Ancient Nubia

1. Ancient Nubia Come to Nubia………Nubia has waited for you from ancient time to now…… By: June

2. Geography • If you would like to explore ancient Africa history, Ancient Nubia will be the coolest place to visit. • Where is Ancient Nubia land in today’s Africa? Before that we need to understand thatAncient Nubia was divided into three different regions: “Lower Nubia”, “Upper Nubia”, and “Southern Nubia”. “Lower Nubia” was in the modern southern Egypt between the first and second cataract. “Upper Nubia” and “Southern Nubia” was in the modern day Southern Sudan between second and sixth cataract.

3. Social MAKE A GUESS Can you guess what is the religion for Ancient Nubia? Islamic or Christianity? • Every country has its own religion. Around sixth century A.D., Upper and Lower Nubia converted to Christianity. It’s a big surprise that they remain as Christianity even when Egyptian were converted to Islamic. • Because Nubia wanted to get stronger, Nubadia and Makuria were united in the seventh century A.D. • Very sadly, Arabian then controlled Makuria in fourteenth century and built a Muslim Kingdom there. • Worst news! Nubian independence, national identity and Christianity were all disappeared in A.D. 1550 . • When Nubian empire ended, two-third Nubian people stayed in Egypt and one-third of them stayed in Sudan. Most Nubian treated Sudan as their main homeland, therefore many of today’s Nubians are mostly Sudanese. THINKING….. What happen to the Nubian now? Where are they? This is a woman dressed in Christianity.

4. Political • Especially for girls, you would be proud to learn about this! There were many queens in ancient Nubia, like Queen Amanitore who lead the army to fight against Egyptians. You can visit The Nubian Museum near Aswan to find out more about kings and queens at that time. • Do you know who ever controlled Nubia? Ancient Nubia were controlled by Egypt from Eighteenth Dynasty to Twentieth Dynasty in Egypt. • Around 900 B.C., Nubian monarchy began. • By 770 B.C., Nubia extended their rule to North and called it the Napatan Period. • There after, they controlled Egypt. This can be proved as the kings now wore crown with double cobra which means the unity of both Egypt and Nubia. • However, between 23B.C. – A.D. 320, Roman controlled Egypt. They tried to make Nubia pay tribute and got huge resistance from the Nubian ruling queen. This is Queen Amanitorein Meroitic Kingdom.

5. Intellect These were pryamids that has been destroyed. • One of the most fantastic things is Nubians were good in art. They made many tomb paintings and reliefs. • They also built a lot of temples, fortresses and tombs but many were destroyed by the construction of the High Aswan Dam. • You can visit the Nubian Museum which was built near Aswan. It has many artifacts in it. • You will be surprised that Nubian soft rhythms music and songs has been borrowed by Sudanese and well accepted by Egyptians! Maybe in today Sudan’s music and songs are partly from Nubian… • From the history, Nubian were strong in patient and good problem solving. This can be shown byeven Egypt controlled them for decades, they still stood up as a force against Egypt. That’s why Nubians can created a culture which was very different from Egyptians. Their culture like dress, dances, traditions and music is very very unique.

6. Culture Do you know who created the name Nubia? • It’s a bit pity that no one else know how to write and speak Nubian language now. As from the history, Nubia was named by Noba people because they finally settled down in Meroe. At that time, Noba people spoke Nilo Saharan language. It’s very interested to know that “Kush” – refer to Nubian at that time, also mean Ethiopia in classical Greek language. • The most famous king of all the god was Amun. Then, Amunof Napata gave Taharqo his kingship. Taharqo was a wonderful king. He has built a beautiful temple in the holy mountain at Napata. The greatest thing that Taharqo had done to repaired all the temples that were destroyed. • Nubian was Christianity until the arrival of Arabs to Egypt and Sudan. Nubian had to converted to Islam and they used Arabic language as their language on top of their own language. Very interesting!

7. Economy Do you know Nubia’s farmer are great farmers? • Because Nubian was staying along the Nile river, Nubian farmers grew beans, corn, sorghum, and vegetables near the Nile river. This was really easy that they don’t spend time looking for water everywhere like others! • Growing palm trees, palm fronds, and Kolay were really great and useful things for Nubian. They used palm trees to build houses and covering roofs. Then they used palm fronds to make basket and cooking fires. Kolay is a traditional wooden water wheel powered by hardnessed cattle, or by a shadoof. • Nubia was the center of trading at that time. Most of the traders came here to trade for gold, salt and iron. This is a Shadoof.

8. Bibliography • Mitchell,Kathi. “Ancient Nubia.” Angelfire.com. December 12,2011. December 9,2012 <http://www.angelfire.com/on/Ancientknowledge/ NUBIA.HTML> • “Nubia.” Wikipedia.org. September 2010 December 7 2012 <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nubia>. • All the pictures is from: • Google.com • Wikipedia.org