9.3.1 The Origin and Rise of the Kingdom of Kush

The history of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush is bound up in the history of Egypt, its northern neighbor. It was heavily influenced by Egypt throughout much of its long history. And at one point during the eighth century BCE, a line of Kushite kings even sat on the throne of Egypt. At that time, the kingdom stretched from the Nile delta south to the confluence of the Blue and White Niles outside Khartoum, the capital of present-day northern Sudan (Figure 9.14). But the origins of the Kingdom of Kush date back almost two thousand years before that impressive period.

Although the earliest period of Nubian history is shrouded in mystery, we do know that kingdoms from Nubia engaged in trade with the Egyptian Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BCE). Goods of particular interest to the Old Kingdom Egyptians seem to have been ostrich feathers, ivory, ebony, incense, and especially gold, a commodity that played a vital role in pharaonic ritual and ceremony. For example, craftspeople used Nubian gold to fashion the sarcophagus mask of Tutankhamun, arguably Egypt’s most famous pharaoh.

The earliest Nubian state arose sometime around 2400 BCE and was organized around the city of Kerma (in present-day northern Sudan) located just south of the Nile’s third cataract in a lush floodplain ideal for agriculture and the pasturage of animals. The city’s wealth and prosperity were symbolized by its great walls, behind which lay a palace, religious buildings, dwellings, and roads, as well as a funerary complex that included a temple and chapel. At the heart of the urban center lay a large temple known today as the Western Deffufa. A deffufa is a form of mud-brick architecture specific to Nubia. There are three known deffufas in the area today. Of these, the two best known are the large Western Deffufa and less well-preserved Eastern Deffufa some two kilometers away. The Western Deffufa is an impressively large three-story temple reaching nearly sixty feet in height. Religious ceremonies (possibly involving ancestor worship, although we do not know their actual nature) were held in this massive structure (Figure 9.15). At its height, around the eighteenth century BCE, Kerma may have supported a population of about ten thousand people.

It seems to have been the Egyptians who first referred to the Nubian city-state of Kerma as “Kush.” Beginning during the rise of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (2040–1782 BCE), the Egyptian state initiated a centuries-long but intermittent expansion southward, a process that entailed the establishment of fortresses to consolidate its control over regional trade. Over time, its trade with Kush grew, and the area became increasingly wealthy. Although the Egyptians’ southward advance was periodically stymied, usually by internal political problems occasioned by the death of a pharaoh and the chaos that ensued, their progress seemed inexorable.

When the Middle Kingdom collapsed and the Second Intermediate Period (1782–1570 BCE) began, trade and Egyptian contact with Kush declined. This left the Egyptian fortresses to fend for themselves. For a short time, the fortress communities attempted to become independent entities. But by at least 1650 BCE, the expanding power of the emerging Kingdom of Kush absorbed them. As this happened, the Kingdom of Kush also adopted elements of Egyptian culture, integrating Egyptian artistic styles and technology into their practices. Additionally, the leaders of Kush during this time cooperated with Hyksos-controlled Lower Egypt to keep the native Egyptian center of power located at Thebes weak.

Leaders in Kush had good reason to believe that a strong Egypt threatened their survival. And when the native Egyptian rulers began to grow their power and inaugurated the New Kingdom (1570–1069 BCE), they soon expanded into Kush. By the time Pharaoh Thutmose I came to the throne in about 1506 BCE, the Egyptians had extended their control of the Nile valley as far as the Nile’s second cataract. Thutmose was determined to conquer Kerma. His forces sacked and burned the city, desecrating its great temple with the unsettling inscription, “There is not one of them left. The Nubian bowmen have fallen to slaughter, and are laid low throughout their land.” Decades later, Thutmose III built a temple to the god Amun at Napata, just below the fourth cataract of the Nile. For the next five hundred years, Egypt controlled Nubia, and the region was further Egyptianized—that is, it was made Egyptian in character. The Kingdom of Kush was crushed as New Kingdom pharaohs asserted their control over Nubia, constructed Egyptian-style architecture, and promoted the use of Egyptian hieroglyphs on temples and Demotic (ancient Egyptian) script by the region’s Egyptian administrators.

With the decline of the New Kingdom and the beginning of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period (1069–525 BCE), local leaders in Nubia were able to reassert their independence. As Egypt withdrew, Nubians built up a new independent Kushite kingdom around the city of Napata, just above the fourth cataract and beyond the Nile floodplain but within the zone of tropical summer rainfall and a region of fertile soil. Despite efforts to assert a specifically Nubian culture, the rulers at Napata were still largely Egyptianized—they built temples to Egyptian gods in Egyptian styles, increased trade with Egypt, and governed their state along Egyptian lines.

By the year 736 BCE, the Kushite kingdom centered on Napata was growing in power and influence, as evidenced by the fact that a Kushite king named Piye managed to install his own sister as high priestess of Amun in Thebes. Such a move was tantamount to an assertion of Kushite authority over Upper Egypt itself and appears to have precipitated a war. During the war, King Piye of Kush marched his army down the river to the Nile delta, effectively conquering all of Egypt. This move inaugurated a period of Nubian rule in Egypt that lasted for several decades. Egyptologists refer to this unique period as the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty or the Ethiopian dynasty.

The Nubian leaders who ruled Egypt during this period were thoroughly Egyptianized in culture and religious traditions. As a result, they ruled as Egyptian leaders, carefully preserving Egyptian cultural practices and traditions as a way to strengthen legitimacy. Like other pharaohs, the Kushite pharaohs wore the traditional double crown, promoted the worship of Egyptian deities, and constructed architectural testaments to their rule in the Egyptian style (Figure 9.16).