Kerma's Place in Ancient History
During the First Intermediate Period, the Egyptian presence in Lower Nubia ceased. When at the beginning of the New Kingdom, Egyptian sources again mentioned the region of Kerma, they reported Kerma as in control of both Upper and Lower Nubia.
The long history of Egyptian military activity in Lower Nubia indicates that Kerma was perceived as a major threat to Pharaonic Egypt. The largest and most numerous fortifications Egypt built were to secure its border against raids from Kerma and to protect the trade routes between the two powers. Both during the Middle and New Kingdoms, the resources Kerma had access to - gold, cattle, milk products, ebony, incense, ivory, etc. - were much coveted by Egypt.
During its zenith, Kerma formed a partnership with the Hyksos and tried to crush Egypt. Finds in 2003 at the Governor of El Kab's Tomb (near Thebes)show that Kerma invaded deep into Egypt between 1575 and 1550 bc. It is believed that this was one of Egypt's most humiliating defeat, which later pharaohs erased from the official historic records. Many royal statues and monuments were looted from Egypt and removed to Kerma, apparently as a gesture of triumph by Kerma's ruler.
Some Biblical scholars contend that Kerma provides archaeological 'proof' for the prophet Moses residing in Kush after fleeing Egypt, as described in the apochrypal Books of Jasher.
Under Tuthmosis I, Egypt made several campaigns south. This eventually resulted in their annexation of Nubia (Kerma/ Kush) c.1504 bc. After the conquest, Kerma culture was increasingly 'Egyptianized' yet rebellions continued for 220 years (till c.1300 BCE). During the New Kingdom, Kerma/ Kush nevertheless became a key province of the Egyptian Empire - economically, politically and spiritually. Indeed, major Pharonic ceremonies were held at Jebel Barkal near Napata, and the royal lineages of the two regions seem to have intermarried.
The extent of cultural/ political continuity between Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush is difficult to determine. The latter began to emerge around 1000 BCE. Initially, the Kushite kings continued to use Kerma for royal burials and special ceremonies, suggesting some connection. Moreover, the layout of royal funerary compounds in both Kerma and Napata (the Kush capital) are similarly designed. Caches of statues of Kush's pharaohs have also been discovered at Kerma, suggesting that the Napatan rulers recognized a historic link between their capital and Kerma.
Read more about this topic: Kerma Culture
Famous quotes containing the words ancient history, place, ancient and/or history:
“Ancient history has an air of antiquity. It should be more modern. It is written as if the specator should be thinking of the backside of the picture on the wall, or as if the author expected that the dead would be his readers, and wished to detail to them their own experience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We seem to be pariahs alike in the visible and the invisible world, with no foothold anywhere, though by every principle of government and religion we should have an equal place on this planet.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.
An ancestor was rector there
Long years ago, a church stands near,
By the road an ancient cross.
No marble, no conventional phrase;
On limestone quarried near the spot
By his command these words are cut:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman pass by!”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)