Ancient Nubia: Neglected But Very Important

The reason why modern humans know and understand ancient civilizations is because we can read and interpret their writing and language.  Most civilizations developed writing, and most of their writing we can understand.  In the writings, the ancient peoples talk about their everyday lives, big events (earthquakes, wars, etc), and about other civilizations with which they were in contact.  Civilizations like Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Europe had writing.  Most of what we know about them is from these writings.  In sub-Saharan Africa, however, there wasn’t writing until much later than most civilizations.  Instead, they had specialized people who memorized and told history to the younger generations who, in turn, passed it to generations younger than themselves, and so on.  This is why sub-Saharan Africa is mostly mystery to us today.  But there is one exception: ancient Nubia.  Nubia was located 400 miles south of Egypt, and they were the only African civilization who had writing.  Unfortunately, we have yet to translate it.  For this reason, and many others, ancient Nubia was neglected.  Since we couldn’t read their writing, people dismissed Nubia as pretty much nothing.  Little did people know that Nubia was really an important state.  David Roberts, in his article entitled “Out of Africa: The Superb Artwork of Ancient Nubia,” explains that Nubia was neglected, for a number of reasons, yet the state was very important and sophisticated, which is reflected in it’s art.

            David Roberts presents the following question in his article: “Why is it, then, that most of us today have barely heard of Nubia” (Roberts, 63)?  In other words, why is Nubia neglected?  For a few reasons; first, ancient Nubia, over the years, had been called many different names.  The Egyptians called them the “Ta-Seti,” “Yam,” or “Wawat.”  To the Greeks and Romans, Nubia was called “Aethiopia,” and to many later peoples it was known as “Meroe.”  Essentially, Nubia was mixed up with other names that could potentially confuse people but also give them the impression that Nubia was just a small city amongst many others that were just as unimportant.

            Geography also played a big role in the neglect of Nubia, in two ways.  The first one is more obvious: “Nubia has always been exceedingly remote and difficult of access” (Roberts, 63).  Not many other peoples ventured there, or brought back souvenirs of Nubian origin.  Neither have archaeologists visited Nubia enough to properly study the area.  The second reason is less obvious, but is very important.  Nubia was very close to Egypt, and the two civilizations were in almost constant contact for thousands of years.  Therefore, most people concluded that Nubia was a subculture of Egypt: “For decades, everything Nubian was regarded as derived from Egyptian, hence ‘decadent’ and ‘peripheral’” (Roberts, 63).