The Sudan Handbook

eaRly states on the nile 63

may have been members of the king’s family, retainers and prisoners

of war.

The respect shown for the military prowess of the Kushites by the

Egyptians is demonstrated on the one hand by the units of archers drawn

from this region in the Egyptian army and, on the other, by the massive

fortifications the Egyptians built during the Twelfth Dynasty to protect

their southern border. These forts have names such as ‘Warding off the

bows’. During the period 1750–1650 bce, Egyptian power was on the

wane. In the north, the Hyksos, an Asiatic people, occupied the Delta.

During this period the kingdom of Kush occupied all the territory up to

the First Cataract and raided with impunity deep into Egypt.

A recently studied inscription from el-Kab  125  kilometres north of

the First Cataract begins thus: ‘Listen you, who are alive upon earth...

Kush came...aroused along his length, he having stirred up the tribes

of Wawat...the land of Punt and the Medjaw...’ The Egyptian pharaoh

Kamose bemoaned the fact that ‘when a chieftain is in Avaris and another

in Kush and I sit in league with an Asiatic and a Nubian, every man [is]

holding his slice of Egypt.’

With the resurgence of Egyptian power, particularly under Ahmose

(c.1550–1525 bce) the Egyptians went on the offensive. After ousting the

Hyksos from the Delta, Ahmose turned his attentions south. By   1500    

bce Thutmose I had vanquished the Kushite king in a major battle at

the Third Cataract and set up his boundary stela, a carved stone marker,

far upstream at Kurgus.

Egyptian control lasted until the early eleventh century bce, evidenced

by a string of major fortified towns extending as far as Jebel Barkal, a site

the Egyptians believed to be the southern ancestral home of their state

god Amun. Although the Egyptian domination is evident in the urban

centres, its impact on the bulk of the population within its territory may

have been much less significant. It appears that when Egypt abandoned

its conquests south of the First Cataract, indigenous culture once again

came to the fore. This is indicated in funerary customs, ceramic produc-

tion and architecture.

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors

(www.riftvalley.net).