Kerma

Origins

Kerma culture developed in Upper Nubia from about 2500 BCE, with its centre at Kerma near the Third Cataract of the Nile. The town grew from a farming and cattle-herding settlement into the capital of a kingdom that Egyptian texts called Kush, controlling the river trade in gold, ivory, ebony and cattle.

Rule and society

The rulers lived in a walled city dominated by the Western Deffufa, a massive mud-brick temple. Kings were buried under huge circular tumuli, some with hundreds of sacrificed attendants. Kerma potters made distinctive polished black-topped red ware. At its height, in the 17th century BCE, Kerma raided as far as Elkab in Egypt, and the Hyksos of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt sought its alliance against Thebes.

Decline and legacy

The New Kingdom pharaohs struck back. Thutmose I sacked Kerma around 1500 BCE, and Egypt annexed Nubia as the Viceroyalty of Kush. Kerma traditions survived beneath Egyptian rule and fed into the later Kushite Empire of Napata and Meroë.