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Critical Survey of Mythology and Folklore: Gods and Goddesses

Kerma

by Ruben G. Mendoza

Also known as: Karmah

Date: 2400–1570 bce

Locale: Upper Nile, Kerma Basin, Nubia, and the Sudan

Related civilizations: Egypt, Kush, Meroe

Significance: The city of Kerma was the foundation on which the Kushite state was built and on which the Nubian engagement and subsequent conquest of the Egyptian empire was based.

Early Egyptian interactions along the length and breadth of the Nile River promoted the formation of trading blocs and alliances that evolved into centers of commerce and trade. During the course of the Second Intermediate period (1650–1550 bce), these economic and political interactions played a role in determining the nature and extent of the Egyptian impact on Nubia. Early intrusions into Nubia spurred the creation of Egyptian and Nubian fortresses, administrative centers, and commercial depots that resulted in some of the earliest developments in the Kushite or Nubian state centered at Kerma (kahr-MUH) in the period from 2400 to 1570 bce. During periods of expansion by the Egyptian state, Kushite developments appear to have waned, whereas during periods of Egyptian withdrawal or decline, Kushite fortunes soared. By the sixteenth century bce, the kingdom of Kerma had attained the climax of its development. Although Kerma was heavily influenced by Egypt, its non-Egyptian, or black African, cultural character and identity persisted.

History

Although the peoples of Nubia and Egypt evolved in tandem, and modern studies argue that Egyptian culture may have evolved from Nubian roots, the archaeological evidence indicates that the peoples of the city and state of Kerma and the Kerma Basin passed through three primary phases of development. These include Early Kerma (2400–2000 bce), Middle Kerma (2000–1668 bce), and Late Kerma (1668–1570 bce). During the period extending from 2400 to 1570 bce, Kerma evolved into the powerful kingdom of Kush (Napata), or Kash, as the Egyptians knew it.

In the Early Kerma period, the culture saw the development of satellite centers and cities—replete with defensive walls and ditches—that covered areas encompassing between twenty-two and sixty-two acres (nine and twenty-five hectares). Much of this pattern appears to coincide with the Egyptian advance on and withdrawal from the region of Lower Nubia. By the Middle Kerma period, Kush had become a powerful political entity that was recognized as such for the first time by the Egyptians. An intensive pattern of trade between Egypt and Kush ultimately served to promote the expansion of Egyptian influence among the peoples of the Kerma Basin and beyond. Finally, during the Late Kerma period, the full-scale Egyptianization of the Kushites resulted from the acculturation of the Nubian elite, the presence of Egyptian colonists and settlers who were incorporated into the kingdom of Kush, the wholesale adoption of Egyptian dynastic symbols and rituals, and the militaristic Kushite domination of those regions formerly held by the Egyptians.

In many aspects, the Kushites adopted artistic and cultural influences from dynastic Egypt and those Egyptian colonists who continued to reside in the kingdom of Kush and the Kerma Basin after the withdrawal of the Egyptian state. These Egyptians were at first accepted and embraced by the Kushites. However, in time, although Nubia and Egypt jointly administered and managed the former Egyptian provinces of Lower Nubia then under Kushite rule, the Kushites eventually sought the removal of the Egyptian managerial elite and the installation of an indigenous Kushite bureaucracy.

Ultimately, the Kerma-based Kushite civilization persisted as a formidable political and commercial entity for a span of some one thousand years. For centuries thereafter, Kushite civilization endured periods of austerity, warfare, and transformation. It flourished in times of commercial expansion in new cities and within and beyond subsequent Kushite political capitals located at the sites of Napata and later Meroe. Therefore, the Nubian and Kushite traditions begun within the Kerma Basin in 2400 bce persisted in one form or another until the decline and final collapse of Kushite civilization in 200 ce.

Death and Burial

Kerma was one of the earliest paramount centers and settlements of the Kushites. It contains a cemetery with over 30,000 graves, which suggest social stratification due to the general pattern of larger graves ringed by smaller ones. The massive settlement at Kerma was excavated during the course of several field seasons by archaeologist George Andrew Reisner in 1913–1916. As the result of his focus on the excavation of monumental tumuli, or the burial mounds and chambers of Kerma, Reisner concluded that the funerary ceremonies of the elite involved the sacrifice of captives. In one such burial mound, Reisner recovered the remains of 322 individuals who were purportedly sacrificed as retainers for the person entombed at the heart of the burial mound. A later bioarchaeological examination of supposedly sacrificed individuals showed no significant differences between the skeletal stress markers of sacrificed versus non-sacrificed individuals. Nonetheless, the presence of so many sacrificial victims and the energy and resource expenditures represented by the effort required to construct burial mounds on such a massive scale—several of which measured more than 299 feet (ninety-one meters) in diameter—indicate the existence of a highly centralized political authority and ultimately provide some of the best current evidence for the existence of the first major black African state or polity of sub-Saharan Africa.

Art

Kerma was a dynamic urban center, enriched by trade with Egypt and the Red Sea coast. Classic Kerma (1700–1550 bce) was a period, designated by historians and archaeologists, when artisans of this epoch utilized a fascinating range of materials for their striking variety, color, luster, texture, and symbolic significance.

Architecture

In addition to its reputation as a massive burial ground consisting of several thousand burials, the city of Kerma incorporated a sophisticated complex of indigenous African architecture of third millennium bce origins. Aspects of this architectural tradition were inspired by foreign prototypes of Egyptian origin. The monumental deffufa, or Egyptian-influenced, solid, mud-brick towers of Kerma, provide indications of the commercial and defensive underpinnings of Kerma’s indigenous architectural and social developments. The Western Deffufa of Kerma measures approximately eighty-two by 164 feet (twenty-five by fifty meters) at its base, rises to a present-day (eroded) height of fifty-nine feet (eighteen meters), and incorporates twenty-nine-foot-thick (nine-meter-thick) mud-brick walls.

Current Views

The size of the Western Deffufa, coupled with the recovery of some five hundred mud seals of Egyptian character associated with it, has led archaeologist Graham Connah to argue that this structure was a “watchtower associated with the Nile trade.” Excavations in the vicinity of the Western Deffufa reveal evidence of a large fortified city with origins in the third millennium bce. This supports the theory that Kerma was, in fact, the earliest urbanized, politically centralized, ancient state or polity of sub-Saharan or black Africa.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Mendoza, Ruben G. "Kerma." Critical Survey of Mythology and Folklore: Gods and Goddesses, edited by Michael Shally Jensen, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=CSGods_0581.
APA 7th
Mendoza, R. G. (2019). Kerma. In M. S. Jensen (Ed.), Critical Survey of Mythology and Folklore: Gods and Goddesses. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Mendoza, Ruben G. "Kerma." Edited by Michael Shally Jensen. Critical Survey of Mythology and Folklore: Gods and Goddesses. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2019. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.