Kush Empire

THE KUSH EMPIRE (2000 BC - 350 AD) 

Government: B  (Mallory) 

       The Kush Empire was an empire in Northern Africa that started around the Nile in 2000 B.C.  Over this time period, the Kush people lived under a monarchy.  The monarchy seemed to work for the empire, as they were very organized and often conquered other lands.  For instance, King Kashta invaded northern Egypt, and successfully conquered some land there. Then, later, his son King Piankhi conquered all of Egypt, whose people were under a strong empire at the time, and then led there for 70 years before losing power.  The monarch also worked for the empire because the line of leaders followed the mother’s descendants more than the father’s.  This caused there to be a lot of queens in Kush history.  By having queens instead of kings, the women of the empire were more represented, instead of the whole government being controlled by men.
        The people of the empire lived in villages, and each village had their own specific leader.  However, the leader was more of a figurehead and suggested things more than he ruled harshly.  This led for many rights and freedoms for the individuals, but it also caused the government to not be very involved with the common people, and they weren’t always well controlled.   
        I gave the Kush Empire an A- in government because they were very organized and their queens led for equality throughout the empire.   Also, the government let the common people have many rights, but they were marked down because they were not very involved in the lives of the people, so they did not do a very good job at controlling the people.

King Kashta of the Kush Empire

Religion: C (Mitch)

       The Kush empire adopted most of their religion from the Egyptians, they built the same types of pyramids which served as tombs and they worshiped the same gods. They did adopt the Cult ofIsis from the Egyptian people. Most of these cults were to worship Egyptian era gods. However unlike the Egyptians they did form their own gods, such as Apedemak, god of victory and agriculture.
       The Kush generally coped with the difficulties of their lives by praying or worshiping their gods. Like the Egyptians they would pray to them for certain things to happen such as the flooding of the Nile river for their crops. Other than that the people of the Kush however, much like the Egyptians, were mostly non religious and used other means to cope. The Kush would simply pray to gods and that was what they did to help themselves. 
       The Kush get a C for religion. It did not serve much of a purpose in their society, and because they basically copied the Egyptian religion word for word. The problem with this is that they barely adapted it to their society. The overall problem would be that they did not do much in terms of uniting the community and society. If they did make a better effort to help with their society maybe they would have gotten farther in their times.

Apedemak, God of Victory And Agriculture

Economy: A- (Mallory)

        The Kush Empire was a trading power of their time.  Their land was plentiful with natural resources, particularly iron.  After being taught by the Assyrians how to smelt iron, they were able to trade with the Egyptians and other northern people.  The northern people desperately needed iron and the other natural resources Kush was exporting, and the Kush people needed the manufactured goods, like textiles, that the other people were exporting.  This cycle caused the Kush Empire to actively trade for 600 years.  The trading improved the lives of all the common people involved in mining natural resources, but it hurt the people who were trying to manufacture goods in the country.  While those people were trying to sell their goods, the rest of the country were buying from the other countries.
       I gave the Kush Empire an A- in trading because they were an active and important trading center for over 600 years.  However, I marked them down because their dependence on trading iron led to problems within other aspects of their economy, like manufacturing goods.

Arts and Architecture: B- (Mary L.)

       The Kush Empire had a lot of creative arts and architecture. They had bath houses that had a large pool in the center and had waterspouts made in the shape of lion heads. The city was filled with sandstone palaces and red brick houses. The walls of the buildings were tiled in yellow and blue. They would also cover the walls with paintings. The use of iron tools extended and that helped make 84 pyramids in the city, and each pyramid was built with its own temple. In a temple, pictures were found on the interior walls. They were of Nile fishing boats, bullfights, and other animal pictures.
       I gave the Kush Empire a B- in arts and architecture because it was very creative with the use of sandstones for palaces and how they used iron tools to help build things like the pyramids. They also adopted pyramid making from the Egyptians, which they did not do as well as the Egyptians. Their art was very creative but it didn’t really emphasize human advancement except for the bath houses that they built. 

Drawings on an Ancient Wall

Technology: C+ (Zach)

         Egyptians occupied the area of the Kush Empire from around 1500 BC-1160 BC.When the Egyptians left, much of their culture stayed behind with the Kush Empire.Many aspects of Kush’s technology were adopted from the Egyptians.They created many structures similar to Egyptian pyramids.  Also, they would create palaces out of sandstone and bricks.Kusites also took Egyptian hieroglyphs and changed them to fit their own language.  From the Assyrians, they learned the secret to smelting iron.  With the new found knowledge of iron work, Kushite blacksmiths would create iron hoes, knives, and spears.
       I gave the Kush Empire a C+ because even though they had good technology, they really did not invent much of their own.Most of it was copied from the Egyptians.  Since they copied most of their technology from other Empires, they really did not have many technological advances of their own.  However, since they copied their technology from successful Empires, it did help improve the quality of the lives of Kushites.

Ancient Kush Sandstone Buildings

Society: B (Mary L.)

     

In the Kush Empire, most of the population lived in farming villages. The women had the same rights has men in the Kush Empire. The women also had more political power than a lot of the other kingdoms. A lot of the Kush monarchs were women. There was slavery and they were the lowest class. Slaves were not treated like people.  Yet during the end of the Kush Empire, less agricultural production caused some of the population to migrate from the area. Since they were by the Nile River they were very fortunate in farming and mining.

       I gave the Kush Empire a B in society because the slaves were not treated well and they were successful in farming and mining. Also the women and men were treated as equals. Yet towards the end of the empire the population decreased.

A Farming Village Next to the Nile River

Overall Grade: C+

       Overall, the Kush get a C+ as a grade. They did perform well in nearly every category, but because they copied Egypt in almost every category, they did not make a lasting impact in History. They did however operate a very successful trading industry and they did last a very long time as an empire, however they did not have enough of a plan to operate after another empire opened up a successful trading industry. The Kush empire gets a slightly above average grade for a pretty successful empire.