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NUBIA
Nubian Chronology
A-Group: 3800-3100 B.C. C-Group: 2300-1550 B.C. Kerma Culture:
2000-1559 B.C. Egyptian Domination: 1950-1100 B.C. Napatan
Period: 747-200 B.C. Meroitic Period: 200 B.C.-A.D. 300
X-Group (Ballana Period): A.D. 250-550 Christian Period:
A.D. 550-1400
Regions:
Upper Nubia, Lower Nubia, Kash, Land of Kush, Land of the
Bow, Wawat, Te-Seti, Te-Nehesy, Nubadae, Napata, Kingdom of
Meroe, and more. All refer to the greatest African civilization
- Nubia. Nubia, an 800 km of land along the Nile River, bounded
by the first cataract of the River Nile south of Aswan (Egypt),
and the sixth cataract south of Khartoum (capital of Sudan).
Except for a very small strip of land along the Nile north
of Sudan, all Nubia land is in Sudan . For unjustifiable reasons,
Nubian civilization has been overlooked in favor of the another
great Egyptian civilization. Respectively, all findings in
the past have been attributed to Egypt, while Egypt's High
Dam made it impossible for current excavations.
More
than 100 Nubian villages (most in Sudan) with all monuments,
tombs, and temples were flooded by the waters of Nasser Lake
after the construction of the High Dam. Very few monuments
(four) of Nubia of Sudan were saved during an international
campaign by the world community to salvage Nubian Culture,
while twenty or more were saved from the Egyptian monuments
during the same campaign. This great civilization has been
dealt with great unfairness and intentional negligence. Recently,
the awareness towards Nubia started growing rapidly among
scholars, archaeologists, Nubians, Africans, African-Arabs,
African-Americans, the Diaspora, and several museums in America
and Europe. Several missions and institutes are carrying on
excavations in Sudan to shed more light on Nubia. However,
still most of the findings are being attributed to Egypt and
Egyptology.
The
chances that this great African civilization might be overlooked
again is prevailing if we take into consideration, the economical
and other difficulties in Sudan. It is the role of all Africans
- African-Arabs, African-Americans, the Diaspora, and the
international community to initiate another salvage campaign
of the Nubian Civilization. This time, not to save it from
inundation by water but from inundation by negligence and
being overlooked again. To the ancient Mediterranean world,
the land south of Egypt was a territory of mystery and legend.
Wealth and exotic products came from there. It was the home
of the Ethiopians, whom Homer called blameless, and stories
about its great achievements endured to tantalize the modern
world. This land, which now includes Nubia, is a land of enormous
distances, and its exploration was long impeded by problems
of transport and political unrest. In the last hundred years,
Nubia
has slowly yielded its secrets, its vanished peoples, abandoned
cities and lost kingdoms brought to light by the excavator
and copyist of inscriptions. This exhibit is a selection of
objects recovered over twenty years ago by the Oriental Institute
Nubian Expedition in the effort to rescue archaeology from
the rising water behind the Aswan Dam. The land of Nubia is
a desert divided by the river Nile. For want of water and
rich soil, most of Nubia has never been able to support a
large population for long periods. However, some of Africa's
greatest civilizations emerged here, centers of achievement
whose existence was based on industry and trade. Because they
did not write their own languages until very late in ancient
times, we know these centers and their people largely through
their archaeology, and what the Egyptians and Greeks said
about them.
Ancient
Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa The exhibition places ancient
Nubians and their civilization in a new historical context,
offering visitors a compelling well-founded perspective on
this little-known African civilization. Nubians in the Bronze
Age, from about 3100 BC to 1000 BC, are usually thought of
as divided into small chiefdoms, with the partial exception
of the Kingdom of Kush in the Middle Bronze Age. However,
recent research suggests that large kingdoms arose in Nubia
much earlier than is generally thought. Over the centuries
Nubians and Egyptians competed for power and advantage throughout
the vast Lower Nile region, from the Mediterranean Sea south
to the sixth cataract in the Sudan. Powerful and centrally
organized, early Nubians are truly Egypt's rivals in Africa,
states Dr. David O'Connor, curator of the exhibition. Exploitation
by Egypt Precious metals and stone. Egyptian interests in
Nubia were always driven by economics. The one factor that
chiefly characterized Egypt's relationship with Nubia through
most of their history was exploitation. Nubia's most important
resource for Egypt was precious metal, including gold and
electrum. The gold mines of Nubia were located in certain
valleys and mountains on either side of the Nile River, although
the most important mining center was located in the Wadi Allaqi.
That valley extended eastward into the mountains near Qubban
(about 107 km. south of Elephantine). Nubia was also an important
source of valuable hard stone and copper, both of which were
necessary for Egypt's monumental building projects. Especially
important for Egypt was that Nubia was also a corridor to
central Africa and a point for the trans-shipment of exotic
goods from that region, including: frankincense, myrrh, "green
gold," ivory, ebony and other exotic woods, precious
oils, resins and gums, panther and leopard skins, monkeys,
dogs, giraffes, ostrich feathers and eggs, as well as pygmies
(who became important to Egyptian religious rituals).
In
the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians regularly penetrated as far
as the second cataract to barter for these products, which
were coming down through the upper Nile Valley (viz., the
expeditions of Harkhuf, Hekayib, Mekhu and Sabni). Nubia was
also an important source of manpower and labor for the Egyptians.
The Palermo Stone records that early in the Fourth Dynasty,
King Snefru led a military campaign into Nubia reputedly to
crush a "revolt" there (the Egyptians considered
all enemies, whether foreign or domestic, as "rebels"
against the natural order). According to that text, he captured
200,000 head of cattle and 7,000 prisoners, all of whom were
deported to Egypt as laborers on royal building projects.
While some archaeologists argue that this campaign was limited
to Lower Nubia, others note that the amount of 7,000 is rather
high for a country that was fairly depopulated at the time.
If the number was not inflated as royal propaganda, then Snefru
could have penetrated into Upper Nubia, as far as the Land
of Yam, and made his conquests there.
Karen
C. Aboiralor
Oakland, CA USA - Thursday, April 30, 1998
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