Contrary to popular belief Narmer was not the first Pharaonic King in the Nile Valley. He was merely the first Pharaonic King to conquer the Delta and absorb the land and people into his Southern Kingdom of Ta-Shemau "the Land of Reeds” now referred to as Upper Egypt. After coming from the south and uniting the two lands, Lower Egypt would become a major hub for trade and commerce for the Southern Monarchs as the Delta was the gateway into the near East and Mediterranean world.
In 1980, archeologist Bruce Williams conducted an excavation titled “The Lost Pharaohs of Nubia,” arguing that the Egyptian pharaonic monarchy was situated in Nubia, rather than in Egypt during the times of the A-group (3800-3400 BC). He based his discoveries at the Qustul cemetery on three archaeological finds: the size of the tombs, their plethora of contents, and royal iconography dwarfed any finds in Egypt at the time. Bruce Williams asserted the strong possibility that Egypt’s founding dynasty originated near Qustul and that the unification was accomplished from Nubia.
Lost Pharaohs of Nubia, Bruce Williams:
The A-Group culture were Nilotic Africans indeginous to the Nile Valley. They were an ancient culture that flourished between the First and Second Cataracts of the Nile in Nubia that thrived from around 3800 BC to 3100 BC. They had an advanced social hierarchy as well as centralized government. Their economy was based mostly on hunting, fishing and animal husbandry. Pits that have been found may have served as granaries. Egyptologist George A. Reisner first discovered artifacts belonging to the A-Group culture and the early hubs of this civilization included Kubaniyya in the north and Buhen in the south, with Aswan, Sayala, Toshka and Qustul in between.
The A-Group population have been described as ethnically “very similar” to the pre-dynastic Egyptians in physical characteristics. The A-Group makers maintained commercial ties with the Ancient Egyptians. They traded commodities like incense, ebony and ivory, which were gathered from the southern riverine area. They also bartered carnelian from the Western Desert as well as gold mined from the Eastern Desert in exchange for Egyptian products, olive oil and other items from the Mediterranean basin.
Choices made by ancient Egyptians and Nubians to infuse indigenous cultural elements with aspects of both Egyptian and Nubian material culture—often used in innovative ways—reflect the cultural entanglements between, and long-term cultural memory of, Egyptian and Nubian people over thousands and thousands of years.
"The extensive contact has led to detectable genetic and therefore skeletal and dental similarities among the two populations…For example, a closer affinity has been detected of the wealthy Nubian A-Group to elite Egyptians than elite Egyptians were to other Egyptians (Prowse and Lovell, 1996).
A new analysis interpreting Nilotic relationships and peopling of the Nile Valley:
The Genetic similarities of the Nubian and Ancient Egyptian royalty can be attributed to the thousands of years of co-mingling and cultural fusion between these two African populations. The Genetic Distance of Upper Egyptian Elites and "other Egyptians", in Lower Egypt can be attributed to the Asiatic settlements in the Delta regions. During the late back to Africa migrations these Mediterranean populations settled in the Delta and along the coastlines of North Africa and rarely settled in the Southern Regions.
However after the unification they would adopt the ancient African customs of the Southern Monarchs and essentially become Egyptianized and fully integrated into Nile Valley society. They would also bring with them their own cultural material and tradition which would be infused with African customs making the Delta and Ethnically and culturally diverse region with many influences, the African Influence being dominant.
It would be the later groups of Asiatics during the 1st intermediate period around 2181 BC that would revolt agaisnt the Kings of Waset in the South. Egyptologists describe this period as a 'dark age' in ancient Egyptian history, which spanned approximately 125 years, after the end of the Old Kingdom. Asiatic foreigners would attempt to assert their dominance over Lower Egypt which would lead to an era of chaos and political instability which lasted centuries. The Kings from Waset in the Southern Kingdoms would however would defeat the Asiatics and bring stability back to the nation ushering in the Middle Kingdom. For more information on the 1st intermediate period and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom hit the link below.
The Reunification of Kemet under Mentuhotep II:
The Badarian culture provides the earliest direct evidence of agriculture in Upper Egypt During the Predynastic Era. It flourished between 4400 and 4000 BC, and might have already emerged by 5000 BC. The Badarian economy was based mostly on agriculture, fishing and animal husbandry. They planted wheat, barley, lentils and tubers. They used boomerangs, fished from the Nile and hunted gazelle. The deceased were wrapped in reed matting or animal skins and buried in pits with their heads usually laid to the south, looking west. This tradition would be continued with the later dynastic traditions regarding the west as the land of the dead.
Social stratification has been inferred from the burying of more prosperous members of the community in a different part of the cemetery. Black-topped pottery has been discovered in these cemeteries. These works with their distinctive rippled pattern are considered the most characteristic element of the Badarian culture but similar to Nubian pottery. Recent archaeological evidence has suggested that the Badarian Nile Valley sites were a peripheral network of earlier African cultures that featured the movement of Badarian, Saharan, Nubian and Nilotic populations.
"In 2023, Christopher Ehret reported that the physical anthropological findings from the “major burial sites of those founding locales of ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BCE, notably El-Badari as well as Naqada, show no demographic indebtedness to the Levant”. Ehret specified that these studies revealed cranial and dental affinities with "closest parallels" to other longtime populations in the surrounding areas of Northeastern Africa “such as Nubia and the northern Horn of Africa”. He further commented that the Naqada and Badarian populations did not migrate “from somewhere else but were descendants of the long-term inhabitants of these portions of Africa going back many millennia”. Ehret also cited existing, archaeological and linguistic data which he argued supported the anthropological findings."
Ehret, Christopher (20 June 2023). Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 83–85.
Many Eurocentric academics have attempted to disconnect ancient Egypt from the rest of Africa as well as discredit the contributions ancient Africans which contributed to the foundational building blocks of Nile Valley civilization and of ancient Egypt in particular. However due to recent anthropological and genetic evidence it is now clear that both ancient Egyptians, Nubians, and other northeast African populations share common culture, tradition and lineage. The emergence of ancient Egypt was an evolution of ancient African science, art, astronomy, mathematics and spiritual beliefs. Egyptian culture, as reflected in the early dynastic era, emerged from a set of cultural features that existed across a large swath of northeast Africa.
"Interactions between Nubia and Egypt (and the Sahara as well) occurred in the period between 4000 and 3000 BCE (the predynastic). There is evidence for sharing of some cultural traits between Sudan and Egypt in the neolithic (Kroeper 1996). Some items of “material” culture were also shared in the phase called Naqada I between the Nubian A- Group and upper Egypt (~3900-3650 BCE). There is good evidence for a zone of cultural overlap versus an absolute boundary (Wilkinson 1999 after Hoffman 1982, and citing evidence from Needler 1984 and Adams 1996). Hoffman (1982) noted cattle burials in Hierakonpolis, the most important of predynastic upper Egyptian cities in the later predynastic. This custom might reflect Nubian cultural impact, a common cultural background, or the presence of Nubians. There was some shared iconography in the kingdoms that emerged in Nubia and upper Egypt around 3300 BCE (Williams 1986). Although disputed, there is evidence that Nubia may have even militarily engaged upper Egypt before Dynasty I, and contributed leadership in the unification of Egypt (Williams 1986).
Dynasty I brought the political conquest (and cultural extirpation?) of the A-Group Nubian kingdom Ta Seti by (ca. 3000 BC) Egyptian kings (Wilkinson 1999). Lower Nubia seems to have become largely “depopu- lated,” based on archeological evidence, but this more likely means that Nubians were partially bioculturally assimilated into southern Egypt. Lower Nubia had a much smaller population than Egypt, which is important to consider in writing of the historical biology of the population. It is important to note that Ta Seti (or Ta Sti, Ta Sety) was the name of the southernmost nome (district) of upper Egypt recorded in later times (Gar- diner 1961), which perhaps indicates that the older Nubia was not forgotten/obliterated to historical memory.”
Project Muse: Genetics, Egypt, and History-Interpreting Geographical Patterns of Y Chromosome Variation:
"King of Upper Kemet…Beautiful is the Ka-Soul of Ra who appears in Waset"
"I have not spoken angrily or arrogantly. I have not cursed anyone in thought, word or deeds." ~35th & 36th Principals of Ma'at
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