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PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
in Egypt, and ending Egyptian control of Cush. There is no
information about the region’s activities over the next 300
years. In the eighth century B.C., however, Cush reemerged as
an independent kingdom ruled from Napata by an aggressive
line of monarchs who gradually extended their influence into
Egypt. About 750 B.C., a Cushite king called Kashta conquered
Upper Egypt and became ruler of Thebes until approximately
740 B.C. His successor, Painkhy, subdued the delta, reunited
Egypt under the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and founded a line of
kings who ruled Cush and Thebes for about a hundred years.
The dynasty’s intervention in the area of modern Syria caused a
confrontation between Egypt and Assyria. When the Assyrians
in retaliation invaded Egypt, Taharqa (688-663 B.C.), the
last Cushite pharaoh, withdrew and returned the dynasty
to Napata, where it continued to rule Cush and extended its
dominions to the south and east. Egypt’s succeeding dynasty
failed to reassert control over Cush. In 590 B.C., however, an
Egyptian army sacked Napata, compelling the Cushite court
to move to a more secure location at Meroe near the sixth
cataract. For several centuries thereafter, theMeroitic kingdom
developed independently of Egypt, which passed successively
under Persian, Greek, and, finally, Roman domination. During
the height of its power in the second and third centuries B.C.,
Meroe extended over a region from the third cataract in the
north to Sawba, near present-day Khartoum, in the south. The
pharaonic tradition persisted among a line of rulers at Meroe,
who raised stelae to record the achievements of their reigns
and erected pyramids to contain their tombs. These objects and
the ruins of palaces, temples, and baths at Meroe attest to a
centralized political system that employed artisans’ skills and
commanded the labor of a large work force. A well-managed
irrigation system allowed the area to support a higher
population density than was possible during later periods.
By the first century B.C., the use of hieroglyphs gave way to
a Meroitic script that adapted the Egyptian writing system to
an indigenous, Nubian-related language spoken later by the
region’s people. Meroe’s succession system was not necessarily
hereditary; the matriarchal royal family member deemed most
worthy often became king. The queen mother’s role in the
selection process was crucial to a smooth succession. The crown
appears to have passed from brother to brother (or sister) and
only when no siblings remained from father to son.
“
Although Napata remained Meroe’s religious center,
northern Cush eventually fell into disorder as it came under
pressure from the Blemmyes, predatory nomads from east
of the Nile. However, the Nile continued to give the region
access to the Mediterranean world. Additionally, Meroe
maintained contact with Arab and Indian traders along the
Red Sea coast and incorporated Hellenistic and Hindu cultural
influences into its daily life. Inconclusive evidence suggests
that metallurgical technology may have been transmitted
westward across the savanna belt to West Africa from
Meroe’s iron smelteries. Relations between Meroe and Egypt
were not always peaceful. In 23 B.C., in response to Meroe’s
incursions into Upper Egypt, a Roman army moved south and
razed Napata. The Roman commander quickly abandoned the
area, however, as too poor to warrant colonization. In the
second century A.D., the Nobatae occupied the Nile’s west
bank in northern Cush. They are believed to have been one of
several well-armed bands of horse- and camel-borne warriors
who sold protection to the Meroitic population; eventually
they intermarried and established themselves among the
Meroitic people as a military aristocracy. Until nearly the
fifth century, Rome subsidized the Nobatae and used Meroe
as a buffer between Egypt and the Blemmyes. Meanwhile,
the old Meroitic kingdom contracted because of the expansion
of Axum, a powerful Abyssinian state in modern Ethiopia
to the east. About A.D. 350, an Axumite army captured and
destroyed Meroe city, ending the kingdom’s independent
existence.
“The emergence of Christianity reopened channels to
Mediterranean civilization and renewed Nubia’s cultural and
ideological ties to Egypt. The church encouraged literacy in
Nubia through its Egyptian-trained clergy and in its monastic
and cathedral schools. The use of Greek in liturgy eventually
gave way to the Nubian language, which was written using
an indigenous alphabet that combined elements of the old
Meroitic and Coptic scripts. Coptic, however, often appeared in
ecclesiastical and secular circles. Additionally, early inscriptions
have indicated a continuing knowledge of colloquial Greek in
Nubia as late as the twelfth century. After the seventh century,
Arabic gained importance in the Nubian kingdoms, especially
as a medium for commerce. The Christian Nubian kingdoms,
which survived for many centuries, achieved their peak of
prosperity and military power in the ninth and tenth centuries.
However, Muslim Arab invaders, who in 640 had conquered
Egypt, posed a threat to the Christian Nubian kingdoms.
Most historians believe that Arab pressure forced Nobatia and
Muqurra to merge into the kingdom of Dunqulah sometime
before 700. Although the Arabs soon abandoned attempts
to reduce Nubia by force, Muslim domination of Egypt often
made it difficult to communicate with the Coptic patriarch or to
obtain Egyptian-trained clergy. As a result, the Nubian church
became isolated from the rest of the Christian world.
“In January 1899, an Anglo-Egyptian agreement restored
Egyptian rule in Sudan but as part of a condominium, or joint
authority, exercised by Britain and Egypt. The agreement
designated territory south of the twenty-second parallel as
the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Although it emphasized Egypt’s
indebtedness to Britain for its participation in the re-conquest,
the agreement failed to clarify the juridical relationship
between the two condominium powers in Sudan or to provide a
legal basis for continued British presence in the south. Britain
assumed responsibility for governing the territory on behalf of
the khedive”
(Library of Congress Country Study, 2015)
.
Slightly less than one-fifth the size of the United States, Sudan
is bordered by the Central African Republic (175 km) (
PE&RS
,
March 2012), Chad (1,360 km) (
PE&RS
, August 2014), Egypt
(1,275 km) (
PE&RS
, November 2008), Eritria (605 km), Ethiopia
(769 km) (
PE&RS
, March 2003), Libya (383 km) (
PE&RS
, June
2006), andSouthSudan (2,184km) inwhich “Sudan-SouthSudan
boundary represents 1 January 1956 alignment; final alignment
pending negotiations and demarcation; final sovereignty status
of Abyei region pending negotiations between Sudan and South
