The exhibition in the Gustavianum celebrates the 50th anniversary of the fieldwork of a unique archaeological collaboration, showing documentation material from the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia and from the UNESCO campaign, the saving of Abu Simbel, which was carried out with Swedish participation.
The exibition opens on September 2nd and continues until late December.
"Monuments and objects of art and great beauty and historical importance had been saved for future generations and an important chapter in the history of Africa and of the world had escaped oblivion thanks to the archaeological investigations..." (T. Säve-Söderbergh, 1987)
Background
In 1954, the Egyptian government made the construction of the High Dam at Assuan a key objective to increase the agricultural production and employment, electricity production and improved navigation that benefits tourism of the country.
The building of the High Dam had a considerable number of environmental and social impacts, extending to the south into the Sudanese area. Among the anticipated impacts in the area inundated by the reservoir were the resettlement of the Nubian population (approx. 120 000 people), the loss of soil fertility, health impacts and coastal erosion, and the saving of historic monuments. Archaeologists all over the world raised concerns that several major historical sites in Nubia, the area south of the first Nile cataract, were about to be under water.
Soon, on the 8 of March 1960, the UNESCO called its members to a unique international rescue operation for Nubia, saving monuments in Egypt and in the Sudan. Most prominent of these were the temples of Abu Simbel which were relocated together with over 20 other monuments and architectural complexes to the shores of Lake Nasser under the “UNESCO Nubia Campaign”.
The remaining archaeological sites, testimonies of over 5000 years of human occupation in Nubia, immediately became the subject for archaeological rescue campaigns in the years 1960 – 1965, before becoming flooded by Lake Nasser.
The Swedish king Gustav VI Adolf took a leading position in forming the rescue committee for the UNESCO, and Sweden got an important position in the campaign.The Scandinavian countries Sweden, Norway and Danmark together with Finland joined forces under the scientific leadership of T. Säve-Söderbergh, professor of Egyptology at Uppsala University, and began to excavate the northernmost area on the East bank in the Sudan.
Three seasons were carried out in 1961-1965; the excavated settlements and cemeteries were meticulously documented, followed by scientific publications, which still form the standard for our knowledge about the ancient Nubian cultures.
