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The Lost Land of Nubia: Egypt's Southern Neighbor in Africa
Robert K. Ritner
The Land and Its History
The term "Nubia" designates a land now shared between the modern states of Egypt and the Sudan. Stretching for
some 1,600 miles along the river Nile south of the Egyptian border town of Aswan, Nubia is a land of contrasts in
both geography and peoples. Encroaching sands along the shore and rocky outcrops, or "cataracts," in the river
make the northern section often inhospitable to large settlements and easy transportation, while farther south near
the modern city of Khartoum the Nile divides to produce vast grasslands and fertile fields. Taking its name from the
south to north direction of the Nile's flow, "Lower" (or northern) Nubia was continually in contact with Egyptian
civilization, whether as trading partner, rival, colony or conqueror. Despite its poor agricultural resources, this portion
of Nubia contained major deposits of gold, and for that reason Egypt repeatedly occupied and fortified the north. The
modern name "Nubia" probably derives from the ancient Egyptian word for "gold" (nub). Other Egyptian names for the
territory have also survived into modern times, including "Cush" (found in the Bible) and "Nehsy" in the personal
names Phineas and Pincus (which both mean "the Nubian").
The peoples that the Egyptians encountered in the north have histories that can be traced as long as those of Egypt,
but with significant differences. Despite cultural similarities in the earliest periods, the northern Nubians were slow to
develop anything resembling a unified state, and the earliest evidence of political unity appears only 2,500 years after
the First Dynasty of Egypt. Unlike Egypt, where writing appears before 3200 BC, Nubian societies remained unable
to write their own languages until Roman times, although rulers adopted the dominant Egyptian script and language
for official monuments from about 700 BC. As a result of these factors, Nubian groups were often small tribal bands
near the river or mobile bedouin in the deserts who left no imposing monuments or texts to describe their lives.
The first indigenous Nubian culture, the "A-Group" (ca. 3500-3000 BC), lived in small villages between the first and
second cataracts in the Nile. Known only from some 75 regional cemeteries, these communities flourished primarily
as middlemen in trade with Egypt and disappeared abruptly with the rise of the Egyptian First Dynasty. After a
hiatus of about 750 years (the possible period of the disputed "B-Group"), a new society of pastoral nomads, the "C-
Group" (ca. 2250-1550 BC), settled in the former A-Group territory. Circular homes and graves characterize these
dispersed communities, which were subservient to Egyptian political control, reinforced by a series of prominent river
fortress built by Middle Kingdom pharaohs. Another contemporary Nubian group fared better with its northern
neighbor. Members of the "Pan Grave" culture (ca. 2500-1500 BC), named for its shallow circular graves, served as
bowmen and mercenaries in the Egyptian military and are attested in burials not only in Nubia but in Egypt itself.
Two major exceptions to this pattern of domination occurred when Egypt was internally divided and unable to impose
its control beyond Aswan: the Kerma civilization of ca. 1800-1500 BC and the Napatan dynasty of ca. 700-310 BC.
Before excavations in Nubia prompted by the building of the first Aswan dam from 1907-1911 and the second from
1959-1969, even these societies were best known from Egyptian records that provide an often hostile view of their
cultures.
Kerma, based just south of the third cataract, was allied with the Canaanite Hyksos rulers of northern Egypt.
Probably related to the C-Group, this society exploited Egyptian weakness to become the hub of a great trading
network between sub-Saharan Africa, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Kerman armies occupied abandoned
Egyptian fortresses and invaded Egypt itself; the capital of Kerma became a city of temples, workshops and
monumental buildings in brick and wattle, with cemeteries containing massive circular tumuli. The largest of these is
over 300 feet in diameter with perhaps as many as 400 human sacrifices.
Kerma fell to succeeding invasions of the triumphant Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, which established direct colonial
rule that dominated Lower Nubia for well over four centuries. The New Kingdom occupation of Nubia produced many
of the most famous monuments in the region, including fortresses, free-standing temples and shrines, and the
extraordinary rock-cut temples of Abu Simbel. Throughout this period, Nubians appear in Egyptian records both as
stereotyped "wretched" enemies and as valued Egyptianized citizens, who often served in the military and police
forces. At the end of Egypt's New Kingdom, internal dissension and Libyan invasions led to the withdrawal of
Egyptian forces and the rise of an independent Nubian kingdom based at the former colonial site of Napata, near the
"Holy Mountain" (Gebel Barkal). Mixing elements of local cultural traditions with formal Egyptian religion and
language, the Napatan dynasty presented itself to the Egyptians as the true inheritors of New Kingdom Egyptian
culture. In a reversal of the situation that had prevailed for millennia, Nubian forces then invaded Egypt as cultural
saviors against divided Libyan city states. As Dynasty 25, Nubian rulers became formal pharaohs of Egypt for a
century. Finally driven from Egypt by Assyrian invaders in 663 BC, the Nubian kingdom never abandoned its claim to
Egyptian rule. As a result of the dynasty's adoption of Egyptian traditions, there are more royal pyramids in Nubia
than in Egypt itself.
In addition to gold, from earliest times trade has been noted as a critical factor in the development of Lower Nubia,
since it served as the gateway to the produce abundant in southern, or "Upper," Nubia that was considered exotic
and valuable in Egypt. In recognition of this trade, the name of the city of Aswan, which is located on the natural
boundary of Egypt near the first cataract, means "market" or "place of exchange." The division between Lower and
Upper Nubia is based on the limit of extended Egyptian colonization at the dangerous second cataract, roughly
corresponding to the modern boundaries of Egypt and the Sudan. This traditional division masks the complexity of
Upper Nubia, however, which includes as many as five distinct environments ranging from arid desert to grasslands.
For Egypt and the Mediterranean world, Upper Nubia provided animals such as giraffes and baboons, pelts, feathers,
incense trees, and in particular elephant ivory and ebony wood, whose modern English names derive directly from
Egyptian (and perhaps Nubian) terms. Upper Nubia never experienced the Egyptian colonization imposed in the
north, and aside from brief raids along the Nile beyond the fourth cataract, Egypt was forced by the great distance to
conduct peaceful expeditions with negotiations and payment for items obtained from local chiefs. Again, Egyptian
records and depictions have often served as the best evidence for the peoples and customs of southern Nubia, but
this region became the heartland of the most significant Nubian empire, the Kingdom of Mero.
Descended directly from the earlier Napatan kingdom that had ruled Egypt briefly as Dynasty 25, the Meroitic empire
flourished from the fourth century BC until the fourth century AD and maintained contacts not only with Egypt, but
with the broader Greek and Roman world and perhaps even India. In architecture, sculpture, jewelry and especially in
its famed pottery, Meroitic art shows a cosmopolitan mixture of native, Pharaonic and Hellenistic styles. By
modifying current Egyptian scripts, Meroitic scribes developed the first African writing system outside of Egypt to
record their own language. Unfortunately, only individual terms and phrases of that written language can now be
translated. Sacked by invading forces from Axum (Ethiopia) about AD 350, the Meroitic state disentegrated into
territories ruled by differing "X-Groups": Blemmyes in the eastern deserts, Noubadians in Lower Nubia and Noba in
the southern Sudan.
Even in late antiquity, Nubian courts could justifiably claim to be the protector of Egyptian traditions. Well after the
formal conversion of Egypt to Christianity, Nubian society preserved the basic elements of Egyptian religion in
company with regional deities such as the lion god Apedemak. The Blemmye nomads who replaced the Meroitic
empire in the fourth century even forced the Byzantine emperors to leave open the temple of Philae, the sacred
island of the goddess Isis. Closed only in the reign of Justinian (ca. AD 540), this last "pagan" temple owed its
longevity to direct Nubian intervention. When Nubia did convert to Christianity, it again looked to Egypt for its model
and adopted the distinctive practices of the Coptic, or Egyptian, Church. Excavations by the Oriental Institute at the
small monastery of Qasr el-Wizz discovered two remarkable hymns to the cross: one in Coptic and the other in Old
Nubian, the literary predecessor to the two modern dialects of Nubian that are no longer written, only spoken.
Widespread conversion to Islam began only after AD 1323 with the accession of a Moslem prince in the formerly
Christian kingdom of Dongola.
Lost Nubia and the Oriental Institute
With some exceptions, the sites and history of Nubia can no longer be examined on the ground. The construction of
two dams at Aswan which led to intensive study of Nubian remains have also submerged the land and driven modern
Nubians from their ancestral homes to new locations in Egypt and the Sudan. Lower Nubia in particular has all but
vanished beneath the waters of the modern Lake Nasser. New excavations are no longer possible in these areas,
and the surviving documentation from earlier expeditions is not merely precious, but invaluable for understanding this
land and its peoples. Fortunately, the Oriental Institute of The University of Chicago took a leading role in the
documentation and excavation of Nubia prior to its disappearance. Even before the official inception of the Institute,
its founder James Henry Breasted made extended photographic (and combination honeymoon) expeditions to Nubia
from 1905 until 1907. During the construction of the Aswan High Dam, the Institute was awarded the concessions for
all excavation between Aswan and the Sudanese border, as well as several river fortresses, a temple of Ramses II
and a Coptic monastery. From 1960 until 1968, the Institute recovered some 10,000 Nubian objects, of which more
than 95% became part of the permanent collections of the Oriental Institute Museum.
As a result of its efforts to record these pivotal African cultures, the Institute possesses unique photographic records
of ancient monuments and contemporary inhabitants at over 65 locations and extensive field records and artifacts
recovered from nine excavated sites ranging in date from 3000 BC until the Middle Ages. No less important is an
unparalleled publication series of Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition reports that make the results of these
excavations available to a broader audience. In 1965, the Institute produced the film "The Egyptologists," narrated by
Charlton Heston, to raise public support for the UNESCO "Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia." Using more
current technology, the Institute has placed 1,100 photographs on-line in combination with descriptions of Nubian
cultures produced for three previous temporary Nubian gallery installations from 1987 until 1992. With the current
renovation of the museum galleries, the Oriental Institute will have its first opportunity to present a larger --and
permanent-- display of its extraordinary collection of Nubian materials that document the complete historical range of
the varied inhabitants and multiple cultures of Nubian Africa from its earliest records until the Middle Ages.
The Exhibit
Since the bulk of the Institute's Nubian collection derives not from the "art market" but from controlled excavations,
the gallery presentation should properly emphasize our unique resource of original archaeological deposits that have
been used to identify and refine the historical periods and cultures of Nubia. Works of art and daily life, architectural
features of towns, temples, tombs and later churches, in addition to photographic records of vanished sites, would
allow the visitor to gain an appreciation for the importance and distinctive characteristics of the varied groups that
influenced and inhabited Nubia. Although Nubian cultures include some of the most diverse, complex and historically
significant societies in Africa, they are among the least well known of the ancient peoples studied by the Oriental
Institute.
In the absence of indigenous names for many of the non-literate cultures of Nubia, archaeologists have assigned
designations that may strike visitors as both unfamiliar and odd but which have now become traditional (A-Group, C-
Group, X-Group). The significance of such groups is not in the name, but in the distinctive types and range of
materials that define its culture. To facilitate a broader understanding of Nubian societies, the gallery should not
follow the common practice of grouping objects simply by type (pottery or musical instruments, for example) in a
manner that overlooks the differences between individual Nubian cultures. Instead, the gallery ought to highlight
Nubian diversity. Thus cemeteries of the "A-Group," contemporary with Egypt's Predynastic Period and early Old
Kingdom, include distinctive, regional African features such as cattle skeletons along with some materials imported
from (or influenced by) neighboring Egypt. Resembling a South African krall, the great audience hall of the later
Kerma chiefdom employs a circular shape that is common in the works of many Nubian societies, but rare in Egypt.
In contrast to its Kerman predecessor, the Napatan kingdom contains a wider variety of Egyptian influences, while
yet retaining a clear Nubian identity even in propaganda intended for Egyptian audiences. Unlike Egyptian royalty,
the Napatan elite was matriarchal, with powerful queens noted in Roman treaties under the title "Kandake," the origin
of the modern personal name "Candace."
Each Nubian culture should be presented in its own terms: 1) stressing Nubia's own prehistory as well as links and
differences with archaic Egypt, 2) detailing the extended Egyptian domination of the region and the evidence for local
cultures, 3) recounting Nubian domination of Egypt in turn and the vast empire of Mero, and 4) concluding with
"Medieval Nubia," featuring artifacts from the latest pre-Christian societies (the "X-Groups" of Blemmyes, Nobadians
and Noba), in addition to Coptic artifacts. Objects could range from true art works to mundane items, with a featured
object used to typify each period: an incense burner suggested to show links with Egyptian kingship, Egyptian racial
stereotypes of Nubian warriors, a bronze statue of a Napatan pharaoh, and extraordinary colored textiles and Biblical
manuscripts of the medieval era.
October 20, 2004
Revised: February 7, 2007
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