UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
Batn el-Hagar. All this shows that the Pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty
were bent on making the passage south as satisfactory as possible.
When Sesostris III fixed the Egyptian frontier at Semna, he further
reinforced the military defences against the possibility of attacks by a
powerful aggressor from the south, but a famous text records his command
that these fortifications should not hinder the commercial traffic from
which both Egyptians and Nubians had much to gain.
Not much is known about the troubled period from —1780 to —1580,
which Egyptologists call the Second Intermediate Period, but it seems to
have been a golden age for the kingdom of Kush, the capital of which,
Kerma, appears to have taken advantage of the weakening grip of
Egyptian rulers to increase the amount of trade between the lower and
upper Nile valley, from which it profited.
The importance of this trade should not be underestimated. Countless
marks of sigillarian earth, which were used to seal letters, and various other
articles transported from the north, have been found at Kerma as well as in
the Egyptian fortresses; the latter, contrary to what used to be thought,
were not abandoned during the Second Intermediate Period, or were
abandoned at a relatively late stage, and not for long. Whereas during the
Middle Kingdom the garrisons had been relieved at regular intervals,
during the Second Intermediate Period those occupying the fortresses
became permanent residents in Nubia; they had their families with them,
and were buried there. It is even likely that they gradually recognized the
suzerainty of the king of Kush. Of Egyptian origin, they must have done
a great deal to spread their culture throughout the society of which they
were members.
Contact between the African kingdom of Kush and Egypt seems to have
been closest during the Hyksos period ( — 1650 to —1580). All along the
Nubian Corridor scarabs and seal-marks bearing the names of the Asiatic
kings then ruling Egypt have been found. There are so many at Kerma
itself that at one time Nubia was thought to have been over-run by the
Hyksos after the submission of Upper Egypt. We now know that this
did not happen, but the Africans of the middle Nile had such close links
with the Asiatics, of the Delta, that when the Theban Pharaohs of the
seventeenth dynasty embarked upon the reconquest of Middle and Lower
Egypt, the Hyksos king naturally turned for help to his African ally and
proposed taking joint military action against their common enemy, the
Pharaoh of Egypt (see Chapter 9).
In any case, the relations between Theban Upper Egypt and the Kushites
of Kerma were both hostile and complementary. From —1650 to —1580
Thebans serving the king of Kush brought their technical expertise to
Middle Nubia, and the presence of many Egyptians stationed in the
fortresses of Lower Nubia ensured that Kush would maintain contact with
the Hyksos rulers in the north. Moreover, the last Pharaohs of the
seventeenth dynasty employed Medja mercenaries both in their internal
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