When was kush established

During Classical antiquity, the Kushite imperial capital was at Meroe. In early Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia. The Kushite kingdom with its capital at Meroe persisted until the 4th century AD, when it weakened and disintegrated due to internal rebellion. By the 1st century AD, the Kushite capital had been captured by the Beja Dynasty, who tried to revive the empire.

The Kushite capital was eventually captured and burnt to the ground by the Kingdom of Axum. It is also an ethnic term for the native population who initiated the kingdom of Kush.

Geographically, Kush referred to the region south of the first cataract in general. Kush also was the home of the rulers of the 25th dynasty. However, following Friedrich Delitzsch Wo lag das Paradies? Origins Mentuhotep II 21st century BC founder of the Middle Kingdom is recorded to have undertaken campaigns against Kush in the 29th and 31st years of his reign.

This is the earliest Egyptian reference to Kush; the Nubian region had gone by other names in the Old Kingdom. With the disintegration of the New Kingdom around BC, Kush became an independent kingdom centered at Napata in modern central Sudan. The Kushites buried their monarchs along with all their courtiers in mass graves. They would dig a pit and put stones around them in a circle. Kushites also built burial mounds and pyramids, and shared some of the same gods worshiped in Egypt, especially Ammon and Isis.

With the worshiping of these gods the Kushites began to take some of the names of the gods as their throne names. The Kush rulers were regarded as guardians of the state religion and were responsible for maintaining the houses of the gods. 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. Sheshonq also gained control of southern Egypt by placing his family members in important priestly positions. In , King Sheshonq made Memphis his northern capital. However, Libyan control began to erode as a rival dynasty in the delta arose in Leontopolis and Kushites threatened from the south.

Piye attempted to regain a foothold for Egypt in the Near East that had been lost five centuries before during the period of the Middle Assyrian Empire and Hittite Empire. The 25th dynasty was based at Napata, in Nubia, which 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 Taharqa.

The Nile valley empire was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. The 25th dynasty ushered in a renaissance period for Ancient Egypt. Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms.

Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal, etc. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids many in modern Sudan since the Middle Kingdom. In Egyptian art, Kushites are depicted with darker skin and a cropped hairstyle. Kushites depicted themselves wearing animal-skin cloak s, patterned fabrics, and large earrings. Although both cultures valued horses as transportation, Egyptians preferred to use chariots, while Kushites were just as likely to ride the horses themselves.

Pharaohs ruled from the Egyptian capital of Thebes. Perhaps the most influential pharaoh of the 25th Dynasty was Taharqa Khunefertumre , a son of Piye. Taharqa engaged in enormous construction projects in both Upper and Lower Egypt. Under his leadership, temples and monument s were expanded at Memphis, Thebes, and Jebel Barkal. Statues of Taharqa and other pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty are important artifacts. These pharaohs modified the distinct ive headdress to reflect their dual kingship of Egypt and Kush.

The traditional pharaonic headdress features the Uraeus , a stylized depiction of a cobra. Many pharaonic headdresses also feature a vulture, symbolizing Upper southern Egypt. The Assyrians and Egyptians of the Late Period attempted to erase Kushite leadership and the 25th Dynasty from history by destroying their statues, stele s, and even their names from the historic record.

The most significant artifacts of Meroitic culture are probably its pyramid s. More than a dozen Kushite kings, queens, and other nobles are inter red with pyramids. Although unlike Egyptian pyramids, Meroitic pyramids do not hold the tomb itself. The burial chamber lies beneath the pyramid, making the pyramid less a tomb than an enormous headstone. Kushite pyramids are notably smaller and steeper than their older Egyptian cousins. The base of Meroitic pyramids is also smaller than Egyptian pyramids—about 7 meters 22 feet wide, while the step pyramid is about meters feet and the Great Pyramid is meters feet.

Kush had its own dynastic leaders, trade systems, adaptations of Egyptian religion, and even its own alphabet and languages. Kush became weaker as Egypt was absorb ed into the Roman Empire and Rome came to dominate trade to the north. The harsh Saharan climate threatens the stability of Kushite monumental architecture. Centuries of rain and wind have reduced some deffufas to unrecognizable towering lumps. Powerful sandstorms have blasted the pyramids for centuries, and shifting sand has accumulated around many structures, obscuring and even burying them.

This process must only have intensified during the time when the Kushite regime ruled Egypt as the 25th dynasty. These influences did not simply evaporated with the expulsion of the Kushites from Egypt. Far from it. The rulers of Kush continued to wear the double-crown of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt centuries after they has ceased to rule in Egypt.

Egyptian remained the official language at the Kushite court, inscriptions were written using Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian gods were worshipped in Egyptian-style temples. At some point before c. This was an area of land between the fifth and sixth cataracts of the Nile and bounded on two sides by the Nile and Atbara rivers.

Ancient writers describe a fertile land full of farming villages. The area was also well-situated for trade. Trade routes to central Africa in the south, Egypt in the north, and eastwards to the Red Sea, passed through. Just before BCE a powerful new dynasty of pharaohs came to power in Egypt. Napata remained the religious center for now; new kings and queens had to go there to receive the formal blessings of the gods. While the Kushite court had remained in Napata, the ruling class probably retained its Egyptian character almost unaltered.

For some two centuries after the move, the Egyptianized element seems to have predominated. Under the surface, however, things were changing. Moreover, it was set in a different kind of country. The territory around Napata was similar to that of Egypt, albeit on a smaller scale.

The population was concentrated in a narrow ribbon of intensively cultivated land along the banks of the Nile, hedged in by desert. This allowed farming — of tropical cereals such sorghum and millet, and later cotton — to be practiced across a wide area, not just near the rivers. In addition, the area was adjacent to extensive grasslands, ideal for semi-nomadic pastoralism, and cattle-grazing played an important part to the economy. These conditions gave rise to a society quite distinct from that of Egypt and Lower northern Nubia.

The population was much more dispersed than further north. Living in mud and reed houses clustered in small villages, the people obeyed local chiefs and clan heads rather than officials representing a strong central authority.

The semi-nomadic pastoralists of the grasslands were doubtless even more free from royal authority. The Kushite kings had a great deal less control over the local chiefs than the pharaohs of Egypt had had over their officials, and as time went by this aristocracy undoubtedly came to be the dominant element at court.

Although the kings of Kush continued to claim the same absolute authority as the pharaohs, they had to rule with a measure of consent from the local chiefs. Monarchs were chosen with their agreement, albeit from amongst the members of a single royal family, and were liable to be removed if they lost their support. This must have occurred by the third century BCE, as at that time the hieroglyphic script of ancient Egypt was adapted to a flowing alphabetic Meroitic script as yet not understood by modern scholars in which to write the local language.

This move may have been linked to a political struggle between the old and new centers of power in the kingdom, culminating in a massacre of the priests of the Egyptian gods at Napata. At around the same time, worship of the Lion God, Aperdemek — a deity unknown to the Egyptians comes to the fore. His temple at Musawwarat dates to the third century. This is shown in the greater power of local aristocrats, a recurrent theme in African kingdoms through history. It is also reflected in one notable feature of the political life of the kingdom, the importance of queen mothers.

This seems to have reflected a matrilineal line of succession i. She seems to have had her own court, supported by its own estates; and if the king was a child, she would rule the kingdom in his place as regent. This little passage unwittingly reflects the prominence of some royal women.

The fact that an important Nubian official was a Jew and then was baptized a Christian shows that Nubia was, to some extent, linked into the Graeco-Roman world of the Middle East. Egyptian influences were never given up altogether in Kush. This was the burying of the embalmed bodies of kings and other important persons under pyramids. History Expert. Alistair Boddy-Evans is a teacher and African history scholar with more than 25 years of experience. Updated April 10, Featured Video.

Cite this Article Format. Boddy-Evans, Alistair. The History and Origins of the Kingdom of Kush. The 2nd Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

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