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The Sudanese pyramids had survived quite well for more than a millennium until they were discovered in 1834 by Giuseppe Ferlini, an Italian who had served as a doctor in the Egyptian occupying army.
This man, obsessed with the gold rush, destroyed more than 40 pyramids with explosives.
Not much is known of G. Earlini’s first biography. He was born in 1797. In Bologna, since 1815. He was already traveling through Greece, shortly after he arrived in Egypt.
In the context of the pyramids of Ferlini
There he joined the army of the Sultan of Egypt and participated in the conquest of Sudan in 1820. The war was very brutal, but it was quickly won with a new type of artillery.
In 1830, G. Ferlini became a military surgeon. The unit he served in was stationed in Senare and later in Khartoum. There he met the merchant Antonio Stefani, who lived there and later became his expedition companion.
As the service in the army no longer satisfied the Italian, it was necessary to find another more profitable source of livelihood.
In the pyramids of Sudan, 2,5 thousand. members of the royal families were buried for years. Specifically, they were buried under the pyramid, and the entrance to the pyramid was to enter a small temple in the pyramid.
„Reuters“ / „Scanpix“ nuotr./Piramidės Sudane
Inspired by the legends told by the Sudanese about the large amounts of gold possibly hidden in the pyramids, Ferrini decided to become a treasure hunter and find that gold.
Being a treasure hunter was very normal and even fashionable at the time: no one protected cultural heritage and it would have been a shame to return to Italy without a booty from a military campaign.
After obtaining excavation permission from the Governor General of Sudan, Ali Kurshid Pasha, in 1834. In August, he and A. Stefani organized an expedition to Meroe, the ancient capital of the Kushite kingdom (1st millennium BC – 4th century BC).
As conventional excavations did not produce the desired result and did not cover the cost of the works, G. Ferlini, inspired by an ambiguous legend about hidden gold, began to dismantle the pyramids.
And finally they were demolished by blasting: the dynamite was not there yet, so gunpowder was used. Usually the Ferlin pyramids started to explode from on high.
In the northern part of the Meroe pyramid group, there was still a 28-meter-high, well-preserved and intact Queen Amanishakhet pyramid that Ferlini chose for complete destruction, and he climbed to the top and shouted loudly: “Here it is, the goal!”
Sudanese workers then began to dismantle the summit, then the pyramid was blown almost to ground level.
This time, however, Ferlini was lucky: he managed to find a 2.5×3.5m room and descend into it.
In this way, sacrifices were found for Queen Amanishakhet, the royal stretcher, a bronze vessel with sacrifices on the cloth, as well as amulets, figures of gods, a knife, several wooden bowls and fragments of necklaces.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons / G.Fllini found a bracelet for Queen Amanishakhet
Since the discovered room was not large, G. Ferlini, realizing the most valuable finds, went to the field so that the Sudanese who were looking from above through the opening would not see it. There he put the loot in a leather bag.
When Ferlini left the room uncovered, the Sudanese who had helped him were disappointed. They didn’t see any finds.
The seeker still did not know what he had found. It was only late at night that G. Ferlini and A. Stefani began to inspect the objects in the bronze pot in their stores.
Then it turned out that they had found a treasure trove of gold jewelry. After destroying more than 40 pyramids, G.Ferlin finally found what he was looking for.
As the workers became dissatisfied, the treasure was hidden in the desert sand for a time. And with good reason, the message had already spread through the villages, so at dawn the seekers were surrounded by locals.
However, nothing happened to the prospectors, and the Nubians managed to be persuaded, and within days they had already searched for gold and destroyed another pyramid, but they found nothing there.
G.Ferlini and A.Stefani continued their work; after all, a few more treasures needed to be found to make the search worthwhile. However, they were unsuccessful in any way, nothing special could be detected, except for a few isolated findings.
And again, a dangerous situation arose: the locals began to arm themselves and the authorities were able to discover the hidden finds at any moment. Therefore, in 1836. Mr. Ferlini decided to flee.
Hiding his loot under his clothes at night, he fled to Cairo and from there sailed to Italy.
1837 In Rome, he published a catalog with his findings and a year later his research report was translated into French.
However, he simply failed to realize the treasure: in the 19th century, no one believed that anyone in Black Africa could produce jewelry of such high quality.
For example, Samuel Birch, an Egyptologist at the British Museum, in 1838. stated that G. Ferlin’s finds are reproductions of Egyptian artifacts from later times.
However, he eventually managed to sell the loot in Germany: part of the treasure was bought by King Louis I of Bavaria, and now the jewels are kept in the State Museum of Egyptology in Munich.
The other part of the loot was bought by the Museum of Egyptology in Berlin, where it can still be seen today.
Prussian Egyptologist Carl Richard Lepsius was the first to realize that G. Ferlin’s findings were not copies. He then embarked on an expedition to Sudan, where he was able to decipher the hieroglyphics on the Meroe bas-relief.
Ferlini’s discovery may have led to an even greater mania for destroying heritage, with more than one pyramid destroyed after the discovery, and the provincial governor himself believed that there might still be hidden gems in the remaining intact pyramids.
However, the Egyptologist C. Lepsi managed to convince the governor that Ferlini’s discovery was completely accidental (in fact, the objects in a separate room were, for some reason, bricked up separately from the mummy).
„Reuters“ / „Scanpix“ nuotr./Piramidės Sudane
This prevented further destruction of the heritage (the governor planned to send up to 500 soldiers to destroy the pyramids). Due to this miracle, the Nubian pyramids have survived to this day.
Dr. Ferlini, tormented by depression, 1870. died in Bologna. The treasure did not bring him riches. Many of the items in his catalog disappeared without a trace, some were sold, others were given away, and only a few gold rings remained for the descendants of the doctor.
Due to insane insanity, Sudan’s unique cultural heritage has been irreparably damaged. Some of the pyramids were later restored, but not completely rebuilt.
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The author of the article is Šarūnas Subatavičius, an archaeologist, now a master’s student in history at VU. He is interested in the past of Lithuania and the region, European numismatics, the archeology of ancient South American cultures. Write a blog praeitiespaslaptys.lt.
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