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Nubia Desert region and ancient kingdom in the Nile Valley that corresponds to present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Some ancient Egyptian names for Nubia are Yam, Irem, Ta-Sety, Wawat, and Kush. The Egyptians had contact with Nubia as early as the Predynastic Period (circa 4400?3100 B.C.); it was the source of many luxury goods and other economic commodities. The name Kush was used for some or all of Nubia during the New Kingdom and applied to all of Nubia during the first millennium B.C. The name Nubia first occured in the Roman Period.
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Its funny how this country has carried so many names-Ethiopia by the Greeks, Ta-seti by the Egyptians and Nubia by the Romans. I always thought that Kush was just the land around the third cataract, while Nubia was around the 1st cataract. I do realze that all the names have been used interchageanbly though.
Yam, Irem, and Wawat are all new for me, do you know if there was some meaning behind those names.
Posts: 747 | From: Atlanta, GA USA | Registered: May 2004
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quote:Originally posted by homeylu: Its funny how this country has carried so many names-Ethiopia by the Greeks, Ta-seti by the Egyptians and Nubia by the Romans. I always thought that Kush was just the land around the third cataract, while Nubia was around the 1st cataract. I do realze that all the names have been used interchageanbly though.
Yam, Irem, and Wawat are all new for me, do you know if there was some meaning behind those names.
Just forget about the Greeks this, the Romans that. All of these terms, as I have pointed out before are African words. The word for 'gold' is nub; noub in Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, as well as the Nubian language itself. There are the Noba and Nuba peoples of the Sudan as well. Greece and Rome hardly invented anything new, let alone the names of these ancient states and provinces...And you should access yourself to a copy of Budge's hieroglyphic dictionary: for example Wawat = a province of northern Nubia, a part of the Ancient Egyptian state. Also, p146b we have Wawat: foilage, hair, flame, radiance and Wawaiu - a tribe or people.
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I know that nub was the name of gold in ancient Kemet but the term never refered to lands south of Kmt. The terms used were Ta-Seti,Wawat,Medijay,Iret,Yam,Setjau. The current Nuba people in Sudan are different than the people mentioned. They aquired this name from Arabs. A land called Nubia never existed in AE texts.
I can't find the Budge dictionary anywhere. All I can find is Volume 2 without Volume 1.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
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quote:Originally posted by homeylu: Yam, Irem, and Wawat are all new for me, do you know if there was some meaning behind those names.
The ancient Egyptians seemed to distinguish between "good" and "bad" Nubians. Their allies were mainly the Yamites and the Medja(today called the Beja). The Yamite Nubians disappeared around the Middle Kingdom. The Egyptians had a lot of positive references to them. The Kushites were said to originally be enemies of the Egyptians but they later mixed with Egyptian rulers and went on to rule Egypt's 25th dynasty...
quote:Originally posted by ausar: I know that nub was the name of gold in ancient Kemet but the term never refered to lands south of Kmt. The terms used were Ta-Seti,Wawat,Medijay,Iret,Yam,Setjau. The current Nuba people in Sudan are different than the people mentioned. They aquired this name from Arabs. A land called Nubia never existed in AE texts.
I can't find the Budge dictionary anywhere. All I can find is Volume 2 without Volume 1.
I think what Wally meant was that these words were derived from AE words and used by foreigners to describe parts of Egypt and Sudan. It is not like they (Europeans or Arabs) came up with their own innovative words to describe these places. It's amazing that Africans for the most part, used to have their own words to describe themselves and their lands. Now, after foreign conquests, in some places, they've allowed themselves to be described by Greco-Roman, Latin or Arabic names. I mean what's up with names like "Alexandria" or "Egypt", names given by Greeks and others, which I can understand during the grip of Alexander the Great was used. Since such names like that weren't obviously used by indigenous people prior to conquest, I feel that after foreign rule, people should re-name such places to symbolize their own identity!
[This message has been edited by supercar (edited 30 June 2004).]
quote:Originally posted by supercar: I think what Wally meant was that these words were derived from AE words and used by foreigners to describe parts of Egypt and Sudan. It is not like they (Europeans or Arabs) came up with their own innovative words to describe these places. It's amazing that Africans for the most part, used to have their own words to describe themselves and their lands. Now, after foreign conquests, in some places, they've allowed themselves to be described by Greco-Roman, Latin or Arabic names. I mean what's up with names like "Alexandria" or "Egypt", names given by Greeks and others, which I can understand during the grip of Alexander the Great was used. Since such names like that weren't obviously used by indigenous people prior to conquest, I feel that after foreign rule, people should re-name such places to symbolize their own identity!
[This message has been edited by supercar (edited 30 June 2004).]
You're exactly right supercar. I know that the Kemetians referred to Nubia with the phrases that Ausar mentioned, as well as Kush and Ekush, but my argument was that the Romans derived this name from the Kemetian word for gold and which they (Romans) applied to the gold bearing country of southern Kemet and northern Sudan. I know that the Nuba or Noba are ethnically distinct from modern Nubians. Like I said, the Romans and Greeks hardly invented anything, they were the students.
[This message has been edited by Wally (edited 30 June 2004).]
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