When Greek Was an African Language: The Role of Greek Culture in Ancient and Medieval Nubia

What does concern us, however, is the fact that construction of the dam was preceded by the largest and most complex archaeological salvage campaign in world history- the UNESCO-sponsored international effort to excavate and record every significant archaeological site in the two-hundred-mile stretch of the Upper Nile valley that would be flooded by Lake Nasser, the lake created by the dam. [...]it is possible for the first time to discuss the place of Greek and Greek culture in Nubia in a new way, one that focuses on its function as one element in the long history of a culture that was created by Nubians. According to the second century B.C.E. historian Agatharchides of Cnidus, the author of the standard classical account of the region, Greeks first entered Nubia when Ptolemy II campaigned there in the 270s B.C.E. Precise dates for the beginnings of complex historical processes are rarely what they seem, and, unfortunately, that is true in this case. On the Greek side, the results of Ptolemy II and his successors' initiative are clear and uncontroversial. Besides gaining access to a ready supply of African products, including hardwoods, incense, gold, slaves, ivory, and even animals for Egyptian temples and Ptolemy's zoo (including a rhinoceros), the reports Ptolemaic explorers and hunters prepared revolutionized Greek knowledge of the African interior.