Nubian Archaeology

ABSTRACT: Preface to the Guide:

Focus and limitations:
The compilation of this guide began in Spring 2007 as a series of check lists and book requests for the somewhat small collection of Egyptological and related works in M. H. Sterne library at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  During the development of several courses on Ancient Egypt, the Ancient Near East, and other areas spanning Prehistory through to the Roman period (and later), the collection grew, and continues to expand, and began to require a research paper guide for students enrolled in courses dealing with these geographic areas and time periods. The nature of the prime cliental, namely undergraduate to MA students in a North American setting, in conjunction with limited funding, has steered  –of necessity– the building of both Sterne library’s collections and this guide towards mostly English-language sources, less expensive works, and more easily available and more recent publications.

Overall aims:
In order to maximize student and public research usage of the existing, albeit still limited, collections, I have since compiled and incorporated selected journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and other book titles from Sterne Library’s physical holdings (i.e., non-electronic sources) into diverse categories of research topics/subjects.  In addition, every effort has been made to add a full listing of electronic sources (including links) available to researchers of the geographic and temporal areas covered by this guide (i.e., mainly Prehistoric to Roman period Egypt).  The guide also provides general assistance for more serious/professional scholars (i.e., a quick reference to key articles, chapters, and volumes), but remains a tool aimed at English-speaking undergraduate-MA students and the public, focusing on Sterne’s holdings (note: other emerging Egyptological libraries will also approximate Sterne’s holdings).

Design and usage:
An attempt has been made to obtain sources spanning all aspects of Ancient Egypt and related areas, which have in-turn influenced the subdivision of the guide into general works, time periods, and diverse subject areas. Some of these categories have grown sufficiently large to merit further subdivision, such as the New Kingdom section, which has a general list of sources, materials regarding individual rulers, and a few affiliated topics of interest (Exodus; Sea Peoples).  I have attempted to place each source (i.e., books; book chapters; encyclopedia entries; journal articles) under each pertinent topic category that it covers, but naturally I may have missed some categories, while there may be other complementary and broader works that cover such topics elsewhere.  A list of the pertinent call number ranges has been placed at the end of the guide (see table of contents) to assist in the merits of additional shelf-browsing.

Beyond the guide:
Naturally there are numerous significant Egyptological sources outside Sterne Library’s holdings (including electronic links: e.g., JSTOR) that might be retrieved via interlibrary loan.  Sterne Library’s current Egyptological resources, however, are sufficient to introduce most areas of Egyptological research, and enable the researcher to consult the endnotes/footnotes and bibliographic data listed in recent books, articles, and encyclopedia entries to compile a list of further resources that may either be accessed via interlibrary loan, or possibly by visiting directly a neighbouring professional Egyptological library: e.g., the instructor (UAB); Atlanta (Emory University); Memphis (Memphis State University).

The collections in other Birmingham and Alabama libraries have online links via Sterne Library’s website, and offer many duplicate and different Egyptological works that are often accessible to the public/students: e.g., Birmingham Public Library, Gorgas Library (UA).  Naturally, I encourage students, faculty, and public researchers to see me for further assistance with this guide and their research topics.

Gregory Mumford (UAB)
Update: 15 Jan., 2021

PLEASE NOTE: This resource has received substantial updates in pertinent sections within the guide.  Some additional sorting of various articles/entries is still required, but these articles can be found, unsorted, at the end of the guide (e.g., articles from KMT, JSSEA, EA, etc., listed chronologically and by issue). I anticipate another update in the following year ...

This is an attempt to revive interest in pre-Babylonian capitivity Old Testament history, discredited through lack of evidence in Israel/Palestine. It supports the vercaity of the Old Testament historical account, from Abraham to the destruction of Jerusalem ca. 586 BC, but argues that Moses was from Nubia where the Hebrew were enslaved as gold miners. The Exodus probably passed down the Nile-Atbara and Tekazze to the Ethiopian/Eritrean highlands and then across the Bab el Mandeb during voclanic activity to Yemen where the Hebrew regrouped  and then, leaving their Midian (Medjay) companions behind, conquered Canaan in West Arabia and founded the two Israelite states of Israel and Judah. It supports but reassesses the Salibi hypotheses thirty years after its 1984/5 publication.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This is a proof copy, the final version will be uploaded after publication
Abstract
In modern towns with multi-ethnic population and congregations of different religions and variations of religion one can notice the tendency of people of the same background to flock together, forming districts within such communities. This seems to have been also the case in towns of Ancient Egypt, especially in settlements situated near the borders. This article presents data of different communities which lived in Avaris during the late Middle Kingdom, the Hyksos Period and the early New Kingdom. Besides the original Egyptians, immigrants from different parts of the Ancient Near East settled down in the eastern Delta from the late 12th Dynasty onwards. They left the Egyptian community intact within the oldest part of the town. It was a surprise to find also vestiges of Nubians of different cultural background and origin within Avaris. In the time of the 14th Dynasty there is evidence of Kerma people, in the Hyksos Period one encountered mainly other Nubians who seem to have been related to the Pan-Grave Culture and after the conquest of Avaris by the victorious 18th Dynasty, ceramics and arrow tips of the Kerma Culture appeared again. For the Nubians of the Hyksos Period, no specific quarter of the town could be found except that they seem to have lived in symbiosis with palaces where they may have served as mercenaries and in the New Kingdom perhaps as regular part of the army. Their pottery fragments could, however, also be found in the regular parts of the town and a special quarter could be expected for them, but it was not yet discovered. Besides Egyptians and people from Asia and Nubia, it seems that there was also a Cypriot community producing Cypriot ware with Cypriot technology but of Egyptian clay. In the Thutmoside Period, when the site became most likely the major naval base of Peru-nefer, it seems that for some time a Minoan community established itself near a palatial compound which was furnished with Minoan wall paintings. This was in a time when “Keftiu” delega- tions appear depicted in noble tombs in Thebes.

This publication belongs to a series of planned books on Palestine emerging from the Lower Jordan River Basin Project, a collaborative effort between the universities of Birzeit and Bergen. This project has a resource management profile, in which human resource management is seen within the context of economic, political and ecological perimeters. The main objective is to build up research and competence among Palestinians and Norwegians with regard to the culture, history and human ecology of the Lower Jordan River Basin of Palestine and Jordan. Research activities and competence building in the program have been defined within three sub-thematics: 1) land, 2) water, and 3) cultural heritage. The project was started in 1998 and is currently into its second phase. This second phase of the project involves education and training of researchers, field projects and research in connection to the thematics of the project, and also includes support towards establishments of graduate programmes and a

The Kingdom of Kush flourished in northern Sudan between 2000 and 1500 BCE. During this period, the capital Kerma emerged as a major economic and political centre in the Nile Valley. After a short review of the application of world system theory and centre-periphery perspectives in archaeology, the author proceeds to a presentation of the Bronze Age societies in northern Sudan and their wide-reaching trade relations. A central argument is that an incentive for the rise of the Kingdom of Kush was its intermediate position in long-distance trade between the north and the south. The article concludes with a discussion of Kush as a centre on the periphery of the so-called Bronze Age World System in Afro-Eurasia.

DETAILS: This searchable Excel database reflects the collection of key Egyptological, Near Eastern, Nubian, Arabian, Anatolian, and Aegean, plus some selected European, Viking/Norse (new), Newfoundland archaeology (new), Beothuk/Amerindian (new), and other regions' book titles, journal issues, Great Courses lectures, and dvd documentary resources, spanning mainly Prehistory to the Roman period (but also later periods [for selected areas]), to aid in research, teaching courses, and related ventures.  It may be of use to others (e.g., students/public/scholars/librarians), and has formed a base from which I have been building my University's library collections (M. H. Sterne, UAB) on Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Near East, and other areas.  I update this database continuously, and will update this online posting once every six months, or so.  The database is arranged by multiple fields such as author(s), date of publication, title, publication series, edition, translator(s), place of publication, publisher, dates/periods covered by each title, and topic area(s) (I have omitted additional fields here, including the sources already obtained for UAB Sterne Library and sources to be obtained).  The collection is fairly representative for Egyptology, albeit tending to English publications, while other areas are more sporadic (based upon personal research needs, availability of resources, and other factors).  It is searchable within each column, plus region, such as Egypt, Nubia, Near East, Aegean, Europe, Viking, Indus Valley, Southeast Asia, Canada, etc.; DECEMBER 24, 2023: 207 new entries (n = 6,187) since September 30, 2022.

The vivid engravings on vertical rocks at the desert site of Nag el-Hamdulab west of the Nile comprise a rock art gallery of exceptional historical significance. The authors show that the images of boats with attendant prisoners, animals and the earliest representation of a pharaoh offer a window on Dynasty 0, and depict the moment that the religious procession of pre-Dynastic Egypt became the triumphant tour of a tax-collecting monarch.

The aim of this book is to present the material record of Nubian monasticism in a systematic manner and to conduct a comparative analysis of this phenomenon. This book also addresses several fundamental issues, for instance the presence of various forms of monasticism (hermitages, laurae and coenobitic monasteries) in Nubia and their spatial organisation. The source base for reconstructing the monastic movement in Nubia, or rather life in individual monasteries, is largely archaeological and epigraphic. In order to analyse sources regarding Nubian monasteries, it is necessary to place them in the wider perspective of the Christian monastic movement – a new social phenomenon never before or after repeated in the history of humankind. Looking beyond Nubia is motivated not only by the desire to find reference points in centres that influenced the formation of the Nubian civilisation, but also because such parallels are indispensable for the interpretation of archaeological finds.
One of the fundamental questions posed repeatedly in this book concerns the models that inspired the creators of monastic communities in Nubia. The geographic arguments point primarily to Egypt, but other regions of the Late Antique East should not be ruled out prematurely. We have, for instance, sound evidence for Syrian influence on the culture of Christian Nubia, especially liturgy. Also Constantinople, a core region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the imperial capital, must be considered as a possible source of inspiration.
This book also addresses several fundamental issues, for instance the presence of various forms of monasticism (hermitages, laurae and coenobitic monasteries) in Nubia and their spatial organisation. Thus far, attempts to characterise Nubian monasticism in a synthetic manner have taken the form of short articles (Godlewski 2013; 2015) limited mostly to discussion of architectural features. In addition, with the notable exception of Adam Łajtar’s ad-hoc publications spurred by the emergence of new evidence, no study published to date collects and discusses the various titles associated with the monastic milieu, investigating who stood at the head of coenobitic communities, what their internal organisation was like, and how the monastic, ecclesiastical and spiritual hierarchies were intertwined. Another area in need of investigation is the relationship between Nubian monks and society, including the roles they played in lay communities and whether they really ‘abandoned’ the world at large. The book seeks to determine whether the Nubian elites perceived monastics as a threat to their dominant position in the social hierarchy, or rather collaborated with monks, taking advantage of the fact that monasteries offered human resources with highly esteemed and useful skills that proved helpful, if not indispensable, in managing non-monastic communities ranging from individual settlements to the state.

The archaeology of Egypt is in world archaeological circles widely regarded as non-theoretical in a negative sense. The consequence of such a state of the discipline are often uncritical uses of concepts and models which were under heavy critique in archaeology since the 1960s. This paper examines the culture-historical reasoning in archaeology of Egypt by analysing the arguments provided for the presence of "Nubian" archers in Avaris (Tell el-Dab c a). Their presence in Tell el-Dab c a is often argued with the presence of Nubian pottery, arrowheads and skeletal remains. This paper analyses the way these finds of different date and contexts, are brought together in a coherent archaeological narrative. It is argued that the finds were identified as Nubian and mutually related because of the cultural-historical reasoning taken as an unquestionable interpretative model, a hidden theory.

11th Conference of Nubian Studies
Warsaw University, Warsaw
27 August - 2 September 2006


Enemy Brothers. Kinship and Relationship Between Meroites and Nubians (Nuba).
Dr. Claude Rilly, CNRS-LLACAN (Paris)

Meroitic and Nubian languages have the same origin, being both derived of Proto-North Eastern Sudanic, which was probably spoken on the banks of the Wadi Howar before its progressive dessication, beginning from the middle of the 3rd millenium BC. In that respect, Meroites and Nubians can be regarded as brothers, at least linguistically, but it is doubtful if they would have considered themselves as such. Their relationship was in no case brotherly, being as far as we know a tale of war and woe.
The first historical mention of the Nubians occurs in Eratosthenes' works (3rd cent. AD), quoted in Strabo (late 1st cent. BC). The Noubai are described as a "great nation", "not subject to the Ethiopians" (i.e. Meroites), living on the West bank of the Nile from the level of Meroe up to the level of the great bend of the river. This description poses the question of the suzerainty of the Meroitic power on the whole of the Middle Nile Valley. The first mention of the Nuba so far known in Meroitic texts occurs in the inscription engraved on the back of a statue of Isis found in Barkal (REM 0075), which can be palaeographically dated to King Taneyidamani's reign (ca. 100 AD). Significantly, the name is followed in the same sentence by the word teneke "West".  Later on, the Nuba are mentioned in passages clearly connected with military campaigns. A very significant testimony of the antagonism between Meroites and Nubians is a plaque from Barkal (REM 1180), palaeographically dated to the late 1st cent. BC, showing a prisoner, tied up with ropes, with the following caption "this is the king of the Nuba". The hairdressing of the king can be found on many other representations of captive enemies in triumphal scenes from Meroitic temples and pyramids. Biographical passages of  several funerary texts from the 3rd century give accounts of Nuba chiefs killed by Meroitic warlords from Lower Nubia.
All these elements are at variance with the old theory (Priese, Hofmann, Bechhaus-Gerst) of an early settlement of Nubians in the Nile Valley. More probably, Nubians originally lived in Darfur/Kordofan. They pushed eastwards when the climatic conditions became too dry for viable cattle-breeding but they were stopped by the kings of Kush. The recently surveyed  fortress in Gala Abu Hamed seems to have been part of the defensive line established by the Napatan and Meroitic armies to keep at bay the Nubian threat. Only with the fall of Meroe (ca. 350 AD) – in which the Nuba seem to have taken a considerable part – was the way to the banks of the Nile open to the Nubian tribes.
The linguistic elements used by Priese and Bechhaus-Gerst as evidence for an early Nubian settlement in the Nile Valley can also be discarded. The only convincing Nubian term in Meroitic toponymy recorded by Priese (arti "island") was probably a Meroitic word borrowed later into Nubian. As for Bechhaus-Gerst's theory of an early presence of Nobiin-speakers (Mahas) in the Nile Valley, prior to the introduction of horses and iron into the region (ca. 1500 BC), it can be shown that none of the arguments she uses is sustainable. The differences that can be found between Nobiin and the other forms of Nubian are due to the retention in Nobiin of a Pre-Nubian substratum in Lower Nubia (Meroitic? C-Group language? or a mixture of both?).
Meroitic was however influential on Nubian : the word for "sun" for instance was clearly borrowed from Meroitic (/masa/) into Nubian (/mašal/), but the loanword is restricted to the Nubian languages of the Valley (Midob /passar/ was later borrowed from Dongolawi). There is no need to suppose that this linguistic influence took place earlier than the Nubian invasion of the Nile Valley. The Meroitic and Nubian languages must have been spoken concurrently in the early Middle Ages, until the former was finally superseded by the latter.

This chapter reviews the recent debates within Egyptology and Kushite studies about the Libyan rulers, ordering of Kushite kings, political geography of late-Libyan-Kushite Egypt, and the implications for Egyptian-Israelite relations.

These are second proofs, with minor differences to the published version.

On the other hand, Jan Assman cannot possibly deceive every one! His interpretation of the pictorial presentation of the evil worshipped by Hyksos as god cannot be left so incomplete. Certainly, the Hyksos worshipped Seth (Zety) and Apophis (Apope), but the depiction of Seth under the combined form of man and hippopotamus has nothing to do with artistic inventions due to a fictional need of "personalizing" Seth. Furthermore, Seth was not a properly speaking "desert god", as Assman implies; Seth was cast in the desert which represented for the Ancient Egyptians the concept of vacuum, the "non existence". But Seth was originally conceived as Satan, and according to the religious – spiritual concepts and fundamentals of the Ancient Egyptian Art, Satan was represented as a hippopotamus (and at times as a crocodile), when the apocalyptic level of mythical semiotics was involved. A perfect example in this case is the Messiah – Satan conflict narrative at Edfu (inner part of the Western Outer Wall) that antedates and clearly supersedes the Christian Book of the Revelation.

The fact that the Hyksos pseudo-pharaoh Apope dispatched a delegation to Thebes to demand the immediate termination of the traditional Egyptian game of harpooning hippopotamuses (which in the Ancient Egyptian culture was a theatrical act, aptly pre-modeling the ultimate victory of Messiah – Horus over Satan – Seth) illuminates his Satanic identity, while shedding also light on the real identity of any modern scholar presenting a pro-Hyksos version of Egyptian History.

All this is necessary to take into consideration, when the History of Ancient Kush / Ethiopia is concerned. Ideological – religious – spiritual identification clarifies much the situation and helps draw the correct conclusions. In fact, the same ideological – spiritual – religious clash that characterized Egypt for millennia can be attested in Ancient Kush / Ethiopia, and this greatly helps in properly assessing historical developments as the outcome of clash between two priesthoods.

As societies are not monolithic phenomena, one should not imagine that the kingdom of Kerma that sided with the Hyksos rulers was entirely under control of a priesthood dedicated to Satan – Seth. Ancient Egypt and Kush / Ethiopia were highly nuanced societies whereby the rival priesthoods coexisted for millennia, perpetuating their fight by means of myth interpretational variants, educational literature, socioeconomic involvement, and grip over the political – military power.
First published in AfroArticles, Buzzle and American Chronicle on 12th March 2010

Recent survey has shown that the hinterland at Gharb Aswan, by the fi rst Nile cataract opposite modern Aswan, has a signifi cant corpus of geometric rock art. It is comparable to corpora at Abka near the second cataract and El-Hosh close to Gebel el-Silsila, but appears to be more varied. Presumably spanning the period from the Epipalaeolithic to the early Predynastic, complex rectilinear forms accompanied by ladders seem to defi ne the earliest horizon, whereas meandering lines, sometimes associated with giraffes would belong to the latest. Located in connection to notable landscape formations, there is a wide variety of simple geometric forms, however composite designs and unique, complex compositions also occur, in some cases together with crocodiles, other animals and human fi gures. Undoubtedly, this rock art is the expression of relatively mobile groups that ranged across Upper Egypt, Lower Nubia and the adjacent deserts in the Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic periods. An important corpus of "classic" Predynastic rock art is found near earlier pictures, which indicate the long-term signifi cance of the locations. It is suggested that diversity in the geometric corpus can be explained in terms of age and the varying contexts in which it may have been made. As judged from several strands of indirect evidence, principal reasons for coming to Gharb Aswan in prehistory are believed to include hunting and stone procurement. There may have been campsites near early rock art and the area could have held signifi cance as a meeting place along converging travel routes. The extraordinary location by the fi rst cataract is also commented upon.

A brief overview and revision of the process of Egyptianisation in relation to the Pan-Grave Culture in Egypt and its "disappearance" from the archaeological record. The paper demonstrates that Egyptianisation played a less significant role than previously thought in the "disappearance" of the Pan Grave Culture. The paper also discusses the connections between Egypt and the Pan Grave population resident in Egypt.

Sorghum bicolor, one of the world's five most important crops, originated in Africa. While this has long been clear, accumulating data from both archaeobotany and genetics, provides the basis for a new overview on the domestication process, racial evolution, and geographical dispersal of sorghum. Archaeobotanical finds from 113 sites in Africa and Eurasia are reviewed and mapped. Of these only 16 provide identifications of probable morphological races. Domestication is evidently taking place more than 3000 years BC in the eastern Sudan near the Atbara and Gash rivers. Early domesticated race bicolor then spread to South Asia around 2000 BC and to the Niger Basin in West Africa after 1000 BC. The framework of five cultivated races remains useful, with the original domesticated race bicolor being characterized by tight-fitting hulls requiring dehusking and the other races representing subsequent parallel evolution for free-threshing and larger-grained cultivars. This took place at least three times, including race 'caudatum' focused initially on the Sahelian region race 'durra' that evolved probably in India, and race 'guinea' that evolved in forested West Africa. Early race guinea in turn produced an even more forest adapted 'mageritiferum' type that appears to be ancestral to southern African guinea and 'kafir' sorghums, implying a dispersal across the central African rainforests. In contrast other eastern African caudatums and 'bicolor' types presumably followed a savannah dispersal. In addition to the early dispersal of race bicolor from Africa to India, which was ancestral to East Asian sorghums, a later dispersal of guinea types is inferred to have taken place from southeastern Africa across the Indian Ocean.

A detailed report on excavations at Hosh el-Geruf, al Widay, and on the island of Umm Gebir in the Fourth Cataract of the Nile made during seasons 2007 and 2008.  A major gold-processing site at Hosh el-Geruf is described, as well as the relatively large Old Kush cemetery at al-Widay also, which was completely excavated.

The following text is a response sent to an email dispatched to me by the Chairman of the exiled Oromo Parliamentarians who struggle for the Independence and Self-determination of the 5 millennia long Kushitic Ethiopian Nation of the Oromos.
The Hamitic - Kushitic Oromo Nation - due to criminal, inhuman and evil persecution conceived by the colonial powers (France, England and America) and executed by the colonially promoted barbaric and incestuous pseudo-Christian Abyssinians - lost their kingdoms and were engulfed within the Cemetery of Nations Fake Ethiopia, which consists in the world's most tyrannical realm and the location of the world's more abhorrent, more enduring, and more multifaceted genocides. There are more than 45 million Oromos in Abyssinia (Fake Ethiopia) and Kenya today, despite the notorious and pathetic falsehood propagated by Wikipedia.
The present text enumerates all the major points of historical distortion and falsification carried out and diffused by the colonial academia, mass media, and diplomats, as well as by their local agents and criminal executioners, i.e. the barbaric, incestuous and Anti-Christian tribes of Amhara and Tigray (: the Abyssinians), who usurped the fair name of Ethiopia, which historically denotes the land of North Sudan and the Kushitic Nation that prospered there either in the Antiquity or in the Christian Era. Both, the Oromos and the Arabic-speaking (but not Arab) populations of Northern-Central Sudan are the descendants of Ancient Sudan's (i.e. Ancient Ethiopia's) Kushitic populations.
Representative photographic documentation was herewith added to the text in order to better illustrate the topic.

Refutation of historical forgeries propagated by European colonials and incestuous Abyssinians
First published here:
https://megalommatiscomments.wordpress.com/2017/07/26/kushitic-oromos-ancestry-in-ethiopia-ancient-sudan-semitic-amharas-tigrays-abyssinians-ancestry-in-yemen/

The first royal burials in the Southern Cemetery at Meroe document a local family's rise to power culminating in Arkamani I's ascension to the Napatan throne.  Late Napatan pyramids built on the cemetery's eastern hilltop belong to Arkamani I's immediate ancestors while the first burials on the opposite northern hilltop belong to his immediate successors. Inscribed objects, decorated chapels and inscriptions from the last Southern Cemetery burials, particularly BEG S 10, offer insights into Arkamani's origins and the circumstances behind his ascendancy to national rule.

The game related objects found in Kush illustrate both Egyptian and Greco-Roman influences. A group of graffiti boards and rows of holes that point at mancala games both present a later influence that may have an Arab or African origin, respectively. Together they illustrate a continuous outside influence on playing practices in Kush but little evidence for locally developed games.
The difficulty of dating graffiti boards and the absence of wooden boards in excavations so far prevent conclusions on the presence of African or Nubian games in the Kingdom of Kush. Yet, the complex dispersal of games at the borders of Africa, the Mediterranean and the Near East and the unknown distribution of, particularly mancala, games in ancient times make Kush an important crossroad for future research in board games.

The nephew and successor of Shabaka was even less prudent than his uncle. Following a period of several years of co-regency, Shabataka (as known to the Assyrians) rose to the throne of Thebes and Napata in 706 BCE and ruled until 690 BCE. Probably in order to stabilize the huge but newly merged countries of Kush / Ethiopia (North Sudan) and Kemet (Egypt), he tried to appease Sharrukin (Sargon), Emperor of Assyria.

But assuredly, Shebitqu failed to accurately evaluate the formidable military might of Assyria that controlled the entire Asiatic part of the Middle East from today´s Turkey´s western confines to the central Iranian plateau, and from Caucasus to Yathribu (today´s Madina in Arabia) and the Persian Gulf. In Shebitqu´s days, the ancient state of Israel (of the ten Hebrew tribes) had disappeared and its entire population (all the Israelites) had been taken to exile in Assyria´s northeastern confines; only the tiny southern Hebrew state of Judah (of the two tribes) had managed to survive around Jerusalem. Damascus and many other Aramaean states had also disappeared, being annexed by Assyria, similarly with the Neo-Hittite states, Urartu, Babylonia, and many minor states in the area of the Zagros mountains and the Iranian plateau.

To avoid an imminent Assyrian attack, Shebitqu extradited Iamanni of Asfdod, the Palestinian king, to Sharrukin of Assyria (722 – 705).
First published on 25th March 2010 in AfroArticles, Buzzle, and American Chronicle
Republished in the portal of the Oromo Parliamentarians:
https://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/Facts%20about%20Oromo/Kushatic%20-Oromo%20%20Palestinians.htm

italiano L'esplorazione archeologica del territorio dell'antica Nubia, compreso fra gli attuali Egitto e Sudan, ha permesso di evidenziarne la complessità della speculazione teologica e dell'approccio cultuale sotto il regno napateo-meroitico (270 a.C. -IV secolo d.C.), grazie al fecondo connubio fra il retaggio locale e la profonda influenza della tradizione egiziana. Fonti architettoniche, artistiche, epigrafiche e letterarie ci informano circa la ricca ispirazione della locale religione ufficiale, che trovava suo complemento nelle manifestazioni di devozione popolare, di minore impatto e più ardua identificazione, ma di eccezionale importanza nella ricostruzione della società del tempo.

The thesis concerns war on the southern frontier of the emerging state of ancient Egypt, and I have studied the native A-Group people in Lower Nubia during the 4 th millennium BCE through a warfare perspective. The aim was to uncover different causes for war, changing patterns of warfare and social effects of violence.

Son of Piye and Abale, younger brother of Shebitqu, Taharqa (690 – 664) reigned in Kemet (Egypt) and Kush (Ethiopia) at the times of the Assyrian zenith. There could not be worse time for a polytheist pharaoh to merge Kush / Ethiopia and Egypt under his scepter. The monotheistic emperors of Assyria Sharrukin (722 – 705 BCE; Sharru Kinu: ´Stable King´ in Assyrian; also known as Sargon, through his mention in Ancient Greek historiography) and Sennacherib (705 – 681 BCE; Sin Ahe Eriba: ´Sin has elevated the brother´ in Assyrian) reassessed the Assyrian monotheistic imperial ideology, as heirs of the Sumerian – Akkadian universalist ideal, and reigned as "Emperors of the Universe". This signified unprecedented military expansionism, exportation of Assyrian administration to all the faraway places of the immense empire, and elimination of all polytheistic priesthoods and associate administrations from the invaded territories. From Caucasus to the central parts of Arabia, and from the Iranian plateau to Cyprus and the westernmost confines of today´s Turkey, an area of ca. 3.3 million km2 was ruled by one emperor – for the first time in the History of the Mankind.
First published on 27th March 2010 in AfroArticles, Buzzle and American Chronicle
Republished in the portal of the Oromo Parliamentarians:
https://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/Facts%20about%20Oromo/Kush%20-Oromo%20Part%20VIII.htm

This book illustrates the state-of-the-art in settlement archaeology in Northeast Africa. As reflected in the title “From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Individual households and cities in Ancient Egypt and Nubia”, both a micro- approach introducing microhistories of individual sites according to recent archaeological fieldwork incorporating interdisciplinary methods as well as general patterns and regional developments in Northeast Africa are discussed.
This combination of research questions on the micro-level with the macro-level provides new information about cities and households in Ancient Egypt and Nubia and makes the book unique. Architectural studies as well as analyses of material culture and the new application of microarchaeology, here especially of micromorphology and archaeometric applications, are presented as case studies from sites primarily dating to the New Kingdom (Second Millennium BC). The rich potential of well-preserved but still not completely explored sites in modern Sudan, especially as direct comparison for already excavated sites located in Egypt, is in particular emphasised in the book.
Settlement archaeology in Egypt and Nubia has recently moved away from a strong textual approach and generalised studies to a more site-specific approach and household studies. This new bottom-up approach applied by current fieldwork projects is demonstrated in the book. The volume is intended for all specialists at settlements sites in Northeast Africa, for students of Egyptology and Nubian Studies, but it will be of interest to anyone working in the field of settlement archaeology. It is the result of a conference on the same subject held in 2017 as the closing event of the European Research Council funded project AcrossBorders at Munich.

The thesis discusses the concept of "Egyptianisation" and its application to the Pan Grave culture in Egypt. It is argued that the so-calle process of Egyptianisation had little impact on the Pan Grave culture and that they maintained a strong Nubian identity until their apparent disappearance from the archaeological record.

Through the concept of entanglement, archaeological indications of cultural identity and skeletal evidence of biological and geographic interaction are used to explore the development of the Nubian polity who ruled as the 25th Dynasty of Egypt (Napatan period, ca. 750–656 B.C.E.). In this article, we examine the ways in which cultural and biological linkages affect the political, social, and cultural trajectories of the political entities in the ancient Nile Valley. Early studies of political developments in this region have often focused on Egypt, ignoring the aspects of power formation that may have developed independently and the long tradition of established local institutions in Nubia. The present research uses evidence from the site of Tombos, located in Upper Nubia, to investigate the processes of identity formation and population composition during the Egyptian colonial occupation and the subsequent rise of the Nubian Napatan polity. We address the impact of Egyptian and Nubian immigrants on the political developments, finding strongest support for the influence of Nubian-Egyptian communities established in colonial times on the character of the Napatan polity. [

Nubian Levallois cores, now known from sites in eastern Africa, the Nile Valley and Arabia, have been used as a material culture marker for Upper Pleistocene dispersals of hominins out of Africa. The Levantine corridor, being the only land route connecting Africa to Eurasia, has been viewed as a possible dispersal route. We report here on lithic assemblages from the Negev highlands of Israel that contain both Levallois centripetal and Nubian-type cores. Wetter conditions over the Sahara and Negev deserts during MIS 6ae5e provided a generally continuous environmental corridor into the Levant that enabled the dispersal of hominin groups bearing the Nubian variant of prepared core technologies. The Negev assemblages draw renewed attention to the place of the Levant as one of the dispersal routes out of Africa during the Late Pleistocene and could suggest that processes of human dispersals and cultural diffusion resulted in the spread of Nubian technology across eastern Africa, the western Sahara and the Nile Valley, the southern Levant and Arabia.

Nubia and Abyssinia: Comprehending their Civil History, Antiquities, Arts, Religion, Literature, and Natural History. Reverend Michael Russell, LL.D. [1833] with a New Introduction by Ambakisye Dukuzumurenyi, Ph.D.. Accra, Ghana: University of New Timbuktu Seba Press, 2019. Pp. iv, 331. [PDF]





Originally published in 1833 for a select group of European clerics and scholars, this work written according to the Ancient Model of Historical writing expressed in copious detail the true nature and extent of the Afrikan Origin of Civilization.  From the author:



“There is no country in the world more interesting to the antiquary and scholar than that which was known to the ancients as "Ethiopia above Egypt," the Nubia and Abyssinia of the present day. It was universally regarded by the poets and philosophers of Greece as the cradle of those arts which at a later period covered the kingdom of the Pharaohs with so many wonderful monuments, as also of those religious rites which, after being slightly modified by the priests of Thebes, were adopted by the ancestors of Homer and Virgil as the basis of their mythology. A description of this remarkable nation, therefore, became a necessary supplement to the "View of Ancient and Modern Egypt," which has been some time before the public. In tracing the connexion of the primitive people who dwelt on the Upper Nile, with the inhabitants of Arabia and of the remoter east, I have availed myself of the latest information that could be derived from Continental authors, as well as from the volumes of such of our own travellers as have ascended above the Second Cataract. The work of Heeren on the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians, possesses considerable value, not less on account of the ingenious views which it unfolds, than for the happy application of ancient literature to the illustration and embellishment of the main hypothesis. The reader will be surprised at the extent and magnificence of the architectural remains of Nubia, which, in some instances, have been found to rival, and, in others, even to surpass the more celebrated buildings of Egypt. It will no longer be denied by anyone who has seen the splendid work of Gau, that the pattern or type of those stupendous erections, which continue to excite the admiration of the tourist at Karnac, Luxor, and Ghizeh, may be detected in the numerous monuments still visible between the site of the famed Meroe and the falls of Es Souan. The more learned among professional artists are now nearly unanimous in the opinion that the principles of architecture, as well as of religious belief, have descended from Ethiopia to Egypt; receiving improvement in their progress downward, till at length their triumph was completed at Diospolis, in the palace of Osymandias and the temple of Jupiter Amnion.”



This now forgotten work is here being reissued and made available by the University of New Timbuktu Seba Press for a Global Afrikan reading audience.

Following the death of Ramesses XI, Egypt entered into a chaotic situation of multi-division that lasted more than 300 years. The high priests of Amun of Thebes had risen to power during the century-long period of the successors of Ramesses III, and their polytheistic ideology could not be accepted by other priesthoods in Egypt.

The secession of the North (Lower Egypt) created the phenomenon of several parallel dynasties; the reason for this is that the pharaohs of Lower Egypt, although backed by the priesthoods of Heliopolis and Hermupolis and strengthened by the interfering Libyan princes, were still very weak to drive the Theban priests out. On the other hand, the latter, known in Ancient Egyptian as Whem Mesut (lit. repetition of births; e.g. Renaissance), although drawing from the wealth of Kush / Ethiopia and machinating against the North, were not strong enough to recapture the whole of Egypt.

The high priests of Thebes were not considered as a proper dynasty, despite of the existing kin relationship among them, and despite the fact that all of them resumed the pharaonic position, and had their names inscribed in cartouches according to the royal customs of Egypt.

Through Horihor´s grandson, Psunennes I, there was kin relationship also between the high priests of Thebes and some of the Lower Egyptian pharaohs. Even this was not able to make the "Two Lands" (Tawy in Ancient Egyptian, a second name for Egypt) reunite, due to the risen priestly control (either monotheistic Heliopolitan and Hermupolitan in Lower Egypt or polytheistic Theban in Upper Egypt and Kush / Ethiopia).
First published in AfroArticles, Buzzle and American Chronicle on 20th March 2010
Republished in the portal of the Oromo Parliamentarians:
https://www.oromoparliamentarians.org/English/Facts%20about%20Oromo/Oromo%20Kushatic%20Nations%20Napta%20-%20Egypt.htm