Meinarti

Meinarti (also Mainarti) was an island with a Nubian village in northern Sudan. Situated in the Nile, Meinarti was just north of the 2nd Cataract, a few kilometers upstream of the Sudanese border town of Wadi Halfa. On the island was an artificial mount 175m long and 12.5m high, consisting of stratified archaeological remains. When excavated it proved to contain 18 recognizable levels, the result of six separate and distinct phases of occupation. Each phase was followed by a period of abandonment and then a complete rebuilding. Structural remains at all phases were entirely of mud brick. Meinarti was excavated by William Yewdale Adams from 1962 to 1964, prior to perishing in the 1960s with the rising of Lake Nubia due to the Aswan Dam. The earliest occupation, Phase 1 (= Levels 16–18) occurred during the later, Meroitic phase of the great Nubian empire of Kush. Its beginning coincided more or less with the Roman occupation of Egypt, in 30 BC. The surviving remains included no residences, but three stoutly built public or commercial buildings. The largest was too poorly preserved for definite interpretation. Nearly as large was a walled market compound consisting of shops on either side of a plaza, while nearby was the best preserved wine press ever found in Nubia. It was used only for a short time, and was abandoned and filled with trash well before the end of Phase 1,

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).