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The term “Nubia” is actually a modern word, which may be derived from the ancient Egyptian word for gold – <i>nebu</i>. To both the Egyptians and Nubians, the Nile River was the source of their lifeblood as it brought yearly floods that allowed their crops to grow, so both peoples were geographical orientated along a north-south axis. The Egyptians referred to anything south of the first cataract (cataracts are rocky portions of a river unnavigable by boat) as “Wawat” and anything south of the second cataract was called “Kush.” Collectively, Wawat and Kush comprise the region that modern scholars generally refer to as Nubia. <ref> Morkot, Robert. <i>The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers.</i> (London: Rubicon Press, 2000), p. 6</ref>
The Egyptians were a fairly xenophobic people who often used a variety of names to refer to their neighbors and other non-Egyptians with whom they dealt. They often referred to the Nubians in texts by the fairly neutral term “Nehesy,” but also liked to employ more colorful epithets such as the “wretched Kushites.” <ref> Welsby, Derek A. <i>The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires.</i> (Princeton, New Jersey: Marcus Weiner, 1998), p. 7</ref> The ancient Egyptians were quite cognizant of the differences between them and all of their neighbors, as evidenced by the many “smiting” scenes on New Kingdom temples where the Egyptian king is shown about to club bound foreign prisoners with a mace. The tomb of the New Kingdom Nineteenth Dynasty Egyptian King Seti I (reigned ca. 1305-1290 BC) depicts Egypt’s three major neighbors and enemies: Nubians, Libyans, and Asiatics/Canaanites. <ref> Smith, Stuart Tyson. <i>The Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt’s Nubian Empire.</i> (London: Routledge, 2003), p. 23</ref> Each of the non-Egyptians was depicted wearing his traditional clothing and with their his specific skin color and facial features – the Nubian was shown as black, as opposed to the reddish brown Egyptian, and with clearly sub-Saharan African facial features. Based on the art historical evidence in Egypt, especially from the New Kingdom, one may think that there was a clear and distinct line between the Egyptians and Nubians, but this was not always the case.
From a relatively early time, Egyptians and Nubians interacted peacefully with each other in trade, as neighbors in Egyptian held portions of Nubia, and some even intermarried. Egyptian kings were impressed with the Nubians’ martial abilities and often used Nubian bowmen contingents in their armies as mercenaries. Nubian mercenaries would work and live in Egypt and sometimes married Egyptians. There are several examples of funerary stelae (offering stones) from Egypt’s First Intermediate Period (ca. 2150-2050 BC) that depict Nubian mercenaries with their Egyptian wives. The Nubian mercenaries are dressed in traditional Egyptian clothing but their skin color and physiognomy show them as clearly being Nubian. <ref> Smith, p. 23</ref>