quote:Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova:
... [Wilkinson] points out for example how the Egyptians propagandized Nubia's holiest mountain, gebel barkal, to be the southern home of the god Amun, and how the shape of the rock resembled a rearing cobra wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, and that Gebe barkal tied into the Egyptian monarchy and as a result, Nubia as far south as the holy mountain was merely an extension of Upper Egypt. Wilkinson then points out that this was ironically turned back on the Egyptians when the Nubian/Kushite restorationists tookover during the 25th Dynasty. They too pointed back to such concepts to solidify their claim to be the real heirs of the "true" Egypt, and the true followers of Amun.
[...]
COuld not the Egyptians have actually regarded Gebel Barkal as a sacred site in its own right, above and beyond any particular political "spin" at play? Anyonehave any info on this?
Posts: 8014 | From: the Tekrur in the Western Sahel | Registered: Feb 2006
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Forgive me not updating the following old post but it allows opportunity to revisit Djebel/Gebel Barkal in response to Zarahan as well as to sticky some related threads to hopefully stimulate new discussions, observations, and "hypotheses" (especially from the newer crowd).
Kesh was intertwined with Kmt as both shared a joint ethnic origin in prehistory. For the Kmtyw, Amami, the ancestral Godland was to the south and Kesh stood in between. Because of an especially holy site at the 4th cataract a few individual Nhsyw families had a certain claim to rulership over all Ta Akht.
What to some may seem very ironic is that the name Senwosret comes from the Uahka family. This Theban family can be traced back to the 6th dynasty. At that time they were architects who built temples near Abydos at Qua. That the Uahka were of Nhsyw origins us attested by their burial tombs. The design is unknown in Kmt but common in Kesh. The pharaoh of the famous conquest stele labeling Nhsyw cowards yet fearful of them taking over the land bit by bit was Senwosret III himself of Nhsy ancestry!
But which ethny of Nehesi in particular?
Petrie thought the 12th dynasty was founded by Galla. I don't know if he means the Oromo or if he means the Shangalla.
quote:The Galla Penetration. It has long ago been remarked that the black sphinxes, later appropriated by the Hyksos, approximated to the Galla type of Abyssinia.
. . . .
This starts an enquiry how the Galla connection could thus appear on monuments. In the clearance and planning of the rock tombs at Qau, Antaeopolis, the peculiar plan of those tombs, with great halls and small chambers annexed, was observed to be closely parallel to that of later Nubian temples. In both tomb and temple the chief work is in the solid rock, while the forecourt is of masonry constructed in front of it. Another peculiarity was the hammer-work excavation of one tomb, which had evidently been done with stone balls, as in the Aswan granite working, and this implies a southern connection.
. . . .
Ancestry of Senusert. In the tomb of prince Uah-ka B at Qau, in an inner chamber, is painted a scene of the son of Uah-ka, named Senusert; there is no cartouche. As the Uah-ka family were of about the 4th or 5th dynasty (the name being unknown either in the 11th of the 12th dynasty), this implies that the 12th dynasty Senusert family descended from the Uah-ka family. Here we have, then, a link between the Galla type on the sphinxes and the 12th dynasty. The separate identification of these sphinxes follows further on. The 12th dynasty was undoubtedly descended from Amenemhat, the great vizier of the 11th dynasty. It seems, then, that he married the heiress of the Uah-ka family, as stated in the pseudo-prophecy, "A king shall come from the south whose name is Ameny, son of a Nubian woman." She called her son by the family name Senusert, and he was the founder of the 12th dynasty, according to Manetho. Waka is the god of the Gallas.
The Uahka werent the only family nor the 12th the only dynasty of Nhsw influence from origins in Kesh.
There was an intimate if exploitive sibling relationship between T3Wy and Kesh. Brothers veigh for dominance one over the other yet they remain the same family. Still there are differences between even identical twin brothers. Egypt embraced writing while Kesh eschewed it for the longest time and Egypt did rank Kesh among the Nine Bows clear until late New Kingdom times.
The important thing to remember is that certain Keshite families always, since the foundation of the Dynastic period, had a right to the throne of T3Wy because of their noble status in Gebel Barkal the prime residence of Amun the father of legitimacy to rulership.
Gebel Barkal was way up south at the fourth cataract. Yet it was the seat of Amun and pharoanic legitimacy. Among others too numerous to list
Zanakht of dynatsy 3 was a Nehasi
the 4th dynasty queen Khentkaues was of Ta Seti and she birthed the first two kings of the 5th dynasty
the Uakha family established the 12th dynasty
Senwosret or Sesostris was a common Uakha name
the name Amenhotep or Amememhet shows the Uakha connection to Amun and Gebel Barkal
Amenemhet I was vizier for Mentuhotep IV of the preceding 11th dynasty, his ancestry of and marrige in the Uakha family legitimized his natural right to the throne
the 14th dyanastys second ruler was actually named Nehesi and honored his mother Peret incorporating her name in his cartouche
Piye and the succeeding 25th dynasty are too famous to detail
the 25th dynasty was ultra orthodox reviving tradition throughout T3 Akht
in truth pharoanic Kmt ended with the 25th dynasty from Napata/Gebel Barkal
The kings of Kush were known to have a certain claim on Kmt's throne. Zanakht of the 3rd dynasty has strong Nhsw facial features. His line apparently died out. The 9th and 10th dynasty Uahka family of Thebes were buried in tombs of type unknown in Kmt but of design in Kush. The Uahka family has been traced back to the 6th dynasty builders of the temples at Qua near Abydos. Senusret is a name from the Uahka family, one of whose members took on the name Amenemhet to honor Amen the major deity of Thebes. This family established the 12th dynasty. Comparison of skull measurements reveals an exceedingly close relationship between the Uahka family and the modern Shangalla (non-Abyssinian) type of Ethiopian bordering Sudan.
Amenemhet I warred against Wawat pushing south far enough to establish a center of trade in Kerma at the 3rd catarct. Senusret I mentions the Akherkin, Kas, Khesaa, Shat, and Shemyk among the peoples of Wawat that he subdued. Senwosret III annexed Wawat up to the 2nd cataract as the southern border of Kmt.
Because of their propensities for independence the Senwosrets found it necessary to wage war against Wawat. On their defeat a string of fortresses were built. These were at Buhen, Kor, Dorginarti, Mirgissa, Dabenarti, Askut, Shalfak, Uronarti, Kumma, and Semna.
Nonetheless the kinship between the peoples of the lower and middle Nile Valleys must not be forgotten. Especially of note is the middle Nile Valley dwellers' attitude as to the status of the lower Nile Valley.
quote:... the Egyptian pharaohs of Dynasty 18 had recognized Gebel Barkal as an ancient source of Egyptian kingship and had themselves crowned there to affirm their rule, the new kings of Kush rediscovered this tradition and [] used it to prove their right to rule Egypt. Since the first to recognize the religious significance of Gebel Barkal had been the Pharoah Thutmose III (ca. 1479-1425 BC)[.]
. . . .
If [Keshites] have traditionally been portrayed by historians s "foreigners" in Egypt, they surely did not see themselves as such, despite their different ethnic, cultural and linguistic origin. In their minds Egypt and Kush were northern and southern halves of an ancient original domain of Amun. These two lands, they believed, had been united in mythological times; subsequently they grew apart, to be united again in historical times only by the greatest pharaohs. As "sons" of Amun, the Napatan monarchs saw themselves as heirs of those pharaohs [. . .] believ[ing] they were the god's representatives - from his southern sphere - chosen to unite and protect his ancient empire and to restore ma'at - "truth, order, and propriety" in the Egyptian sense - throughout the land.
It all boils down to cultural spirituality and the "kingship" deity of the matured middle and lower Nile valley in the days of empire that had been perculating since before either kingdom emerged.
I think that Gebel Barka was known to the A Group originators of the royalty concept of dynasty 0 and possibly the first attempts of state unification (judging by the finds of Qustul). I imagine the reason that certain NHHSYW females endowed their husbands or sons with a natural and undisputed right to the throne of T3Wy was because they hailed from the right family from Gebel Barkal of old from before the times of dynastic Egypt, and here's why:
quote: ... long before the Egyptians had set eyes on Gebel Barkal, the Nubians, too, had held it sacred. Although no pre-Egyptian settlement or cultic remains have yet been found there, unstratified Nubian pottery has been recovered, dating from the Neolithic, Pre-Kerma, and Kerma periods. This indicates that the site must have been occupied at least since the fourth millennium BC. The discovery on the summit of Gebel Barkal of thousands of chipped stone wasters, made of types of stones that can only be found on the desert floor, suggests that people brought stones to the summit to work them, a practice that implies a religious motivation. Likewise, the similarity between the sanctuary at Barkal, as it appeared in the Egyptian and Kushite periods, and that of Kerma, as it appeared at the end of the Classic Kerma phase, may suggest that there was a pre- Egyptian cultic connection between Gebel Barkal and the "Western Deffufa" at Kerma. There exists at least the possibility that the latter, a rectangular, brick built, mountain-like platform 19 m high, may have been built at Kerma as a magical substitute or "double" of Gebel Barkal. After all, complexes of temples were built in front of each, and each was conceived as the dwelling place of a powerful god.
There is no doubt that the Egyptians, and probably, too, the earlier Nubians, attached sacred significance to Gebel Barkal because of its bizarre form. Not only was the hill isolated on a flat desert plain and possessed of a spectacular cliff, 90 m high and 200 m long, its southwestern corner was marked by an enormous free-standing pinnacle, nearly 75 m high (fig.5). This monolith had all the appearance of a statue, but without precise form, and it could be imagined in many ways simultaneously. On the one hand, it could be seen as the figure of a standing king or god, wearing the White Crown. It could be seen as an erect phallus. It could also be seen as a rearing cobra (uraeus), wearing the White Crown. Ancient documents, both written and pictorial, reveal that the rock was imagined as all these things at once and was thus venerated as the source of the divine power of all the various things it represented. As a crowned human figure, it would have represented the living king or the ultimate royal ancestor, or the god himself. As a phallus, it would have represented Amun as father and procreator. As uraeus, it would have represented each and every goddess and all female creative power. It was thus father, mother, and royal child combined as one - which was apparently the very meaning of "Kamutef." Gebel Barkal, by means of the phallic-shaped pinnacle, not only confirmed the presence of Amun, it also had precisely the form of the Primeval Hill of Egyptian tradition, on which the Creator was thought to have appeared at the beginning of time and generated the first gods through an act of masturbation.
So as early as dynasty 3 Zanakht sits the throne.
4th dynasty queen Khentkaues births the first kings of the 5th dynasty.
In the 6th dynasty the Uahka family is building NHHSY architected tombs in T3Wy
The 12th dynasty is established by the Uahka family and kings bear the name of Amun in their own names just as Keshite kings will bear Amani names.
To my mind this shows a pre-18th dynasty affiliation of Amun among the NHHSYW most likely associated with Gebel Barkal. Where else would the prominence of Amun stem from that it was not used in T3Wy in kings' names before introduced by a dynasty of NHHSY roots?
Yet, some have still proposed Amun to have travelled in the reverse direction. from ERNEST A. WALLIS BUDGE TUTANKHAMEN AMENISM, ATENISM AND EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. 1923 Chap 2 TUTANKHAMEN AND THE CULT OF AMEN http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/tut/tut05.htm
quote: THE early history of the god Amen is somewhat obscure, and his origin is unknown. The name Amen means "hidden (one)," a title which might be applied to many gods. A god Amen and his consort Ament or Amenit are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (UNAS, line 558), where they are grouped with Nau and Nen, and with the two Lion gods Shu and Tefnut. This Amen was regarded as an ancient nature-god by the priests of Heliopolis under the Vth dynasty, and it is possible that many of his attributes were transferred at a very early period to Amen, the great god of Thebes. Though recent excavations have shown that a cult of Amen existed at Thebes under the Ancient Empire, it is doubtful if it possessed any more than a local importance until the XIIth dynasty. When the princes of Thebes conquered their rivals in the north and obtained the sovereignty of Egypt, their god Amen and his priesthood became a great power in the land, and an entirely new temple was built by them, in his honour, at Karnak on the right bank of the Nile. The temple was quite small, and resembled in form and arrangement some of the small Nubian temples; it consisted of a shrine, with a few small chambers grouped about it, and a forecourt, with a colonnade on two sides of it. Amen was not the oldest god worshipped there, and his sanctuary seems to have absorbed the shrine of the ancient goddess Apit. ...
Although the kings of the XIIth dynasty were Thebans it is possible that they and many of their finest warriors had Sudani blood in their veins, and the attributes that they ascribed to Amen were similar to those that the Nubian peoples assigned to their indigenous gods. To them Amen symbolized the hidden but irresistible power that produces conception and growth in human beings and in the animal and vegetable worlds. And in some places in Egypt, and Nubia and the Oases, the symbol of the god Amen was either the umbilicus 1 or the gravid womb. The symbol of Amen that was shown to Alexander the Great, when he visited the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Oasis of Siwah, was an object closely resembling the umbilicus, and it was inlaid with emeralds (turquoises?) and other precious stones--umbilico maxime similis est habitus, smaragdo et gemmis coagmentatus.
Despite the fact of the relative obscurity of Amen before the Uahka family's 12th dynasty boosting of his importance and the "Nubian" style temple devoted to him, the author of the above states that Egypt carrried Amun into "Nubia."
But that shouldn't be the last word and prime thought left in mind by this post.
While Egyptians did in fact rule over Wawat and even Kush, no Egyptian ever sat astride the throne of Kush. To the contrary Kushites sat on the Amun Seat both in Kush and in Egypt and their empire extended over more Nile and Rift valleys territory than perhaps even did Egypt.
Great work! Appreciate that shot of the Kerma Deffufa making it posible to posit they raised a structure in all probability as an imitation of Gebel Barkal.
Posts: 8179 | From: the Tekrur straddling Senegal & Mauritania | Registered: Dec 2011
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posted
Great work Takuri- solid info. Good pics too Beyoku.
Takuri posted: . long before the Egyptians had set eyes on Gebel Barkal, the Nubians, too, had held it sacred. Although no pre-Egyptian settlement or cultic remains have yet been found there, unstratified Nubian pottery has been recovered, dating from the Neolithic, Pre-Kerma, and Kerma periods. This indicates that the site must have been occupied at least since the fourth millennium BC. The discovery on the summit of Gebel Barkal of thousands of chipped stone wasters, made of types of stones that can only be found on the desert floor, suggests that people brought stones to the summit to work them, a practice that implies a religious motivation. Likewise, the similarity between the sanctuary at Barkal, as it appeared in the Egyptian and Kushite periods, and that of Kerma, as it appeared at the end of the Classic Kerma phase, may suggest that there was a pre- Egyptian cultic connection between Gebel Barkal and the "Western Deffufa" at Kerma. There exists at least the possibility that the latter, a rectangular, brick built, mountain-like platform 19 m high, may have been built at Kerma as a magical substitute or "double" of Gebel Barkal. After all, complexes of temples were built in front of each, and each was conceived as the dwelling place of a powerful god.
There is no doubt that the Egyptians, and probably, too, the earlier Nubians, attached sacred significance to Gebel Barkal because of its bizarre form. Not only was the hill isolated on a flat desert plain and possessed of a spectacular cliff, 90 m high and 200 m long, its southwestern corner was marked by an enormous free-standing pinnacle, nearly 75 m high (fig.5). This monolith had all the appearance of a statue, but without precise form, and it could be imagined in many ways simultaneously. On the one hand, it could be seen as the figure of a standing king or god, wearing the White Crown. It could be seen as an erect phallus. It could also be seen as a rearing cobra (uraeus), wearing the White Crown. Ancient documents, both written and pictorial, reveal that the rock was imagined as all these things at once and was thus venerated as the source of the divine power of all the various things it represented.
^It seems to me that this is more than mere "political spin" as Wilkinson seems to imply. Gebel Barkal has deep roots in the region above and beyond any sudden need of a pharaoh to spin a particular political line, at a particular time.
-----------------------------------
If [Keshites] have traditionally been portrayed by historians s "foreigners" in Egypt, they surely did not see themselves as such, despite their different ethnic, cultural and linguistic origin. In their minds Egypt and Kush were northern and southern halves of an ancient original domain of Amun. These two lands, they believed, had been united in mythological times; subsequently they grew apart, to be united again in historical times only by the greatest pharaohs. As "sons" of Amun, the Napatan monarchs saw themselves as heirs of those pharaohs [. . .] believ[ing] they were the god's representatives - from his southern sphere - chosen to unite and protect his ancient empire and to restore ma'at - "truth, order, and propriety" in the Egyptian sense - throughout the land.
^Great quote that flips the usual formula on its head. Southern Egypt is an EXTENSION OF KUSH/NUBIA. I like the Kushite/Nubian-centered view so seldom seen in many works on the Nile Valley, where everything besides the Egyptian outlook seems like an afterthought. So you have any info on Kushite/Nubian manufactures or products? I have read of chariots being manufactured in Nubia per Morkot below. Just wonder what else was being done before the big move north.
"Although battle scenes show Nubian enemies conventionally as bowmen with relatively little equipment, other sources show the use of chariots by the elite, and the "tribute" scenes show weaponry and armor that was manufactured in Nubia... the inclusion of chariots as part of the Kushite tribute to Egypt suggests that they, too, were eventually being manufactured in Nubia itself". Robert Morkot. Historical dictionary of ancient Egyptian warfare. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003
PS: Takuri on those links with the Galla- interesting. Just curious- Do you have anything on the governing system of the Galla? From what I understand it was a form of rotating, democratic government with age grades freely electing societal leaders. I may not have all the details right based on an old passage I read from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
This is what's so good about a free and open Africa/Egyptology forum when posters behave as colleagues and employ an each-one-teach -one-now-hip-somebody-else philosophy not a hide-the-light-under-a-bushel approach or ego driven counterproductive negativity. We accomplish so much more pulling together than breying in conflict.
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Ha haa! You already know about Kushi (I hate the word Kushite, all so biblical) manufactures and the same way I do. At first I was bewildered, at a near complete loss for textual type examples. Then I remembered
The scene is of King's Son (viceroy) of Kush Amenemope(t) and First King's Son of his Body Amenhirunamef presenting taxes to Ramses II seated on his throne.
Thutmosis III "bottom register -" southern lands and Antiu
posted
Nice roundup. Didn't know the product line was so extensive.
-------------------- Note: I am not an "Egyptologist" as claimed by some still bitter, defeated, trolls creating fake profiles and posts elsewhere. Hapless losers, you still fail. My output of hard data debunking racist nonsense has actually INCREASED since you began.. Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Isn't it amazing discovering you already knew what you though you didn't know?
I hope you and others are also on the lookout for texts that list manufactures from TaNehesi!
Paintings of tribute show only the creme de la creme of any tributory's goods.
Posts: 8179 | From: the Tekrur straddling Senegal & Mauritania | Registered: Dec 2011
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Herodotus said the "Ethiopians" told him there were 16 "Ethiopian " dynasties or pharaohs (I can't remember which one). Anyway I decided to use tukuler's list of nehesy pharaohs and calculate the #, which interestingly turned out to be 16 nehesy pharaohs in all. Was Herodotus using "Ethiopian" as the Greek term for the AE's nehesy?
Another thing I remember vaguely are the Greek legends about either sesotris or amenemhat (both of the 12th dynasty) conquering vast territories all the way up to modern day turkey and its environs to the north. Amenemhat (Ameny in the legends) is said to come from Ethiopia instead of Egypt. It'd be interesting to know whether his kingdom/homeland was described as "Ethiopia" because at the early date these legends were forming among the Greeks Egypt wasn't yet differentiated from Ethiopia or whether they meant Ethiopia as in the territory south of Egypt.
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