ABSTRACT
T he iron smelters of Meroe-described on page 325-lived deep in Nubia, a land far up the Nile River, at the very fringes of the Classical world. “When you have passed this portion of the river in the space of 40 days, you go aboard another boat and proceed by water for 12 days more, at the end of which time you reach a great city called Meroe, which is said to be the capital of the other Ethiopians” (Herodotus, Book II, chapter 29-translated by Rawlinson 1859). The Greek traveler Herodotus visited Egypt during the fi fth century B.C. He never traveled above the First Cataract but was profoundly curious about Nubia, the arid country upstream of Egypt’s southern frontier. He questioned the Egyptians about the mysterious land from which they obtained gold, ivory, and semiprecious stones.
