128 Nubia
Learning Objective
- Explain some of the sources of wealth that the Kingdom of Kush had access to
Key Points
- Nubia is a region along the Nile river located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Northeastern Africa, with a history that can be traced from at least 2000 BCE, and was home to one of the African empires.
- Before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, included under the name Ethiopia (Aithiopia). With the disintegration of the New Kingdom around 1070 BCE, Kush became an independent kingdom centered at Napata in modern central Sudan.
- Alara, a King of Kush who is the first recorded prince of Nubia, founded the Napatan, or Twenty-fifth, Kushite dynasty at Napata in Nubia, now the Sudan. Alara’s successor, Kashta, extended Kushite control north to Elephantine and Thebesin Upper Egypt. Kashta’s successor, Piye, seized control of Lower Egypt around 727 BCE, creating the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt.
- The power of the Twenty-fifth dynasty reached a climax under Taharqa. The Nile valley empire was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. New prosperity revived Egyptian culture. Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms. It was during the Twenty-fifth dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.
- After brief military successes, Taharqa’s successor, Tantamani, was chased back to Nubia, and never threatened the Assyrian Empire again. A native Egyptian ruler, Psammetichus I, was placed on the throne as a vassal of Ashurbanipal.
- Aspelta moved the capital to Meroë, considerably farther south than Napata, possibly in 591 BCE. In about 300 BCE the move to Meroë was made more complete when the monarchs began to be buried there, instead of at Napata. Kush began to fade as a power by the 1st or 2nd century CE.
Terms
Nubia
A region along the Nile river located in what is today northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Northeastern Africa, with a history that can be traced from at least 2000 BCE, and was home to one of the African empires. Before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, it was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, included under the name Ethiopia (Aithiopia).
the Middle Kingdom
The period in the history of ancient Egypt between about 2000 BCE and 1700 BCE, stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh dynasty to the end of the Twelfth dynasty, although some writers include the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties in the Second Intermediate Period.
the Twenty-fifth dynasty
The last dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt. It was a line of rulers originating in the Nubian Kingdom of Kush—in present-day northern Sudan and southern Egypt—and most saw Napata as