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About 2300 B.C., during the Egyptian Sixth
Dynasty, a new culture appeared, which archaeologists call
C-Group. Cattle played an important role in this culture, as
they have in many other African societies since. Nevertheless,
the C-Group was settled permanently along the Nile, from Aswan
to the Second Cataract, and a closely related culture was
established in northern Sudan, especially at Kerma, south of the
Third Cataract. As Egypt fragmented politically, C-Group people
entered the country to the north, as herdsmen and soldiers. They
sometimes rose very high in Egyptian society and they played an
important role in the struggles that founded the Egyptian Middle
Kingdom, about 2050 B.C.
From biographies of Egyptian governors at Aswan, about 2300 B.
C., we learn that the peoples to the south were concentrated in
four principalities. One, Wawat, later gave its name to all of
Lower Nubia, the land between the First and the Second
Cataracts. Another, may have been a predecessor of Kush. In the
Egyptian period of disunity, about 2250 B. C., Lower Nubia had
its own pharaohs.
C-Group is well known for its tightly packed cemeteries of high
stone circles. Next to these circles were placed , some with
pictures of cattle incised on them, and pottery, some of Nubia's
finest art. Three major cemeteries and a house of this culture
were excavated by the Oriental Institute at Adindan and Serra
East
When the C-Group had began settling in Lower Nubia, a little
after 2000 B.C., Egypt "had entered upon the period of strength
and prosperity known as the Middle Kingdom (Taylor 1991: 17).
Egypt’s need for the goods of southern Africa had not
diminished, however, and because of the huge market for Africa’s
commodities a new and powerful state developed "astride the
trade route" (Welsby 1996: 12). The presence of this state,
being Kerma, would lead Egypt to establish various fortresses at
key points along the Nile and within Nubia. These fortresses
were built in order to establish a link to the trade route and
to secure luxury goods (Trigger 1976: 74). During this Egyptian
occupation, the C-Group continued to occupy the plains along the
Nile and did not seem to be exploited as the A-Group were. They
also seem to have been influenced by the Egyptians less and
less, even with the presence of the Egyptian garrisons. This is
suggested by the declining amount of Egyptian goods found in
Nubian cemeteries towards the end of the Middle Kingdom (Trigger
1976: 74-79). Also, the C-Group Nubians had come into contact
with Kerma, and Nubia as a whole was becoming an urbanised state
King Snofru (c. 2617–2593 BC) made a raid into Nubia, bringing
back 7000 prisoners of war and 200 000 big and small flock.
{Manfred Bietak in The C-Group culture and the Pan Grave culture
}
Most probably this was intended as a pre-emptive strike against
the immigration of the so-called C-Group People (an abstract
terminology introduced by the American archaeologist George A.
Reisner at the beginning of the 20th century during the first
Archaeological Survey of Nubia). Snofru, however, was unable to
stop the C-Group immigrating into the nearly empty Lower Nubia
thus becoming a neighbour of Egypt.
The C-Group is closely related, if not identical, to the
earliest phase of the Kerma-Culture which settled about the same
time, or slightly earlier, in the Kerma-basin, south of the
Third Cataract in the Sudan. Most probably, the C-Group came
therefore from the south or south-west and settled mainly on the
West Bank in the most fertile places between the First and the
Second Cataract. At the beginning they were mainly pastoralist
herders of, especially, sheep, goats and cattle. Settlements
consisted at the beginning of round huts enclosed by rubble
walls and probably thorn hedges, leaving enough space to also
protect their flocks over night. By and by settlement centres
developed along the Nile at areas where the alluvial land was
more spacious such as Dakka, Aniba, Qustul/Ballana and Faras.
One may assume that the habitats offered by the Nile within
places of seasonal lush vegetation, made agriculture and the
accumulation of people possible. This lead to the development of
larger tribal organisations headed by powerful chieftains. This
picture is reflected in the inscriptions of the 6th Dynasty
monarchs of Elephantine who mention different lands held by
tribal leaders such as Irtjet, Satjw, Wawat. Egyptian trading
expeditions, heading to the country Yam - most probably Kerma -
had to pass these lands. The C-Group countries surely benefited
for letting such caravans pass. By and by they seem to have
united under a single leader who imposed more difficulties for
the caravans and triggered military action by the Egyptians
towards the end of the Old Kingdom.
The C-Group population was smaller and significantly more dark
skinned than the contemporary Egyptian population. This shows
not only in the results of osteological investigations but can
also be seen in a wooden model of a company of archers from a
tomb in Assiut, today in the Cairo Museum. There they wear a
half-length coiffure with a headband and tight kilts, covered
with beadwork. They were already employed in the Egyptian army
in the Old Kingdom and played an important part in wars between
the monarchs and in the unification process of Egypt during the
First Intermediate Period. In the Theban tomb of the 11th
Dynasty general Antef, and on the reliefs of the royal mortuary
complex of Nebhepetreë Mentuhotep at Deir el-Bahari, Nubian
soldiers are seen shooting their arrows at fortresses probably
situated in Lower Egypt, manned by Asiatic mercenaries. Their
unsurpassed speciality was archery, besides oaring boats,
hunting and tending hunting dogs as seen on the Gebelein stelae.
This employment may explain the numerous Egyptian imports of
pottery containers in Lower Nubia during the 11th and first half
of the 12th Dynasty - commodities, perhaps sent to the families
of the archers.
The employment of large parts of the male population in Egypt
was probably already an important factor in Nubian economy at
that time. The constant demand for soldiers led, at the same
time, to a continuous influx of Nubians into Egypt where they
were absorbed and contributed to the population type, especially
that of Upper Egypt.
We know the C-Group especially from its cemeteries,
which signal
to the archaeologist the sizes of settlement over the country. A
carefully constructed stone circle, covered by a tumulus of sand
and pebbles protected the mainly oval to rounded rectangular pit
tombs. The bodies were placed primarily in a crouched position
on their right side in a local east-western orientation looking
north as the burials of the Kerma Culture. Later, from the time
of the 12th Dynasty onwards, this changed generally to a local
north-south orientation with the head looking West. They rested
on reed mats or sheepskins and were protected by a cover of
mats. From the Middle Kingdom onwards, stone slabs covered the
pits and from the late Middle Kingdom onwards, richer tombs were
given vaulted chambers in mud brick. The offerings were partly
placed in the pit, partly to the east of the superstructure,
buried in sand. They consisted partly of beautifully ornamented
pottery such as hemispherical cups, imitating ornamented
basketwork. The love for geometric ornamentation, which shows
not only on pottery and basketwork, but also on beadwork and
body tattoo, can be considered as a specific feature of the
C-Group Culture.
During the late Middle Kingdom, under the influence of the Kerma
culture, the construction of a stone or mud brick chapel
developed from this offering place at the east of the tumulus.
At this time a significant hierarchical structure is observable
in the cemeteries with some tombs having a diameter of 15 m and
more.
It is difficult to assess the religious beliefs and activities
of the carriers of this culture. They prepared for an afterlife.
Female idols with signs of tattooing and animal figurines played
a part in such preparations. Representations of cows and calves
on funerary stelae of the early C-Group, on pottery, and rock
art, reveal that an abundance of such animals was an eternal
wish. In Sayala a rock cave with paintings from the time of the
A-Group and the C-Group with cattle representations are a sign
that specific cult places existed.
During the Middle Kingdom, the settlements of the C-Group
Culture became more solid with a tendency to construct
rectangular houses, partly of stone blocks, but also in mud
brick alongside the traditional round huts. The Egyptians
dominated the most important living areas of the C-Group by
means of enormous fortresses, situated in the strategically
important places of the country. After the Egyptian garrisons
were disbanded at the end of the Middle Kingdom, some villages
were built by the C-Group at Wadi es-Sebu‘a and Areika.
According to the evidence of the cemeteries the large
communities of the C-Group Culture must have disappeared during
the Second Intermediate Period. Small cemeteries are typical for
this time. The Kingdom of Kush (the Kerma Culture) now
politically dominated Lower Nubia. The archaeological picture
shows influences from both the Pan Grave Culture (see below) and
that of the Kerma Culture. Altogether the unity of culture is
dissolved and shows a cultural mix. In this latest stage of the
C-Group Culture, its original appearance has been lost. One gets
the impression that thinly scattered small communities of
different ethnic origin (the remains of C-Group- Pan Grave- and
Kerma-populations) inhabited Nubia at that time. The unstable
political situation between 17th Dynasty Upper Egypt and the
Kingdom of Kush with armies rushing through from both sides did
not permit stable conditions for the maintenance of the Culture,
the C-Group had once been. The vacuum, which developed in the
Second Intermediate Period in large parts of Lower Nubia, could
also be felt in the New Kingdom.
The origin of the C-Group has not been established.
It has been
suggested that they were the descendants of the earlier A-Group,
yet that cannot be determined for sure (Trigger 1976: 52-54).
This culture was more advanced along sedentary lines than the
A-Group. They lived in many of the same parts of Lower Nubia as
the A-Group but led a more established way of life. Early sites
such as Khor Abu Bakr at Sayala and Aniba reveal larger, more
elaborate structures that were lived in by generations of the
same familial line. Still, these structures suggested "that
during early C-Group times the population of Lower Nubia
continued to move about from season to season" (Trigger 1976:
52). As those generations continued to return to the same
grounds each season, they became increasingly sedentary. As
archaeologists studied the stratified sites, they discovered
that "huts and tents, seasonally occupied, were gradually
replaced by houses consisting partly of drystone walls, with the
upper parts of wattle and the roof supported by beams" (Taylor
1991: 13).
The burial practices of the C-Group were similar to that of the
A-Group, particularly the stone rings with which the graves were
covered (Trigger 1976: 49). Some similarity between the pottery
of the two groups and the Kerma culture has also been indicated.
This has led some archaeologists to believe that the earlier
A-Group, the C-Group, and the Kerma were all of the same
lineage. Although these cultures shared certain cultural
qualities, it would be the change of the policy of Egypt that
would determine the success of the latter two .
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