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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 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, while the Egyptians viewed the lands to their source 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 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 usually depicted themselves with their distinct sub-Saharan racial features instead of as typical Egyptians.
