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South of the Blemmyes, the Meroitic province of
Lower Nubia collapsed by about A. D. 300, and by 375, the
kingdom of the Noubades, now known as Nubians was established
with its capital near the modern Sudanese Border. Great
moundtombs of its kings at Qustul and Ballana contained much
wealth, in crowns, jewels, and great weapons, including long
African spear-swords, now in the Cairo Museum. The Oriental
Institute's own excavations there discovered that the tumuli
themselves were only part of larger complexes of chapels and
sacrificial pits. Like the Meroitic rulers they supplanted, the
Noubadians used pharaonic symbols and worshipped ancient gods.
They joined with the Blemmyes in attacks on Upper Egypt in
defense of the old religion against the newly dominant
Christianity.
..."Archaeologically, the post-Meroitic dark age in Lower Nubia
is filled by the cultural remains which Reisner designated sixty
years ago as the "X Group"{.W. Y. Adams in X Group culture.. }
..."As always, Reisner interpreted the unfamiliar "X Group"
grave type as evidence of the coming of a new people... The
cultural theories of Reisner found instant confirmation in the
anatomical evidence of the X-Group skeletons as adduced by
Elliot Smith: "The X Group people were strongly Negroid aliens
who had suddenly made their way north into Nubia, bringing with
them a mode of burial and type of pottery which Dr Reisner has
declared to be distinctly non-Egyptian..."
"It seemed, in sum, that a new group of southern barbarians had
taken possession of the whole of Lower Nubia, displacing Romans
and Meroitic alike"...
..."Modern anthropological research has not confirmed the theory
of "X Group" racial distinctness vis-à-vis the preceding
Meroitic population in Lower Nubia"....
..."Given the present state of our knowledge, the continued use
of the non-committal and misleading 'X-Group' designation seems
unjustified. The name 'Ballana Culture', proposed several years
ago by Trigger, is manifestly preferable... It identifies a
particular stage of Nubian cultural development with its
principal monumental expression, and provides a name which
instantly enables us to differentiate between the culture of
Lower Nubia and the related but in some ways distinct
post-Meroitic culture of the steppelands, which is designated by
Trigger as the Tanqasi Culture...
"If the archaeological remains of the Meroitic and Ballana
phases point unmistakably to cultural and social continuity,
there nevertheless remain important differences between them
which must be explained. In the cultural sphere we have to
account for the disappearance of many of the higher art which
had long been characteristic of Kushite civilization, and at the
same time for the revival of burial rites which seem to hark all
the way back to pre-pharaonic Kerma. In the political sphere we
have to recognize the appearance of a new, independent monarchy
in Lower Nubia which nevertheless represents the last,
barbarized manifestation of the pharaonic tradition. To further
complicate the picture we have a fairly considerable number of
late classical texts which make no mention of Meroe or Meroites,
but allude repeatedly to two seemingly new peoples, the Blemmyes
and Nobatae. Finally, we have possible evidence of linguistic
discontinuity between the Meroitic and Post-Meroitic periods
which cannot be ignored...."
"Remains of the Ballana Culture have been found from Shellal in
the North to Sesebi, in the Abri-Delgo Reach, in the South...
Ballana sites-both villages and cemeteries- are notably smaller
and more dispersed than are those of the Meroitic period...."
"The typical Ballana tumulus was from 12 to 40 feet in diameter,
and might rise to a maximum height of 15 feet... The tumuli of
kings and nobles could reach far larger proportions. In the
ordinary tombs there was no adjoining offering chamber or
surface decoration of the earth mound. As in the Meroitic
period, many graves seem to have lacked any kind of
superstructure; in some places there are whole cemeteries
without any tumuli. In their subterranean arrangements, the
Ballana graves show the same variety of chamber types as do
Meroitic graves. Although cave graves are rare, the basic
two-fold division between vaulted chamber-tombs and niche
graves, and the further division of the latter into end-niche
and side-niche types, persists throughout the Ballana period.
However, the relative proportions of the two main types are
reversed: simple niche graves are much more common than are
vaulted tombs in the Post-Meroitic period. A further innovation
may be seen in the re-introduction of the contracted burial
posture, and of the southward orientation of the body in place
of the traditional westward orientation of Meroitic times. The
great majority of contracted burials are found in niche-graves;
they may represent nothing more than a natural adaptation to
this rather constricted type of grave chamber. The bodies in
chamber-tombs are most often extended on the back, as in
Meroitic times. The practise of wrapping the dead in a shroud
remained usual throughout the Ballana period. The funerary
offerings in Ballana graves are of the same general types as are
found in Meroitic graves, but are considerably reduced in number
and variety. Quantities of cheap, locally made pottery are the
most common grave furnishings. Other objects, except beads, are
rare, and imported goods exceptionally so. Weapons of one kind
and another are found in a good many cases; they include iron
spear and arrow heads, leather quivers of a striking and
elaborate design, leather bowguards, and archers' stone
rings..."
"The absence of monumental architecture is one of the most
distinctive and surprising features of the Ballana period. Not
only was there no further building in stone, but the older
temples and/or palaces which had been built at Gebel Adda and at
Meinarti in late Meroitic times were deliberately destroyed.
This seems to have been a matter of policy rather than an
accident of war..."
"What little we know of everyday life in Ballana times comes
chiefly from the remains of a few towns and villages which were
founded in Meroitic times but continued to be occupied later...
At none of these places was there any significant break in the
continuity of social and cultural development between Meroitic
and post-Meroitic times..."
"...One of the few Nubian manufactures which seems to have
flourished widely in the Ballana period was the pottery-making.
It shows, however, an almost complete break with the traditions
of Meroitic times, and the final disappearance of any vestige of
ancient Egyptian influence. The lack of correspondence between
Meroitic and X Group pottery was one of the factors long
regarded as evidence for an "X Group" invasion..." "...Ballana
pottery is so closely similar to that of Byzantine Egypt, and so
different from its Meroitic predecessor...." "Pottery vessels
seem to have been the only luxury goods which were enjoyed in
any quantity by the Ballana people. They are found in enormous
numbers not only in the graves, but even abandoned on the floors
of houses..."
"Iron was certainly another industry of the Ballana period,
although it is by no means abundant either in houses or in
graves"....." Another industry of Ballana times which is
attested by a few chance finds is that of basket-making..."
"Most of the other manufactured goods which are sometimes found
in Ballana graves are the same as, or closely similar to, those
of the Meroitic period, and many of them appear to have been
imported..."
" Throughout most of Nubia, archaeological remains of the
Ballana culture give the impression of a decentralized agrarian
society, poorer but more self-sufficient than the society of
Meroitic times. Although differences of wealth are perceptible
from family to family and from village to village, there is no
conspicuously differentiated middle class...."
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