UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

The civilization of Napata and Meroe
a number of princedoms. Pliny writes that in the Island of Meroe fortyfive
other Ethiopian kings held sway 28 apart from the candaces. Other
classical authors speak about tyrannoi, who were subject to Meroitic
kings. 29
To the south of Meroe were settled the Simbriti, who were allegedly
Egyptian refugees, ruled by a queen under Meroitic sovereignty, but on
the left bank of the Nile (in Kordofan) lived numerous groups of Nubai
under several princelings independent of Meroe. 3 ° A similar situation seems
to have existed in the eastern desert, which was inhabited by many nomadic
groups different in culture and languages from the Meroites.
Many inscriptions indicate that the Meroitic kings often led military
expeditions against these independent or semi-independent ethnic groups,
partly in order to subdue them or as reprisals for raids, or to obtain booty
consisting of cattle and slaves. The peoples most often named were the
Reheres and the Majai, who probably lived between the Nile and Red
Sea and could have been the ancestors of the Beja.
All this indicates that Kush was not a centralized state, and during the
later period the kingdom included a number of principalities in some kind
of dependency on the Meroitic kings. 31
Economic and social life
Ecology
The kingdom of Kush depended on a broad basis of economic activity. It
was as varied as the geographical diversity of the region which extended
from Lower Nubia to the south of Sennar and to Gebel Moya region in
the southern Gezira plain and included extensive areas between the Nile
valley and the Red Sea. Similarly large areas on the west of the Nile were
probably under the Meroitic influence though their extent is still unknown.
This wide area ranges from the arid to those which receive appreciable
summer rainfall. In Nubia economic activity was based on the type
of agriculture usual in the Nile valley where the river with its single course
provides the only source of water. Although in some places the arable land
ranges from nothing at all to a narrow strip along the river, yet in others
in Upper Nubia the arable land widens out into basins. This type of riverine
cultivation extends farther south along the banks of the Nile and its tributaries.
Such geographical conditions in Lower Nubia had a direct influence
on political and socio-economic life. Recent archaeological work has indi-
28. Pliny, 186.
29. cf. Bion and Nicholas of Damascus, in C. Müller, Vol. 3, p. 463, Vol. 4, p. 351;
Seneca, VI, 8, 3.
30. Strabo, XVII, 1, 2, quoting Eratosthenes.
31. Even in the Napatan period the Kushitic empire had a federal character; cf.
Chapter 10.
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