Kingdom of Kush

The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt. It was known by many names, including the Kushite Empire and simply Kush. The people of Kush had their own language and culture. They shared some traditions with their neighbors in Egypt, such as worshipping the god Amun.

The region of Nubia was home to many advanced societies. One of these was the city-state of Kerma, which controlled much of the Nile Valley long before Kush became powerful. The Egyptians called this area "Kush." Over time, the Kushites and Egyptians traded, fought, and shared ideas.

In the 8th century BC, kings from Kush began to rule parts of Egypt, starting with King Kashta. Later, Piye became king of all Egypt, beginning what is called the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. After facing attacks, the Kushite rulers moved their capital to Meroë.

For many years, Kush remained a strong and wealthy kingdom. It was known for its trade, skilled archery, and cities. Eventually, Kush faced challenges from changing weather and attacks from other groups. By the 4th century AD, the kingdom broke apart into smaller states, but its legacy as a remarkable ancient civilization continues to be discovered and appreciated today.

Name

The ancient kingdom of Kush had different names. In Egyptian, it was called kꜣš. People from this area were known as Kushite. The name "Kush" comes from the Bible, where a person named Cush is one of the sons of Ham. In Greek writings, the kingdom was called Kous or Aethiopia. The rulers of Kush led Egypt during the 25th Dynasty.

History

Prelude

Nabta Playa (7500 BC)

The Nabta Playa civilization began in Nubia around 7500 BC. Here, people made early tools to study the stars, which were made before Stonehenge by almost 2,000 years. They lived in villages with deep wells for water.

A-Group culture (4000–2900 BC)

The A-Group was a society in Nubia from 4000 BC to 2900 BC. Important places were Kubaniyya in the north and Buhen in the south, with Aswan, Sayala, Toshka and Qustul in between.

Kerma culture (2500–1500 BC)

The Kerma culture was in Kerma, Sudan. It lasted from 2500 BC to 1500 BC. This culture grew in southern Nubia and later spread to Lower Nubia and the edge of Egypt. In its later years, from about 1700–1500 BC, it absorbed the kingdom of Saï and became a large empire, almost as big as Egypt.

Egyptian Nubia (1504–1070 BC)

Mentuhotep II, who started the Middle Kingdom, fought against Kush in the 29th and 31st years of his rule. This is the earliest Egyptian record of Kush. Under Thutmose I, Egypt attacked south.

The Egyptians ruled Kush in the New Kingdom when King Thutmose I took over Kush and destroyed its capital, Kerma. This led to Egypt taking control of Nubia around 1504 BC. Around 1500 BC, Nubia became part of the New Kingdom of Egypt, but rebellions continued for centuries. After the conquest, Kerma culture was more influenced by Egypt, but rebellions went on for 220 years until around 1300 BC. Nubia became an important part of the New Kingdom, both in money, politics, and religion. Big ceremonies happened at Jebel Barkal near Napata. As a colony of Egypt from the 16th century BC, Nubia ("Kush") was ruled by an Egyptian Viceroy of Kush.

Resistance to Egyptian rule in the eighteenth Dynasty is shown in writings by Ahmose, son of Ebana, an Egyptian soldier who served 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, Egypt faced threats from the Hyksos in the north and the Kushites in the south. The tomb writings mention the Nubian bowmen of Kush. By 1200 BC, Egyptian control in the Dongola Reach had ended.

Egypt’s power had weakened by the end of the Third Intermediate Period. Its allies in Canaan had been taken over by the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), and then the Neo-Assyrian Empire (935–605 BC). The Assyrians expanded from northern Mesopotamia and conquered many lands, including all of the Near East, much of Anatolia, the eastern Mediterranean, the Caucasus and early Iron Age Iran.

According to Josephus Flavius, the biblical Moses led the Egyptian army in a siege of the Kushite city of Meroe. To end the siege, Princess Tharbis married Moses, and the Egyptian army went back to Egypt.

Formation (c. 1070–754 BC)

When the New Kingdom fell apart around 1070 BC, Kush became its own kingdom with its capital at Napata in modern northern Sudan. This more-Egyptianized "Kingdom of Kush" grew from Kerma and gained independence from Egypt. It is hard to know how much the Kerma culture and the Kingdom of Kush were connected. The Kingdom of Kush began around 1000 BC, 500 years after Kerma ended.

The first known king of Kush was Alara, who ruled between 800 and 760 BC. No writings from his time exist. He was first mentioned in the tomb writing of his daughter Tabiry, the wife of king Piye. Later writings remember Alara as the start of the dynasty, calling him either a leader or a king. A writing from the 7th century said his sister was the grandmother of king Taharqo. A writing from the 5th century king Amanineteyerike said Alara’s rule was long and successful. Alara was probably buried at el-Kurru, but no writing identifies his tomb. It has been suggested that Alara changed Kush from a small group to an Egyptianized kingdom centered around the god Amun.

Rule over Egypt (754–656 BC)

Alara’s successor Kashta extended Kush’s control north to Elephantine and Thebes in Upper Egypt. Kashta’s successor Piye took control of Lower Egypt around 727 BC. Piye’s Victory Stela, showing his campaigns between 728 and 716 BC, was found in the Amun temple at Jebel Barkal. He attacked an Egypt split into four kingdoms, ruled by King Peftjauawybast, King Nimlot, King Iuput II, and King Osorkon IV. Piye then tried to support rebellions against the Assyrians in the southern Levant, but these were defeated by the Assyrian king Sargon II in 720 BC

Why the Kushites decided to attack Egypt at this time is debated. Archaeologist Timothy Kendall suggests it may be linked to a claim of power tied to Jebel Barkal. Kendall points to the Victory Stele of Piye at Jebel Barkal, which says that "Amun of Napata made me ruler of every foreign country", and "Amun in Thebes made me ruler of the Black Land (Kmt)". According to Kendall, "foreign lands" here may include Lower Egypt while "Kmt" seems to mean a united Upper Egypt and Nubia.

Piye’s successor, Shabataka, defeated the Saite kings of northern Egypt between 711 and 710 BC and made himself king in Memphis. He then supported another rebellion against the Assyrians in the Levant, but this failed. He later made ties with Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, even sending him Iamani, the rebel ruler of Ashsod as a peace gesture after Iamani fled to Egypt. After the rule of Shabaka, Pharaoh Taharqa’s army said to have won military campaigns, as shown by the "list of conquered Asiatic principalities" from the Mut temple at Karnak and "conquered peoples and countries (Libyans, Shasu nomads, Phoenicians?, Khor in Palestine)" from Sanam temple writings. However, the areas in the southern Levant claimed by Shabataka were seen by Assyria as their own, and the aims of both the Mesopotamian based Neo-Assyrian Empire and Kushite Empire made war with the 25th dynasty inevitable. In 701 BC, Taharqa and his army helped Judah and King Hezekiah resist a siege by King Sennacherib of the Assyrians. There are different ideas about why the Assyrians did not take the city. Historian László Török says that Egypt’s army "was defeated at Eltekeh" under Taharqa’s leadership, but "the battle could be seen as a win for the two kingdoms", since Assyria did not take Jerusalem, but Assyrian records show Judah had to pay tribute, the Egyptian and Kushite forces left Egypt, and the Assyrian king Sennacherib moved south and took part of the Sinai.

The power of the 25th Dynasty was strongest under Taharqa. The Nile valley empire was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. New wealth brought back Egyptian culture. Religion, arts, and building were renewed in the styles of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The Kushite pharaohs built or restored temples and monuments through the Nile valley, including Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, and Jebel Barkal. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw many pyramids built (many in modern Sudan) for the first time since the Middle Kingdom. The Kushites created their own writing, the Meroitic alphabet, which was based on Egyptian writing around 700–600 BC, but it was mostly used at the royal court and big temples.

Assyrian conquest of Egypt

Taharqa and his Judean allies first stopped the Assyrians at Ashkelon when war began in 674 BC. The Assyrian army had defeated tribes in the area and moved quickly to Ashkelon, leaving them tired and unable to go further. However, in 671 BC, the Assyrian King Esarhaddon started the Assyrian conquest of Egypt with a bigger, better-prepared army. The Assyrians moved fast and with strength. Memphis was taken, and Taharqa fled to Nubia, while his heir and other family members were taken to the Assyrian capital Nineveh as prisoners. Esarhaddon said he "took all Aethiopians from Egypt, leaving not one to honor me". However, the Egyptian rulers put in place by Esarhaddon could not fully control the country, and Taharqa was able to take back Memphis. Esarhaddon’s plan to attack Taharqa again in 669 BC was stopped when Esarhaddon died in the northern Assyrian city of Harran on the way to Egypt, leaving Esarhaddon’s successor Ashurbanipal to continue. He defeated Taharqa, pushing his forces back to Nubia, and Taharqa died in Napata soon after in 664 BC.

Taharqa’s successor, Tantamani sailed north from Napata, through Elephantine, to Thebes with a large army, where he was "officially made king of Egypt". From Thebes, Tantamani tried to take back control and reclaimed part of southern Egypt as far as Memphis from the Egyptian rulers put in place by the Assyrians. Tantamani’s writing says he brought order from chaos, where royal temples and services were not being kept up. After defeating Sais and killing Assyria’s vassal, Necho I, in Memphis, "some local rulers gave in, while others went to their forts". Tantamani went north of Memphis, attacking Lower Egypt and, besieging cities in the Delta, some of which gave in to him. The Assyrians, who had only a small army in the north, then sent a large army south in 663 BC. Tantamani was badly defeated, and the Assyrian army destroyed Thebes so much that it never really recovered. Tantamani was chased back to Nubia, but he kept trying to control Upper Egypt until around 656 BC. At that time, a native Egyptian ruler, Psamtik I son of Necho, put on the throne by Ashurbanipal, took control of Thebes. The last ties between Kush and Upper Egypt ended after fights with the Saite kings in the 590s BC.

Napatan period (656 BC – c. 270 BC)

Kushite civilization lasted for many centuries. According to Welsby, "throughout the Saite, Persian, Ptolemaic, and Roman times, the Kushite rulers—the descendants of the XXVth Dynasty pharaohs, and the keepers of the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal—could have claimed their 'rightful' control of Egypt and they were a possible threat to the rulers of Egypt."

Herodotus wrote about an attack on Kush by the Achaemenid ruler Cambyses around 530 BC. By some stories Cambyses took the land between the first and second Nile cataract, but Herodotus says that "his attack failed badly in the desert." Achaemenid writings from both Egypt and Iran list Kush as part of the Achaemenid empire. For example, the DNa writing of Darius I (ruled 522–486 BC) on his tomb at Naqsh-e Rustam mentions Kūshīyā among the lands "ruled" by the Achaemenid Empire. Derek Welsby says "scholars have questioned whether this Persian attack ever happened, but... archaeological evidence suggests that the fortress of Dorginarti near the second cataract was Persia’s southern border."

From around 425–300 BC, starting under king Amannote-erike, Kush had a line of kings who brought back older traditions such as putting up royal stones or statues. It was probably also in this time that several older pyramids, including that of Taharqo, were made bigger. The writing of king Harsiotef, who ruled for at least 35 years from around 400 BC, says how he fought many battles against enemies from Meroe in the south to Lower Nubia in the north while also giving money to temples across Kush. King Nastasen (around 325) fought battles against nomad groups and again in Lower Nubia. Nastasen was the last king buried at Nuri. His successors built six pyramids at Jebel Barkal and two in the old burial place of el-Kurru, but the lack of writings makes it hard to know who was buried there. It seems there was a time of trouble and fighting within the royal group.

Meroitic period (c. 270 BC – 4th century AD)

Aspelta moved the capital to Meroë, much farther south than Napata, maybe around 591 BC, just after Napata was attacked by Psamtik II. Martin Meredith says the Kushite rulers chose Meroë, between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts, because it was at the edge of the summer rain area, and the land was rich in iron ore and wood for iron working. The place also gave access to trade paths to the Red Sea. The Kush traded iron goods with the Romans, along with gold, ivory and slaves. The Butana land was cut of its trees, leaving behind slag piles.

Around 300 BC, the move to Meroë was finished when the monarchs began to be buried there, instead of at Napata. One idea is that this shows the monarchs breaking away from the power of the priests at Napata. According to Diodorus Siculus, Kushite king Ergamenes went against the priests and had them killed. This story may be about the first ruler buried at Meroë with a similar name such as Arqamani, who ruled many years after the royal burial place was opened at Meroë. During this time, the Kushite area may have stretched about 1,500 km along the Nile River from the Egyptian border in the north to far south of modern Khartoum and probably also large areas to the east and west.

Relations with Ptolemaic Egypt

There are some records of fights between the Kushites and Ptolemaic Egypt. In 275 or 274 BC, Ptolemy II (ruled 283–246 BC) sent an army to Nubia, and defeated the Kingdom of Kush, taking over the area later called Triakontaschoinos. Also, there was a big protest at the end of the rule of Ptolemy IV, around 204 BC, and the Kushites likely tried to get involved in Ptolemaic matters. It has been suggested that this led to Ptolemy V removing the name of Arqamani on writings at Philae. "Arqamani built a small entrance hall to the temple made by Ptolemy IV at selchis and built a temple at Philae to which Ptolemy gave an entrance hall." There is proof of Ptolemaic control as far south as the second cataract, but recent finds at Qasr Ibrim, such as "the complete lack of Ptolemaic pottery" have made experts question how strong the control was. Political fights led the Ptolemies to give up the area, so "the Kushites took back control...with Qasr Ibrim held" (by the Kushites) and other places maybe guarded.

Relations with the Roman Empire

According to Welsby, after the Romans took control of Egypt, they talked with the Kushites at Philae and set the southern edge of Roman Egypt at Aswan. Theodor Mommsen and Welsby say the Kingdom of Kush became a client Kingdom, similar to the situation under Ptolemaic rule of Egypt. Kushite hopes and too much Roman tax are two reasons given for a protest that was helped by Kushite armies. The old writers, Strabo and Pliny, describe the fight with Roman Egypt.

Strabo writes about a war with the Romans in the first century BC. According to Strabo, the Kushites "attacked Aswan with an army of 30,000 men and destroyed imperial statues...at Philae." A "large life-size bronze head of the emperor Augustus" was found buried in Meroe in front of a temple. After the first wins of Kandake (or "Candace") Amanirenas against Roman Egypt, the Kushites were beaten and Napata was destroyed. Importantly, the loss of the capital Napata was not a big blow to the Kushites and did not stop Candace from fighting the Roman army again. In 22 BC, a large Kushite army moved north to attack Qasr Ibrim. Warned of the attack, Gaius Petronius, leader of Roman Egypt, marched south and reached Qasr Ibrim to strengthen its defenses before the Kushites arrived. Welsby says after a Kushite attack on Primis (Qasr Ibrim), the Kushites sent leaders to talk peace with Petronius. The Kushites were able to talk a peace deal with good terms. Trade between the two grew and the Roman Egyptian border was moved to "Hiera Sykaminos (Maharraqa)." This agreement "kept peace for most of the next 300 years" and there is "no clear proof of more fights."

It is possible that the Roman emperor Nero planned another try to take over Kush before he died in AD 68. Nero sent two officers up the river as far as Bahr el Ghazal River in 66 AD to find the source of the Nile, according to Seneca, or to plan an attack, according to Pliny.

Decline and fall

Kush began to weaken as a power in the first or second century AD, hurt by the war with the Roman province of Egypt and the end of its old industries. However, there is proof of third century AD Kushite Kings at Philae in demotic and writing. It has been suggested that the Kushites took back lower Nubia after Roman forces left for Aswan. Kushite actions led others to say "a practical Kushite control of that area (as far north as Philae) for part of the third century AD." After that, it got weaker and broke apart because of inner fights.

The fall of Meroe is often linked to an Aksumite attack. An Aksumite presence in Meroe is shown by two broken Greek writings. The better one talks about military moves and the putting up of a tax. They were probably put up by Aksumite victory signs and were made before Aksum turned to Christianity around 340, maybe by king Ousanas (ruled about 310–330). An writing from Aksum mentioning Kush as a servant land may also be from Ousanas. The trilingual writing of his follower Ezana describes another attack which happened after 340. Ezana's army went along the Atbara until it reached the Nile, where he fought Kush. Meroe itself is not named, showing that Ezana did not attack the town. Aksum's time in Nubia was likely short.

Meroitic writings from as early as the 1st century BC show signs of fights with the Noba, who lived west of the Nile and were led by their own leaders and kings. Perhaps it was the drier climate that made them attack the Nile Valley, although they would not break through until the 4th century. The Ezana writing said they had taken Kushite towns and were active as far east as the Takeze River, where they hurt Aksumite servants. These attacks and them breaking promises they made to Ezana were the main reasons for his Nubian attack. It has been guessed that the Noba were not really Nubian-speakers, but that the word "Noba" was a bad word in Meroitic for many people living outside the Meroitic state. A Meroitic writing found at Gebel Adda from around 300 AD, however, seems to talk about a king with the Nubian name Trotihi. A bowl from a 4th-century rich burial in el-Hobagi has a Meroitic-Nubian writing mentioning a "king", but it is hard to know who was buried and what country they led.

At Meroe, the last pyramids and non-royal burials are from the mid-4th century, which is usually thought to be when the kingdom of Kush ended. After this came the so-called "post-Meroitic" time. This time saw less town life, the end of the Meroitic religion and writing and the rise of local leaders buried in big mounds. Royal burials from Qustul (about 380–410) and Ballana (410–500) in Lower Nubia are linked to the start of Nobatia. To its north were the Blemmyes, who around 394 made a kingdom around Talmis that lasted until it was taken by Nobatia around 450. The political events south of the third cataract are not clear, but it seems that Dongola, the later capital of Makuria as well as Soba, the capital of Alodia, were started in that time. Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia later turned to Christianity in the 6th century, starting medieval Nubia.

Language and writing

The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and Sudan from about 300 BC to around 400 AD. We do not know exactly which language family it belongs to. Some experts think it might be related to the Egyptian language, while others think it could be part of the Nilo-Saharan language family.

During the Napatan Period, Egyptian hieroglyphs were used for important places like temples. Later, around the second century BC, the Meroitic people made their own writing system. They had two kinds of writing: Meroitic Cursive, used for everyday records and written with a stylus, and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, used for important documents and carved in stone. These writings are hard to understand because there are not many texts in both Meroitic and other languages. The oldest Meroitic writing is from between 180 and 170 BC and was found on a temple. The Meroitic Cursive script was used a lot, with over 1,200 known examples.

Technology, medicine, and mathematics

Technology

The people of the Kingdom of Kush made clever tools for farming and daily life. They created a water wheel called the saqiyah, powered by animals like buffalos. This made lifting water for crops easier than the older tool called a shaduf, which needed people to work by hand. They also built special bronze kilns to make everyday items such as razors, mirrors, and tweezers.

They built large water storage areas called hafirs to save rainwater for dry times. These helped provide water for drinking, farming, and animals. One big hafir near Musawwarat es-Sufra was very large, measuring 250 meters across and almost 7 meters deep.

The Kushites were skilled at working with metal, possibly using special furnaces to make tools and even extra metal to trade.

Medicine

Scientists found that people in Kush used a natural antibiotic long before modern medicine. This was found in the bones of mummies from around 350 to 550 AD. It is believed they used a type of antibiotic found in jars of beer made from grain, which might have helped people stay healthier.

Mathematics

The Nubians were good at math and building. Plans for pyramids suggest they understood special number ratios. They also made early sun clocks and used methods to measure angles, similar to how Egyptians did.

Military

Main article: Military of ancient Nubia

In the eighth century BC, the Kushite army, led by Piye, built siege towers during the siege of Hermopolis. These towers helped archers and slingers reach the city walls. When the army faced challenges at Ashmunein, Piye directed the construction of a siege tower so archers could shoot into the city. Over time, simple soldier shelters evolved into battering rams.

Bowmen were important in the Kushite military. They used long bows, sometimes using their feet to pull back the string. They had many kinds of bows. The Greek writer Herodotus described their bows as made from strong palm wood, with arrows from cane plants.

Elephants were sometimes used in battles, especially around 20 BC when Kush fought against Rome.

Architecture

Main article: Nubian pyramids

During the Bronze Age, the people of Nubia, ancestors of the Kingdom of Kush, built temples and tombs carved into rock. This style influenced the buildings of the New Kingdom of Egypt. One famous type of building from Kush was tomb monuments. These tombs grew bigger over time, especially during the 25th dynasty.

The Kushites built pyramids, temples from mud bricks, and temples from stone blocks. They used ideas from Egyptian temple designs but created their own plans. Some temples, like those for the god Amun, all had the same basic design. The temple at Jebel Barkal was very large, much bigger than other temples in Nubia.

Piye, a ruler of Kush, is believed to have built the first true pyramid at el Kurru. Pyramids were important tombs for the royal family of Kush and can be found in several places. These pyramids were smaller and had steeper sides than the pyramids in Egypt. Kushite homes were usually small, round huts made from wood, and some larger houses had rooms for extended families.

The Kushites also built a stone-paved road at Jebel Barkal, possibly made docks along the Nile River, and dug many wells.

Economy

Some scholars think the Kingdom of Kush had an economy where the state collected extra food and shared it with the people. Others believe most people worked on farms and did not need help from the state. The northern part of Kush was more productive and wealthier than the southern part.

Kush and Egyptology

The Kingdom of Kush was close to Ancient Egypt. The border between them was often seen as the first cataract at Elephantine. Historians study Kush together with Egypt because of this closeness. In the eighth century BC, the 25th dynasty ruled both places, from the Rift Valley to the Taurus mountains. However, this close link means that the unique political structure of Kush as its own country has not been studied as much. Some scholars think that seeing Kush as its own distinct culture, instead of just a neighbor of Egypt, could help us learn more about its early history.