From Slave to Pharaoh: The Black Experience of Ancient Egypt

4. "Plotting in Their Valleys": The Unruly Tribesmen

4 “PLOTTING IN THEIR VALLEYS” THE UNRULY TRIBESMEN 24 y the last quarter of the third millennium b.c., northeastern Africa and the Levant were experiencing major changes on all fronts. The prosperous period of large towns in Palestine, labeled EB III in archaeological nomenclature, ended in the abandonment or destruction of these settlements and the absence of sedentary society thenceforth for several centuries.1 At the same time, northeastern Africa began to suffer a diminution of rainfall and a 30 percent decline in the volume of Nile discharge.2 Finally, on the southern frontier the Nubian tribesmen were no longer content to remain quiescent in the face of Egyptian demands on their possessions and commercial relations. THE C-GROUP PEOPLE In a modi~cation of the practice of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasty kings, who had assigned southern operations to governors from Middle and Lower Egypt, the Sixth Dynasty kings were content to have commerce and surveillance in the hands of the magnates of Elephantine.3 Whether or not this was in part an effort to economize, it had the effect of making the “march lords” of the southern frontier responsible for the region with which they were most familiar. They were obliged to repair to the Memphite residence for the commission of Pharaoh and for supplies: thereafter a number of routes offered themselves as access corridors to Nubia (see map 2). There was “the road of Elephantine,” by which was intended the Nile route on the west bank leading from Gebel Tingar directly south of the First Cataract;4 but, although seemingly the most appropriate for an inhabitant of Elephantine, this road was not often used. The cost of traversing the six hundred miles between Memphis and Elephantine, with the harbor tolls levied at every jetty to which the _otilla put in,5 would probably have increased the total expenditure; and the time and effort exB Map 2. Regimes and transit corridors in northeast Africa, c. 2300–1700 B.C. pended in getting around the cataracts, where portage could not be avoided, would have rendered this “direct” route time-consuming. Whereas cost-effectiveness counted little with the pharaohs, time saving exercised them greatly. A longer but strangely more negotiable route lay through the chain of oases (Bahriya-Farafra-Dakhleh-Khargeh-Dush) and regained the Nile in Nubia at Tomâs.6 Several starting points offer themselves, but that which gives on to an oasis route at Manfalūt north of Asyut is attested in the biography of Kharkhuf.7 This precursor of the later “Route of 40 Days” could be traversed on foot with accompanying pack animals without dif~culty,8 and this may also be the route whereby livestock were brought to the Memphite residence.9 But the expedition leaders who ventured south during the Sixth Dynasty did not ~nd a docile Nubia. Expeditions to fetch building stone required warships, and commercial caravans needed the protection of both Egyptian and native forces.10 Intestine warfare had broken out,11 and Egyptian caravaneers were obliged to play the role of peacemaker.12 In an exceptional move,13 Merenre felt obliged himself to repair to Elephantine to receive the homage of the chiefs of Nubia.14 Large armies were required to put down Wawat,15 and chieftains, their children, and retainers transferred to Memphis.16 Chieftains, retainers, and even Egyptians who were thought to harbor nefarious designs but who could not be apprehended were ritually cursed.17 The archaeological evidence for the period suggests that the turmoil that the texts describe was occasioned by the arrival in Lower Nubia of new ethnic groups, driven from the southwestern desert through the progressive dessication of the area.18 These groups were the advance guard of the “C-group” people, as archaeologists have long called them, a main ingredient being the tribe of the Medjay (modern Beja).19 For more than six centuries following the collapse of the Old Kingdom they were to dominate the demography and politics of Nubia; and although they have left no written records, the artifactual remains they have left behind lends them a clear pro~le. Primarily they were a pastoral and cattle-rearing people and, to the extent that their _ocks and herds required it, seasonal migrants occupying temporary campsites. The animal upon which their life centered was the Bos primigenius, the horned wild ox of northeastern Africa , so treated that its left horn...