The C-Group People

During the Sixth Dynasty (ca. 2300 BC), a new culture began to infiltrate the Nile Valley of Nubia. Archaeologists have named this the C-Group, and it appears to have migrated from the west. The C-Group has sometimes been identified, rightly or wrongly, as the Tjemeh-Libyans. The C-Group people ultimately settled the length of Lower Nubia from the First through the Second Cataracts. A related culture also established itself in Upper Nubia and at Kerma, contributing to the development of the early Kerma Culture. However, while the C-Group and Kerma cultures developed simultaneously, they were distinct from each other and practiced different customs.

The main centers of C-Group culture were located in Lower Nubia at Dakka, Aniba, and Faras. Other centers were spread through the region, notably at Serra and Adindan. The C-Group culture lasted through the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and until the New Kingdom conquest of Kush (i.e., after 1570 BC.), a length of over 700 years.

Essentially, the C-Group people were pastoralists whose activities were directed toward raising cattle. That cattle husbandry was the center of their lives is suggested by their funerary stelae (erected beside their tombs), many of which were decorated with images of cattle, as was much of their pottery. Additionally, excavation of their domestic sites has revealed a very extensive use of leather in their clothing and furnishings.

 

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Phases of the C-Group Culture

The culture of the C-Group people underwent an evolutionary development over the course of its long existence. Archaeologists can detect three phases and several subphases in this development, each with its own physical and social characteristics. These phases can be correlated to periods of Egyptian history:

Ia = late Old Kingdom to mid-First Intermediate Period
Ib = mid-First Intermediate Period to mid-Dyn. 12
IIa = mid-Dyn. 12 to early Second Intermediate Period
IIb = Second Intermediate Period
III = New Kingdom

In their development, the C-Group people achieved a highly stratified and complex chiefdom by Phase Ia. As noted above, by the end of the Old Kingdom various communities of C-Group people effected a temporary union or confederacy under a single governing authority. Later, in the First Intermediate Period, a brief dynasty of at least three rulers appears among the C-Group in Lower Nubia. Through the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the C-Group was under intense pressure and assault by Egypt. The Twelfth Dynasty kings were engaged in the long process of conquering Lower Nubia and reconsolidating Egypt's political, military, and economic holds there. However, even through the intense Egyptianization of Nubia, the C-Group people did not succumb culturally to their Egyptian rulers. They maintained their cultural distinctiveness from the latter during the Middle Kingdom occupation.

Later, after the Egyptian evacuation of Nubia (due to the fall of the Middle Kingdom), the C-Group was invaded again, this time from the land of Kush--based at Kerma to the south. This invasion occurred during Phase IIb and is marked by the absorption of Lower Nubia into the Kingdom of Kush. Remarkably, it is only at this time, after Egypt had abandoned Nubia, that we detect the beginning of the Egyptianization of the C-Group culture. This process of acculturation would become so complete by Phase III, that C-Group culture would ultimately become nearly indistinguishable from Egyptian.

C-Group burials were characterized by a tumulus, i.e., a circular structure faced with stone and filled with rubble; later it was fronted by an enclosed chapel. The tumulus was built around a brick or stone vault into which the body and grave-goods were introduced. Frequent among these goods was the occurrence of clay figurines representing cattle and women. While early on, bodies were placed in a contracted (fetal) position on the ground, in Phase IIb, when the C-Group was dominated by Kerma, the bodies were laid on beds in the vault, which was a characteristic of the Kerma culture.

The Relationship of Kerma and Kush to Egypt

From the Old Kingdom through the early New Kingdom (ca. 2400 - 1550 BC), the culture that was centered in Upper Nubia at the town of Kerma, and which was evolving from its Pre- Kerma past (see above), continued to grow and flourish, until it ultimately became the powerful independent kingdom which the Egyptians called Kush. The development of the culture at Kerma was originally spurred by the arrival of a people from the west who may have had some relationship to the Lower Nubian C-Group. As Charles Bonnet indicates, the population of the Kerma culture stretched as far south as the Letti Basin in settlements of reasonable size, controlling the Nile Valley up through the Fourth Cataract.

The Kerma Culture and its heirs in later history (i.e. Kingdoms Kush at Napata and Meroe) were quite worrisome to Egypt, who often tried to subjugate them or, at least, repel them from its own economic interests in Nubia. In general, Egypt and Kush, throughout their history, shared an inverse relationship regarding their political and economic fortunes in Nubia. When the Egyptian state flourished at home, the Egyptians maintained a firm grip over Lower Nubia, preventing the growth of Kush there. However, when the internal situation in Egypt was unstable, then the Egyptians were forced to relax or abandon their hold on Lower Nubia, giving Kush the opportunity to grow and absorb the region. Thus, the Kushites were usually quick to fill any power vacuum left by the Egyptians in Nubia. In this regard, the Kushites were often reactive to the Egyptians and did not actively seize the initiative against them. Indeed, after the Egyptian conquest of both Upper and Lower Nubia in the New Kingdom, the Kingdom of Kush apparently ceased to exist for nearly 500 years.

An exception to this pattern occurred in the eight century BC, when the Kingdom of Kush at Napata--led by King Piye-- invaded a divided and demoralized Egypt, conquered it and added it to its own domain. The result of this union was the Twenty- fifth Dynasty of Egyptian history which was a united kingdom of Egypt and Kush that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to beyond the Sixth Cataract. However, after that short era, i.e., in the Saite and Hellenistic Periods, Egypt resumed its domination over Lower Nubia. Thereafter in the Roman era, Egypt and Kush apparently made political accommodations with each other over their interests in Nubia (see below).

Phases of the Kerma Culture

The main stem of the Kerma Culture lasted more than 830 years, and in that time, Kerma society developed and evolved becoming more and more stratified until achieving a fully bureaucratic state led by royalty.

The Kerma Culture is divided into three main cultural and archaeological phases:

Early Kerma 2400 - 2000 BC
Middle Kerma 2000 - 1668 BC
Classic Kerma 1668 - 1570 BC

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Each of these phases is distinguished by its own peculiarities in styles of pottery, tomb-building and burial practices, as well as evolution in social development.

David O'Connor has suggested that Early Kerma was actually the center of the chiefdom of Zatju and Irtjet, and chiefs' tombs can possibly be identified in the Early Kerma cemeteries. Through its history, the Kerma Culture continued to practice the tradition of sacrificing human beings as part of the burials of its social elite, maintaining a tradition that stretched back to the Khartum Neolithic. The town of Kerma grew continuously over time, becoming a city with municipal and religious centers and with a population and area comparable to contemporary provincial cities of Egypt (e.g., the eastern cemetery of the town contained about 30,000 graves, and its area has been estimated from 9 to 25 hectares).

From Early Kerma onward, the town was protected by a system of walls and ditches that was enlarged and elaborated as the town grew bigger. Monumental building in the town began during the Early Kerma period. Prominent was a large circular building in the town center which was made of mudbrick and conical roof. It had been enlarged several times over the years, and it appears to have been a type of royal hut. Another edifice that was begun in the Early Kerma was a large solid mud-brick structure, called in modern Arabic the defuffa, that had some religious function. It was progressively enlarged over the years, until it achieved truly massive and monumental proportions.

The Middle Kerma was the first culture to which the Egyptians gave the name, Kush, the first use of the term occurring in the Twelfth Dynasty. Although political relations were tense between the Egyptian Middle Kingdom and the Middle Kerma Culture, archaeology reveals that they did trade considerably with each other, especially between Kerma and Upper Egypt. This fact is corroborated by the boundary stelae of Sesostris III which specifically provided entry for Kushite Nubians to trade at Mirgissa. In addition, abundant numbers of Egyptian artifacts occur in the cemeteries of Kerma at this time, attesting to the amount of trade between the two countries. These artifacts include, among others: alabaster jars, statues and statuettes, various small objects, scarabs, and copper daggers.

It is in the Middle Kerma phase that we begin to detect the beginnings of the Egyptianization of Upper Nubia, with the Kushite elite starting to adopt a lifestyle influenced by that of Egypt, including: language and writing, religious beliefs, art and architecture, etc.

The Classic Kerma marked the high-point of the Kingdom of Kush in terms of cultural development and economic wealth. Its warlike character is also very evident. The success and growth of the Classic Kerma were spurred by the fall of the Middle Kingdom in Egypt. This event led to the general Egyptian evacuation of Lower Nubia in the eighteenth century BC. Thereafter, the Kushites began to absorb into their domain all the Egyptian installations, towns and forts of Lower Nubia, including the Egyptian residents of Buhen and Mirgissa who were left behind in the Egyptian pull-out. These Egyptians pledged their suzerainty to the Kushite ruler, and they administered Lower Nubia on his behalf. This situation lasted several generations, until the Kushites made a concerted effort to expel the Egyptians, to occupy their installations, and directly govern Lower Nubia themselves.

In the Classic Kerma phase, Kushite civilization became highly Egyptianized due to increasing contact with Egypt in the preceding Middle Kerma and to the later absorption of the Egyptian establishment in Lower Nubia. The Kushite elite even adopted Egyptian writing and names by this time, e.g., the Egyptians record the name of one of the Kushite rulers as Nedjeh, which is Egyptian in structure. These rulers also adopted Egyptian royal and religious symbology, including the use of the White Crown, the winged sun-disk, and funerary models of sacred barks. This Egyptian acculturation of Kerma appears to have been deliberately fostered by the rulers of Kush themselves. In a related development, it was during the Kushite domination of Lower Nubia at this time that the C-Group Nubians living there also began to adopt Egyptian culture after years of resisting the tendency to do so during the period of the Egyptian conquest.

 

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Kerma Burials

Characteristic of Kerma burials was the tumulus (similar to that of the C-Group), a circular mound, faced with rocks (sometimes enclosing long corridors or galleries) and filled with rubble and sand. Inside and under the ground was a burial pit for the corpse and the grave goods. From the end of the Early Kerma onward, the corpses were laid in a contracted position on a bed. Sacrificed animals, such as sheep, were placed in the pits, as were occasionally the corpses of sacrificed humans. In royal tombs of the Classic Kerma, the practice of human sacrifice continued to grow, reaching the point where one ruler's burial alone contained the sacrificed corpses of 322 of his retainers, many entombed alive, including men, women, and children. Later, with the Egyptian conquest and occupation of Kush in the sixteenth century BC, this practiced ceased and did not recur until sixteen centuries later, when it was revived in the Late Meroitic Period at Meroe.

Fall of the Kerma Culture

Classic Kerma was contemporary with the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period, and it succeeded so long as Egypt remained in political turmoil. At that time, Egypt was governed by the Hyksos, who were Asiatic invaders ruling from the Delta and who exercised suzerainty over Upper Egypt. Kush maintained friendly diplomatic relations with the Hyksos. For a time, it evidently also maintained cordial relations with the rulers of Upper Egypt, since archaeology reveals that Kushites were entering Upper Egypt freely to work there at the time.

The Classic Kerma was also the last phase in the history of this Kushite kingdom. It fell to the Egyptians in the sixteenth century BC, who destroyed it in a series of military campaigns led by the earliest kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Recently, Nubiologists have identified a terminal phase of the Classic Kerma culture. It marks the final years of Kush's existence, while it was suffering under continuous Egyptian assault. This is named Post-Classic Kerma, and its cultural assemblages date to the early Eighteenth Dynasty.

During the Egyptian New Kingdom, Kerma-Nubians were to be found in Egypt living in their own communities, especially at Edfu and Ballas in Upper Egypt and at Memphis and Ghurob in Lower Egypt, where they were almost certainly employed as mercenaries in the Egyptian army.

VII. Nubia in the Middle Kingdom

Background: The First Intermediate Period

Egyptian Civil War. During the First Intermediate Period, Egypt was in political and social tumult, as self-styled kings in Thebes, with their allies, fought for control of the country against the kings of Heracleopolis and their confederates. The internecine warfare exacerbated environmental conditions already made difficult by an extended period of low Nile inundations. While aggressive land and hydraulic management might have forestalled agricultural disaster, the unstable political situation impeded efforts to marshal the resources necessary to cope with conditions. The results of this situation were: a serious periodic famine in Upper Egypt coincident with the war, mass migrations of starving people looking for food, and social disorder in certain areas that bordered on anarchy and popular revolution. The only exceptions to this situation were localized to Moalla and Edfu in southern Upper Egypt, where local organization and popular cooperation provided at least short- lived relief from the famine.

This period began with the fall of the Old Kingdom in the twenty- third century BC. It was at this time that the Egyptian royal government first evacuated its interests in Lower Nubia, abandoning the territory to the C-Group Nubians living there. Through much of the First Intermediate Period, there was little Egyptian activity in Lower Nubia. Environmental conditions there must have been nearly as difficult as in Egypt, since Ankhtifi, nomarch of Moalla, records that he provided grain to Nubia in those difficult times (probably in exchange for gold).

At the same time, C-Group people and the Medjay were entering into Egypt, either as herdsmen seeking pasture and settlement or as soldiers seeking employment. As mercenaries, the Medjay fought on both sides in the Egyptian civil war (as indicated by a contemporary model of marching Medjay bowmen from a nomarch's tomb at Assiut). Often, the Nubians in Egypt were able to Egyptianize and insinuate themselves into Egyptian society, rising very high in social rank.

During the reign of King Antef II (ca. 2118 BC), the Thebans apparently made military incursions into Lower Nubia, viz., the campaign of Djemi of Gebelein. By this action, he claimed to make Wawat tributary to Thebes. The Thebans conducted this activity as part of their efforts to consolidate control over southern Upper Egypt, as well as probably to exploit in a short-term fashion the quarries and mines of Wawat.

Reoccupation of Nubia. After King Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II reunited Egypt under his authority (ca. 2048 BC), he began the Egyptian reoccupation of Nubia in a manner similar to that of the Old Kingdom. However, while Egyptian forces defeated the Nubians at such places as Kurkur in the western oases and Abu Ballas, they did not do so without loss. One contemporary tomb at Deir el-Bahari in Thebes contains the common burial of sixty Egyptian soldiers killed in battle-- probably in Nubia. Many of the Nubian campaigns were apparently led by Mentuhotep II himself and consisted of not a few Nubian mercenaries in the Egyptian army (i.e., C-Group people and Medjay). Interestingly, these soldiers, who were highly regarded for their ferocity, evidently, did not have a high regard for the courage of their Theban counterparts.

Mentuhotep II appointed his chancellor, Khety, to administer all of Egypt's economic and military affairs in Nubia. The Egyptian domination of Wawat in this era was limited to: routine trading missions, periodic mining and quarrying operations, the receipt of regular tribute from the local rulers, and the protection of trade routes to the south. However, as yet, there was no significant or permanent military occupation of Nubia. Egyptian trade with Nubia at this time also included the shores of the Red Sea. Both Mentuhotep II and Mentuhotep III dispatched successful sailing expeditions to the Land of Punt.

Egypt's relationship with Lower Nubia and with Kerma to the south also included an important diplomatic element, as evinced by the amount of trade with the latter and by the fact that Mentuhotep II himself took several Nubian princesses as his wives and queens.

 

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The Twelfth Dynasty in Nubia

Amenemhat I to Sesostris II. The Egyptian Middle Kingdom had its start with the founding of the Twelfth Dynasty in 1991 BC. The first king of this dynasty was Amenemhat I (ca. 1991- 1962 BC), whose mother was from Elephantine. Thus, he might have had some Nubian blood on his maternal side. In two military campaigns into Nubia, he captured Gerf Hussein and the diorite quarries west of Toshka. He penetrated further southward to Korosko, and perhaps founded a fortress at Semna. Amenemhat I is credited with starting the series of events that led ultimately to the full Egyptian military and political occupation of Nubia in this dynasty.

His son, Sesostris I, expanded the traditional Egyptian policy toward Nubia from sporadic conquest and exploitation to that of consolidation of Egyptian political and economic interests there. He began to garrison Egyptian troops in fortresses through Wawat, especially at Qubban, guarding the entrance to the Wadi Allaqi, and as far south as Buhen in the Second Cataract (see map of the Second Cataract region). Lower Nubia had become for the Egyptians a regular and rich source for gold, copper, amethyst, diorite and granite.

Above the Second Cataract region, Sesostris I apparently exercised some military or economic control (although not administrative) southward to the Island of Sai within the territory of Kush. He maintained a commercial relationship with Kerma, probably founding a fortified trading post near that town. His commercial agents might even have ventured further southward, accounting for his name inscribed on the Island of Argo south of Kerma (called Tibo in Egyptian). Both Sesostris I and Amenemhat II also sent successful trading expeditions to the Land of Punt.

During the reigns of Amenemhat II and Sesostris II, the political and economic situations in Nubia were placid, as the Egyptians went about unopposedly exploiting the region for its natural resources. No belligerent military activity is recorded for these reigns there.

Sesostris III. Over time the relatively peaceful conditions in Nubia and the Egyptians' military inactivity encouraged tribesmen from Upper Nubia, displaced from their own homes, to push slowly northward past the Second Cataract into Lower Nubia. By the reign of Sesostris III (ca. 1878-1842 BC), they constituted a serious threat to Egyptian security there. In response, Sesostris III mounted at least four campaigns into Nubia, each of which he personally commanded. The immediate aim of these campaigns was to neutralize this threat and to reconsolidate Egypt's possession of Nubia. However, his long- term strategy was not merely to crush outbreaks of rebellion or to end Nubian resistance, but rather to effect the complete political annexation of Nubia up through the Second Cataract. This grand policy required the permanent military occupation of Nubia with adequate numbers of troops that were regularly provisioned and which could be quickly transported by naval fleet. For these purposes, Sesostris required a large series of permanent forts, a means of moving the fleet through the cataracts at any time of the year, and a system of logistics to maintain their presence there.

His first step was to dredge and enlarge one of the canals or channels that Weni had built through the First Cataract in the Sixth Dynasty originally for King Merenre (see above). This new channel was over 9 m. wide and 76 m. long, great enough to accommodate the largest river warships and merchant vessels of the time, regardless of the seasonal heights of the river. Normally, river craft could negotiate the cataracts only during seasons of high water and inundation, thus limiting the period when troops and ships could quickly move south.

The first campaign of Sesostris III, dating to Year 8, resulted in formally establishing the Egyptian southern frontier at Semna, where the river passed into a narrow gorge south of the Second Cataract. Here he erected a stela demarcating his boundary and stipulating his immigration policies:

The southern border which was made in Year 8 under the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Khakaure, given life forever and ever, in order to not permit any Nubian to pass it, sailing north or in traveling by land or boat, (including) any of the cattle, calves and rams of the Nubians--except a Nubian who will come to do trade in Iken or on (official) business. Anything which one will do with them is good, but without allowing a ship of the Nubians to pass in traveling north by Semna forever.

Thus, the only Nubians authorized to pass the border were traders traveling on the river-road to Mirgissa (called Iken in Egyptian) (see below) or messengers and representatives of Kush. Even still, they were completely prohibited from sailing on the river through the cataract.

The third campaign, dating to Year 16, revealed Sesostris' proclivities for total war and scorched earth. According to his own text, he crushed a rebellion of Nubian tribesmen by slaying their men, carrying off their women, capturing their wells, wiping out their settlements, killing their cattle, and burning their fields. In his fourth campaign, dating to Year 19, he built a slipway in the midst of the Second Cataract at Mirgissa. Through this construction, his warships were hauled safely around the cataract and entered Upper Nubia for military operations there, perhaps against the Kingdom of Kush or C-Group Nubians to the south.

The slipway, itself, was a construction of mud thickly laid along the riverbank, about 2 m. wide and 2 km. long. Imbedded in the mud at regular intervals were wooden logs laid crosswise as sleepers or ties. Long tracks impressed in the mud by the ships' hulls indicate where they were dragged along the slipway when the river was lowest, i.e., from December to June (footprints of the last man to walk through the slipway were also found in the mud).

Middle Kingdom Forts in Nubia. In accordance with his policies, Sesostris III firmly secured his administrative frontier at Semna (while probably still exercising some military control over the adjoining region to the south), and he enlarged the system of fixed fortifications first begun by his great- grandfather, Sesostris I. These pre-existing forts stretched southward through Lower Nubia up to Buhen and Mirgissa. The Second Cataract was actually a 35 km. stretch along the river with rocky protrusions and islands located in two groups, one at the north end of the stretch at Buhen and Mirgissa, the other at the south end at Semna--with clear water between them.

Sesostris III extended this line of forts southward above Buhen by constructing a chain of at least eight new forts through the length of the cataract. These forts included, among others: Semna, Semna West, Semna South, Kumma, Uronarti, Shalfak, and Askut. Possibly, Semna West, Uronarti, and Kumma were merely rebuilt by Sesostris III on the ruins of earlier fortifications. The eight forts secured the frontier by blockading the river and desert, prohibiting the passage of unauthorized Nubians, and they protected the commercial centers and trading posts that did business with Kush and C-Group Nubians.

The key to this defensive system was Semna (called Heh in Egyptian), which was a natural geographical frontier. Here a barrier of granite narrowed the river forming a gorge. Stretched across its entrance was a series of rocky islands that also impeded boat traffic. On the rugged heights above both sides of the gorge were the two forts, Semna on the west and Kumma on the east. They were a mere 590 meters apart-- close enough that sentries could signal each other across the rushing water. Semna actually consisted of three fortifications: the main fort of Semna on the riverbank and two smaller outlying fortresses. Semna West, on the desert edge, guarded the desert approach to this sector; Semna South, located 1.5 km. south of the main fort, was a forward observation post and border- checkpoint. The main north-south road on the west bank actually passed through the main fort, entering through a large fortified gate on the south, and exiting through a similar gate on the north. Thus, all authorized Nubians had to check in and pass through the fort to proceed northward. In this manner the Egyptians controlled access northward along the river. To safeguard the river-road, the Egyptians built a 2.5 m. thick brick wall that paralleled the road on the west side, extending at least 4.5 km. north of Semna. This wall was fortified with towers to guard approach from the western desert, as well as to safeguard the fort from the north. This long wall extended past Semna southward, perhaps, to Semna South.

Less than 5 km. north of Semna, on an island in the middle of the channel, was the fort at Uronarti. Five kilometers further north on the west bank was the fortress at Shalfak; here the river exited the narrow gorge. Eight kilometers north of Shalfak on the east bank was the fortress at Askut. In like manner, additional fortresses stretched to Mirgissa and the Buhen district, where three great forts flanked the river, Buhen, Buhen South, and Mirgissa. Trade between Egypt and Nubia was always closely controlled by the Egyptian central government. While Buhen, apparently, was the center of military operations, the headquarters of all Egyptian activities in Nubia was located downriver in Egypt at Thebes.

The Second Cataract forts were constructed so that a line of sight might exist between any two or that they were close enough to signal each other in times of emergency. Historical records indicate that the forts stayed in close contact with each other and with headquarters in Thebes through a regular messenger service. Operational reports are clear that the activities of the troops included: regular patrols through the desert, surveillance of the wells and desert tracts for Nubians, as well as bringing into the forts for questioning any Nubians found moving on the desert. All of these activities were duly reported to the other forts and to headquarters.

Organization of the Forts. The organization and architecture of the Middle Kingdom forts conformed to two types, depending upon the date of construction, their location, and topography. The earlier forts, built by Sesostris I at the northern end of the Second Cataract (e.g., Buhen), were generally constructed on the flat and broad banks of the Nile River. These were among the largest of Egyptian forts. The later, second type was built along the river at the southern end of the cataract. These forts were smaller than the first and were constructed on narrow rocky promontories and heights. They were polygonal or trapezoidal in plan, often with spur-walls running at right angles to the main walls over adjoining ridges or along the riverbank. Often, these had a fully enclosed stairway running down to the river to protect water-carriers during times of siege.

Buhen was completed by Year 5 of Sesostris I. It was located beside the river and consisted of a citadel or main enclosure 150 m. x 138 m. in area, with walls 5 m. thick and 8-9 m. high. The citadel walls were buttressed with bastions, battlements, and towers, and with three fortified gateways (1 on the desert, 2 on the river). It was surrounded on three sides by a breastwork with salients and loopholes through which any archer could shoot in six different directions. The base of the breastworks was protected by a substantial glacis, and it was surrounded by a ditch cut out of the bedrock, 7 m. wide and 3 m. deep. Surrounding much of the citadel-complex was an additional low outer wall up to 5.5 m. thick, reinforced with bastions, a fortified gateway, ditch, and outer rampart. It enclosed an area about 150 m. x 420 m.

Archaeologists have estimated that Semna might have contained a garrison of 150-300 men, Kumma 50-100 men, and Uronarti 100-200 men. All of the Egyptian forts were designed to withstand a heavy siege, almost certainly an outgrowth of First Intermediate Period military strategy. Through all of these fortifications, troops, and security measures, the Egyptians clearly indicate that they felt seriously threatened in Nubia. But against whom were they defending? Egyptologists differ in opinion. One possible enemy was the Kingdom of Kush. Despite that Egypt shared an intense commercial relationship with Kush, the latter was theoretically considered an enemy (perhaps an unpredictable one). In recognition of that fact, Sesostris I erected a stela at Buhen naming the conquered territories of Nubia--with Kush at the top of the list (also marking the first known occurrence of the name, "Kush," in Egyptian texts). On the other hand, Barry Kemp suggests that another reason for the Egyptians' seemingly excessive defensive strategy could have been the innate conservatism of the Egyptian bureaucracy, in which the resources of the state (material and human) were now turned almost exclusively to the "logistics for conquest," despite that there might not have existed any enemy capable of mounting serious opposition to the Egyptians.

Nilometers and the Dam. The Egyptians maintained a Nilometer of sorts at Semna, where the rocky promontories below Forts Kumma and Semna were regularly incised with marks noting the annual heights of the inundation there. Since the inundation crested at Semna weeks before doing so downriver in Egypt, these marks provided an early forecast of the maximum height of the inundation in Egypt. The marks are as much as 20 meters above the riverbank, indicating a phenomenally high river at that time (higher even than any recorded levels in modern times). Remarkably, it is reported that King Amenemhat III (successor of Sesostris III) built a dam across the Nile at Semna. Jean Vercoutter, excavating at Semna reported detecting remains of this dam at Kumma. The lake created by such a dam would have facilitated shipping and sailing to the south.

Stela and Statue of Sesostris III. Sesostris III was the architect of the total Egyptian domination of Nubia. In a stela erected at Semna in Year 16, he recorded his immense disdain for his Nubian enemies, whom he fiercely vilified and excoriated as cowards and poltroons. However, his vehemence was certainly politically calculated, since the Egyptians, otherwise, intensely respected the Nubian warriors and were cautious of their military skills and ferocity. In reality, Sesostris was concerned that his successors would not maintain his achievements in Nubia. Therefore, in his stela he challenged his descendants, as a matter of honor, to preserve his accomplishment. To that end, he erected a statue of himself in the temple of Semna as inspiration to his people and as a point of honor not to let it fall into enemy hands. In neither of these goals was he ultimately successful.

Egyptian Absorption of Nubia. With his system of forts, Sesostris III was able to maintain an effective and permanent garrison of several thousand Egyptian troops in Nubia and to keep them supplied by a naval fleet permanently stationed there, and which could travel with relative impunity through the river's obstructions.

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Kemp argues that the experience which the Egyptians gained in the Old Kingdom by building pyramids, creating new towns, and dispatching quarrying expeditions found a new outlet in the Middle Kingdom in the logistics of conquest. To this we must add that the advanced techniques in fortification engineering and siege warfare which they learned during the strife of the First Intermediate Period also were of inestimable importance in maintaining the Egyptian presence in Nubia.

The Egyptian advance into Nubia during the Middle Kingdom was not merely a prolonged military thrust, but was planned as a permanent penetration of the Egyptian bureaucracy there--the complete pacification of Lower Nubia and the creation of Egyptian settlements, so that Nubia would become a de facto department of Egypt. By the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, the effort in this regard produced a line of forts and fortified towns regularly spaced along the 400 km. stretch from Elephantine to Semna. In the latter half of his reign, when Sesostris III swept away the Egyptian nomes and the nomarchs, he replaced them with three large administrative districts or departments (warets), the "Waret of the North" (Lower Egypt), the "Waret of the South" (Middle Egypt), and the "Waret of the 'Head of the South'" (southern Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia). His reorganization marks the first time in which the governance of Nubia was incorporated into the central administration of the Egyptian state and not merely as a provincial appendage of the government.

The Fall of the Middle Kingdom

Evacuation of Nubia. The governmental infrastructure imposed on Nubia by Sesostris III served that land very well for many years. It yielded a period of peace, prosperity, and stability that lasted even through the late Thirteenth Dynasty (ca. 1784-1668 BC), when the Egyptian government had succumbed to internal instability. This instability is indicated by as many as sixty-five kings governing Egypt in a 116-year period, each king ruling an average of less than 2 years. Despite the ephemeral rule of many individual kings, the governmental bureaucracy still exercised complete and effective control over Lower Nubia. However, this instability became critical after ca. 1720 BC, when the government lost all political control of the Egyptian Delta, leading to the Hyksos penetration of the frontier, and their ultimate attack and conquest of Egypt.

It was probably while Egypt was under pressure from Delta invaders that she recalled the last of her troops in Nubia and much of the bureaucracy that supported the logistics of the occupation there. However, it is also likely that some part of the military recall had begun even earlier in the late Twelfth Dynasty. The reigns of Amenemhat III and Amenemhat IV were quite peaceful in Nubia, and the Egyptians and C-Group Nubians may well have lapsed into complacency living beside each other. From the archaeological evidence, we know that in the late Twelfth Dynasty, the character of the Egyptian occupation of Buhen changed from soldiers on temporary station to permanent settlers from Upper Egypt living, dying and being buried there with their families. Since Buhen was the largest of the forts, this change in personnel might reflect a general reduction in the numbers of military troops stationed in Nubia and a commensurate increase in the numbers of colonial settlers.

In the Thirteenth Dynasty, sometime between the reigns of Neferhotep I and Sebekhotep IV (ca. 1751-1730 BC), commercial contacts between Kerma and Lower Egypt came to an end, while contact with Upper Egypt remained constant. Similarly, archaeology reveals that Lower Egyptian pottery was abundant at Buhen early in the Thirteenth Dynasty, whereas later, only Upper Egyptian pottery existed there. From this pattern, Janine Bourriau infers that during the course of the dynasty, as colonial relations with Lower Egypt became more tenuous--because of the deteriorating political situation there, relations with Thebes became stronger. Upper Egypt became the sole source of supplies and personnel to the Egyptians in Nubia. After the Egyptian government finally evacuated its interests in Nubia--the army, and the bulk of the civil service having being recalled to Egypt--most of the settlers seemingly also returned home.

Egyptian Remnants in Nubia. After the Egyptian withdrawal from Nubia, a significant number of settlers and bureaucrats remained or were left behind. They ultimately offered their suzerainty and loyalty to the Kingdom of Kush, when the latter claimed Lower Nubia and absorbed all the Egyptian installations there. The Egyptian scribes and bureaucrats who remained in Nubia evidently served the Kushite government with their literacy and their organizational and logistical skills, no doubt contributing to the Egyptianization of Classic Kerma culture at this time.

In the early Second Intermediate Period, the remnants of these Egyptians still held the fort of Buhen for their overlord, the ruler of Kush, even building and conducting military operations in the area on his behalf. Five generations of Egyptians lived at Buhen under the Kushites. In that time, one Egyptian family ruled for three generations as the "Commanders of Buhen," apparently forming a short-lived dynasty with royal pretensions, even writing their names in royal cartouches. One of these commanders, Sepedhor, recorded building a temple dedicated to Horus, Lord of Buhen, for his Kushite overlord.

The situation changed late in the Seventeenth Dynasty, when the Kushites, for reasons uncertain, attacked Buhen and burned it, expelling the last Egyptians there. After a short interim of abandonment and dereliction, the town was then reoccupied by the Kushites, along with the forts and installations of Qubban, Mirgissa, Khor, and Semna.

Nubia in the New Kingdom

Return to Lower Nubia

Hyksos and the Kushites. During the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period, Upper and Lower Nubia were united into one state, the Kingdom of Kush with its capital city at Kerma (Classic Kerma, ca. 1668 - 1570 BC). For much of this period, Egypt was governed by Hyksos kings ruling in the eastern Delta. The Hyksos did not govern the entire country directly but permitted local Egyptian princes to rule as their vassals. Among these, the Seventeenth Dynasty ruled Upper Egypt from Thebes. Theban authority extended from Middle Egypt to Elephantine. For most of the period, the Thebans were suzerains of the Hyksos. They also appear to have been on relatively peaceful terms with the Kingdom of Kush which had extended its suzerainty northward to Elephantine by that time.

The subsequent violent capture of Buhen by the Kerma- Kushites and their occupation of the other forts marked the first clear instance of direct military intervention by the Kushites into Lower Nubia, where previously, Egyptian residents served as their intermediaries and vassals. Bourriau argues that this new development constituted a clear threat to the kings at Thebes. The Thebans would have to resecure these forts and protect their rear before proceeding against the Hyksos with any plans they might have.

Kamose's Campaigns. Toward the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty, conflict broke out between Upper Egypt and the Hyksos and their vassals, during which the Theban king, Seqenenre Tao, was killed, almost certainly in battle. He was succeeded by his son or brother, Kamose in ca. 1576 BC. Kamose's ambitions, which are recorded on the two so-called Kamose Stelae, were more than merely to avenge the death of his predecessor. His self-declared personal repugnance at sharing Egypt with an Asiatic and a Nubian led him to begin a new war against them to effect the unification of Egypt under his authority. Clearly by including the Kushites, he was considering Lower Nubia to be a part of greater Egypt.

By his Year 3, he began military operations against his two enemies, targeting the Kushites first for tactical reasons. His troops advanced through Nubia to Toshka and Arminna, leaving graffiti with his name. Similarly, scarab-seals with his name were found at Faras. By this campaign, Kamose reoccupied the Middle Kingdom fort at Buhen and drove the Kushites south of there.

Afterward, in his campaign against the Hyksos and their vassals, Kamose made effective use of Medjay-troops in his army, as indicated in the Kamose Stelae. In the same text, he recorded intercepting a letter from the Hyksos king to the ruler of Kush proposing a military alliance against the Thebans. The content and tenor of the letter indicate a very friendly relationship between the Hyksos and Kushites, as well as confirm Kamose's previous capture of territory from the latter. Thereafter, Kamose died unexpectedly (he was hastily buried in a converted commoner's coffin) and was succeeded by Ahmose, his brother or nephew in ca. 1570 BC.

After an eleven year hiatus, Ahmose conquered the Hyksos, expelled them from Egypt and annihilated them in southern Palestine. In doing so, he established the Eighteenth Dynasty and the Egyptian New Kingdom. Then, with his northern border secure, he turned southward to the reconquest and reoccupation of Nubia. Ahmose set his battle-hardened troops upon the task of eliminating the state of Kush in southern Lower Nubia. Kushite hegemony in Lower Nubia and her previous friendship with the Hyksos made her an obvious threat to Egyptian security, and Egypt would not tolerate a potential enemy in the Nile Basin. In three military campaigns, Ahmose ousted the state of Kush from Lower Nubia, resecured the Egyptian frontier at Semna, put down lingering insurrection, and he drove any remaining resistance southward above the Third Cataract. He built a new temple at Buhen north of the fort, as well as, perhaps, on the Island of Sai, south of the Second Cataract. He also began to consolidate Egyptian authority and administration in Nubia.

King's Son of Kush. Under Ahmose--or possibly even Kamose, the governing authority in Nubia was assigned to the Commander of Buhen. The first known holder of this office was named Ahmose-Sitayit. Under Amenhotep I, he was succeeded by his son, Tjury. In governing Nubia, this viceroy was responsible directly to the king from whom all his authority derived. In recognition of that fact, Tjury, and all later appointees to the post, were granted the title, "King's Son and Overseer of the Southern Countries." "King's Son" was the usual designation of a prince of the royal house. The use of this term as the viceroy's title meant that he was the supreme royal authority in Nubia and second only to the king himself there. Among the responsibilities of the Viceroy of Kush was to maintain the annual levy of Nubian tribute to the Egyptian royal court, especially that of gold, which late in the reign of Tuthmosis III averaged 283.5 kilograms (i.e., 623 lbs.) per year.

In the reign of Tuthmosis IV, the title of the viceroy was expanded to that of "King's Son of Kush." Sometime between ca. 1483 and 1386 BC, the administration of the Viceroy of Kush was extended northward to encompass southern Upper Egypt down to el- Kab. In this manner the goldmines of southeastern Egypt also came under the viceroy's authority. More importantly, the enlarged territory of the Viceroy of Kush duplicated the Middle Kingdom "Waret of the Head of the South," created earlier by Sesostris III (see above). This reorganization marked the second time in Egyptian history in which the governance of Nubia was incorporated into the central administration of the Egyptian state.

While the early residence of the Viceroy of Kush was located at Buhen, later, it was transferred ca. 115 km. north of there to Mi'am (modern Aniba), which became the Egyptians' chief administrative center in Kush. Assisting the viceroy were two deputies, one for Lower Nubia (Wawat), the other for Kush. The military forces of the viceroy were under the authority of the "Commander of the Bowmen of Kush," to whom reported two army generals and the commanders of the various fortresses and garrisons.

Amenhotep I, Ahmose's successor, is credited with consolidating Egyptian authority in Nubia and advancing at least as far as the Island of Sai, where he built a temple. Amenhotep I campaigned in Nubia early in his reign to quell the attacks of Nubian desert tribesmen. It was during this campaign that the Egyptians recorded for the first time in their history that they fought in order to "extend the borders of Egypt." Egypt had become an imperialist state specifically as a reaction to the humiliation of the Hyksos domination and out of the resolve not to allow a recurrence. Nubia became the first testing ground of that policy. Clearly, Nubia had become an extension of the Egyptian state in the New Kingdom.

 

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The Egyptian Conquest of Kush

Fall of Kerma. The full destruction of the Kingdom of Kush was actually the work of Tuthmosis I in two campaigns. When the Nubians rebelled against Egyptian authority, he invaded them with a large army and naval fleet. In a well coordinated, two-pronged attack, Tuthmosis I penetrated the heartland of Kush, destroying the city of Kerma and pillaging everything between the Third and Fourth Cataracts. To accomplish this feat, he crossed over the Third Cataract with his entire fleet and the main body of the army. Earlier in the same campaign, he also sent a substantial land force through the Wadi Korosko southward to secure the desert tracks and to rendez-vous with the fleet on the river. Thereafter, he reached as far as Kurgus/Kenissa; then he withdrew to establish his frontier at the Third Cataract. Later, his grandson, Tuthmosis III, extended the border toward the Fourth Cataract, although evidently still exercising military authority up to Kurgus. Here both Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III left rock inscriptions marking their southernmost advance into Kush. The reason for securing this area beyond the official frontier was to protect gold mines east of Abu Hamed, as well as the southern entrance of the Wadi Korosko, which led directly northward into Lower Nubia. Just below the Fourth Cataract, on the west bank of the river, Tuthmosis III founded the fortress-town of Napata near the holy mountain of Gebel Barkal. This strategic location guarded both the river and the exit of a desert-road extending from the Meroe-Shendi reach of the Nile, where hostile Nubians were probably located (Irem and Miu?). Later, Tutankhamun (or Horemheb) would build a temple at Napata to Amun that ultimately would become the Kushites' greatest religious center.

Despite the fall of Kush, Nubia remained restive under the Egyptians and was not fully pacified until many years later. Tuthmosis II records a merciless suppression of revolt by desert tribesmen in which every Nubian rebel was massacred to a man, except for one chief's son who was sent to the capital, that the king might stand on his prostrated back. Still, it was not until the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III that the complete Egyptian occupation of Nubia was effected. However, attacks by the desert dwellers on the peaceful valley settlements occurred sporadically up through the reign of Ramesses II, three hundred years later in the thirteenth century BC. The Egyptians did not generally distinguish such attacks and marauding activity from actual rebellion against Egyptian authority. In the Eighteenth Dynasty, rebellions and attacks in Nubia were usually sparked by the death of the Egyptian king and the accession of the new king. Thus, Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis II, Hatshepsut, Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep II, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II record campaigns in Nubia against local rebels and desert tribesmen. Evidently, even Queen Hatshepsut herself fought in Nubia, slaying the enemies of Egypt, collecting booty, and receiving the homage of tribal leaders. Seti I records a major campaign to combat aggression from the land of Irem (successor to the Old Kingdom Land of Yam), probably located above the Fifth Cataract in the Meroe-Shendi reach. As a result of Egypt's Nubian policies, many military captives were deported northward to Egypt as slaves. Heavy tributes were imposed on the land, and large quantities of diverse goods were sent to Egypt as trade, tribute, and booty.

Temples and Forts. In the New Kingdom, Egypt governed more than twice the area of Nubia than she had in the Middle Kingdom. Unlike that earlier period, though, she made only limited use of fixed fortifications to maintain her hold there. A relatively small number of forts and fortified towns were positioned at key locations at the end of caravan routes or the roads to gold mining districts. On the other hand, the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasty pharaohs built a great number of temples in Nubia as part of their efforts to Egyptianize the country and secure their holding. An extensive system of Egyptian temples in Nubia came to replace the Middle Kingdom forts as the anchor of the Egyptian presence there in the New Kingdom. These temples would have been granted extensive tracts of land to develop and manage. The main purpose of the temples was to function as local conduit for introducing the Egyptian bureaucracy and agricultural organization into the country. In this manner, the territory and riches of Nubia were brought under the Egyptian system of land tenure. Another important purpose of these great temples, with their dramatic and impressive decorations, was to awe the Nubians into submission by propagandizing the power of the Egyptian gods, the military might of the king and the state, and to underscore the strength of Egyptian culture. In a similar vein, as a warning to potential Nubian rebels and aggressors, Amenhotep II hanged the corpse of a captured Syrian prince from the walls of Napata.

Trade with Punt. During the New Kingdom, the Egyptians renewed commercial and political relations with the land of Punt, located on the African coast at the southern end of the Red Sea. This occurred after a hiatus of five hundred years, when Hatshepsut sent a trading fleet of five ships to contact the Puntites and resume trade for exotic African products. The Egyptians continued to trade with Punt through the New Kingdom, and Tuthmosis III, Amenhotep III, and Horemheb recorded receiving products from that land. Puntite delegates were even depicted among Nubian officials in wall reliefs of the temple of Ramesses II at Abydos. The last king known to record a trading expedition to Punt was Ramesses III (1182-1151 BC) in the early Twentieth Dynasty.

The Egyptianization of Nubia

With the full conquest of Upper and Lower Nubia by Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis III, the establishment of the southern administrative frontier at Napata, and the imposition of Egyptian land tenure, the Egyptianization of Nubia became more intensive than before. Through the New Kingdom, the Egyptians established in Nubia small settlements and compounds populated by Egyptian officials and bureaucrats, locating them nearly every 30 km. along the Nile River. Productive lands were allotted to royal estates, the domains of the large temples at home in Egypt, and to the many Egyptian royal temples newly founded within Nubia.

Disappearance of the C-Group. As a consequence of this acculturation, the C-Group people gradually disappeared from the Nubian landscape during the New Kingdom. Seemingly, Lower Nubia became almost totally depopulated of any indigenous Nubians at this time. We do not know the fate of the Nubian C-Group people, nor do we know where they went.

Continuing a process begun in the Seventeenth Dynasty, Nubian rulers and the elite adopted Egyptian customs and traditions. Their children were regularly sent to the Egypt royal court to be educated with the children of pharaoh and to be inculcated with the Egyptian world view. In their acculturation, these Nubians often became more Egyptian than the Egyptians themselves, adopting Egyptian names, language, clothing, religion, and other lifeways. Such Egyptianized Nubians were depicted in the wall decorations of the Theban tomb of Huy, Viceroy of Nubia, bringing their tribute (viz., trade goods) to Egypt. These Egyptianized Nubian rulers and chiefs apparently governed vassal princedoms under the Egyptians in Lower Nubia. One such princedom was named Teh-khet, and its princes were buried at Debeira. Other princedoms were based at Qubban and Aniba. The Nubian nobility functioned as administrators of the land, working alongside of the Egyptians. Like the Egyptian colonials, they adopted Egyptian burial customs and were often interred in typical New Kingdom pyramid-type tombs. The Egyptian conquest marked the end of traditional Nubian burial customs. In most cemeteries thereafter (except at Kerma), Nubian graves become indistinguishable from Egyptian, especially in shifting from the Nubian custom of contracting the corpse into a fetal position on a bed to the Egyptian custom of extending the corpse on its back and placing it in a coffin. It has even been suggested that the C-Group Nubians did not disappear from Nubia, but became so Egyptianized that, for the most part, they can no longer be recognized in the archaeological record.

 

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The Waning of Egyptian Authority

In the late Twentieth Dynasty, nearly 500 years after the start of the New Kingdom, Egyptian royal authority in Upper Egypt had waned effectively to the extent that by ca. 1079 BC, the King's Son of Kush, Panehesy, revolted against the crown and declared Nubia independent from Egypt. This development was symptomatic of the inability of the late New Kingdom royal government (now grown decadent and exhausted) to maintain effective authority throughout Egypt. At this time, the High Priests of Amun at Karnak were in the early stages of formulating a semi-independent theocratic state in Upper Egypt, although they still recognized the pharaoh (ruling from the Delta) as their nominal overlord. The first two of these priests also carried the titles, "General of the Army, King's Son of Kush, and Overseer of the Southern Countries." As such, they were probably charged by pharaoh with the recovery of Nubia for Egypt. The general and priest, Piankh, ultimately did invade Nubia to wage war against Panehesy. However, the campaign failed disastrously, and it resulted in the complete loss of Nubia. Panehesy later died and was peacefully buried in his tomb at Mi'am near Aniba. How viable this Lower Nubian state was or exactly how long it lasted beyond the lifetime of Panehesy is unknown, although seemingly, it did not survive long

The Kingdom of Kush: Napata

The Rise of Kush

Power Vacuum in Nubia. The Egyptian New Kingdom came to an end in ca. 1070 BC. The succeeding royal government of the Twenty-first Dynasty (ruling from Tanis) abandoned all claim to Nubia, apparently creating a power vacuum there that lasted over 400 years.

Since no textual records or cemeteries have been detected in Nubia for this period, most archaeologists believe that Lower Nubia was fairly deserted at this time, perhaps due to low Nile levels and increased desiccation of the region. The Nubian inhabitants, they suggest, migrated southward, where they collected around Napata. Ultimately, a strong independent state did grow up centered around that city, i.e., the resurgent Kingdom of Kush. On the other hand, some archaeologists argue that certain sites in Lower Nubia actually do show continuous Nubian occupation through this period and later--down to the succeeding Kushite kingdom, e.g., Qasr Ibrim. They suggest that Lower Nubia was not deserted at this time, but contained various indigenous polities that were absorbed even earlier than previously suspected by the growing Kushite state at Napata.

About 150 years after the fall of the New Kingdom, Shoshenq I of the Twenty-second Dynasty apparently did try to recover for Egypt some part of Nubia or, at least, access to trade in Nubia. Kenneth Kitchen argues that it is extremely likely that Shoshenq I invaded Nubia with an army in order to acquire its products and tribute for the god Amun. How successful this mission actually was is difficult to ascertain today. Certainly, it garnered trade goods for the king, but it did not reestablish Egyptian control of Lower Nubia. The question remains: if Nubia was supposed to be depopulated at this time, against whom did Shoshenq I war? And who could have been there to make his campaign less than successful? If not indigenous Lower Egyptians, then possibly Kushites from Napata. Related to this, the Bible records that when Shoshenq I later attacked Israel and Judah, among his army were Nubian or Kushite troops (Hebrew kushim). These may well have been freshly recruited from Nubia.

According to standard interpretations, the nascent Kingdom of Kush developed in isolation for about 133 years at Napata (900-767 BC). Thereafter, King Kashta extended Kushite political control northward through Lower Nubia and incorporated it into his Upper Nubian kingdom. However, those who argue that Nubia was not deserted suggest that the Kushites could have absorbed Lower Nubia as early as ca. 900-800 BC.

Archaeologists divide this later Kingdom of Kush into two main periods:

Napatan Period 900 - 300 BC Meroitic Period 300 BC - AD 350

The Napatan Period of Kush

Chronology. During the Napatan Period (also called the Kingdom of Napata), both the political capital of Kush and the Kushite royal tombs were located at the city of Napata. The three cemeteries which served the city were: Nuri, el-Kurru, and Gebel Barkal. By counting the royal burials at el-Kurru, we detect five to seven generations of unknown kings before Kashta (ca. 767 BC); hence, we infer that the Kushite state emerged ca. 900 BC. Of these kings, we know through later inscriptions only the name of Kashta's immediate predecessor, Alara. There is some circum- stantial evidence in the texts and archaeology of the period which indicates that the Kushite royal family actually originated from the region around Meroe and only subsequently established themselves at Napata by the ninth century BC.

Acculturation and Burial Customs. With the emergence of the Napatan state ca. 900 BC, the Kushites revived their tradit- ional custom of Nubian bed-burials with the corpse contracted into a fetal position. Likewise, they constructed their tombs as the traditional tumulus (circular structure, revetted with vertical slabs, filled with rubble and sand, and with a chapel on the east side). However, the Kushites did not readopt the an- cient practice of sacrificing human retainers until about the first century AD. Rather until that time, they employed the Egyptian custom of using ushabties to service the deceased ruler. However, later in the Napatan Period, the wife of the king might be expected to join her husband in death.

Kashta saw his kingdom as the successor to Egypt in Nubia. Thus, he pushed the Egyptianization of Kushite culture to its furthest extent yet. The Kingdom of Kush became bilingual. The Kushite rulership and the social elite used Egyptian language and writing in addition to their own. They adhered to Egyptian religion and the theology of kingship, and often followed Egyptian burial customs and traditions. It was the upper classes that Egyptian- ized the most, including: royalty, the court, the bureaucracy, priesthood, and tribal army. The lower classes also Egyptian- ized, although to a lesser extent than the elite.

Unlike private Kushite burials, Kashta and his royal successors adopted for themselves a royal burial style in keeping with Egyptian kings, i.e., corpse extended, mummified, placed in an anthropoid coffin, and accompanied by the usual paraphernalia of canopic jars, ushabties, and amulets--all of Egyptian manufacture. While Kashta was buried in a tumulus, his son, Piye, began a new tradition, followed by subsequent kings at Napata and Meroe, of being buried under a pyramid. In doing so, he adopted the pyramid-type tomb utilized by Egyptian officials and Egyptianized Nubians in Lower Nubia earlier in the New Kingdom (see above). Thereafter, these Kushite royal pyramids were elaborated sometimes with different architectural devices, such as stone lotus flowers and pillars growing out of the tops of the pyramids. At the base of each pyramid was a mortuary chapel for the cult of the dead king, fronted by a traditional Egyptian trapezoid-shaped double pylon (see drawing).

The Kushites were great lovers of horses, which they bred and kept for military purposes. Their care for horseflesh was so great that Piye records severely rebuking the king of Hermopolis for allowing his horses to starve during the siege of that city. Ideally, the Kushite kings even took their horses with them into death. These were sacrificed as part of the royal burials and interred near their owners.

 

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The Kushite Conquest of Egypt

Third Intermediate Period. When Kashta came to power in Kush, Egypt was in political turmoil. This era is designated, the Third Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21-25, ca. 1070-656 BC). In Kashta's time, Egypt was fragmented into at least 11 independent kinglets and principalities, including: 3 in Upper Egypt and 2 in the Delta, as well as 5 Libyan tribal chiefdoms and a principality, also in the Delta. Centered at Sais in the western Delta was a great chiefdom of Egyptianized Libyans, whose ruler was entitled, "Great Chief of the West."

In expanding Kushite control through Lower Nubia, Kashta might possibly have penetrated north of Elephantine and extended his political influence even into Upper Egypt. While Kashta never entered Egypt, he did claim the traditional kingship of Upper and Lower Egypt, perhaps even establishing indirect friendly relations with Thebes (for which there is no clear evidence). Kashta's son and successor, Piye (ca. 753-713 BC), also claimed the title, "King of Upper and Lower Egypt." He brought Thebes under his direct protection and established a military force in the area. He also had his sister, Amenirdis I, installed as priestess-designate in the Temple of Amun at Karnak with the title, "God's Wife of Amun." This was an important political move, since the God's Wife of Amun was traditionally the daughter or sister of the legitimate king of Egypt or Thebes, and it suggests that Piye had been designated as the heir-apparent of the last Theban king. Apparently, Piye also claimed the allegiance of the petty kingdoms of Hermopolis and Heracleopolis, while the great chiefdom of Sais held the loyalties of the various polities in the Delta.

First Military Conquest. In ca. 732 BC, the chiefdom of Sais began military operations in Upper Egypt to make the kingdoms there suzerain. As a result, the Kingdom of Hermopolis joined the Saites in besieging Heracleopolis and threatening Thebes. Piye, residing at Napata, responded by ordering his army in Thebes to attack and lift the siege of Heracleopolis and to resecure the loyalty of Hermopolis. He then sent a second expeditionary force from Kush to Middle Egypt to halt the Saite advance. He departed Napata for Thebes, where he celebrated the New Year's Festival and the Feast of Opet (by which he reaffirmed his spiritual claim to the Egyptian kingship). Thereafter, at the head of his army, Piye drove the Saite-led coalition to Memphis. He besieged that city which fell to him in a bloody conflict, after which each of the coalition kings finally surrendered to him and acknowledged him as their overlord.

The record of this campaign was recorded on a victory stela found at the Temple of Amun at Napata. Copies of the text were also erected in the sanctuary of the Temple of Karnak and probably in the Temple of Ptah at Memphis. According to the text, Piye's conquest was a religious crusade against Egyptian rebels on behalf of Amun. After he effected the surrender of all the petty dynasts, Piye he had himself crowned King of Upper and Lower Egypt in a traditional coronation held at the Temple of Ra at Heliopolis.

The crowning of Piye in ca. 732 BC marked the beginning of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egyptian history. In capturing Egypt and adding it to his own kingdom, Piye united the entire Nile Valley into one state from Meroe to the Mediterranean Sea--for the first time in history ( see map). He generously appointed four of the former kings as governors of their territories to rule for him in Egypt, including the troublesome Great Chief of the West in Sais. He then returned to Napata in triumph loaded with the spoils of his campaign and with tribute from his new vassals.

Second Military Conquest. Piye's reunification was short- lived. Because he maintained Napata at his political capital, he was unable to govern Egypt effectively from so far up the Nile River. He did not learn the lesson of history that had been apparent to the Upper Egyptian kings of the First, Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties, which was that a united Egypt could only be effectively governed from the north, not the south. With Piye residing at such a great distance away, his governors, who were the former kings that fought against him, lost no time in rebelling against his authority and declaring a measure of independence. The Great Chief of the West in the city of Sais even declared himself King of Upper and Lower Egypt, founding the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Evidently, Piye was willing to accept this situation, so long as the Delta dynasts continued to recognize his overall authority or did not attempt to expand into Upper Egypt.

In ca. 713 BC, Piye was succeeded by his brother, Shabako. In a tradition new to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, the inheritance of the throne was transmitted not from king to king's son directly, but from king to brother to king's son (see family-tree of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty). Shabako, intent on consolidating Kushite authority in Egypt, invaded Egypt in his second regnal year and reconquered it. By ca. 712 BC, he was residing in Memphis, which he designated his residence and royal capital. He took more effective control of Egypt than had his brother; he removed the disloyal governors of the Delta, some of which were executed, and he replaced them with his own Kushite governors.

Shabako apparently also campaigned on the Sinai frontier in order to secure it from migrating bedouin, and he engaged in a modest amount of royal building projects in Egypt. Among other things, he had the ancient Memphite Theology (detailing the cosmogony of the god Ptah) copied from papyrus to a slab of basalt and erected in Memphis.

Outside of Egypt at this time, the neo-Assyrians were consolidating their empire in the Near East. The principalities and kingdoms of Phoenicia, Israel, Judah and Philistia (i.e., the territories adjoining the Egyptian frontier) were suzerain to the Assyrians, albeit contentious and rebellious against them. Shabako, cautious and wary of the Assyrians--and perhaps as a means of ingratiating himself with them--maintained a policy of neutrality and non-interference. Thus, when the rebellious ruler of Ashdod fled to Egypt to avoid capture by the Assyrians, Shabako extradited the Philistine ruler back to them.

Shebitku and Taharqa. Shebitku, the son of Piye, succeeded his uncle on the throne ca. 698 BC, perhaps after a two-year coregency with Shabako. By this time, the hereditary rulers of Sais seem to be back in power, as were other Delta princes. Shebitku maintained his predecessor's policy of a modest amount of royal building projects, mostly in Memphis and Thebes. However, he departed from Shabako's overly cautious foreign policy and adopted a new and more aggressive posture against Assyria. Around 701 BC, when Judah and the Philistine cities rose up against the Assyrians in a coordinated revolt, Shebitku provided them with military assistance in the form of troops for their allied forces. He also dispatched an Egyptian army led by his brother, Taharqa, to halt the Assyrian reinvasion of Phoenicia and Palestine. However, the Assyrians defeated the allied force and accomplished their objectives before the arrival of the Egyptian army. The Egyptians withdrew back to Egypt, unwilling to battle the Assyrians alone. Because of Egypt's assistance to the rebellious states, for the first time, she came into direct political and military conflict with Assyria.

Taharqa succeeded his brother as pharaoh in ca. 690 BC. He ruled for twenty-six years, the first sixteen of which were filled with brilliant achievement. He was a prolific builder in Memphis and Thebes, especially at the Temple of Amun at Karnak. He also rebuilt or erected anew temples and shrines throughout Nubia. He was a very capable ruler, often the model of an Egyptian pharaoh, and some archaeologists would argue that he led Egypt through its last stage of outstanding and independent cultural success.

In foreign affairs, he continued the policy of attempting to undermine Assyrian control of Palestine and the Levant. However, because the Assyrians peceived him fomenting rebellion against them among the Phoenician cities, they set upon the total military conquest of Egypt.

Assyrian Conquest of Egypt

Assyrian Attack. In ca. 677 BC, during Taharqa's thirteenth regnal year, the Assyrians, led by King Esarhaddon, attacked Egypt's eastern frontier near Sile with the intent of invasion. Here they were defeated by the army of Taharqa. Three years later, in 674 BC, they attacked again. This time they defeated Taharqa and captured Memphis. While Taharqa withdrew southward, probably to Nubia, the Assyrians seized the entire royal court, including the queen and the heir apparent to the throne, and transported them as captives to Nineveh. For the third time in its history, Egypt had been conquered by foreigners.

Esarhaddon effected the military occupation of Egypt by appointing Egyptian vassals to rule the country for him. They functioned under the aegis of Assyrian commissioners who were supported by an Assyrian military garrison. The vassals were chosen from among the earlier Delta dynasts who previously had ruled their territories as fiefs under the Kushites. The foremost of these was Necho of Sais. In reconfirming these dynasts, Esarhaddon was trying to create an Egyptian bulwark against the possible return of Taharqa, relying upon the ambitions and envy of those vassals.

Egyptian Revolts. Esarhaddon withdrew from Egypt and returned to Assyria. Within two years, Taharqa had returned to power as king in Egypt and ousted the Assyrian garrison. Due to Esarhaddon's death, the Assyrians were unable to return to Egypt for an additional two years. When they did return (ca. 670 BC), under King Assurbanipal, they defeated Taharqa again, who withdrew to Thebes. When they followed, Taharqa fled south to Napata. The rest of Egypt submitted to Assurbanipal's rule. However, after he arrived back in Assyria, most of the Egyptian vassals invited Taharqa to return to Egypt as pharaoh in some power-sharing arrangement. The plot was discovered, and the vassals were publicly executed, either in cities throughout the Delta or in Nineveh. For their loyalty to him, Assurbanipal appointed Necho I as king in Sais and his son, Psammetichus, as ruler of Athribis. Taharqa never returned to Egypt, but finished his reign as King of Kush in Napata.

Tanwetamani and the Final Expulsion of the Kushites. Upon his death, Taharqa was succeeded by his nephew, Tanwetamani (ca. 664 BC). He reinvaded Egypt with a Kushite army, captured Memphis and attacked the Delta. After he killed Necho I in battle, the Delta vassals recognized him as King of Egypt, while Psammetichus fled to Assyria. Within a year (ca. 663 BC), the Assyrians returned to quell this rebellion. Tanwetamani was quickly defeated, and he withdrew to Thebes. The Assyrians followed once again, whereupon he withdrew to his powerbase at Napata. In retribution, the Assyrians burned and sacked Thebes. The catastrophic fall of Thebes was an event incon- ceivable through its 1,500-years history, and it reverberated throughout the Near East for decades.

Tanwetamani never returned to Egypt, and any effective Kushite pretensions to the throne of Egypt ended forever. For his loyalty, the Assyrians installed Psammetichus I of the Twenty- sixth Dynasty as king of most of the Egyptian Delta.

Epilogue: The Paradox of Kushite Rule

Because Piye, his successors, and the Kushite leadership were so heavily Egyptianized, they saw themselves as the rightful and legitimate heirs of traditional Egyptian society and civiliz- ation. Hence, in the manner of a traditional Egyptian king, Piye believed it his duty to restore ma'at (i.e., harmony, balance, truth and justice) to the land of Egypt, which had been wracked by internal dissension and the political chaos of the Third Intermediate Period. Ideally, the Kushites did not view themselves as foreign invaders, but as restorers of order, reuniting the Two Lands in the same manner as the pharaohs of old. For this reason, Piye took, as part of his royal titulary, the Horus-name, Sema-tawy, "Uniter of the Two Lands," which was the same name taken by King Mentuhotep II after reuniting Egypt thirteen hundred years earlier.

Generally, in their royal iconography and inscriptions, the Kushites often resurrected texts and artistic representations of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, so e.g., Piye's victory stela contained poetry and phrases lifted out of earlier Egyptian literary sources. Indeed, one section was copied nearly verbatim from the Middle Kingdom composition, The Instructions of Amenemhat. The purpose of this borrowing was to justify the regime as a legitimate Egyptian institution by showing continuity and cultural identification with Egypt's past. In that regard, the Kushites were quite conservative as Egyptians and genuinely devoted to Amun-Ra.

The paradox of the Kushite regime is that despite his appeal to tradition, Piye had no intention of residing in Egypt or ruling out of an Egyptian capital in the manner of an Egyptian king, nor did he provide for the direct administration of Egypt; hence, in reality, he had only a limited interest in actively and conscientiously governing the country. As Kitchen argues, even under the later Kushite kings ruling from Memphis (e.g., Shabako and Taharqa) the Twenty-fifth Dynasty never did constitute sole kingly rule over a united Egypt in which the local dynasts were completely overthrown. Rather, the dynasts remained in their own domains as vassals of the Kushites, where they could adopt typical Egyptian royal titularies. Even where Saite "kings" were deposed by Shabako, they were permitted ultimately to return to power. Clearly, with their own self-interests in mind, the Kushites were only desirous of creating a political system in which they could superimpose their overlordship upon a series of petty kings, chiefs and governors. Otherwise, a more coherent union in Egypt would have posed a threat to their own rule.

On the other hand, it might also be argued that despite their restricted notions about integrated and solitary royal govern- ance, the Kushites, in their struggle against the Assyrians, still represented a force for the independence and unification of Egypt, whereas the Assyrians epitomized disunity and division of the country. The Assyrian policy was to divide and conquer. Thus, where the Assyrians strove to promote local self-interest among competing vassal rulers, the Kushites sought some unity. In the end, the Kushites were unable to withstand the combination of Assyrian might and the overweening ambition of the Saites, the latter which in the end perhaps surprised even the Assyrians.

Kush after the Conquest of Egypt

Saite Period. When Tanwetamani was finally driven from Egypt in ca. 663 BC, the Twenty-fifth Dynasty collapsed, and over seventy years of Kushite rule in Egypt came to an end. However, when the Assyrian army withdrew from Egypt shortly thereafter, serious political problems developed back in Assyria, precluding its ability ever to return to Egypt. Ironically for the Kushites, only a short time after their expulsion, Assyria, too, was forced to abandon its hold on Egypt entirely. This situation permitted Psammetichus I to seize power with the aid of his Greek and Carian mercenaries. He began to consolidate Egypt entirely under his royal authority. In doing so, he inaugurated the so- called Saite Period of Egyptian history. One of Psammetichus I's achievements was to install a new military garrison at Elephantine to secure the Nubian frontier. He may well have dispatched a military expedition into Lower Nubia to strike the Kushites and forestall any desire to reestablish their foothold in Egypt.

Later (ca. 600 BC), Psammetichus II sent an invasion force to Upper Nubia with the clearly stated purpose of smiting the Kushites. Apparently, he was responding to some threat of a new Kushite invasion of Upper Egypt under King Anlamani, as well as to a desire to recover Lower Nubia. His significant army was composed of Greek, Carian, and Phoenician mercenaries who penetrated deeply into Upper Nubia. They met and decisively defeated the Kushites in two battles, at Tibo (the Island of Argo) at the entrance to the Dongola Reach and probably at Napata itself. Records from this campaign derive from graffiti scrawled by the victorious troops at Abu Simbel and from two series of victory stelae erected by Psammetichus II at Tanis and at Karnak and Kalabsha Temples. He recorded the defeat of the Kushites in which 4,200 of them were made captive. Another result of this bitter campaign was that the figures and names of the Kushite kings, where they were previously inscribed on the walls of Egyptian temples and monuments, were hacked away in order to expunge them from the Egyptian record. These were replaced by the name of Psammetichus II himself.

Dodekaschoenus. The Saites did not capitalize on this victory to consolidate any hold on Upper Nubia. Rather, their interest was to secure Lower Nubia and control the stretch of territory that the Greeks called, the Dodekaschoenus, the "Twelve-schoenus Stretch" (1 schoenus=10.5 km.). This was the stretch of river valley that extended ca. 126 km. south of Elephantine through Lower Nubia. From the Saite Period through the Roman Era, the rulers of Egypt always tried to hold at least this part of Lower Nubia, because it provided vital access to the gold mines of the district and in the Wadi Allaqi.

Royal Capital to Meroe. The Kushite defeat at Napata ultimately contributed to the decision of the Kushite kings in ca. 590 BC to transfer their royal residence from Napata to the city of Meroe further south. However, they did not abandon Napata entirely. It was still a holy city because of the mountain of Gebel Barkal there and the temple of Amun at the base of the mountain. The Kushites believed that the god Amun actually inhabited the interior of the mountain, accounting for its sacred status. The great table-rock that soared upward from the base of the mountain probably was even thought to be the uraeus on Amun's brow. Long after the Kushite kings moved to Meroe, they still returned to Napata to be crowned in the temple there and to be buried in the holy cemeteries nearby.

Royal Succession and the Kandake. After their sojourn in Egypt, the Kushite kings reverted from the Twenty- fifth Dynasty method of royal succession to a more traditionally Nubian method of transmitting the throne, often described as a matrilineal succession. Here the throne was passed, not from king to his son, but from king to one of his sisters sons. Thus, a kings' son could only be an heir if he was born from the king's marriage to his own sister, which often happened. At the same time the Meroitic army and the priesthood of Amun also had a say in the process. If there was no clear successor by birth, the soldiers of the tribal army of Meroe (which was the core of the Kushite army) freely elected a royal candidate who was then probably presented to the priesthood of Gebel Barkal for confirmation by the god Amun.

The relationship of the king to his mother was more significant than that of king to his wife, although the wife was still important enough often to be buried with her husband on his death. In the theology of kingship, the king and his mother were assimilated, respectively, to the god Horus and the mother- goddess, Isis. This woman, who was both sister of a king and mother of a king, often functioned as a ruling queen or co-regent with her son. She was designated with the Kushite title, kandake. Later Greek and Roman writers would confuse this title as the actual name of all the Kushite queens; hence, kandake, a Kushite title of supreme female royalty has come down through Greek and Latin to the modern world as the female name, Candace.

Kush and Persia. Despite a failed attempt by Cambyses, King of Persia, to invade and conquer Nubia, the Kingdom of Kush maintained peaceful diplomatic relations with Persia and even sent envoys to the Persian capital at Persepolis. The Persians even used Nubian or Kushite mercenaries in their grand army. On the other hand, the Kushites always idealized the notion of an independent and traditionally governed Egypt. Thus, when the Egyptians later overthrew the Persians in the fifth century BC, they had the political support of the Kushites, and when Nectanebo II was ultimately overthrown by the reinvading Persians, it was to the Kushites that he fled for safety; it was in Kush that he ended his days.

 

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The Kingdom of Kush: Meroe

The Transfer to Meroe

Cultural Features. The Napatan Period of the Kingdom of Kush came to an end in ca. 300 BC, when the Kushite kings finally moved their royal cemetery from Napata to the city of Meroe, where they had been residing since 590 BC. This shift marked the beginning of the Meroitic Period of the Kingdom of Kush (also called the Kingdom of Meroe).

The transfer to Meroe, further south into Africa, coincided with a shift, to some extent, in the Kushites' geo- political interests. Their attention was turned now, more intensely than before, to the Island of Meroe. Also, coincident with the change, Meroitic-African culture began to supplant traditional Egyptian culture among the Kushite ruling class. A gradual re-Nubianization occurred among the elite, and Meroitic language replaced Egyptian in the writing from this period onward. Similarly, native Meroitic deities began to supplant Egyptian divinities in importance in Kushite religion.

Kushite queens ruling on the throne of their own right became a common feature of this period. Kushite society, as a whole appears to have been given over to cattle breeding and husbandry (not merely simple cattle herding). Similarly, at this time, the Kushites began to train and keep elephants, which were used in the celebration of religious cults and in warfare. In the Meroitic Period, the city of Meroe also became a very important center for the mining of iron ore and for iron production. Indeed, scores of ancient slag heaps and many furnaces were found by archaeologists among the ruins of the city.

The Meroitic Period of the Kingdom of Kush has been divided into four phases:

Transitional 300 - 270 BC Early Meroitic 270 - 90 BC Middle Meroitic 90 BC - AD 1 Late Meroitic AD 1 - 350

Transitional. In the Transitional Phase (sometimes called the Transitional Meroitic or the Transitional Napatan), the kings had not actually left the Napatan cemeteries yet. Although they were no longer buried in the royal field at Nuri, they were being interred directly at Gebel Barkal in the shadow of the holy mountain. The Kushite kings at this time were especially devoted to the god Amun and his temple there. The priesthood of the temple was very strong and influential. Indeed, the oracle of the temple could be strong enough politically to actually choose the king or to induce a reigning king to commit suicide and vacate the throne for someone more of Amun's choosing.

Early Meroitic. In the Early Meroitic Phase (ca. 270-90 BC), the kings had moved to the cemeteries of Meroe, ending the influence of Amun's priesthood at Gebel Barkal. According to Diodorus Siculus and an unconfirmed Greek tradition, the priests were put to death as part of the transfer. This account is highly fanciful and unlikely. Certainly at this time, though, the worship of Amun was supplanted in importance by that of the Meroitic god, Apedemak, often depicted as a man with the head of a lion. Apedemak ultimately became the state god of Meroe.

The Early Meroitic kings were contemporary with the early Ptolemaic kings of Egypt. These were Kings Ptolemy II to Ptolemy V of the Macedonian line of pharaohs which had succeeded Alexander the Great. The Kushites, probably under King Amanislo, extended their direct military control into Lower Nubia, which provoked a response from Ptolemy II. The Egyptians apparently drove the Kushites to the Second Cataract, after which the two countries seem to have come to some accommodation in the region. The Ptolemies maintained their southern border at Hierasykaminos (modern el-Maharraqa), from which they controlled the Dodekaschoenus, the "Twelve- schoenus Stretch," making it a buffer zone in Lower Nubia. However, from time to time, they did permit--or were powerless to stop--the Kushite kings from building temples within that zone and to add to the temple-complex of Isis on the Island of Philae (south of the First Cataract).

South of the Dodekaschoenus, the Kushites established a province of their own in Lower Nubia, which was administered by a Kushite viceroy entitled the peshto. Thereafter, in ca. 184 BC, when Upper Egypt--led by Thebes and Edfu--arose in revolt against Ptolemy V [Epiphanes], the Kushites supported the Upper Egyptians against the Ptolemies. This act soured relations between Meroe and Alexandria. After Ptolemy VI [Philometor] crushed the Theban rebellion, he turned against Kush. His army invaded Lower Nubia and extended the Dodekaschoenus to a "Thirty-schoenus Stretch" (Triakontaschoenus), i.e., about 315 km. southward along the river from Elephantine, reaching the northern end of the Second Cataract. Ptolemy VI even established settlements at Dakka (Greek Pselchis) near Buhen.

Middle Meroitic. The Middle Meroitic Phase (90 BC - AD 1) marked the height of Meroitic civilization, culturally and politically. It was characterized by a large number of queens ruling Meroe directly. At this time, Meroe began the colonization of Lower Nubia, occupying many of the older Egyptian settlements. The Ptolemaic dynasty had passed away by this time, and Egypt was becoming a province of Rome, with Caesar Augustus recognized as pharaoh. The Kushites were interested in repopulating Lower Nubia for themselves. Their interest in the northern region was also reflected in the fact that four of the Kushite rulers of this era returned north to rule from the old capital at Napata and were buried at Gebel Barkal. The Romans gave the name Aethiopia to the Land of Kush (not to be confused with the modern nation of Ethiopia--that land which they called Abyssinia).

Roman War. The Romans inherited the "Thirty-schoenus Stretch" from the Ptolemies. In ca. 29 BC they established a puppet kingdom there and declared it a protectorate--to insure access to the gold works in the region and in the Wadi Allaqi. According to their own texts, they received the homage of the Kushites and levied tribute on them. However, in response to Rome's aggressive policy in Nubia, ca. 24 BC, the Kushites amassed a large army, attacked the Egyptian border and inaugurated a war. Strabo (Book 17, I, 54) recorded that this army of 30,000 troops defeated the Roman garrison at Elephantine and Syene, plundered the city, and carried off booty and captives. The Romans, under the Prefect, Gaius Petronius, retaliated by invading Nubia and defeating the Kushites at their towns of Dakka (Pselchis) and Premnis (modern Qasr Ibrim). Then they marched against Napata, where the kandake lived, the king also nearby. This was probably during the reign of King Aqrakamani and his mother, Naytal. Strabo described her as, "a masculine sort of woman and blind in one eye." He wrote that she sued for peace, offering to return all captives and booty, but the Romans declined the offer. They attacked Napata, razed it, and enslaved their prisoners. Thereafter, they withdrew and established their frontier south of the Dodekaschoenus at the fortified town of Premnis (Qasr Ibrim). This became the southernmost border of the Roman Empire, and they held it for two or three years, during which a war ensued between Rome and Meroe.

The kandake and a large army ultimately marched against Premnis and the Roman army stationed there. Again, according to the account, she sued for peace. Petronius forwarded her envoys to Caesar Augustus who was on the Isle of Samnos. Before him they laid their grievances and requested his intercession to end the war amicably. According to Strabo, Augustus was impressed enough with the Kushites that he brought the war to a close. Actually, Strabo's slanted account thinly disguises the strength and organization of the Kushites, while only hinting at the weakness of the Romans' military position. As O'Connor argues, in establishing a vassal state in Nubia, Rome had apparently planned to make Meroe a client kingdom. Augustus may well have determined that Rome had overextended herself in Nubia against a formidable foe. Augustus probably also recognized the untenability of the frontier stretched all the way to Premnis. Thus, Rome and Meroe concluded a treaty ca. 20 BC by which Rome maintained her claim to the Dodekaschoenus and her military hold on that zone, although permitting the Kushites to settle there--even near Elephantine. They cancelled the previous levy of tribute. They also returned Premnis to the Kushites and withdrew northward to the old Ptolemaic border at Hierasykaminos (el-Maharraqa) opposite the Wadi Allaqi, and from which they could protect the gold mining district. Roman military garrisons were stationed at Kalabsha and Dakka.

Late Meroitic. Despite a strong beginning under the reign of King Natakamani, the Late Meroitic (AD 1 - 350) actually marked a gradual decline of the Kingdom of Kush, politically and socially, leading to the ultimate fall of the state in the mid-fourth century AD. The Late Meroitic began as a period of intense settlement of Lower Nubia and peaceful relations with Rome, despite a brief conflict during the reign of the Emperor Nero. It was also a time in which Meroe engaged extensively in trade with Egypt, Rome, and India.

On the downside, governmental building projects were few in this period. Significantly at this time, environmental changes and pressures probably combined with political and economic factors to hasten the decline of the Meroitic state, including: increased soil erosion, desiccation of the areas adjoining the river, and depletion of wood resources. Overgrazing by cattle further depleted the vegetation and, hence, led to an ultimate reduction in the cattle population. In a related development, the trading routes from central Africa along the Middle Nile were abandoned in this period in favor of new maritime routes along the Red Sea to Abyssinia. Thus, Kush lost its value as a point for the trans-shipment of products coming from the south. The Kushite royal government lost significant income as the middleman in these trading ventures, contributing to the collapse of the national economy and a decline in its military readiness and organization.

The complicated political events and conditions surrounding the fall of Kush are not very clear to archaeologists today. At the start of the third century AD, Lower Nubia was divided into the Roman Dodekaschoenus in the north and a Kushite province in the south. However, as the century progressed, Kushite authority in Lower Nubia began to wane, as the Nubadae-people migrated into the region and ultimately established their own kingdom there. The Late Meroitic state probably also exhausted itself through constant fighting with the troublesome Blemmyes, who ultimately came to dominate northern Nubia. They were probably responsible, in some measure, for the fall of Meroitic civilization, although to what extent is difficult to determine. The last known Kushite king, Yesbokheamani, ruled from AD 283- 300. After his passing, the political condition in Kush and Meroe becomes more of a mystery than before. King Ezzana of the Christian kingdom of Axum in Abyssinia recorded attacking Kush and occupying the city of Meroe in ca. AD 350. The last vestiges of Meroitic political organization collapsed shortly thereafter, and after a span of about 1,250 years, the Kingdom of Kush came to an end. However, Meroitic civilization and culture survived and continued to evolve, as new political institutions and states grew up in the region.

The Nubadae and the Blemmyes

In the third century AD, the Nubadae (the X-Group People) immigrated to Lower Nubia from the lands west of the Nile River. By the end of the century, they established the Kingdom of the Nubades (also called the Ballana Kingdom) south of the Dodekaschoenus. The royal tombs of the Nubadae were located at Ballana and Qustul. In a survival of ancient Nubian traditions, these were constructed as circular tumuli and contained bed-burials. Like the Late Meroitic culture, the Ballana Kingdom also practiced the custom of sacrificing humans for burial in the royal tombs. The Ballana Kingdom stretched to the Third Cataract. Only after the ultimate defeat of the Blemmyes in Late Antiquity did the Ballana Kingdom extend itself northward to the First Cataract.

The Blemmyes, who were probably related to the Medjay, were a fierce nomadic tribal people from the mountainous regions of the Eastern Desert in Nubia. They were the were ancestors of the more modern Bedja-Nubians (bedja < medja) who inhabit modern Nubia and southern Egypt today. The Kushites first recorded combat against these rugged guerilla-style warriors as early as the fourth century BC, and they continued to skirmish with them through time. By the end of the Middle Meroitic Period, the Blemmyes appear to have become relatively pacified and were suzerain to the Kushites (viz. Strabo 17, I, 53). However, in the first century AD, they began a series of wearying attacks against the Kushites and Roman-Egyptians. They were even known to attack Roman garrison-towns. In time, they actually overran and occupied much of southern Egypt and Lower Nubia, so that the Romans had to defend constantly the Dodekaschoenus and their gold mining operations against them. Finally, when the Romans' military investment in the region outweighed their income from there, they withdrew. Under the Emperor Diocletian, they evacuated the Dodekaschoenus in ca. AD 298, officially ceding it to the Nubadae, as guardians of Egypt's southern frontier. This ultimately allowed the Blemmyes to establish a kingdom of their own in northern Lower Nubia. The Blemmyes had adopted the ancient pharaonic religion, and after Egypt's conversion to Christianity, they fought the Romans and Upper Egyptians on religious grounds.

By the fourth century AD, Lower Nubia was divided between the Nubadae in the south and the Blemmyes in the north. The Nubadae and the Blemmyes often fought against each other. At other times, they joined together and raided southern Egypt. Still at other times, they accepted the commission of the Byzantine emperor to fight against other foreigners. In AD 451, the Byzantine army of the Emperor Marcian finally defeated the Blemmyes and expelled them entirely from Upper Egypt. However, as the Blemmyes were devoted to the goddess Isis, Marcian permitted them continued access to the Temple of Isis at Philae in order to worship there. Both the Blemmyes and the Nubadae continued to worship at Philae long after Egypt had converted to Christianity. Later, the Nubadae, under King Silko, drove the Blemmyes from what was once the Dodekaschoenus and absorbed it into the Kingdom of the Nubades.

Postscript: Later History

From Late Antiquity and into the early Middle Ages, Upper and Lower Nubia formed three independent kingdoms, Nubadia (called Nubia in Arabic) between the First and Third Cataracts, Makuria between the Third and Fifth Cataracts, and Alodia (called Alwa in Arabic) above the Fifth Cataract. These kingdoms converted to Christianity around the sixth century AD, long after Egypt had become Christian. However, they maintained that faith centuries after Egypt had succumbed to the forces of Islam. These three nations were not always on peaceful terms with each other. However, it was probably as early as the seventh century AD that Nubadia and Makuria united to form a single federated kingdom which was to last some six hundred years under the King of Makuria. Despite the union, each of the two kingdoms always kept their separate identities. This united kingdom was weakened in the late thirteenth century by a series of attacks on Nubia by Mamelukes from Egypt, who ultimately claimed--apparently in name only-- suzerainty over Lower Nubia. In the fourteenth century, Makuria was overrun by nomadic Arab invaders from the southeast who established a short-lived Muslim kingdom there. This state ultimately degenerated into a series of warring principalities without any royal authority and the population reduced to the level of bedouin. Nubadia and its client- state, the Kingdom of Dotawo survived for more than a century thereafter, until disappearing in the unrecorded dwindling of cultural identity. In AD 1550 the Ottoman Turks annexed a disunited Lower Nubia to their great Near Eastern empire. Nubian independence, national identity, and Christianity disappeared without leaving any record.