COLLOQUIUMAFRICANUM

THEPOWEROF
WA L L S

|
5
HEINRICH-BARTH-INSTITUT

HEINRICH-BARTH-INSTITUT e.V.
in Kooperation mit der Universitt zu Kln

COLLOQUIUM AFRICANUM

Beitrge zur interdisziplinren Afrikaforschung

Contributions to Interdisciplinary Research in Africa
Contributions la recherche interdisciplinaire en Afrique

KLN

2013

The Power of Walls Fortifications in

Ancient Northeastern Africa

Proceedings of the
International Workshop
held at the University of Cologne
4th 7th August 2011

Edited by
Friederike Jesse & Carola Vogel

HEINRICH-BARTH-INSTITUT

Aerial view of the Gala Abu Ahmed fortress. ( University of Cologne, ACACIA project)

To Rudolph Kuper

for his commitment to African Archaeology and his long-lasting and

passionate work in Northeastern Africa which among other things
led to the discovery of Gala Abu Ahmed more than 25 years ago.

HEINRICH-BARTH-INSTITUT e.V., Kln 2013

Jennerstrae 8, D 50823 Kln
http://www.hbi-ev.uni-koeln.de
This book is in copyright. No reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of the
publisher.

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche

Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data
are available on the Internet at http://www.dnb.ddb.de
Financed by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Typeset, digital image editing and layout: Lutz Hermsdorf-Knauth

Printed in Germany by Hans Kock GmbH, Bielefeld
ISBN 978-3-927688-39-1

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Friederike Jesse & Carola Vogel
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Border and Territory

Danel Kahn
The History of Kush an Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Anja Kootz
State-Territory and Borders versus Hegemony and its Installations:
Imaginations Expressed by the Ancient Egyptians during the Classical Periods . . . 33

Lszl Trk
Egypts Southern Frontier Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Fortifications between Syria/Palestine and Nubia
Overview of the Historical Development of Fortifications

Carola Vogel
Keeping the Enemy Out
Egyptian Fortications of the Third and Second Millennium BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Kvta Smolrikov
Egyptian Fortications from the First Millennium BC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Bogdan urawski
Strongholds on the Middle Nile: Nubian Fortications of the Middle Ages . . . . 113
Mariusz Drzewiecki
Fortications and the Post-Meroitic Period in Upper Nubia: Some Thoughts . . . . 145

Systems of Border Protection

James K. Homeier
Reconstructing Egypts Eastern Frontier Defense Network in the
New Kingdom (Late Bronze Age) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Lucia Mori
Fortied Citadels and Castles in Garamantian Times:
the Evidence from Southern Fazzan (Libyan Sahara) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Derek A. Welsby
Romes Solution for the Defence of its Desert Frontier
a Model for Understanding the Strategies Adopted to Combat
Similar Problems by the States on the Middle Nile? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Single Sites Locations, Architecture, Garrison and Function

Irene Forstner-Mller
City Wall(s) in Avaris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Pamela Rose & Alison Gascoigne
Hisn al-Bab: More Symbol than Substance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Stuart Tyson Smith

The Garrison and Inhabitants: A View from Askut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Lisa Heidorn
Dorginarti: Fortress at the Mouth of the Rapids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Dieter Eigner
A Stone Building in the Desert Sands Some Remarks on the Architecture
of the Gala Abu Ahmed Fortress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Friederike Jesse
Far from the Nile
The Gala Abu Ahmed Fortress in Lower Wadi Howar (Northern Sudan) . . . . . . 321

The Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Preface
The story behind this book can be traced back to the winter of 2008/09 and to the Wadi
Howar desert region in northern Sudan where a team of the University of Cologne was
doing excavation work at the Gala Abu Ahmed fortress. One of the important questions
of the project was Why was it necessary to build such a massive structure at this rather remote location? While working and in the evenings at the camp we came up with fascinating theories of the who and why. Beyond, there were a lot of serious discussions
about the functions of the different buildings we uncovered from beneath the sand, about
the possible trade routes or thoroughfares crossing this part of the Sahara, and whether or
not an Egyptian influence was possible despite the distance. The large amount of archaeological evidence pointing to a Pharaonic context such as faience fragments, sherds made
of marl clay or pieces of alabaster led to the discussion whether or not the Egyptians may
even have been responsible for the construction of Gala Abu Ahmed itself.

Against this background, the question of frontiers and their protection became important.
While discussing all these topics and realising that we could not find sufficient answers,
we came to a point when someone asked Why dont you organise a workshop on this
topic? The idea was born and a little more than two years later an international workshop
entitled The Power of Walls Ancient Fortifications in Northeastern Africa was held at
the University of Cologne. The meeting was part of the Gala Abu Ahmed research project
and funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). As the organisers, we were
overwhelmed by the strong and positive reactions to the invitations news of the workshop spread quickly and many people called to ask whether they could participate. That
encouraged us very much and confirmed the necessity of discussions about fortifications,
frontiers, territories and their protection in northeastern Africa.
About 30 researchers from different countries in Europe, but also from the Sudan and the
United States finally met for a long and intense weekend in Cologne: 4th7th August 2011.
We would like to thank all participants for attending, for their contributions and their enthusiasm for discussion. The workshop venue was appropriately located in the ancient
fortifications of the town of Cologne, now used by the University of Cologne. We would
like to thank the Institute of Geography and especially Andreas Janotta for their hospitality. The workshop venue represents only a small part of the enormous Prussian fortifications which turned Cologne into one of the most impressive fortified towns in Europe in
the 19th century. An excursion to the well preserved Fort X was the obvious thing to do
Dirk Wolfrum, Peter Sievert, Werner Pitzler and Uwe Zinnow of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Festung Kln vividly brought these powerful ancient walls to life for us. The realisation
of the whole workshop would not have been possible without the help of Eymard Fder,

Irene Forstner-Mller
City Wall(s) in Avaris
While urban fortifications are a well known phenomenon in the Ancient Near East in the
2nd millennium B.C., they are less well attested in Egypt. There is no evidence for city walls
in New Kingdom Egypt (Pilgrim 2010: 265; Spence 2004). During the Middle Kingdom
and the Second Intermediate Period the situation is slightly different, as they do occur
although they are not a common phenomenon even then (Kemp et al. 2004: 259f.).
One of the few examples known from these periods is Elephantine, the capital of the
First Upper Egyptian Nome. Due to the towns pivotal position at the 1st Cataract, the
doorway to Nubia, it is not surprising that fortifications/city walls are known there from
the Early Dynastic period onwards (Ziermann 1993). During the Middle Kingdom in the
late 12th Dynasty a city wall was built (Pilgrim in press). This wall was partly repaired in
the 17th Dynasty and abandoned in the early 18th Dynasty by which time Elephantine had
already lost its strategic position as the fortress at the southern Egyptian border (for the
development of Elephantine as a border fortress from the Middle Kingdom to the New
Kingdom cf. Pilgrim 2010).
In Avaris city walls and similar fortifications are attested for the Second Intermediate
period (Fig. 1). At that time Avaris was one of the largest towns in Egypt and the Ancient
Near East (see also Bietak 2010: 13). By the 15th Dynasty, when it was the capital of at least
the northern part of Egypt, it covered an area of more than 260 ha (for the latest map of the
geophysical survey cf. Forstner-Mller et al. 2010). Fortifications, albeit not a closed
perimeter, were detected at the northern, southern and eastern limits of the town.
The North: Ezbet Helmi

Parts of this city wall were excavated by the Austrian mission in the late 1980s and early
1990s in the northern section of ancient Avaris at the modern village of Ezbet Helmi (Jnosi
1994: 2830) (Fig. 2).
There, in areas H/IVI, the site was occupied during the later Second Intermediate
Period. While small buildings and attached domestic installations such as ovens covered
the area from the early Hyksos Period onwards (Bietak et al. 2001: 3031, 48 and figs. 89),
the settlement pattern changed distinctively with the construction of the city wall in the late
Hyksos Period. The whole northern part of the town was now protected by a large
fortification wall with bastions towards the Nile and the area became more prestigious in
character. A large garden was situated to the immediate south of the wall (Jnosi 1994: 30).
City Wall(s) in Avaris

241

Fig. 1 Overall map of Avaris/Tell el-Daba, the city wall is marked in white (graphic: Leila Masoud, copyright
Austrian Archaeological Institute).

The wall itself was built from dark grey mud bricks. It was aligned to the Pelusiac branch
of the Nile, therefore in this area in an east-west direction. Only the foundations of this
wall were preserved. Its base is 6.20 m wide. The northern face of the wall was battered.
The 5.30 m-wide bastions protruded ca. 3.60 m from the faade and were 18.10 m apart.
The foundation bed was filled with yellow sand. Whether an earlier thick muddy-sandy
layer was artificial and is evidence of a land-reclamation strategy or constituted a natural
phenomenon remains to be seen (Jnosi 1994: 28).
In a later phase (Jnosi 1994: 29), the wall was reinforced at its northern face by a
mud brick casing which was built along the slope and filled the gaps between the
bastions.
The same wall, visible in the magnetogram (Forstner-Mller 2010: fig. 12), extended
towards the east and was at least 280 m long.

242

Irene Forstner-Mller

Fig. 2 Wall in Ezbet Helmi/area H/I; in the back garden with tree pits (photo: Archive Austrian Archaeological
Institute).

City Wall(s) in Avaris

243

Fig. 3 Magnetic image of Ezzawin (measurement T. Herbich, Archive Austrian Archaeological Institute).

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Irene Forstner-Mller

The South: Ezzawin and Tell el-Daba

Artificial fortifications are also visible at the southern limits of Avaris (Fig. 3). There, at the
modern village of Ezzawin, an extensive magnetic survey has revealed a suburban town
quarter (Forstner-Mller et al. 2010: 73f. and figs. 12, 4). The survey shows a densely builtup quarter with buildings and streets. Following the slightly irregular street-grid, the
buildings are generally oriented SWW-NEE and NNW-SSE, but neighboring houses all
tend to follow slightly different alignments, varying by a few degrees. A surface pottery
survey allows a cautious dating of this area to the later Second Intermediate Period. To the
south a clearly defined border is visible.
A magnetic anomaly with a maximum width of 30 m runs along the southern border
of the town (Forstner-Mller et al. 2010: 73f. and fig. 4). The area to the south of this line
was once under water. Perhaps the anomalies recorded to the southeast of the settlement
reflect harbor installations where the floodplain was dredged in order to create a place for
docking boats.
This line continues to the east and is also visible, with interruptions, to the south of
the modern village of Tell el-Daba.
In spring 2012 auger drillings were undertaken in order to investigate the nature of
these installations, to establish whether these are fortifications made of mud brick or
muddy-sandy reinforcements along the shore of the river Nile. First results hint at the
fact that at least part of the installations consist of mud brick.
The East: Ezbet Machali and Ezbet Mehesin

Similar fortifications are also visible (Fig. 4) in the results of the geophysical survey
which was undertaken in the eastern part of the town in the vicinity of the modern
villages of Ezbet Machali and Ezbet Mehesin (Forstner-Mller et al. 2008). This part,
like the area in Ezzawin to the south can be interpreted as a suburban quarter of Avaris.
At its eastern edge an anomaly is visible, running along the bank of a subsidiary branch
of the Pelusiac branch in a north-south direction. The extension of the magnetic feature
is rather restricted. Perhaps it was necessary to fortify the river bank against flood events.
Auger drillings undertaken during the spring season in 2012 in order to get a better idea
about the nature of these reinforcements proved that, as in the south, the magnetic
anomaly most probably originates from mud brick constructions.

City Wall(s) in Avaris

245

Fig. 4 Magnetic image of Mehesin (measurement T. Herbich, Archive Austrian Archaeological Institute).

246

Irene Forstner-Mller

Conclusion

In the later Second Intermediate Period parts of the town of Avaris were protected by a
city wall. This wall did, however, not enclose the entire town. It was constructed in parts
of the town that were deemed vulnerable and can thus be considered a real defence
system, not a symbolic one. Besides their defensive character, these walls also served
ideological purposes by demonstrating royal power and control over the enclosed area.
The situation in the town shows a different picture within the individual town quarters.
A main wall with bastions was erected along the northwestern edge of Avaris along the
main branch of the Pelusiac Nile. It seems that threats were expected from this direction.
Fortified installations are also known from the south and to a minor degree from the
east of Avaris. There the main aim, besides defense, might also be to provide protection
from natural events such as the Nile flood and erosion of the shore.
There is little doubt that the threats to Avaris were realistic, not perceived (Spence
2004: 269). The historical sources from the Second Intermediate Period show a complex
political situation, with three major political players: the Hyksos in the north, the Theban
kings and the rulers of Kush in the south (see Davies 2003). This period was not a
continuous time of peace but a time of struggle for power between the Hyksos kings of
the 15th Dynasty in the north and their Theban counterparts in the south (Gardiner 1916;
Habachi 1972). Besides the Kamose stelae, this change in the extent of Hyksos territory
and the relationship between the rulers in the north and the vassals in the south becomes
evident in the papyrus Rhind which shows that at least at some time in the reign of King
Apophis the Hyksos were accepted as regular rulers over Egypt even by Thebes. This has
also been confirmed by the latest excavation results at Edfu, where several sealing
impressions bearing the name of King Khyan were found within layers of the 17th Dynasty
(Moeller & Marouard in press).
The building of a fortification/defense system at Avaris in the later Second Intermediate
period may well be connected to the aforementioned historical events and threats. Even if
Kamoses attack against Avaris was not decisive, the protection of at least some parts of the
capital became necessary.
In the New Kingdom the city wall was no longer in use at Avaris. This is a general
phenomenon all over Egypt at this period when the character of towns changed and city
walls fell out of fashion or were no longer necessary (Spence 2004; for Elephantine see
Pilgrim in press).

City Wall(s) in Avaris

247

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