Episode 19. Ancient Civilizations Entwined: Trade, War, and Culture in Nubia and Egypt

How did ancient Egypt and Nubia influence each other's rise and fall? Join me, Mike D, as we explore the turbulent histories of these two great civilizations on this episode of the History of Money, Banking, and Trade podcast. We begin by examining Egypt's early campaigns into Nubia, focusing on their strategic military outposts that aimed to control vital trade routes. The death of Pharaoh Amenemhat and a subsequent famine shifted Egypt's focus from conquest to trade protection, setting the stage for the Hyksos invasion and the cyclical power struggle with the Kerma Empire.

In the second chapter of our exploration, we delve into the chaotic era of Hyksos domination and Kerma's opportunistic raids on Egypt. We'll discuss the internal strife following the death of an Egyptian pharaoh without an heir, leading to a brief reign by his daughter and the ensuing instability. This power vacuum allowed the Kingdom of Kerma to exact tributes from Egypt and significantly impact its economy. Hear how Egypt, under Ahmose I, managed to reclaim its power by expelling the Hyksos and restoring control over Nubia, marking the dawn of the New Kingdom and a renewed phase in Egyptian-Nubian relations.

Our final segment takes a deep dive into the cultural exchanges and political maneuvers between Egypt and Nubia. Discover how the Nubian elites adopted Egyptian rituals while maintaining their unique identity, and the significant role of the viceroy in Kush in managing gold production and military affairs. We will trace the rise and fall of Meroë, an economic powerhouse in Nubia, and how its decline marked the end of the Kushite empire. This narrative highlights the enduring and complex interplay of conflict, cooperation, and cultural assimilation that defined the relationship between these ancient civilizations. Tune in for a gripping account of the historical shifts that shaped the legacies of Egypt and Nubia.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome podcast listener. I am Mike D, and this is the History of Money, banking and Trade podcast. My goal is to expand your knowledge of the history and evolution of trade, along with money, banking and credit, from ancient civilizations all the way to the present. I truly hope you find these episodes to be informative and entertaining. Now, I'm not a historian, but I am a fan of history.

Speaker 1: 0:31

When we last left off, we were discussing the growth in wealth and trade of the Nubian region. This meant a lot of people were getting rich and powerful, but it also meant that the Nubian region would attract attention, which was good in certain respects, but also bad in many other ways. As such, by 1971 BCE, the Egyptians had campaigned all the way down to the second cataract and overran the Nubian defenses in that territory. The POWs and civilians were often captured and sent off into slavery. So, in the end, a new border was created farther south and, because the army was decimated and the people were sent off into slavery, this would have made it a lot easier for the Egyptians to control the region. This was further enhanced with military outposts whose sole purpose was to protect trade routes and ensure the gold mines and gemstones would remain under Egyptian control. And, to be clear, egypt didn't just control the second cataract, and let things be On the contrary.

Speaker 1: 1:36

After eight years of control, the pharaoh sent an additional military and support needed to reinforce the new southern border, which is interesting because you read so many stories of one foreign army coming in and conquering the local region and then pretty much abandoning the region, and then they wonder why they lost control so quickly. But that didn't happen in this case. Instead, this reinforcement would only be there to help the Egyptians maintain their control of the trade routes and, more importantly, would have made it sure that the Nubians that were thinking about getting out of line well, they would stay loyal or at least not cause disruptions to the Egyptians, because just the massive force alone represents pure power, and you don't want to disrupt that power or else you could face severe consequences. But also, the Egyptians were really fearful of the Nubians to the south, whom they had referred to as the Kush Empire. In fact, they would establish 13 military garrisons in northern Nubia and push even further south, all the way down to the third cataract.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Now, as you can imagine, they're coming closer and closer in contact with the people of Kerma, or what they would refer to as the Empire of Kush, who were the people of southern Nubia or upper Nubia, however you want to classify it, because, remember what I said prior southern Nubia is considered upper Nubia, just like southern Egypt is considered upper Egypt. Now, the fact is, as they're pushing further and further south, this would have been a lot more provocative because the Egyptians would have to send small probing excursions farther and farther south, thus sparking higher and higher tensions between the Kerma empire and the Egyptians. But this also had an unintended consequence for the Egyptians, as tribes who weren't necessarily aligned with Kerma began to take stock of the situation and kind of realized that these Egyptians were outsiders trying to overrun their land. And therefore the unaffiliated tribes, who may not have necessarily gotten along with each other, would have felt it necessary that they would have to align themselves with the people of Kerma in order to stop the Egyptians from really encroaching into their territory. So, whether you like the people of Kerma or not, the other tribes in the Nubian region would have felt it necessary to align with the people of Kerma just to stop the Egyptians, because the enemy of your enemy is your friend at this point Not that I'm saying that the unaffiliated tribes are enemies, but they weren't necessarily brothers either. Now, luckily for the people of Kerma well, luckily might not be the best choice of words, but the fact is a terrible famine had struck Egypt and this completely changed the whole dynamic, and therefore this would have weakened Egypt back home. In addition, the Egyptian pharaoh, amunahat, had just died. Now it's important to note that later, historians tend to think that he actually may have been assassinated, but either way, his son had to abandon his military campaigns in order to return back to the capital city to take his position as the pharaoh.

Speaker 1: 5:05

By this time, egypt was more concerned about fixing its agricultural output along with going through a massive building campaign, because by this time, it had really kind of more or less looked at. Let's protect our trade routes rather than have these deep military incursions and basically plunder the people, the wealth and power, to people that align themselves with the pharaoh and their family, instead of taking risks by going deep into places like southern Nubia and potentially losing control back home. So, therefore, egypt started to once again expand its trade routes with the people throughout the Near East and Libya and people in Upper Nubia. But I should also take a step back, because before this had happened, around 1890 BCE, Egypt had a minor problem developing, in that the people from Canaan started flowing into Egypt and these people would ultimately be known as the Hyksos. At first this was great because they were basically bringing wealth and prosperity to the region and, more importantly, they were bringing tribute to the pharaoh. So from the pharaoh's perspective, everything looked great. These people are coming in, they're expanding trade, I'm getting wealthier. What could possibly go wrong?

Speaker 1: 6:40

The issue for the Egyptians was the fact that, while these Hyksos people started out as significant trade partners with the Egyptians, they also became wealthier and more powerful and, as such, they started to infiltrate the Egyptian aristocracy and therefore would have become a major part of the Egyptian culture for the next 200 years. And when I say that, I mean that these were military leaders, major businessmen and, eventually, government officials. So therefore, egypt was changing quite a bit and their idea of diplomacy and military might had actually changed quite a bit. And because of that, they probably weren't really paying too much attention to the south, and they probably weren't really paying attention to the rise of Kerma, because by the time we get to 1750 BCE, kerma had become so powerful that some suggest that their military may have been on par with the Egyptian military.

Speaker 1: 7:43

Now, that would have been a big deal, because for over a thousand years, egypt had basically dominated Northeast Africa, and the big part of the domination was the fact that the Egyptians would have been able to control their trade routes coming up and down the Nile River. Now, a lot of that control was driven by the fact that the Egyptians usually would have offered certain individuals of the Nubian people's opportunities to become very wealthy and, in return, become local influencers or even rulers into the region. So, in essence, what the Egyptians were doing was really investing into certain individuals or certain small groups of people. That would allow the Egyptians to basically control local politics in Nubia, because they're funding those particular politicians or local leaders and therefore they would have had a great influence on the people of Nubia. Now, this might also be a big reason why Egyptian culture spread through Nubia so easily as well, because if you're spreading the wealth to leaders of the region, well, they're going to start adopting their funder's culture. And if they're adopting their funder's culture, which is the Egyptian culture, well, they're going to start pushing that down into the local population as well. So, essentially because of this, things are also changing in Kerma and it's becoming more wealthy and it's becoming a powerful military.

Speaker 1: 9:10

At the same time and don't forget, prior to this, the Egyptians would have often paid Nubian mercenaries good sums of money. But now, if the people in Kerma had the money already, they wouldn't need to be paid by the Egyptians to come join their military and, as a result, they would have stayed local and, of course, this would have changed the local power dynamic. Now, instead of attracting the powerful bowmen to the south, the powerful bowmen in the south are staying in the south and protecting the south. And the thing to realize here is the Egyptians weren't stupid. They could see this as well. So they started building up fortified outposts in southern Egypt because they can see that their southern neighbors were getting stronger and stronger and a lot more powerful.

Speaker 1: 9:59

But either way, nubia was still kind of split between Upper and Lower Nubia and since Lower Nubia was on the border of Southern Egypt, that region would have acted kind of like a buffer between the people of Kerma and the Egyptians during this time period. And it's important to note that the Egyptians were referring to the people of Kerma as the Kingdom of Kush, the people of Kurama as the kingdom of Kush. So, ultimately, this wasn't really a good thing for the people of northern Nubia, or if you want to refer to them as lower Nubia, because they were basically stuck between two empires at this point, and the problem for them was they would have had prized possessions that everybody in the region wanted, and that they had large deposits of gold and other precious gems, along with ivory. Now, despite the fact that Egypt was trying to fortify southern Egypt, they were also still too weak and therefore they couldn't really hold any garrisons in Nubia and therefore they would eventually be moved out of Nubia around 1725 BCE. Now, of course, the people of Nubia would have taken notice of this and taken full advantage and basically would have decided to take back what is theirs. Therefore, the Nubians and specifically what I'm referring to is the people of Kerma well, they would have seized control of the mines and the quarries that the Egyptians had occupied and were basically plundering for themselves.

Speaker 1: 11:34

Now, as you can imagine, this would have meant that Kerma's wealth would have increased dramatically during this time period. In addition, kerma basically would have taken back large tracts of lands that the Egyptians had formerly called their own, as these were in regions that were often disputed between whose land is it? Is it the people of Egypt or does this land belong to the Nubians? Since Egypt was weak, nubia was stronger. The people of Nubia would have claimed it as their own.

Speaker 1: 12:07

And, despite all this, the people of Kerma and the Nubian population in general, well, they were picking up and adopting Egyptian culture more and more. So, despite the fact that Egypt was weakening, the people to the south were becoming more Egyptianized. Egypt was weakening. The people to the south were becoming more Egyptianized. Now, I'm not 100% sure why this was happening, but it could have been due to the fact that the people of Kerma were so adept at looking at Egypt as their former conquerors or close trade partners that they were almost students of Egyptian politics and possibly wanted to replicate their wealth and their food production.

Speaker 1: 12:47

However, despite all this, they could clearly see that Egypt was in complete disarray and the Kerma kings and queens didn't really want the same thing happen to their empire. So therefore, they made sure to install loyal governors throughout the regions that reported directly to the king or queen and I emphasize queen here, because the queens would have been sharing the same authority as their kings and it wasn't really even uncommon for a queen to be the sole ruler of Nubian territories and to give you an idea how powerful women were in the society. It wasn't uncommon, for the king's oldest sister would ultimately bear the next king to the kingdom. In fact, the queen mother was known as the Kandakit and was extremely powerful in the kingdom. So that was definitely something that would have obviously distinguished the people of the Nubian territories from the Egyptians.

Speaker 1: 13:54

But the fact is is the people of Nubia were adopting Egyptian culture quite a bit, and this would have led to an interesting fact that the Egyptians and the Nubians would have interacted quite a bit with each other. Now, these interactions would have had some kind of like ebbs and flows where they were kind of equal, and sometimes they weren't equal, but the Egyptians would have been the dominant player between the two. But either way, they had local populations where both societies would have been the dominant player between the two. But either way, they had local populations where both societies would have generally received each other quite well. And to give you an idea how common these interactions were, mixed marriages were normalized and in fact, these mixed marriages have been pretty common for quite some time now, by the time we get to this point, in fact, and pretty common for quite some time now.

Speaker 1: 14:45

By the time we get to this point, in fact, the Egyptian pharaoh Menahotep II, who ruled from 2060 to 2009 BCE, was half Nubian. In addition, amunahat I, who ruled from 1939 BCE to 1910 BCE, well, he was also half Nubian, or at least had Nubian ancestry. Now, with regards to these two pharaohs, now they would have adopted completely, you know, egyptian culture and norms. So it's quite possible that the Egyptian people didn't even know that these pharaohs had descended from Nubians at one point or another. Now, despite all these mixing of people between Nubia and Egypt, the fact remains is the region of southern Egypt or northern Nubia, was pretty much always contested between the two different states and really it all depended on how powerful Egypt was at the time, whether who controlled what part of this region. So, in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, which was around 2000 BCE to 1650 BCE, egypt was pretty powerful, but, like I said prior, these people from Canaan were moving in and starting to disrupt things, and this disruption was starting to have an effect on the Egyptians, and these disruptions that would have happened in Egypt would have ultimately affected the region of northern Nubia, because this area was hotly contested because of the fact that there were so many natural deposits of certain metals such as gold. So whoever controlled that region would really have a leg up in trade. And when you have the leg up in trade, you have the wealth that's coming into the region and now you can fund the military and defenses and, as a result, basically what happened was the kingdom of Kerma was able to campaign into Egyptian territory and finally retake Lower Nubia from the Egyptians around 1700 BCE. So, therefore, lower Nubia was in the hands of the kingdom of Kerma, which was clearly a major player in the region.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Now, by this time, now just a few minutes ago, I had briefly indicated that the people known as the Hyksos had been flowing into Egypt. The people of Kerma and its leadership could clearly see what was going on, as the country was going through essentially demographic shocks and, as a result, egyptian leadership and even the wealth among the people were starting to change, in large part because of the Hyksos. Egypt was hit with another shock when the Egyptian pharaoh died in 1806, but it did not have a successor or male heir set in place. Therefore, the pharaoh's daughter took the throne and, whether it was her fault or not. The Egyptians, basically, were on the verge of a civil war. Her reign was relatively short, as she died within four years and she once again did not have an heir to Egypt.

Speaker 1: 18:03

So Egypt was in chaos, and the one thing about Egypt was Egypt was always consistently in various peaks and valleys, and this period was yet another valley in Egypt's power structure, as it had become destabilized and, by 1650 BCE or so, it had devolved into multiple dynasties fighting for control of the shattered empire. The people of Kerma were watching all this from the south and realizing that Egypt was weak, and therefore Kerma began to successfully perform raids into lower Nubia. The Hyksos had become the first, and certainly not the last, foreigners to control much of Egypt. It's quite obvious that Kerma would have noticed and figured out that they can use this to their advantage and of course they did that when they struck a deal with Saltus I, the Hyksos king, and would have attacked Egypt from the south. Unfortunately, we really don't know much about this time period, because much of the history was erased by the Egyptians, probably as part of a way for the future Egyptian pharaohs to more or less erase the past and don't forget much of the information that we get about the Nubians comes from written records by people that were not Nubian, and quite a bit would come from Egypt.

Speaker 1: 19:33

However, it appears that the Kermans or, if you want to call them, kushites or whatever you want to call them they actually made it much deeper into Egypt than the people had previously believed. Initially, it was thought that they had made it to the first cataract of Aswan, thus making the Kerma Empire range from the first to the fourth cataract. However, it appears it actually went much farther than that, because it appears that they had actually reached the outskirts of Thebes, as the Egyptians basically lost battle after battle to the people of Kerma or Kush. Now, looking at it from my perspective, I'm kind of amazed that the Nubians didn't have an outright war with the Hyksos to take over Egypt entirely, but that didn't happen. Instead, the Kerma Empire just exacted tribute from the seized territories and therefore would have taken gold and other resources, along with slaves, back to the Nubian territories. So, in other words, the Empire of Kerma extracted as many resources as they could and just went back home. They didn't really stay there and occupy the territory, which probably was a major mistake in hindsight.

Speaker 1: 20:52

Now, this was something that the Egyptians did not do previously when they made it down to the second cataract. Instead, they actually sent in more reinforcements to the south and if it wasn't for internal strife, it's quite possible that they would have been down there for much longer. So, in other words, when the Egyptians came south, they would have occupied the territory, sent in reinforcements and made sure they held the territory. When the Nubians went north, they would have conquered the land, but they kind of just left it there. They didn't really stay and conquer and hold the land, sort of like the opposite of what the Egyptians were doing. But either way, the flood of gold and precious metals and copper from Lower Nubia enabled Kerma's power to surge even more and, as a result, this triggered a massive building phase throughout what was becoming the Kushite Empire and, like I said, they were referred to as the Kushites by the Egyptians.

Speaker 1: 21:46

So that's why you kind of go back and forth. If you want to call them the people of Kerma or Kush, it just really depends on which angle you're kind of looking at it from. Now, since Egypt's history was that of peaks and valleys, this time period was obviously that of a valley. Now, looking at it from hindsight. You just kind of knew, sooner or later, that Egypt was bound to rise again, and this rise would have started around 1550 BCE when Amos I rose to power in Thebes. When Amos I rose to power in Thebes, as such Amos I was able to push the Hyksos out of Egypt and thus secure lower Egypt. He was then able to turn back and head south and push the forces of Kerma back beyond the second cataract, so in other words, he was able to push the Kushites out of Egypt and back down into Nubia. From an Egyptian standpoint, this would have been known as the Egyptian New Kingdom.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Now, as you can see, it's kind of hard to do an episode about Nubia without really getting into Egyptian history as well, because they are so tied together. So when Egypt has its valley, you can almost be certain that the Nubian kingdoms will have a peak, and vice versa. But there are also periods where both thrive, basically through trade. So it's not necessarily the fact that you know one is up, the other is down. I mean, they both can be up at the same time. But whenever Egypt is at a peak, they're going to be more or less the dominant player in the region, the Whenever Egypt is at a peak. They're going to be more or less the dominant player in the region.

Speaker 1: 23:25

The thing is is we probably don't have a lot of good information, as we would like, because once again, the Egyptians were basically going ahead in a race in history at this point and really trying to destroy any kind of monuments that would have been dedicated to the Hyksos or the Kermit kings, any kind of monuments that would have been dedicated to the Hyksos or the Kerma kings, the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose. I decided that he wanted to go back at the Nubians for their numerous incursions into southern Egypt and, as such, he basically succeeded in crushing the kingdom of Kerma and he would have brought all of Nubia under control of the Egyptians. Egypt had basically expanded and established cities as far south as the fourth cataract and established Kush's capital at Napata, making Nubia a client state for the Egyptian empire. Certain kings would rise in certain territories and try to unite various Nubian tribes to basically go back and fight the Egyptians, but whenever there was a skirmish, the Egyptians would just kind of show up and overwhelm the force that's there and more or less crush any sort of rebellion. In one particular case, nedja, who was a Kerma king had engaged his forces in upper Nubia against the Egyptians, and it didn't go well at all, and the king of Kerma was killed in battle. And to make matters worse, thutmose tied the dead king's body to a ship and dragged it up the Nile River and stopped in every Nubian village along the way to show the people their dead king.

Speaker 1: 25:08

It's things like that that will quickly make people think twice about crossing the Egyptians. What's interesting for me is the fact that this is precisely the type of thing that I tend to think would happen in ancient societies, is precisely the type of thing that I tend to think would happen in ancient societies, and when I read things like that, I'm like well, it kind of makes sense, I guess. And to make sure that the Egyptians could keep a close eye on the Nubians, they built a massive fortress at the third cataract, thus extending a permanent reach deep into Nubian lands. Now, if there's any kind of signs of rebellion or an insurrection that could possibly take place, the Egyptians would just put that down immediately. But also, this meant that they could control trade coming into and out of Nubia, and this would have included the valuable gold mines and the other precious gems and even ivory that was coming into and out of the region and that would have spread into the Near East and through the Mediterranean and even down into Africa.

Speaker 1: 26:11

So, like I said, the Egyptians had established the city of Napata that would eventually become the religious and administrative capital of Kush. This city would have also become a holy site for the Egyptians, as the priests of Egypt had claimed that a hill in the city was home to the Egyptian and Nubian god, amun. Now, if the Nubian city of Napata was the birthplace of Amun, then that means that the Egyptian pharaohs would have descended from Napata as well, and then this would also mean that this gave the pharaohs the right to rule the area. For me, this is really fascinating for a few reasons, because, for one thing, it might be the only case where a foreign power took control of a foreign land and then said that their god was from that land. And honestly, I'm not sure what to make of that, because, on one hand, it almost appears that they're honoring the local population, but on the other hand, they could be using this as a strategy to basically enable them to have some sort of divine right to that region. But either way, napata became one of Egypt's primary religious cult centers.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Now, it probably didn't also hurt the fact that this region had a lot of gold and incense reserves, of which I really didn't mention how important incense was in this time period, because it played a prominent role in ancient Egyptian religious ceremonies and magic and medicine. In fact, it was the process of burning incense that was one of the daily rituals of ancient Egyptian worship, especially inside the quarters of the temples. It was also used, like I said, in medicines. It was used in personal grooming and perfuming houses and clothing. The magic aspect was used in order to protect them from evil spirits in order to protect them from evil spirits. So when you put all that together, you can see how incense would have been a very, very valuable commodity and therefore would have been used in so many different aspects that it would have been highly coveted in trade and you obviously wanted to secure access to as much of it as possible. To secure access to as much of it as possible.

Speaker 1: 28:45

But ultimately, it was probably the gold that was the most important in the region, because it was the gold from Napata that would have eventually made its way up to Palestine and then into Asia Minor and, as such, the Napata region would be the largest producer of gold in ancient Nubia and this gold aspect was a deterrent as well, because what would happen is, if someone got out of line or was looking to foment some kind of rebellion against the Egyptians, one of the basic ways that they would punish them would be that they would make them go work the gold mines, which historically was extremely dangerous and possibly a death sentence for anybody that got sent there. So therefore, these gold mines may have been one of the absolute worst places to ever work, as the mortality rates were extremely high. So ultimately, these gold mines were an absolute horrendous place to be and therefore they were so notorious that they would eventually be referenced by the works of Karl Marx. So ultimately, the Egyptians knew this. So this was a great way to A deter people from getting out of line and, b when they did, this was a great source of labor that they can just basically expend at any point. They knew they sent them to the gold mines they would die. But oh well, they shouldn't have been rebellious in the first place. And the fact of the matter is, if Karl Marx is writing about these in the 1800s, you know they must have been really bad.

Speaker 1: 30:19

With Egypt in complete control, the Kingdom of Kush was operating as a vassal state to the Egyptian Empire. Therefore, the Egyptians were having serious effects on the civilians of the Nubian region due to the fact that they were controlling the region for hundreds of years. The end result was the Nubian culture continued on a path of adopting many of Egypt's rituals and cultural norms. Marriages between elite Egyptian and Nubian families were very common and, more importantly, the elites of the Egyptian society deeply respected the Nubians. So marrying a Nubian wouldn't have been looked upon in a negative light because, to the Egyptians, black skin symbolized rebirth and resurrection.

Speaker 1: 31:07

Representing the life-giving black silt of the Nile that comes with the annual inundation is a pretty controversial idea with some historians and archaeologists, as some believe that black people are actually descended from ancient Egypt. However, with that being said, it is uncommon for Egyptians to be depicted as having dark black skin. But Queen Amhos Nefertari was depicted as having dark skin when scientists tested her father. He was known for having features of black Africans. It was also common for the upper class Anubia to send their kids off to school in Egypt for education. So the effect would have been the next generation would come up through the Kushite royalty or even merchant class would have been thoroughly Egyptian. Royalty or even merchant class would have been thoroughly Egyptian.

Speaker 1: 32:03

Now, just to remain clear here, the kingdom of Kush would have retained many of its identifying factors separating it from Egypt. So it wasn't like Egypt came in, conquered the territory and the people of Nubia, fully assimilated into Egyptian culture. The fact remains is certain artwork would have depicted the Kushites with dark black skin, along with closed shave hairstyles, animal skin cloaks and earrings, which would have clearly distinguished the Nubians from the Egyptians. In addition, the Kushites would have developed their own methodology for pottery making and, as a result, their pottery would have been some of the most prized pottery in the known world at the time. But either way, the Egyptian pharaohs would have appointed viceroys over Kush. Now, this would have been a very prestigious position due to the fact that so much gold was flowing into and out of Nubia. In fact, the viceroy would have been titled the king's son and don't forget, these are very superstitious people. So this title would have been even more important when you factor in that this title would have carried off onto the afterlife. Ultimately, these viceroys would have been kind of like governors in that they would have been responsible for the comings and goings in Nubia, including the handling of any kind of military affairs. And to give you an idea how powerful these viceroys would have been, there was nearly a civil war between a high priest of thieves and the Kushite viceroy who oversaw the gold production of the southern part of Egyptian empire. So you can see how the wealth of the Kushite viceroy who oversaw the gold production of the southern part of the Egyptian empire, so you can see how the wealth of the Kushites through its gold and incest production would have at least allowed the people of Nubia to have a seat at the table, even though they were still just a vassal to the Egyptians.

Speaker 1: 33:58

Like I said previously, the prosperity in trade attracted foreign envy and was unfortunately most likely the reason it was sacked in 1500 BCE by the new Egypt kingdom. Commerce in Napata was a little bit different, though. In reality, nubian gold would have probably resulted in a similar geopolitical space as oil in places like Iraq and Kuwait. They get the oil and therefore western interests will find their way to control it by hook or crook. Now, as in most Nubian cities, gold and incense weren't necessarily the focal point of their society. It may have been a way to trade and gain outside influence, but life in Napata centered around agriculture and animal husbandry, just like it was in Kerma.

Speaker 1: 34:51

In the end, it was usually the number of cattle an individual owned that ultimately determined his wealth, and there is really no evidence of royal restrictions that barred the trade of cattle for other commodities. So the ownership of cattle was central to Napata life. Entire communities often migrated across Nubia just to find better grazing areas for the cattle, and these grazing areas may have been the root cause for moving the capital from Napata to Moreau, because Moreau had better grazing area for the cattle. Because it sounds like what happened was in the northern regions near Napata. The overgrazing basically caused massive soil erosion on the banks of the Nile and therefore they had to move to a place where there wasn't the soil erosion and therefore the cattle can actually have grass to graze on.

Speaker 1: 35:46

So while this change is happening in Nubia for, say, the next 500 years or so, egypt would basically thrive, as this was known as the new kingdom. It was during this time that the Egyptians, under the leadership of Ramesses II, would take on the Hittites in the famous Battle of Kadesh. The Egyptians would take on the Sea Peoples and the Libyans and eventually beat them back and, more importantly for this episode, they would have expanded deep into Nubia. But the fact remains, all these battles and expansion would cause a drain on the Egyptian treasury. But the thing is is they probably didn't even take stock of this, they probably didn't even realize this was happening and as a result, they were more or less in the grips of a slow decline. Ramesses III, his son, ramesses IV and VI, ramesses VIII they had kind of really succeeded each other in relatively quick succession, but also they would have been involved in quite public disagreements. Then, on top of that, egypt was suffering from extreme droughts, along with low inundations which would have resulted in famine, and then, of course, civil unrest.

Speaker 1: 37:05

By the time Ramses XI took the throne in 1107 BCE, egypt was in deep trouble. By the time of his death, egypt was once again fractured, as the pharaoh had ruled lower Egypt, while the high priests of Amun had ruled from Thebes, thus controlling the upper and middle parts of Egypt, the Kushites. Well, they took an opportunity of the Egyptian weakness and broke free of Egyptian rule and became fully independent, with Napata as their newly independent capital. From there, they would have re-established complete control over trade coming into and out of the kingdom, and by doing so they would have kept any taxes or tolls for themselves. In addition, they were able to control the city of Al-Khuru, which had some of the largest gold mines in North Africa and, better yet, the land was conducive to farming. So now they can control the gold and they would have a means to feed its people in the region. So really, what was happening was Egypt was once again sputtering during this period, which was known as the third intermediate period, which lasted for about 400 years. While this is all happening, egypt's 23rd dynasty had weakened significantly, as the land had been fragmented for centuries. So Egypt was kind of split and the country was no longer united.

Speaker 1: 38:36

Now, going back to Nubia, the Kushite king Alara was growing stronger to the point that he was able to unify all of upper Nubia and was able to grow the city of Napata. But it was also his successor, kashta, who was able to expand the Kushite influence all the way up into Egypt. In fact, the Kushites did to the Egyptians what the Egyptians had always done to them, in that they were able to expand and put a garrison outpost right into Upper Egypt, and then he had installed his daughter to govern over Upper Egypt, and it appears that this was done peacefully. So, in other words, it wasn't some sort of military conquest where people were slaughtered in the streets. Now, to be honest, at this point, it wasn't some sort of military conquest where people were slaughtered in the streets. Now, to be honest, at this point it's a little unclear to me if he had ruled both Upper and Lower Egypt. But we do know for sure that he had control over Upper Egypt at this time. Just a reminder Upper Egypt is Southern Egypt, upper Egypt is Southern Egypt. But what's also interesting is the fact that the Kushite rule over the Egyptians meant that the people of Nubia had become rapidly Egyptianized, which is kind of counterintuitive in my opinion, because you would have thought that just the opposite would have happened. You would have thought that the Egyptians would become more like the Kushite neighbors to the south. But in fact it was just the opposite. As the Kushites had ruled into Egypt, they became more Egyptianized.

Speaker 1: 40:09

His son Pai, who ruled Nubia and Egypt how much of Egypt, I'm not 100% sure Now. He ruled from 747 BCE to 712 BCE and his rule had basically started out with Egypt and the kingdom of Kush, coexisting peacefully as they had for centuries. But then a threat came from the, from Libya. Just as Padi took the throne of Kush, around 748 BCE forces hailing from Libya began to threaten Egypt. Egypt wasn't experiencing one of its peaks and therefore was vulnerable. So, at the request of Egypt, the Kushite King Pai marched his Nubian army into Egypt to assist with repelling the threat, and he successfully pushed the invaders back into Libya. So therefore, he was able to successfully secure all of Egypt and thus became the Black Pharaoh that ruled over Upper and Lower Egypt as a unified state. So therefore, the Kushite king had established control from modern-day Khartoum all the way up the Nile Delta.

Speaker 1: 41:23

Now, this particular case wasn't done peacefully, as he had to march his troops into the north and capture the city of Memphis. Now, the interesting thing is, once he captured Memphis and thus unified all of Egypt, king Pai basically plundered and then went back home, to never come back to Egypt. Now I've read that, since he didn't stay, that he may have been using Memphis just to prove a point that he could reach anywhere in Egypt, and he may have also used this as a point to let people know that he is more Egyptian than the Egyptians themselves, because Egypt had grown weak and corrupt. Now, if you look at the steles that were created afterward, they would have had made mention to the fact that these were raging panthers who came in and sacked our cities. But in reality, many historians have come to the conclusion that they were benevolent horsemen who patronized the arts. And to give you an idea how important the horses were to the Kushites, it had been reported that whether this was true or not, I don't know that Pai had chosen the horse of the conquered lands over the women. The one thing we do know is that he would have been buried with his four favorite horses, so maybe there is some truth to that. I don't know. But in the end end, this would be more known as the Black Pharaohs of the 25th dynasty.

Speaker 1: 42:48

And to give you an idea how Egyptian the Nubians had become, they had actually moved their capital of Nubia from Napata to Memphis. So you got to understand that, prior to this, the Nubians had looked at the Egyptians as people who had lost their way and were corrupted by the Libyans, who had attacked from the west and therefore no longer respected their own Egyptian culture. In reality, he viewed the conquest of Egypt as a holy war to bring Egypt back under the god Amun. So it was under the Kushite king's rule that they were going to revive the Egyptian culture in Egypt. They felt that they were more Egyptian than the Egyptians and wanted to bring Egypt back to its glory days. I mean, to me this is absolutely fascinating. Could you imagine five to six hundred years from now the United States loses its way and is no longer a dominant player at the international stage and people from Mexico come up to conquer the United States and do everything they can to bring the American culture back to its glory days, to its glory days? So in the end it was under Nubian rule that Egyptian culture was revived.

Speaker 1: 44:14

So when Pai'i died in 715 BCE, after about 30 years or so on the throne, he was buried in an Egyptian-style pyramid and he was succeeded by his brother, shebaka, who embraced Egyptian ways as vigorously as Pai and carried on the Kushite rule from Memphis. The nephew of Chebaka inherited the throne on 705 BCE and reigned for about 15 years. He adopted the name Pepi after Pepi II, who ruled Egypt back in 2284 BCE. It was during his reign that Egypt went through yet another mini-building phase, especially in the city of Thebes. But, more importantly, he was able to maintain Egypt's independence from Sargon II of Assyria. Tarakwa inherited the throne around 690 BCE and it's not 100% clear, but he may have been the son of Pai. But he was Papi's cousin, so he carried on his cousin's building campaign and thus needed to expand trade into the Levant, because he needed to import a lot more timber into Egypt.

Speaker 1: 45:14

The problem was Assyria was asserting itself throughout the Near East, so he had to deal with them. Now, by all accounts, it appears that the first interactions between the Kushites and the Assyrians were generally positive, especially when meeting Sargon II. The problem for the Nubians was they chose the wrong side, because they ended up supporting a rebellion against Assyria by the Philistines, and eventually the Egyptians and the Philistines would be defeated by the Assyrians at Ashbad. And if you know anything about Assyria, you know that they're not going to let this slide, so they're not going to let the support of their enemy by the Kushite pharaohs go unnoticed. As such, kushite control of Egypt was more or less on borrowed time by this point Now, despite the fact that Assyria wasn't too happy with the Kushite pharaoh's decision to back their enemy, in hindsight you could kind of have the thought that maybe the Kushite pharaoh might be able to smooth things over or at least fall back a bit.

Speaker 1: 46:17

But in a way just the opposite happened, as he continued to rule from the city of Memphis. Thus he would have put himself kind of within striking distance of the Assyrians. So in other words, he didn't kind of upset the Assyrians and then fall back into Nubia, no, he just stayed where he was and he probably thought he can kind of fight them off wherever he is in Egypt. So he basically just stayed in Memphis, which probably wasn't the wisest of decisions. But despite all this, tariq would actually took the throne at a relatively good time, despite the threat from Assyria. The reason being is the Nile was flooding optimally. Thus Egypt and Nubia were able to produce an abundance amount of crops and wine. And let's not forget that Egypt's economy was essentially based solely on its crop production. So a large crop yield meant a booming economy.

Speaker 1: 47:16

Fact, the prosperity of Egypt may have been its strongest since the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, which was from around 2055 BCE to 1650 BCE. To give you an idea of where I am in the timeline, right now we're talking about 690 BCE. So this prosperity might be the best it's been in over a thousand years, and that right there is. What is most fascinating about Egypt is because you start to think about time frames and you start to think, wow, this is a thousand years between time periods and this is just the Middle Kingdom, not even the Old Kingdom, and I think that's what separates Egypt from every other ancient culture, even more so than China. The fact is, this was probably the height of the Kushite Empire. Trade was booming and Egypt and Nubia were on a building boom, building temples and palaces. In addition, tarakwa may be known mostly as a pharaoh who brought on a sort of renaissance of the arts and monument building, but Tarakwa also had successful campaigns up into the Levant by conquering the Phoenicians and the Philistines, in addition to the Libyans in North Africa, who were often a thorn in the side of the Egyptians, and we know how powerful the Assyrians were. But the fact remains is the Nubian infantry and their archers prevented Assyria from taking Jerusalem, despite massive casualties on both sides.

Speaker 1: 48:53

This struggle between Assyria and the Black Pharaoh would last decades. In fact, assyria would end up paying tribute to the Black Pharaoh, but the fact is, assyria obviously didn't go away Now. A lot of it was due to the fact that Assyria had its own issues for a brief period. Sennacherib, assyria's king, was assassinated by two of his sons, so things went a bit haywire in Assyria. But eventually Assyria would be brought back under control by Sennacherib's son, esarhaddon, and probably what happened was Tarak would probably thought well, assyria is in chaos. So you know, he probably felt a bit at ease because he didn't have to worry about Esarhaddon coming in marching down right away. He had to take care of his business up in Assyria. But in the end what ended up happening was Esarhaddon ended up being a great general and Assyria probably ended up becoming stronger in the long run.

Speaker 1: 49:51

And, more importantly for this story, the Assyrians didn't forget about their Egyptian problem and they wanted to deal with it once and for all. The first step was to invade towns in the Levant that were loyal to the Egyptians and the Nubians. So what they did is they went and they sacked the cities and razed them to the ground and by doing so, by 671 BCE, assyria had basically eliminated the buffer states between Egypt and the encroaching Assyrian army. By 670 BCE, assyria would march on to Memphis and conquer Lower Egypt, which is in Northern Egypt. Esarhaddon didn't stay in Egypt. Instead, he went back to Assyria, but he enacted harsh tributes before leaving town.

Speaker 1: 50:41

Well, the thing is is Tarakwa was a true warrior. He fell back, regrouped and headed back north and, in 669 BCE, he retook Memphis and the rest of Lower Egypt and destroyed any Assyrian outposts that were left behind. Well, of course, assyria would respond, but it wasn't Esarhaddon, because he died during the meantime, and his son, ashurbanipal, who would obviously respond a year later, in 679 BCE. Now, if you recall from this series I did on Ashurbanipal, he was not meant to be the true ruler of Assyria and he was more or less groomed for the temple and therefore was probably the first truly educated ancient ruler. Now, you might be asking yourself how does that make a difference? Well, the thing is is he was more or less studying the use of espionage and therefore he would use this as a primary tactic during his conquest of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 51:44

During his conquest of Egypt. So what he did was he would have strategically placed spies throughout Egypt and would basically have them commit to an ancient version of a massive misinformation campaign, kind of like what we saw in the 2016 US election, when the Russians were interfering with information basically designed to target US election, when the Russians were interfering with information, basically designed to target US voters and, just like the Russian interference of the 2016 election, the misinformation campaign that was brought upon by the Assyrians would have truly weakened Tarakwa's authority throughout Egypt and, without any strong loyalties from the population, it would have meant that Tarakula would have been facing a huge uphill battle if his officers and local population weren't truly trusting him. Within a year, the Assyrians would have marched through Egypt and forced the Nubians out and back down into Nubia. But the fact is is the Nubians actually put up a pretty decent fight, because at first they initially held their own, but eventually the Assyrian might was just a bit too much for them, and Memphis was sacked in 671 BCE. And, according to Esarhaddon's own accounts, he said quote Tarakwa and his army squared off against the Assyrians for 15 days that fought pitch battles, very bloody. Tarakwa was apparently wounded five times, but managed to escape with his life, and he just basically abandoned Memphis. In typical Assyrian fashion, esarhaddon slaughtered the villagers and erected piles of their heads as a typical deterrent that the Assyrians were known for, and from there, the Assyrians would have established a vassal king in Egypt.

Speaker 1: 53:36

Eventually, the great Nubian king Tarakwa, would die in Thebes in 664 BCE. He was entombed in the Nuri Temple in northern Sudan. He was followed by his appointed son, tatamani, who invaded Egypt in hopes of restoring his family's control. Tatamani was able to rile up the population by saying that the Assyrians had desecrated certain temples. As such, things were going pretty well, he was able to execute the Assyrian vassal king, necho I, and forced his son, samtic I, to flee. So the Nubians had retaken control of Upper Egypt and now was looking to take control of Lower Egypt and once again unite the entire region under the Kushite Empire. But Tatamani had a major problem in that Tamsik came back to the scene, but this time he brought Ashurbanipal and his massive armies, who are mostly filled with mercenaries from Anatolia and the Levant. Tatamani also had a major problem in that he had executed the vassal king of Egypt and now his son wanted revenge. The Assyrians were able to quickly retake lower Egypt and then they marched on to Thebes, where they would have annihilated the city and its local population. Somehow or other, tatamani was able to escape by taking the Nile south. He and the Nubians would never return back to Egypt. You know, in looking back at it.

Speaker 1: 55:10

The Black Pharaohs were very successful at growing the Egyptian economy, along with influence, despite their limited time on the thrones. Now, samtik I couldn't get to Tatamani and avenge his father's death, but Samtik II, who was Samtik I's grandson, was able to do something instead, as he set out on a program to erase all the records of the Nubian pharaohs and their nobility. In addition, he was able to take a step further by invading the city of Napata in 592 BCE, and that's really what brought an end to Napata as the control of the Kushite Empire. So the army and royalty of Kush abandoned Napata, which was located at the 4th cataract of the Nile, which was founded by the Egyptian cult Amun in the region. And that would have been really important because, even though the royalty had left, the priests remained and they would have been extremely powerful, because Amun was the only god that could be worshipped publicly throughout Kush, which meant that it almost had a monotheistic kind of feel. But it wasn't quite a monotheistic empire at the time, quite a monotheistic empire at the time. There were also other gods that could be just as popular as well, such as Bast, who was the Egyptian goddess in the form of a Black Panther. Now, this might sound familiar to you because Bast was referenced in the opening of the movie Black Panther. But ultimately what I'm getting at is that Amun priests had sway in Nubia, but things were kind of changing and the people of Nubia still carried on with many Egyptian traditions and customs. In the end, the capital would be moved to the city of Meroe, which was located between the 5th and 6th cataracts. The new capital was chosen because it would have enabled people to control trade from Central Africa all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. So even though the Nubians would never control Egypt again, that doesn't necessarily mean that they lost influence over Northeast Africa, because ultimately they would have been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, producers of gold and ivory and even slaves that would have flowed into succeeding empires of antiquity, including the Romans.

Speaker 1: 57:29

Centuries later, herodotus claimed that Merau was the mother city of other Ethiopians. This time period would have been known as the Merauic period and, like I just said, the Egyptian culture was still very prevalent in Nubian societies and, as such, this time period will see a massive building phase of pyramids, and the pyramids they served as tombs for the elite of the Nubian society, so the kings, the queens, the high priests and even other wealthy families would be buried in these tombs. The high priests and even other wealthy families would be buried in these tombs. One necropolis in Meroe contains more pyramids than all the pyramids of Egypt combined. Now, these pyramids weren't rubbicas of the Egyptian pyramids, because they would have been a lot steeper and therefore they wouldn't be nearly as high as the Egyptian pyramids, as these were typically built at a 70 degree angle. Now, like I said previously, nubia isn't a place that most people think of when they think of pyramid building. It could be due to the fact that the pyramids in Nubia aren't as grand and therefore were much shorter than those in Egypt, and this is probably due to the fact that the Egyptian pyramids were typically built around 50 degree angles, whereas the Nubian pyramids would slope at 70 degree angles, which would have made them be a lot shorter. You know and I want to make it clear it wasn't just the pyramids. They were also great engineers, as they had engineered great projects, like the Great Enclosure, which was nearly 500,000 square feet, enclosure that included a university and a hospital and even an area to train elephants.

Speaker 1: 59:13

Also, we start to see written language developed in the city of Moreau, which was known as Moreau Accursive, which may have been written on Egyptian papyrus or even clay tablets and sometimes even metal or ivory. In addition, there was the Merulic hieroglyphs as well, so they got that kind of really from the Egyptians. Unfortunately, neither have been fully deciphered yet. So that means that we really don't know a whole lot of information, and hopefully we'll get a lot better information regarding the people and the empires of Nubia once they could kind of really figure out and decipher the written language. But unfortunately this written language was developed later on. So therefore, once it is deciphered, we still will miss a lot of great information, because this written language came much later than, say, places like Sumer, obviously, and other places in the Near East. Now, eventually, this written language will be supplanted by that of the Byzantine Greek language.

Speaker 1: 1:00:17

In addition, nubia's wealth also began to change as well, because it no longer overly was relying on gold mining and other precious metals. Nubia had completely transformed to the Iron Age and now was a major producer of iron tools and weapons. And to give you an idea how big this industry had become, nubia's tools and weapons were found as far away as in China, because there was established trade routes that would have led from Nubia all the way up into China by this time period, and because of it we also see tools and weapons that were made in Nubia that were found in modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with even in India. So in the end, moreau would have attracted merchants from across the known world at the time, especially the merchants from Persia. One thing trade does, as I've mentioned several times, is more so than trading goods. It actually traded ideas, and therefore it was during this time period that the Egyptians were able to show the people of Moreau the latest and greatest irrigation techniques. As a result, moreau was able to grow an abundance of cereals. In addition to its location on the Nile River, moreau was able to export its goods up and down the Nile River and on abroad via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. So that's why you see so much of the Moreauian iron goods found in other places around the world.

Speaker 1: 1:01:48

Morrow ultimately had a long successful economic run, as it was an economic cornerstone in Nubia from about 890 BCE until it was abandoned in 350 CE. So it was around for quite a long time, but it would eventually get resettled as the climate shifted back and forth. But in reality, what made Moreau so interesting was the fact that it was not home to some major military complex or garrison. Instead, it thrived and popped up due to its dependence upon trade, not its military capacity, which was kind of a bit unusual during this time. Later on, moreau would be known for its trade in exotic animals like leopards and elephants, along with ivory and hardwoods, with faraway places like Rome. Like Rome, moreau would become a major trading partner with the Ptolemies of Egypt and then with the Romans, who dominated the Mediterranean afterward. But really, in the end, the city just couldn't overcome climate change and slowly faded away. But it should be also noted that as it declined, it meant Egypt was unable to acquire certain luxury goods of which they had depended upon for many years.

Speaker 1: 1:03:13

Throughout the Mediterranean, certain nomadic groups of people would virtually appear out of nowhere and take over various city-states, whether it was the Gudians or the Amorites. These nomadic people would eventually wrestle control away from the previous inhabitants and they would have basically started their own dynasties and cultures. Well, something similar to that happened in Nubia, because around 200 CE, the Nabatia people had assumed power and control over Moreau, had assumed power and control over Moreau. Now these were nomadic and mercenary warrior culture class who sold protection to kings of Moreau. But as they grew in numbers and strength, they eventually married into the aristocracy of Kush and essentially just assumed control of the empire. Now, like I said, the Nubians would never reconquer egypt, as egypt would be conquered by several outside kingdoms, including the greeks and the romans, but nubia stayed to the south as an independent power and would control trade in the southern nile region. But ultimately, once egypt was under control of the romans, this would have adversely affected the kingdom of Kush, as Rome would have placed heavy taxation and would have also asked for high demands for goods and services, since it was a client state to the Roman Empire.

Speaker 1: 1:04:38

However, an interesting thing happened during the time of the Roman Empire, in that we start to see strong queen mothers of Nubia rise to power. The famous queen mother Ammarinus faced off with the Romans and was able to go toe-to-toe to the point where the Romans started to think it would be a better idea to go to the bargaining table rather than a continual war with her. So essentially what she did was she pushed the Nubians all the way up to the first cataract of Aswan. The Romans responded with a major show of force and sacked the city of Napata and just assumed that the Nubians would cower and run away. But the queen mother had other plans and fought back. The Romans quickly realized that they were probably in a no win situation and figure out the best course of action was to head to the bargaining table. A hard border was established about 130 miles south of Aswan and the queen mother was able to negotiate new and lucrative trade deals with the Romans. The trade deals turned out to be good for both sides. Now, one of the great stories from this Nubian-Roman skirmish was the fact that the Nubians had taken several Roman statues, of which she returned after the negotiation of the deals. However, she had kept a statue of the head of Caesar, where she had buried it underneath the steps of the Temple of Amun, so that the people of Nubia would have the pleasure of walking on the head of Augustus daily.

Speaker 1: 1:06:11

The Black Queen Amanatori ruled from CE2 to CE25, had rebuilt much of Napata after it was destroyed by Rome. She even built the Temple of Amun in both Napata and Moro. She even built the temple of amun in both napata and morrow. Iron production was increased and with that, trade with china also increased. During her reign, morrow thrived again and may have had its most wealthiest period, and it should also be noted that rome and the nubians had settled into an uneasy stalemate, but they continued their previous trade agreements, so there was extensive trade that was still taking place between Rome and Nubia.

Speaker 1: 1:06:53

Eventually, morel was subdivided into certain regions, which ultimately would have meant that the region would have been a lot more decentralized. While this might be good at first for governing, the problem is in the long run, history tells us that warlords will generally start to pop up, and that's kind of what happened. The end result was Merle was back on the decline, while Axum in the south was becoming more and more powerful and eventually became a major trade partner with the Romans for Northeast Africa. The last queen mother ruled around 306 to 314 CE. By then, kush had lost his trade partnership with Rome and the Romans would have favored the Ethiopians instead. But the region had a serious problem in that it was over farmed for many years, and the unintended consequence of this strong iron industry was that iron needed lots of timber to heat the furnaces. As such, the region of Moreau was basically deforested completely for its iron industry, and now it couldn't produce the food to sustain itself and no longer could produce the iron for trade. Therefore, the city lost much of its inhabitants and would become a shell of itself. In the meantime, axum's power had grown considerably and was able to invade what was left of Moreau in 340 CE and easily defeated it. The citizens that remained were sent off into slavery and the empire of Kush was no more. The people known as the Nabati moved with them into the region and eventually formed small cities and villages with minor little kingdoms.

Speaker 1: 1:08:44

Now much of the Nubian region was sort of forgotten by Europeans in general. It almost feels like Egyptologists would excavate everything and almost stopped once they got to the first cataract, and it wasn't until the 19th century that we start to see certain Europeans take note of the ruins of Nubia. One particular explorer was that of Giuseppe Ferlini. Ferlini, who lived from April 23rd 1797 till his death in December of 1870, absolutely desecrated numerous Nubian pyramids and tombs in search of fame and fortune. He was able to loot many artifacts, but he had a problem selling them on the open market, because the Europeans were so bigoted that they could not believe that the Nubians could produce such magnificent goods and works of art, because Kush was associated with black Africans and Europeans back then and even today, just assumed that these were primitive people. And that right.

Speaker 1: 1:09:48

There is the biggest reason why I wanted to discuss Nubia. The Pyramids of Moreau and other Nubian sites were still largely intact when American archaeologist George Reisner arrived in 1907. He came at the request of the Sudanese government, which asked him to salvage as much as he possibly could in parts of the area that were flooded by the first dam at Aswan. In fact, I kind of went over this at the beginning of this series in part one where I basically discussed that the Aswan high dam would flood many Nubian sites because they needed to install an electricity plant. So luckily, a lot was retrieved, but the dam meant that any kind of excavation would have stopped because it would have just been flooded. But, like I said, they tried to get as much as they could out prior to this happening. Now I'm sure that it would be an actual treasure trove of art and, more importantly, knowledge of the ancient Nubian populations if that was never flooded. But there was modern needs obviously and I'd like to finish it off here in that, one of the reasons why Nubia has more or less been disrespected historically when discussing ancient history is partially, if not mostly, out of prejudice towards its black population.

Speaker 1: 1:11:14

A Nubian queen once wrote Alexander the Great and said Do not despise us for the color of our skin. In our souls, we are brighter than the whitest of people. Color of our skin, in our souls, we are brighter than the whitest of people. I want to thank you for taking your time to listen to this episode and both of these episodes on Nubia and even going back into Egypt. I truly hope you found these episodes to be very informative and I hope you learned something new, and I hope you stick around for more episodes coming into the future. If you like what you hear and want to donate to the show, you can visit us at patreoncom slash history of money banking trade or you can visit our website at moneybankingtradecom. Also, you can help out the show by leaving a five-star review or telling a friend. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon.