The History of Nubia and The Kingdom of Kush

posted on: Jun 22, 2021

By Contributing Author/Christian Jimenez

When people think of ancient history, they think of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Greece, and especially Egypt.  However, did you know that there is an equally influential kingdom to the south of Egypt called the Kingdom of Kush.  In this article, I will be discussing some of the most important facts about Nubia and its once powerful empire.

Location, Location, Location

 The first important fact that I would like to discuss about Nubia is their location in the ancient world.  During the times of the Nubian Kingdoms, they occupied the Nile River Valley in present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan.  More specifically, their location is between modern day Khartoum in the South and the first cataract just south of Aswan, Egypt in the North.  This location means that the Kingdom of Nubia was actually a neighbor with the Kingdom of Egypt with their own customs, language, and culture.  However, this does not mean that the Nubians and Egyptians did not influence each other, as they have had a long period of shared history. Examples of this shared culture are the Nubians using Egyptian hieroglyphic as well as having some of the same gods as the Egyptian pantheon, such as the Egyptian Goddess of Fertility, Isis, as well as the god Amun, who was known as the chief god and the sun god according to the Egyptian tradition.

Nubian Relations and Domination by Egypt

Owing to being neighbors with Egypt, Nubia had many contacts with them.  One of these interactions was through trade as the region was an intermediary between Egypt and the wider Mediterranean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.  This intermediary location meant that many African luxury goods would pass through Nubia on its way towards Egypt, these goods included ivory, ebony, and animal hides.  There was also an abundance of gold, which the Egyptians were particularly fond of.  In fact, their trading relations started as early as the unification of Egypt in 3100 B.C.E. and most likely earlier, and this extensive trade continued throughout the two kingdoms’ existence.  However, the trade routes and gold in Nubia undoubtedly led the Egyptians to want to take control of this region.  At first, the Egyptians would conquer the northern parts of Nubia during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom when under the 12th dynasty there were many Egyptian fortresses built throughout the area.  They used these fortresses to police, regulate trade, and make sure no attacking army would pass through the territory that they controlled. However, it wouldn’t be until the New Kingdom that Egypt would annex all of Nubia and greatly increase the Egyptianization of the Nubian population.

Nubian Domination and Rise of the Kingdom of Kush

 However, the conflict between Egypt and Nubia was not always one sided.  During the Second Intermediate Period, Nubia, under the Kingdom of Kerma, made an alliance with the Hyksos, an asiatic people who ruled northern Egypt.  Together, both sides partitioned the former Middle Kingdom of Egypt for themselves with the Hyksos in the north and the Nubians in the south.  However, it would be in the Third Intermediate Period after initial Egyptian domination of Nubia during the New Kingdom, that Nubian power would arise under the Kingdom of Kush.  This Nubian resurgence and Egyptian weakness occurred in the 8th century B.C.E., as Egypt was divided among numerous warlords, leading to the complete conquest of Egypt by the Nubians under King Piye.  This Nubian conquest would usher in Egypt’s 25th dynasty, which would lead to a sponsorship of a renaissance of Ancient Egyptian culture in Ancient Egypt by restoring temples and constructing so many pyramids that it was the first time since the Middle Kingdom that an equivalent number had been built.   They would rule Egypt from 773 to 664 B.C. from the ancient city of Napata in Sudan until their retreat from Egypt due to their aid of the kingdoms in Canaan, which were being attacked by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.  This aid soon angered the Assyrians who attacked Egypt and ended the Nubians’ reign there.  After this defeat, the Kingdom of Kush would retreat back towards the first cataract of the Nile and would stay as an independent kingdom ruling from their new capital city of Meroë.

Nubia During The Meroe Period

However, during the Meroe period the kingdom of Kush would still be a powerful and influential empire and would develop independently of that of the Egyptians once more after previous centuries of being connected to Egypt.  This separation soon led to a differentiation of culture as the Nubians would create their own writing script, separate from that of Egypt’s by the second century B.C.E. with an alphabet of 23 signs with most of their writing in a cursive type script used for the meroitic language.  They would also build their own pyramids at Meroe and across their empire, and despite being smaller in size than the famous pyramids up north, Kush actually had more pyramids than all of Egypt!  In addition to this, Kush would also have a booming iron industry allowing for a prosperous and powerful culture. 

During this time of prosperity, the Kingdom of Kush during the Meroë period would rule from the border of Egypt to the confluence of the Blue and White Nile at present day Khartoum.  The kings and queens of Meroë would rule and defend this enormous territory against foreign attacks during the empire’s long existence.  One example of this was their conflicts with the mighty Roman Empire, where they would raid Roman controlled Egypt and take back their luxury goods such as a bronze head of Roman Emperor Augustus.  However, by the end of their conflict with Rome they would end up signing a treaty with them, called the Treaty of Samos, which designated a neutral area between Nubia and Rome from the First Cataract to 75 miles south of the cataract.  This treaty proves that unlike their Egyptian neighbors up north the Nubians would remain an independent and prosperous kingdom until their decline in the 3rd century C.E. and then their fall during the 4th century C.E. as the Ethiopians would invade Kush and sack Meroë, causing the empire to collapse.  However, many of their ruins are still visible today and some have become UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Musawwarat es-Sufra, which is a large temple complex northeast of Khartoum.

The Women and Queens of Nubia

 Unlike in other ancient agrarian societies of its time, Nubia had a high respect for women and they would also be given more rights.  This fact can be shown in their grave burials where Nubian women would be buried with extensive grave goods, and they were also involved in important religious rituals as well.  Additionally, women in Nubia were also able to achieve significant political power and influence, as unlike Egypt and other kingships that were patrilineal, the Kushite monarchy was matrilineal.   This type of succession meant that the next king of Kush went through the female line, lending some Nubian women great power that was unachievable in most other civilizations.  Throughout their history, Nubian women could exercise power as regents, ruling queen mothers, and as warrior queens.  These queens were given the name of Kandake, meaning sister of the king of Kush, and it was these sisters that the line of succession passed through.  One of these powerful Nubian queens was that of Shanakdakhete who ruled from 177 B.C. to 155 B.C. and who had one of the largest pyramids built during her reign, and would conduct numerous military campaigns toward the south of the empire throughout her lifetime, proving the military and other capabilities of women in Nubia.

The Kingdom of Nubia has long been overshadowed by other great civilizations such as Egypt to its north. But hopefully I showed how Nubia has been an equal or perhaps even more impressive than the Egyptian civilizations, and I hope that everyone can appreciate the civilization to Egypt’s south.

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