Kush
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Aerial view of the pyramids at Meroë |
Kush or
Cush was a civilization centered in the
North African region of
Nubia, located in what is today northern
Sudan. One of the earliest civilizations to develop in the
Nile River Valley, Kushite states rose to power before a period of Egyptian incursion into the area. Cushite or Kushite culture greatly influenced
Ancient Egypt.
The first developed societies appeared in Nubia before the time of the
First dynasty of Egypt (
3100-
2890 BC). The ancestors of the Kemites (ancient Egyptians) originally lived in Nubia. The Nubian origin of Egyptian civilization is supported by the discovery of artifacts by archaeologists from the Oriental Institute at Qustul. On a stone incense burner found at Qustul we find a palace facade, a crowned King sitting on a throne in a boat, with a royal standard placed before the King and hovering above him, the falcon god Horus. The white crown on this Qustul king was later worn by the rulers of Upper Egypt. Therefore the ancestors of the ancient Egyptians were Nubians, all indigenous and therefore African, dark hued people.
Around
2500 BC, Egyptians began moving south, and it is through them that most of our knowledge of Kush (Cush) comes. But this expansion was halted by the fall of the
Middle Kingdom of Egypt. About
1500 BC Egyptian expansion resumed, but this time encountered organized resistance. Historians are not sure whether this resistance came from multiple city states or a single unified empire, and debate over whether the notion of statehood was indigenous or borrowed from the Egyptians. The Egyptians prevailed, and the region became a colony of Egypt under the control of
Thutmose I, whose army ruled from a number of sturdy fortresses. The region supplied Egypt with resources.
In the eleventh century BC internal disputes in Egypt caused colonial rule to collapse and an independent kingdom arose based at
Napata in Nubia. This kingdom was ruled by locals who overthrew the colonial regime. It was clearly apparent Nubian and Egyptian cultural and technological influenced each other, for instance they both built
pyramids and the worship of indigenous African gods as well.
This Napata based kingdom was united by
Alara in the period of around 780-755 BC who is universally regarded as the founder of the Kushite kingdom by his forebears. the Kingdom grew in influence and came to dominate the Southern Egyptian region of Elephantine and even Thebes by the reign of
Kashta, Alara's successor who managed in the 8th century BC to compel Shepenupet I, half-sister of
takelot III and the serving God's Wife of Amen, to adopt his own daughter
Amenirdis I as her successor. After this event, Thebes was under the de-facto control of Napata. Its power reached a climax under king
Piye, Kashta's succeesor, who conquered all of Egypt in his Year 20 and established the
twenty-fifth dynasty.
When the
Assyrians invaded in
671 BC, Kush became, once again, an independent state. The last Kushite king to attempt to regain control over Egypt was
Tantamani who was firmly defeated by Assyria in 664 BC. Henceforth, the kingdom's power declined over Egypt and terminated in 656 BC and
Psamtik I, founder of the 26th Saite Dynasty, reunted Egypt. In
591 BC the Egyptians under
Psamtik II invaded Kush, perhaps because Kush ruler
Aspelta was preparing to invade Egypt and effectively sacked and burned Napata.
It is clear from various historical records that Aspelta's successors, moved their capital to
Meroë, considerably farther south than Napata. The exact date this change was made is uncertain but some historians believe it was during Aspelta's reign, in response to the Egyptian invasion of Lower Nubia. Other historians believe it was the attraction of
iron working that drove the kingdom south: around Meroë, unlike Napata, there were large forests that could fire the
blast furnaces. The arrival of
Greek merchants throughout the region also meant that Kush was no longer dependent on trade along the Nile; rather, it could export its goods east to the
Red Sea and the Greek trading colonies there.
An alternate theory is that two separate but closely linked states developed, one based at Napata and the other at Meroë; the Meroë-based state gradually eclipsed the northern one. No royal residence had been found north of Meroë and it is possible Napata had only been the religious headquarters. But Napata clearly remained an important centre, with the kings being crowned and buried there for many centuries, even when they lived at Meroë.
In around
300 BC the move to Meroë was made more complete as the monarchs began to be buried there, instead of at Napata. One theory is that this represents the monarchs breaking away from the power of the priests based a Napata.
Diodorus Siculus tells a story about a Meroitic ruler named Ergamenes who was ordered by the priests to kill himself, but broke tradition and had the priests executed instead. Some historians think Ergamenes refers to
Arrakkamani, the first ruler to be buried at Meroë. However, a more likely transliteration of Ergamenes is
Arqamani, who ruled many years after the royal cemetery was opened at Meroë. Another theory is that the capital had always been based at Meroë.
Kush continued for several centuries but we have little information on it. While earlier Kush had used Egyptian
hieroglyphics, Meroë developed a new script and began to write in the
Meroitic language, which has yet to be fully deciphered. The state seems to have prospered, trading with its neighbours and continuing to build monuments and tombs. In
23 BC the
Roman governor of Egypt,
Petronius, invaded Nubia in response to a Nubian attack on southern Egypt, pillaging the north of the region and sacking Napata (
22 BC) before returning north.
The decline of Kush is hotly debated. A diplomatic mission in
Nero's reign travelled to Meroë; (
Pliny the Elder, N.H. 6.35). After the
2nd century AD the royal tombs began to shrink in size and splendour, and the building of large monuments seems to have ceased. The royal pyramid burials halted altogether in the middle
4th century AD. The archeological record shows a cultural shift to a new society known as the X-Group, or
Ballana culture. Examinations of skeletal remains shows that physically the people remained the same despite these changes.
This corresponds closely to the traditional theory that the kingdom was destroyed by the invasion by
Ezana of Axum from the Ethiopian kingdom of
Axum around
350. However, the Ethiopian account seems to be describing the quelling of a rebellion in lands they already controlled. It also refers only to the
Nuba, and makes no mention of the rulers of Meroë.
Many historians thus theorize that these Nuba are the same people the Romans called the
Nobatae.
Strabo reports that when the Roman empire pulled out of northern Nubia in
272, they invited the Nobatae to fill the power vacuum. The other important elements were the
Blemmyes, likely ancestors of the
Beja. They were desert warriors who threatened the Roman possessions and thereby contributed to the Roman withdrawal to more defensible borders. In the end of the 4th c. AD they managed to control a part of the Nile valley around
Kalabsha in Lower Nubia.
By the sixth century, new states had formed in the area that had once been controlled by Meroë. It seems almost certain that the Nobatae evolved into the state of
Nobatia, and were also behind the Ballana culture and the two other states that arose in the area,
Makuria and
Alodia were also quite similar. The Beja meanwhile were expelled, back into the desert by the Nuba kings around 450 AD. These new states of Nubia inherited much from Kush, but were also quite different. They spoke
Old Nubian and wrote in a modified version of the
Coptic alphabet; Meroitic and its script seemed to disappear completely.
The origin of the Nuba/Nobatae who replaced Meroë is uncertain. They may have been nomadic invaders from the west who conquered and imposed their culture and language on the settled peoples.
P.L. Shinnie has speculated that the Nobatae were in fact indigenous and were natives of the Napata region who had been dominated by Meroitic leaders for centuries, and that the word
Nobatae is directly related to
Napata.
The name given this civilization comes from the
Old Testament where
Cush was one of the sons of
Ham who settled in Northeast Africa. In the
Bible and archaically a large region covering northern Sudan, southern Egypt, and parts of
Ethiopia and
Eritrea were known as Cush. The Bible refers to Cush on a number of occasions. Some contend that this Cush was in southern
Arabia. See
Biblical Cush for a full discussion.
*
List of Kushite Kings*
Nubian pyramids*Jean Leclant. "The empire of Kush: Napata and Meroe"
UNESCO General History of Africa*A. Hakem with I. Hrbek and J. Vercoutter. "The civilization of Napata and Meroe"
UNESCO General History of Africa*P.L. Shinnie. "The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia c. 660 BC to c. AD 600"
Cambridge History of Africa - Volume 2 Cambridge University Press, 1978.
*
African By Nature*
On Kush
