Blemmyes
The Blemmyes (
The Blemmyes are usually identified as one of the components of the archaeological
Origins
Around 1000 BC a group of people, referred to by archeologists as C-group, migrated from Lower Nubia (the area between present-day Aswan and Wadi Halfa) and settled in Upper Nubia (the Nile Valley north of Dongola in Sudan), where they developed the kingdom of Napata from about 750 BC. For some time this kingdom controlled Egypt too, supplying its 25th Dynasty. Contemporary with them are the archaeological remains of another cultural group, "the pan-grave people". They have been identified with the Medjay of written sources.[5] Sites related to them have been found at Khor Arba'at and Erkowit in the heartland of present-day Beja.[6] The evidence suggests that only a minority of "the pan-grave people" lived in the Nile Valley, where they existed in small enclave communities among the Egyptians and C-group populations, being periodically used as desert scouts, warriors or mine workers.[5] The majority were probably desert nomads, breeding donkeys, sheep and goats. After 600 BC, the Napatan, C-group dynasty lost control over Egypt as well as the then-rather desolate Lower Nubia. The latter area subsequently remained more or less without permanent settlements for four centuries. The main explanation for the hiatus of sedentary population in Lower Nubia has been the drying up of this part of the world,[7] making river valley agriculture difficult. Due to climatic change, the level of the Nile had been lowered to a degree which could only be compensated for at the beginning of the first century AD, when the saqiyah waterwheel was developed.[8] Until then, the area was only sparsely populated by desert nomads. Politically, it was "a sort of no-man's land where caravans, unless they were provided with considerable escort, were delivered to brigands".[9]
History
The people referred to in Greek texts as Blemmyes may have their earliest mention as Egyptian Bwrꜣhꜣyw in the Kushite enthronement stela of
The Greek term first appears in the third century BC in one of the poems of
The cultural and military power of the Blemmyes started to grow to such a level that in 193, Pescennius Niger asked a Blemmye king of Thebes to help him in the battle against the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus.[citation needed] In 250, the Roman Emperor Decius put in much effort to defeat an invading army of Blemmyes.[13] A few years later, in 253, they attacked Upper Egypt (Thebaid) again but were quickly defeated. In 265, they were defeated again by the Roman Prefect Firmus, who later in 273 would rebel against the Empire and the Queen of the Palmyrene Empire, Zenobia, with the help of the Blemmyes themselves. The Blemmyes were said to have joined forces with the Palmyrans against the Romans in the battle of Palmyra in 273.[13]
The Roman general
During the reign of
Language
Multiple researchers have proposed that the language of the Blemmyes was an ancestor of modern
The Egyptologist Helmut Satzinger has analyzed Blemmyan names from Egyptian, Greek, and Coptic sources, and similarly concluded that the Blemmyan language is an ancestor of Beja.[21][22]
Meroiticist and archaeologist Claude Rilly concurs:
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.[23]
Culture
The Blemmyes occupied a considerable region in what is modern day Sudan. There were several important cities such as
Kalabsha would serve as the capital of the Blemmyes.[24] The Blemmyes culture was also influenced by the Meroitic culture, and their religion was centered in the temples of Kalabsha and Philae. The former edifice was a huge local architectural masterpiece, where a solar, lion-like divinity named Mandulis was worshipped. Philae was a place of mass pilgrimage, with temples to Isis, Mandulis, and Anhur. It was where the Roman Emperors Augustus and Trajan made many contributions with new temples, plazas, and monumental works.[25]
Religion
Most of our information on Blemmye religious practices comes from inscriptions in the temples of Philae and Kalabsha, and from Roman and Egyptian accounts of the worship of Isis at Philae. Mandulis was worshipped at Kalabsha. Additional cult societies were dedicated to the gods Abene, Amati, and Khopan.[26] According to Procopius, the Blemmyes also worshipped Osiris and Priapus. Procopius also alleges that the Blemmyes made human sacrifices to the sun.[27]
Letters from Gebelein from the early sixth century suggest that some portion of the Blemmye population had converted to Christianity.[28]
Blemmyan kingdom
Both Blemmye inscriptions in Greek and records from Greeks and Romans refer to the Blemmyes as having βασιλισκοι and βασιλῆς, which terms usually refer to kings. Because of this, the Blemmyes are often described as having had a kingdom. Some historians are skeptical: László Török writes that "the term should not be interpreted narrowly, it is doubtful that there ever existed one centralised Blemmyan kingdom; more likely there were several tribal 'states' developing towards some sort of hierarchical unity"[29]
Blemmye writings mention various royal officials who seemed to be arranged in a hierarchy. Beneath the kings were phylarchs, who were chiefs of separate tribes. Other officials include sub-chiefs, court officials, and scribes. The Blemmyes kings had the power to levy taxes and grant exemptions as well as authority over the territory.
From the historical record, the following Blemmye kings are known:[30]
- Tamal (early 4th or 5th century)
- Isemne
- Degou
- Phonen (c. 450)
- Pokatimne
- Kharakhen
- Barakhia
References
- ^ JSTOR 23464092.
- ^ Derek Welsby (2002), The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims Along the Middle Nile, British Museum, pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b c Jitse H.F. Dijkstra (2013), "Blemmyes", The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, Wiley, pp. 1145–1146.
- ^ Jitse H.F. Dijkstra (2018), "Blemmyes", The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, p. 253.
- ^ a b Bietak 1986: 17 f
- ^ Arkell 1955: 78
- ^ Bietak 1986: 18-19
- ^ Carlsson and Van Gerven 1979: 55
- ^ DAHL, GUDRUN (2006). "Precolonial Beja: A Periphery at the Crossroads" (PDF). njas.helsinki. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2007-06-10.
- ISBN 1-84171-833-5.
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.
- ISBN 82-91626-01-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4616-7170-1.
- ISBN 978-0-429-87021-7.
- ^ Hrozný, Bedrǐch (1970). Archiv Orientální.
- ^ According to Diocletian#Conflict in the Balkans and Egypt version 23 September 2011.
- ^ Quibell, J.E. (1909). Excavations at Saqqara (1907–1908). Cairo: L'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale. p. 109.
- ^ Browne, Gerald (2003). Textus Blemmyicus aetatis christianae. Champaign.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - .
- ^ Wedekind, Klaus (2010). "More on the Ostracon of Browne's Textus Blemmyicus". Annali: Dipartimento Asia, Africa e Mediterraneo, Sezione Orientale. 70: 73–81.
- ISBN 3850430618.
- ^ Satzinger, Helmut (2012). The Barbarian Names on the Ostraca from the Eastern Desert (3rd Century CE). 'Inside and Out: Interactions between Rome and the Peoples on the Arabian and Egyptian Frontiers in Late Antiquity (200–800 CE). Ottawa.
- ISBN 978-3-11-041669-5.
- ISBN 978-0-916588-05-2.
- )
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.
- ISBN 82-91626-07-3.