Chapter 2 Section 4

The Civilization of Kush

Key Words

• Savanna• Collapse• Decline

The Nubian Way of Life

• Settled in farming villages • Cattle herders• Crop growers• Excellent hunters-skilled at bow and arrow• Strong warriors-well known for fighting skills

Nubians

• Weaker villages were taken over by the powerful ones and they formed the kingdom of Kerma

• Kerma developed close ties with Egypt to it’s north

• Traded cattle, gold, ivory and enslaved people• Egyptians hired Nubian warriors for their

armies

Nubians

• Kerma became wealthy• Artisans made fine pottery, jewelry and metal

goods• Kings of Kerma were buried in tombs similar

to those of Egyptian pharaohs• Egypt (Thutmose III) sent his soldiers into

Nubia and warred for 50 years until the kingdom of Kerma collapsed

Nubia

• Egypt ruled Nubians for next 700 years• People of Nubia adopted many of the Egyptian

customs and ways• Worshipped Egyptian gods/goddesses along

with their own• Learned how to work with copper and bronze

and changed Egyptian hieroglyphics to fit their own language

Kush

• Nubians broke free of Egypt at the end of the NK

• By 850BC a group of Nubians formed the independent kingdom of KUSH

• For the net few centuries Kushite kings ruled from their capital city Napata

• Napata was located on the upper Nile- trade caravans crossed here and carried gold, ivory and woods from Kush to Egypt

Kush

• Kush became rich and strong enough to take over Egypt (750 BC)

• King Kashta and his soldiers began the task and his son Piye completed it (728 BC)

• Piye founded the 25th Dynasty that ruled both Egypt and Kush from Napata

• Napata was similar to an Egyptian city with white sandstone temples, monuments and small pyramids to bury their kings

Kush

• Kush rule in Egypt was not long• During the 600’s BC the Assyrians invaded

Egypt and drove the Kushites back to their southern homeland

• The Assyrians were armed with iron weapons

Why was IRON important?

• Read the pertaining paragraphs on p. 190 and bullet some answers

• • • • •

Kush

• Around 540 BC Kush rulers left Napata and moved south so they were far from the Assyrians

• They set up in the city of Meroe were they had access to the Nile and a rocky desert that had rich iron deposits

• Meroe became the center for trade and iron making

Kush

• They became wealthy and rebuilt Meroe to look like an Egyptian city

• Meroe became the core of a huge trading network that reached all the way into central Africa

• What did they trade from Meroe? (p. 191)– – – –

Kush

• Remained a great trading power for over 600 years

• By the 200’s AD the kingdom began to weaken and another kingdom called Axum (Ethiopia) rose to take its place

• 350 AD the armies of Axum burned Meroe to the ground