NUBIA THE FIRST CIVILIZATION
On the cover Newsweek Magazine, January 11, 1988, carried a painting of a young Black couple flanking the Biblical Tree Of Life. The picture was captioned, "The Search For Adam And Eve." Newsweek has revealed what many scientist and scholars now believe: That Africa was the birthplace of the human family and that all human beings around the world share common roots in prehistoric Africa. In other words, we all stem from the same African family tree.
For thousands of years the only people on the planet earth were Africans. They migrated throughout the great continent and made many discoveries along the way. They learned to domesticate animals, to cultivate crops and build shelters for protection against the elements. They also organized themselves into families, clans and tribes.
During what is called the Pleistocene Ice Age, which ended about 10, 000 years ago, the region which is now referred to as the Sahara had a climate much cooler and wetter than it is today. This part of Africa was covered with grasslands and forest as well as a number of lakes and streams. Elephants, giraffes and other animals roamed the land which was also populated by a highly advanced Black people whose prehistoric rock paintings, still visible today, provide a clear image of life during that time.
By 7,000 B.C., the once fertile region, which we call the Sahara, had dried up and most Black people who lived there migrated toward the upper regions of the Nile River in the interior of Africa. Other people, also fleeing the spreading desert, traveled farther South or headed northward in the direction of the Mediterranean Sea.
During the 3rd millennium B.C., Black people who had settled that part of the Upper Nile just South of the Cataract, founded the country of Nubia (later called Kush and Ethiopia). Ancient tradition and modern evidence suggest that the original Egyptians were from Nubia and that Nubians laid the foundation of Egyptian civilization.
The early writer Diodorus of Sicily recorded the following account with respect to the history of this region:
The Ethiopians [i.e. Nubians] say that the Egyptians are one of their colonies which was led into Egypt by Osiris. They even alleged that this country was originally under water, but that the Nile dragging much mud as it flowed from Ethiopia, had finally filled it in and made it a part of the continent
They add that from them, as from their authors and ancestors, the Egyptians get most of their laws. It is from them that the Egyptians have learned to honor kings as gods and bury them with such pomp; sculpture and writing were invented by the Ethiopians. The Ethiopians cite evidence that they are more ancient than the Egyptians, but it is useless to report here. 1
During the 20th century a number of discoveries appear to lend credence to the above Ethiopian (Nubian) tradition. Most compelling has been the finding of artifacts in Nubia at Qustul. One of these, an incense burner, strongly suggests that the political structure and pattern of kingship in Egypt were derived from the Nubian south. The incense burner shows that Ta-Seti, a pharonic dynasty in Nubia, preceded the first Egyptian dynasty by over 200 years.
Italian archeologist F. Mori has excavated the mummy of an African child in the Fezzan of Nubia which dates back to 3500 B.C. Although the body was preserved by the same chemical techniques and bound in the same ritual manner as mummies in later Egypt, it preceded the oldest known Egyptian mummy by about five hundred years. This discovery strongly suggest that Egyptian mummification had its origin in the Nubian south.
Agricultural developments also moved up the Nile from the south. Egypt received a number of plants, including the oil-palm, watermelon, bottle gourd, tamarind and cultivated cotton, from the Sudanic agricultural complex. No comparable movement of plant life in the Nile Valley has been traced from any other direction.
Additional evidence also suggests an African origin of Egyptian civilization, but in these instances, it is not quite clear that the influences came directly from Nubia. Some [of the findings] are cultural (ritual practices of the ancient Egyptians can be traced to the African his totemism, circumcision, form of the divine kingship are distinct from that of the Asian). Some are linguistic (Cheikh Anta Diop demonstrated convincingly at the UNESCO debate in 1974 that the Egyptian belonged beyond question to the family of African languages). Some indicate a shared techno-complex (the forerunners
of pyramid-building are found south of Egypt in pre-dynastic times.2
Perhaps the most convincing argument for a southern or Nubian origin of the ancient Egyptians and their civilization is that the people of these two nations were of the same Black or African racial stock. Once again, the evidence for this is found in the testimony of ancient eyewitnesses as well as in the discoveries of modern science.
To the Greek and Latin writers contemporary with the ancient Egyptians the latters physical classification posed no problems: the Egyptians were Negroes, thick-lipped, kinky-haired and thin-legged
3 Among the ancient writers who described the Egyptians and/or the Nubians in this way were Herodotus, the so-called Father of History; Aristotle, scientist, philosopher and tutor of Alexander the Great; Lucian, a Greek scholar; Appollodorus, a Greek philosopher; Aeschylus, a poet and creator of Greek tragedy; Strabo, a Greek geographer and historian; Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman historian; and Latin writer Achilles Tatius and Diogenes Laertius.
Other evidence that strongly suggest that the ancient Egyptians were Black is found in their skeletal and sculptural remains, melanin dosage test conducted on Egyptian mummies, blood-group classifications of modern populations in Upper Egypt, Biblical traditions and the testimony of the ancient Egyptians themselves.
The Egyptians had only one term designate themselves: KMT= THE BLACKS (literally). This is the strongest term existing in the pharonic tongue to indicate Blackness; it is accordingly written with a hieroglyph representing a length of wood charred at the end and not crocodile scales
In the Egyptian language, a word of assembly is formed from an adjective or a noun by putting it in the feminine singular, KMT from the adjective KM=BLACK. The term is a collective noun which thus described the whole people of Pharonic Egypt as a BLACK people.4
When viewed as a whole the evidence that points toward southern or Nubian roots for the ancient Egyptians and their civilization is time-honored, widespread and compelling. No comparable arguments have been presented in defense of an Asian or European origin. In time, of course, people of various physical types from around the Mediterranean world did indeed settle Lower Egypt, intermingle with the native Black population and contribute to the development of ancient Egyptian civilization. Nevertheless, Egypts cultural, physical and spiritual legacy was chiefly derived from the Black south.
THE NILE RIVER
The Greek historian Herodotus described Egypt as the gift of the Nile. This was certainly true in antiquity. The Nile river is the longest in the world. It flows fro 4, 187 miles from its beginning near the heart of the African continent northward to the Mediterranean Sea.
The southern portion of the Nile, which is closest to its origins is called the Upper Nile; while the northern reaches of the river, near the Mediterranean Sea, are called the Lower Nile.
The entire length of the Nile River extends through the continent of Africa. In other words, no portion of this great river crosses Europe, Asia or any other land mass. All of the great civilizations that sprang from the Nile were also located on the continent of Africa.
The Nile was the source of life in the middle of an arid land. It made possible irrigation of the soil and cultivation of crops. The Nile encouraged cooperation among settlers which led to cities, a great nation and finally a world empire.
EGYTPIAN WOMEN
Even by todays Western standards Egyptian women (royal and ordinary) were free and independent and enjoyed status equal to that of men. Their significance to the very fabric of society is borne out by the fact that the familial line of descent was passed on by females. Women were even allowed to rule as pharaohs and an example of this would be Hatshepsut. You will never see a woman ruling ancient Greece, Rome and definitely not the present day US as president.
In the royal family marriage to the princess was virtually mandatory for the son of a pharaoh or a man of lesser birth who aspired to the throne. Surviving evidence and oral tradition suggest that the wives, sisters and mothers of the pharaohs were revered by them. The scribes meticulously recorded the names of these royal ladies in official documents and many of them provided with splendid tombs. The burial chamber of Queen Hetephores, wife of King Sneferu and mother of King Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, is one of the few from the Golden Age that remains somewhat intact. When discovered, it contained furniture and illustrious jewelry.
The Egyptian women were equal under the law. They served on juries, witnessed documents, prepared their own wills and bought, inherited, administered and sold property. They were also free to adopt children and to sue or be sued. In all of these instances women could act alone and did not require a male co-signatory.
Egyptian women also possessed certain legal rights under the marriage bond. If the couple were divorced, even when initiated by the wife, the husband continued to be responsible for her support. If he wished total freedom from his wife, the husband would surrender to her that part of his wealth which had been pledged at the time of the marriage.
PYRAMIDS
Egypt is best known for the pyramids and most people are only aware of the three main pyramid at Giza. Altogether there are 80 pyramids in Egypt and 100 in the Sudan, the site of ancient Nubia. As has been noted, a number of scholars believe that some of the smaller Nubian pyramids were the forerunners of those in Egypt.
Among the most famous Egyptian pyramids are the Step Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid and the Great Pyramid. Around 2,650 B.C., the Step Pyramid was built for King Zoser by his chief architect Imhotep. It is the oldest large stone structure in the world. Originally other buildings and courtyards were constructed near the Step Pyramid and this entire complex was enclosed by a wall 1,500 feet long by 900 feet wide. Today, however, the only prominent remaining structure is the Step Pyramid itself.
King Sneferu of the 4th Dynasty built the Bent Pyramid several miles south of Saqqara. This structure has no steps, but is straight-sided, except for a change of angle in the middle.
The Great Pyramid was built in the 4th Dynasty during the reign of King Khufu. Still standing today, it originally rose 481 feet and is estimated to have contained 2,300,00 blocks of stone. The area it covers is large enough to hold the cathedrals of Florence, Milan and St. Peters in Rome, as well as St. Pauls and Westminister Abbey in London.
The Great Pyramid contains enough stone to construct thirty Empire State Buildings. If all the stones in the pyramids were sawed into blocks one on an edge and then were laid end to end they would stretch two thirds of the way around the globe at the equator.
The Great Pyramid is made up of millions of blocks of stone. Fine limestone casing blocks once covered the pyramid; most of the other blocks are also composed of limestone. The heaviest blocks, some of which weigh over 50 tons, are made of granite.
Many scientists have been astounded by the incredibly accurate orientation of the Great Pyramid. Egyptologist James Putnam has written the following concerning this: The four sides, each of over 700 feet (230 metres) long, are aligned almost exactly on true north, south, east and west. These alignments are so accurate that compass errors can be checked against them. This is an amazing achievement considering the magnetic compass was unknown to the Ancient Egyptians.
The Pyramids Of Egypt: Ancient Miracles In Stone
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/pyramids.html
LANGUAGE AND THE HIEROGLYPHS
The Egyptians (Nubians) spoke ARABIC and ARAMAIC. They also developed Hieroglyphs originally called Metu Neter. Metu Neter writing was so advanced that everything including grammatical form, could be expressed in them. They could be read from left to right, from right to left and even vertical from top to bottom based on the composition of the picture.
Metu Neter are comprised of 24 signs, each representing a consonant which roughly corresponds to our modern alphabet. There are no vowels in the Metu Neter writing system; but modern scholars insert the vowels where they believe the ancient writers would have used them.
MEDICAL SCIENCE
As we have seen, the process of mummification appears to have come to Egypt by way of Nubia; and knowledge of this remarkable technique for preserving the human body provided the roots of medical science. King Djer of the 1st Dynasty was a noted physician who wrote a treatise on anatomy. In the 3rd Dynasty, the multi-genius Imhotep, who was the administrator and architect of the first pyramid of Saqqara developed the circulation of the blood in the human body and was also a famous physician whom the Greeks later worshipped as the god of medicine.
Egyptian physicians were educated in the per ankh or house of life which served as a library, university, medical school, clinic, seminary and place of worship. They were first trained as scribes so that they would learn to read the medical papyri. They were then apprenticed to qualified physicians. Finally, the students were given spiritual training in designated places for worship.
The Ebers Papyrus suggests that the Egyptian medical community was familiar with a broad range of subjects including intestinal disease, helminthiasis, ophthalmology, dermatology, gynecology, obstetrics, pregnancy diagnosis, contraception [and] dentistry
5
Some Egyptian doctors entered the general practice of medicine; while others became specialists. Perhaps chief among the latter were surgeons. These physicians effectively used splints, bandages and compresses. The Edwin Smith Papyrus describes methods for connecting dislocated jaws and shoulders, and tomb paintings depict the application of splints on fractured bones.
Dr. Charles Finch, an authority on ancient Egyptian medicine, has noted the similarity between the Egyptian diagnostic methods and those of modern physicians:
A physician summoned to examine a patient would begin with a careful appraisal of the patients general appearance. This would be followed by a series of questions to elicit a description of the complaint. The color of the face and eyes, the quality of nasal secretions the presence of perspiration, the stiffness of the limbs or abdomen, and the condition of the skin were all carefully noted. The physician was also at pains to take cognizance of the smell of the body, sweet, breath and wounds. The urine and feces were inspected, the pulse palpated and measured, and the abdomen, swellings, and wounds probed and palpated. The pulse taking is worth noting because it indicates that the Egyptians knew of its circulatory and hemodynamic significance. Percussion of the abdomen and chest was performed and certain functional tests we still use today were done i.e., the coughing test for hernia detection; the extension-flexion maneuver of the legs to test for a dislocated lumbar vertebra. Sometimes, the case required more than one consultation and the physician might, as it done today embark on a therapeutic trial to ascertain the efficacy of treatment. 6
The Egyptians also performed brain and eye surgery before any civilization. The Egyptians (Nubians) vast knowledge of the human body and sophisticated techniques for healing it had a profound influence on many parts of the world, including Greece, Persia, Arabia (which is north east Africa), North and West Africa and Medieval Europe. The Greeks were particularly indebted to Egypt, from which many of their physicians were imported. In his Odyssey, Homer gives special tribute to Egypt for its medical genius: In medical knowledge, Egypt leaves the rest of the world behind. 7
FOOTNOTES
1. Diodorus, Universal History, Book III
2. Ivan Van Sertima, Race And Origin Of The Ancient Egyptians, Journal Of African Civilization (Egypt Revisted), Summer, 1989, vol. 10, p. 4. The UNESCO conference of 1974 was a meeting of scholars from all over the world in Cairo, Egypt to reconsider evidence concerning the people of the ancient Nile Valley.
3. Cheikh Anta Diop, Origin Of The Ancient Egyptians, Journal Of African Civilizations (Egypt Revisted), Summer, 1989, vol. 10 p. 16
4. Ibid., p. 20.
5. Frederick Newsome, Black Contributions To The Early History Of Western Medicine, Journal Of African Civilizations (Blacks In Science), April & November, 1983, vol. 5, nos. 1 & 2, p. 132.
6. Charles S. Finch, The African Background To Medical Science, London, Karnak House, 1990, p. 123.
7. Quoted in H.E. Sigerist, A History Of Medicine: Primitive And Archaic Medicine. New York, Oxford University Press, 1951, p. 325.
RESOURCES
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