Kingdom of Kush

Did You Know?

• The name Kush has been connected with the biblical character Cush, son of Ham, since at least the time of Josephus.
• During the siege of Hermopolis in the eighth century BC, siege towers were built for the Kushite army led by Piye.
• Kushite archers favored one-piece bows between six and seven feet long, often using their feet to bend them.

History

The Nabta Playa civilization emerged in Nubia around 7500 BC, with megaliths that are early examples of astronomical devices. The A-Group civilization lasted from the 4th millennium BC, reaching its climax around 3100 BC and falling around 2900 BC. The Kerma culture flourished from around 2500 BC to 1500 BC, centered in Kerma, Sudan, and later extended into Lower Nubia. In its latest phase (c. 1700–1500 BC), it absorbed the kingdom of Saï and became a sizable empire rivaling Egypt. Doukki Gel, a settlement near Kerma inhabited between 1800 BC and 400 AD, showed distinctive Sub-Saharan architectural influences. The Egyptians ruled Kush during the New Kingdom, beginning when Thutmose I occupied Kush and destroyed its capital, Kerma. Following Egypt's disintegration after the Late Bronze Age collapse, the Kushites reestablished a kingdom at Napata. In the 8th century BC, King Kashta peacefully became king of Upper Egypt, and his successor Piye invaded Lower Egypt, establishing the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. Kushite monarchs ruled Egypt for over a century until the Assyrian conquest in the mid-7th century BC. The imperial capital then moved to Meroë.

Language and writing

The Meroitic language was spoken in Meroë and Sudan during the Meroitic period (attested from 300 BC) and became extinct around 400 AD. Its language family is uncertain: Kirsty Rowan argues it belongs to the Afro-Asiatic family based on sound inventory and phonotactics, while Claude Rilly proposes it belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family based on syntax, morphology, and vocabulary. During the Napatan period, Egyptian hieroglyphs were used, with writing restricted to court and temples. From the second century BC, a separate Meroitic writing system appeared, using two forms: Meroitic Cursive, written with a stylus for general record-keeping, and Meroitic Hieroglyphic, carved in stone for royal or religious documents. The earliest inscription in Meroitic writing dates from between 180 and 170 BC, found on the temple of Queen Shanakdakhete. Meroitic Cursive is written horizontally from right to left, with 23 signs. The script was deciphered by Griffith, but the language remains poorly understood, with only a few words known.

Technology, medicine, and mathematics

The Kushites developed a type of water wheel called the saqiyah, named kolē, during the Meroitic period to improve irrigation. This machine lifted water 3 to 8 meters with less labor than the shaduf and was driven by animals. The people of Kerma built bronze kilns to manufacture objects such as razors, mirrors, and tweezers. The Kushites also developed a form of reservoir known as a hafir during the Meroitic period; eight hundred ancient and modern hafirs have been registered in the Meroitic town of Butana. These hafirs caught water during the rainy season for storage, supplying drinking water, irrigating fields, and watering cattle. The Great Hafir near the Lion Temple in Musawwarat es-Sufra is 250 m in diameter and 6.3 m deep. Bloomeries and blast furnaces may have been used in metalworking at Meroë, with early bloomery furnaces dated to at least the seventh and sixth centuries BC. Nubian mummies studied in the 1990s revealed that Kush was a pioneer of early antibiotics: tetracycline was used by Nubians between 350 AD and 550 AD, likely from beer made in earthen jars containing the bacterium streptomyces.

Architecture

The Kingdom of Kush developed its tomb monuments from earlier Middle Nile burial styles, which grew larger over time, especially during the 25th dynasty. The largest example was Taharqa’s underground rectangular chamber carved from solid rock. Kushite builders also made pyramids, mud-brick temples called deffufa, and stone temples. Piye is believed to have built the first true pyramid at el Kurru. These pyramids were smaller and steeper than those in northern Egypt, modeled after New Kingdom elite pyramids. Most Kushite homes were round timber huts, though some were apartment buildings with two-room units. The Kushites also constructed a stone-paved road at Jebel Barkal, Nile harbors or piers, and numerous wells.