Lower Nubia (also calledWawat)[1][2] is the northernmost part ofNubia, roughly contiguous with the modernLake Nasser, which submerged the historical region in the 1960s with the construction of theAswan High Dam. Many ancient Lower Nubian monuments, and all its modern population, were relocated as part of theInternational Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia;Qasr Ibrim is the only major archaeological site which was neither relocated nor submerged.[3][4] The intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. According toDavid Wengrow, the A-Group Nubian polity of the late 4th millenninum BCE is poorly understood since most of the archaeological remains are submerged underneath Lake Nasser.[5]
Its history is also known from its long relations withEgypt, particularly neighboringUpper Egypt. The region was historically defined as between the historicalFirst andSecond Cataracts, which are now both within Lake Nasser. The region was known toGreco-Roman geographers asTriakontaschoinos.
It is downstream on theNile fromUpper Nubia.
During theMiddle Kingdom, Lower Nubia was occupied by Egypt. when the Egyptians withdrew during thesecond Intermediate Period, Lower Nubia seems to have become part of the Upper NubianKingdom of Kerma. TheNew Kingdom occupied all of Nubia and Lower Nubia was especially closely integrated into Egypt, but with theThird Intermediate Period it became the centre of the independent state ofKush based atNapata at some point. Perhaps around 591 BC the capital of Kush was transferred south toMeroe and Lower Nubia became dominated by the Island of Meroe.
With the fall of the Meroitic Empire in the fourth century AD the area became home toX-Group, also known as theBallana culture who were likely theNobatae. This evolved into theChristian state ofNobatia by the fifth century. Nobatia was merged with the Upper Nubian state ofMakuria, but Lower Nubia became steadily moreArabized andIslamicized and eventually became de facto independent as the state ofal-Maris. Most of Lower Nubia was formally annexed by Egypt during the Ottoman conquest of 1517, and it has remained a part of Egypt since then, with only the south beingSudan.
Linguistic evidence indicates thatCushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and part of Northern Sudan, and that Nilo-Saharan languages were spoken in Upper Nubia to the south (by the peoples of theKerma culture), with North Eastern Sudanic languages from Upper Nubia later replacing the Cushitic languages of Lower Nubia.[6][7][8][9]
Julien Cooper (2017) states that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia (the northernmost part of modern-day Sudan):
In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands.[10]
Julien Cooper (2017) also states thatEastern Sudanic speaking populations from southern and west Nubia gradually replaced the earlier Cushitic speaking populations of this region:
In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.[11]
In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Claude Rilly (2019) states that Cushitic languages once dominated Lower Nubia along with theAncient Egyptian language. Rilly (2019) states: "Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic."[12]
Rilly (2019) mentions historical records of a powerful Cushitic speaking race which controlled Lower Nubia and some cities in Upper Egypt. Rilly (2019) states: "The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on."[13]
On page 134: "From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt."[14]
He mentions the linguistic relationship between the modernBeja language and the ancient Cushitic Blemmyan language which dominated Lower Nubia and that the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay:
The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language. In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.[15]
In Upper Egypt and Northern Lower Nubia was present a series of cultures, theBadarian,Amratian,Gerzean,A-Group,B-Group, andC-Group. Linguistic evidence indicates that Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, before the arrival of North Eastern Sudanic languages in the Middle Nile Valley.[16]
... Qasr Ibrim is the only in situ site left in Lower Nubia since the flooding of the Nile valley
Qasr Ibrim is critically important in a number of ways. It is the only site in Lower Nubia that remained above water after the completion of the Aswan high dam.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)"In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands.
"The toponymic data in Egyptian texts has broadly identified at least three linguistic blocs in the Middle Nile region of the second and first millennium BCE, each of which probably exhibited a great degree of internal variation. In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.
"Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic.
"The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on.
"From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt.
"The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.