The National Museum of Sudan or Sudan National Museum , abbreviated SNM , is a two-story building, constructed in 1955 and established as national museum in 1971.
104-613: The building and its surrounding gardens house the largest and most comprehensive Nubian archaeological collection in the world, including objects from the Paleolithic through to the Islamic period, originating from every site of importance in Sudan. A significant catalyst for the museum's creation was the large number of relocated artefacts as a result of the International Campaign to Save
208-464: A / ). However, many nouns are unstable with regard to vowel length ; thus, bálé ~ báléé ' feast ' , ííg ~ íg ' fire ' , shártí ~ sháártí ' spear ' . Diphthongs are interpreted as sequences of vowels and the glides / w / and / j / . Consonant length is contrastive in Nobiin, e.g., dáwwí ' path ' vs. dáwí ' kitchen ' . Like vowel length, consonant length
312-459: A common "Saharan-Sudanese culture", and drew their reinforcements from the same great source, even though, as time went by, they also absorbed a number of wanderers from the Near East". Biological anthropologists Shomarka Keita and A.J. Boyce have stated that the "Studies of crania from southern predynastic Egypt , from the formative period (4000-3100 B.C.), show them usually to be more similar to
416-490: A common identity; additionally, they differ in their traditions about their origins. The languages are clearly genetically related, but the picture is complicated by the fact that there are also indications of contact-induced language change . Nobiin appears to have had a strong influence on Dongolawi, as evidenced by similarities between the phoneme inventories as well as the occurrence of numerous borrowed grammatical morphemes. This has led some to suggest that Dongolawi in fact
520-569: A large circular dwelling, and a palace-like structure. Classic Kerma rulers employed "a good many Egyptians", according to the Egyptian Execration texts. Kerma culture was militaristic, as attested by many archers' burials and bronze daggers/swords found in their graves. Other signs of Nubia's military prowess are the frequent use of Nubians in Egypt's military and Egypt's need to construct numerous fortresses to defend their southern border from
624-512: A large number of young women. Trained at the Department of Archeology of the University of Khartoum , this new generation represents a growing number of professionals for Sudan’s National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums, who are adding their contemporary perspective on the heritage of Sudan to foreign-led research and studies. The National Museum of Sudan was the scene of heavy fighting during
728-574: A lasting legacy that was merged with indigenous C-group customs. Egyptians remaining at the garrison towns started to merge with the C-group Nubians in Lower Nubia. The C-group quickly adopted Egyptian customs and culture, as attested by their graves, and lived together with the remaining Egyptians in garrison towns. After Upper Nubia annexed Lower Nubia around 1700 BC, the Kingdom of Kush began to control
832-486: A member of the Taman group, with an average lexical similarity of just 22.2 per cent. Nobiin has open and closed syllables : ág ' mouth ' , één ' woman ' , gíí ' uncle ' , kám ' camel ' , díís ' blood ' . Every syllable bears a tone. Long consonants are only found in intervocalic position, whereas long vowels can occur in initial, medial and final position. Phonotactically , there might be
936-669: A military occupation of Thebes to the High Priest, which later led to the Civil war in Thebes. By 1082 BC, Ramesses XI finally sent help to the High Priest. Panehesy continued his revolt and the city of Thebes suffered from "war, famine, and plunderings". Panehesy initially succeeded and the High Priest fled Thebes. Panehesy pursued the High Priest as far as Middle Egypt before Egyptian forces pushed Panehesy and his troops out of Egypt and into Lower Nubia. Ramesses sent new leadership to Thebes: Herihor
1040-601: A millennium. Their eventual decline started not only the partition of Nubia, which was split into the northern half conquered by the Ottomans and the southern half by the Sennar sultanate , in the sixteenth century, but also a rapid Islamization and partial Arabization of the Nubian people . Nubia was reunited with the Khedivate of Egypt in the nineteenth century. Today, the region of Nubia
1144-755: A monumental scale." At Karnak, the Sacred Lake structures, the kiosk in the first court, and the colonnades at the temple entrance are all built by Taharqa and Mentuemhet. In addition to architecture, the Kingdom of Kush was deeply influenced by Egyptian culture. By 780 BC, Amun was the main god of Kush and "intense contacts with Thebes" were maintained. Kush used the methods of Egyptian art and writing. The Nubian elite adopted many Egyptian customs and gave their children Egyptian names. Although some Nubian customs and beliefs (e.g. burial practices) continued to be practiced, Egyptianization dominated in ideas, practices, and iconography. The cultural Egyptianization of Nubia
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#17328518136011248-467: A series of towns below the Second Cataract with heavy fortresses that had enclosures and drawbridges. Sesotris III relentlessly expanded his kingdom into Nubia (from 1866 to 1863 BC) and erected massive river forts including Buhen , Semna , Shalfak and Toshka at Uronarti to gain more control over the trade routes in Lower Nubia. They also provided direct access to trade with Upper Nubia, which
1352-658: A weak relationship between the occurrence of consonant and vowel length: forms like dàrrìl ' climb ' and dààrìl ' be present ' are found, but * dàrìl (short V + short C) and * dààrrìl (long V + long C) do not exist; similarly, féyyìr 'grow' and fééyìr 'lose (a battle)' occur, but not * féyìr and * fééyyìr . Nobiin has a five- vowel system. The vowels / e / and / o / can be realized close-mid or more open-mid (as [ ɛ ] and [ ɔ ] , respectively). Vowels can be long or short, e.g., jáákí ' fear ' (long / aː / ), jàkkàr ' fish-hook ' (short /
1456-562: Is "a 'hybrid' language between old Nobiin and pre-contact Dongolawi." Evidence of the reverse influence is much rarer, although there are some late loans in Nobiin which are thought to come from Dongolawi. The Nubian languages are part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan languages . On the basis of a comparison with seventeen other Eastern Sudanic languages, Thelwall (1982) considers Nubian to be most closely related to Tama,
1560-548: Is a Nubian language of the Nilo-Saharan language family . "Nobiin" is the genitive form of Nòòbíí ("Nubian") and literally means "(language) of the Nubians ". Another term used is Noban tamen , meaning "the Nubian language". At least 2500 years ago, the first Nubian speakers migrated into the Nile valley from the southwest. Old Nubian is thought to be ancestral to Nobiin. Nobiin
1664-643: Is a tonal language with contrastive vowel and consonant length. The basic word order is subject–object–verb . Nobiin is currently spoken along the banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt and northern Sudan by approximately 610,000 Nubians. In 1996 there were 295,000 Nobiin speakers in Sudan , and in 2006 there were 310,000 Nobiin speakers in Egypt . It is spoken by the Fedicca in Egypt and
1768-555: Is a region along the Nile river encompassing the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan ), and the area between the first cataract of the Nile (south of Aswan in southern Egypt ) or more strictly, Al Dabbah . It was the seat of one of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa , the Kerma culture , which lasted from around 2500 BC until its conquest by
1872-407: Is a voiced labial-velar. Nobiin is a tonal language, in which pitch is used to mark lexical contrasts . Tone also figures heavily in morphological derivation . Nobiin has two underlying tones, high and low. A falling tone occurs in certain contexts; this tone can in general be analysed as arising from a high and a low tone together. In Nobiin, every utterance ends in a low tone. This is one of
1976-532: Is corroborated by the fact that the oral tradition of the Shaigiya tribe of the Jaali group of arabized Nile Nubians tells of coming from the southwest long ago. The speakers of Nobiin are thought to have come to the area before the speakers of the related Kenzi-Dongolawi languages (see classification below). Since the seventh century, Nobiin has been challenged by Arabic . The economic and cultural influence of Egypt over
2080-728: Is destroying not just the country's future, but also the country's past." Reports later emerged that some items from the museum's collection had been looted and taken to be sold in South Sudan. Ikhlas Abdel Latif, the head of museums at the Sudanese national antiquities authority, said that items stored in the museum had been taken by truck to western Sudan and border areas. 15°36′22″N 32°30′29″E / 15.606°N 32.508°E / 15.606; 32.508 Nubia Nubia ( / ˈ nj uː b i ə / , Nobiin : Nobīn , Arabic : النُوبَة , romanized : an-Nūba )
2184-495: Is indicative of her role as a goddess of resurrection, since black is both the color of the fertile land of Egypt and that of the underworld. However, there is no known depiction of her painted during her lifetime (she is represented with the same light skin as other represented individuals in tomb TT15, before her deification); the earliest black skin depiction appears in tomb TT161, c. 150 years after her death. Egyptologist Barbara Lesko wrote in 1996 that Ahmose-Nefertari
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#17328518136012288-501: Is not very stable; long consonants tend to be shortened in many cases (e.g., the Arabic loan dùkkáán ' shop ' is often found as dùkáán ). The phoneme / p / has a somewhat marginal status as it only occurs as a result of certain morphophonological processes. The voiced plosive / b / is mainly in contrast with / f / . Originally, [ z ] only occurred as an allophone of / s / before voiced consonants; however, through
2392-640: Is one of the about eleven Nubian languages . It has traditionally been grouped with the Dongolawi cluster, mainly based on the geographic proximity of the two (before the construction of the Aswan Dam, varieties of Dongolawi were spoken north and south of the Nobiin area, in Kunuz and Dongola respectively). The uniformity of this 'Nile-Nubian' branch was first called into doubt by Thelwall (1982) who argued, based on lexicostatistical evidence, that Nobiin must have split off from
2496-529: Is split between Egypt and Sudan. The primarily archaeological science dealing with ancient Nubia is called Nubiology . Historically, the people of Nubia spoke at least two varieties of Nubian languages , a subfamily that includes Nobiin (the descendant of Old Nubian), Dongolawi , Midob and several related varieties in the northern part of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan . The Birgid language
2600-463: Is transparently derived from the set of personal pronouns plus a connexive suffix -íín . Another set is less clearly related to the simple personal pronouns; all possessive pronouns of this set bear a high tone. The third set is derived from the second set by appending the nominalizing suffix -ní . Nobiin has two demonstrative pronouns : ìn 'this', denoting things nearby, and mán 'that', denoting things farther away. Both can function as
2704-506: The C-Group culture and the Blemmyes ) spoke Cushitic languages before the spread of Eastern Sudanic languages from southern or Upper Nubia . Nubia was divided into three major regions: Upper, Middle, and Lower Nubia, in reference to their locations along the Nile . "Lower" referred to regions downstream (further north) and "upper" to regions upstream (further south). Lower Nubia lay between
2808-615: The First Dynasty of Egypt buried at Abydos were of Nubian origin. However, several biological anthropological studies have shown the Badarian and Naqada people to be closely related to the Nubian and other, tropical African populations. Also, the proto-dynastic kings emerged from the Naqada region. A uniform culture of nomadic herders, called the Gash group , existed from 3000 to 1500 BC to
2912-518: The Mahas and Halfawi tribes in Sudan. Present-day Nobiin speakers are almost universally multilingual in local varieties of Arabic , generally speaking Modern Standard Arabic (for official purposes) as well as Saʽidi Arabic , Egyptian Arabic , or Sudanese Arabic . Many Nobiin-speaking Nubians were forced to relocate in 1963–1964 to make room for the construction of the Aswan Dam at Aswan , Egypt and for
3016-884: The Medjay ( mḏꜣ , ) arriving from the desert east of the Nile river. One feature of Pan Grave culture was shallow grave burial. The Pan Grave and C-Group definitely interacted: Pan Grave pottery is characterized by more limited incised lines than the C-Group's and generally have interspersed undecorated spaces within the geometric schemes. In 2300 BC, Nubia was first mentioned in Old Kingdom Egyptian accounts of trade missions. The Egyptians referred to Lower Nubia as Wawat, Irtjet, and Setju, while they referred to Upper Nubia as Yam. Some authors believe that Irtjet and Setju could also have been in Upper Nubia. They referred to Nubians dwelling near
3120-503: The New Kingdom of Egypt under Pharaoh Thutmose I around 1500 BC, whose heirs ruled most of Nubia for the next 400 years. Nubia was home to several empires , most prominently the Kingdom of Kush , which conquered Egypt in the eighth century BC during the reign of Piye and ruled the country as its 25th Dynasty (to be replaced a century later by the native Egyptian 26th Dynasty ). From
3224-566: The Sudanese civil war (2023–present) between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces . Archaeologists monitoring the site noted fire damage on the building during the fighting. On 2 June 2023, the museum was taken over by the RSF. Exhibits, among them ancient mummies, were destroyed or damaged. The Continent magazine commented these events as follows: "The war in Sudan
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3328-733: The Twelfth Dynasty had strong Nubian features, due to the origin of the dynasty in the Aswan region of southern Egypt. He also identified the pharaoh Sequenre Tao of the Seventeenth Dynasty , as having Nubian features. Many scholars in recent years have argued that the mother of Amenemhat I, founder of the Twelfth Dynasty was of Nubian origin. After a period of withdrawal, the Middle Kingdom of Egypt conquered Lower Nubia from 2000 to 1700 BC. By 1900 BC, King Sesostris I began building
3432-571: The White and the Blue Nile. During the 2023 Sudan conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces , the National Museum of Sudan was the scene of heavy fighting, resulting in damage and looting. The objects of the museum are displayed in four areas: Highlights of the collections include: In the museum garden are some rebuilt temples and tombs relocated from
3536-463: The 15th Dynasty, isolated Nubian communities in Egypt, and some bowmen communities. C-Group pottery is characterized by all-over incised geometric lines with white infill and impressed imitations of basketry. Lower Nubia was controlled by Egypt from 2000 to 1700 BC and Upper Nubia from 1700 to 1525 BC. From 2200 to 1700 BC, the Pan Grave culture appeared in Lower Nubia. Some of the people were likely
3640-534: The 25th Dynasty's founder and "central to a myth of the origins of the kingdom". Alara's sister was the priestess of Amun, which created a system of royal secession and an "ideology of royal power in which Kushite concepts and practice were united with contemporary Egyptian concepts of kingship". Later, Kashta's daughter, the Kushite princess Amenirdis, was installed as God's Wife of Amun Elect and later Divine Adoratrice (effectively governor of Upper Egypt), which signaled
3744-579: The 3rd century BC to 3rd century AD, northern Nubia was invaded and annexed to Egypt, ruled by the Greeks and Romans . This territory was known in the Greco-Roman world as Dodekaschoinos . Kush's collapse in the fourth century AD was preceded by an invasion from the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum and the rise of three Christian kingdoms: Nobatia , Makuria and Alodia . Makuria and Alodia lasted for roughly
3848-509: The C-group in Upper Nubia vanish by 2000 BC and Kerma culture began to dominate Upper Nubia. The power of an independent Upper Nubia increased around 1700 BC and Upper Nubia dominated Lower Nubia. An Egyptian official, Harkhuf, mentions that Irtjet, Setjet, and Wawat all combined under a single ruler. By 1650 BC, Egyptian texts started to refer to only two kingdoms in Nubia: Kush and Shaat. Kush
3952-572: The Early A-Group culture , arose in Lower Nubia. They were sedentary agriculturalists, traded with the Egyptians and exported gold. This trade is supported archaeologically by large amounts of Egyptian commodities deposited in the A-Group graves. The imports consisted of gold objects, copper tools, faience amulets and beads, seals, slate palettes, stone vessels, and a variety of pots. During this time,
4056-689: The Egyptian Nile Valley during these periods, which may be due to problems in site preservation. Several scholars have argued that the African origins of the Egyptian civilization derived from pastoral communities which emerged in both the Egyptian and Sudanese regions of the Nile Valley in the fifth millennium BCE. Dietrich Wildung (2018) examined Eastern Saharan pottery styles and Sudanese stone sculptures and suggested these artefacts were transmitted across
4160-627: The Egyptian military as scouts and minor workers before being incorporated into the Egyptian army. In the army, the Medjay served as garrison troops in Egyptian fortifications in Nubia and patrolled the deserts as a kind of gendarmerie , or elite paramilitary police force, to prevent their fellow Medjay tribespeople from further attacking Egyptian assets in the region. The Medjay were often used to protect valuable areas, especially royal and religious complexes. Although they are most notable for their protection of
4264-430: The Egyptian occupation of Nubia, there were temple towns with Egyptian cults, but "production and redistribution" was based mostly on indigenous social structures. The El Kurru chiefdom likely played a major role in the development of the Kingdom of Kush due to its access to gold producing areas, control of caravan routes, more arable land, and participation in international trade. "There can be no doubt that el-Kurru
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4368-827: The First and the Second Cataracts within the current borders of Egypt, Middle Nubia lay between the Second and the Third Cataracts, and Upper Nubia lay south of the Third Cataract. Archaeological evidence attests to long histories of fishing-hunting-gathering, and later herding, throughout the Nile Valley. Affad 23 is an archaeological site located in the Affad region of southern Dongola Reach in northern Sudan , which hosts "the well-preserved remains of prehistoric camps (relics of
4472-525: The Kushite conquest of Egyptian territories. The Napatan Empire ushered in the age of Egyptian archaism, or a return to a historical past, which was embodied by a concentrated effort at religious renewal and restoration of Egypt's holy places. Piye expanded the Temple of Amun at Jebel Barkal by adding "an immense colonnaded forecourt". Shabaka restored the great Egyptian monuments and temples, "unlike his Libyan predecessors". Taharqa enriched Thebes on
4576-628: The Middle East. The primitive working conditions for the slaves are recorded by Diodorus Siculus . One of the oldest maps known is of a gold mine in Nubia: the Turin Papyrus Map dating to about 1160 BC; it is also one of the earliest characterized road maps in existence. Nubians were an integral part of New Kingdom Egyptian society. Some scholars state that Nubians were included in the 18th Dynasty of Egypt 's royal family. Ahmose-Nefertari , "arguably
4680-516: The Monuments of Nubia . In particular, it houses collections of these periods of the history of Sudan : Paleolithic , Mesolithic , Neolithic , A-Group culture , C-Group culture , Kerma Culture , Middle Kingdom of Egypt , New Kingdom of Egypt , Napata , Meroë , X-Group culture and medieval Makuria . The museum is located on Nile Avenue in Khartoum in al-Mugran area, close to the confluence of
4784-460: The Naqada people and the Nubian A-Group people were from different cultures. Kathryn Bard states that "Naqada cultural burials contain very few Nubian craft goods, which suggests that while Egyptian goods were exported to Nubia and were buried in A-Group graves, A-Group goods were of little interest further north." According to anthropologist Jane Hill, there is no evidence that the pharaohs of
4888-587: The New Kingdom pharaohs brought all of Nubia under Egyptian rule from 1500 to 1070 BC. After 1070 BC, there were continued hostilities with Egypt, which led Nubians to concentrate in Upper Nubia. Within 200 years, a fully formed Kushite state, based at Napata, began to exert its influence on Upper (Southern) Egypt. When the Middle Kingdom Egyptians pulled out of the Napata region around 1700 BC, they left
4992-405: The Nile Valley and influenced the pre-dynastic Egyptian culture in the Neolithic period. The poorly known " pre-Kerma " culture existed in Upper (Southern) Nubia on a stretch of fertile farmland just south of the Third Cataract . Nubia has one of the oldest civilizations in the world. This history is often intertwined with Egypt to the north. Around 3500 BC, the second "Nubian" culture, termed
5096-420: The Nile Valley to the south, probably at the time of the downfall of the Christian kingdoms. However, comparative lexicostatistic research in the second half of the twentieth century has shown that the spread must have been in the opposite direction. Joseph Greenberg (as cited in Thelwall 1982) calculated that a split between Hill Nubian and the two Nile-Nubian languages occurred at least 2500 years ago. This
5200-447: The Nile valley between the third cataract in the south and Korosko in the north. About 60% of the territory of Nubia was destroyed or rendered unfit for habitation as a result of the construction of the dam and the creation of Lake Nasser . At least half of the Nubian population was forcibly resettled. Nowadays, Nobiin speakers live in the following areas: (1) near Kom Ombo , Egypt, about 40 km north of Aswan , where new housing
5304-446: The Nile: Outside the museum building are set up two granite unfinished colossal statues from the ancient temple of Tabo on Argo Island . As inscriptions are missing, they cannot be assigned to any precise origin, but show Roman stylistic influence. The lane leading from the museum car park to the exhibition halls is flanked with Meroitic statues of 2 rams and 6 dark sandstone man-eating lions from Basa village site. The lions are from
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#17328518136015408-524: The Nobiin speakers were also part of a largely Arabic-speaking state, but Egyptian control over the south was limited. With the Ottoman conquest of the region in the sixteenth century, official support for Arabization largely ended, as the Turkish and Circassian governments in Cairo sometimes saw Nobiin speakers as a useful ally. However, as Arabic remained a language of high importance in Sudan and especially Egypt, Nobiin continued to be under pressure, and its use became largely confined to Nubian homes. Nobiin
5512-685: The Nubians began creating distinctive black topped, red pottery. The A-Group population have been described as ethnically “very similar” to the pre-dynastic Egyptians in physical characteristics. Around 3100 BC, the A-group transitioned from the Early to Classical phases. "Arguably royal burials are known only at Qustul and possibly Sayala." During this period, the wealth of A-group kings rivaled Egyptian kings. Royal A-group graves contained gold and richly decorated pottery. Some scholars believe Nubian A-Group rulers and early Egyptian pharaohs used related royal symbols; similarities in A-Group Nubia and Upper Egypt rock art support this position. Scholars from
5616-439: The Nubians. Despite assimilation, the Nubian elite remained rebellious during Egyptian occupation. There were numerous rebellions and "military conflict occurred almost under every reign until the 20th dynasty". At one point, Kerma came very close to conquering Egypt: Egypt suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Kingdom of Kush . According to Davies, head of the joint British Museum and Egyptian archaeological team,
5720-407: The Qustul rulers adopted or emulated the symbols of Egyptian pharaohs. According to David Wengrow , the A-Group polity of the late 4th millenninum BCE is poorly understood since most of the archaeological remains are submerged underneath Lake Nasser. Frank Yurco also remarked that depictions of pharonic iconography such as the royal crowns, Horus falcons and victory scenes were concentrated in
5824-423: The University of Chicago Oriental Institute excavated at Qustul (near Abu Simbel in Sudan), in 1960–64, and found artifacts which incorporated images associated with Egyptian pharaohs. Archeologist Bruce Williams studied the artifacts and concluded that "Egypt and Nubia A-Group culture shared the same official culture", "participated in the most complex dynastic developments", and "Nubia and Egypt were both part of
5928-514: The Upper Egyptian Naqada culture and A-Group Nubia. He further elaborated that "Egyptian writing arose in Naqadan Upper Egypt and A-Group Nubia, and not in the Delta cultures, where the direct Western Asian contact was made, further vitiates the Mesopotamian-influence argument". The archaeological cemeteries at Qustul are no longer available for excavations since the flooding of Lake Nasser . The earliest representations of pharaonic iconography have been excavated from Nag el-Hamdulab in Aswan ,
6032-487: The above consonants, and it has been termed ' consonant switching ' ( Konsonantenwechsel ) by Werner. Only in very few words, if any, does [h] have independent phonemic status: Werner lists híssí ' voice ' and hòòngìr ' braying ' , but it might be noted that the latter example is less convincing because of its probably onomatopoeic nature. The alveolar liquids / l / and / r / are in free variation as in many African languages. The approximant / w /
6136-416: The area. At this point, C-group Nubians and Egyptians began to proclaim their allegiance to the Kushite King in their inscriptions. Egypt conquered Lower and Upper Nubia from 1500 to 1070 BC. However, the Kingdom of Kush survived longer than Egypt. After the Theban 17th Dynasty New Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1532–1070 BC) expelled the Canaanite Hyksos from Egypt, they turned their imperial ambitions to Nubia. By
6240-405: The attack was so devastating that, if the Kerma forces had chosen to stay and occupy Egypt, they might have permanently eliminated the Egyptians and brought the nation to extinction. During Egypt's Second Intermediate period, the Kushites reached the height of their Bronze Age power and completely controlled southern trade with Egypt. They maintained diplomatic ties with the Thebans and Hyksos until
6344-411: The clearest signs of the occurrence of a boundary tone , realized as a low pitch on the last syllable of any prepausal word. The examples below show how the surface tone of the high tone verb ókkír- ' cook ' depends on the position of the verb. In the first sentence, the verb is not final (because the question marker -náà is appended) and thus it is realized as high. In the second sentence,
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#17328518136016448-411: The course of more than a millennium. Old Nubian, preserved in a sizable collection of mainly early Christian manuscripts and documented in detail by Gerald M. Browne (1944–2004), is considered ancestral to Nobiin. Many manuscripts, including Nubian Biblical texts , have been unearthed in the Nile Valley, mainly between the first and fifth cataracts, testifying to a firm Nubian presence in the area during
6552-405: The crania of ancient Nubians, Kushites, Saharans, or modern groups from the Horn of Africa than to those of dynastic northern Egyptians or ancient or modern southern Europeans." Archaeological evidence has attested that population settlements occurred in Nubia as early as the Late Pleistocene era and from the 5th millennium BC onwards, whereas there is "no or scanty evidence" of human presence in
6656-411: The desert roamed far to the north. The culture of Upper Egypt , which became dynastic Egyptian civilization, could fairly be called a Sudanese transplant." British Africanist Basil Davidson outlined that "The ancient Egyptians belonged, that is, not to any specific Egyptian region or Near Eastern heritage but to that wide community of peoples who lived between the Red Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, shared
6760-427: The domestic circle, as Arabic is the dominant language in trade, education, and public life. Sociolinguistically, the situation may be described as one of stable bilingualism : the dominant language (Arabic in this case), although used widely, does not easily replace the minority language since the latter is tightly connected to the Nubian identity. Nobiin has been called Mahas(i) , Mahas-Fiadidja , and Fiadicca in
6864-428: The east and west of Nubia. In Lower Nubia, the A-group moved from the Classical to Terminal phase. At this time, kings at Qustul likely ruled all of Lower Nubia and demonstrated the political centralization of Nubian society. The A-Group culture came to an end sometime between 3100 and 2900 BC, when it was apparently destroyed by the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt. There are no records of settlement in Lower Nubia for
6968-400: The end of Thutmose I 's reign (1520 BC), all of Lower Nubia had been annexed. After a long campaign, Egypt also conquered the Kingdom of Kerma in Upper Nubia and held both areas until 1070 BC. The Egyptian empire expanded into the Fourth Cataract, and a new administrative center was built at Napata , which became a gold and incense production area. Egypt became a prime source of gold in
7072-475: The extreme southern region of Egypt which borders the Sudan, with an estimated dating range between 3200 and 3100 BC. Writing developed in Egypt around 3300 BC. In their writings, Egyptians referred to Nubia as " Ta-Seti ", or "The Land of the Bow," as the Nubians were known to be expert archers. More recent and broader studies have determined that the distinct pottery styles, differing burial practices, different grave goods, and site distribution all indicate that
7176-433: The first Nubian kingdom to unify much of the region arose. The Classic Kerma culture, named for its royal capital at Kerma , was one of the earliest urban centers in the Nile region and oldest city in Africa outside of Egypt. The Kerma group spoke either languages of the Cushitic branch or, according to more recent research, Nilo-Saharan languages of the Eastern Sudanic branch. By 1650 BC (Classic Kerma phase),
7280-437: The first century BCE, as shown by the two cartouches from king Amanikhabale engraved on the first lion on the right. After decades of excavations by foreign archeological teams in the first half of the 20th century, Sudanese archeologists were gradually trained and included in these excavations and subsequent research. At the end of 2022, The Guardian reported about a new generation of Sudanese archeologists, including
7384-421: The first millennium. A dialect cluster related to Nobiin, Dongolawi , is found in the same area. The Nile-Nubian languages were the languages of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Nobatia , Makuria and Alodia . The other Nubian languages are found hundreds of kilometers to the southwest, in Darfur and in the Nuba Mountains of Kordofan . For a long time it was assumed that the Nubian peoples dispersed from
7488-605: The great East African substratum". Williams also wrote that Qustul "could well have been the seat of Egypt's founding dynasty". David O'Connor wrote that the Qustul incense burner provides evidence that the A-group Nubian culture in Qustul marked the "pivotal change" from predynastic to dynastic "Egyptian monumental art". However, "most scholars do not agree with this hypothesis", as more recent finds in Egypt indicate that this iconography originated in Egypt instead of Nubia, and that
7592-453: The influx of loanwords from Arabic it has acquired phonemic status: àzáábí ' pain ' . The glottal fricative [ h ] occurs as an allophone of /s, t, k, f, ɡ/ : síddó → híddó ' where? ' ; tánnátóón → tánnáhóón ' of him/her ' ; ày fàkàbìr → ày hàkàbìr ' I will eat ' ; dòllàkúkkàn → dòllàhúkkàn ' he has loved ' . This process is unidirectional, i.e., /h/ will never change into one of
7696-497: The kings of Kerma were powerful enough to organize the labor for monumental town walls and large mud brick structures, such as the Eastern and Western Deffufas (50 by 25 by 18 meters). They also had rich tombs with possessions for the afterlife and large human sacrifices . George Andrew Reisner excavated sites at the royal city of Kerma and found distinctive Nubian architecture , such as large pebble covered tombs (90 meters in diameter),
7800-420: The market to sell their own products, and easy access to Arabic newspapers. In urban areas, many Nubian women go to school and are fluent in Arabic; they usually address their children in Arabic, reserving Nobiin for their husband. In response to concerns about a possible language shift to Arabic, Werner notes a very positive language attitude. Rouchdy (1992a) however notes that use of Nobiin is confined mainly to
7904-431: The most venerated woman in Egyptian history", was thought by some scholars such as Flinders Petrie to be of Nubian origin because she is most often depicted with black skin. The mummy of Ahmose-Nefertari 's father, Seqenenre Tao , has been described as presenting "tightly curled, woolly hair", with "a slight build and strongly Nubian features". Some modern scholars also believe that in some depictions, her skin color
8008-483: The next 600 years. Old Kingdom Egyptian dynasties (4th to 6th) controlled uninhabited Lower Nubia and raided Upper Nubia. The pre-Kerma developed into the Middle phase Kerma group. Some A-group people (transitioning to C-group) settled the area and co-existed with the pre-Kerma group. Like other Nubian groups, the two groups made an abundance of red pottery with black tops, though each group made different shapes. Traces of
8112-532: The next three decades of linguistic theorizing about stress and tone in Nobiin. As late as 1968, Herman Bell was the first scholar to develop an account of tone in Nobiin. Although his analysis was still hampered by the occasional confusion of accent and tone, he is credited by Roland Werner as being the first to recognize that Nobiin is a genuinely tonal language, and the first to lay down some elementary tonal rules. The basic personal pronouns of Nobiin are: There are three sets of possessive pronouns . One of them
8216-599: The oldest open-air hut in the world) and diverse hunting and gathering loci some 50,000 years old". In southern Nubia (near modern Khartoum) from the ninth to the sixth millennia cal BC, Khartoum Mesolithic fisher-hunter-gatherers produced sophisticated pottery. By 5000 BC, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia participated in the Neolithic Revolution . The Sahara became drier and people began to domesticate sheep, goats, and cattle. Saharan rock reliefs depict scenes that have been thought to suggest
8320-691: The origins of the Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty: some scholars believe they were Nubian officials that learned "state level organization" by administering Egyptian-held Nubia from 1500 to 1070 BC, such as the rebel Viceroy of Kush, Panehesy, who ruled Upper Nubia and some of Lower Nubia after Egyptian forces withdrew. Other scholars believe they are descended from families of the Egyptianized Nubian elite supported by Egyptian priests or settlers. Children of elite Nubian families were sent to be educated in Egypt then returned to Kush to be appointed in bureaucratic positions to ensure their loyalty. During
8424-515: The other Nubian languages earlier than Dongolawi. In Thelwall's classification, Nobiin forms a "Northern" branch on its own whereas Dongolawi is considered part of Central Nubian, along with Birged (North Darfur) and the Hill Nubian languages ( Nuba Mountains , Kordofan ). In recent times, research by Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst has shed more light on the relations between Nobiin and Dongolawi. The groups have been separated so long that they do not share
8528-474: The past. Mahas and Fiadidja are geographical terms which correspond to two dialectal variants of Nobiin; the differences between these two dialects are negligible, and some have argued that there is no evidence of a dialectal distinction at all. Nobiin should not be confused with the Nubi language , an Arabic-based creole. Nobiin is one of the few languages of Africa to have a written history that can be followed over
8632-525: The phenomena now recognized as a tone system. Carl Meinhof reported that only remnants of a tone system could be found in the Nubian languages. He based this conclusion not only on his own data, but also on the observation that Old Nubian had been written without tonal marking. Based on accounts like Meinhof's, Nobiin was considered a toneless language for the first half of the twentieth century. The statements of de facto authorities like Meinhof, Diedrich Hermann Westermann , and Ida C. Ward heavily affected
8736-513: The presence of a cattle cult , typical of those seen throughout parts of Eastern Africa and the Nile Valley even to this day. Nubian rock art depicts hunters using bows and arrows in the neolithic period, which is a precursor to Nubian archer culture in later times. Megaliths discovered at Nabta Playa are early examples of what seems to be one of the world's first astronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by almost 2,000 years. This complexity as expressed by different levels of authority within
8840-562: The region was considerable, and, over the centuries, Egyptian Arabic spread south. Areas like al-Maris became almost fully Arabized. The conversion of Nubia to Islam after the fall of the Christian kingdoms further enhanced the Arabization process. In what is today Sudan, Sudanese Arabic became the main vernacular of the Funj Sultanate , with Nobiin becoming a minority tongue. In Egypt,
8944-708: The resettled Nubians have returned to their traditional territories around Abu Simbel and Wadi Halfa. Practically all speakers of Nobiin are bilingual in Egyptian Arabic or Sudanese Arabic . For the men, this was noted as early as 1819 by the traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in his Travels to Nubia . The forced resettlement in the second half of the twentieth century also brought more Nubians, especially women and children, into daily contact with Arabic. Chief factors in this development include increased mobility (and hence easy access to non-Nubian villages and cities), changes in social patterns such as women going more often to
9048-687: The river as Nehasyu. From Aswan , the southern limit of Egyptian control at the time, Egyptians imported gold, incense, ebony, copper, ivory, and exotic animals from tropical Africa through Nubia. Relations between the Egyptians and Nubians showed peaceful cultural interchange, cooperation, and mixed marriages. Nubian bowmen that settled at Gebelein during the First Intermediate Period married Egyptian women, were buried in Egyptian style, and eventually could not be distinguished from Egyptians. Older scholarship noted that some Egyptian pharaohs may have had Nubian ancestry. Richard Loban expressed
9152-634: The royal palaces and tombs in Thebes and the surrounding areas, the Medjay were deployed throughout Upper and Lower Egypt; they were even used during Kamose 's campaign against the Hyksos and became instrumental in turning the Egyptian state into a military power. After the First Intermediate Period of Egypt , the Medjay district was no longer mentioned in written records. From the Middle Kerma phase,
9256-576: The society there likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt . American anthropologist, Joseph Vogel wrote that: "The period when sub-Saharan Africa was most influential in Egypt was a time when neither Egypt, as we understand it culturally, nor the Sahara, as we understand it geographically, existed. Populations and cultures now found south of
9360-627: The submerged area of Lake Nasser . In 1964, the Aswan High Dam , built across the Nile River in Egypt, created a reservoir in the Nubian area, which extended into Sudan's territory threatening to submerge the ancient temples. During the UNESCO Salvage Campaign the following temples and tombs were re-erected in the museum garden according to the same orientation of their original location, surrounded by an artificial stream of water symbolic of
9464-526: The upstream Lake Nasser . There is no standardised orthography for Nobiin. It has been written in both Latin and Arabic scripts ; also, recently there have been efforts to revive the Old Nubian alphabet . This article adopts the Latin orthography used in the only published grammar of Nobiin, Roland Werner's (1987) Grammatik des Nobiin . Before the construction of the Aswan Dam , speakers of Nobiin lived in
9568-527: The vegetables. Tone plays an important role in several derivational processes. The most common situation involves the loss of the original tone pattern of the derivational base and the subsequent assignment of low tone, along with the affixation of a morpheme or word bringing its own tonal pattern (see below for examples). For a long time, the Nile Nubian languages were thought to be non-tonal; early analyses employed terms like " stress " or "accent" to describe
9672-400: The verb is at the end of the utterance, resulting in a low tone on the last syllable. Íttírkà vegetables. DO ókkéé-náà? cook:she. PRES - Q Íttírkà ókkéé-náà? vegetables.DO cook:she.PRES-Q Does she cook the vegetables? Èyyò yes íttírkà vegetables. DO ókkè. cook:she. PRES Èyyò íttírkà ókkè. yes vegetables.DO cook:she.PRES Yes, she cooks
9776-703: The view that Mentuhotep II of the 11th Dynasty "was quite possibly of Nubian origin" and cited historical evidence which mentioned that Amenemhet I , founder of the 12th Dynasty, "had a Ta Seti or Nubian mother". Dietrich Wildung has argued that Nubian features were common in Egyptian iconography since the pre-dynastic era and that several pharaohs such as Khufu and Mentuhotep II were represented with these Nubian features. Frank Yurco wrote that "Egyptian rulers of Nubian ancestry had become Egyptians culturally; as pharaohs, they exhibited typical Egyptian attitudes and adopted typical Egyptian policies". Yurco noted that some Middle Kingdom rulers, particularly some pharaohs of
9880-503: Was "sometimes portrayed by later generations as having been black, although her coffin portrait gives her the typical light yellow skin of women." In 2009, Egyptologist Elena Vassilika, noting that in a wooden statuette of the queen (now at the Museo Egizio ) the face is painted black but the arms and feet are light in color, argued that the reason for the black coloring in that case was religious and not genetic. In 1098–1088 BC, Thebes
9984-532: Was "the scene of a civil war-like conflict between the High Priest of Amun of Thebes Amenhotep and the Viceroy of Kush Panehesy (= the Nubian)". It was chaotic and many tombs were plundered. Instead of sending soldiers to restore order, Ramesses XI put Panehesy in control of that area's military and appointed him Director of Granaries. Panehesy stationed his troops in Thebes to protect the city from thieves, but it resembled
10088-490: Was at its highest levels at the times of both Kashta and Piye. Kashta peacefully became King of Upper and Lower Egypt with his daughter Amendiris as Divine Adoratrice of Amun in Thebes. Rulers of the 23rd Dynasty withdrew from Thebes to Heracleopolis, which avoided conflict with the new Kushite rulers of Thebes. Under Kashta's reign, the Kushite elite and professional classes became significantly Egyptianized. Nobiin language Nobiin , also known as Halfawi , Mahas ,
10192-501: Was centered at Kerma and Shaat was centered on Sai island. Bonnet posits that Kush actually ruled all of Upper Nubia, since "royal" graves were much larger in Kush than Shaat and Egyptian texts other than the Execration lists only refer to Kush (and not Shaat). C-group Nubians resettled Lower Nubia by 2400 BC. As trade between Egypt and Nubia increased, so did wealth and stability. Nubia
10296-505: Was divided into a series of small kingdoms. There is debate over whether the C-group people, who flourished from 2500 BC to 1500 BC, were another internal evolution or invaders. O'Connor states "a transition from A group into a later culture, the C-group, can be traced" and the C-group culture was typical of Lower Nubia from 2400 to 1650 BC. Although they lived in close proximity to each other, Nubians did not acculturate much to Egyptian culture. Notable exceptions include C-group Nubians during
10400-417: Was independent and increasingly powerful during this time. These Egyptian garrisons seemed to peacefully coexist with the local Nubian people, though they did not interact much with them. Medjay was the name given by ancient Egypt to nomadic desert dwellers from east of the Nile river. The term was used variously to describe a location, the Medjay people, or their role/job in the kingdom. They became part of
10504-412: Was named the new High Priest of Thebes (and effectively King of Southern Egypt) and Paiankh was named the new Viceroy of Kush. Paiankh recaptured former Egyptian holdings in Lower Nubia as far as the second Nile cataract, but could not defeat Panehesy in Lower Nubia, who ruled the area until his death. Herihor's descendants became rulers of Egypt's 21st and 22nd Dynasties. There are competing theories on
10608-615: Was provided by the Egyptian government for approximately 50,000 Nubians; (2) in the New Halfa Scheme in the Kassala , Sudan, where housing and work was provided by the Sudanese government for Nubians from the inundated areas around Wadi Halfa ; (3) in the Northern state, Sudan , northwards from Burgeg to the Egyptian border at Wadi Halfa . Additionally, many Nubians have moved to large cities like Cairo and Khartoum . In recent years, some of
10712-723: Was spoken north of Nyala in Darfur , but became extinct as late as 1970. However, the linguistic identity of the ancient Kerma culture of southern and central Nubia (also known as Upper Nubia ), is uncertain; some research suggests that it belonged to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages , while more recent studies indicate that the Kerma culture belonged to the Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan languages instead, and that other peoples of northern or Lower Nubia north of Kerma (such as
10816-552: Was the burial place of the ancestors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty." The early el-Kurru burials resemble Nubian Kerma/C-group traditions (contracted body, circular stone structures, burial on a bed). However, by 880–815 BC, Nubian burials at el-Kurru became more Egyptian in style with "mastabas, or pyramid on mastabas, chapels, and rectangular enclosures". Alara, the first el-Kurru prince, and his successor, Kashta , were buried at el-Kurru. Later documents mention Alara as
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