The renown of ancient Egyptian civilisation has to such an extent eclipsed the achievements of Napata and Meroe that the Meroitic or Nubian civilisation, which flourished from approximately the eighth century BC to the fourth century AD, remains practically unknown except to the experts. Its people were of Hamito-Semitic stock. Its culture was based on ancient Egyptian traditions and religion. The state was theocratic and ruled through the king by the priests of Amen. Its language, although written in hieroglyphics, was different from Egyptian. Numerous surviving inscriptions have been deciphered but the language has not yet been interpreted. A serious void exists, therefore, in our knowledge of Nubian history. The names of many of the rulers are known and there are many references to them in Egyptian, Greek and Latin literature. The Meroites were the Egyptians' southern neighbours whose common frontier was drawn at approximately the First Cataract on the Nile, where Aswan stands today. They occupied an important strategic position for they were the guardians of the great life-giving river on which the civilisation and existence of Egypt has always depended. Relations between the two countries, if not always friendly, were close and communications and trade were hhighly developed. The Nile Valley was one of the main routes by which the produce of Africa-ivory, ebony, incense, spices, skins, slaves and gold - were imported. The Meroites' southern border certainly extended as far as Sennar and possibly to the great western escarpment of the Abyssinian highlands where the Atbara and Blue Nile break through the mountains into the plains which, together with the White Nile, form the Nile basin. The ancient civilisation was developed well before the arrival of the markedly negroid Nuba tribes who migrated to the Nile basin about 2,000 years ago when the Meroitic kingdom was already showing signs of decline.

Although the Meroites never rivalled their great northern

(1) Abyssinia Handbook No. 97, prepared under the direction of the Foreign Office, 1919.