What was Nubia?
The New Kingdom of Egypt ruled over them, but when they collapsed the Nubians took over in Egypt for a while before being kicked out by the Assyrians. Then they withdrew back into Nubia where they flourished at Napata and Meroe until about 300 AD, after which they collapsed and were replaced by Christian kingdoms, the most powerful being Makuria. They fended off the Arabs a few times before being Islamized around the 13th century and falling under Egyptian/Ottoman/British control. Then there was some stuff with the Mahdi and some Gordon guy, I forget.
A region along the upper Nile that's been inhabited for thousands of years and that has hosted dozens of civilizations through their rise and fall. Ancient Egyptians referred to the upper Nile as "Ta-Seti" which means "land of the bow" because its residents were renowned archers, a reputation that persisted until the Islamic era. Prior to the 8th century BC their capital and largest city was Kerma, afterwards it was Napata, and after that; Meroë. A lot of the groups that inhabited the Upper Nile appropriated writing, symbols, and other aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, particularly after Piyankhi's invasion of the Nile Delta in the 8th century BC. After being ousted by the Assyrians they continued developing their own culture and urban centers. Cambyses II of Persia tried to invade Nubia after his conquest of Egypt, but he was repelled by the terrain and by the hit and run tactics of the Kushites.
The Meroitic Kings of Kush initially had friendly relations with Ptolemaic Egypt. King Arqamani (Ergamenes) of Meroë was apparently a huge Hellenophile and contributed to some monuments in Philae, while Ptolemy IV financed additions to some of Meroë's temples and other buildings. However relations soured after the Kushites were accused of supporting Ankhmakis' revolt near Thebes (the records are a bit fuzzy), and Ptolemy IV launched an invasion of Kush. He was soundly defeated and several cities along the Nile were occupied by the Kushites during the counter-invasion.Meroë remained a major city for several centuries, and after a war or two developed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Roman Empire.
However, by the 4th century AD Abyssinia had risen as a major power the region, and the Christian king Ezana of Abyssinia invaded Meroe and dismantled the Kushitic kingdom.
I'm winging most of this since I lost most of my subsaharan African history notes in a harddrive crash. A ton of shit happened here but it's all too long to describe in a single 4chan post.
>>383573
I wonder if Sudanese or other Nile dwelling niggers ever get annoyed with African Americans, who are largely descended from West African village spear chuckers, when they say shit like we wuz you-know-what?
And further more, why do they never ever talk about actual West African empires like Mali, Songhai etc?
>>383573
Oh also in the late 3rd century AD Diocletian sent a man called Nobatae to subdue the nomads of eastern Nubia known as the Blemmyes. He succeeded and established the kingdom of Nobatia and placed its capital at Pakhoras, an old Egyptian administrative center. They converted to Christianity fairly quickly.
Nobatia was one of several kingdoms that grew to fill the niche left by Kush's absence. The others were Makuria in the Dongola Reach, and Alwa in the area from Meroe south towards Abyssinia. Makuria became Christianized by the 6th century and they helped repel Islam for hundreds of years.
>>383244
Some explorer blew up those pyramids whilst looking for a treasure. Kind of an asshole thing to do
>>383607
the eastern African kingdoms had more monumental architecture and had closer cultural ties to the Mediterranean and Near East (making them more recognizable as "civilizations" to the modern western eye). They also adopted writing more than a thousand years before the western African kingdoms, which means that we can actually identify its rulers and political shifts without having to resort to archaeology.
>>383653
The Nobatae were a tribe of people from Sudan.
>>383607
Probably because they don't know about them. They see Egypt and Carthage on TV and hear that they are in Africa so they just appropriate those civilizations.
former capital of the Makurian Kingdom
>>383739
here's the Throne Hall (kinda ugly, I know)
>>383607
I doubt anyone really cares except for /pol/.
>>383739
Remains of a Makurian monastery.
>>383710
and that's what I get for losing my notes.
>>383708
Writing was only invented once for sure, maybe three times.
tombs at Dongola