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Among ancient Egypt’s many neighbors were the Nubians, who inhabited the Nile Valley to the south of Egypt in what is today the nation-state of Sudan. Although the Egyptians and Nubians had many peaceful interactions over several centuries, the two peoples' political leaders had a more acrimonious and contentious relationship. When the Egyptian state was strong, Nubia was usually weak and vice versa. To the Nubians, Egypt was the source of high-culture and civilization that they admired and eventually replicated in many ways. Simultaneously, the Egyptians viewed the lands to their south as a source of resources to be exploited. Gold, ivory, and ebony were commodities that the Egyptians took from Nubia and traded with other Near Eastern kingdoms as far away as Babylon and Assyria.
But the relationship between the Nubians and Egyptians extended far beyond exploitation of resources and ancient forms of colonialism; by the first millennium BC, the Nubians had impacted many aspects of pharaonic culture. In 728 BC, a Nubian king named Piankhy, or Piye, led an army from Nubia north into Egypt and conquered the land, establishing the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Although the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty lasted less than 100 years, its kings were very active in shaping Egypt’s political situation.
====Ancient Nubian Culture====
[[File: Nubia.png|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Map of Egypt and Nubia: The Numbers Represent the Cataracts of the Nile River]]
[[File: First Cataract.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|The Edge of the First Cataract Near Modern Aswan/Ancient Abu]]
The term “Nubia” is actually a modern word, which may be derived from the ancient Egyptian word for gold – <i>nebu</i>. To both the Egyptians and Nubians, the Nile River was the source of their lifeblood. It brought yearly floods that allowed their crops to grow, so both peoples were geographically orientated along a north-south axis. The Egyptians referred to anything south of the first cataract (cataracts are rocky portions of a river unnavigable by boat) as “Wawat,” and anything south of the second cataract was called “Kush.” Collectively, Wawat and Kush comprise the region that modern scholars generally refer to as Nubia. <ref> Morkot, Robert. <i>The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers.</i> (London: Rubicon Press, 2000), p. 6</ref>
====The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty====
[[File: Taharqa.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Statue of King Taharqa in the National Museum of Sudan, Khartoum]]
Egypt’s the New Kingdom collapsed over a long period marked by widespread migrations of Libyans into Egypt, especially in the Delta region. The result was a politically fragmented Egypt: a dynasty of native Egyptian priests temporarily ruled the region around Thebes. In contrast, the Twenty-First through the Twenty-Fourth dynasties were all Libyan in ethnic origins, often ruling different parts of the country simultaneously. <ref> Kitchen, Kenneth. <i>The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt: (1100 to 650 BC).</i> Second Edition. (Warminster, United Kingdom: Aris and Phillips, 1995), pgs. 1-377</ref> This period of political fragmentation and Libyan domination has become known as the Third Intermediate Period (1075-664 BC) by modern historians. Before Egypt politically and socially disintegrated, the Nubians moved their capital farther south to Napata, which was located near the fourth cataract.
Later, when the central government in Egypt collapsed, the Nubians conquered Egypt and brought back certain stability. The Nubians then involved themselves in the Near East's affairs, but that ultimately proved detrimental to Egypt. Finally, the Nubians brought back older artistic styles and conventions that gave new impetus to a culture that seemed exhausted of ideas.
<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnoqlCV__z4</youtube>
====References====
