8 – The Fall of the Kush Kingdom (100 AD – 550 AD?)
The economic cornerstones of the Kush Kingdom were the routes between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, and it clearly became increasingly difficult to control and maintain those routes. By the second century AD, royal tombs became smaller and less expensive while the creation of large monuments had practically ceased. By the middle of the fourth century, there were no more royal burial pyramids created.
The fall of the Kush Kingdom is shrouded in mystery with several theories. One such theory suggests that it was destroyed after an invasion by the Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum in 350 AD. However, historians have found Ethiopian accounts of the event, and they suggest that Axum was merely quelling a rebellion in territory it already controlled.
There is also a suggestion that the Nuba were the people known as the ‘Nobatae’ by the Romans. According to Strabo, the Romans invited the Nobatae to move in when the empire pulled out of northern Nubia in 272 AD. David Welsby suggests that the Kushites were still a major force in Lower Nubia as late as 336 AD. He mentioned that the Kushites were part of a joint embassy with the Blemmyes that met Emperor Constantine. Welsby rejects the notion that the Aksum Kingdom destroyed Meroe.
The last known ruler was Teqerideamani, who died in 253 AD, but there are royal pyramids from as late as 339 AD; some scholars believe there were at least seven rulers after Teqerideamani. By the middle of the sixth century AD, three kingdoms had consolidated their power in what was formerly Kushite territory. The rulers and citizens of these kingdoms adopted Christianity, and this signaled the end of Kushite culture. To this day, there is a great deal we don’t know about the kingdom that once briefly ruled Ancient Egypt.