and that's where I'm headed for now.

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We're pushing northwards along the
Nile, some 700 miles from Khartoum,

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and less than 200 from
the Egyptian border.

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Our destination is the small town
of Kerma, which sits by the Nile.

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This was once the capital of the
kingdom which the Egyptians knew

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as Kush.

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This was the heart
of the Kingdom of Nubia.

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Over the last few decades,
archaeologists have uncovered

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the remains of an impressive city
here, dating from around 2000 BC.

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This extraordinary structure
looms like a man-made mountain

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over the ruins.

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At the heart of this great city
is a huge mud brick structure

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known as the Deffufa.

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It's the oldest known
mud brick building in Africa

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and one of the largest.

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But it has no rooms.

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It's a solid block of masonry.

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They've actually built a piece of
geography, because it's absolutely

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solid mud. And what is it, and
what might it have been used for?

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We don't know who the god or gods
were that these people worshipped,

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but according to Mahmoud it was the

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temple on the top of the Deffufa
which was the main focus here.

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It was surrounded by palaces for
royalty or priests.

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So these are raised foundations?

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Judging by the buildings that the
archaeologists have uncovered in the

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last 10 years, Kerma was not so much
a residential city as a place of

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pilgrimage, where people would come
from miles around for ceremonies.

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Then, of course,
it would have looked very different.

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It's easy to forget that all of this

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was really green.

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So it could have been
a fairly wealthy area?

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There's a small museum here
with some of the finds from

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the excavations, which give a
flavour of the Nubian culture.

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And even when it's laid out like
this, with the artefacts numbered

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off and catalogued, you can
see quite how distinctive it is.

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Take the pottery.

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Archaeologists now know that people
were making pottery here even before

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they began to plant crops,
and long before ancient Egypt.

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The polished surfaces and black rims
imitate the forms of

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polished drinking gourds I've
seen and used elsewhere in Africa.

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It's extremely finely made,
but it's done entirely by hand.

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They weren't using a
potter's wheel for this.

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And the extraordinary thing is
that this technique can still be

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found today, 4,000 years on.

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Everywhere you go around here, you
see these characteristic water jugs.

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They aren't
mass-produced in a factory.

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Instead, they're made by women
in a local village.

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Just gathering some goat poo,

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I think it is, which apparently is
used in the mixture with the clay.

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This is a village across the Nile

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from where we've been staying, where
they create these amazing clay pots.

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And we're being shown by
one of the local women

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how they do that from the point

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of kneading the clay to
the finished product.

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I've done some pottery myself,
but I know from hard experience

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that this technique
is actually extremely difficult.

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It's as sophisticated
as the mud-brick architecture

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of the Deffufa.

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This technique may be ancient,
but it's perfectly adapted

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to the conditions here.

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The red slip is designed
to get the surface of the pot

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just right,
porous enough for slow evaporation,

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to keep the contents cool.

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These continuities of tradition and
practice are an even more important

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insight into the culture of ancient
Nubia, because the Nubians of Kerma

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never developed writing.

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But archaeology has revealed some
more astonishing insights

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into this ancient city.

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This is where the Nubians of Kerma
buried their dead.

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The cemetery was first excavated
by an American-led team in 1913.

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What they uncovered
told an astonishing story.

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We're standing on the edge of

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what was once an enormous funeral
mound, nearly 100 metres across.

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The centre is marked
by a mysterious white rock,

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and there's a kind of smooth
avenue which crosses the space.

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It's a huge area that seems to
be the burial mound of a king.

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But he wasn't buried alone.

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How many people were sacrificed?

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Gosh.

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The archaeologists think that
the victims - men, women and

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children, too - were sacrificed
to provide servants and retainers

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for their master in the life beyond.

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The vast cemetery itself
was used for over 1,000 years.

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It contains over 30,000 graves.

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It must have been quite
an eerie and melancholy place.

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If anything is going to

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really make you think about life
and death, it's a place like this.

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Archaeologists have also
found something which ties Kerma

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directly to the people of the rock
art - cattle.

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So this would be a king or
something. 5,000 cattle...

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Were these cattle that
were slaughtered especially for...?

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Wealth is measured in cattle?

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But if that many cattle, that many
people, are being sacrificed for one

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person, one, it suggests they were
incredibly powerful and, two, that

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there must have been an enormous
cattle culture here and probably

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a big population that that
supported.

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That really does get me thinking
in a different way about Kerma.

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This was an enormous civilisation.

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The scale and relative
sophistication of the

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Nubian civilisation here in Kerma

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00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,040
led Western archaeologists
in colonial Sudan to assume

242
00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:24,440
that this culture must have been
brought in from Egypt or elsewhere.

243
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:29,800
But now it's believed that this
was an indigenous development,

244
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:32,440
a civilisation created
by the descendants

245
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:34,480
of the people who created
the rock art.

246
00:20:48,120 --> 00:20:52,480
4,000 years after it was built,
the people of Kerma still gather

247
00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:55,440
like ghosts around the
temple at the Deffufa.

248
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:59,680
Although the Nubian kingdom is
long gone, it still exerts a pull.

249
00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:07,080
And these ruins have really
affected me.

250
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:14,240
In a sense, Kerma is
the lost kingdom

251
00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:16,680
that I'd always dreamt of seeing.

252
00:21:16,680 --> 00:21:22,240
It's every bit as spectacular as
anything that I've seen in Egypt.

253
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:32,600
4,000 years ago, the Nubians of
Kerma were apparently thriving,

254
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,720
with their great
mud-brick monument,

255
00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:38,560
their herds of cattle
and a sizable population.

256
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,720
So why did they disappear
and where did they go?

257
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,880
Water was the key to
this Nubian kingdom.

258
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,880
It provided the lush, fertile land
on which their cattle-herding

259
00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:04,520
society was based.

260
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:10,800
It was a different story for Nubia's
northern neighbours, the Egyptians.

261
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:13,920
Their lack of pastoral land
had led to the development

262
00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:17,960
of irrigation technology,
drawing as much water as they could

263
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:22,480
from the Nile to transform their
parched, desert soil.

264
00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,480
But even with this technology,

265
00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:29,840
it was a lot harder for them to
create the rich greenery that Nubia

266
00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,800
had at this time in abundance,
thanks to the rivers

267
00:22:32,800 --> 00:22:36,120
which ran through it.

268
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,960
Nubia was a tempting target
for the ambitious Pharaohs.

269
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,600
There were
frequent raids and retaliations.

270
00:22:49,600 --> 00:22:56,200
Then, around 1500 BC, the records
show us that the Egyptians invaded.

271
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:02,800
Their target wasn't just Kerma.

272
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,440
They continued another
180 miles along the Nile

273
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:08,760
to a place called Jebel Barkal.

274
00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,560
Mahmoud and I are
following the Egyptians'

275
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,800
invasion route up the River Nile.

276
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:26,160
Our objective is the same as the
ancient Pharaohs - the apparently

277
00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:30,120
symbolic mountain of Jebel Barkal.

278
00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:58,120
I'm not seeing a cobra,
I must admit!

279
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:20,560
So we're looking at something
which is sitting like that and

280
00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,040
you can imagine a sort of
dancing cobra and on its head

281
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,000
there is a crown. Wearing a crown.

282
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:31,680
I see it.

283
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,960
To the ancient Egyptians,

284
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,320
the rearing cobra
was a symbol of kingship.

285
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:41,400
And here was a natural sculpture
which signalled to them, it seems,

286
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:47,440
that within the mountain dwelt Amun,
King of the Egyptian gods.

287
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,320
They felt that justified
their conquest of Nubia,

288
00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:55,360
and so they built an enormous temple
to Amun at the foot of the mountain.

289
00:24:55,360 --> 00:24:59,920
How did the Nubians feel about
the Egyptians actually being here?

290
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:08,480
It does seem a little
bit like colonialism.

291
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,760
Egyptian images at the time of
theconquest

292
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,720
are explicit about the
subjugation of the Nubian people.

293
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,960
They clearly regarded them
as inferior.

294
00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:39,600
Miserable Nubia?

295
00:25:43,120 --> 00:25:46,600
The images also make it clear
that the Egyptians made the most

296
00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:51,840
of Nubia's natural resources and
demanded riches as well as respect.

297
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:55,880
Here, the Nubians are
bringing tribute - gold, ivory,

298
00:25:55,880 --> 00:26:00,160
along with wild animals,
monkeys and leopard skins.

299
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:02,600
And of course cattle are prominent.

300
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,080
They even seem to have
imported Nubian wrestlers

301
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,400
to entertain them like gladiators.

302
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,240
The people who built Kerma's
magnificent buildings

303
00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:20,240
had, it seemed,
been reduced to slaves,

304
00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,720
or certainly that's what the
Egyptians wanted everyone to think.

305
00:26:26,440 --> 00:26:30,160
There's a suggestion that even
the name by which we know them

306
00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:31,800
is pejorative.

307
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:34,840
The word "nuba"
originally meant "slave".

308
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:37,280
THEY SING AND PLAY DRUMS

309
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:44,040
It's clear that, whatever their
justification, the Egyptians claimed

310
00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:46,160
Jebel Barkal as a holy place.

311
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:51,200
What's amazing is that, more than
3,000 years later, it still is.

312
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,160
HE CHANTS

313
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,800
This evening, Mahmoud and I have
come here to share the devotions

314
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,560
of a local Sufi Muslim sect.

315
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,560
They honour the memory of a local
sheikh

316
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:25,040
who is buried in a shrine
at the foot of the holy mountain.

317
00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:33,880
Sufi mystics were instrumental
in the conversion of Sudan

318
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,040
to Islam in the Middle Ages.

319
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:40,080
In the process, they adapted and
made use of local cultural customs.

320
00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:48,200
So, although this ceremony is
clearly Islamic, it's likely

321
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:50,200
that it contains glimpses of

322
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:53,800
far more ancient religious
observances from this area.

323
00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:41,320
And in the clearer light of dawn,
seeing the Egyptian temple

324
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:44,520
and the Sufi shrine from
the top of the mountain,

325
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,320
I'm struck by the continuities
which seem to persist.

326
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:50,360
History piled upon history here.

327
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:55,840
You can just feel
it's one of those special places...

328
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:01,880
..and it sets me thinking back
about those gongs.

329
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,600
Hearing those Sufis, those repeated
rhythms, it gives you a sense of the

330
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:09,520
way in which those repetitions
of prayers, of incantations,

331
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:14,920
of thoughts, reflect back over
generations, over millennia, but

332
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:20,120
in some way are still very special
to the people of this land today.

333
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:27,120
The Egyptians had painted
the Nubians as mere slaves.

334
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:31,280
What Mahmoud wants to show me
is that the story isn't so simple.

335
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:33,720
It's just astoundingly hot today.

336
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,080
Apparently it's above 50 degrees

337
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,080
and I've never experienced it
before, but it gets above 50

338
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,760
in this environment and it's
no longer just hot from the sun.

339
00:29:42,760 --> 00:29:46,840
It just feels like it's coming
at you from every direction.

340
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:56,200
The Egyptians only ruled
Nubia for just a few centuries.

341
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:01,040
And there's hard evidence that the
Nubians were able to get

342
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,080
their own back on their conquerors.

343
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:09,120
But surrounded by all these
massive Egyptian remains,

344
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,440
I find that hard to believe.

345
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,480
Mahmoud says that
if I had any lingering doubt

346
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:20,400
that the Nubians turned the tables
on the Egyptians, that that would

347
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:24,400
be completely extinguished by
having a look at what's in here.

348
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:39,720
This is absolutely stunning.

349
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,480
Stunning.

350
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:43,000
So what is this?

351
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,560
It's a temple, apparently built
by a Nubian ruler called Taharka

352
00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,080
in around 700 BC.

353
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:09,520
So that is where we actually sat.

354
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,280
Actually inside?
Inside the mountain.

355
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:27,680
In here? Yes.

356
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:37,680
So Taharka

357
00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:42,080
representing the people here? Yes.

358
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:46,560
But what these images show

359
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,720
is that Taharka wasn't
just a ruler of Nubia.

360
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:51,960
He was also a Pharaoh of Egypt.

361
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,840
The conquered had
become the conquerors.

362
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,640
He is one of a whole
dynasty of Nubian Pharaohs

363
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:02,720
which ruled over the entire Nile
Valley under the auspices of Amun.

364
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,920
Wow! Cos usually these things
are so ambiguous and you have to

365
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,880
make a bit of a leap of faith with
history or archaeology,

366
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,000
but this is absolutely categorical.

367
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,880
And suddenly I'm
seeing that snake again.

368
00:32:32,880 --> 00:32:36,800
These are black Pharaohs, Nubians,

369
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:40,720
part of that lost kingdom of Nubia.

370
00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:43,760
But they didn't just rule
over Nubia.

371
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:50,000
They also ruled over Egypt,
as one continuous kingdom.

372
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:03,760
These hieroglyphs show how Taharka
celebrated his joint Nubian-Egyptian

373
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,400
kingdom in the sanctuary
of this temple.

374
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:09,320
On one side,
he depicted the Nubian gods.

375
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,040
And there is a wall here.

376
00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:14,680
..with the Egyptian
deities on the other.

377
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:23,000
This black African civilisation held
sway from the Upper Nile all the way

378
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,720
to the Lebanon for over a century.

379
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:33,160
These statues, discovered
only few years ago, give us

380
00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:38,720
a portrait of the Nubian Pharaohs in
all of their self-confidence.

381
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:42,520
These people
ruled the whole area from here

382
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:47,160
down in the Nubian territory,
right the way up into Egypt.

383
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:51,400
And you can tell that by looking
at their headdress, with two snakes,

384
00:33:51,400 --> 00:33:55,960
one for Nubia, one for Egypt.

385
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,040
And you can tell how threatening
they were to the Egyptians

386
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:02,320
because they've all at some point
had their heads knocked off.

387
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:04,600
Just look at them.

388
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,960
And though they were unable
to keep their hold on Egypt,

389
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:15,040
the Nubian kingdom survived
for centuries afterwards.

390
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,200
But now they had acquired
some Egyptian habits.

391
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,320
From this time onward, Nubian rulers

392
00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,160
would be buried in pyramids
like the Pharaohs of old.

393
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,800
There are more pyramids in Sudan
than in Egypt.

394
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:29,920
But this wasn't simple imitation.

395
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:33,600
It had been centuries since
Egyptian rulers used pyramids,

396
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,640
and these pyramids are of a very
different shape.

397
00:34:36,640 --> 00:34:39,840
This was the Nubians
celebrating their own glory.

398
00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:46,520
But the Nubians had another
greater enemy than the Egyptians -

399
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:48,760
the environment.

400
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:50,600
At the time of Taharka,

401
00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:54,960
around 700 BC, the archaeological
records show that the desert was

402
00:34:54,960 --> 00:35:00,840
approaching ever-closer and Kerma
itself had lost its grazing land.

403
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:04,640
The pressure of the desert meant
that the heartland of the Nubian

404
00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:10,160
kingdom now moved further south,
another 350 miles along the Nile,

405
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,080
around a place called Meroe.

406
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,600
Today, the desert here is littered

407
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,760
with the remains of
pyramids and temples.

408
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:39,360
The society that
built them flourished

409
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,360
between 700 BC and 400 AD.

410
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,240
The rebirth of the Nubian kingdom
at Meroe, still green and lush

411
00:35:49,240 --> 00:35:53,320
back then, is marked by
countless palaces and temples.

412
00:35:58,320 --> 00:36:02,400
And although the Egyptians had left
their mark on the Nubian culture,

413
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:06,600
there's evidence here
also of more ancient Nubian beliefs.

414
00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,520
I can see the Egyptian influence
in the shape of this temple.

415
00:36:12,040 --> 00:36:15,040
But the relief sculpture
on the walls expressed

416
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:17,760
a decidedly un-Egyptian world view.

417
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,280
By 200 BC, the Egyptian god Horus

418
00:36:21,280 --> 00:36:23,840
has been demoted to the
back of the line.

419
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,280
So this is in the line of seniority?
Exactly.

420
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:33,400
Even the great Amun of Jebel Barkal
is playing second fiddle

421
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:38,080
to the completely non-Egyptian war
god Apedemak. He is more senior,

422
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:42,120
shown presenting the sign
of kingship to the Nubian ruler.

423
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:45,720
And there's another way

424
00:36:45,720 --> 00:36:48,800
the Nubians held on to their
traditions from before.

425
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:55,800
Mahmoud has brought me to one of
the most spectacular sites in Sudan,

426
00:36:55,800 --> 00:36:58,040
the royal cemetery itself...

427
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,240
..where the Nubian kings of
this period were buried

428
00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:06,200
in their distinctive pyramids.

429
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:14,520
There's evidence of a return
to their traditional way of life,

430
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:18,360
where one thing
was of the utmost importance.

431
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:30,360
So there's a whole row of cattle,
just going from right to left?

432
00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:42,160
So the thing that they value
is obviously cattle? Exactly.

433
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,880
And the whole of their social world

434
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:48,840
can be translated
into value through cattle?

435
00:37:55,440 --> 00:37:58,480
Wow. Amazing.

436
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:04,680
So, in a sense, there does seem
to be a link between kingship and

437
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,800
cattle, something quite fundamental.

438
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,880
700 years after they were
subjected to Egyptian domination,

439
00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:38,960
the Nubians of Meroe were still
a distinct and African culture,

440
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:45,120
a heritage that still connects them
to African cultures today.

441
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:49,600
It's time to leave the ruins and
had to be inhabited part of Meroe.

442
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:52,440
We're off to the
royal city of Meroe.

443
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,960
They've supplied some fantastic
transport for us.

444
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,800
Modern Meroe is where Mahmoud
carries out his main research.

445
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,680
His speciality is the history of
the iron trade,

446
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:26,160
and many of the old techniques
survive unchanged.

447
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,480
So, for thousands of years,
people have been...

448
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:38,120
The Nubians are thought to
have developed the earliest

449
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:40,120
iron industry in Africa.

450
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:44,360
The first iron technology appeared
here during the first millennium BC,

451
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:47,320
around the same time
as our own Iron Age.

452
00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,040
The archaeology shows
us that Meroe became a

453
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:20,080
relatively large industrial centre,
producing vast amounts of iron.

454
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:23,480
For 1,000 years after the loss
of the Egyptian kingdom,

455
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:26,920
the Nubians of Meroe flourished.

456
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:31,240
By the second century BC,
they'd even developed writing.

457
00:40:31,240 --> 00:40:36,240
But whilst archaeologists long ago
decoded the sounds of the alphabet,

458
00:40:36,240 --> 00:40:39,000
no-one has yet
cracked the language itself.

459
00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:45,560
This was a confident, independent
civilisation, far from the barbarian

460
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:50,000
wilderness described by the ancient
writers, a place that was justly

461
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:53,720
famed for its ironwork,
its wrestlers and its cattle.

462
00:40:57,720 --> 00:41:01,880
It's possible that the encroaching
desert was their friend as well as

463
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:06,120
their enemy, protecting them from
another invasion from the north.

464
00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:16,520
But the desert continued
its relentless incursion.

465
00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:21,720
It had long ago destroyed
their civilisation at Kerma.

466
00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:25,520
Now, too, the Nubians of Meroe saw
their grazing lands disappearing.

467
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:32,160
This land is just dry and
desiccated. Nothing could grow here.

468
00:41:32,160 --> 00:41:36,440
But can you imagine actually
having invested your livelihood

469
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:41,480
in living here as a farmer
just to see it all turn to dust?

470
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:44,280
You can imagine the people thinking

471
00:41:44,280 --> 00:41:48,160
this was something which might have
been seasonal, perhaps a few dry

472
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,960
summers or winters, and then
it just lasted for ever.

473
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:55,960
It changed the culture, changed the
landscape and eventually the people

474
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:58,000
would have had to have given up.

475
00:42:00,720 --> 00:42:04,560
With the desert came one of thefew
animals to thrive

476
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:08,120
in its conditions - the camel.

477
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:13,360
They were first domesticated in
Arabia about 1000 BC and took some

478
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:17,520
time to reach Nubia. When they did,
they eventually brought a nomadic

479
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:21,960
way of life to the eastern Sahara
and everything changed.

480
00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:40,520
Mahmoud believes it was the loss
of its trade routes to camel-riding

481
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:43,880
nomads which destroyed the
Nubian kingdom at Meroe.

482
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:46,240
Others debate this.

483
00:42:46,240 --> 00:42:50,240
But, by 400 AD, archaeologists agree

484
00:42:50,240 --> 00:42:53,960
the ancient kingdom of Nubia
was in terminal decline.

485
00:42:55,720 --> 00:42:58,920
The Nubian way of life
had become impossible.

486
00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:02,320
But what became of
the Nubian people?

487
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:06,080
We're on our way south
and we're suddenly confronted

488
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,960
by the new kings of the desert.

489
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:11,400
It's an enormous camel train

490
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,600
on its way, it seems, to the great
camel markets of southern Egypt.

491
00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:22,440
Some of the guys who
are on these trains

492
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,360
have fairly sort of
dicey reputations.

493
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,320
We're going to be OK, are we?

494
00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,400
Yes, hopefully we should be OK.

495
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,360
We will
be very careful when we approach.

496
00:43:34,360 --> 00:43:38,000
As you said, there
have been some problems.

497
00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:40,760
There's someone
under the tree there.

498
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,680
When we meet up with
the camel herders,

499
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:57,760
we're given a friendly greeting.

500
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:06,720
These men have travelled all the way
from Darfur,

501
00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:08,600
near the border with Chad.

502
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:13,440
They've covered more than 700 miles
and have hundreds more to go.

503
00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:16,600
This is the way of life that

504
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:20,160
now dominates the desert,
where once the Nubians ruled.

505
00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,960
Their days are spent guiding
their camels from well to well,

506
00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,560
from oasis to oasis.

507
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,200
But they don't seem to
think it's any hardship.

508
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:49,960
These men will travel 40 days
at a time,

509
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:55,360
ten kilometres a day and rest
when the sun is highest in the sky.

510
00:44:56,920 --> 00:44:59,560
But there are still small
communities here,

511
00:44:59,560 --> 00:45:03,800
people who eke
out a living off this harsh land.

512
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:05,960
They, too,
are dependent on the camel.

513
00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:07,480
Are we are close now?

514
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:16,960
I wonder if these people are
among the descendants

515
00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:18,480
of the original Nubians?

516
00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:24,800
But where once their ancestors lived
lives defined by lush grazing land,

517
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:29,240
these people must
cluster around small wells.

518
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:35,200
I can do the pulling. There is
something quite sophisticated

519
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:38,680
going on with the wrists,

520
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,960
which I think is
probably avoiding it being tangled.

521
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,000
What is that, actually?

522
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:56,360
It is a sharp contrast to

523
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,360
the pastoral way of life
which once thrived here.

524
00:45:59,360 --> 00:46:04,480
And getting thirsty animals watered
is laborious work.

525
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:09,400
Wow, I imagine it is going to take
about ten of these

526
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:14,480
to make any real decent sort of
attempt on this.

527
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:19,480
I imagine we have probably got our
work cut-out

528
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,240
for the evening with this.

529
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:30,040
This is a culture
perfectly honed to the desert.

530
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:32,320
But it isn't Nubian.

531
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:36,800
To see if there are any traces
of the old Nubian civilisation,

532
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:41,600
I am going to have to head out of
these desert zones further south.

533
00:46:45,320 --> 00:46:50,760
Central Sudan, and here
is the landscape of ancient Nubia.

534
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:52,720
It is just great to see

535
00:46:52,720 --> 00:46:57,200
this green environment
and it is so reminiscent of what

536
00:46:57,200 --> 00:46:59,040
Kerma must have been like.

537
00:46:59,040 --> 00:47:02,480
Not just the housing,
the farming technology, but just

538
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:08,200
the landscape, this green landscape
is just what it must have been like.

539
00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:17,840
700 miles south of Kerma,
the land that still enjoys regular

540
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:21,440
rainfall is sought-after by
pastoral communities.

541
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:26,800
And the frontier between
desert and green continues

542
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,480
to be a source of conflict,

543
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:34,880
just as it was for Egyptians
and Nubians 3,500 years ago.

544
00:47:37,720 --> 00:47:40,240
These are UN vehicles
going off to Darfur.

545
00:47:40,240 --> 00:47:45,440
It is fascinating that the same
sorts of issues of food, resources,

546
00:47:45,440 --> 00:47:50,600
of power, are still, in a way,
the dynamic thing that infuses

547
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:52,480
this landscape, even today.

548
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:03,320
A key component of the recent
fighting in Darfur in western Sudan

549
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,840
was a dispute over lush
well-watered pastures.

550
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:16,840
The same issues were a factor in
the deadly civil war that engulfed

551
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:21,560
southern Sudan for over 20 years.

552
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:27,680
These lush green hills were recently
a battleground.

553
00:48:27,680 --> 00:48:32,120
It is so glorious, so idyllic
here, it is hard to believe that

554
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:36,360
only a decade ago, this place
was the site of a civil war.

555
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:39,320
I was wandering around,
a few minutes ago and found a spent

556
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:42,680
bullet case and there are dozens
of them scattered across here.

557
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:44,880
And it is not just the recent thing,

558
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:48,400
over centuries, people have
fought over this landscape.

559
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:51,680
And in a sense, there is
history, the story we are telling

560
00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:56,440
is of that being replayed
over centuries and centuries.

561
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:03,480
The name of these hills
reflects that history.

562
00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:07,160
These are the Nuba hills
and the Nuba people believe

563
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:11,120
they are descended from the
ancient kingdom of Nubia.

564
00:49:11,120 --> 00:49:14,640
THE PEOPLE SING

565
00:49:25,360 --> 00:49:27,880
WHISTLE BLOWS

566
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:43,400
I have come here with Shaza Rahal,
educated in Britain,

567
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:46,560
but a member of a traditional
ruling family here.

568
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,280
Her uncle, the leader
of the village community,

569
00:49:57,280 --> 00:49:59,880
remembers the family traditions
well.

570
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:09,160
HE SPEAKS IN DIALECT

571
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:13,240
He comes from a royal family.

572
00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:15,960
He arrived many years ago.

573
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:19,160
Many years ago, how many years
might that be?

574
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,600
This is roughly around 300 years ago.

575
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:32,080
Their tradition says
that they originally

576
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:33,840
came from an area near Meroe.

577
00:50:33,840 --> 00:50:39,080
That ancient Nubian City
more than 500 miles away.

578
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:43,360
I'm really keen to find out if
there is a connection between

579
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:48,120
the people of this region,
the Nuba and ancient Nubian,

580
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:51,800
I'm just really keen if this very
much living place

581
00:50:51,800 --> 00:50:54,080
has a connection with
that old mythology.

582
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:06,920
They all the same people, they
just separated, so there are some

583
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:13,000
that stayed in Egypt, some came to
Sudan and...

584
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,200
THEY SPEAKS IN DIALECT

585
00:51:17,720 --> 00:51:20,200
..The rest stayed in Meroe.

586
00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:23,760
The only difference between here
and there, you'll see is the colour

587
00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:27,440
of the skin, but in terms of
the language,

588
00:51:27,440 --> 00:51:30,080
it is the same, the traditions
are the same.

589
00:51:35,160 --> 00:51:39,120
Can there really be a connection
between the people in this region

590
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:42,080
and the ancient
civilisation of Nubia,

591
00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:45,760
born more than 7000 years ago
to the sound of a rock gong?

592
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:55,080
The extraordinary thing is, that
although we are miles from ancient

593
00:51:55,080 --> 00:51:59,920
Nubian lands, there do seem to be
some echoes of those far-off times.

594
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,160
Today, the young men still compete

595
00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:08,400
in what has become their most
famous sport - wrestling.

596
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:22,880
The wrestling is in just
the same style

597
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:29,120
as in the pictures from 1500 BC that
Mahmoud showed me at Jebel Barkal.

598
00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:32,400
The same stance,
the same grips even.

599
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:40,480
Can I finally get to grips with this

600
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:45,320
ancient civilisation I have been
searching for? I have to have a go.

601
00:52:50,240 --> 00:52:51,760
Wait, wait, wait.

602
00:52:51,760 --> 00:52:53,000
LAUGHTER

603
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:33,600
That is just amazing.

604
00:53:33,600 --> 00:53:39,120
But suddenly, I begin to realise,
this is just like

605
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:43,040
those ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
of wrestlers,

606
00:53:43,040 --> 00:53:45,640
it is just like it.

607
00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:49,880
SHE ULULATES

608
00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:01,360
Of course, the similarities in
style of their wrestling may be

609
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:07,280
a coincidence. If there really is
an inheritance from old Nubia, it

610
00:54:07,280 --> 00:54:12,280
should show up in more fundamental
features of the Nuba way of life.

611
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:16,080
Abdu, a cattle drover,
certainly believes that the way

612
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:19,640
of doing things hasn't
changed in a long time.

613
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,360
HE SPEAKS IN DIALECT

614
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:26,560
It has gone through tradition
through history, through family...

615
00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:31,440
..and from an early age,

616
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:35,160
everyone is allocated
a certain number of cows.

617
00:54:35,160 --> 00:54:37,600
Oh, really? Yes.

618
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:42,000
So that they can raise them and they
feed from them, like they use the

619
00:54:42,000 --> 00:54:47,400
milk from them to grow their children
and then they build on those and

620
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:51,160
obviously, the more cows you have,
the more wealth you have.

621
00:54:51,160 --> 00:54:56,080
So, cattle are absolutely
integral to politics, to culture,

622
00:54:56,080 --> 00:54:59,000
to weaving the whole of
this community together?

623
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,200
Yes.

624
00:55:05,720 --> 00:55:09,760
There are cattle cultures like this
one, right across Africa, from here

625
00:55:09,760 --> 00:55:13,480
in the hills of Sudan down to
KwaZulu in South Africa

626
00:55:13,480 --> 00:55:17,640
and so many of them
are connected to kingship.

627
00:55:17,640 --> 00:55:21,480
It is possible, that many of
these stories may have begun in

628
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:26,480
ancient Nubia, right the way back
to the rock art people and Kerma.

629
00:55:31,840 --> 00:55:34,840
SINGING

630
00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:42,080
The Kambala,
is the Nuba's most important dance.

631
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:47,880
Its origins are in ceremonies
which initiate young men

632
00:55:47,880 --> 00:55:50,680
as full members of Nuba society.

633
00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:57,000
These head-dresses are
made out of cattle skulls.

634
00:56:01,040 --> 00:56:03,120
And I am struck by something.

635
00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,280
At Kerma, the great
burial mound was surrounded by

636
00:56:07,280 --> 00:56:11,480
5,000 cattle skulls just like these.

637
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:15,040
Perhaps they were once the
head dresses worn by dancers

638
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:16,560
at the king's funeral.

639
00:56:23,520 --> 00:56:26,760
Who could
fail to be convinced by this?

640
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:32,600
Those ancient Kerma cultures just
brought to life. I mean, the cattle.

641
00:56:32,600 --> 00:56:36,280
I mean, you can just feel it. This
is women singing about the cattle,

642
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:39,480
this is men reliving those ancient
traditions,

643
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:43,640
this is absolutely everything I
have seen along the journey but

644
00:56:43,640 --> 00:56:46,760
made alive in this incredible dance.

645
00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:54,400
Are these people the descendants
of people of that ancient kingdom?

646
00:56:58,080 --> 00:57:01,680
There seems to be an inheritance
expressed in traditions about

647
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:06,640
cattle, about wrestling and in
legends about an ancient homeland.

648
00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,520
Beyond that, it is difficult to be
certain of the links between

649
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:16,040
the people of Nuba and those of
ancient Nubia.

650
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:20,760
But such a connection,
would only be icing on the cake.

651
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:23,840
The most important thing is the
weight of evidence we now have

652
00:57:23,840 --> 00:57:27,320
for the existence of Nubia
as a remarkable, long-lasting

653
00:57:27,320 --> 00:57:29,520
and indigenous Kingdom.

654
00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:36,200
Nubia wasn't a barbarian wasteland
on the fringes of civilisation

655
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:39,480
as the Egyptians and
Romans would have us believe.

656
00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:42,480
It was a real power
which developed independently

657
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:47,760
and rivalled the Pharaohs, a place
with a distinctive way of life.

658
00:57:51,800 --> 00:57:55,720
In the end, it became the
victim of climate change,

659
00:57:55,720 --> 00:57:58,840
but I think Nubian ideas of power,

660
00:57:58,840 --> 00:58:04,480
wealth and kingship continue
to resonate in modern Africa.

661
00:58:16,240 --> 00:58:18,280
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662
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:20,320
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