UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
In —525 a Persian danger developed. We know the reply of the Nubian
king to the ambassadors of Cambyses 20 (Herodotus, III, 21): 'when the
Persians bend, as easily as I, bows as big as this, then let them march
against the Ethiopians in superior numbers'. Cambyses did not take this
advice: his army was unable to effect a crossing of the Batn el-Hagar and
had to retire with heavy losses. For all that, the Persians counted the
inhabitants of Kush as their subjects. A shield is set aside for them on the
pediment, inscribed with the peoples of the empire, of the magnificent
statue of Darius recently brought to light at Susa. 21 It is conceivable that
a narrow belt of Nubian territory remained under their sway and there were
Kushite contingents in the armies of Darius and Xerxes. There are also
references to gifts of gold, ebony, elephant tusks and even children, with
the ancient tributes formerly levied by Egypt seemingly going to Persepolis
and Susa.
A further possible explanation for the transfer of the capital may have
been climatic and economic considerations. At Meroe the steppes were
much more extensive than in the basins around Napata, hemmed in by
deserts. To livestock were added agriculture, cultivation being perfectly
possible in this zone of summer rainfall. Enormous irrigation basins (hafirs)
were dug out adjacent to the principal sites. Commerce must have been
brisk, as Meroe was an ideal entrepôt for the caravan routes between the
Red Sea, the upper Nile and Chad. Above all, the comparative abundance
of trees and shrubs supplied the necessary fuel for the working of iron from
the ore found in the Nubian sandstone. The slag heaps evidence the
extent of manufacturing activities but the most recent authorities condemn
the description of Meroe as the Birmingham of Africa as exaggerated. 22
For long centuries, which remain obscure, historians have little more to
go on than royal tombs. Their excavator, G. A. von Reisner, set about
matching the list of attested royal names which the pyramids brought to
light, with chancy results which have undergone many revisions since then
and may be still liable to amendment. The last king buried at Nuri was
Nastasen (a little before —300). Thereafter royal and princely internments
took place in the Meroe cemeteries. Nevertheless a number of kings did
go back to the Gebel Barkal, which may have been why some historians
have believed in the probable existence in northern Nubia of two dynasties
parallel to the Meroe dynasties, one of them immediately after Nastasen,
and the other in the firstcentury before our era. 23
Only a few major inscriptions provide some light, and that patchily, to
say the least. The Egyptian used degenerates; more accurately perhaps,
behind the hieroglyphic symbols, which may take on aspects bordering on
20. Herodotus, III, 21.
21. J. Perrot et al., pp. 235-66.
22. See bibliographical references below, in particular: B. G. Trigger, 1969, pp. 23-50,
and H. Amborn, pp. 74-95.
23. For Meroitic chronology see bibliographical references below.
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