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Former Swiss wine grower uncovers Sudan's ancient roots

Charles Bonnet, 76, is the doyen of Sudan archaeologists who helped rewrite an ancient chapter of Africa's largest country.

Bonnet helped show that Sudan was not merely a satellite to Egypt's wealth of ancient relics. He unearthed statues of Sudan's "black pharaohs", the overlords of the Kingdom of Kush, suggesting that Sudan was a trove itself.

Bonnet peeled away at the old kingdom of Kerma (2500 to 1500 BC) and discovered seven granite statues of the Nubian rulers near the bank of the Nile.

But with archaeologists now interested in the Nile valley in northern Sudan, where the Kushite kingdom flourished between present day Khartoum and the Egyptian border, he still dreams of forgotten kingdoms elsewhere in the country.

Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)