Medjau

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Medjau in hieroglyphics
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Medjau / Medjai
Mḏ3w / Mḏ3j
residents of the land of Medja / desert police

The name Medjau (also Medjai or Medja ) was used in ancient Egypt from the end of the Old to the New Kingdom to refer to people who lived in the Nubian Desert , in the Red Sea Mountains and to the west of it in Atbai . They served the Egyptians as caravan drivers , police officers and professional soldiers . But the Medjau were also dangerous enemies. Historical records report frequent clashes with the Egyptians.

ID

The Medjau probably belonged to a larger cultural group that, in Cushitic records, dates back to the 1st millennium BC. BC Meded is called and appears in demotic texts as "Belhem". The Greeks and Romans referred to this group as Blemmyes , while in Arabic they were called Beja (Bedscha). It is possible that some Medjau were referred to more generally as Iuntiu by the Egyptians and troglodytes by the Greeks .

history

Around 2000 BC BC climatic changes occurred in the Red Sea Mountains and the Atbai Plain, which differed significantly from those in the western desert and led to better living conditions. Rainfall on the plateaus and in the mountains caused moderate water accumulation during the monsoon season , which provided grazing grounds for herds of animals (sheep, goats and cattle). Due to the limited resources, seasonal migration began. In the dry months, the inhabitants moved to the Nile valley or mountains, where they found shelter from the heat in caves. During the rainy season in late summer, the herdsmen spread to Butana between the Black and Blue Nile . The seasonal north-south migrations offered sufficient opportunities for trade and possibly also led to trade contacts between Egypt and Somalia ( punt ).

The area around the Red Sea Mountains had well-developed trade routes and was important from an early stage, as goods were imported to Egypt and Lower Nubia on a large scale from here. The earliest clear evidence for people from this region is a small number of contemporary graves from Nubia, as well as a group of stelae from Helwan , which was found in tombs of the 2nd dynasty and shows people from Punt or Atbai.

Little is known of people from this area during the Old Kingdom . There are only isolated indications of campaigns against them. Presumably the Medjau secured desert routes to the mines and quarries north of Wadi Hammamat , as well as the port facilities on the Red Sea that were set up for trading with punt . The first real mention of the Medjau was in the 6th Dynasty . In Aswan royal inscriptions and grave biographies report nomarchs and caravan leaders from Elephantine that medjay and Nubians , took under Egyptian supervision, control of the region. While the Nubians played an essential role in the unrest of the First Intermediate Period , little is known about the Medjau until the beginning of the Middle Kingdom . It was not until the 12th dynasty that depictions appear in central Egyptian burial chapels that show the Medjau as emaciated cattle herders.

The Medjau played a more important role in the Egyptian campaigns against Nubia and Kush , which led to the establishment of fortifications in Lower Nubia and near the Egyptian southern border. The Medjau formed a substantial part of the garrison troops and were also used as desert patrols or to prevent other Medjau from infiltrating . Another clue is the fortress in the Serra-East , which was called Khesef-Medjau ("who drives out the Medjau"). At the same time, texts mention two important Medjau named Auwshek and Webat-Sepet, who were so feared that they were cursed .

The Medjau took part in the riots of the Second Intermediate Period and at the same time were connected to the pan grave culture . When the rule of Egypt was extended to the fourth Nile cataract at the beginning of the New Kingdom , the Medjau are hardly mentioned as a military force, but are increasingly used as police forces. The name of the Medjau became a synonym for "police" until the late New Kingdom.

After the end of the New Kingdom, the term Medjau disappeared. From the New Kingdom to 900/800 BC Chr. Are few archaeological traces of Nubia and Sudan. In cemeteries on the second cataract of the Nile there are graves that have similarities with the early pan-grave culture. Some Nubian pottery can be compared to the earliest Kushitic barrows near el-Kurru , dating from the 10th to 9th centuries BC. Come from BC . Later Kushite rulers of the 5th and 4th centuries BC BC led campaigns against the Meded and the "Rehres", which may represent a subgroup, near Meroe .

During the Greco-Roman period , the area of ​​expansion and the role of the Medjau was taken by the Blemmyern , also known as Beja by the Arabs . The groups of the Blemmyer-Beja formed powerful alliances, took control of the trade and the gem mines, and took on larger powers. From the third to fifth centuries they pushed into Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia and even appeared west to the Kharga oasis and north to the Sinai Peninsula .

Trivia

In the computer game Assassin’s Creed Origins , the player embodies the role of the fictional main character "Bayek von Siwa", the last Medjau of the declining Ptolemaic - Egyptian Empire around 50 BC. Chr.

See also

literature

  • Janine Bourriau: Nubians in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period: an interpretation based on the Egyptian ceramic evidence . In: Dorothea Arnold (ed.): Studies on ancient Egyptian ceramics . von Zabern, Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-8053-0415-3 , p. 25-41 .
  • David O'Connor: The locations of Yam and Kush and their historical implications . In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt . tape 23 , 1986, ISSN  0065-9991 , pp. 27-50 .
  • Manfred Bietak : The C-Group and the Pan-Grave culture. In: Tomas Hägg (Ed.): Nubian Culture: Past and Present. Main Papers Presented at the Sixth International Conference for Nubian Studies in Uppsala, August 11-16, 1986 (= Kungliga Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Academies. Konferenser. Vol. 17). Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1987, ISBN 91-7402-188-5 , pp. 113-128.
  • Karim Sadr: The territorial expansion of the Pan-Grave culture . In: Archeologie du Nil Moyen . tape 2 , 1987, ISSN  0299-8130 , p. 265-291 .
  • László Török : Late Antique Nubia. History and Archeology of the Southern Neighbor of Egypt in the 4th – 6th c. AD (=  Antaeus . Band 16 ). Archaeological Institute of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1988, ISSN  0238-0218 .
  • Torgny Säve-Söderbergh (ed.): Middle Nubian Sites (= The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia. Vol. 4, 1-2). 2 volumes (Textbd .; Lists and Plates). Munksgaard, Copenhagen 1989, ISBN 91-86098-98-5 (part 1), ISBN 91-7081-000-1 (part 2).
  • Rodolfo Fattovich: The peopling of the northern Ethiopian-Sudanese borderland between 7000 and 1000 BP: a preliminary model. In: Nubica. International yearbook for Ethiopian, Meroitic and Nubian studies. Vol. 1/2, 1987/1988, ISSN  0939-4672 , pp. 3-45.
  • Karim Sadr: The Medjay in southern Atbai . In: Archeologie du Nil Moyen . tape 4 , 1990, pp. 63-86 .
  • Bruce B. Williams: Medjay. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 485-87.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Williams: Medjay. 1999, p. 485.