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| The hieroglyphic name of Kush |
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| The Kingdom of Kush |
The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, relocated at the meetings of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what are nowadays Sudan and South Sudan. The Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the
New Kingdom of Egypt. Kush was focused at
Napata during its early form. After King
Kashta ("the Kushite") infested Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite emperors subject for a century as pharaohs of the 25th dynasty of Egypt, until they were released by the Assyrians under the rule of Esarhaddon. During received antiquity, the Kushite imperial capital was situated at
Meroe. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was noted as Aethiopia. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe ran until the 4th century AD, when it broken and decomposed due to internal rebellion. The place was eventually conquered and burnt to the soil by the Kingdom of Aksum. The name Kush, since at least the time of Josephus, has been connected with the biblical reference Cush, in the Hebrew Bible son of Ham (Genesis 10:6). Ham had 4 sons named: Cush, Put, Canaan and Mizraim (Hebrew name for Egypt). According to the Bible, Nimrod, a son of Cush, was the give and king of Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh, in Shinar (Gen 10:10). The Bible also makes address to someone described Cush who is a Benjamite (Psalms 7:1, KJV).
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| The ruins of Kush |
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| The Pyramids of Meroe |
Some contemporary scholars, such as Friedrich Delitzsch, have advised that the biblical Cush might be engaged to the Kassites of the Zagros Mountains (modern Iran). Mentuhotep II (21st century BC give of the
Middle Kingdom) is shown to have undertaken military campaigns against Kush in the 29th and 31st years of his reign. This is the earliest Egyptian character to Kush; the Nubian part had gone by other names in the
Old Kingdom. During the New Kingdom of Egypt, Nubia (Kush) was an Egyptian dependency, from the 16th century BC ordered by an Egyptian
Viceroy of Kush. With the annihilation of the New Kingdom around 1070 BC, Kush became an individual kingdom centered at Napata in modern
northern Sudan.
The Kushites buried their monarchs on with all their courtiers in mass tombs. Archaeologists refer to these practices as the "Pan-grave culture". This was established its name due to the way in which the remains are buried. They would dig a pit and put stones round them in a circle. Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids, and widespread some of the same
gods idolized in Egypt, especially
Amun and
Isis. With the idolizing of these gods the Kushites got to take some of the names of the deities as their throne names. The Kush rulers were took to be guardians of the state religion and were trusted for observing the puts up of the gods. Some scholars think the economy in the Kingdom of Kush was a redistributive system. The state would gather taxes in the form of surplus get and would redistribute to the people. Others think that most of the society worked on the land and essential nothing from the state and did not put up to the state. Northern Kush seemed to be more productive and wealthier than the Southern area.
Under
Tuthmosis I, Egypt made several campaigns south.This finally resulted in their appropriation of Nubia circa 1504 BC. After the seduction,
Kerma culture was increasingly Egyptianized, yet rebellions extended for 220 years until c.1300 BC. During the New Kingdom, Nubia yet became a key province of the Egyptian Empire, economically, politically and spiritually. So, major Pharonic ceremonies were held at Jebel Barkal near Napata. The royal lineages of the two regions also seem to have intermarried. The extent of cultural/political continuity between the Kerma culture and the chronologically future Kingdom of Kush is difficult to shape. The more Egyptianized Kingdom of Kush egressed, possibly from Kerma, and regained the region's independency from Egypt. The latter polity began to emerge around 1000 BCE, 500 years afterwards the end of the Kingdom of Kerma. Initially, the Kushite kings covered to use Kerma for royal burying and special ceremonials, pointing to some connection. Moreover, the layout of royal funerary intensifies in both Kerma and Napata (the Kush capital) are similarly fashioned. Caches of statues of Kush's pharaohs have as well been saw at Kerma, indicating that the Napatan rulers accepted a historic link between their capital and Kerma.
Dental trait analysis of dodos dating from the Meroitic period in Semna, Nubia, learned that they were close related to Afroasiatic-speaking universes inhabiting
the Nile Valley, Horn of Africa, Maghreb and Canary Islands. The Meroitic frames and these ancient and recent fossils were also phenotypically distinct from those belonging to recent Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan-speaking universes in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as from the Mesolithic period denizens of Jebel Sahaba in Nubia. Resistance to the early
18th Dynasty Egyptian rule by neighboring Kush is established in the compositions of Ahmose, an Egyptian warrior who processed under Nebpehtrya
Ahmose (1539-1514 BC), Djeserkara
Amenhotep I (1514-1493 BC) and Aakheperkara Thutmose I (1493-1481 BC). At the end of the Second Intermediate Period (mid sixteenth century BC), Egypt presented the twin existential threatsthe Hyksos in the North and the Kushites in the South. Taken from the autobiographic inscriptions on the walls of his tomb-chapel, the Egyptians attempted campaigns to frustration Kush and capture Nubia under the rule of Djeserkara Amenhotep I (1514-1493 BC). In Ahmose's writings, the Kushites are described as bowmen, "Now after his Majesty had slain the Bedoin of Asia, he sailed upstream to Upper Nubia to demolish the Nubian bowmen." The tomb writings hold two other references to the Nubian bowmen of Kush.
Egypt's international prestige had declined substantially towards the end of the
Third Intermediate Period. Its historical allies, the Semitic Canaanites of the South Levant, had come to the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365-1020 BC), and then the renewed Neo Assyrian Empire (935-605 BC). The Semitic Assyrians, from the 10th century BC ahead, had once more inflated from their northern Mesopotamian motherland, and subdued a great empire, taking on the whole of the Near East, and much of Asia Minor, the eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and ancient Persia.
In 945 BC, Sheshonq I and Libyan princes took charge of the Ancient Egyptian delta and founded the funny Libyan or Bubastite dynasty, which would prevail for some 200 years. Sheshonq also won control of southern Egypt by setting his family members in essential priestly positions. In 711, King Sheshonq made Memphis his northern capital. However, Libyan control began to erode as a match dynasty in the delta broken in Leontopolis and Kushites threatened from the south. Alara based the Napatan, or 25th, Kushite dynasty at Napata in Nubia, now Sudan.. Alara's heir Kashta gone Kushite control north to Elephantine and Thebes in
Upper Egypt. Kashta's successor Piye captured control of
Lower Egypt around 727 BC creating the 25th dynasty of Egypt. This continued until about 671 BC when they were swore by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Why the Kushites took to enter Egypt at this crucial point of foreign domination is subject to debate. Archaeologist Timothy Kendall provides his own suppositions, connecting it to a claim of legitimacy linked with Gebel Barkal. Kendall names the Victory Stele of Piye at Gebel Barkal, which countries that "Amun of Napata allotted me to be ruler of each foreign country," and "Amun in Thebes allotted me to be swayer of the Black Land (Kmt)". Reported to Kendall, "foreign lands" in this consider seems to accept Lower Egypt while "Kmt" seems to refer to a united Upper Egypt and Nubia.
Piye was defeated by the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V and then his heir Sargon II in the 720's BC. Piye's son Taharqa enjoyed some minor initial winner in his attempts to regain Egyptian work in the Near East. He aided King Hezekiah from attempt by Sennacherib and the Assyrians (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9), nonetheless disease among the surrounding Assyrian army looks to have been the main cause of bankruptcy to take Jerusalem rather than any military setback, and Assyrian records argue Hezekiah was forced to pay tribute. The Assyrian King Sennacherib then undone Taharqa and drove the
Nubians and Egyptians from the region and back over the Sinai into Egypt.
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| The Nubian pyramids |
The power of the 25th Dynasty reached a climax under Taharqa. The Nile valley empire was as important as it had been since the New Kingdom. New prosperity revived Egyptian culture. Religion, the arts, and architecture were rejuvenated to their grand Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms. The Nubian pharaohs developed or reconstructed temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, letting in Memphis,
Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread structure of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom. Writing was inserted to Kush in the form of the Egyptian-influenced Meroitic script circa 700600 BC, although it looks to have been wholly restricted to the royal court and older temples. Between 674 and 671 BC the Assyrians, tiring of Egyptian invasive, began their invasion of Egypt under King Esarhaddon, the replacement of Sennacherib. Assyrian armies had been the greatest in the world since the 14th century BC, and suppressed this great territory with startling speed. Taharqa was determined from power by Esarhaddon, and fled to his Nubian motherland. Esarhaddon reports "installing local kings and governors" and "All Ethiopians I conducted from Egypt, giving not one to do homage to me".
However, the native Egyptian liege rulers installed by Esarhaddon as puppets were unable to effectively retain full control for long without Assyrian aid. Two years later, Taharqa given from Nubia and seized control of a segment of southern Egypt as far north as Memphis from Esarhaddon's local vassals. Esarhaddon prepared to return to Egypt and once more exclude Taharqa, yet he fell ill and died in his capital Nineveh, before he gave Assyria. His heir, Ashurbanipal, sent a Turtanu (general) with a close but well taken army which once more defeated Taharqa and ejected him from Egypt, and he was special to flee back to his homeland in Nubia, where he died two years later.
Taharqa's heir Tanutamun defeated to regain Egypt. He successfully defeated Necho, the subject ruler put in by Ashurbanipal, taking Thebes in the shape. The Assyrians, who had a military bearing in the north, then sent a large army southwards. Tantamani was expelled, and the Assyrian army gained Thebes to such an extent it never sincerely recovered. Tantamani was tagged back to Nubia, and never vulnerable the Assyrian Empire again. A native Egyptian ruler,
Psammetichus I, was placed on the throne, as a liege of Ashurbanipal. Aspelta went the capital to Mero, well farther south than Napata, possibly in 591 BC. It is also possible that Mero had constantly been the Kushite capital. Historians think that the Kushite rulers may have chosen Mero as their home because, unlike Napata, the region approximately Mero had enough woodlands to supply fuel for iron working. In addition, Kush was no longer qualified on the Nile to trade with the outside world; they could or else transport goods from Mero to the Red Sea seacoast, where Greek merchants were now moving extensively.
The Kushites applied the animal-driven water wheel to increase productiveness and create a surplus, in particular during the Napatan-Meroitic Kingdom. In about 300 BC the move to Mero was made more practiced when the monarchs set about to be buried there, rather of at Napata. One theory is that this comprises the monarchs breaking away from the might of the priests at Napata. Checking to Diodorus Siculus, a Kushite king, "Ergamenes", defied the priests and had them mowed down. This story may refer to the first ruler to be entombed at Mero with a similar name such as Arqamani, who found many years after the royal cemetery was opened at Mero. During this same period, Kushite authority may have extended some 1,500 km along the Nile River valley from the Egyptian frontier in the north to regions far southern of modern Khartoum and credibly also substantial soils to the east and west.
Kushite civilization covered for various centuries. In the Napatan Period Egyptian
hieroglyphs were used: at this time writing looks to have been qualified to the court and temples. From the 2nd century BC there was a separate Meroitic writing system. This was an alphabetised script with 23 signs used in a hieroglyphical form (mainly on great art) and in a cursive form. The latter was widely used; so far some 1278 texts using this version are known (Leclant 2000). The script was deciphered by Griffith, but the language behind it is still a problem, with only a few words read by modern scholars. It is not as yet achievable to link the Meroitic language with other known languages. Strabo describes a war with the Romans in the 1st century BC. After the initial triumphs of Kandake (or "Candace") Amanirenas against Roman Egypt, the Kushites were defeated and Napata sacked. Remarkably, the wipeout of the capital of Napata was not a pathogenic blow to the Kushites and did not frighten Candace enough to forbid her from again fascinating in combat with the Roman military. Indeed, it appears that Petronius's attack might have had a revitalizing influence on the kingdom. Just three years later, in 22 BC, a large Kushite force run northward with purpose of attacking Qasr Ibrim.
Alerted to the earliest, Petronius again marched south and managed to reach Qasr Ibrim and pad its defences before the offensive Kushites come. Although the ancient sources give no verbal description of the succeeding battle, we know that at some direct the Kushites sent ambassadors to talk terms a peace settlement with Petronius. By the end of the second campaign, however, Petronius was in no temper to deal further with the Kushites. The Kushites come after in negotiating a peace accord on following terms and trade between the two nations multiplied. Some historians like Theodore Mommsen wrote that in Augustus times Nubia was a viable client state of the Roman Empire. It is achievable that the Roman emperor Nero planned another attempt to conquer Kush before his death in AD 68. Kush began to slice as a power by the 1st or 2nd century AD, sapped by the warfare with the Roman state of Egypt and the descent of its established industries. Christianity got to gain over the old pharaonic faith and by the mid-sixth century AD the Kingdom of Kush was melted.
The Meroitic language was spoken in Mero and the Sudan during the Meroitic period (demonstrated from 300 BC). It became extinct about 400 AD. The language was composed in two forms of the Meroitic alphabet: Meroitic written, which was written with a stylus and was applied for frequent record-keeping; and Meroitic Hieroglyph, which was carved in stone or used for royal or sacred documents. It is not well understood due to the scarcity of bilingual texts. The earliest inscription in Meroitic writing dates from between 180-170 BC. These hieroglyphs were found sliced on the temple of Queen Shanakdakhete. Meroitic Cursive is written horizontally, and shows from outside to left like all Semitic writing systems.
By the 3rd century BC, a new endemic alphabet, the Meroitic, lying in of twenty-three letters, exchanged Egyptian script. The Meroitic script is an alphabetic script primitively derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs which was used to write the Meroitic language of the Kingdom of Mero/Kush. It was developed in the Napatan Period (about 700-300 BC), and first seems in the 2nd century BC. For a time, it was also possibly used to write the Nubian language of the heir Nubian kingdoms. It is variable to which language family the Meroitic language is connected. Claude Rilly has offered that it, like the Nobiin language, belongs to the Eastern Sudanic offset of the Nilo-Saharan family. Kirsty Rowan advises that Meroitic, like the Egyptian language, instead belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family. She bases this on its sound inventory and phonotactics, which are similar to those of the Afro-Asiatic languages and dissimilar from those of the Nilo-Saharan languages.
Sources and References:
Brugsch (H. K.), A History of Egypt Under the Pharaohs: Derived Entirely from the Monuments, to Which Is Added a Discourse On the Exodus of the Israelites, Vol. 2, London, 1879, PP. 215-287.
Brannon (B), Discover the Kingdom of Kush, Benchmark Education Company, 2005 ,P. 8.
Harkless (N. D.), Nubian Pharaohs and Meroitic Kings: The kingdom of Kush, Bloomington, IN, 2006.Recent Posts:
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