Ancient States of Egypt and Nubia: Map & History

By about 3600 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile had based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Shortly after 3600 BC, Egyptian society began to grow and advance rapidly toward refined civilization. New and discrete pottery styles related to those of Palestine appeared and copper became more extensively used. The Mesopotamian process of sun-dried bricks, and architectural building principles—including the use of the arch and recessed walls for decorative effect—became popular.

From Wikipedia: Early Dynastic Period of Egypt · Cultural evolution (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Upper Egypt is considered to have formed the pre-dominant basis for the cultural development of Pharaonic Egypt and the Proto-dynastic kings emerged from the Naqada region. Several dynasties of southern or Upper Egyptian origin, which included the 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th and 25th dynasties, reunified and reinvigorated pharaonic Egypt after periods of fragmentation.

From Wikipedia: Upper Egypt · Peopling of Upper Egypt: Cultural affinities (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The relation of the Fifteenth Dynasty to Egyptian religious traditions was ambiguous, and they are said by commentators on the Eighteenth Dynasty that "they ruled without acknowledging Re". The dynasty is recorded as having destroyed Egyptian monuments and removed Egyptian statuary for booty, as well as plundering royal tombs, Ahmose complaining that "pyramids have been torn down".

From Wikipedia: Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt · Dynastic history: Religion (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The trading relations of the Fifteenth Dynasty were mainly with Canaan and Cyprus. Trade with Canaan is said to have been "intensive", especially with many imports of Canaanite wares, and may have reflected the Canaanite origins of the dynasty. According to the Kamose stelae, the Hyksos imported "charriots and horses, ships, timber, gold, lapis lazuli, silver, turquoise, bronze, axes without number, oil, incense, fat and honey". The Fifteenth Dynasty also exported large quantities of material looted from southern Egypt, especially Egyptian sculptures, to the areas of Canaan and Syria. These transfers of Egyptian artifacts to the Near East may especially be attributed to king Apophis. Trade relations with Cyprus were also very important.

From Wikipedia: Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt · Dynastic history: Trade (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The founder of the dynasty was Rahotep and most scholars consider his dynasty to have been native to Egypt.

From Wikipedia: Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt · Origins (CC BY-SA 4.0)

While under the Hyksos rule, the kings of the 17th dynasty revived the cult of Osiris, reinforced the cult of Horus, rebuilt temples, and established military control over the religious site, Abdju. This was the beginning of their campaign for reunification.

From Wikipedia: Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt · War with the Hyksos (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Imperialism and the ambition of establishing a universal, all-encompassing empire was a long-established aspect of royal ideology in the ancient Near East prior to the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the Early Dynastic Period of Mesopotamia (c. 2900 – c. 2350 BCE), the Sumerian rulers of the various city-states in the region often fought with each other in order to establish small hegemonic empires and to gain a superior position relative to the other city-states. Eventually, these small conflicts evolved into a general ambition to achieve universal rule. Reaching a position of world domination was not seen as a wholly impossible task in this time since Mesopotamia was believed to correspond to the entire world. One of the earliest Mesopotamian "world conquerors" was Lugalzaggesi, king of Uruk, who conquered all of Lower Mesopotamia in the 24th century BCE.

From Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire · Background (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The unprecedented success of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was tied to its ability to efficiently incorporate conquered lands into its administrative system. It is clear that there was a strong sense of order in the Assyrian mindset, so much so that the Neo-Assyrians have sometimes been referred to as the "Prussians of the ancient Near East". This sense of order manifested in various parts of Neo-Assyrian society, including the more square and regular shape of the characters in Neo-Assyrian writing and in the organized administration of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which was divided into a set of provinces.

From Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire · Government: Elite and administration (CC BY-SA 4.0)

At the height of the empire, the Assyrian army was the strongest army yet assembled in world history. The number of soldiers was likely several hundred thousand. The Assyrians pioneered innovative strategies, particularly concerning cavalry and siege warfare, that would be used in warfare for millennia. Due to detailed royal records and detailed depictions of soldiers and battle scenes on reliefs, the equipment and organization of the army is relatively well understood. Communication within the army and between units was fast and efficient; using the empire's efficient methods of state communication, messages could be sent across vast distances very quickly. Messages could be passed within an army through the use of fire signals.

From Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire · Military (CC BY-SA 4.0)

After Ashurbanipal's death in 631 BCE, the throne was inherited by his son, Aššur-etil-ilāni. Though some historians have forwarded the idea that Ashur-etil-ilani was a minor upon his accession, this is unlikely given that he is attested to have had children during his brief reign. Despite being his father's legitimate successor, he appears to have been installed against considerable opposition with the aid of the chief eunuch, Sîn-šumu-līšir. Assyrian official Nabû-riḫtu-uṣūr appears to have attempted to usurp the throne, but Sîn-šumu-līšir swiftly crushed his revolt. Since excavated ruins at Nineveh from around the time of Ashurbanipal's death show evidence of fire damage, the plot might have resulted in violence and unrest within the capital.

From Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire · History: Collapse and fall of the empire (CC BY-SA 4.0)

When the Medes and Babylonians conquered the Assyrian heartland, they put the monuments, palaces, temples and cities to the torch; the Assyrian people were dispersed, and the cities were for a long time left largely abandoned. Though Assyria experienced a resurgence in the post-imperial period, chiefly under the Seleucids and Parthians, the region was later devastated once more during the rise of the Sasanian Empire in the 3rd century AD. The only ancient Assyrian city to be continually inhabited as an urban center from the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to the present is Arbela, today known as Erbil.

From Wikipedia: Neo-Assyrian Empire · Legacy: Archaeology (CC BY-SA 4.0)

When Esarhaddon marched to Egypt, a temple of cedar wood was erected at Harran. There, the god Sin was enthroned on a wooden column, two crowns on his head, and standing in front of him was the god Nuska. Esarhaddon entered and placed the crowns onto his head, and the following was proclaimed: 'You shall go forth and conquer the world!' And he went and conquered Egypt.

From Wikipedia: Assyrian conquest of Egypt · Invasion of Esarhaddon (673 BCE): Campaign of 671 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The new Egyptian Dynasty, having been installed by the Assyrians, remained on friendly terms with them. But the Neo-Assyrian empire began to disintegrate rapidly after a series of bitter civil wars broke out involving a number of claimants to the throne. While the Neo-Assyrian Empire was preoccupied with revolts and civil war over control of the throne, Psamtik I threw off his ties to the Assyrians circa 655 BCE, and formed alliances with King Gyges of Lydia, and recruited mercenaries from Caria and ancient Greece to resist Assyrian attacks.

From Wikipedia: Assyrian conquest of Egypt · Decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Following the murder of Roman emperor Alexander Severus in 235, general after general squabbled over control of the empire, the frontiers were neglected and subjected to frequent raids by Carpians, Goths and Alemanni, in addition to outright attacks from the aggressive Sassanids in the east. Finally, Shapur I of Persia inflicted a disastrous defeat upon the Romans at the Battle of Edessa in 260, capturing the Roman emperor Valerian and soon, Quietus and Macrianus rebelled against Valerian's son Gallienus and usurped the imperial power in Syria.

From Wikipedia: Palmyrene Empire · Background (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The ultimate motive behind the revolt is debated; when dealing with the rise of Palmyra and the rebellion of Zenobia, historians most often interpreted the ascendancy as an indication of cultural, ethnic or social factors. Andreas Alföldi viewed the rebellion as a completely native ethnic opposition against Rome. Irfan Shahîd considered Zenobia's revolt a pan-Arab movement that was a forerunner of the Arab expansion of the Caliphates; an opinion shared by Franz Altheim, and an almost universal view amongst Arab and Syrian scholars such as Philip Khuri Hitti. Mark Whittow disagreed that the revolt was ethnic in its nature and emphasized that it was a reaction to the weakness of Rome and its inability to protect Palmyra from the Persians. Warwick Ball viewed the rebellion as aimed at Rome's throne, not just Palmyrene independence.

From Wikipedia: Palmyrene Empire · Evaluation and legacy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The name Alodia might be of considerable antiquity, perhaps appearing first as Alut on the Kushite stela of king Nastasen from the late 4th century BC. It appeared again as Alwa on a list of Kushite towns by the Roman author Pliny the Elder (1st century AD), said to be located south of Meroë. Another town named Alwa is mentioned in a 4th-century Aksumite inscription on the Ezana Stone, with the location of the town near the confluence of the Nile and the Atbara rivers.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · History: Origins (CC BY-SA 4.0)

While information about Alodia's government is sparse, it was likely similar to that of Makuria. The head of state was the king who, according to al-Aswani, reigned as an absolute monarch. He was recorded to be able to enslave any of his subjects at will, who would not oppose his decision, but prostrated themselves before him. As in Makuria, succession to the Alodian throne was matrilineal: it was the son of the king's sister, not his son who succeeded to the throne. There might be evidence a mobile royal encampment existed, although the translation of the original source, Abu al-Makarim, is not certain. Similar mobile courts are known to have existed in the early Funj sultanate, Ethiopia and Darfur.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · Administration (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alodia was in the savannah belt, giving it an economic advantage over its northern neighbor Makuria. According to al-Aswani the "provisions of the country of Alwa and their king" came from Kersa, which has been identified with the Gezira. North of the confluence of the two Niles agriculture was limited to farms along the river watered by devices like the shadoof or the more sophisticated sakia. In contrast, the farmers of the Gezira profited from sufficient rainfall to make rainfall cultivation the economic mainstay.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · Economy: Agriculture (CC BY-SA 4.0)

While Alodia was polyethnic, and hence polylingual, it was essentially a Nubian state whose majority spoke a Nubian language. Based on a few inscriptions found in Alodian territory it has been suggested that the Alodians spoke a dialect distinct from Old Nobiin of northern Nubia, dubbed as Alwan-Nubian. This assumption rests primarily on the script used in these inscriptions, which, while also being based on the Greek alphabet, differs from that employed in Makuria by making no use of Coptic diacritics and instead having special characters based on Meroitic hieroglyphs. However, ultimately the classification of this language and its relationship to Old Nobiin has yet to be specified. It appears to have become extinct by the 19th century, when it had been replaced by Arabic.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · Culture: Languages (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Archaeological evidence from Soba suggests a decline of the town, and therefore possibly the Alodian kingdom, from the 12th century. By c. 1300 the decline of Alodia was well advanced. No pottery or glassware postdating the 13th century has been identified at Soba. Two churches were apparently destroyed during the 13th century, although they were rebuilt shortly afterwards. It has been suggested that Alodia was under attack by an African, possibly Nilotic, people called Damadim who originated from the border region of modern Sudan and South Sudan, along the Bahr el Ghazal River. According to geographer Ibn Sa'id al-Maghribi, they attacked Nubia in 1220. Soba may have been conquered at this time, suffering occupation and destruction. In the late 13th century, another invasion by an unspecified people from the south occurred.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · History: Decline (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Historian Jay Spaulding proposes that the fall of Soba was not necessarily the end of Alodia. According to the Jewish traveler David Reubeni, who visited the country in 1523, there was still a "Kingdom of Soba" on the eastern bank of the Blue Nile, although he explicitly noted Soba itself was in ruins. This matches the oral traditions from the Upper Blue Nile, which claim that Alodia survived Soba's fall and still existed along the Blue Nile. It had gradually retreated to the mountains of Fazughli in the Ethiopian-Sudanese borderlands, forming the Kingdom of Fazughli. Recent excavations in western Ethiopia seem to confirm the theory of an Alodian migration. The Funj eventually conquered Fazughli in 1685 and its population, known as Hamaj, became a fundamental part of Sennar, eventually seizing power in 1761–1762.

From Wikipedia: Alodia · History: Legacy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

By the early 4th century, if not before, the Kingdom of Kush with its capital Meroe was collapsing. The region which would later constitute Makuria, i.e. the Nile Valley between the third Nile cataract and the great Nile bend of the fourth/fifth cataract, has been proposed to have seceded from Kush already in the 3rd century. Here, a homogenous and relatively isolated culture dubbed as "pre-Makuria" developed. During the 4th and 5th centuries, the region of Napata, located near the fourth cataract and formerly being one of the most important political and sacred places of Kush, served as the center for a new regional elite buried in large tumuli like those at el Zuma or Tanqasi. There was a significant population growth accompanied by social transformations.

From Wikipedia: Makuria · History: Early period (5th–8th century) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Makuria was a monarchy ruled by a king based in Dongola. The king was also considered a priest and could perform mass. How succession was decided is not clear. Early writers indicate it was from father to son. After the 12th century, however, it seems clear that Makuria was using the uncle-to-sister's-son system. A Coptic source from the mid 8th century refers to king Cyriacos as "orthodox Abyssinian king of Makuria" as well as "Greek king", with "Abyssinian" probably reflecting the Miaphysite Coptic church and "Greek" the Byzantine Orthodox one. In 1186 king Moses Georgios called himself "king of Alodia, Makuria, Nobadia, Dalmatia and Axioma."

From Wikipedia: Makuria · Government (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The main economic activity in Makuria was agriculture, with farmers growing several crops a year of barley, millet, and dates. The methods used were generally the same that had been used for millennia. Small plots of well irrigated land were lined along the banks of the Nile, which would be fertilized by the river's annual flooding. One important technological advance was the saqiya, an oxen-powered water wheel, that was introduced in the Roman period and helped increase yields and population density. Settlement patterns indicate that land was divided into individual plots rather than as in a manorial system. The peasants lived in small villages composed of clustered houses of sun-dried brick.

From Wikipedia: Makuria · Economy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Beside Nubian there existed three other languages in medieval Nubia: Greek, Coptic and Arabic. Greek is the language that is attested the most often. It was a highly prestigious sacral language associated with the Christian Scriptures and the liturgy. Ostraca with receipts for the shipment of grain suggest that Greek may have also been used for administrative and commercial purposes during the 6th–8th centuries. Funerary stelae, which were produced until the 12th century, often featured a rather sophisticated Greek following late antique models. Late inscriptions, however, show that over time Greek in Makuria became increasingly "Nubianized".

From Wikipedia: Makuria · Culture: Others (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In 1171 Saladin overthrew the Fatimid dynasty, which signaled new hostilities between Egypt and Nubia. The following year a Makurian army pillaged Aswan and advanced even further north. It is not clear if this campaign was intended to aid the Fatimids or was merely a raid exploiting the unstable situation in Egypt The latter seems more likely, however, as the Makurians apparently soon withdrew. A subsequent expedition by Saladin's brother Turan-Shah conquered Qasr Ibrim in January 1173, reportedly sacking it and converting its church into a mosque. King Moses Georgios, who probably ruled over both Makuria and Alodia, initiated peace negotiations, but in vain. A detachment of Kurdish troops stationed in Qasr Ibrim would raid Lower Nubia for the next two years until in 1175 a Nubian army finally arrived to confront the invaders at Adindan near Faras.

From Wikipedia: Makuria · History: Decline (12th century – 1366) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

As confirmed by epigraphical and archaeological evidence, Christianity was already present among parts of the Nobadian society even before the official conversion of 543. The Nobadian elite might have started considering to convert to Christianity in the 530s, parallel to when the Isis temple was shut down. Christianity proceeded to spread through Nobadia on various levels at different speeds. Towns, for example, were quick in adopting the new religion, while the Christianization of the villages was not accomplished until the 7th–9th centuries. South of the second cataract, Christianity seems to have begun spreading later than in the north, possibly since the late 6th or early 7th century. Many ancient Egyptian temples were converted to churches and plastered with Christian wall paintings.

From Wikipedia: Nobatia · Religion: Christianity (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Archaeology from the pagan period confirms the relevance archery had for the Nubians and therefore also the Nobatians. The slightly reflexed longsbows, which are attested for Kushite mercenaries since the Middle Kingdom, were replaced by reflex composite bows during the Meroitic or post-Meroitic period, measuring around one meter and originally designed to be shot from horseback. One simple wooden self bow is known from an early Nobadian burial in Qustul. The Nobadians shot barbed and possibly poisoned arrows of around 50 cm length. To store the arrows, they used quivers made of tanned leather from long-necked animals such as goats or gazelles. Additionally, they were enhanced with straps, flaps and elaborate decoration. The quivers were possibly worn on the front rather than on the back.

From Wikipedia: Nobatia · Military culture: Missile weapons (CC BY-SA 4.0)