Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Civilizations Essay

Ancient Egyptian and Nubian Civilizations - Essay Example The Old Testament refers to it as the kingdom of Cush and the Romans called it Nubia referring to its gold mines( Kasule 34). Excavations by the French archaeologists yielded exquisite ceramic figurines, funeral bric-a-brac and bowls that were dated at least during 8000 BC. Other archaelogists dug up great Nubian monuments such as parts of a magnificent temple, statues, pottery, jewelries and hosts of artifacts that convinced them that Nubia was the cradle of African civilization and the first black African civilization (Macleod, New York Times). Excavations in the Qustul cemetery by Keith Seele brought forth incense burners depicting a royal palace and a portrait of a king with the god Horus hovering above him. Other artifacts showed a monarchy that was even older than Egypt's and was perhaps the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history and was dated at 3300 BC or 3 generations before the first Egyptian king Scorpion in the 1st Dynasty. Many considered this Nubian civilization to be the Ta-Seti referred to in Egyptian writings (Renseberger, New York Times). So it is evident that the River Nile produced not one but two great civilizations. Later in this paper, we will prove that both civilizations were modified and perfected by the intermingling and influencing of one with the other and vice-versa. The Egyptian Civilization The River Nile was both a boon and a bane to the ancient Egyptians. Annually, between July and October, the Nile Valley, which is a ribbon of narrow, alluvial land measuring 2 to 3 miles in width from both banks of the Nile and extending some 12,000 sq. mi. from the Mediterranean to today's First Cataract, experiences inundation that washed away landmarks and destroyed properties. After the destruction loomed rich, fertile black land that stimulated3 agriculture(Grolier Universal Encyclopedia 77). Thus, the Nile represented a challenge and a development of all engineering, arithmetical, geometrical, surveying and other skills needed to control its unruly and temperamental nature. Thus, even during the predynastic Naqada period, papyrus writings showed that mathematical calculations including the use of decimals, fractions and the Pythagorean theorem were widely used. Because of the annual Nile deluge, Egyptians braced themselves from it and in the