A fascinating mystery has unfolded along the banks of the Nile River in Sudan. A set of ancient rock walls seems to represent the oldest plumbing system ever discoveredrevelations suggesting that the people of the ancient empire of Nubia in northern Sudan used the river to their advantage as early as 3,000 years ago.
The structures in question, called “groyne“, are rigid constructions, positioned perpendicular to a bank or bank, that mankind still uses today to manipulate the flow of water and silt. They are extremely useful, and farmers and sailors along the Nile have known this for much longer than we thought.
Until recently, the Yellow River in China boasted the oldest known groynes in the world, but not anymore. Researchers in Australia and the UK have found that Nubians used groynes 2,500 years before Chinese farmers. Some are buried under the waters of the Nile, while others stand on ancient riverbeds now dried up.
Shape, orientation and size say a lot about their possible purposes. Researchers suspect that these constructions were used to trap fertile silt, irrigate land, limit bank erosion, defend against seasonal flooding, create optimal fishing pools, or to stop sand winds that choked crops. .
“These monumental river groynes helped connect the people of Ancient Egypt and Nubia, facilitating the long-distance movement of resources, armies, people and ideas up and down the Nile‘, marvels archaeologist Matthew Dalton of the University of Western Australia. Surprisingly, their importance is largely escaped our attention until recently.