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The Kingdom of Kush: A proper introduction [Illustrated]


Sundiata
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@LordGood Oh my God, that's so historically accurate, I'm getting the chills... :o Amazing work!!! I'm so glad you're doing these models! By the way, Is that a blacksmith, to the right of the CC there, that you're teasing us with??

For those people that haven't gone through the thread, or aren't familiar with the information this model is based on:

https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/karanog-wealthy-capital-of-a-lower-nubian-province/  (It is a late Meroitic site, but the palace/governors-residence/"castle" is identical to earlier Meroitic sites (except that it's smaller, and was better preserved before being flooded) 

I also found a large amount of archaeological information on the site of Karanog from an extensive excavation report from 1911, identifying it as a Blemmye town. Blemmye's were a vassal to Kush, supposedly even establishing a Blemmye dynasty. Even though it is a Meroitic site, littered with Meroitic inscriptions, artefacts and graves, the report makes little mention of the Meroitic overlords of Karanog. In 1911, the existence of a powerful black African state to the south, ruling lower Nubia was not an accepted notion (scientific racism was still in full sway). Even the mere existence of an independent and powerful Meroitic Kushite state itself was not accepted, on account of their skin-color. This is however being re-adressed by the current archaeological community, re-examining these sites over the past few decades. The images in the report do however provide some of the highest quality images of intact Meroitic sites in lower Nubia (now submerged by lake Nasser), including the impressive Meroitic fortifications at Qasr Ibrim, very close to Karanog.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/sites/dl-pa.home.nyu.edu.awdl/files/karangtown00wool/karangtown00wool.pdf 

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Edited by Sundiata
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The temple to Amun looks very Egyptian. I'm thinking this should be the special building. 

The temple to Apedemak (also Egyptian looking) could be the regular temple.

Meroitic pyramids, as phase requirements will look Egyptianish.

Props, like stelae and obelisks could add to the Egyptian flavour, and the design for the stone door-lintels are of Egyptian origin.

The trading vessel and light warship will look Egyptian

Also, some of the units will have a pronounced New Kingdom Egyptian look.

More suggestions? 

Edited by Sundiata
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@LordGood "Hopefully its lacks the defensive features to out it as a 'fortress'. I plan on using a whole lotta rough stone for that building anyway."

I'm happy to hear that, you seem to draw the same conclusion I did from looking at all these ruins. Religious and administrative structures as well as many other secular structures were almost invariably plastered with white lime-plaster. Defensive structures on the other hand seem to make a lot of use of rough uncut drystone walls.

Here are some extra details on the Kushite fortification of Gala Abu Ahmed (Napatan/Meroitic period), I recently came across:

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http://www.fstafrika.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/9259.html

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Happy that Kushite Nubians being given more attention. My favorite nation in RoN. They have a bonus of +/- 10% selling/buying (barter) resources and market is available early in the beginning of standard game and considered one of the strongest faction not just on 1v1 but on team games. 

Can't wait to play the mods! But as told better wait for A22 and been playing a bit more multiplayer that I might ruin things upon download. 

 

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@LordGood

Here I present two more possible reference-sites for Meroitic-period fortifications in Sudan, although I will immediately add that neither of them have been positively identified as Meroitic. The similarities are just too much to ignore. 

The first site shows the "ruins of a small fort between Sedeinga and Sai Island, Northern Sudan". The area features Ancient Egyptian, Napatan, Meroitic, Christian Nubian, and Ottoman-era ruins, and I don't believe they've been archaeologically surveyed yet. 

The fort itself clearly isn't ancient Egyptian, nor Ottoman (an Ottoman fort nearby is very distinctive from these ruins), which narrows it's dating down to the Napatan, Meroitic or Christian Nubian period (it doesn't look Christian either). I believe that the clear similarity with other Napatan and Meroitic sites makes it a useful reference.

59762a8f9e174_RuinsofasmallfortbetweenSedeingaandSaiIslandNorthernSudan2.thumb.jpg.0d7a6ac6e640299011821876d6ea80f2.jpg

 

The second site is the fortress at Berenice Panchrysos, and almost definitely wasn't Meroitic. It was a Blemmye (Beja) town on the Red Sea coast in Northern Sudan, in the Nubian desert, probably used by the Ptolemies as a way-station, and an important source of gold, for both Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, Ptolemies and Romans. I'm sharing it because the architecture of the fortress follows the same layout and design of Meroitic palaces and fortified residences, (especially Karanog) and uses the same building materials and techniques as the fortifications at Qasr Ibrim and Gala Abu Ahmed, hundreds of miles to the West of it.

tumblr_maxr18NMX21rgfuxjo1_r3_1280.thumb.jpg.148cfece0a85e5bc47ee47c1950e64d7.jpg

sudan-nubian-desert-berenice-pancrisia-the-main-stronghold-CP58DR.thumb.jpg.e353c2e447f9e471042b36be1c603dbb.jpg

Screen_Shot_2017-07-24_at_18_47_00.thumb.png.b19c26fc744b42c06758db9c5cb6d978.png

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sundiata
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The Graffito of Musawwarat es Sufra (Aborepi) 

In this post, I will highlight the pictorial graffito on the walls of the great temple complex of Musawwarat es Sufra, also known to the Kushites as Aborepi. Abore means elephant in ancient Meroitic (Abu is the ancient Egyptian equivalent), and Aborepi means "Place of the Elephant". The depiction of elephants in many reliefs, statues and graffito, attest to the importance of elephants at this site, and it was very possibly an elephant training center, featuring large holding pens, access ramps, and the largest water collection reservoir (The Great Hafir) known in Sudan. The size of the reservoir is baffling as there is no sign of any significant settlement at the site. 

The walls of this complex feature the largest collection of ancient graffito in the entire Nile Valley. These often crude, and rudimentary graffito are of particular interest, because, as opposed to the highly stylised and refined, reliefs, of an official and religious/political nature, these graffito are very informal, and feature a number of elements not normally depicted in the very strictly delineated state-sanctioned art of Kush. 

The collection of images I share here highlight more Meroitic period Boats, Helmets, HorsemenCamels, an Axeman and another Elephant :

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Most of the images in this post were sourced from the "Musawwarat Graffiti Archive":

http://musawwaratgraffiti.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Edited by Sundiata
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The Kingdom of Kush:   Unit:    Kushite War Elephant 

0 A.D. Concept art by Malcolm K. K. Quartey (Sundiata)

Since becoming more familiar with Kushite history, ancient references and archaeological sites such as Musawwarat, it has become apparent that this civilisation wouldn't be complete without elephants (known as abore, in ancient Meroitic). This rather simple, war-elephant, occasionally fielded by the Meroites, would have been trained from Aborepi ("The Place of the Elephant"), known to modern archaeology as Musawwarat es Sufra. The particular type of elephant employed by the Kushites, was the now extinct North African Elephant (Loxodonta Africana Pharaoensis). The closest living relative is most probably the extremely endangered African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta Cyclotis). At only 2 - 2,5 meters at the shoulder, both of these species are significantly smaller than the enormous and more common African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta Africana), which is considered untrainable, as well as the Indian and Syrian Elephants.   

This unit, however strong, has one major weakness: other elephants. These small Kushite elephants were absolutely terrified by their larger Indian cousins. This is echoed by Pliny when he wrote "The African elephant is afraid of the Indian, and does not dare so much as look at it, for the latter is of much greater bulk". The size, smell and noise of Indian elephants makes "Ethiopian" war-elephants not stand against them, but rather turn and run.

I based my illustration on the statuette found at Meroe (now in the Nubian Museum in Aswan), showing an elephant with mahout carrying a typical, East African round shield, strengthened and decorated with metal (brass) strips and shield boss. I added some javelins as the weapon of choice. The design of the blanket is based on the blankets worn by the elephants in one of the reliefs at Aborepi, sometimes referred to as "Apedemak's War Elephants". The mahout is also seen wearing a (brass) rimmed skullcap/helmet with nose-guard.

597dcc89c9ea0_KushitewarElephantLandscapeC.thumb.jpg.35d532457d5344ed418ccad098454ec7.jpg

 

Here are the written sources of the use of war elephants by Kushites, as well as the visual references:

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PS: For the other three illustrations I created, I made sketches first, digitalised them, and then adjusted and colored them in photoshop using my laptop's trackpad. For this war elephant, I created my very first, purely digital painting, using a Wacom sketchpad. As I am new to illustration, critiques, remarks and tips would be very much appreciated.

  

Edited by Sundiata
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@Sundiata Good work regarding researching all those information about elephants. You provided some evidence about how they where used: "But against their centre, which he heard was the strongest, he set himself and his elephants with towers on their backs, together with the men-at-arms of the Blemmyes and the Seres, whom he instructed what they should do when they came to fight."

However, it does not say anything about how they influenced the battle. Did the Kushites use those elephants to scare or to fight? Where they used against specific units, for example against cavalry?

Having those additional information would help to make the war elephants of the Kushites even more accurate. But the results of your research will make the Kushite war elephants already very unique :-)

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Regarding Krita I prefer it over the GIMP the GUI is more Photoshop like for those on Linux there are two main ways of getting it from your distro's repos or appimage the appimage version is a stand alone static build and usually the latest version available the Windows version is also very useful the 64-bit version preforms better.

Enjoy the Choice :)

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The Kingdom of Kush: Miniatures for Wargames (Units)

In this post, I will present a collection of miniature figurines of Kushite/Nubian units designed and made for a variety of miniature wargames. The units represent many archaic Kushite units, but also from Meroitic Kush. The archaic units are somewhat stereotyped varieties of ancient units but they're still quite accurate. Every single one of them would have been present in the Meroitic period, and they're good reference stuff for basic units in 0 A.D. The unit types represented here are: (a lot of) Archers, Spearmen, Swordsmen, Clubmen, Cavalry (spear-cav and standard-bearer with scale-armour), Kings, Chiefs & Command Units and Chariots:

 

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@Lion.Kanzen:

I created a (traced) outline of the god Amun, based on the Meroitic period relief of Amun on the Lion Temple in Naqa. It shows a uniquely Meroitic combination of features, making it the ideal reference: a ram's head with accentuated eye-brow, scaled head-dress, double tall falcon tail feather crown of Amun, with sun disk and uraei and horizontal ram's horns.

Quick jpeg version to show the ideal frame:

5984b6d7ca4cb_Amunoutlinefinal.thumb.jpg.63eef5383987f3293020f58c7ea0f7dd.jpg

 

The png version 

5984b6e6b23e1_Amunoutlinefinal.thumb.png.3e328a93f344a8fc84b19aecf35b17fb.png

 

The reference:

5984b8f06e615_TheGodAmuninhisfullgloryinNaqarelief.thumb.jpg.456b06bbb87ebe33f916685350b719c8.jpg

 

I'm curious to see what you'll make of this. The possible colors for use are blue (azul and dark-blue), red, yellow, green, gold and brown, green blue or black for the Ram. I think the eye is supposed to be red.  

 

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The Kingdom of Kush: A Kingdom of Gold! 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection

I have recently made major breakthroughs in my research of ancient Kush during the Meroitic period. I have spent the last weeks going through literally thousands upon thousands of museum entries in the archives of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the fourth largest museum in the United States. The things I found profoundly shocked me... I found the largest collection of Meroitic period artefacts I've ever seen, including jewelry, household objects, weapons and many other things, produced by Kushite artisans, using gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, ceramics, & faience. 

The level of artisanry demonstrated by the people of Meroitic Kush, far exceeds anything you've ever seen from them! In fact, it rivals some of the finest pieces from other major civilisations in classical antiquity. These people were not only extremely wealthy, they were highly skilled in the many arts of the ancient world.

Most of these objects were excavated in the 1920's by Harvard University and other research institutes, in and around Meroe and Gebel Barkal. They were subsequently buried in the archives of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where they remain buried until this day. Many of the objects haven't even been photographed yet, and those that have, are poorly tagged and organised, making international exposure to these objects almost non-existant...

I will be highlighting the finest pieces from this collection over the next few days, beginning today, with the Gold of Kush. 

 

Meroitic period Gold from Kush:   

(Feel free to download and zoom in on these images, to appreciate the details on these 2000+ year old objects)

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The source for all Meroitic period objects in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

 http://www.mfa.org/search?search_api_views_fulltext=meroitic+

 

 

The source for all Meroitic period Kushite gold in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:

 http://www.mfa.org/search?search_api_views_fulltext=meroitic+gold

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