Articles

Away from native banks: ancient Egyptians and their search for the reaches of Nubia during the Old Kingdom

Vostok/Oriens '2016, №1

 
Along with trade and military ventures ancient Egyptian expeditions to mines and quarries beyond the Nile Valley were one of the most important means of interaction with alien geographical regions and ethnical groups for supplying the Egyptian civilization with raw materials and prestige commodities. Nubian lands had always been an important source of primary products consumed by the Egyptian elite: gneiss, copper, semi-precious stones, exotic goods, and gold along with livestock and manpower were exported from Nubia to Egypt since at least the Early Dynastic period. However, there is still much uncertainty on the nature of contacts between the Egyptian and Nubian societies during the Old Kingdom. The obvious lack of both written and archaeological sources complicate the process of understanding the real scale of the Egyptian military, economic, and cultural penetration into the lands to the south of the First Cataract during the third millennium BC. The aim of this paper is to consider the ancient Egyptian expedition activities in Nubia during the Old Kingdom and to formulate some questions raised by recent discoveries in the field.

Keywords: Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Old Kingdom, desert, expeditions, mines, quarries, archaeology

Pages: С. 6–18