Qualla: Meinarti https://qualla.com/meinarti en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Meinarti https://qualla.com/meinarti Meinarti: Introduction https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. The archaeologists had three years. William Yewdale Adams and his team began excavating in 1962, working against a deadline set by concrete: the Aswan High Dam was rising, its reservoir already creeping south, and the entire Nile valley north of the Second Cataract was scheduled to disappear. Meinarti was a small island near Wadi Halfa with an artificial mound rising twelve and a half meters above its surface, 175 meters long. Inside that mound were eighteen distinct occupation layers, each one the ruin of the village that preceded it, each one reduced to sand and built over. When Adams finished in 1964, his team packed the finds onto boats. By the end of the decade, Meinarti was underwater.

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Image: Marie-Lan Nguyen | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Meinarti: Six Lives in Mud Brick https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. The pattern was remarkably consistent: build a village from mud brick, live in it for a generation or two, abandon it when flood or dynastic upheaval made staying impossible, let the desert wind cover it, then build again on top. Six distinct phases of occupation emerged. The old...

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Image: Marie-Lan Nguyen | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-six-lives-in-mud-brick.mp3 0:06 2 full Meinarti: A Church With a Crooked Foundation https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. Around 650 CE, after Christianity had been introduced to Nubia, the island was resettled once more. Most of the new village was poorly preserved -- repeated flooding had eaten most of the walls down to 40 centimeters. But the foundations of Meinarti's first church emerged clearly...

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Image: Marie-Lan Nguyen | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-a-church-with-a-crooked-foundation.mp3 0:06 3 full Meinarti: Prosperity Under the Fatimids https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. Phase 4 began around 950, during a period when Christian Nubia enjoyed unusually warm relations with Fatimid Egypt. The archaeological record reflects the prosperity directly. Houses were substantially larger than anything earlier. The typical dwelling had a sizable front room, o...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-prosperity-under-the-fatimids.mp3 0:06 4 full Meinarti: The Eparch's Residence https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. Around 1200, Meinarti took on strategic importance during a turbulent period that saw Crusader armies reshape the Eastern Mediterranean and Egyptian raids threaten northern Nubia. The Eparch of Nobadia -- the viceroy who governed the northern reaches of the Makurian kingdom from ...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-the-eparchs-residence.mp3 0:06 5 full Meinarti: The Castle-House and the Drowning https://qualla.com/meinarti/ Photo credit Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public domain. The final occupation, beginning around 1400, left one massive building: a mud-brick castle-house with vaulted chambers, originally two stories tall. The upper floor held living space including toilets; the ground floor was pure storage, with some rooms accessible only through the...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/e/t/x/meinarti-wp/setx-meinarti-the-castle-house-and-the-drowning.mp3 0:06 6 full