ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

The objects of Egypt's commercial interest in Nubia were mineral resources,
animal and forest resources and human resources.
Whenever the Pharaonic state was united and powerful, it sought to
dominate the southern neighbour country. In the Old Kingdom, it controlled
vast parts of Lowe Nubia. Between the end of the Old Kingdom and
the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, political turmoil in Egypt brought
an end to trading expeditions. At the same time, major political changes
must also have taken place in Upper Nubia. The name “Yam" disappears
in Egyptian texts and is replaced by the name “Kush", which the Egyptians
regularly modified by an adjective meaning “vile" or “contemptible".
Following the end of the First Intermediate Period, Lower Nubia
seems to have been tributary to Egypt. However, the Egyptians did not
garrison this region nor were fortresses built there prior to the reign of Senusert
I (XII Dynasty). A stela erected at Buhen records a military foray
into Upper Nubia in the reign of Senusert I. Further campaigns were waged
against Kush in the eight, tenth, twelfth, sixteenth and probably nineteenth
regnal years of Senusert III. Prior to the first expedition, king had a
canal seventy-five meters long cut to facilitate the movement of his flotilla
through the First Cataract. By the end of his first campaign, Senusert III
had established his southern border at Semna (at the north end of Bath
el-Hagar). In the same tame king forbade Nubinas to travel from the south
to pass north of Semna by river. To enforce pharaoh's decree, five forts
were completed within sight and signalling distance of one another. The
Second Cataract forts were defended by a massive mud brick wall system,
which was surrounded by dry moats and walls with bastions and loopholes
for archers. These structures served a number of purposes. One was to facilitate
a massive trading operation with Upper Nubia by assisting and protecting
shippers moving up or down the rapids, by providing safe havens
and hostels for caravans travelling along the river, and by keeping potentially
threatening peoples away. One of the most important purposes, however,
must have been to display a strong defensive posture to the rulers of
Kush to discourage them from attempting any sort of military moves to the
north. These forts were all permanently garrisoned and well supplied. They
were given names that revealed their purpose: “Warding off the Bows",
“Subduer of the Nubians (Nehesy)", “Curbing the Foreign Lands".
At the end of the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptian pharaohs lost interest
in possessing Lower Nubia because Egypt was entering a period of
fragmentation. At this time the Kerma kings extended their control northward
into Lower Nubia.
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