Discussion of the Decline of Ancient Egypt focusing on the ties with Nubia.

1. Year Five – Class 3
Adjunct Professor – Joe
Boisvert
Fall 2012 & Spring 2013

2. Prehistoric Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt: 31st to 27th centuries BC
Old Kingdom of Egypt: 27th to 22nd centuries BC
First Intermediate Period: 22nd to 21st centuries BC
Middle Kingdom of Egypt: 21st to 17th centuries BC
Second Intermediate Period: ca. 1640 to 1570 BC
New Kingdom of Egypt: 1570 to 1070 BC
Third Intermediate Period and 1070 to 664 BC
Late Period of ancient Egypt
Achaemenid Egypt: 525 to 402 BC and 343 to 332 BC
Greco-Roman Egypt
Ptolemaic Egypt: 332 to 30 BC
Roman Egypt: 30 BC to AD 395
Byzantine Egypt: 395 to 645
Medieval Egypt
Arab Egypt: 639 to 1250
Mamluk Egypt: 1250 to 1517
Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805
Modern Egypt
Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty: 1805 to 1882
Modern Egypt: since 1882

3. The Nile River was home to two major civilization - Egypt and Kush. Is it
Kush or Nubia? Kush conquered Nubia. Kush was conquered in turn. We call
the region Kush/Nubia, but the ancestors of these people think of
themselves as Nubian.
 Major Export: Iron Weapons and Tools, Ivory, Incense, Gold
 Natural resource: Nile River, Gold Mines
 Industries: Farming, mining, trading, defense (army)
 Agricultural crops: Yams (sweet potatoes), beans, rice, onions, sorghum,
millet, papaya, gourds, cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, cotton, and peanuts.
 Economic specialization: Traders, miners, farmers, blacksmiths, soldiers
 Religion: The same gods and goddesses as ancient Egypt with a few extra
thrown in like the 3-headed Lion God.
 Clothing: In the beginning, the same as Egypt - white, loose, cool cotton
clothes. As time went on, the Nubians began dressing more like the people
south of the Sahara, dressing in colorful cotton clothing, wearing nose
plugs instead of collars and bracelets.

4.  The histories of Egypt and Nubia are so intertwined that an
Egyptian time chart will clarify the development of Nubia.

Nubia - The Kingdom of Kush
 The first Egyptian reference to Nubia appears in 1971 B.C. -
1928 B.C.. The early Egyptians referred to this area as the
Kingdom of Kush.
 It was not until the crusaders of the Middle Ages that the
word Nubia was used.
 The capital of Nubia was Kerma, then Napata and finally
Meroe. These cities were commercial centers connecting
Southern and Northern African commerce. Kerma hosted
massive brick buildings which were devoted to commerce and
the arts

5. Napata as their spiritual homeland
largest pyramid at Nur

6.  The Egyptians contested Nubia for control of Lower
Nubia (Northern) and plotted to control Upper Nubia.
The government of Nubia had supported the Hyskos in
the Hyskos invasion of Egypt.
 The era of the New Kingdom had ushered in a time of
Egyptian conquest and revenge. The Egyptian rulers
sent an army into Nubia (1580 B.C), destroying the
capital of the Kush Kingdom. The Egyptians founded a
new capital at Napata (near the Fourth Cataract) and
built a temple to their God - Amon.
 The Kingdom of Kush became an Egyptian colony. In
the years that followed, Egypt fell into chaos. History
has no record of the events of the next four hundred
years.

8.  Nubia (Land of Gold): The Kingdom of Kush (also
called Nubia - the Land of Gold) was located on the
Nile River, to the south of ancient Egypt.
 Nubia was also known as the Land of the Bow
because their archers were expert and fierce. The
army of archers kept the Nubian people safe. It was
important for them to be strong. Many kingdoms
wanted to control Nubia. Nubia was a land of natural
wealth. They had gold mines, ivory, incense, and iron
ore.
 Unlike Egypt, they were not dependent upon the
flooding of the Nile for good soil. They enjoyed
tropical rainfall all year long.

10.  Daily Life of the Nobles: For many
hundred of years, the nobles of ancient
Kush thought of themselves as Egyptians.
They dressed like Egyptians. Their homes
were similar. The kings and nobles lived in
riverside palaces. There were sailboats on
the Nile. Their daily life was very much like
the people they envied - the ancient
Egyptians. As in ancient Egypt, many of
their leaders were great Queens, not
Kings.
 When the capital of the Kushite kingdom
was moved further south along the Nile,
they began to act less like Egyptians and
more like other civilizations in South
Sahara Africa. Their jewelry changed. They
began wearing anklets and ear studs.

11.  Religion: In the beginning,
they worshiped the same
gods as did the ancient
Egyptians, with a few extra
throw in like the three-
headed Lion God. They
mummified their dead.
They build pyramids. Kush
pyramids looked a little
differently - they had flat
tops, but they served the
same purpose; they were
tombs. The people of Kush
loved stories from the
Bible. Many became
Christians because of the
Bible stories they heard
from passing traders.

12.  Although they were two different
kingdoms, Egypt and Kush were linked
by the Nile River, by a shared past, and
by the economics of the day. Kush had
something other kingdoms wanted.
They had iron. This time in history was
known as the Iron Age. From about
1000 BCE to about 1000 CE, iron was
critically important. Iron was used to
make tools and weapons. Kush was the
iron center of ancient Africa. Kush was
also one of the major gold producers in
the ancient World

14.  Supply and Demand: As the demand for iron grew,
Kush ran into a problem. To make iron, they needed to
wood to burn. They had used up much of their wood.
Their resources were dwindling. Kush could not
produce as much iron as they had in the past, yet
demand for iron was growing. Traders began to look
elsewhere for iron. As trade dwindled, the country
began to weaken.
 Kush looked around for new avenues of trade. They
had incense. They had ivory. Certainly someone would
want these wonderful products. The leaders of Kush
began to turn their eyes towards the vast Sahara
Desert.

16.  It is an extremely difficult task to attempt to
describe the Nubians during the course of
Egypt's New Kingdom, because their presence
appears to have virtually evaporated from the
archaeological record. The result has been
described as a wholesale Nubian assimilation
into Egyptian society. This assimilation was so
complete that it masked all Nubian ethnic
identities insofar as archaeological remains are
concerned beneath the impenetrable veneer of
Egypt's material culture.

18.  The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, known as the
Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, was the last
dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period of Ancient
Egypt.
 The 25th dynasty was a line of rulers originating in the
Nubian Kingdom of Kush and most saw Napata as
their spiritual homeland. They reigned in part or all of
Ancient Egypt from 760 BC to 656 BC.[1] The dynasty
began with Kashta's invasion of Upper Egypt and
culminated in several years of war with the Assyrians
which was to result in the destruction of the Kushite
Empire. The 25th's reunification of Lower Egypt,
Upper Egypt, and also Kush (Nubia) created the
largest Egyptian empire since the New Kingdom

19.  In the Kushite Period, when
Nubians ruled as Pharaohs in
their own right, the material
culture of Dynasty XXV (about
750–655 B.C.E.) was decidedly
Egyptian in character. Nubia's
entire landscape up to the
region of the Third Cataract
was dotted with temples
indistinguishable in style and
decoration from contemporary
temples erected in Egypt. The
same observation obtains for
the smaller number of typically
Egyptian tombs in which these
elite Nubian princes were
interred.[21]

20.  They ushered in an age of renaissance by reaffirming
Ancient Egyptian religious traditions, temples, and
artistic forms, while introducing some unique aspects
of Kushite culture.
 It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw
the first widespread construction of pyramids (many
in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.
 After Assyrian kings Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal
invaded Egypt and defeated and drove out the
Nubians, they were succeeded by the Twenty-sixth
dynasty of Egypt, the last native dynasty to rule Egypt
before the Persian conquest.

21.  In the eighth century B.C., a
Nubian dynasty dedicated to
conquest raised an army and
attacked Egypt. In 712 B.C., an
African dynasty ruled both Egypt
and Nubia. The Nubian Pharaoh
Taharqa and other Nubian
Pharaohs followed Egyptian
traditionalism and restored the
rites and traditions of the old
religion

22.  Taharqa ushered in one of Ancient Egypt's
greatest periods of renaissance.
 He ruled as Pharaoh from Memphis, but
constructed great works throughout the Nile
Valley, including works at Jebel Barkal, Kawa,
and Karnak.[12]
 At Karnak, the Sacred Lake structures, the kiosk
in the first court, and the colonnades at the
temple entrance are all owed to Taharqa and
Mentuemhet.
 Taharqa built the largest pyramid in the Nubian
region at Nuri (near El-Kurru).

23. King
Taharqa

24.  Taharqa, a son and third successor of King Piye, was the greatest of
the Nubian pharaohs.
 His empire stretched from Palestine to the confluence of the Blue
and White Niles. About 684 B.C. the Nile rose in a great flood.
 Taharqa's kingdom brought an exceptional harvest that year, and
the kingdom grew rich. He ordered many construction projects, and
built or renewed many fine temples in Egypt. The early years of his
reign were very prosperous.
 Mentioned in the Bible, in the Book of Isaiah in the Bible, Hezekiah
learns that Taharqa is coming with an army. The biblical reference
also refers to an angel coming down and slaying the 5,000 Assyrians
besieging Jerusalem.


25.  New International Version (NIV)
 9 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah,
the king of Cush,[a] was marching out to fight
against him. When he heard it, he sent messengers
to Hezekiah with this word: 10 “Say to Hezekiah king
of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive
you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be given into
the hands of the king of Assyria.’
 Footnotes:Isaiah 37:9 That is, the upper Nile region
– The Assyrian ruler was Sennacherib he fougth
against Hezekiah, the king at Judaea

26. Sphinx of King Taharqa

27.  Rome combined. The African army had
defeated both Egyptian, Greek and Roman
enemies.
 At the height of its power, Nubia was the
center of the ancient world.
 The Kingdom of Kush, with its alphabet,
commerce and architectural triumphs was the
equal of its ancient world counterparts. In the
modern world, the memory of this once great
empire would fade into history