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Black History Series

Ancient Nubia

Nubians were among the most sophisticated and artistic peoples of the ancient world

The term “Nubian” is used to define those indigenous Africans along the Nile River who speak the Nubian languages.  Nubia is not so much a political entity, but the geographical region in which the Nubians lived, which in various eras from ancient times to the present, extended from Aswan to Khartoum and beyond.  To find this region on a modern map, examine that portion of the Nile River in Northeast Africa that extends from the southern half of Egypt to the northern half of The Sudan.  Various states and kingdoms flourished there in ancient times, and students of archaeology say that, “Nubians were among the most sophisticated and artistic peoples of the ancient world. Thanks to recent excavations and expanded interest in the history of Africa, we now are beginning to understand the everyday life of this ancient African civilization.”[1]

Little is taught in American schools about this ancient civilization, partly because knowledge about Nubia is just recently emerging.  One of the early guides to Nubian culture, Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa, published with the help of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Boston City Council, appeared in 1992.  It explains:

Over the last three decades, important new perspectives on ancient Africa have emerged.  These perspectives assert that Egyptian civilization was indebted to Africa to the south, including Nubia, for some of its formative ideas and that Egyptian civilization provided much of the foundation for Graeco-Roman civilization.  Proceeding from this approach, Africa became not just the home of the earliest humans, but also the birthplace of civilization.[2]

Ancient Cultures

Areas along the Nile River with relatively rich alluvial deposits, such as the Dongola Reach and the grasslands of the Shendi Reach, favored human settlement in prehistoric times and it was there, some archaeologists now believe, between the Third and Sixth Cataracts along the Nile, that early cultural advances took place.[3]  From 9000 to 4500 B.C. the archaeology typical of the phase is labeled Khartoum Mesolithic.[4]  “In early prehistoric times, nomadic cattle herders occupied most of north Africa, including northern Nubia.  In southern Nubia, a very different and highly advanced culture developed, known today as the Khartoum Mesolithic.   Remains of this eight thousand-year-old culture have been found near Khartoum, the modern-day capital of the Sudan.”[5]

From 4500 to 3500 BC archaeological characteristics varied from region to region, but the basic economy was Neolithic; there was also cultivation of domestic plants and herding of domesticated animals in some areas.[6]  From 3500 to 2900 BC there were two important cultures, one in the north of Nubia (Lower Nubia) called the A-Group Culture, and one in the south (Upper Nubia), the Pre-Kerma Culture.  The Pre-Kerma Group developed into the Kerma Group that characterized Upper Nubia from 2400 to 1500 BC or perhaps later.

The rich graves of the A-Group kings contained gold jewelry, beautiful pottery, and stone vessels that rivaled the wealth of the Egyptian kings.  Many of these luxury objects were near Eastern or Egyptian, indicating that the A-Group carried on extensive trade with those areas.[7]

A cemetery near the modern village of Qustul dating to the late phase of the A-Group contained lavish and rich grave goods[8] and extraordinarily large graves that were far from the norm of the time.  There were other unusual artifacts that prompted Bruce Williams[9] to suggest that this cemetery “was the earliest royal cemetery in pharaonic ‘Egyptian’ style in the Nile Valley.”[10]  A stone incense burner found in an early grave in the City of Qustul, the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Nubia, suggests that a kingship had been established there prior to 3800 BC, making it, it now appears, the earliest known monarchy, nearly 6,000 years old.[11] Engravings on the incense burner depict a paneled palace facade, the falcon God Horus, elements of iconography, and a representation of a king or pharaoh sailing in a boat toward a royal palace wearing the traditional beard and crown seen in Prehistoric Upper Egypt.

Civilization is a level of cultural sophistication marked by complex social interactions.  Anthropologists want to find, among other things, a system of writing or evidence of literacy before they characterize a society as civilized.  The presence of a blank roll of papyrus in the tomb of Hemka of Saqqara early in the first dynasty (2950 BC to 2770 BC) suggests that writing along the Nile was in widespread use at that time and perhaps much earlier.  The Nubians do not appear to have had a form of writing as early as the Egyptians but it has been suggested that Nubian culture may have predated that of Egypt:

French archaeologists...have found exquisite ceramic figurines, bowls and funerary objects at [Nubian] sites that date from at least 8000 BC.  They...predate prehistoric finds in Egypt by a staggering 3,000 years.  This strongly suggest to Hassan Hussein Idris, director of Sudan’s National Board for Antiquities and Museums, that ancient Nubia might have been an important source of Egypt’s civilization....[12]

ancient Nubia might have been an important source of Egypt’s civilization

The Kerma Culture

Due to the harsh environment of the Sahara Desert, the southern Nile Valley became an attractive route over which the vast resources of tropical African could be traded to Egypt and to the Mediterranean cultures.  Nubia became a busy corridor of commerce for trade in ivory, ebony, incense, exotic animals, and gold.  Its position made it a melting pot of cultures that reflected a mixture of indigenous and outside elements from Southern Africa to the Mediterranean.  It became the only continuously occupied tract of land linking sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean world, and this strategic advantage brought it riches at various time, but made it a target for invasion at other times.

The ancient town of Kerma, was one of the earliest urbanized communities in tropical Africa.  A settlement existed at the site from the late fourth millennium BC, but the main town began its growth c.2400 BC, and remained in continuous occupation for a thousand years.[13]

The ancient Egyptians and the Nubians were closely linked in ethnic background, except that the languages they spoke were unrelated.[14]  The Egyptian language had Asian influences, and the Nubian language came from a tongue found only in the central part of Africa.  The relationship between Nubia and Egypt over the centuries was varied but for much of the time they were reciprocal trading partners.  As Egypt became more prosperous, the demand for luxury goods increased and Egyptian rulers turned more and more to aggression in order to obtain what had once been acquired through trade.  Raids into Nubia took place in the First Dynasty and increased in frequency and scale during the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC).  The Twelfth Dynasty kings Senusret I and Senusret III, launched military campaigns to establish Egyptian control at Semna, south of the Second Cataract.  Out of continuing concern about Nubian retaliation, Egyptian king Sesostris I in 1900 BC began building a string of massive fortresses along the Nile near the Second Cataract in Lower Nubia.

Farther to the south, the Nubians were increasing in wealth and power.

By about 1700 B.C., while the power of Egypt was declining, the great Nubian kingdom of Kush expanded its influence.  It was centered south of the Third Cataract in a rich fertile bend of the Nile.  This Nubian group is known as the Kerma Culture because the remains of its capital now lie within the modern Sudanese town of Kerma.  Their kings ruled much of what is now the northern Sudan as well as parts of southern Egypt.[15]

The Kerma kings formed an alliance with the Hyksos (meaning “Rulers of the foreign Lands”), who controlled northern Egypt.  The Hyksos were foreigners from the eastern Mediterranean and surrounding areas who immigrated into Egypt and gradually seized control.  The Hyksos are best known for bringing horses and chariots to Egypt.  “By 1600 B. C., the Kerma people, together with the Hyksos, controlled most of southern and northern Egypt.”[16]

In 1674 BC, a time when Nubian culture was peaking under the banner of the Kingdom of Kush, the Egyptians were brought into disarray by the Hyksos takeover of the Delta region.  Taking advantage of the confusion in the delta, the Nubian Kushites extended their control northward, capturing the fortresses at the Second Cataract and occupying strategic sites as far north as Aswan.  Pushed from the north by the Hyksos and pushed from the south by the Kushites, the center of Egyptian power, such as it was, shifted to the region surrounding Thebes.  Kushite control of the southern trade routes was stronger than ever and the kingdom was able to trade with Egypt on unusually favorable terms.

In 1567 BC the Theban ruler King Ahmose I forced the Hyksos from power in Egypt.  Pushed by momentum, the Thebans then extended their control northward into Asia Minor and southward into Nubia creating an empire that brought immense wealth to Egypt.  In 1560 BC the Hyksos ruler Asweserre Apophis sent a message to the king of Kush pressing for an alliance that would force the Thebans to fight simultaneously on two fronts.  The Egyptians captured the messenger carrying Apophis’s letter as he made his way to Kush by the oasis route.  The Theban ruler Kamose then willingly obliged Apophis.  He struck out at both the Hyksos and the Nubians and the battle was continued by his successor Ahmose I, founder of the New Kingdom, who finally expelled the Hyksos from Egypt and, in a battle that would last half a century, began the reconquest of Lower Nubia.

The Kushite Kingdom remained intact until Thutmose I ascended the throne of Egypt, and during the second year of his reign, defeated the Kushite army.  Signs of burning and destruction seen during excavations suggest that during this siege the Egyptians may have sacked Kerma, the seat of government in the Kushite Kingdom.  Thutmose I penetrated beyond the Fourth Cataract before returning to Egypt with the dead body of the defeated Kushite leader displayed at the prow of his ship.  Kerma, nevertheless, continued to be occupied by Kushites and this troubled Egypt until Thutmose III completed the pacification of Nubia.  Egyptians then controlled the Nile trade route into the African interior for the first time and began a domination of Nubia that would last until the end of the Twentieth Dynasty.

The Napatan Period

Zeus and all of the gods of Greece traveled to Africa to “feast with Ethiop’s faultless men.”

Homer, an influential author of Ancient Greece, was active about 750 BC and he paid tribute to the Nubians when he stated in The Iliad, that Zeus and all of the gods of Greece traveled to Africa to “feast with Ethiop’s faultless men.” A powerful new Kushite kingdom emerging at that time in the region of Napata may have swayed Homer’s esteem for these Africans.

In the eighth century BC a new and powerful Kushite kingdom emerged in the region of Napata, downstream of the Fourth Cataract.  The native princes who ruled this state laid the foundations of what was to become the greatest and most sophisticated civilization of ancient Nubia, the Kingdom of Meroë.  Altogether it was to endure for over a thousand years….[17]

During the early years of the Napatan Period, Egypt was once more riven by political disunity.  Kashta, the first Napatan ruler to have left any contemporary inscriptions, was able to exploit the disunity and he secured control of Egyptian territory as far north as Elephantine.  His successor Piye (also known as Piankhy) formed an alliance with the rulers of the Theban area, who swore allegiance to Kush perhaps in return for military support.  A few years later, in about 728 BC, the territorial ambitions of Tefnakht, ruler of Sais in the Delta, threatened the independence of Upper Egypt and gave Piye a reason to invade the north.  One by one the cities north of Thebes were forced to surrender and submit to Piye.  The details of Piye’s expedition are described on a granite stela erected in the Temple of Amun at Gebal Barkal.  After a string of victories Piye returned to Nubia and let the local dynasts in Egypt remain in charge of their provinces.

Shabaka overpowered the North and brought all of Egypt under Kushite control.

Thirteen years later Piye’s successor Shabaka overpowered the North and brought all of Egypt under Kushite control. Shabaka (c.716-702) and his three successors Shabitka, Taharka, and Tanutamani, became pharaohs of Egypt constituting the Twenty-fifth dynasty; they brought stability to the Nile Valley for half a century.  “The most outstanding member of the dynasty was Piye’s son and third successor, Taharka (Ta-har-kah), who ruled from 690 to 664 B. C.  He is mentioned in the Bible[18] as one of many powerful warring kings of the ancient world.”[19]  The art of the period brought a uniquely southern element to Egyptian sculpture and relief that emphasized Negroid features of the Nubians.  A striking example is the Sphinx of Taharka from Kawa, housed in the British Museum.

The Assyrians under Sargon II, who founded the last of the Assyrian dynasties, seized the throne of Babylon in 729 BC and conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC.  Egypt, under the Kushites, formed an alliance with Hezekiah, King of Judah, against the Assyrians in 701 BC.  An Egyptian army commanded by the young Kushite Taharka (reigned from 690-664 BC) fought Sennacherib’s troops at the Battle of Eltekeh but this bold intervention by the Kushites into volatile Mesopotamian affairs caused them to lose Egypt.  An attempted Assyrian invasion of Egypt launched by Esarhaddon in 674 BC was repulsed but a second attempt in 671 BC succeeded.  Memphis fell and Taharka fled to Upper Nubia without his queen or his son, both of whom had been captured.  Taharka returned to Egypt after the Assyrians withdrew but Esarhaddon’s successor Ashurbanipal renewed the battle in 667 BC.  Taharka was again expelled and Egypt submitted to Assyrian rule.  A plot to reinstate Taharka as Pharaoh failed and in 664 he died in Nubia and was laid to rest, “with the splendor befitting the ruler of two powerful lands, in his pyramid tomb at Nuri.”[20]

Kingdom Of Meroë

Once again, the Nubians commenced to build an empire farther to the south:

…about 660 B.C., the Assyrians forced the Kushite kings to flee back to their homeland, deep in Nubia.  Far from the reach of enemy armies and unable to return to Egypt, the Kushites established a royal court in Meroë.  The city of Meroë became the center of an empire that included not only much of Nubia, but also regions far south of modern-day Khartoum. Meoritic culture is strongly connected to central African traditions, while still making use of Egyptian styles and adding Graeco-Roman elements.  Armies set forth from Meroë on annual campaigns to take control over surrounding peoples.[21]

The famed Nubian archers would not be subjugated, even by the power of Rome

The African Kingdom of Meroë attained the pinnacle of its power and artistic achievement between 90 BC and the first century of the Christian era.  The Romans battled the Nubians in 25 BC to control a stretch of the Nile directly below Aswan, prized for its gold mines.  The famed Nubian archers would not be subjugated, even by the power of Rome.

What happened next was described in detail by the Greek historian Strabo.  Taking advantage of the withdrawal of Roman forces for a campaign in Arabia in 25-24 BC, the Meorites launched an attack and sacked Philar, Elephantine and Aswan, where they destroyed statues of Augustus.  The Roman quickly retaliated: Gaius Petronius, Prefect of Egypt, defeated the Meroitic army in a punitive campaign which culminated in the sack of Napata.[22]

Following the conclusion of hostilities and the treaty of Samos, there was a long period of peace, during which Meroë enjoyed profitable commercial relations with Rome coexisting with Rome not as a Roman colony but as an independent trading partner.[23]

Since the Kushites spoke and wrote in the language called Meroitic, which has not yet been fully translated, most of their history is still unknown.  What we know of them comes primarily from archaeological remains and other ancient sources: the Egyptians, the biblical writers, the Greeks and the Romans.

The Bible reports that Moses had a Kushite wife, and one ancient Jewish historian said that this wife was a member of the royal family at Meroë.  Another legend added that the queen of Sheba was a descendant of the kings of Kush.[24]

The Meroitic civilization began to weaken in the first century AD, then during the next three hundred years suffered a long gradual decline, “outward manifestations of which are an end to the construction of monumental buildings and a diminution in the size and quality of the royal pyramids.”[25]

Around AD 200, the emergence of the rival African kingdom of Axum in northern Ethiopia, sealed the fate of the kingdom of Meroë.  Throughout Nubian history, Nubia had been a vital link between Mediterranean societies and the riches of Central Africa.  The kingdom of Axum was situated along the Red Sea and had an important port at Adulis that gave the Romans easy access to the markets of India as well as to the markets of tropical Africa by way of sea routes.  By using the sea routes, the Romans could avoid the treacherous overland routes through the kingdom of Meroë.  As Rome increased its trade along the Red Sea, prosperity in both Nubia and in Egypt declined.  Nomadic raiders from the surrounding deserts also threatened the weakened kingdom.

The final collapse of the once mighty kingdom went virtually unnoticed in the Classical world.  The monarchical government continued probably until the early fourth century AD, but by then the state was too weak to resist external pressure and fell an easy prey to the aggression of her enemies.[26]

Early in the fourth century, Ezana, Abyssinia’s first Christian king, conquered Meroë and ended the lineage of that ancient civilization.  The Nubians, though conquered by a Christian ruler, resisted conversion to Christianity until the middle of the sixth century.

Even with the fall of the kingdom, conquest of the Nubian people met with resistance:

The Arabs, following hard on their conquest of Egypt in AD 641, twice attempted an invasion of Nubia, but so fierce was the resistance – in which Nubian archers played a crucial role – that attempts at a takeover were abandoned.  There followed in 652 a treaty, know in Arabic sources as the Baqt, which, unusually, was a compromise guaranteeing the Nubian independence and freedom in return for an annual tribute of 360 slaves and the obligation to maintain a mosque which had been erected in Old Dongola.  This agreement remained in force for six hundred years and enabled the Nubian states to prosper and develop unhindered.[27]

During this association with the Arabs, Nubia remained a Christian culture, and resisted conversion to Islam for another thousand years.

Elements of an ancient Nubian culture have survived the ravages of time and can be found along the Nile River even today.

While many great civilizations have come and gone over the course of human history the creativity, vitality, and individualism of ancient Nubian cultures survive and continue to flourish in our own age.[28]

MASONIC GROWTH Masonic Growth Masonic Survival Intimate Lodge MASONIC EDUCATION Accepted Masons Cathedral Builders Search for Light Four Letter Masons Recognizing Prince Hall Rasism in Masonry Motivating Officers Uniformity in Masonry? BLACK HISTORY Ancient Nubia Olmec Civilization Buffalo Soldiers Concept of Race World History