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Some writers have speculated,
probably
incorrectly, that the name "Nuba/Noba" may have come from the
ancient Egyptian word nub, which meant "gold." In ancient times
Nubia was famed for its gold mines, and even today mining
companies are hard at work in Sudan extracting the precious
metal from the ancient sources.
The ancient names of Nubia
Ta-Seti: was the ancient Egyptian name of Nubia as recorded in
the earliest Egyptian inscriptions, starting about 3200 BC. It
meant "Land of the Bow," emphasizing what is known from later
history: that the Nubians were skilled archers and feared
soldiers.
Kush: was the name of an early kingdom in northern Sudan and
first appears in Egyptian texts about 2000 BC. The Egyptians,
who were afraid of the growing power of Kush, habitually tied
the name to an adjective meaning "vile" or "bad." The earliest
capital of Kush was apparently located at the site of modern
Kerma, Sudan, about 420 miles (700 km) upstream (south) from
Aswan. Originally designating only Upper Nubia (i.e. northern
Sudan), the term "Kush/Cush" (also "Kas, Kos") was eventually
more freely interpreted to mean all of Nubia south of Aswan.
This name was used not only by the Nubians themselves, but also
by the Egyptians and the rest of the ancient world (prior to the
Greeks). "Kush" or "Cush" is the name of Nubia used in the Old
Testament. It was also the native name of the later ancient
Nubian kingdom, which was centered first at Napata and then at
Mero‘.
Aithiopia/Ethiopia: was the Greek name for Nubia. Since the
people in Nubia were much darker skinned than the Egyptians, the
Greeks called them Aithiopes ("Burnt-Faced Ones"), and their
land, they called Aithiopia ("Land of the Burnt Faces"). In
modern spelling this has become Ethiopia. The Greeks and Romans
used this name primarily to refer to what is now northern Sudan
and the Upper (southern) Nile Basin rather than the land of
modern Ethiopia, which until recently was called "Abyssinia." In
the New Testament, which was written in Greek, Nubia is called
"Aithiopia" or "Ethiopia."
Nubia: was the medieval name for the land of Kush/Aithiopia,
which from the sixth to the fifteenth centuries AD was occupied
first by three and then by two competing Christian kingdoms.
These kingdoms were Alwa, centered at Soba on the Blue Nile
(just upstream of modern Khartoum), Makuria, centered at Old
Dongola between the Third and Fourth Cataracts, and Nobatia
("Land of the Nuba"), encompassing Lower Nubia. Ultimately,
Nobatia was absorbed by Makuria.
Sudan: is the name of the modern country that now includes Upper
(southern) Nubia. The name comes from the Arabic Bilad es-Sudan
or "Land of the Blacks." Prior to the early twentieth century,
all of sub-Saharan Africa, from the Nile tributaries to the
sources of the Niger, was called al-Sudan (the Sudan"= "the
Blacks"). It was a term used by the Arabs very much as the
Greeks and Romans had used the term "Aithiopia"; its translation
was virtually the same. In 1956, on achieving independence from
Egypt and Great Britain, the vast territory formerly called "the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan" (as opposed to "the French Soudan" in the
west) became the "Republic of the Sudan" or today simply
"Sudan". The name is now applied only to the country that bears
its name. Books over fifty years old, however, often apply the
name "Sudan/Soudan" to various parts of central and West Africa
on the southern edge of the Sahara. These lands should not be
confused with Nubia or modern Sudan.
Archaeological Names
In the study of Nubian history and archaeology, specialists use
two kinds of names to refer to the various ancient people and
cultures they encounter; these are political names and
archaeological names. Political names derive from ancient texts,
and they reflect the actual names that the Egyptians, Greeks, or
Nubians themselves gave to certain parts of Nubia or to the
different Nubian peoples. Archaeological names are those names
given to particular cultures or industries which are detectable
by archaeology but for which there are no associated ancient
names; thus, there is no way to know what names the people of
these cultures gave themselves. Here the archaeologists provide
these cultures with either arbitrary (and artificial)
designations , e.g.: "A-Group, B-Group" and "X-Group," or they
name them according to the archaeological sites in which they
were first discovered or which became their main centers, e.g.:
"Kerma Culture" (referring to the succession of Nubian cultures
found at the city of Kerma).
Sometimes, the archaeological and arbitrary designations are
mixed, e.g., the X-Group can also be referred to as the "Ballana
Culture," since a main site for this culture is the cemetery of
Ballana. Rarely, a political/textual name might combine with an
archaeological designation, e.g., Nubadae-people can now be
identified with the X-Group. Similarly, it has been suggested
(justifiably or not) that the C-Group might be those people
which the Egyptians named the Tjemehu (i.e., Libyans of the
central Sahara).
Egyptian Names of Nubia
All of the lands south and southeast of Egypt (sometimes also
including the northeast) the Egyptians called, Ta-netjer ,
"God's Land." Within this great region, the Egyptians located
the different countries and people of Nubia. From the Old
Kingdom onward, in addition to Ta-Seti , the Egyptians applied
the name Ta- Nehesy as a general designation for Nubia (n.b.,
nehesy means, "nubian;" Panehesy, "the Nubian" becomes a common
personal name, developing into the Biblical name, Phineas). At
the same time, Egyptians gave the name Wawat specifically to
Lower Nubia. This name derived from one of several Nubian
chiefdoms which were located in this region during the late Old
Kingdom. A generic designation of the desert nomads of Nubia was
the term Iuntiu or Iuntiu-setiu , "Nubian tribesmen (lit.
'bowmen')." The names which the Egyptians used to refer to the
various parts of Nubia and its different peoples usually changed
depending upon the era and the particular tribal group in a
given area.
Elsewhere in the Old Kingdom, the names Irtjet , Zatju , and
Kaau were used of particular people and areas of the country.
While, previously, they were thought to be in Lower Nubia, David
O'Connor has recently made a strong case for locating them in
Upper Nubia. The Land of Yam , visited by Harkhuf, Governor of
Elephantine, in the late Sixth Dynasty, was apparently located
around the Fifth or Sixth Cataracts. The Land of Punt was a
country located east of Upper Nubia and bordering on the Red Sea
(i.e., extending from the highlands to the sea). Since the Old
Kingdom, the Egyptians often enjoyed a productive relationship
with a Nubian tribal people from the land of Medja , named the
Medjay (called the "Pan-Grave People" by archaeologists). As
fierce warriors, they were incorporated as mercenaries into the
Egyptian army as early as the Sixth Dynasty. Later in the New
Kingdom, they were employed as the police force in Egypt, and
the word medjay became the ancient Egyptian term for
"policeman."
From the Middle Kingdom onward, the Egyptians regularly
used the
name Kash to refer to the powerful independent kingdom based in
Upper Nubia, first at Kerma (until that was destroyed by the
Egyptians in the sixteenth century BC), thereafter at Napata ,
then Meroe (pronounced "meroway"). Kash is identified as the
Land of Kush in the Holy Bible. Kush's political dependency was
the territory of Sha'at (in the region of the Isle of Sai).
Other names attested at this time (mostly in execration texts)
are: Iryshek, Tua, Imana'a , and Ruket . In the eastern
mountains were Awshek and Webet- sepat .
In the early Eighteenth Dynasty, the Egyptians also used the
name Khenet-hennefer to refer to Kush, especially during the
military campaigns of Ahmose and Tuthmosis I. It appears as a
general designation of the area of Upper Nubia between the
Second and Fourth Cataracts, and designates the region for which
the city of Kerma was the center or capital. The name Irem was
applied in the Eighteenth Dynasty to the people who apparently
lived in the southern reach of the Dongola Bend (i.e., the old
territory of Yam). Later in the dynasty, the name Karoy was
applied to the vicinity of Napata.
In the Late Period and during the Kingdom of Meroe , the name,
Island of Meroe , was given to the triangular stretch of land on
the east bank of the Nile, south of the Fifth Cataract. This
section, dominated by the city of Meroe, was bordered on the
north by the Atbara River, on the west by the Nile, and on the
south by the Blue Nile. The Island of Meroe was the heartland of
Meroitic civilization and the political and cultural center of
the Kingdom of Meroe from 590 BC to AD 300.
The Nubia hills
Today a large rugged area about 300 miles (500 km) southwest of
Khartoum is known as the Nuba Hills. Today the peoples who live
there are also called "the Nuba." These Nuba, however, are not
one group but many. They speak many different languages and
settled here in many waves and at many different times. These
modern "Nuba" should not be confused with the "Nubians" (the
ancient "Nuba" or "Noba"), for they are very different in
language, appearance, and cultural heritage. It is possible,
however, that centuries ago some "Noba" people dwelt here and
gave their name to the mountains and that some of the modern
"Nuba" may be descended from them.
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