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[[File: RamessesII_smiting_Nubian.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Relief Depicting Egyptian King Ramesses II “Smiting” a Nubian Prisoner]]
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Among ancient Egypt’s many neighbors were the Nubians, who inhabited the Nile Valley to the south of Egypt in what is today the nation-state of Sudan. Although the Egyptians and Nubians had many peaceful interactions over the course of several centuries, the two peoples' political leaders of the two peoples had a more acrimonious and contentious relationship. When the Egyptian state was strong, Nubia was usually weak and vice versa. To the Nubians, Egypt was the source of high-culture and civilization that they admired and eventually replicated in many ways. Simultaneously, while the Egyptians viewed the lands to their south as a source of resources to be exploited. Gold, ivory, and ebony were all commodities that the Egyptians took from Nubia and traded with other Near Eastern kingdoms as far away as Babylon and Assyria.
But the relationship between the Nubians and Egyptians extended far beyond exploitation of resources and ancient forms of colonialism; by the first millennium BC , the Nubians had impacted many aspects of pharaonic culture. In 728 BC , a Nubian king named Piankhy, or Piye, led an army from Nubia north into Egypt and conquered the land, establishing the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty in the process. Although the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty lasted less than 100 years, its kings were very active in shaping Egypt’s political situation. The Nubians also influenced the Egyptian culture of the Late Period – the period from approximately 728 BC until the Christian Era – by promoting “archaizing” features in royal ideology and art. Their influence on Egyptian art is perhaps the most noticeable because it reintroduced older styles, while putting their own unique stamp on the finished products, especially in reliefs and statuary, as they . They usually depicted themselves with their distinct sub-Saharan racial features instead of as typical Egyptians.
====Ancient Nubian Culture====
[[File: Nubia.png|300px|thumbnail|left|Map of Egypt and Nubia: The Numbers Represent the Cataracts of the Nile River]]
[[File: First Cataract.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|The Edge of the First Cataract Near Modern Aswan/Ancient Abu]]
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 . It brought yearly floods that allowed their crops to grow, so both peoples were geographical geographically 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” “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 various 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 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 there was a clear and distinct line between the Egyptians and Nubians, but this was not always the case.
====The Height of Nubian Power====
The height of Nubian political power in the region came during Egypt’s Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1750-1650 BC), when a foreign dynasty known as the “Hyksos” people were in control of northern Egypt. The Though, the Nubians, though, had extended their power from the Dongola Reach region around Kerma all the way north to the first cataract. <ref> Morkot, p. 62</ref> and were apparently not content with that as they were involved in an alliance with the Hyksos. <ref> Welsby, p. 12</ref> The Nubians probably had their eyes set on acquiring the region around Thebes, which also happened to be the home of the only native Egyptian dynasty at the time, but quickly had their plans destroyed when the Egyptian King Ahmose (reigned ca. 1552-1527 BC) came to power, initiating the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom and putting Nubia once more into an inferior political position.
===Nubia during Egypt’s New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1075 BC)===
Nubia’s political ambitions took a dramatic turn for the worse when the Egyptian king Thutmose III (ruled ca. 1479-1425 BC) came to the throne. Thutmose III was a particularly active military pharaoh who is often compared to Julius Caesar. Most of Thutmose III’s recorded military campaigns were of his several Levant expeditions. Still, but he did leave a number of many textual and pictorial depictions of his campaigns into Nubia and he . He had a victory stela erected in the Nubian city of Gebel Barkal near the fourth cataract, which indicates indicating Egyptian influence, if not outright control, extended that far south during the New Kingdom. <ref> Bryan, Betsy. “The Eighteenth Dynasty before the Amarna Period.” In <i>The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.</i> Edited by Ian Shaw. (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 246</ref> By the Nineteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians had colonized Nubia so thoroughly that a new government office was created known as the “king’s son of Kush.” The king’s son of Kush essentially functioned as a viceroy of the region, overseeing the trade and colonization. <ref> O’Connor, David. “New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, 1552-664 BC.” In <i>Ancient Egypt: A Social History.</i> Edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor, and Alan B. Lloyd. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004), p. 262</ref> But as with hundreds of years of prior Egyptian-Nubian history, Egypt’s primacy would falter once more , and Nubia would be there to take advantage.
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====The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty====
[[File: Taharqa.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Statue of King Taharqa in the National Museum of Sudan, Khartoum]]
Egypt’s the New Kingdom collapsed over a long period that was marked by widespread migrations of Libyans into Egypt, especially in the Delta region. The result was a politically fragmented Egypt: a dynasty of native Egyptian priests temporarily ruled the region around Thebes while . In contrast, the Twenty-First through the Twenty-Fourth dynasties were all Libyan in ethnic origins, often ruling different parts of the country simultaneously. <ref> Kitchen, Kenneth. <i>The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt: (1100 to 650 BC).</i> Second Edition. (Warminster, United Kingdom: Aris and Phillips, 1995), pgs. 1-377</ref> This period of political fragmentation and Libyan domination has become known as the Third Intermediate Period (1075-664 BC) by modern historians. Before Egypt politically and socially disintegrated, the Nubians moved their capital farther south to the city of Napata, which was located near the fourth cataract.
Over the course of hundreds of years, the Nubians adopted many of the Egyptians' important cultural attributes of the Egyptians, including writing and aspects of their religion. In many ways, by the time of the Third Intermediate Period, the Nubians were more pious followers of the Egyptian pantheon than the Egyptians were. Because of their faith in the Egyptian religion, the Nubian elite developed close ties to the priesthood of the god Amun of Thebes. It was probably under their urging that Piankhy (reigned over Egypt 728-714 BC) decided to invade Egypt in order to dislodge a Libyan potentate named Tefnakht from power in the Delta. <ref> Spalinger, Anthony. “The Military Background of the Campaign of Piye (Piankhy).” <i>Studien zur Altägypttischen Kultur.</i> 7 (1979) p. 273</ref> Piankhy marched north along the Nile with his army, defeating one Libyan potentate after another until they all pledged their fealty to him. <ref> Grimal, Nicholas. <i>Le stele tromphale de Pi)ankh.</i> (Cairo: L’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 1981), pgs. 130-1</ref> After defeating the Nubians, Piankhy returned to the royal palace in Napata and never returned to Egypt, but he did establish a long-lasting political connection. Piankhy’s successors would comprise Egypt’s Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, ruling over both Nubia and Egypt from the Egyptian capitals of Memphis and Thebes.
====Conclusion====
The Nubians have been the Egyptians’ southern neighbors since the dawn of civilization over 5,000 years ago. During that time, the Egyptians were usually the dominant people, but the Nubians were able to could impact pharaonic civilization in a number of some ways. When the Egyptians were strong, especially during the New Kingdom, Nubia was a source of great wealth source for the Egyptians. The Egyptians established forts and colonies that exploited the Nubia's rich mineral resources of Nubia, which they then traded on the international market with other Near Eastern kingdoms. Later, when the central government in Egypt collapsed, the Nubians conquered Egypt and brought back a certain amount of stability. The Nubians then involved themselves in the affairs of the Near East's affairs, but that ultimately proved detrimental to Egypt. Finally, the Nubians brought back older artistic styles and conventions that gave new impetus to a culture that seemed exhausted of ideas.
====References====