Ancient supply networks between Egypt and Nubia uncovered by analysis of eyeliner

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During the Late Bronze Age, a period known by Egyptologists as the New Kingdom, the ancient Egyptian state fully controlled the southern region of Nubia, stretching from the First Nile Cataract in Egypt to the Fifth Nile Cataract in Sudan. During this time, Egypt established a colonial regime in Nubia, primarily to exploit the region's rich gold mines. Amid this colonisation, several settlements were established by the Egyptians, sometimes based on earlier occupations. Large cemeteries were associated with these settlements.

During the UNESCO Nubian campaign of the 1960s, the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia excavated a vast area in the border between Egypt and Nubia. Among the sites excavated, there large non-elite cemeteries with mostly undisturbed graves. These excavations produced invaluable collections, which are now housed in the Sudan National Museum and Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala University.

Lead isotope analysis was applied to samples taken from kohl containers from non-elite graves at ancient Tehkhet (modern Debeira and Akshkeit, north Sudan). For the first time, scholars were able to trace the provenance of kohl found in graves dating from New Kingdom Nubia.

Kohl was made of ground galena (a lead-rich black mineral) mixed with plant- or animal-derived binders. The kohl used by non-elite colonised communities in ancient Tehkhet originated from two sources: the state-controlled mines at Gebel el-Zeit in the Egyptian Eastern Desert and a second, as-yet-undetermined source, possibly local to Sudan. Identifying this local source would require new galena ore data from Sudan, but current fieldwork is impossible due to the ongoing war.

The paper's findings reveal that despite the scarcity faced by non-elite communities in New Kingdom Nubia, they somehow accessed state-controlled supply chains. Comparisons with samples from Egypt revealed that people living at Abydos and nomadic Pan-grave communities also had access to kohl from Gebel el-Zeit. These findings open new avenues for research into how settled Nubian communities in Tehkhet and other mobile groups accessed state-controlled resources amid colonisation. In a context of widespread scarcity, informal collaborations and networks might have enabled these communities to acquire goods outside the reach of the colonial state.

There is much to learn about ancient Nubia and Sudan. Museum collections around the world offer major resources to continuing moving research on Sudan and Nubia forward while we cannot go back to Sudan as a result of the current war. This research contributes to highlighting the key role of Sudanese archaeology to expanding our knowledge of ancient northeast Africa and beyond.