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C-Group culture

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"C-Group" redirects here. For other uses, seeC group.
C-Group culture
Bowl of the C-Group,Musée du Louvre
Regions with significant populations
Nubia
Languages
Afroasiatic languagesCushitic
Related ethnic groups
A-Group,B-Group,Kerma culture
Chalcolithic
Eneolithic, Aeneolithic,
or Copper Age
↑Stone Age
↑Neolithic
By region
Africa(2600 BC–1600 AD)
Naqada culture,Gerzeh culture,A-Group culture,C-Group culture,Kerma culture

West Asia(6000–3500 BC)

Ghassulian culture,Uruk period

Europe(5500–2200 BC)

Metallurgy during the Copper Age in Europe
Vinča culture,Varna culture
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
Yamna culture,Corded Ware
Cernavodă culture,Decea Mureşului culture,Gorneşti culture,Gumelniţa–Karanovo culture,Petreşti culture,Coțofeni culture
Remedello culture,Gaudo culture,Monte Claro culture

Central Asia(3700–1700 BC)

Botai culture,BMAC culture,Afanasevo culture

South Asia(4300–1800 BC)

Periodisation of the Indus Valley civilisation,Bhirrana culture,Hakra Ware culture
Ahar–Banas culture
Kaytha culture,Malwa culture,
Savalda Culture,Jorwe culture,Anarta tradition
Ajay culture

China(5000–2900 BC)

Mesoamerica(6500–1000 BC)
Related topics
Metallurgy,Wheel,
Domestication of the horse
↓Bronze Age
↓Iron Age

TheC-Group cultureis anarchaeological culturefound inLower Nubia,which dates fromc.2400 BCE toc.1550 BCE.[1]It was named byGeorge A. Reisner.With no central site and no written evidence about what these people called themselves, Reisner assigned the culture a letter. The C-Group arose after Reisner'sA-GroupandB-Groupcultures, and around the time theOld Kingdomwas ending inAncient Egypt.[2]

Overview[edit]

While today A-Group and B-Group are seen as being a continuation of the same group, C-Group is considered as the product of distinct Saharan pastoralists.[3]The C-Group is marked by its distinctive pottery, and for its tombs.[4]Early C-Group tombs consisted of a simple "stone circle"with the body buried in a depression in the centre. The tombs later became more elaborate with the bodies being placed in a stone lined chamber, and then the addition of an extra chamber on the east for offerings.[5]

The origins of the C-Group are still debated. Some scholars see it largely as having evolved from the A/B-Group. Others think it more likely that the C-Group was brought by invaders or migrants that mingled with the local culture, with the C-Group perhaps originating in the then rapidly dryingSahara.[6]

The C-Group were farmers and semi-nomadic herders keeping large numbers of cattle in an area that is today too arid for such herding. Originally they were believed to be a peaceful people due to the lack of weapons in tombs; however, daggers, short swords and battle-axes were found in C-Group graves.[7]Their settling around the forts built by the ancient Egyptians was seen as further evidence.[8]

Pottery of the C-Group people, 2300-1600 BCE,Faras.

Most of what is known about the C-Group peoples comes fromLower Nubiaand theDongola Reach.[9]The northern border of the C-Group was aroundel-KubaniehnearAswan.The southern border is still uncertain, but C-Group sites have been found as far south asEritrea.[10]

During the EgyptianSixth Dynasty,Lower Nubia is described as consisting of a number of small states, three of which are named: Setju, Wawat, and Irjet.[11]At this same time inUpper NubiatheKingdom of Kermawas emerging. The exact relation between the C-Group and Kerma is uncertain, but early Kerma shows definite similarities to the C-Group culture and the Pan-Grave culture.[12]

Under theMiddle Kingdommuch of the C-Group lands in Lower Nubia were conquered by Egypt; after the Egyptians left, Kerma expanded north controlling the region.[13]Starting with the conquest of Nubia by Egypt underTuthmosis Iin the late 16th century BCE, the C-Group merged with the Egyptians.[14]

Burial customs[edit]

EarlyKermatumuliwere the chosen burial method forNubians,Pan-graves,and the C-group culture. The C-group tumuli were graves built in a "stone circle" using the "dry stone masonry"[15]technique with an offering chapel decorated with cattle illustrations. However, each culture differed in the structure of the tumuli. The Nubian's tumuli were a shallow round grave and included animal bones. Pan-Grave tumuli were constructed with large black stones and small white stones in an alternating pattern. The C-group culture was pastoral, with cattle being an essential part of their daily activities, funerary practices, and religion. Many "standing slabs"[15]had illustrations of cattle and cattle horns with fine pottery found in the chapel.

In prehistoric times, there had been little distinction between Egyptian and Nubian burial practices, as both were laid in a contracted position in shallow graves. However, as time continues, Nubian cultures continued the contracted body tradition. In contrast, in Egyptian culture, the deceased was placed in an extended position.

AsEgyptgained control of Kerma in theNew Kingdom,Egyptian culture began to spread throughoutLower Nubia.The C-groups cultures now laid the deceased supine, shown throughout the Ancient Tekhet,Fadruscemetery.

In theSecond Intermediate Periodof Egypt, group burials were favored, and this was a trend that was seen in C-group burials. Along with the previously beloved decorations relating to cattle are absent with nearly entirely Egyptian pottery and stone vessels.[15]However, many of their tombs lacked Egyptian funerary goods.[15]The lack of funerary goods could suggest that the C-group's adaptation to Egyptian culture was forced or those buried at Fadrus were simply of "low socioeconomic status."[15]

Language[edit]

According to Peter Behrens (1981) and Marianne Bechaus-Gerst (2000), linguistic evidence indicates that the C-Group peoples spokeAfro-Asiatic languagesof theBerberbranch.[16][17]This thesis rests on somewhat sketchy and numerically insufficient lexical evidence. Recent evidence suggests that the C-Group peoples spoke an Afro-Asiatic language of theCushiticbranch (with peoples to the south inUpper Nubiapossibly speaking Nilo-Saharan languages),[18]and that the closest relative of the C-Group language is theBeja languagespoken in the Red Sea coast. Research cannot point to Beja specifically as a descendant language, but rather it is proposed to search in Beja lexical material for the closest common ancestor and thence delineates a related Cushitic language existing in pre-Meroitic Lower Nubia. The disappearance of the C-Group language is somewhat of a mystery. It is possible that with successive phases of Egyptian, Kushite, and Meroitic suzerainty in Lower Nubia that this language became demographically and politically marginalized well before the arrival of Nile Nubian speakers.[19]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^"Ancient Nubia: C-Group–Pan Grave–Kerma 2400–1550 BC".The Oriental Institute.Retrieved1 July2016.
  2. ^Bianchi, Robert Steven (2004).Daily Life of the Nubians.Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 33.ISBN9780313325014.
  3. ^Shinnie (2013-10-28).Ancient Nubia.Routledge. p. 55.ISBN9781136164651.
  4. ^Lobban, Richard A. Jr. (2003-12-09).Historical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Nubia.Scarecrow Press. p. 100.ISBN9780810865785.
  5. ^Wharton, William M. (1960).The Sudan in pre-history and history: a handbook for students.St. Joseph's Press. p. 24.
  6. ^Bard, Kathryn A. (2005-11-03).Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt.Routledge. p. 185.ISBN9781134665259.
  7. ^Africa, Unesco International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of (1981).Ancient Civilizations of Africa.University of California Press. p. 253.ISBN9780435948054.
  8. ^Török, László (2009).Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region Between Ancient Nubia and Egypt, 3700 BC-AD 500.BRILL. p. 95.ISBN978-9004171978.
  9. ^Edwards, David N. (2004-07-29).The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan.Routledge. p. 77.ISBN9781134200870.
  10. ^Shinnie (2013-10-28).Ancient Nubia.Routledge. p. 77.ISBN9781136164736.
  11. ^Wilkinson, Toby; Wilkinson, Professor of Egyptology and Deputy Vice Chancellor Toby (2013-05-13).The Egyptian World.Routledge. p. 405.ISBN978-1136753770.
  12. ^Bard, Kathryn A. (2005-11-03).Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt.Routledge. p. 405.ISBN9781134665259.
  13. ^Ben-Tor, Daphna (2007).Scarabs, Chronology, and Interconnections: Egypt and Palestine in the Second Intermediate Period.Saint-Paul. p. 53.ISBN9783727815935.
  14. ^McInerney, Jeremy (2014-06-13).A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean.John Wiley & Sons. p. 380.ISBN9781118834381.
  15. ^abcdeFisher, M. M., Lacovara, P., Ikram, S., & D'Auria, S. (Eds.). (2012).Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile.American University in Cairo Press.
  16. ^Bechaus-Gerst, Marianne (2014). "Linguistic evidence for the prehistory of livestock in Sudan (2000)". In Blench, Roger; MacDonald, Kevin (eds.).The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics and Ethnography.Routledge. p. 453.ISBN978-1135434168.Retrieved15 September2014.
  17. ^Behrens, Peter (1986).Libya Antiqua: Report and Papers of the Symposium Organized by Unesco in Paris, 16 to 18 January 1984 - "Language and migrations of the early Saharan cattle herders: the formation of the Berber branch".Unesco. p. 30.ISBN9231023764.Retrieved14 September2014.
  18. ^Cooper J (2017)."Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubian placenames in the Third and Second Millenium BCE: a view from Egyptian Records".Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies.4:201–202, 204. Archived fromthe originalon May 23, 2020.
  19. ^Cooper, Julien (2017) "Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era," Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies: Vol. 4, Article 3. Available at:http://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol4/iss1/3

References[edit]

  • Bietak, Roland(1968).Studien zur Chronologie der nubischen C-Gruppe. Ein Beitrag zur Frühgeschichte Unternubiens zwischen 2200 und 1550 vor Chr.Wien: Böhlau.
  • Oliver, Roland (1978).The Cambridge history of Africa. Vol. 2, From c. 500 BC to AD 1050.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 858 Pages.ISBN0-521-21592-7.
  • Raue, Dietrich (2019).Elephantine und Nubien vom 4.-2. Jahrtausend v. Chr.Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter.ISBN9783110501056.
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