Kingship

Rulers in Early Nubia

Before the initiation of Nubia first centralized government, Nubians lived in tribes or perhaps chiefdoms. A tribe was formed of members who are blood related. Obviously some of these tribes were relatively large, since Old Kingdom armies were often matched by Nubian forces. Tribes had a hierarchical system of authority allocation; elders of the subsections head the extended families that top the single households. The work, whether economic, military, or other, was defined and divided among tribe members. chiefs of the tribe are the strongest and most wise or religious members; the youth provide for courageous and brave soldiers at war.

The limited available archeological evidence suggests that the first pharaohnicship or kingship in Nubia, or the Nile valley as whole, goes back to the A-Group society.¹ Shown on the image below, is a relief that was curved on the fragments of an incense burner found at L cemetery at Qustul.

Tracing of an incense burner from Qustul dating to the C-Group Period that depicts, among other figures what is thought to be a Nubian Pharaoh. From: B. Williams, The A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul: Cemetery L. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (1968),pl. 34. Courtesy of The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago².

The relief depicted a seated pharaoh with the Nubian custom of the long belt that dangled all the way to the knees of the pharaoh. Other part of the incense burner depicted the king as he off boarded his ship standing in front of a large monkey on top of a tree.

It also seems probable to many historians that the C-Group population at the period, in Lower Nubia, began to form a state, coinciding with the beginning of Egypt's First Intermediate period.³ Graves there indicated the existence of economic classes, since some graves were large and fancy while others poor and simple. Extensive trade with Upper Egypt must have enriched merchants of the C-Group who would have taken more and more authority with the waning Egyptian authority of that span.

• ^{1 See: D. O'Connor, Ancient Nubia: Egypt's Rival in Africa (University of Pennsylvania P, 1994) 20-3.}
• ^{2 See image: B. B. Williams, The A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul: Cemetery L. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (1986) 34, Courtesy of The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.}
• ^{3 W. B. Emery, Egypt in Nubia (Hutchinson, 1965).}