There is currently no dispute that the emergence of the state in Kush was linked to a number of political, military, economic, and ideological elements. The ideological element specifically, we will not discuss it here due to the complexities and difficulties that confront it, which result from the fact that the information available to us at the present time about the first stage of development all comes from the period that followed the founding process. Hence, this situation forces us to pay attention to other elements, primarily economic and military.
We say that the previous view expressed in the writings on the emergence of the state in Kush has become obsolete today due to recent archaeological discoveries and thanks to many theoretical studies with a sophisticated approach. The previous hypotheses that saw the Neolithic groups in Kush as uncomplicated societies that did not know the emergence of a social hierarchy and the emergence of significant leaders in managing the affairs of those groups are no longer acceptable, because the archaeological record shows a different vision. It was previously noted that the Kedru burials indicate the emergence of social hierarchy, and the same applies to the burials of the first group in the northern outskirts of Kush. It is now known that the people of the first group exploited the gold mines and precious stones in the Eastern Desert and traded them with the inhabitants of Upper Egypt, so that these goods became an essential part of the funerary goods in the tombs of semi-kingly leaders in the pre-dynastic era and in the tombs of the pharaohs of the First Dynasty. In addition, evidence indicates that the people of the first group strengthened their connections with similar ethnic groups to the south of the Second Cataract, so they became intermediaries in the Nile trade between Egypt and the regions beyond the Second Cataract.
We believe that the successes achieved by the people of the first group as a result of trading in gold and precious stones and controlling intermediary trade resulted in an acceleration of the process of social sorting and stratification, which is confirmed by the burials of the leaders, which are no less than the burials of their counterparts among the rulers of Upper Egypt who were contemporary to them. On the other hand, the crystallization of Egyptian ambitions to control the region. Since the rulers of Heraknopolis succeeded in unifying the two parts of Egypt, the issue of securing their source of supply of luxury goods and controlling the Nile trade routes with the southern regions became their primary concern. Thus began the Egyptian campaigns to the northern outskirts of Kush, launched by the two pharaohs Gur and Waji.
By the end of the fourth millennium BC, the traces of the first group had disappeared, which indicates the migration of the Kushites from the region, away from the spear points of the invaders, for several centuries to follow. The disappearance of traces of the first group in the northern outskirts of Kush is consistent with Egyptian military campaigns. The presence of the Egyptian fortified site in Buhin, which dates back to that period, indicates that the region came under the control of the invaders. Many discoveries in Sars West, Kuban, and Margesa also indicate the establishment of camps between the first and second cataracts. Although pottery indicates that a portion of the population of the first group remained in Buhin, it is clear that the vast majority of them began to roam the desert on the northern outskirts of Kush and to the south of it with their herds in a semi-nomadic lifestyle after the invaders closed the Nile Valley to them and hindered the emergence of any form of Kushite settlement on both banks of the Nile in the region.
In about 2500 or 2400 BC. The Kerma and then the third group regained control over the northern outskirts of Kush for a long time. It seems that the aggressive campaigns launched by the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, which led to the expulsion of the northern Kushites from their lands, had motivated the latter to think about uniting themselves more effectively, enabling them to stand in the face of external aggression. If Harkhuf spoke about the rulers of individual tribes, such as the ruler of Yam, then the texts of curses dating back to the era of the Middle Kingdom emphasize the continuation of Kushite chiefdoms and the emergence of tribal unions that included the Wat, Artet, and Satyu, which leads us to believe that this process may have led to the establishment of a Kushite kingdom that extended from the northern border edges at the First Cataract to the Dongola region. The rock inscriptions on the northern outskirts of Kush testify to the presence of three Kushite rulers: Kakari-in, Adjakari-Segresti, and Ayib-Hantari, who adopted an Egyptian style in their titles and drawings.
The history of these rulers can be traced back to the period between the reign of Mentuhotep IV, the last king of the Eleventh Dynasty (2160-1991 BC), and the campaigns launched by the two pharaohs Amenemhat I (1991-1962 BC) and Senusret I (1962-1928 BC) of the Twelfth Dynasty. The inscriptions of these two pharaohs confirm the fierce resistance faced by the invading armies. Only after a series of campaigns initiated by Amenemhat I and continued by his son Senusret I, was the latter able, in the eighth year of his reign, to complete the conquest of the northern outskirts of Kush. He established a military garrison in Buhin at the second cataract, and imposed his control over Kush up to the third cataract and on the island of Sai, where the center of the Kingdom of Shat, mentioned in the texts of curses, was established. He established trade relations with the Kingdom of Kerma. Thus, only through continuous campaigns over a period of twenty years did the Egyptians finally succeed in imposing their control over the northern outskirts of Kush.
The development of the state in Kush is definitely recorded with the emergence of the Kerma kingdom. Specialized writings usually assume that the Kushite state, which flourished in the Second Intermediate Period 1785-1552 BC. It was a phenomenon that reflected a degree of "opportunism" and its extension to the northern outskirts of Kush came as a result of the internal weakness that struck Egypt in that period. This was of course a general assumption about Kush: Kush became powerful because Egypt was weak. Quite the opposite may be true. The emergence of a strong state in Kush may have been what led to the weakness of Egypt now in the case of the Kerma Kingdom, and this was also the case at the end of the New Egyptian Kingdom. We do not wish to dwell on Kerma and its culture, and we refer the reader who aspires to learn more about it to our research published in the eleventh issue of the Journal of the Union of Arab Historians, The Arab Historian, 1970, entitled “A return to the issue of Sudan’s cultural history in the second transitional period.”
The Kerma Kingdom was ruled by powerful kings who entrenched themselves beyond the Third Cataract, but they extended their control to the northern outskirts of Kush and occupied and used some of the waterfall fortresses. They also carried out long-distance trade with the rulers of the Delta, bypassing Upper Egypt by resorting to desert roads. Although they were kings of a real state extending over a distance of 800 kilometers along the Nile Valley and with a population of two hundred thousand people, it seems that they kept the social structure in the form of emirates and sheikhdoms subordinate to them, and these emirates and sheikhdoms remained as quasi-political units until the times of the Egyptian occupation in the era of the New Kingdom. The inscriptions show these Kushite rulers wearing the white crown (the symbol of Upper Egypt) on their heads, and there are rock drawings and a group of seals depicting Kushite rulers with feathers on their heads, wearing the covering covering of the penis. After the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt, Ahmose took command of the aggressive operations against the Kingdom of Kerma. This is how we read in the exploits of Ahmose ibn Abana: “After his majesty had annihilated the Menteo in Asia, he went south to Khente Nefer [1977] Elnur to annihilate the Kushite arrow-bearers. A great massacre occurred. Two men and three hands were spoiled. I was rewarded again by being given gold, and two women were also placed in My service as two nations. Then His Majesty descended north, satisfied with the victories he had achieved. He had subjugated the peoples of the North and the South.” However, this campaign was not decisive, as it was followed by a revolt by the ruler of Kushite in the name of Ata, but it was suppressed, as Ahmose ibn Abana mentions: “Ata came from the south and was destined to be defeated, so the gods of Upper Egypt seized him with a noose. His Majesty met him at the town of Tinta’a. His Majesty captured him. All his forces fell into the hands of His Majesty as spoils of war.” 1977 Elnur
Kush and the New Kingdom of Egypt
Ahmose died, leaving the throne to his son Amenhotep I, who launched intense campaigns against Kush, campaigns that Tuthmosis I and Tuthmosis II continued to implement. However, the elimination of Kushite resistance in the Kerma region was completed only during the period of the joint rule of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, and Egyptian authority was established until the Fourth Cataract in the thirty-first year of the rule of Thutmose III, 1460 BC. It seems that Egyptian control over the region was finally achieved through the intersection of several elements, the most important of which are military action and political intervention. Thutmose III took the son of the King of Kerma to Egypt as a hostage, and it is possible that he was later returned to Kerma as a vassal king of Egypt. While this did not prevent his revolution, the continuation of such a policy, and the definite advantages it may have provided to the Kushite rulers, must have ultimately led to the region’s acceptance of Egyptian sovereignty. What is striking is the repetition by the Mamluk rulers of Egypt in the Middle Ages of the same policy initiated by Tuthmosis III in their dealings with the Christian Nubian Kingdom of Makuria, as we will show later.
The extent of Egyptian control in Kush ends at the Third Cataract, while the area between the Third and Fourth Cataracts remains neutral as a buffer state to whose rulers the Egyptians provided military support. Egyptian formal supervision was carried out through Egyptian officials called observers of the southern foreign countries, headed by the viceroy (the son of the king in Kush: sa-n-sut-n-kash), who was appointed directly by the pharaoh. The Viceroy, in turn, appoints a deputy to Al-Wawat (the northern outskirts of Kush) and another to Kush beyond the second cataract. The representatives are chosen from among members of local families. Thus, Egyptian control brought into Kush only limited numbers of Egyptians: senior civil and military officials and priests, leaving the Kushite social hierarchy intact, so that the actual powers remained in the hands of the local Kushite rulers and local administrators from members of the Kushite elite. We know about three local rulers from the Wawats and six Kushite leaders during the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Traces of the local ruling family in Tahkhet in Lower Nubia indicate that the original areas of the Kushite sheikhdoms were included in the Egyptian administrative hierarchical organization. The subordination of the Kushite princes did not prevent the continued succession of the position of princes according to local Kushite traditions.
There was still a prevailing point of view that the Kushite population was completely identical to the point of complete Egyptianization. It is also believed that Egyptianization, i.e. acculturation in the sense of one-sided assimilation...the adaptation of the Kushites to Egyptian culture, resulted from the Egyptians’ disdain for Kushite traditions and ethnic identity. This outdated point of view expressed in some writings is based on an incorrect analysis of archaeological data. The Kushite material culture in the era of the New Kingdom of Egypt is somewhat misleading, since its composition primarily reflects the Kushite-Egyptian economic integration. The government structure was based on temple cities, but the social structure and local redistribution were based on the infrastructure of ancient emirates and sheikhdoms. Even after the collapse of the Egyptian occupation during the reign of Ramses XI and the migration of Egyptian officials and priests, the temple cities were not affected or abandoned by their inhabitants. While the foundations of the New Egyptian Kingdom were abandoned in Sisbe, Amara Gharb, and Aksha, the greater part of the temple cities was not abandoned by their Kushite inhabitants and remained as populous residential sites. During the New Kingdom, the northern edges of Kush, subject to Egypt, were economically reorganized through the establishment of temple cities. It may be a bit of a simplification, as we have hinted, to assume that these centers were emptied of population with the end of the temple as an administrative center. If the administrative and religious function of the site was transferred to another place, the distribution of agricultural lands in Kush must have required population spread along the cultivated areas. Therefore, even when the center of worship moved, for example, from Faras to Akasha, the land must have become subordinate to the new cult and it still needed to be cultivated by people living locally.
When discussing the final years of the New Kingdom we find ourselves on thorny paths. There seems to be a kind of exaggeration in the traditional point of view about Egyptian disintegration during the late Ramesside era, as expressed in some writings. The Egyptian Empire in West Asia, despite a number of failures, remained in existence until the reign of Ramesses VI, when a violent destruction of Egyptian centers can be observed. It is difficult to determine the situation in Kush in the period following the end of the position of the Viceroy. The available evidence indicates a decline in the level of the Nile, which seems to be a possible reason behind the depopulation of the northern outskirts of Kush by the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty and beyond.
Currently, the acculturation hypothesis has become accepted as an explanation for this disappearance of local populations from the archaeological record, rather than talk of complete Egyptianization. In the late period of the viceroy's administration, the history of two Kushite rulers, Ari and Katsen, can be traced back, one of whom may have used Kawa (on the eastern bank of the Nile facing Dongola) as his capital. The actual degree of Egyptianization can be judged by studying the funerary remains in the northern outskirts of Kush that he analyzed before the Söderberg period. This scholar pointed out that the contents of the tombs included Egyptian artifacts or manufactured in an Egyptian style, while there are no traces of Egyptian funerary rituals, as obelisks, funerary statues, and scarabs are completely absent, as is any form of immortalizing the name of the deceased. Säve-Söderbergh, 1962. All of this stands as evidence of the preservation of local beliefs. It seems that the Egyptian concepts related to the afterlife, if they were adopted in Kush, were only by members of the elite who received an Egyptian education. Säve-Söderbergh,1962.
The degree of relationship between the Kushites and the Egyptian gods for whom temples were built in Kush in the era of the New Kingdom remains unclear. Here it may be important to point out that temples to local gods were found in Kerma, in a period prior to the Egyptian occupation. It seems that these temples played a complex role in the state and economic life. Recent excavations at Kerma have indicated the presence of local solar concepts, which may have facilitated the assimilation of Egyptian solar religious concepts Bonnet, 1995. On the other hand, it can be assumed that the Kushite deities were absorbed into the Egyptian religious system, and then their worship continued after the end of the Egyptian occupation in their Egyptianized form. Bonnet,1995
Contrary to previous views, modern analyzes of archaeological finds indicate that Egyptian colonization in Kush was based on mutual benefit and that Kush was not subjected to greater exploitation than any region in Egypt itself. The deterioration observed in the archaeological record in the last century of the Egyptian New Kingdom reflects nothing more than the deterioration of Egypt itself. With the weakness of the royal authority and the central government, and finally the division of Egypt into regions, life in Kush, in turn, was subjected to negative influences. By the Twentieth Dynasty, the position of viceroy had become intertwined not only with the highest military functions, but also with the position of high priest of Amun in Thebes, and thus the viceroy had extraordinary powers. In the twelfth year of the reign of Ramesses The campaign developed into an uprising against the pharaoh, during which Panahsi was able to unite Kush with Upper Egypt under his personal rule, but Panahsi was forced to retreat to Kush in the nineteenth year of the reign of Ramesses
It appears that the military garrisons in Kush had been evacuated when Panahsi marched into Upper Egypt in the twelfth year of the reign of Ramesses XI. It is possible that the government was retained in the northern fringes of Kush, but as a result of the uprising the entire Middle Nile region split from Egypt and lost its position in the Egyptian redistribution system. The results were far-reaching as the northern outskirts of Kush were regained by the rulers of Thebes after the death of Panahsi and remained under Egyptian control until the 8th century BC. The conflicts that took place in the region caused a dramatic decline in the population and the reduction of residence sites to mere military stations in which local mercenaries reside. Egyptian officials and priests migrated from Kush. At least it can be said that the migration of Egyptian temples must have initially disrupted the overall economic structure to some extent. The end result was an impoverishment that was only overcome by the re-emergence of larger political units.
What really happened in Kush in the following centuries?
Scattered Egyptian information indicates renewed attempts to regain lost control of Kush beyond the Second Cataract and its gold and other natural resources, but no lasting success has been achieved. The Egyptian campaigns may have awakened the sense of self-protection and developed a tendency to unify the political entities that came into existence at the end of the Egyptian occupation. This tendency led to the emergence of internal conflicts that ultimately led to the cohesion of the Kushite state. Agricultural activities no longer required the presence of the Egyptian temple city system after new forms of authoritarian political structure were adopted. However, control over foreign trade must have become the focus of attention of the ruling elites. In the beginning, controlling the goods crossing to the north was sufficient, but direct access to the source led to military activities towards the south. We say again that the relationship reflected in the writings of specialists in Egyptian studies is limited to the weak hypothesis that Kush was strong when Egypt was weak. Aside from the theory of filling the political vacuum, the increasing power of the “periphery” could be an element in the collapse of power in Egypt. Hence, we feel more inclined to the opposite hypothesis, which holds that the rising power of the Kerma Kingdom is what ultimately led to the collapse of the authority of the Middle Egyptian Kingdom of Kush.
Осама Эль-Нур: О Древно Египтском Термине ђnt.hn.nfr.- Мероэ Проблемы Истоийи Культурных Связей Выпуск 1.
T.Säve-Söderbergh: Preliminary Report on the Scandinavian Joint Expedition. Archaeological Investigations between Faras and Gamai, Jan.-March 1961.- Kush 10.
Ch.Bonnet, L.Chaix, M.Honegger and C.Simon: Kerma, Les Fouilles archéologiques de Kerma (Soudan). 1993-1994 and 1994-195, Extrait de Geneve-Nouvelle Série- Tome XLIII, Geneve.
The Kingdom of Napata: the first beginnings of its establishment
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