History Egypt And Nubia example essay topic

History is a clock people use to tell their historical culture and political time of the day. It's a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. The history tells them where they have been, where they are and what they are! But most importantly history tells a people where they must go and what they still must be.

However, for Egypt not many people are aware of Egypt's successor Nubia. Egypt was a country that was greatly influenced by the civilization of Nubia and at one time the kingdom of Nubia even ruled over Egypt. The Nubian kingdom now resides in the country of Sudan. The first sign of Nubian civilization appeared about 3800 B.C. The capital of this great African Kingdom was Qustul also called "the land of the bow".

At the site of Qustul in the 1950's archeologist found an engraved on the side of a burner are a seated ruler, a palace portal (a doorway or entrance to an official residence of a royal passage. ), a crown, and a falcon, motifs that were to become symbols of Egyptian pharaohs. Historians also believe that the idea of earthly gods could have been a Nubian inspiration and some scholars also believe that the idea of kinship was established first by Nubia and then traveled to Egypt. For almost a century various Nubian kings ruled Egypt during the 25th dynasty. The Nubian king Piankhy sent troops north, seizing the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis and uniting Egypt and Nubia under his rule, beginning in 747 B.C. This resulted in the Nubian kings being pictured in temples and tombs as black pharaohs of Egypt and Egyptians adopting most of their customs and traditions.

However, the Nubian elite therefore adopted many aspects of Egyptian culture, including mummification, the pyramid, tomb and artistic styles. The Nubians are believed to be the primary race on Earth. To the Greeks, they were known as Ethiopians which meant burnt faces and Nubia was the land of Punts that means "the land of gods". Nubia was a neighbor to Egypt. It occupied the banks of the Nile River South of Aswan all the way to the sixth cataract.

Nubia was a black African culture long overshadowed in history by Egypt, but brilliant and innovative in it's own right. Their best-known achievement was the dismantling and reconstruction safely above the water line of the splendid temple at Abu Simbel, erected by Ramses II in the 13th century B.C. The temple symbolized Nubian's reputation a remote upriver land prey to Egyptian conquests and the source of gold, ivory, and slaves that embellished the downriver kingdom of the pharaohs. Scholars are finding in the artifacts striking evidence of Nubian's influence on Egyptian culture and it's development of kingly rule, a pivotal political innovation that may have influenced the rise of pharaohs in Egypt. "Nubia was an important civilization in it's own right and not just a stepsister of Egypt", states Dr. Emily. Nubia is a region in what is today Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. A thousand miles from south to Khartoum Anthropologists say historical images and skeletal remains suggest that the ancient Nubians were much like the people living their now with medium brown skin, broad features and tightly curled hair.

Egyptians and Nubians also came close through trade in ivory, gold, animal skin, ebony and had their own way of antibiotics. Unlocking the secrets of the Nubian civilization has been a difficult task because historians have not accumulated the key to deciphering the Meroitic writing system of ancient Nubia. Unlike the Egyptians, Nubians did not write in hieroglyphs but, developed a writing system that is the second oldest in Africa, after Egyptian hieroglyphics. At the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Nubian Gallery there is a tablet, with funeral inscriptions in Egyptian and in Meroitic is one of three hundreds and fifty objects on display. One fact that cannot be deciphered is whether or not Nubian's and Egyptian's shared the same race. Many historians due to racist sentiments have pondered this question.

One reason may be because a lot of scholars discredit Africans regarding Egypt and accredit all African achievement to the presence of European genes. To furthermore, many historians are biased and still believe that Africans are inferior to Europeans. However, it is said that the ancient Greek writers Herodotus, Di odorous Siculus, and Aristotle all described the Egyptians as "blacked skinned people". Yet that was not enough for George R eisner who was an archeologist who pioneered in Nubian archaeology with his excavations in the early 1900's of a five thousand year old Nubian royal cemetery.

He argued that the pottery he uncovered must have been essentially Egyptian and that they soon declined as a result of the "increasing change in the racial character of the people therefore the Negroid became dominant. He then twists his argument and says, "Thus a race was revealed which had only a political and geographical connection with Egypt. The Nubian race as Negroid, but not Negro; it was perhaps a mixture of the pro-Egyptian and a Negro or Negroid race. This was a common argument used to justify their theory of the Nubians sharing everything with Egyptians except the same race. Throughout history Egypt and Nubia has been intertwined since the beginning of time. Nubia traded ivory, animal skins, and pottery for cheese, oil, honey, and linen cloth from Egypt.

At one time in 2800 B.C. Egypt took over Nubia and it was referred to as the C-group. It was a time when Nubia and Egypt coincide during the C-group. After many years Karma captured all of Egypt and along with lower Nubia. They destroyed Nubian's capital city and from then on Egypt and Nubia ceased to coexist for the next thousands of years. For Egypt and Nubia their history will forever be connected due to their family like connection; you could say their relationship resembles that of a new mother nursing her new born baby during it's first weeks of life. General sources web and Egypt web and Nubia web Egypt and Nubian's connection Sudan, Nubia and Egypt Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.