Science and Technology

[~ Susan ~]

Scientists discover gold processing center

CHICAGO, June 19 (UPI) -- U.S. archaeologists have discovered a gold processing center along the middle Nile that produced the precious metal sometime between 2000 and 1500 B.C.

University of Chicago researchers said the center, along with a cemetery they discovered, documents extensive control by the first sub-Saharan kingdom -- the kingdom of Kush.

The team from the university's Oriental Institute found more than 55 grinding stones made of granite-like gneiss along the Nile about 225 miles north of Khartoum, Sudan. The region was also known as Nubia in ancient times.

"This large number of grinding stones and other tools used to crush and grind ore shows that the site was a center for organized gold production," said Geoff Emberling, director of the Oriental Institute Museum and a co-leader of the expedition that was funded by the National Geographic Society and the Packard Humanities Institute.

The team also excavated a cemetery that suggests the Kingdom of Kush covered an area much larger than previously believed -- a territory as much as 750 miles in length.

The expedition is part of an international effort to recover artifacts before the area is covered by water as a result of dam construction.

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