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ANCIENT Egyptians “airbrushed” out of history one of their most humiliating defeats in battle, academics believe. In what the British Museum described as the discovery of a lifetime, a 3,500-year-old inscription shows that the Sudanese kingdom of Kush came close to destroying its northern neighbour.

The revelation is contained in 22 lines of sophisticated hieroglyphics deciphered by Egyptologists from the British Museum and Egypt after their discovery in February in a richly decorated tomb at El Kab, near Thebes, in Upper Egypt.

Vivian Davies, Keeper of the museum’s Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, said: “In many ways this is the discovery of a lifetime, one that changes the textbooks. We’re absolutely staggered by it.”

The inscription details previously unknown important battles unprecedented “since the time of the god” — the beginning of time. Experts now believe that the humiliation of defeat was one that the Ancient Egyptians preferred to omit from their historical accounts.

Contemporary Egyptian descriptions had led historians to assume that the kingdom of Kush was a weak and barbaric neighbouring state for hundreds of years, although it boasted a complex society with vast resources of gold dominating the principal trade routes into the heart of Africa. It did eventually conquer Egypt, in the 8th century BC.

Mr Davies, who headed the joint British Museum and Egyptian archaeological team, said: “Now it is clear that Kush was a superpower which had the capacity to invade Egypt. It was a huge invasion, one that stirred up the entire region, a momentous event that is previously undocumented.

“They swept over the mountains, over the Nile, without limit. This is the first time we’ve got evidence. Far from Egypt being the supreme power of the Nile Valley, clearly Kush was at that time.

“Had they stayed to occupy Egypt, the Kushites might have eliminated it. That’s how close Egypt came to extinction. But the Egyptians were resilient enough to survive, and shortly afterwards inaugurated the great imperial age known as the New Kingdom.

The Kushites weren’t interested in occupation. They went raiding for precious objects, a symbol of domination. They did a lot of damage.”

The inscription was found between two internal chambers in a rock-cut tomb that was covered in soot and dirt. It appeared gradually as the grime was removed. The tomb belonged to Sobeknakht, a Governor of El Kab, an important provincial capital during the latter part of the 17th Dynasty (about 1575-1550BC).

The text takes the form of an address to the living by Sobeknakht: “Listen you, who are alive upon earth . . . Kush came . . . aroused along his length, he having stirred up the tribes of Wawat . . . the land of Punt and the Medjaw. . .” It describes the decisive role played by “the might of the great one, Nekhbet”, the vulture-goddess of El Kab, as “strong of heart against the Nubians, who were burnt through fire”, while the “chief of the nomads fell through the blast of her flame”.

The discovery explains why Egyptian treasures, including statues, stelae and an elegant alabaster vessel found in the royal tomb at Kerma, were buried in Kushite tombs: they were war trophies.

Kush was a vast territory spanning modern-day northern Sudan. Ruled by kings who were buried with large quantities of luxury goods, including jewellery and inlaid furniture, it had complex political and religious institutions.

The economy was based on trading in ivory, ebony and incense, as well as slaves. Its skilled craftsmen left behind some of the finest ceramics produced in the ancient world.

The independent kingdom of Kush arose during the 8th century BC. The native kings laid claim to the Egyptian throne, declaring themselves the true heirs of Thutmose III and other great pharaonic ancestors. Under the leadership of King Piye (c747-716BC), they conquered Egypt, ruling as its 25th Dynasty.

The reign of King Taharqo (690-664BC) was a high point of the Kushite empire. He erected imposing temples, shrines and statues throughout the Nile Valley. His pyramid, the largest of the Kushite examples, soared to more than 48m.

Over 4,000 years interaction between the empires was inevitable. While they had different funerary practices at the time of the El Kab inscription — the Egyptians had tombs and pyramids while the Kushites preferred tumuli (grave mounds) — the Kushites went on to build pyramids and mummify their dead.

In return, the Egyptians were particularly influenced by Kushite jewellery design. —Times Online

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or a thousand years, the lands south of the first cataract on the Nile River had been the source of gold for the Egyptian pharaohs. About 1520 BCE, the Egyptians took control of these southern lands, called Nubia or Kush. As Egypt’s control over the area weakened, the Kingdom of Kush was established about 1070 BCE. Then, under the leadership of Piye (also called Piankhy), Kush moved north in 747 BCE and conquered Egypt.

The ancient Egyptians referred to the lands to the south—in what is today in Sudan—as Kush. In referring to the Kushites, the Egyptians often said “vile Kush” because they were in a foreign country. For the Kushites, their relationship with Egypt was often a love-hate affair. They hated being under Egypt’s thumb, yet at the same time they adopted many Egyptian cultural concepts. For example, when the Egyptians went south, they would build temples to Amun. Eventually, the Kushites (Nubians) were also worshipping at these temples.

Piye ruled Kush from Napata, just above the fourth cataract on the Nile, and from here he moved north with his skilled bowmen and fought against an Egyptian confederacy which included Tanis (ruled by Osorkon IV), Leontopolis (ruled by Iuput), Sais (ruled by Teftnakht), and Hermopolois (ruled by Nimlot).

Piye viewed his campaign as a holy war and he ordered his soldiers to ritually cleanse themselves before going into battle. Piye also offered sacrifices to the great god Amun before battle.

On his journey north along the Nile to reach the Delta region, Piye stopped at Thebes, the religious center of Egypt. Here, he took part in the Opet Festival, the most sacred of Egyptian festivals. During this festival, the gods Amun, Mut, and Khonsu are taken from the Karnak Temple to the Luxor Temple. Piye celebrated as though he was Egyptian.

Following his victory, Piye returned south where he erected a victory stela at Gebel Barkal. On this stela, it is recorded that Piye had the king of Egypt—called Nimlot on the stela and one of the kings who was claiming to be Egypt’s king—brought to him. In front of Amun of Napata he had Nimlot bow down to him. In other words, the stela shows Egypt bowing down to Piye.

Piye ruled Egypt as a pharaoh and adopted two Egyptian throne names: Usimare and Sneferre. The dynasty which he established became Egypt’s 25th dynasty. During his reign he revitalized the Great Temple of Amun at Gebel Barkal. At the Great Temple there is a carved relief scene which depicts Piye celebrating a Heb Sed Festival.

In order to consolidate his rule over Egypt, Piye placed some of his family members in key ruling positions. His sister Amenirdis was made the high priestess of Amun at Karnak. She was given the title Divine Adoratrice of Amun. Piye also let the individual kings retain some of the power so that they rule for him. In this way he was able to rule Egypt from Napata in Sudan.

Piye was buried in a pyramid near Gebel Barkal in what is now Northern Sudan. He was the first pharaoh in more than 500 years to be buried in a pyramid. The Nubian pyramids are smaller than the Egyptian pyramids—not more than 100 feet high—and they are much steeper. While Piye was buried in a pyramid, an Egyptian tradition, his burial chamber reflects Nubian burial traditions in that he was buried on a bed.

In 721 BCE, Shabaka became pharaoh. The Nubian tradition for rulers was that the king was to be succeeded by his brother, if he had a brother. Shabaka, as Piye’s brother, thus followed Nubian tradition in becoming pharaoh. However, he followed Egyptian tradition by taking the throne name of Shabak Neferkare (Beautiful is the Soul of Re). Shabaka consolidated the Kushite control over Egypt. At the sacred Egyptian site of Karnak, he had erected a pink granite statue of himself wearing the double crown showing the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Shabaka and his family, in spite of being newcomers to Egypt, were very interested in Egypt’s past. He had temples erected throughout Egypt. In 707 or 706 BCE, Shabaka died and was buried in a pyramid at el-Kurru.

Shabaqa

Piye’s son, Shebitku, became pharaoh in 707 BCE and took the throne name Djedkare, which means “Enduring the Soul of Re.” Following the pattern of the other pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty, he put family members in strategic governmental and religious places. His daughter, Shepenwepet II, was appointed as the Divine Adoratrice of Amun.

During the reign of Shebitku, Egypt was threatened by the Assyrians under Sennecherib who was expanding his empire. Shebitku led the Egyptians in resisting the expansion of the Assyrian Empire into Canaan.

Piye’s son, Taharqa, became pharaoh in 690 BCE. Taharqa knew that his army would have to face the Assyrians who were continuing to expand their empire. According to Herodotus, Taharqa went to the Temple of Amun to ask: “What should I do?” In ancient Egypt it was common to sleep in a temple with the hope of getting a dream that would provide the answer to important questions. So Taharqa slept in the temple and Amun came to him in a dream and told him: “Don’t be afraid. You’re going to be victorious.”

Inspired by his vision, Taharqa marched his army north to Judea. According to the tradition, as related by Herodotus, the night before the battle thousands of field mice ate the bow strings and leather parts of the Assyrian weapons. The following day, having no weapons, the great Assyrian army fled from the Egyptians.

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Source:
Daily Kos: Ancient Egypt: Nubian Kush Conquers Egypt



Not only that...The people of Ancient Egypt actually respected the people south of them. Excluding the myths...The Nubian and Egyptians actually married each other. Again the relations between Nubia and Ancient Egypt was a love/hate relation. They sometimes warred, but sometimes traded. And in one documentary, I heard that the Nubian look was favored among Ancient Egyptian female princesses.

So again the Ancient Egyptians did not see the Nubians/Kushites as inferior, but as a respected rival.

But just how good was the Ancient Nubian military might??? Well I'll say they were among the best in the Ancient world and respected by many other different empires/kingdoms. I would say Ancient Nubia actually OUTLASTED repeat....OUTLASTED Ancient Egypt. While Egypt got conquered by the Hysko's, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs. Nubia actually resisted some on the list(mainly Romans+Arabs), and their civilization continued on. So how superior was Ancient Egypt to Nubia/Kush???

Nubia actually resisted the Romans, though some people say they did not defeat the Romans. They still resisted being conquered.

Under Queen Amanirenas


Kush was also in a war with Rome.


A number of Meroitic queens called Ka'andakes (Candaces) ruled Nubia-Kush just before the birth of Christ. Candace Amanirenas and her son Prince Akinidad along with the Meroitic Army kept the Romans out of Nubia-Kush. In this scene, they are witnessing the burning of the Roman Garrison in Aswan. Meroitic-Kush never became part of the Roman empire. The formidable leader greatly impressed classical writers, who mistook the royal title of Candace for a personal name. - Reference and photo from Splendors of the Past: Lost Cities of the Ancient World, National Geographic Society, 1981, page 171-173

So it can be said that Nubia/Kush was a military might, able to hold their own against the Romans, who were no joke at all.

And lets not forget the Kingdom of Kush assisting and rescuing Jerusalem.


^^^Even mentioned in the bible.

They also resisted the Persians too.

So can it be said that Nubia was actually a military might in the Ancient world? A military that was respected by many?

Additional info would be appreciated. What weapons did they use(please include pics ), what were their tactics/strategies and were they a military might?

I sometimes like to call Nubia the Vietnam of Africa. Or its Vietnam that's the Nubia of Asia.

This thread is dedicated to the Nubian military/army and all her feats throughout history. Please contribute.

Posts: 1135 | From: Top secret | Registered: Jun 2012  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Son of Ra:
But just how good was the Ancient Nubian military might??? Well I'll say they were among the best in the Ancient world and respected by many other different empires/kingdoms. I would say Ancient Nubia actually OUTLASTED repeat....OUTLASTED Ancient Egypt. While Egypt got conquered by the Hysko's, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Arabs. Nubia actually resisted some on the list(mainly Romans+Arabs), and their civilization continued on.

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And in one documentary, I heard that the Nubian look was favored among Ancient Egyptian female princesses.

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@Everyone

Remember Nubia lasted far longer than Ancient Egypt. There's a real reason why parts of the Nubian language/culture is still here why Ancient Egypt language/culture is extinct.

@Truthcentric
I like to think of Meroitic Nubia as the last bastion of Nile Valley civilization, maintaining the Pharaonic traditions that were practically extinguished in Egypt. Instead of the popular "Black Pharaohs" label, you could call them the Last Pharaohs.
I so agree with this...The Nubians should be given there credit. The 25th dynasty was basically the revival of Anient Egypt...That's how I see it.

Come to think of it, since Sudanese developments played such a critical role in the evolution of Egyptian as well as Nubian cultures in prehistoric times, you could call the Nubians the First Pharaohs as well.

Science agrees with you.

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Conclusion
To sum up, Nubia is Egypt’s African ancestor. What linked Ancient Egypt to the rest of the North African cultures is this strong tie with the Nubian pastoral nomadic lifestyle, the same pastoral background commonly shared by most of the ancient Saharan and modern sub-Saharan societies. Thus, not only did Nubia have a prominent role in the origin of Ancient Egypt, it was also a key area for the origin of the entire African pastoral tradition.

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This is one of the most spectacular sites in the Sudan: an enormous complex of well-preserved sacred architecture linked by huge well-built walls and surrounded by a labyrithine series of walled enclosures. This structure, known as "the Great Enclosure," has always mystified scholars as to its function. Today it lies out in the "middle of nowhere" in an area that can hardly support life. It seems to have been built about the third century B.C. and continued in use for centuries. Because of the huge enclosures, people have speculated that it was used by the kings of Meroe as a training center for war elephants (because some of the walls end in large elephant statues)

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Nubians also utilized chariots, horses, and elephants--ancient tanks on the battlefield. Coins from ancient Rome commemorated the Nubian elephant units by depicting an elephant on one side and the head of a black man on the other.

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The history of Nubia is complicated. It is important that you recognize that the Nubians or Noba, were enemies of the Kushites. Here is a Meroitic inscription relating to the Nubians
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The Noba were never part of the Meroitic Empire.

For example you quote the following:

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.” It describes the decisive role played by “the might of the great one, Nekhbet”, the vulture-goddess of El Kab, as “strong of heart against the Nubians, who were burnt through fire”, while the “chief of the nomads fell through the blast of her flame”.

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Nubia actually resisted the Romans, though some people say they did not defeat the Romans. They still resisted being conquered.

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Using Meroitic sources I discuss the Meroitic-Roman conflict.


The Kushite Prince Akinidad: And the Roman-Kushite War




In this book we review the life and history of Prince Akinidad. It uses Meroitic textual material to explain the position of Akinidad in Meroitic politics and interaction between the Meroitic State and the Roman rulers of Egypt. The textual material makes it clear that Akinidad never became King because he was killed by the Romans in battle.


CreateSpace eStore: https://www.createspace.com/4237036

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Candace Amanirenas




Candace Amanirenas

From the Notes of Clyde A. Winters, Ph.D. (web site)

Meroitic-Kush never became part of the Roman empire – although the Romans tried to make it part. In 24 B.C., the Romans were planning a campaign against both Meroitic-Kush (Meroë) and Arabia.


Augustus (31 BC-14 AD), when he defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra, got control of Egypt. He made it a Roman province, governed by an equestrian prefect under his own control. Kush – just to Egypt’s south – was outside the empire.


In 24 B.C. Roman forces were sent to fight in Arabia. According to Pliny and Strabo the Meroite-Kushites sacked Aswan and destroyed the Roman statues at Philae (Török, 1998; Welsby, 1996).


In response to the Kushite expedition, Gaius Petronius with a force of 10,000 infantry and 800 horses pushed the Kushites back to Pselchis. Strabo (17.1.53) mentions the fact that the Meroites were led by a Candace and her son Akinidad.


The Romans and Kushites, according to Strabo began peace negotiations at Dakka in 24 B.C.. The negotiations failed, and the Romans pushed their forces deeper into Meroitic-Kushite territory as far as Sara. They also established forts at Qasr Ibrim (Török, 1998; Welsby, 1996).


Akinidad was probably killed in 24 B.C. Strabo (17.1.54) mentions that the Candace's son was killed during this campaign. This son of the Candance was probably Akinidad.


We know that Akinidad was in Dakka on two occasions, once with Teriteqas, and later only with Amanirenas. In Dakka 2, we discover that Akinidad died at Dakka. This is most interesting because, the Romans pushed the Meroites back to Dakka in 24 B.C.


If Akinidad had been wounded outside Dakka, Amanirenas may have stopped in the town to obtain medical treatment for her son. After Akinidad died in the town, Amanirenas may have withdrawn from peace talks and continued the War.


If these events occurned , Amanirenas probably had the Qasr Ibrim 1420 stela erected in Qasr Ibrim, to honor Akinidad who had served as the Chief of the city during the Meroitic-Roman War. The Qasr Ibrim 1420 stela was probably defaced and broken during the Roman occupation of Qasr Ibrim to show their contempt for the Meroites.


The Meroites resisted Roman occupation. By 22 B.C., the Meroites retook Qasr Ibrim from the Romans. In 21 B.C., a peace treaty was concluded between Augustus, and Meroite envoys on the Island of Samos.


The textual evidence makes it clear that Akinidad remained a paqar (prince) until his death at Dakka in 24 B.C.


The evidence of the Dakka 2 inscription and Hamadab 2 indicate that Akinidad probably died during Amanirenas rule of Merotic-Kush. After Teriteqas was killed during the Meroitic-Roman War, Akinidad may have become recognized as King, but without official

succession, and his untimely death at Dakka, he remained until his death officially Crown Prince. This would explain our inability to find any evidence of Akinidad being recognized as anything more than a paqar, rather than a qore (king).


Two large stela bearing the name Akinidad from the Hamdab temple, is the funerary stela of Kharapkhael, the older brother of Akinidad. In this stela Akinidad described as a paqar (prince). This suggest that Kharapkhael was the original crown prince, not Akinidad of King Teriteqas and Queen Amanirenas.


It has usually been considered that Amanirenas was Greek geographer Strabo's "Candace".


During battle, the Candace lost an eye; but this only made her more courageous. "One Eyed Candace," as then Roman governor Gaius Petronius referred to her.


The Meroitic-Kush kingdom would last as long as the western Roman empire did – until the fifth century, when a new kingdom

http://mynubian.blogspot.com/2006/01/candace-amanirenas.html

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C. A. Winters

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At some point during the 4th century, the region was conquered by the Noba people, from which the name Nubia may derive (another possibility is that it comes from Nub, the Egyptian word for gold). From then on, the Romans referred to the area as the Nobatae.

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Although the Noba and the Kushites were separate language and culture groups, they had probably co-existed in the region for centuries, and physically they were indistinguishable. When the power of Meroe declined, the two groups surely intermingled, if they had not done so earlier; the Noba may have assumed dominance, but they retained close ties to their Meroitic roots. One way of being certain of this is from the fact that many Nubians, even now, still wear the same facial scars that can be seen on the images of the Kushite rulers on their monuments at Meroe and other sites. These marks are handed down through families from one generation to the next and identify one's tribal affiliation. Obviously they have passed down to the present from remote antiquity, transcending dynastic, tribal, cultural, religious, and linguistic change.

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Posts: 2560 | From: Somewhere | Registered: May 2012  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by the lioness,:
somebody once mentioned on Egyptsearch that te Nubians converted to Christianity in order to avoid being invaded by the Byzantine Romans. This could be said of of some East Africam societies who converted to Islam in order to avoid slavery.

In the case of Nubia who could be sure of the exact motives it could have been a combination.

When we look at spread of religion by sword, the sword doesn't always come down on the people. Sometimes it just needs to be displayed.
If you see a large army come into your territory an armyt that has more people and more weapons sometimes people decide let's cooperate instead of fight a war we won't win.
Then the foreign occupier claims the people decided convert on their own we didn't kill any of them.
At the same time it's complex because some people may have converted becuase they liked the new religion not just because of a threat factor.

Also in Africa a lot of syncretism went on.

___________________


Failed Islamic States in Senegambia

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Originally posted by Son of Ra:
The Nubians converted to Christianity through the Axumite empire. The Axumite empire was the fist Christian STATE.

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“Propicius, in the history of the Wars states that in 531, Byzantine Emperor Justinian ‘got the idea of making the Aithiopians and Homeritae his allies with a view to damage the Persians’. The conversion of the Nubians to Christianity was a part of this process.”....

“According to the sources there were three stages in the conversion of Nubia. The northern Kingdom of Nobadia with its close geographical proximity to Roman Egypt was, not surprisingly, the first target of missionary activities.”....

“During his stay he baptized the king and his nobles and many other people... During his six-year sojourn he instructed all the people in the Christian religion, built what was presumably the first church in Nubia, established the clergy and organized the liturgy, and set up all the church institutions.”
-Welsby (2002) pp.32-33

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“According to John of Ephesus, ‘when the people of Alodia knew that the Nobades had been converted, their king sent a letter to the king of the Nobades, asking to send him (the bishop) who had taught and baptized the Nobades, that he might instruct and baptize also the Alodians...

“When Longinus arrived at the borders of Alwa, the Alwan king sent one of his noblest men, Itiqya, who received him with great attention and introduced him into the country with great honours. He then proceeded to the capital by ship, and there was met by the king.... Within a few days Longinus had baptized the king, all his nobles and the greater part of the population, or by the king’s own admission in a letter of thanks to the King of the Nobades, himself, his nobles and all of his family. The Nobadian king is called Orfiulo or Awarfiulai and is perhaps to be identified with Eirpanome who was on the throne in 559 AD.....

Longinus and his followers were not the only Christians in the Alwan capital in 580. They met there ‘certain Aksumites’... We have no other evidence to suggest what relations there may have been at that time between the Aksumite state, converted to Christianity in the mid fourth century AD, and the fledgling Nubian state of Alwa.”
-Welsby (2002) pp.33-34

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“The Christian kingdoms of Alwa and Ethiopia, both under the authority of the Patriarch in Alexandria, were close neighbours although separated by the steep western and north-western edge of the Ethiopian plateau, making communication difficult. There were Aksumites in the Alwan capital in 580 and we might expect there to have been close relations between the two states, but the evidence for this is lacking, as it is for earlier contacts between the Kushites and the Aksumites, except perhaps in the mid fourth century AD. Direct contact between the King of Ethiopia and the King of the Nubians (the king of Makuria) is recorded during the life of the Patriarch Philotheus (980-1003 AD). Nubian objects in an Ethiopian context and vice versa are extremely rare.

Although Nubia and Ethiopia were geograpgically close the international outlook of the two areas was very different. The dwellers along the Nile looked principally north and south along the valley itself while the Ethiopians had strong contacts with the Red Sea littoral. Their spheres of interest were, therefore, largely mutually exclusive.”
-Welsby (2002) p.78

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Originally posted by HidayaAkade:
Very interesting!
I'm interested in ancient and Christian Nubia.
Any suggestions or pictures?

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Posts: 100 | From: Canada | Registered: Oct 2013  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by the lioness,:
good research

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Originally posted by Bilal Dogon -aka blingdogg:

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Originally posted by HidayaAkade:
Very interesting!
I'm interested in ancient and Christian Nubia.
Any suggestions or pictures?

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I'm a huge fan of the Christian and Muslim (Funj and Darfur sultanates) eras in Nubia; they’re among my favorites.

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Originally posted by Amun-Ra The Ultimate:

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Originally posted by Bilal Dogon -aka blingdogg:

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Originally posted by HidayaAkade:
Very interesting!
I'm interested in ancient and Christian Nubia.
Any suggestions or pictures?

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I'm a huge fan of the Christian and Muslim (Funj and Darfur sultanates) eras in Nubia; they’re among my favorites.

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Personally, I'm more interested into the pre-colonial history of Africa, before Muslim and Christian conversions. But maybe you, and other people interested into that subject, could be interested into the book Sudanese memoirs (translation of the Kano Chronicles). There's obviously a Muslim bias in the text (it seeks to convert people to it by contrasting it with indigenous and christian traditions. It is also political), but it's very interesting as I think it was written either by (foreign) Muslim travelers of that time or by African Muslims (or both since it's collection of texts). I didn't read much of it yet, but it seems very interesting for those interested in the Islamic spread in Africa (it was proposed to me by another ES poster).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_Chronicle

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Originally posted by the lioness,:


Nobatia (Nobadia or Noubadia) was an ancient African Christian kingdom in Lower Nubia and subsequently a region of the larger Nubian Kingdom of Makuria. Its name is often given as al-Maris in Arabic histories.

Nobatia was likely founded by the Nobatae (pron.: /ˈnɒbəti/), who had been invited into the region from the Egyptian desert by the Roman Emperor Diocletian to help defeat the Blemmyes in AD 297.
The cultural and military power of the Blemmyes had enlarged to a level such that earlier that in 197 Pescennius Niger asked a Blemmye king of Thebas to help him in the battle against the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.
Early Nobatia is quite likely the same civilization that is known to archeologists as the Ballana culture. Eventually the Nobatae were successful, and an inscription by Silko, "Basiliskos" of the Nobatae, claims to have driven the Blemmyes (nomadic warrior Beja of Sudan) into the eastern deserts. Around this time the Nobatian capital was established at Pakhoras (modern Faras); soon after, Nobatia converted to non-Chalcedonian Christianity.

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Pantoleon Martyrdom of the 39 Fathers of Raithu in the Sinai by the Blemmyes in the fourth century
976-1025 Vatican
artist under patronege of Byzantine Emperor Basil II


The scene represents the martyrdom in the fourth century of a large number of Christian hermits at Raithu, a monastic settlement on the west coast of the Sinai Peninsula. The classic account of this and other attacks on desert monastic communities comes from the relatio, or report, of the Egyptian monk Ammonius, who purportedly witnessed the massacre.

According to his account, the raiders, aroused by God to attack the settlement, suddenly appeared and began killing the monks. Their depredations were frustrated by the absolute poverty of the fathers and by the terrifying spectacle of a burning cloud that formed over nearby Mount Sinai. Chastened, they then prayed to the monks for salvation.

Most accounts of the attacks on Raithu attribute the monks' martyrdom to the Blemmyes, members of a nomadic tribe feared in the Greco-Roman period of Egypt as marauders, much as the Huns or Vandals aroused panic when they confronted the Western Roman Empire at about the same time.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/10/blackness_depicted_as_evil_in_art_darkskinned_attackers_of_christians_based_on_history.html

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This painting made in 976-1025 is supposed to portray an event involving the Blemmyes in the fourth century

Another website below calls the Blemmyes Arabian. Maybe it's becuase of this much painitng made hundreds of years after the event with may be incorrect showing them looking like they have Arabian type turbans. They are supposed to be Nubians.
On the other hand Nubian remains indicate they were highly varied in type ranging form kinky hair to straight by some accounts.
Also notice the back figure at left and the two attackers at right seem to be wearing head gear that is not a turban

http://dbpedia.org/page/Holy_fathers_slain_at_Sinai_and_Raithu

The Holy fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu are saints venerated together on January 14 by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The Holy Monastic Fathers Slain at Sinai and Raithu. There were two occasions when the monks and hermits were murdered by the barbarians. The first took place in the fourth century when forty Fathers were killed at Mt. Sinai, and thirty-nine were slain at Raithu on the same day. Their names are given as Isaiah, Sabbas, Moses and his disciple Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Adam, Sergius, Domnus, Proclus, Hypatius, Isaac, Macarius, Mark, Benjamin, Eusebius, Elias, and others (4th-5th c.). A group of these martyrs were killed at Sinai during the reign of Diocletian, about the year 296. The martyrs of Raithu were killed about the middle of the fifth century. The killing of both groups of martyrs is attributed to the tribe called the Blemmyes, from parts of Arabia.

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Originally posted by Djehuti:
Son of Ra, the first source you cited was originally cited by Ausar here: Tomb reveals Ancient Egypt's humiliating secret and several times thereafter.

Note that Kush was able to commence this devastating raid due to alliances with other Nubian folks like the Wawat, Medjay, and even the Punti. That was because Kush wasn't just a nation-state, it was an EMPIRE! This was discussed before several times such as here, here, and here just to name a few.

Think about it. Kush comprised not only southern Egypt but most of Sudan (especially along the Nile Valley) and apparently parts of Eritrea and Ethiopia (Punt). Clearly Kush was the real superpower of the Nile Valley. Why else did Egypt build fortifications along its southern borders and ban Nubians from entering except to trade!

The Euronuts have for the longest portrayed Nubia/Kush as Egypt's inferior black neighbor, yet one does not build defense walls and forts against an inferior enemy. Some racist scholars even suggested that the ban on Nubians entering Egypt was a form of "racial segregation" to prevent the "negroes from contaminating them"! LOL Yet this ban was only declared by Senusret III in the 12th dynasty who is himself of Nubian ancestry. Furthermore it is no coincidence that he makes the decree to forbid Nubians from entering the country except trade, only after some assassination attempts were made on his life!!

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Originally posted by Truthcentric:

I knew Kush was underrated as a Nile Valley power, but I never figured they'd actually surpass the Egyptians the way you describe. I also never knew about the Kushite/Puntite connections.

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Here is a map showing the known territory of Kush by itself.



^ Note that before the New Kingdom conquest by Egypt the capital of Kush was Kerma, the other two capitals came in later periods.

And here is a map that was posted in this board before showing Nubia pre-Kerman times.



^ Yam was the Kingdom in Old Kingdom times that Egypt used to trade with until it was replaced or usurped by the Kushites. Yet note the other Nubian neighbors. According to the Sobeknakht inscriptions, the raid by the Kushites was a devastating one where "they swept over the mountains, over the Nile, without limit.." and that "Kush came... aroused along his length, he having stirred up the tribes of Wawat... the land of Punt and the Medjaw...” We all know that Kerma had tremendous wealth due to not only its own mineral resources but also control of trade routes direct to its south towards the source of the Nile, not to mention trade with its adjacent neighbors. So it shouldn't be surprising that Kush had military and political alliances with its neighbors.

Even most Egyptologists acknowledged Kush's economic clout but obviously many still denied its military might until the 2005 findings in El Kab. That's why that Davies fellow said the discovery would change the textbooks.

As for Punt, it's a fact that Punt was geographically closer to Kush than to Egypt despite the Egyptians claiming Punt to be their ancestral land. No doubt the Kushites had much more frequent trade relations with Punt than Egypt, but just imagine the Egyptians' surprise when they saw their distant Puntite cousins allied with their Kushite enemies!

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Originally posted by Son of Ra:
Thanks for bumping this thread Firewall. And welcome back!

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There is no record of conflict between the Kushites and Ptolemies. However, there was a serious revolt at the end of Ptolemy IV, around 204 BCE, and the Kushites likely tried to interfere in Ptolemaic affairs. It's suggested that this led to Ptolemy V defacing the name of Arqamani on inscriptions at Philae. "Arqamani constructed a small entrance hall to the temple built by Ptolemy IV at selchis and constructed a temple at Philae to which Ptolemy contributed an entrance hall." There's evidence of Ptolemaic occupation as far south as the 2nd cataract, but recent finds at Qasr Ibrim, such as "the total absence of Ptolemaic pottery" have cast doubts on the effectiveness of the occupation. Dynastic struggles led to the Ptolemies abandoning the area, so "the Kushites reasserted their control...with Qasr Ibrim occupied" (by the Kushites) and other locations perhaps garrisoned.

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According to Welsby, after the Romans assumed control of Egypt, they negotiated with the Kushites at Philae and drew the southern border of Roman Egypt at Aswan. Theodor Mommsen and Welsby state the Kingdom of Kush became a client Kingdom, which was similar to the situation under Ptolemaic rule of Egypt. Kushite ambition and excessive Roman taxation are two theories for a revolt that was supported by Kushite armies. The ancient historians, Strabo and Pliny, give accounts of the conflict with Roman Egypt.


Strabo describes a war with the Romans in the first century BC. According to Strabo, the Kushites "sacked Aswan with an army of 30,000 men and destroyed imperial statues...at Philae."a "fine over-life-size bronze head of the emperor Augustus" was found buried in Meroe in front of a temple. After the initial victories of Kandake (or "Candace") Amanirenas against Roman Egypt, the Kushites were defeated and Napata sacked.Remarkably, the destruction of the capital of Napata was not a crippling blow to the Kushites and did not frighten Candace enough to prevent her from again engaging in combat with the Roman military. In 22 BC, a large Kushite force moved northward with intention of attacking Qasr Ibrim. Alerted to the advance, Petronius again marched south and managed to reach Qasr Ibrim and bolster its defenses before the invading Kushites arrived. Welsby states after a Kushite attack on Primis (Qasr Ibrim), the Kushites sent ambassadors to negotiate a peace settlement with Petronius. The Kushites succeeded in negotiating a peace treaty on favorable terms. Trade between the two nations increased and the Roman Egyptian border being extended to "Hiera Sykaminos (Maharraqa). This arrangement "guaranteed peace for most of the next 300 years" and there's "no definite evidence of further clashes."

It is possible that the Roman emperor Nero planned another attempt to conquer Kush before his death in AD 68. Nero sent two centurions upriver as far as Bahr el Ghazal River in 66 AD in an attempt to discover the source of the Nile, per Senecas, or plan an attack, per Pliny. Kush began to fade as a power by the 1st or 2nd century AD, sapped by the war with the Roman province of Egypt and the decline of its traditional industries.However, there is evidence of 3rd century AD Kushite Kings at Philae in demotic and inscription. It's been suggested that the Kushites reoccupied lower Nubia after Roman forces were withdrawn to Aswan. Kushite activities led others to note "a de facto Kushite control of that area (as far north as Philae) for part of the 3rd century AD. Thereafter, it weakened and disintegrated due to internal rebellion. In the mid-4th century, Kush attacked Axum, perhaps in a dispute over the region's ivory trade. Axum responded with a large force, sacking Meroe and leading to the collapse of the civilization. Christianity began to gain over the old pharaonic religion and by the mid-sixth century AD the Kingdom of Kush was dissolved.

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The legendary Roman emperor Caesar Augustus was on the Greek island of Samos, preparing for an important expedition to Syria, when he received envoys from the Kingdom of Kush, in present-day Sudan. Journalist Selina O’Grady records in her book And Man Created God that the ambassadors presented Augustus with a bundle of golden arrows and relayed this message: “The Candace sends you these arrows.” (Candace was the Latinized spelling of Kandake, the Kushite term for “queen.”) They added that the emperor had two options for how to view the offering: “If you want peace, they are a token of her warmth and friendship. If you want war, you will need them.”


For an African queen to give such an ultimatum to the most powerful man in the world would have been considered a serious insult. After all, Augustus had almost single-handedly transformed Rome from a republic to an empire, and the territory he now reigned over stretched from as far as northern Spain, through to parts of central Europe, and all the way to Egypt. His legions wore bronze breastplates and wielded spears, swords and javelins, all much superior to the hatchets the Kushites carried as weapons. In addition, Kush had many natural resources — such as gold mines, iron and ivory — that could have enriched the treasuries of Rome, enticing Augustus to attack, even without the insult.


But this Kushite queen — whom the Greek geographer and historian Strabo of Amasia described as “a masculine sort of woman and blind in one eye” — had proved to be a formidable foe for the “son of god,” the title given to Caesar Augustus on Roman coins. He received the bundle of arrows from the envoys and promptly signed a peace treaty.
In truth, this was not so much a treaty as it was a surrender. Augustus submitted to all of the demands made by Queen Amanirenas, including that the Romans withdraw from all Kushite territories they had occupied and pledge that they would never again seek to collect taxes or tributes from her kingdom.


It was a remarkable concession for the world’s most powerful man, demonstrating just how feared and respected the one-eyed queen truly was.

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Part I:WHERE WOMEN WERE WORSHIPED
Kush was part of a region below Egypt known as Nubia. It was a place where, unlike most of the world at the time, women exercised significant control. In the Nubian valley, worship of the queen of all goddesses, Isis, was paramount, and Nubia had several female rulers during its history.


Queen Amanirenas reigned over Nubia from 40 B.C. to 10 B.C. Her throne was in the city of Meroë, and from there she and her husband, King Teriteqas, presided over the wealthy kingdom.
Janice Kamrin, curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum, writes that “based on its position as an intermediary between the Mediterranean world and sub-Saharan Africa, Nubia was a key transit point for luxury goods such as ivory and exotic objects. Of great importance was gold, a commodity found in the Nubian deserts and greatly prized by the Egyptians.”


To satisfy the demands of their luxury-loving populace, the Egyptians highly depended on trade with Meroë, which Queen Amanirenas controlled. Her labyrinthine palace, with massive brick-vaulted rooms lined with gold leaf, was a warehouse stocked with great blocks of gold and ivory tusks. She bartered her treasures for goods from Egypt, including cloth, corn, bronze bowls and glassware.
But 10 years into the reign of Amanirenas, the political landscape changed when Augustus seized control of Egypt from the grasp of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. He proclaimed himself emperor and established Egypt as a Roman province. He was now on Queen Amanirenas’s doorstep.


Before leaving Egypt to continue his quest to seize more territories, Augustus appointed a military colleague named Gaius Cornelius Gallus, a Roman poet and knight whom he had a close relationship with, giving him the title of praefectus Alexandreae et Aegypti, prefect of Alexandria and Egypt.


Only a year after the conquest, the Egyptians in the south rebelled against Roman rule, causing Cornelius to lead his forces south to repress the dissidence. After regaining order, he crossed into Amanirenas’s Nubia and laid claim to the island of Philae. He brought a local ruler there under Roman control, and in return for paying homage to Rome, he gave this dynast the powerful title of tyrannus (tyrant).


As a sign of intimidation and also his ego, Cornelius had his achievements inscribed on a large stone tablet that was erected in Philae. To publicize his fame, he listed the victories in Latin, Greek and hieroglyphic Egyptian. The monument, dated 16 April 29 B.C., read in part: “Gaius Cornelius Gallus son of Gnaius, the Roman cavalryman, first prefect of Alexandria and Egypt after the defeat of kings by Caesar son of the divine, and the vanquisher of Thebaid’s revolution in fifteen days.”
Queen Amanirenas reluctantly accepted the annexation of a part of her kingdom. Recognizing the military supremacy of the Roman legions, she saw that it was not time to fight yet. Instead, she watched the enemy’s moves closely.


Soon after, the Nubians in the annexed regions started complaining about the tyrannus. On the orders of Cornelius, he was imposing increased taxes on the traders who brought goods to the frontier and claiming tax rights over autonomous Nubian communities allied to Kush.
Cornelius, for his part, continued to celebrate his exploits with grandiose monuments. Roman historian Cassius Dio, who lived from 155 to 235 A.D., described how “he set up images of himself practically everywhere in Egypt and inscribed a list of his achievements, even upon the very pyramids.”


These extravagances were not looked upon kindly back in Rome, where the standard directive was to glorify the emperor, not his underlings. Cassius added that Cornelius “indulged in a great deal of disrespectful gossip about Augustus and was guilty of many reprehensible actions besides.” Suffice it to say, he was on the outs with Emperor Augustus, who ultimately disenfranchised Cornelius and issued many indictments against him. The Roman Senate unanimously voted that he should be convicted in the courts, exiled and deprived of his estate. Overwhelmed by his bleak prospects, Cornelius killed himself before the decrees took effect.

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Part II:CLASH OF THE EMPIRES
Both during and after the time of Cornelius, the massive Roman Empire kept expanding. This growing footprint made it difficult for Augustus to keep tabs on all corners of his kingdom at the same time — something Queen Amanirenas paid close attention to.

In 26 B.C., Emperor Augustus appointed Aelius Gallus, another Roman knight, as the next prefect of Egypt. Gallus had hardly settled in when the emperor commanded him to undertake a military expedition to Arabia. Three complete legions, approximately 15,000 troops in all, had been posted in Egypt to secure the province, but at Augustus’s command, many were transferred to Arabia to help in securing this newly sought territory. This presented Queen Amanirenas with an opportunity to challenge Rome’s power.


While the Roman troops were being removed from Egypt, Queen Amanirenas marshaled her army to liberate her people up north from Roman authority. Together with King Teriteqas, they commanded an army of 30,000 warriors from Kush, marching along the mudflats of the Nile and into Egypt.
Historian Cassius Dio narrates in Roman History that the Meroitic army “advanced as far as the city called Elephantine, with Candace as their leader, ravaging everything they encountered.”
They took the entire Triakontaschoinos region, including Syene, Philae and Elephantine, a terrain of 200 square miles. Strabo adds that in these cities, the Kushites “enslaved the inhabitants, and threw down the statues of Cæsar.” They then retreated south with loot, Roman prisoners and thousands of Egyptian captives. As a last insult, they lopped off and carried away the head of a statue of Augustus.


Upon arriving back home in Meroë, Queen Amanirenas took the bronze head, with its neatly disarrayed hair, protuberant ears and startling open eyes of colored glass, and buried it beneath the entryway steps of a temple dedicated to the god Amun. David Francis, an interpretation officer at the British Museum, said in an interview with Culture24 that, “in burying the head, the Meroites ensured that everyone who entered the building would trample this image of the emperor Augustus beneath their feet — ritually perpetuating their victory over the Romans.” It was the queen’s daily reminder that she had triumphed over the most powerful man in the world.

The Kushite victory did not last long. When the news reached Alexandria, the acting governor Gaius Petronius set out with a cavalry of 800, plus 10,000 Roman infantry. By then, the Kushite army had withdrawn to the city of Pselchis. Petronius pursued them, sending envoys ahead to demand the return of the captives. But the envoys were confused. They found that there was no leader in command of the warriors. By this, they meant no male leader. King Teriteqas had died suddenly of sickness or injury, and they simply could not comprehend that a queen alone ruled the Kushites.
Yet Kush did have a leader, and she was not done fighting yet.


The queen’s warriors, having assembled at Pselchis, came forward to battle, each carrying a large oblong shield made of raw ox hide and armed with an array of axes, pikes and swords. They outnumbered the Romans by almost three to one, but Strabo reported that they were “poorly marshaled and badly armed” compared with the heavily armored, well-drilled legionary ranks. The Romans drove them into retreat, and many of the Kushite warriors fled back to the city or into the desert. Some warriors escaped the battlefield by wading out into the Nile. They hoped to make a stand at a defensive position on a small island, but the Romans secured rafts and boats to capture the island and take them prisoner.


This time, the emboldened Romans invaded much deeper into Kushite territory than before. Petronius also captured some of Queen Amanirenas’s generals, whom he questioned about their leadership structure. They told him that the Kandake was the ruler in their kingdom. But they also distracted his attention with tales of a male leader. The generals informed Petronius that Akinidad, son of Queen Amanirenas, was based in the northern city of Napata, their ancient capital and holy city, which housed important temples and royal cemeteries. Unbeknownst to Petronius, this was a ruse, as the Kushite rulers had deliberately left Napata hundreds of years earlier.


Petronius confidently marched to Napata, sure that victory there would subdue the Kushites for good. He found that Prince Akinidad was in fact not there and that the actual capital, Meroë, was still more than 330 miles south. Angered at being misled, he burned the city and rounded up its occupants for transport back to Egypt as slaves.
But the queen’s ruse had worked. Petronius had marched so far and now did not have the capacity to unleash his army on the kingdom’s true ruler. He had already traveled more than 570 miles from Syene, a distance almost as long as the entire length of Egypt. Strabo wrote that Petronius “decided that the regions beyond would be difficult to traverse.” Cassius Dio added that “there was no advantage to be gained by remaining where he was with his entire force, so he withdrew, taking the greater part of the army with him.”


But Queen Amanirenas and her forces did not share his sense of exhaustion. She counterattacked with vigor, fiercely pursuing the retreating Romans back to the fortified hilltop city of Primis.
The queen herself was a fearsome presence on the battlefield. Her “masculine character,” as Strabo described her, referred to her commanding presence as a war leader. She towered above her troops, sporting three facial scars on her cheeks; these were indicators of physical beauty for the Meroë queens, which some Sudanese women still wear today. In one battle, as she clashed with the Romans, an enemy soldier injured the queen, blinding her in one eye.


Strabo’s description of the queen as “masculine” was in line with how Greco-Romans viewed powerful female rulers. Professor Brittany Wilson writes in Unmanly Men that the Greeks and Romans depicted foreign queens in a negative light and even viewed female leaders as a sign of a nation’s barbarity. These queens were often portrayed as “manly women” who went beyond the bounds of proper female behavior. Governor Petronius looked down on the queen’s new disability as well; from then on he referred to her derisively as “the One-Eyed Candace,” judging her “deficient” eyesight as mirroring her deficient insight as a ruler.
Yet again, these men underestimated Queen Amanirenas. After her wound healed, she returned to the front line. Losing an eye in battle only made Amanirenas stronger and braver. But her suffering was not over. When her troops reached Dakka in 24 B.C., clashing with the Romans to ensure Kush’s sovereignty, her son Prince Akinidad was killed in the campaign.


She had lost her husband, her eye and now her son. As a leader, many of her warriors had been killed in the fight, her generals and some of her people had been abducted, and her city of Napata sacked and razed. And still the war was far from over. But now she had but one thing left to fight for: her kingdom. Fueled by grief and anger, the Kandake, now blind in one eye, fought on.

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Part III:SEALING THE DEAL
Up until this point, Queen Amanirenas and her troops had been fighting a defensive war, aimed at keeping the Romans from permanently annexing any part of her kingdom. But after the destruction of Napata and the death of Prince Akinidad, they went on the attack. Over the next two years, she fought with all she had to offer. Her fearlessness even forced the admiration of Strabo, who said, “This queen has a courage above that of her gender.”
In 22 B.C., she marshaled a second force of thousands of Kushite fighters and marched toward the Roman troops who had set up camp in Primis, now the border of the Roman Empire.


It was a face-off of epic proportions. Based on the geography of Primis, it is nearly certain that the Kushite warriors entirely surrounded Petronius and his men. However, the Romans had a large array of ballista — ancient canons that, although less deadly than military weapons today, could still fire deadly darts over long distances. This made a frontal assault by Queen Amanirenas nearly impossible; she would have lost countless warriors. Yet Petronius was surrounded and had no way to escape. A stalemate.


Petronius was extremely eager for a ceasefire. Since becoming prefect of Egypt, Queen Amanirenas had untiringly engaged him in war, not giving him a moment’s peace to officiate his administrative duties of supervising tax levies, or even enough time to take part in the celebratory festivals, chariot races and hunting parties that the more leisurely nobles in Alexandria enjoyed. And now he was trapped in a hilltop city, with seemingly no way out.


Realizing there was no way forward, Petronius urged Queen Amanirenas to meet with Emperor Augustus himself and settle matters. The Meroë warriors offered a prideful response: They claimed in jest that they did not know who the “Caesar” was, or where they could find him.
Petronius, surely not appreciating the joke but eager to escape his current predicament, responded by giving them escorts to the Greek island of Samos, where the emperor was preparing for an expedition to Syria.

Dr. Robert Steven Bianchi, a renowned Egyptologist, writes in Daily Life of the Nubians that “this is believed to be the first recorded instance in the entire history of Africa when diplomats representing a Black African ruler independent of Egypt traveled to Europe to effect a diplomatic resolution.”


By sending her envoys and not going personally, Amanirenas showed herself to be superior to the emperor and Rome. She would not deign to travel hundreds of miles just to negotiate; she had people who could do that for her.


And the one-eyed queen indeed emerged victorious. The five-year war had cost the Romans many men and lots of money — a continued war with the tenacious Queen Amanirenas was not high on the imperial agenda. At the Treaty of Samos in 21 B.C., Caesar Augustus declared Kush to be sovereign and remitted all claims of tribute. Roman troops evacuated Primis and also ceded the areas in the southern portion of the Thirty-Mile Strip to the Kushites. They pulled back to Dodekaschoinos, which was established as the new border. Along with his signature on the official treaty, as one more step to appease the Nubian people, Augustus directed his administrators to collaborate with regional priests on the enlargement of a temple at Kalabsha, as well as the erection of another at Dendur.

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