Walker, Aleta CENG 105- WS Professor Peterson Cultural Analysis- Final Draft November 13, 2012 Nubia s Proximity to Egypt Equals a Lifetime of Egyptian Rule Ancient Nubia is known for being Egypt s overlooked neighbor. Nubia is also known for being conquered by many ancient civilizations as well as various religious groups. Over time, it seems as if Nubia merely became a target for surrounding countries. However, Egypt was the country that ruled Nubia for an extremely long time and changed everything about it to make it their its own. Someone who has studied the history of Nubia would have thought Nubians would have learned from their mistakes with previous civilizations and taken control back of their land, but apparently they did not. So, why was Nubia so easily conquered by Egypt? Some may say that it has everything to do with Nubia being too trusting or that Nubia held many valuable resources, CS however, it is evident that geography, more specifically, Nubia s proximity to Egypt, was the greatest barrier in its demise. Great introduction! Topic needs to be announced. TRI.Some may say that the Egyptians advancement in war and everyday activities such as hunting, architecture, etc. could also serve as the bias for Egyptian rule to take over so easily, but that s not true. Even though the Egyptians were more advanced than the Nubians at the time, Egypt s wealth still could not compare to that of Nubia s. Nubia was greatly comprised of natural resources and also held large amounts of oil within their territory which Egypt lacked. In a way, it seems as if Egypt depended on Nubia for numerous resources they failed to produce. According to a text entitled Ancient Nubia: Egypt's rival in
Africa, Nubians had various amounts of gold within their country, which the Egyptians prized. 1 From reading various texts and articles it also seems the Egyptians would go to any extreme extent to possess this gold. The Nile River stretches to a length of 6670 kilometers (4160 miles), and is approximately 22% of the Niles s course running through Egypt. 2 The Nubian area is considered the southern region of Egypt and sets within its boundaries, which means the Nile River did not separate them much. With this type of close encounter, it is clear to understand how Egypt knew so much of what Nubia had and could find ways to take it all from them. Helen Chapin states, the Egyptians were often willing to establish trade agreements and living situations with the Nubians. 3 Egypt had to have known various agreements such as these would allow them to begin taking control over Nubia very easily. If the proximity between the two was greater in distance, Egypt would have had a hard time or could have possibly never known of various resources that the Nubians held within their land. Since the people in Egypt and Nubia had such varieties of contact it is no surprise that the two civilizations eventually merged together. Nubia had a much larger population than Egypt, and according to L.P. Kirwan, Egyptians often sought to take on many Nubians in their country as slaves and soldiers. 4 Today in the world it is often difficult to tell a person of Korean ethnicity from a person of Chinese ethnicity. There is no simple way to distinguish the two if you are simply not from that area, so we just assume what their race ethnicity is, and that more than likely it is the same. The population in Nubia was considered larger than Egypt s, so there was no way each Nubian had known each other personally or could tell if they were of Nubian 1 Davin B. O'Connor, "Ancient Nubia: Egypt's rival in Africa", (Pennsylvania: University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1993). 2 Mandy Barrow, The Nile River There s more citation information to be placed here. See websites or electronic sources in CMS. http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/egypt/nile.htm.(accessed October 16, 2012) 3 Helen Chapin, "Kush, Meroe, and Nubia." Sudan: A Country Study 4 L.P. Kirwan, "JSTOR," Nubia and Nubian Origins, 140 (1974): 43-51. Formatted: Highlight
society just by looking at them. With the usage of trade agreements and living agreements helping to make this possible, it simply became irrelevant to the Nubian society if other members of the land were Egyptian or not. Once a group of Egyptian people established a living agreement, they would not just leave their family or friends in Egypt when Nubia held an enormous amount of natural resources and gold which Egypt prized more than anything. Since Nubia was highly populated more than likely the Nubians failed to notice a change in the amount of people until after the construction of the Aswan Dam where availability to land was decreased. These trade agreements and living arrangements encouraged the Nubians to think of the Egyptians as their friends. It was so easy for the Nubians to establish such agreements with the Egyptians, because they were so close. Good! With greater distance comes greater resistance to let just anyone into your territory allowing them the same opportunities as the citizens of that area. Pursuing this what? further, marriage played a significant role as well in the Egyptian conquering of Nubia. Is this the same as proximity? In Egyptian culture, the women were often only allowed to marry within their family to keep the royal bloodline. They were not allowed to marry anyone else. After a while, the customs of marriages within the Egyptian community changed, and the fathers of the bride- to- be had to choose whom their daughter would marry. It would only make sense for him to choose a Nubian man. With him choosing a Nubian man to marry his daughter, eventually the whole or some of the family would possibly move to Nubia getting the Egyptians one step closer to conquering Nubia. Learning how the government worked, seeking out weaknesses within the country, and even beginning to establish trusting friendships with other Nubians could all be done through marriage. Nubians, on the other hand had, no major rules when it came to marriage. According to John G. Kennedy, Despite Egypt s
and Nubia s conflicts, they still accepted each other s cultural developments and agreed on mixed marriages. The high officials and priests of Egypt had even settled in Nubia and built their temples there. 5 Marrying off their daughters to men of Nubian society only made it easier for Egyptians to begin taking control of Nubia. Once married the women were not confined to home like other societies, which made transferring information from Nubia to Egypt manageable. Figuring out how the Nubian government worked as a whole was accomplished by the Egyptians because of intermarriage and trusting too many people of the Egyptian society. With the Nubian society and the Egyptian society basically living off of each other, it was hard for them not to interact. The Egyptian and Nubian societies depended on each other through the sharing of resources, marrying Egyptians to Nubians in order get closer to conquering the land, and the Egyptians utilizing people in Nubia as soldiers and laborers when necessary. However, it seems Egypt depended more heavily on Nubia. Egypt knew that if they didn t do something to save their country pretty soon it would decline and possibly be taken over by another neighboring country if not Nubia. TRI? A pivotal moment in Nubian society occurred when Nubia decided to fight back once they realized their land was being taken over by the Egyptians. Karen Exell states that in 1500 B.C., Nubia actually conquered Egypt. 6 Unfortunately the Egyptians, unlike the Nubians, learned from mistakes they made when defeated and went on to challenge Nubia again. The next time around, the Egyptians conquered Nubia making the land and territory theirs, and even incorporated their religious practices into the civilization. With Egypt controlling Nubia and throwing most of the Nubian customs out, Nubians had no choice but to accept things the way 5 John G. Kennedy, Struggle for a Change in a Nubian Community, (Palo Alto: California: Mayfield, 1977). 6 Karen Exell, The Nubian Pastoral Culture as Link between Egypt and Africa: A View from the Archaeological Record, (Manchester: Archaeopress and the individual authors, 2009). Formatted: Highlight
they were and to live with it. Egypt knew too much about Nubia to let the Nubians defeat them again. At this point they knew how the government worked from the inside and out, and also the daughters of Egyptians were transferring information about the country to rulers to make sure they did not overlook certain aspects such as tricky war tactics or mistake even the Nubians who married into their family as friends. The Egyptians hardly trusted any one from the Nubian society. This is why the Egyptians, unlike the Nubians gained control and never lost it. For some, their proximity to surrounding countries was irrelevant, but to Nubia, it cost them everything. Their freedom, customs, and territory that could never be gained back all resulted in the closeness of Egypt. Egypt s goal was to have the Nubians see them as friends and people they could count on. The deal breaker for the Nubians seeing the Egyptians as friends was through the most important role- marriage. The Nubians seeing the Egyptians as family was how they came to a comfort zone in the form of knowing the Egyptians would never do anything to hurt their, land, resources, or people. The saying blood is thicker than water would describe the Nubian people s feelings for the Egyptians at this point. No one would ever think their family would turn on them and betray them at this point. Unfortunately the feeling was not mutual, and the Egyptians excelled in letting the Nubians think so. The Egyptians eventually succeeded, and now the land was theirs. All of these rulings and invasions could have been avoided if Nubia and Egypt weren t so close in proximity. Marriages would not have mixed and the decline of Nubian resources might have not taken place as quickly as it did. Good point. Perhaps this would not have been the case. The Nile River is only a mile wide which did not make it difficult for Egyptians to conquer Nubia. Egyptian attacks and simple invasions to get a glimpse of how Nubian society was ran was accomplished with little effort. If the distance between these two countries had been further
apart, perhaps Nubia would have been more conscious of who they let cross into their territory and also may have been less trusting with letting a different civilization move there and establish such relationships as living arrangements that failed to ensure the Nubians that their land, families, and resources would be safe. The Nubian s military would have also been prepared for attacks as well. With a country being further distanced from another, armies actually have time to plan on surprise attacks and how to handle them as well. When Nubia got comfortable with letting Egyptians come and go as they please is when Nubia lost their freedom from that point on. breakdown. Great analysis, Ms. Walker! I truly enjoyed the tone and the confidence of this
Bibliography: Barrow, Mandy. "The Nile River." What entity publishes this site? Accessed October 16, 2012. http://www.chiddingstone.kent.sch.uk/homework/egypt/nile.htm Chapin, Helen. "Kush, Meroe, and Nubia." Sudan: A Country Study, October 13, 1991. What type of source is this? Exell, Karen. The Nubian Pastoral Culture as Link between Egypt and Africa: A View from the Archaeological Record. Manchester: Archaeopress and the individual authors, 2009. Kennedy, John G. Struggle for a Change in a Nubian Community. Palo Alto: California: Mayfield, 1977. Kirwan, L.P. Nubia and Nubian Origins. JSTOR. 140. (1974): 43-51. This is not CMS. Formatted: Highlight You need to the title of the journal in italics and the article in quotations. O'Connor, Davin B. Ancient Nubia: Egypt's rival in Africa. Pennsylvania: University Formatted: Highlight
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology,1993.