The ancient Nubians lived in a region of northeast Africa which is located south of present-day Egypt and north of present-day Sudan. Nubia was bordered to the west by the Nile and the Sahara Desert, and to the east by the Red Sea, an area that is now the Nubian Desert.
The kingdom of the black-skinned Nubians was invaded around 1920 BC, when King Senuseret of Egypt sent his armies up the Nile. The Egyptians called this region Kush and for them it was an important source of valuable metals and minerals, especially gold. For hundreds of years there were reciprocal raids between the two kingdoms, and the Kushites managed to capture some Egyptian treasures, which they took back to their capital, Kerma, near the Third Cataract of the Nile, in present-day Sudan.
At that time Kush was a powerful state, ruled by kings who lived in luxury. Evidence of this was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, when the American archaeologist George Reisner found a castle-like structure and a royal cemetery with many burial mounds, containing the skeletons of sacrificed people and animals. The kings were found buried in larger tombs. The sovereign's body rested on a bed in a small room; Near it the skeletons of hundreds of men, women and children were found, all of them buried next to the sovereign as a sacrifice. Historians believe they were buried alive.
The Kushites adopted some of the religious and artistic customs of the Egyptians. Then, around 740 BC, the Kushite king Piankhi managed to conquer Egypt itself. The Kushites founded the Egyptian 25th Dynasty, but their rule did not last long. About 654 BC they had to retreat to the south pushed by the Assyrians. They were forced to locate their capital much further south, at Napata, near the fourth cataract of the Nile. At this time the Kushites adopted Egyptian as their official language and began building pyramids as royal tombs, just as the Kushites had done. Egyptians many hundreds of years earlier.
The Kingdom of Meroe of the Nubians
But perhaps Napata was too close to Egypt, because in 590 B.C. the Kushites again moved their capital, this time to Meroe, between the Fifth and Sixth Cataracts. His smaller kingdom flourished again, free from Egyptian influence. The Kushites found iron ore, which they smelted to create iron tools and weapons (it may be here that the practice of iron smelting began in ancient Africa).
Meroe and Napata were linked by an ancient caravan route. At Meroe, the Kushites built a royal palace of brick and stone, as well as a river dock and many stepped pyramids. These pyramids were built on top of the tombs and were much smaller and steeper than their Egyptian counterparts. But unfortunately some 19th century explorers removed the tops of many of them in their vain and hasty search for hidden treasures. The inhabitants of Meroe also built temples to the Egyptian sacred bull Apis and to the goddess Isis, who represented for them the feminine force of nature. Another temple was also dedicated to a deity that was distinctly African and that seems to have been worshiped only by the inhabitants of Meroe, the lion god Apedemak.
Gradually, the inhabitants of Meroe became less influenced by Egypt:they created new artistic and architectural styles, used their own language, and developed their own alphabet and writing system from Pharaonic hieroglyphics. Meroitic signs appear on stone steles, but specialists have not yet been able to fully decipher them. The merchants of Meroe traded their excellent iron products, both in the Mediterranean region and in Asia. Farmers from outside the city channeled water from the nearby Nile and used ox-powered waterwheels to carry the water to their fields. They grew cotton and other products; they also raised cattle.
In 45 BC, Amanishakhete became queen of the Kushite Meroe , increasing, like her successors, contact with Egypt. However, in 30 BC, the great Egyptian kingdom fell to Rome, and seven years later the Roman prefect Petronius led an expedition to the region of Meroe. The Romans captured several cities and destroyed Napata. They soon retreated north, but thereafter Meroe's power and wealth slowly declined. It is possible that the decline had to do with a decrease in harvests; the land may have been denuded of trees and overexploited, so that the desert took over the region. In the 3rd century, nomads from the Arabian desert moved here, and then around 350 AD, forces from the mighty kingdom of Aksum destroyed Meroe itself.
The Rise of Aksum
The city of Aksum was located 600 kilometers southeast of Meroe, in the northern mountains of present-day Ethiopia. The mountainous kingdom that surrounded the city was located between the Blue Nile and the Red Sea, occupying areas of present-day Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan. By the 1st century AD, the people who inhabited this region had become a major trading power. They used the Red Sea port of Adulis to trade with the Roman Empire, Arabia, and India. The conquest of Meroe gave the Aksumites greater control over the Nile Valley trade routes.
Around the same time as the conquest of Meroe, King Ezana of Aksum converted to Christianity. His kingdom became an ally of the Eastern Roman Empire, administered from Constantinople. Over the following centuries, Aksum increased his power and conquered parts of Arabia. The monuments of the capital, its churches and its 20,000 inhabitants were maintained with the taxes paid by both the conquered territories and its own successful merchants. However, after the Persian conquest of Arabia in AD 575, it became difficult for the Aksumites to trade along the Red Sea. In the seventh century, Muslim Arabs conquered the Persians, destroying the Aksumite fleet and cutting them off from the rest of the Christian world. The Aksumites could no longer compete with Muslim power, and by 1000 AD, their civilization had lost all its power.
The steles of Aksum
Aksum is famous for its gigantic granite stelae - ancient pillars with carved inscriptions that look like stylized skyscrapers. The monuments date from before the 4th century AD. and his engravings contain scenes including Aksumite buildings of limestone, mud, and wood, similar to those still to be seen in the mountain villages of northern Ethiopia.
The tallest of the stelae still standing is 21 meters high. Some of the stelae may have been even taller, but they now lie broken on the ground.
Historians are not sure what their purpose was, but believe they marked Aksumite royal tombs. In the 1970s, archaeologists found a series of tombs below the stelae, some of them eight meters deep.
One of the largest stelae was brought to Italy by the Italians in the 1930s, during their occupation of Ethiopia as part of Italian East Africa. This ancient Aksumite monument now stands near the Arch of Constantine in Rome.