Story of the World Ancient Times - Chap 12 - Egypt and Nubia

  

This is part of a series where I share our lessons (and other related resources) for each chapter of Story of the World - Ancient Times.    Even if you're not using Story of the World, if you are studying ancient history, hopefully this will be helpful to you.  Today we get into some really interesting history that's too often overlooked, and why it's so important!

Though this section of Chapter is about Egypt, once again...it is also about Nubia...so I will be talking quite a bit about that today.   But first, a bit about Queen Tiye (who is presented in Story of the World as an Egyptian queen from Nubian  (but was she?).   Read on to learn more...


ABOUT QUEEN TIYE

 Photo By Rolf Dietrich Brecher from Germany (Teje)

 [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Tiye is an amazingly interesting character...and after researching her I'm actually a little disappointed that so little about her is actually said in this chapter, because she is fascinating.

Married to pharaoh Amenhotep III, she wielded real power (moreso than  previous Egyptian queens).  She was the first Egyptian queen to have her name written on official acts, and was mentioned in foreign correspondence.     In statues of her and Amenhotep III, she was depicted as the same height as the Pharaoh  (in previous statuary, the Pharaoh had always been depicted as larger than his Queen, to emphasize his greater power and importance.).

From inscriptions and the letters found at Armarna, it is clear that Tiye was in every way the equal of her husband and presided at festivals, met with foreign dignitaries, and directed both domestic and foreign policies.

Ancient History Encyclopedia

The main point made about her in Story of the World is that she was Nubian, but as it turns out, that point is debatable.  Some historians say that her parents may have been Nubian or of Nubian decent, others disagree...but regardless of who is right in that debate, Tiye herself grew up in Egypt, in the Royal palace, not in Nubia.

I feel the need to take an aside here and note that whether she was Nubian is an entirely different question than whether she was black.       We look at Egyptian art and find a number of skin tones, which makes sense considering where Egypt is located, in the gateway between Europe, Asia and the rest of Africa.  But the whole question of what race the Egyptians were is steeped in controversy...and racism.    Europeans in the 19th century seeking to justify the subjugation of Africans categorized them as lesser and separate, and so felt the need to try to separate Egypt from the rest of Africa by categorizing them as a different race than the rest of Africa.    But ancient Egyptians didn't have the concept of race that developed during that later period of history, which has had such an impact on people since.  And, modern genetic scientists (as well as most anthropologists) have rejected the idea of different biologically separate races (even if race is still "culturally real"). 

"Any characterization of race of the ancient Egyptians depends on modern cultural definitions, not on scientific study. Thus, by modern American standards it is reasonable to characterize the Egyptians as 'black', while acknowledging the scientific evidence for the physical diversity of Africans."
~  Stuart Tyson Smith  ( The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt, Volume 3 - Located through Wikipdia: Ancient Egyptian Race Controversy)

And here is the reason I felt it was important to talk about this:    While searching for images for this chapter I accidentally stumbled on a very racist cartoon who's main message was that that African history shows the inferiority of black people.  It showed an ugly drawing of an idiotic looking tribal man with a bone through his nose, next to a hut, and said above it "Blacks like to talk about their rich African history.  Here's their rich African history."   It looked like something from an earlier generation, but sadly recent events in the news have shown me that ideology is not dead.  So, while I didn't choose to go as much into all this racial history with my eight year old as I just have here, we did take some time to learn more about Nubia and the Nubian Pharaohs than SOTW covered,  partially so that one day my son will have more ammunition to combat that kind of ignorance, if he ever comes across it.   Nubia and Egypt are not the only great African civilizations, so am glad to see that Story of the World covers some some of the others in later volumes as well.  

If you would like to also cover Nubia and the Nubian pharaohs in a little more detail than Story of the World does, there are some excellent resources below...



NUBIAN PHARAOHS - SUPPLEMENTARY VIDEO
The Nubian Pharaohs mentioned briefly in paragraph 8 actually reigned long after the Middle Kingdom.  To learn more about them, my son and I watched the section "Nubians Regain Rule/Tarharka Dynasty" from minute 29:20 to 34:40 of the video below (we watched the first part of this video to supplement Chapter 11).  The part about Egyptian Invasion (21:45 - 26:34) also related directly to the chapter as well, but since we already covered that in the reading I skipped over that.

Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Nubia (Covers Sahara civilization too).
I went ahead and charted out the minutes for your convenience below, in case you just wanted to use other parts of this.

0 - 4:28 - Intro
4:28 -  7:41 - Rock Gong, beginning of Nubian culture
7:42 - 10:56 - Rock Art and Climate Change (When the Sahara Was Green)
10:56 - 14:20 - Kerma (main city in Kush/Nubia) and Deffufa (huge brick structure)
14:20 - 16:48  - Kerma Pottery
16:49 - 21:41 - Kerma Burial Plot
21:42 - 21:45 - What Happened to Kerma (transition)
21:45 - 26:34 - Egyptian Invasion/Jebel Barkal
26:35 - 29:19 - Sufi Mystics Today at Jebel Barkal
29:20 - 34:40 - Nubians Regain Rule/Tarharka Dynasty
34:41 - 38:43 - Desert Encroaches/Meroe
38:44 - 40:56 - Iron
40:56 - 41:58 - Desert Encroaches Again
41:59 - 45:41 - Nomads
45:42 - End   - Central Sudan (Modern Times)






PICTURES TO SUPPLEMENT THIS CHAPTER
We used some pictures we found online to supplement this chapter...below are links and paragraph from this chapter the pictures relate to.

Paragraph 3
Amenemhet

Paragraph 6
Nubian Trade Goods intro image

Paragraph 7
Nubian Archers
Nubian Warrior

Paragraph 8 - 9
Tiye (the statue the picture in the book was based off of) (Par 8)
...and, if your child is interested in mummies,  you can also see a picture of Tiye's mummy here.
Nubian Pharaohs - scroll down, picture under map
Tarharqa (Nubian Pharoah)
Taharqa and Entourage 
Taharqa Statue



SUGGESTED BOOKS
                                                                                        
Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors
If you want your children to learn more about ancient Nubia and do some crafts or activities related to it, this is the best book I've found on the subject for children.  It  has a whole section on Nubia as well as sections on the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and Egyptians (a small section on the Nubian pharaohs is, if I remember right, in the section on Egypt).  The only thing I dislike about this book is that it's entirely in black and white (save for the cover).

DK Ancient Egypt Revealed
I only mention this book here because it is AMAZING for using with Chapter 13, and while it just has a few things related to Chap 12 (pictures of Nubians, a mention brief mention of the Hyksos discussed in the next subsection), it's worth picking up at your local library early if they have it, since you'll want to use it for next chapter too.

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