Nubia Through The Ages
The earliest of the Nubian cultures (the A- group C- group) were located In northern Nubia until recently it was thought that A -group people were Semi nomadic herdsmen however new research suggests that a line of kings 1ived in Qustul in northern Nubia as early as or perhaps even earlier than The first pharaohs of Egypt the people of these early cultures buried their Dead in stone lined pit graves accompanied by pottery land cosmetic articles. At this time, Nubia was known to the Egyptians as * Ta Sety * the Land of the Bow because of the fame of Nubian archers. By Egypt’s old kingdom (if not Earlier in the 2nd dynasty), the Egyptians founded a settlement at buhen which apparently was an important site for copper production. Later Khufu opened diorite quarries to the west of Toshka and south of buhen, while other quarrying expeditions were sent south above the second Cataracts. The 4thDynasty also saw the establishment of a regular messenger service between the first and second cataracts.
By the reign of Sahure in the early 5th dynasty, the Egyptians began trading with the land of Punt, which was accessible only by sailing along The Seacoast on the Red Sea. Expeditions to Punt began by sailing upriver to Coptos, then caravaning eastward through the Wadi hammamat or the Wadi Gasus to the seacoast. There, the expeditions built ships and embarked on the sea voyage south. While the Egyptians did not penetrate Punt eastward from the Nile in Upper Nubia, apparently some Puntite goods and pygmies were trans - shipped to Egypt via a circuitous overland route through Nubia.
Despite that Buhen was abandoned in the 5th dynasty and the diorite quarries near Toshka were closed, Egypt maintained its hold over Nubia in the Late Old kingdom. In the early 6th dynasty, Egyptians were recruiting Nubian mercenaries into the Egyptian army. Weins recounts that he included five different Nubian peoples when he assembled the great army of king Pepi I for the military campaign to Canaan. He also led a major quarrying expedition to Ibhat southeast of the Second Cataract, and he built giant barges in Wawat, for which, he says, the rulers of Wawat, Irtjet, Yam and Medja * dragged wood * (in token humiliation?). Later he cut a series of channels through the First Cataract, after which King Merenre traveled to Elephantine in order to receive the homage of the Nubian leaders. Pepi the second prepared an expedition to sail to Punt in his reign, although it is uncertain that its preparations were completed.
Egyptian interests in Nubia were always driven by economics. The one factor that chiefly characterized Egypt’s relationship with Nubia through most of their history was exploitation. Nubian’s most important resource for Egypt was precious metal, including gold and electrum. The gold mines of Nubia were located in certain valleys and mountains on either side of the Nile River, although the most important mining center was located in the Wadi Allaqi . That valley extended eastward into the mountains near Qubban (about 107 Km south of Elephantine). Nubia was also an important source of valuable hard stone and copper both of which were necessary for Egypt’s monumental building projects.
Trading in African goods
Especially important for Egypt was the fact that Nubia was a corridor to central Africa and a point for the Trans - shipment of exotic goods from that region including: frankincense, myrrh *green gold, * ivory , ebony and other exotic woods , precious oils , resins and gums , panther and leopard skins , monkeys , dogs , giraffes , ostrich feathers and eggs , as well as pygmies (who became important to Egyptian religious rituals).in the old kingdom , the Egyptians regularly penetrated as far as the Second cataract to barter for these products which were coming down through the upper Nile valley(viz. , the expeditions of Harkhuf , Hekayib , Mekhu and Sabni).
Manpower
Nubia was also an important source of manpower and labor for the Egyptians. The Palermo Stone records that early in the 4th dynasty. King Snefru led a military campaign into Nubia reputedly to crush a *revolt *there (the Egyptians considered all enemies, whether foreign or domestic, as *rebels* against the natural older). According to that text, he captured 200,000 head of cattle and 7, 000 prisoners, all of whom were deported to Egypt as laborers on royal building projects. While some archaeologists argue that this is rather high for a country that was fairly depopulated at the time. If the number was not inflated as royal propaganda, then Snefru could have penetrated into upper Nubia as far as the land of Yam and made his conquests there.
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