The Relationship between the Civilizations of Ancient Egypt and Nubia - Essay Example

1 A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ANCIENT EGYPT AND NUBIA AND THE IMPACT OF THEIR ENCOUNTERS ON THEIR VISUAL CULTURES Introduction Ancient Egypt had been dubbed by the Greek historian Herodotus as the 'gift of the Nile' (Brewer & Teeter 16) and he and others maintained that the Nile River and Egypt are intertwined and that the environmental ecosystem, the climatic conditions, the flora and fauna, the rise and fall of the great river that inundates the land and covers it with this black, fertile earth called kemet that contrasts with the parched sands nearby called deshret all conditioned the rise and flowering of a great civilization. This is termed as the 'oasis hypothesis' as articulated by V. Gordon Childe which emphasises that it is the Nile which greatly influences the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians (Feder & Park 265). But all the above theories were proved to be incomplete because archaelogical excavations in today's Sudan and southern Egypt in the vicinity of the Aswan High Dam revealed that there existed a civilization which predates the Egyptian civilization and which is even more complex and sophisticated than the latter. The Old Testament refers to it as the kingdom of Cush and the Romans called it Nubia referring to its gold mines( Kasule 34). Excavations by the French archaeologists yielded exquisite ceramic figurines, funeral bric-a-brac and bowls that 2 were dated at least during 8000 BC. Other archaelogists dug up great Nubian monuments such as parts of a magnificent temple, statues, pottery, jewelries and hosts of artifacts that convinced them that Nubia was the cradle of African civilization and the first black African civilization (Macleod, New York Times). Excavations in the Qustul cemetery by Keith Seele brought forth incense burners depicting a royal palace and a portrait of a king with the god Horus hovering above him. Other artifacts showed a monarchy that was even older than Egypt's and was perhaps the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history and was dated at 3300 BC or 3 generations before the first Egyptian king Scorpion in the 1st Dynasty. Many considered this Nubian civilization to be the Ta-Seti referred to in Egyptian writings (Renseberger, New York Times). So it is evident that the River Nile produced not one but two great civilizations. Later in this paper, we will prove that both civilizations were modified and perfected by the intermingling and influencing of one with the other and vice-versa. The Egyptian Civilization The River Nile was both a boon and a bane to the ancient Egyptians. Annually, between July and October, the Nile Valley, which is a ribbon of narrow, alluvial land measuring 2 to 3 miles in width from both banks of the Nile and extending some 12,000 sq. mi. from the Mediterranean to today's First Cataract, experiences inundation that washed away landmarks and destroyed properties. After the destruction loomed rich, fertile black land that stimulated 3 agriculture(Grolier Universal Encyclopedia 77). Thus, the Nile represented a challenge and a development of all engineering, arithmetical, geometrical, surveying and other skills needed to control its unruly and temperamental nature. Thus, even during the predynastic Naqada period, papyrus writings showed that mathematical calculations including the use of decimals, fractions and the Pythagorean theorem were widely used. Because of the annual Nile deluge, Egyptians braced themselves from it and in the process were forced to invent a 365-day calendar, which they divided into 12 months, which are further divided into 30 days. The Egyptian success in taming the Nile was followed by progress and affluence and finally the development of art, architecture, learning and culture. Archaeological excavations yielded a wealth of evidence pointing to Egypt as the world's cradle of civilization. The French dug up the Rosetta Stone in 1799, which is a 196 BC carved stele with hieroglyphic writings , which when translated by French scholar Champollion revealed a historical litany of gods (Isis, Osiris, Horus) and Ptolemaic system of Hellenic-Egyptian culture(West 36). Another high benchmark in archaeology was the finding of the Narmer Palette in the temple of Horus in Hierakonpolis by Britons Quibell and Green. This depicted hieroglyphic inscriptions and exquisite ceremonial carvings of Egypt's first pharaoh Narmer attended to by gods that express the Egyptian culture and advanced art in 3150BC Predynastic Period (Holmes 20). This discovery was proclaimed by Egyptologist Brier as "the first historical document in the world" ( Brier 202). 4 Archaeologists all over the world, notably the French, the British and the Americans had a heyday collecting Egyptian antiquities and artifacts that proliferate in the Nile Valley and which allow them to retrace Egypt's glorious past. Some of these are the golden coffin of King Tutankhamen from the 18th dynasty( Millard 70); bas-relief from the temple of Hathor dated around 330 BC; painted wood stele from the 26th dynasty; a faience pottery cup at least 2000 years old, engraved with a marsh scene; the ceremonial head-mace of predynastic King Scorpion that celebrated victory by Upper Egypt against the kingdom of the Nile delta and the subsequent reorganization and peace (Layton 129); fragments of the royal cemetery belonging to the Hyksos kings at Kerma that include, tombs, scarabs, painted furniture, potteries that depict culture of these Asiatic, Semite rulers who usurped the throne of Egypt in 1778 BC (Trigger 166);various sculptures, mummies, jewelries and potteries. The Nubian Civilization The Egyptian and the Nubian civilizations should be rightly regarded as twin civilizations which sprouted by the conditioning influence of the Nile River and its attendant ecosystems, climatic conditions and technological factors. While Egypt occupies the Nile delta up to today's Aswan High Dam, Nubia or the ancient kingdom of Kush continues the occupation of the Nile banks up to the 4th cataract. It thus straddles southern Egypt and northern Sudan. While Egypt's is widely celebrated as the great African civilization, Nubia's had been sadly overlooked . If college students will be queried as to their knowledge of Nubia, chances are shrugs of the soldiers will be the general outcome. 5 But archaelogical excavations can no longer hide shocking truths that Nubian civilization predates that of Egypt's, that it was even more complex and grandiose and that possibly it greatly influenced and even molded Egyptian civilization. The Relationships Between Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Civilizations and the Impact of Their Encounters on Their Visual Cultures Collecting artifacts and monuments to piece together Nubian civilization had never been easy. For one, the construction of the Aswan High Dam in 1960 resulted to the flooding and submerging of the once centers of Nubian civilization and the destruction of the valuable artifacts but the joint efforts of 50 countries resulted to the reassembly of temples and cemeteries which were cut off, dismantled and relocated to safer sites. Thus, the magnificent Abu Simbel temple, two other Parthenon-like temples were reassembled from Philae Island to Agika Island and stunning wall reliefs of Osiris and Isis were likewise reassembled. Other than the artifacts and monuments unearthed by those French and British archaeologists described in the first part of this paper, also recovered were wooden statues of 40 Nubian bowmen dated from the 11th Dynasty and taken from the tomb of King Mesehti in Asyut (Cairo Museum); bas-relief of Medjay or Pan Grave Nubians (Boahen 92)who were determined to be Egyptian allies and in fact made up the Egyptian army of the pharaohs Kamose, Rameses IV and Queen Hatshepsut. All of these evidence point to the symbiotic relationship between the ancient Egyptians and Nubians(Bianchi 102). But to set matters straight, Nubians are not vassals or slaves of the 6 Egyptians but had their own empire which was even more advanced than the latter and they had their own pharaohs who for half a century ruled both Egypt and Nubia. The Swiss archaelogical team led by Charles Bonnet uncovered in Kerma a temple which contained 7 monumental granite statues depicting the 7 pharaohs of Nubia, including Taharqa and Tanoutamon ( Valbelle 16) who held sway over the whole Nile Valley from 800-700 BC when the Nubian king Piye conquered Egypt in 727 BC (Shaw 345). The relations between ancient Egypt and Nubia should aptly be called a love-hate relationship which however resulted in an osmotic absorption of culture and traditions between the two. These are clearly shown by artifacts such as statuary, ceramics, jewelry, funerary articles collected in both and exhibited in both the University Museum of Archaeology in Pennsylvania and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Michigan where these manifested a combination of Egyptian and Nubian qualities and vice-versa. Even Nubian temples depicted Egyptian art and hyroglyphs and vice-versa so much so that curator Dr. O'Connor remarked that that the relationship is too complicated but definitely the artifacts proclaim the fact that both are rivals in Africa (O'Connor viii). Scholars such as Williams and Ehret also asserted that "Egyptian writing, ancestor worship and divine kingship originated in Nubia" (Shavit 197). This close relation is naturally expected as Nubia and Egypt were trading partners since the 6th Dynasty where Nubian gold, ebony, ivory and incense were highly valued which relations soured when Egypt invaded and ruled Nubia from 2000-1000 BC and when Egypt persisted in its 7 raids on Nubia for its cattle and for acquisition of slaves. When Egypt invaded Nubia, it introduced hieroglyphics and pyramids and when the Hyksos invaded Egypt in 1786 BC and introduced horses, war chariots and bronze swords, the Nubians allied themselves to them while the Egyptian royalty fled to Nubia and cultures, art and architecture were further exchanged and this was completed when Egypt invaded Nubia in 1570 BC where they built towns, forts and . Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmosis III built temples and appointed Egyptian viceroys to govern Nubia. The Egyptians also introduced Shaduf water-bucket irrigation technology. When it was the time for the Nubians to control and unite the whole Nile Valley and the establishment of the Dynasty 25 by Kushite pharaoh Alara in 790 BC, they also introduced Nubian art, architecture, military siege tactics, the camels which were 'Assyrian beasts', and iron production technology in 590 BC as well as idol worship to the Egyptians. All of these cultural exchange are reflected in all the artifacts in exhibit in museums all over the world. Conclusion Herodotus' proclamation of Egypt as 'the gift of the Nile' is a big misnomer and like many reflected the general ignorance to the grandiose and compelling Nubian or Kushite civilization which artifacts point to as predating that of the Egyptian civilization and which greatly influenced it. However such artifacts also showed that it went both ways and should be expected considering the close historical links between the two ancient nations. However, one thing cannot be denied i.e. that they have their own original civilizations albeit modified by the other's civilization which both were influenced by the rise and fall of the waters of the Nile as well as its attendant environmental ecosystems, climatic conditions and the flora and fauna of the Nile Valley. 8 REFERENCES Bianchi, Robert Steven. Daily Life of the Nubians. Routledge, 2004. Boahen, A. Adu & Alvin Joseph. The Horizon:History of Africa. American Heritage Publishing Co., 1971. Brewer, Douglas & Emily Teeter.Egypt and the Egyptians.Cambridge University Press,2004 Brier, Bob. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. A. Hoyt Hobbs, 1999. Feder, Kenneth & Michael Park. Human Antiquity. Mayfield Publishing Co., 1989. Grolier Universal Encyclopedia, vol.7, 1998. Holmes, Diane. The Predynastic Lithic Industries of Upper Egypt. B.A.R.,1989. Kasule, Samuel. The History Atlas of Africa. Macmillan, 1998. Layton, Robert. The Anthropology of Art. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Macleod, Scott. The Nile's Other Kingdom.The New York Times, Sept. 15, 1997, vol.150, no.11 Millard, Alan. Discoveries from Bible Times. LION, 1997. O'Connor, David. Ancient Nubia, Egypt's Rival in Africa. University of Pennsylvania,1993. Renseberger, Boyce. Nubian Monarchy Called Oldest. The New York Times, March 1,1979. Shavit, Jacob. History in Black. Routledge, 2001. Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press, 2003. Trigger, Bruce. Ancient Egypt.Cambridge University Press, 1990. Valbelle, Dominique & Charles Bonnet. The Nubian Pharaohs, Black Kings of the Nile. Cambridge University Press, 2006. West, John Anthony. The Traveler's Key to Ancient Egypt. Quest Books, 1995. Read More