In examining and dealing with the fragments of some Flutes found by Professor Garstang during his excavations at the Royal City of Meroë, about fifty miles from Khartoum in the Sûdân, a brief consideration may perhaps be permitted respecting the conditions which obtained at this old Nubian capital on the Upper Nile, so far as they appertain to a phase of music long passed away. It may aid in tracing the origin of these particular flutes, and determining whether they are of local workmanship, or imported.

Kush, an ancient kingdom comprised in Ethiopia, later became one of the dependencies of Egypt proper. From the period of the invasion of Cambyses, B.C. 530, his seizure and destruction of Thebes, the island city of Meroë, decreed by the conqueror to be the capital of the province, became a great trade emporium. Greek influence then began to obtain in the land of the Nile. Although of course the customs, arts, and learning of the more ancient Egyptians extensively prevailed among these more southern people, Meroë was a place of great importance, possessing enough rich and cultured persons to import for use and enjoyment products of art from notable places beyond the Egyptian shores of the Mediterranean.