| Kingdom of Kush Kaš |
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| Capital | Kerma; Napata; later Meroe | |||
| Language(s) | Meroitic, Nubian | |||
| Religion | Ancient Egyptian religion | |||
| Government | Monarchy | |||
| History | ||||
| - Established | 1070 BC | |||
| - Capital moved to Napata | 780 BC | |||
| - Capital moved to Meroe | 591 BC | |||
| - Disestablished | AD 350 | |||
| Population | ||||
| - Egyptian phase[1] est. | 100,000 | |||
| - Meroite phase[1] est. | 1,150,000 | |||
The Kingdom of Kush or Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile, White Nile and River Atbara in what is now the Republic of Sudan.
Established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, it was centered at Napata in its early phase. After king Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as Pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt for a century, until they were expelled by Psamtik I in 656 BC.
During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroe. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia. The Nubian kingdom at Meroe persisted until the 4th century AD, when it was militarily defeated by the Ethiopian kingdom of Axum.
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The native name of the Kingdom was likely kaš, recorded in Egyptian as kꜢš.
The name Kash is probably connected to Cush in the Hebrew Bible (Hebrew: כוש), son of Ham (Genesis 10:6).
The conventional name "kingdom of Kush" was introduced in 19th-century Egyptology.
Some scholars believe the economy in the Kingdom of Kush was a redistributive system. The state would collect taxes in the form of surplus produce and would redistribute to the people. Others believe that most of the society worked on the land and required nothing from the state and did not contribute to the state. Northern Kush seemed to be more productive and wealthier than the Southern area.[2]
During the New Kingdom of Egypt, Nubia (Kash) was an Egyptian province, governed by the Viceroy of Kush. With the disintegration of the New Kingdom around 1070 BCE, Kash became an independent kingdom centered at Napata.[3]
The Kushites buried their monarchs along with all their courtiers in mass graves. Archaeologists refer to these practices as the "Pan-grave culture".[4] The Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids, and shared some of the same gods worshiped in Egypt, especially Ammon and Isis.
The Kush rulers were regarded as guardians of the state religion and were responsible for maintaining the houses of the Gods.[2]
World Heritage
In Ancient Egypt, Libyan princes had taken control of the delta under Shoshenq I in 945 BCE, founding the so-called Libyan or Bubastite dynasty that would rule for some 200 years. Sheshonq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions. However, Libyan control began to erode as a rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis, and Kushites threatened from the south. Around 727 BCE the Kushite king Piye invaded northward, seizing control of Thebes and eventually the Delta.[6] His dynasty, the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, continued until about 653 BCE. The 25th dynasty was based at Napata, in what is now The Sudan. Alara is universally regarded as the founder of the 25th Kushite dynasty by his successors. The power of the 25th Dynasty reached a climax under the pharaohs Piye and Taharqo.
Taharqo was the son of Piye and the first seventeen years of his reign were very prosperous for Kush.[7] Pharaoh Taharqo spent half his time as ruler of Egypt restoring its earlier cultural achievements while also fending off Assyrian power in the east. In 674 BC, he defeated an invading Assyrian army under the leadership of Esarhaddon. Three years later, he would be defeated in three battles that would force Kush out of Egypt altogether. Taharqo was followed by the Assyrians from Memphis to Thebes, abandoning his troops after being defeated in a battle at Pelusiam in the Eastern Delta.[7] Why the Kushites chose to enter Egypt at this crucial point of foreign domination is subject to debate. Archaeologist Timmothy Kendall offers his own hypotheses, connecting it to a claim of legitimacy associated with Gebel Barkal.[8] Kendall cites the stele of Pharaoh Piye, which states that "Amun of Napata granted me to be ruler of every foreign country," and "Amun in Thebes granted me to be ruler of the Black Land (Kmt)". Noteworthy is that according to Kendall, "foreign lands" in this regard seems to include Lower Egypt while Kmt seems to refer to a united Upper Egypt and Nubia.[9]
Aspelta moved the capital to Meroë, considerably farther south than Napata, possibly in 591 BC.[10] It is also possible that Meroë had always been the Kushite capital.
Historians believe that the Kushite rulers may have chosen Meroë as their home because, unlike Napata, the region around Meroë had enough woodlands to provide fuel for iron working. In addition, Kush was no longer dependent on the Nile to trade with the outside world; they could instead transport goods from Meroë to the Red Sea coast, where Greek merchants were now traveling extensively.
The Kushites used the animal-driven water wheel to increase productivity and create a surplus, particularly during the Napatan-Meroitic Kingdom.[11]
In about 300 BC the move to Meroë was made more complete when the monarchs began to be buried there, instead of at Napata. One theory is that this represents the monarchs breaking away from the power of the priests at Napata. According to Diodorus Siculus, a Kushite king, "Ergamenes", defied the priests and had them slaughtered. This story may refer to the first ruler to be buried at Meroë with a similar name such as Arqamani,[12] who ruled many years after the royal cemetery was opened at Meroë. During this same period, Kushite authority may have extended some 1,500 km along the Nile River valley from the Egyptian frontier in the north to areas far south of modern Khartoum and probably also substantial territories to the east and west.[13]
Kushite civilization continued for several centuries. In the Napatan Period Egyptian hieroglyphs were used: at this time writing seems to have been restricted to the court and temples.[14] From the 2nd century BC there was a separate Meroitic writing system.[14] This was an alphabetic script with 23 signs used in a hieroglyphic form (mainly on monumental art) and in a cursive form.[14] The latter was widely used; so far some 1278 texts using this version are known (Leclant 2000). The script was deciphered by Griffith, but the language behind it is still a problem, with only a few words understood by modern scholars.[14] It is not as yet possible to connect the Meroitic language with other known languages.[14]
Strabo describes a war with the Romans in the 1st century BC. After the initial victories of Kandake (or "Candace") Amanirenas against Roman Egypt, the Kushites were defeated and Napata sacked.[15] Remarkably, the destruction of the capital of Napata was not a crippling blow to the Kushites and did not frighten Candace enough to prevent her from again engaging in combat with the Roman military. Indeed, it seems that Petronius's attack might have had a revitalizing influence on the kingdom. Just three years later, in 22 BCE, a large Kushite force moved northward with intention of attacking Qasr Ibrim. Alerted to the advanced, Petronius again marched south and managed to reach Qasr Ibrim and bolster its defences before the invading Kushites arrived. Although the ancient sources give no description of the ensuing battle, we know that at some point the Kushites sent ambassadors to negotiate a peace settlement with Petronius. By the end of the second campaign, however, Petronius was in no mood to deal further with the Kushites.[16] The Kushites succeeded in negotiating a peace treaty on favourable terms.[15]
The kingdom of Kush began to fade as a power by the 1st or 2nd century AD, sapped by the war with the Roman province of Egypt and the decline of its traditional industries.[17] Christianity began to gain over the old phaoronic religion and by the mid-sixth century AD the Kingdom of Kush was dissolved.[2]