This silver crown, inlaid with red carnelian, green beryl, agate and glass, is one of several such crowns discovered in the great earthen tumuli of Ballana and Qustul, the royal burial grounds of the pre-Christian era of the Nubian Kingdom of Nobatia. This polity lay just beyond the borders of Roman Egypt and was essentially a buffer state between Egypt and nomadic desert groups such as the Blemmyes. It grew rich from its privileged relationship with Rome and Constantinople, and the accompanying trade that passed through its territory.
The crown features a curious mix of Byzantine influences and Meroitic period iconography, including a ram’s head representing the god Amun surmounted by a crown with Amun’s feathers flanked by uraei (rearing cobras). This indicates both a continuation of certain pharaonic traditions even after the collapse of the Kingdom of Kush, as well as a conscious adaptation to the contemporary political realities to their north.
Early, pre-Christian Nobatia is now widely identified with what archaeologists refer to as Ballana Culture, Qustul Culture, or X-group culture, named after the archaeological sites where many of the richest remains where found. These burial grounds are now submerged by Lake Nasser, but were excavated by the Egyptologist Walter Bryan Emery between 1928 and 1931, as part of a rescue project before the lake was filled. What they found were a total of 122 tombs, many containing a wealth of jewelry, furniture and weapons, as well as sacrificed animals such as dogs, cattle, donkeys, camels and horses, and even sacrificed servants.
With the coming of Christianity in the 6th century, came an abrupt end to the millennia old practice of burying material goods with the dead, and gave birth to a new era of churches, cathedrals, monasteries and more modest burials without significant grave goods or sacrifices.
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