The Ancient African Kingdom of Kush

Du Sable Museum of African American History

November 20, 2014

Dr. Josef Ben Levi

Map of Ancient Kush

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop on The Fear of Evading the Question of Egypt as an African

Civilization.

• Diop (1974) further stated that:

• The African historian who is skeptical and evades the problem of Egypt is,...neither modest or objective, nor unruffled; he is ignorant, cowardly, and neurotic. Imagine, if you can, the uncomfortable position of a Western historian who was to write the history of Europe without referring to Greco-Latin antiquity and try to pass that off as an scientific approach. (1974, p. xiv)

• Philosophy is a factor in the life history of the human experience.

• Why is it that European philosophy is called simply philosophy but African philosophy is designated as ethnophilosophy?

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Images from the Tomb of Rameses III 19th Dynasty

• Fundamental to this academic denial is the way historiography is constructed in the Western academy and its foundations in George Wilhelm Frederick Hegel's thinking about the place of Egypt, whose accomplishments he places outside of the African sphere.

• He stated that Africa had no history. For Hegel, Egypt was of Asiatic or European origin or what he called Hither Asia. He argued that:

• Africa's northern coast, was to be and must be attached to Europe. (1899/1956, p.99).

• Since the two main criteria Hegel used to define philosophical thought were reasoned discourse and written records, for Hegel:

• Africa was in an unhistorical, underdeveloped spirit, in a state of nature and only on the threshold of the world's history. (1899/1956, p. 99).

• While castigating Africa, Hegel does later acknowledge that Egyptian civilization received its culture from what the Greeks called Ethiopia, mainly the Kushite capital at Merowe which is at the fourth cataract of the Nile valley in what is called the Sudan today.

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• Hegel goes on to say:

• At this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again, for it is no historical part of the world; it has no movement or development to exhibit. (1988/1956, p. 99)

• Hegel, essentially, relegates Africa and her people to what amounts to a footnote in his introduction.

• Hegel detaches Egypt from Africa and consequently, the Africans from Egypt.

• He went on to argue that the Greeks got rid of all the foreign nature of philosophy so well that it was essentially of Greek origin (Hegel, 1899/1956).

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• A German scholar, Johann Gottfried Von Herder (1744-1803), created the concept of an imaginary connection between the ancient histories of Western Europe and ancient Greece and Rome.

• This was in spite of the fact that the Germanic peoples and their early history is not nor ever was connected with ancient Greece or Rome.

• But This notion of origins did not really matter so long as one could be constructed and agreed upon within a respected academic consensus.

• Herder influenced the historical perceptions of both Georg Wilhelm Frederick Hegel and Max Weber.

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• Herder made the case that history is essentially the story of great men and battles.

• This was a view that led to the establishment of two historical doctrines, the Crocean doctrine of Benedetto Croce and Paul Veyne doctrine.

• The Croce-Veynes doctrine of history which stated that:

• The intelligence of history has been enriched from the time of the ancient Greeks to today. (1985; 2001, p. 1; p. 129-130)

• Hegel's line of thinking has influenced the popular Western European and American concept of Africa as well as the Western academy's view about African philosophy.

• The ancient histories of Western Europe created an imaginary connection between itself and ancient Greece and Rome was a concept developed by a German scholar, Johann Gottfried Von Herder (1744-1803).

• This was in spite of the fact that the Germanic peoples and their early history is not nor ever was connected with ancient Greece.

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NUBIAN TIMELINE

Geography: Ta Seti, Wawat, Kush, Yamm

• Ancient Kush is the foundation of Classical Nile Valley Civilizations. It is located in the area of present Upper Egypt (Lower Nubia) and the Sudan (Upper Nubia).

• Its earliest development started in the Western Sahara around Nabta Playa, in the Eastern Desert around the WadiHammamat near the Red Sea and the Southern region near the origin of the Nile River.

• From these three regions emerged the African people we today call the ancient Nubians.

• All of the major cataracts of the Nile flow through ancient Nubia or Kush.

•

Geo-Political Names for Nubian Locations in Ancient

Kemetic Texts:

• Ta-Seti- (Land of the Bow)

• Ta-Nehesy-(Land of the Nehesy

People)

• Wawat (Lower Nubia)

• Irjet-(Lower Nubia)

• Satju-(Lower Nubia)

• Kaau-(Upper Nubia)

• Iuntiu-Setiu (Eastern Desert)

• Yamm (Upper Nubia)

• Nubia (Gold Lands?)

• Punt-(Upper Nubia-Red Sea)

Ethnic Nubian Names in Ancient Kemetic Texts:

• Kush-(12-32nd Dynasties)

• Sha’at-(Isle of Sai)

• Iryshek-(Western Desert)

• Tua-(Western Desert)

• Imana’a-(Western Desert)

• Ruket-(Western Desert)

• Awshek-(Eastern Mountains)

• Webet-Sepat (Eastern Mountains)

• Khenet-Hennefer (Kush-18th Dyn.)

• Irem-(Dongola Bend-Old Yamm)

• Miu – (Bayuda Region-5th cataract)

• Karoy-(Napata area)

• Meroe-(Baruat)-East Bank of Nile, South of 5th cataract

• Butana- (Inland from Merowe)

Sources of Information:

-Egyptian texts

- Greek and other contemporary texts

Ancient Writers on Nubia

• Homer

• Herodotus

• Eratosthenes

• Claudius Ptolemy

• Olympiodorus

• Strabo

• Diodorus Siculus

• Flavius Josephus

• Pomponious Mela

• Pliny the Elder

• Julius Africanus

• Procopius

• Ammianus Marcellinus

Some Names for Nubia:

*Ta – Seti (“Land of the Bow”)

* Wawat (Lower Nubia)

* Kush (Upper Nubia)

* Ethiopia (Greek -- “Land of the Sun-Burned/Burnt Faces”)

{not the same as modern Ethiopia (Axum, Abyssinia)}

* Meroë

• Mdw Ntr – Divine Speech-

• Ta Seti- Land of the Bow-

• Kush- the Southern Land-

• Ta Netcher – The Land of the Divinities

• Ta Nehesi – Land of the Southerners-

• Nehesi – The Up River Ones –

George A. Reisner

1867 - 1942

African-American Writers on Ancient Nubia

Martin Robeson Delaney (1812-1865)

Henry Highland Garnet (1815-1882)

Maria W. Stewart (1803-1897)

Dr. Alexander Crummell (1819-1898)

Africa and the American Negro: Addresses and Proceedings of the Congress on

Africa, December 13-15, 1895

Antenor Firmin (1850-1911)

• Antenor Firmin predicted that the United States would have a Black president in 1885!

Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963)

Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford (1866-1930)

Ethiopia Unbound: Studies in Race Emancipation

Edward E. and Josephine E. Carlisle

Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912)

Dr. Rufus Perry (1834-1895)

• The Cushite, or the Descendants of Ham as Found in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Writings of Ancient Historians and Poets from Noah to the Christian Era, 1893.

Dr. George Washington Williams (1849-1891)

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930)

Leila Amos Pendleton (1860-?)

Dr. Willis Nathaniel Huggins (1886-1941)

George Wells Parker (1882-1931)

1918. The Children of the Sun. Omaha: Hamitic League of the World. 2d reprint ed., Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1981.

William Leo Hansberry (1894-1965)

1974. Pillars in Ethiopian History: The William Leo Hansberry African History Notebook –

Vol. I. Edited by Joseph Harris. Washington: Howard University Press.

1977. Africa and Africans as Seen by Classical Writers: The William Leo Hansberry African

History Notebook – Vol. II. Edited by Joseph Harris. Washington: Howard University

Press.

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

Drusilla Dunjee Houston (1876-1941)

1926. Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire. Oklahoma City:

Universal Publishing Co. Reprint, Baltimore: Black Classic Press, 1985.

Dr. Chancellor Williams (1898-1992)

Dr. John Glover Jackson (1907-1993)

1939. Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization: A Critical Review of the Evidence of

Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Comparative Religion – According to the Most

Reliable Sources and Authorities. New York: Blyden Society. Reprint, Baltimore: Black

Classic Press, 1985.

Dr. John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998)

Dr. Yosef A.A. Ben Jochannan (1918- )

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima (1935-2009)

Dr. Johnson Coleman De Graft-Johnson (1919- )

Dr. Miriam Maat Ka Re Monges (1955- )

Dr. Necia Desiree Harkless (1920 - )

Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986)

NUBIAN PREHISTORY

PALEOLITHIC ends 8,000 BC

MESOLITHIC 8,000 – 5,000 BC

NEOLITHIC 4,900 – 3,000 BC

CHALICE

The Qustul Incense Burner

Relations with Egypt

13Ta -- “Land” Seti -- “Bow”

Ta-Seti “Land of the Bow”

Army Recruits {Weni}Irtjet

MedjaYam {Iam}

WawatKaau

Army Recruits {Weni}Irtjet

MedjaYam {Iam}

WawatKaau

Bega People Ancient and Modern

Khasekhemwy

Statue of King Khasekhemwy, the last king of the Second Dynasty (ca. 2686B.C.) was found at Hierakonpolis in ancient Nubia in 1898.

Also the funerary stela of the First Dynasty king “Djed," with the niched facade of his palace called a serekh to hold his name and designate him as a king.

FIGURINES

PAINTED GAZELLE SKULLS

Nubian Nations and Others From the Tomb of Anen New Kingdom

Headwear of the Rulers (Qore) of Kush

Taharka

Images from the Tomb of Ramesses III

Egyptian 11th Dynasty

Mentuhotep II

Mentuhotep and his Daughter Kemset

Kemset, The Black Sister, Daughter of Methuhotep

Aushead

Classical Nubian Images

Ancient Nubian Images

Busiris Amphora

Caeretan Hydria showing Herakles and Busiris with Egyptians -Front

Caeretan Hydria showing Herakles and Busiris with Egyptians- Back

KERMA BURIALS

Doukki Gel/Pnub

Diagnostic-Burial

TUMULUS

BURIAL BED

DIAGNOSTIC - KERMA

“BLACK-TOPPED RED WARE”

DIAGNOSTIC –CLASSIC KERMA

“BLACK-TOPPED RED WARE WITH GRAY BAND”

“KERMA / TULIP BEAKER”

Full Frame from the Tomb of Huy

The Princes and Princesses of Kush

The “Fake” Prices and Princesses of Kush

Mai Her Peri- Lion on the Battlefield

Hieratic Biographical Text of Mai Her Peri

The Africans of the Ancient Nile Valley I

Africans of the Nile Valley II

Entertainment for the Royal family

Mentuemhat Ruler of Thebes, 4th Prophet of Amon –25th Dynasty

Herihor, High Priest of Amon – 20th Dynasty

The Rulers of Kush in the Kerma Museum

Ancient Kushite Crown Names

Napatan burial sites:

El-Kurru Nuri

God’s Wife of Amun

Amenirdis I

Daughter of Kashta

Shepenwepet II

Daughter of Piye

Meroitic Period250 BC – 350 AD

Apedemak

Qore – “King”

Kandake – “Queen”

Kandake

Candace

Shanakdakhete

170 – 150 BC

Amanitore & Natakamani

1 – 20 AD

Amanishakheto

10 – 1 BC

The Medieval Nubian Period: 550-1500 c.e.

• This period is divided into three kingdom: Nobatia :200-543 CE., Makuria:650-700 CE., and Alwa 580-1504 CE.

• This is the period known as Christian Nubia. At this period many Nubians became Monophysite or “Coptic” Christians.

• Nobatia remained a Christian Kingdom until it was conquered by the Moslems under Arab clans such as the Beni Kanz who converted the people to Islam and intermarried with their women. During this time a treaty was established between Nubia and Egypt called the “Baqt”

• The Nubian Christian Kingdoms were finally conquered by Muhammad Ali in 1504.

Baqt Treaty

1.In 652 CE. a treaty between Nubia and Egypt was signed under Abdallah ibn Sa’ad ibn Abi Sahr in which Nubia would supply 360 “slaves” each year to Arab Egypt and promise not to attack them. In return Egypt would provide 1300 “gallons” of wine.

2. In 720 CE. a “Baqt” is signed between Egypt and the Beja.

3. In 758 CE. The Abbasid Dynasty complained that it was not receiving any “Baqt” payments and the Blemmeyes attack Upper Egypt.

4. Between 819-822 CE. The King of Dongola and the Beja refuse to pay “baqt” and mount an attack on Egypt.

5. In 1268 The King od Dongola, Dawud pay “baqt” to the Mamlukes.

6. In 1317 The Christian king of Nubia is defeated and the first Muslim King, Abdullah Bar Shambu is place on the throne in Dongola. The first mosque is built in Dongola and the “baqt” is reestablished.

Churches and Mausoleums from the Early Christian Era

Musa Hilal Janjaweed (Devils on Horseback) and his Army

Destruction of the Fur Kingdom

Saint Josephine Bahkita

• She was born in 1869 in the village of al-Gossa in Darfur of the Dago clan

• In 1878 at age 9 she was kidnapped by Arab slavers.

• The Arabs named her “Bahkita” (Fortunate).

• She was sold many time until a Turkish general sold her to an Italian family from Genoa.

• She was sent to a convent as a servant to her owners daughter.

• She refused to return to Africa and was freed by the Catholic church and became a nun in 1896.

• She was canonized as St. Bakhita in 1992.

National Images 6: Nubian Women

Modern Nubian Women and Girls

Contemporary Africans of the Nile Valley

Modern Nubian Men and Boys

Ethnic Images: Mahas

Modern Nubian Family

The Celator Numismatics Journal

These ancient Kushite coins were first published in The Celator Vol.17, No.10, Oct. 2003.

At that time it was “assumed” that the coins were inscribed in “Aramaic” even though there was no evidence among the Numismatics and graphologists arguing over the inscriptions that this was the case. They finally concluded that it was an indecipherable language. They, at the time, never conceived of the possibility that the coins could be from ancient Africa.

A member of the Society Historia Numorum out of Boston, Mass. and remembered seeing similar inscriptions in the Sudan in 1977 decided to seek out a Meroitic Language “scholar” on the internet.

That is how I became involved in this project with members of the “Society” in early 2008. That association ultimately led to my correctly deciphering the inscriptions on the coins by the end of 2008 and solving a “Hidden Ancient African” riddle that had existed since these coins were found in 1858.

Since that time I have received other coins from them to decipher and the work is continuing. This is a brief story about my decipherment of the first two ancient Kushitecoins.

This opens a whole new area of research for African scholars who want to go beyond mere coin collecting as a hobby.

Classic Athenian Tetradrachm Owl Coin 449 bce

Ancient coins were known as Celators-to engrave, carve. They were widely used throughout the

ancient Greek world. When other countries did not have any they minted their own.

The reverse side has the owl alongside the Greek word for “ethnic” or “nation” which suggest that it

was the “national” currency .

The olive leaf represents olive oil which was the most important product exported from Athens.

The crescent moon represents the victory of the Athenians over the Persians at the Battle of Salamis

in 480 bce which was fought under the “waning moon”. This lead to the Greek ideal of constitutional

government, private property, individualism, and all of the notions that are equated with Western

civilization today.

The “owl” possibly means “wisdom”?

Athena is, of course, derived from– Net/Neith - of Sais. She was the Principle of the

“Weaver” and “Shooter” . She was also a Mother Principle as counterpart to Mut the

symbol of Motherhood. She was also sometimes identified with H at-Hor

Phoenician Tetradrahm 460-404 bce

The Phoenician letter (w-sin/shin) carved into the cheek of Athena

indicates that this coin was minted in the city of Sidon in Phoenicia.

Himyarite Owl Coin 27 bce – 14 ce.

This Himyarite Owl coin from the time of Octavian or Augustus Caesar with a wreath on his head and the owl with an amphora under its feet. To the right of the owl are the ancient Himyariteletters “Y” over “A” and to the left are the letters “H” over “P” and the letter “N” under “P” with the letter “B” left of “P”.

Sabean Owl Coin 3rd cent. bce

Persian Owl Coin 400 bce

Egyptian Issue Owl Coin from the time of the Persian

Satrap ArtaXerxes III Ochus 343-338 bce

Athens started using coins issued with the owl about

510 bce. Around the same time that the Athenian

democratic society was established under

Kleisthenes. (Herodotus)

In 449 bce. The Athenian Coinage Decree was

signed which sought to force Athens’ allies to use

Athenian coins, weights and measures. This may

have been due to the moving of the Athenian

Leagues treasury from Delos to Athens.

Coins started being minted in Egypt (Kemet) during

the Persian periods ( 525-404 bce) and (343-332

bce.) During this time lots of “owl” tetradrachms

were produced. There were also smaller

denominations such as dekadrachms, didrachms,

drachms, etc.

Silver Owl coinage was used throughout Roman

Imperial times until it was discontinued in 267 ce.

Meroitic Script

Kandake of Irem Kushite Coin

Candace or Meroitic- Kdqy-Kandake

Qore Khabbash Meroitic CoinTo commemorate the reestablishment of

ancient Kushite rule in the Nile Valley or,

Weheme Mesu, Kabbash, had a coin minted

in his honor. It is clear that it was minted in

Kush as is indicated by the inscription below

the olive leaves to the left of the owls head.

What this confirms is not only that Kush had

its own coinage, but that it had its own mint

to produce them and their own scribes to

inscribe them.

It further supports the well known facts

attested by the ancient writer such as

Diodorus, Herodotus, Plato, and others of the

significance of Kush as a trading and

intellectual center in the Nile Valley at that

time.

It must be kept in mind that when the ancient

Greeks and Romans were looking at the

inhabitants of the Nile Valley in their time,

they were looking at the descendants of the

ancient Kushites, whom we would also call

Nubians.

More Meroitic Owl Coins No. 122, 123, 124

• “If we are to take command of the world

and recreate an African world order we

must first recover the ability to conceive

of such a task. We must first take

command of our own minds”

• Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers, “Essays in Ancient

Egyptian Studies”, p.36, 1984.

Giving Life Like the Sun Forever