Visit of the Managing Director of the Louvre

Henri Loyrette, Managing Director of the Louvre museum, came to Sudan for the third time from February 16 to 18, 2008. Guillemette Andreu, chief curator and head of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, Benoît de Saint Chamas, Advisor to the Managing Director, Frédéric Jousset, grand patron of the Louvre museum and Bruno Le Dref, editor in chief at France 2, were also part of the journey.

An expedition was organized to some of the most beautiful sites of Sudanese Nubia. The Louvre delegation was accompanied by Mr. Hassan Hussein Idris (Managing Director of the Department of Antiquities of Sudan), Vincent Rondot, Director of the SFDAS and Vincent Francigny, Researcher at the SFDAS.

Dongola el-‘Agouz, capital of the Christian kingdom of Makuria, was the first stage of this visit. Thanks to the presence on the site of Professor Wlodzimierz Godlewski, from the University of Warsaw, the paintings of the Holy Trinity monastery (11th century) could be presented to the visitors.

Next stop, the temple built under pharaoh Amenhotep III in Soleb as well as the rock-cut site of Gebel Dosha and its small speos dug under the reign of Tuthmosis III.

Flying over the region made us aware of the rich archaeological potential of the Mahas country: Sesebi, Gebel Gorgod, Nauri and its decree of Seti I dated from the year 4.

Kerma, capital of the first Kingdom of Kush, was the final destination of the journey in Nubia. We visited the site spreading around the deffufa as well as the new museum, inaugurated on January 19 of that year. Among the numerous objects, we admired the statues of Napatan kings found in the cache at Dokki Gel: Taharqa, Tanuetamani, Senkamanisken, Anlamani and Aspelta.

Not far from the capital of the kingdom of Meroe, the Louvre Museum started excavations under the direction of Michel Baud. The latter was able to present his most recent results since the campaign was then in progress: remains of a royal palace, kilns in a workshop area, etc.