When Greek was an African Language | Page 6

no evidence for significant Hellenization.
Instead, developments in Kush paralleled those in Roman Egypt where
"Greek" and, one should add, Greek art, had become, in the perceptive
characterization of David Frankfurter "simply a neutral lingua franca,
the medium of broadest circulation." [25] As such, Greek and Greek
art were both, therefore, also available for the expression of Kushite
concepts and values without signifying acculturation to Greek culture.
In the area of art the result was the creation of an eclectic art that
combined Greek and Kushite elements to express Kushite concerns.
Examples are the victory stele of Prince Sherkarer at Jebil Qeili with its
Greek style solar deity, the fresco of Herakles as master of animals
from the royal enclosure at Meroe, the use of Greek architectural
orders—specifically Corinthian—on Meroitic temples, and the
adaptation of the iconography of the Greco-Egyptian god Sarapis to
portray the Kushite royal god Apedemak. The use of Greek themes in
Kushite religion was not limited, however, to public culture but
extended into funerary religion as illustrated by a pair of remarkable
blue glass flutes from a tomb at Sedeinga, that were broken into dozens
of pieces during a late version of a traditional Kushite burial ritual, the
breaking of the red pots. [26]
The flutes, which bear Greek inscriptions reading "Drink, you shall
live," also raise the question of the knowledge of Greek at Kush. While
we probably should not expect to find assimilated individuals like
Paccius Maximus at Meroe or elsewhere in independent Kushite
territory, the discovery in the royal enclosure at Meroe of a column

drum with the Greek alphabet does suggest that Greek was taught at
Meroe. As in the Hellenistic period, the initial motive was probably
pragmatic; the Kings of Kush needed officials like the appropriately
named Great Ambassadors to Rome who were fluent in both Greek and
Egyptian to deal both with Roman officials and the priests of the
temple of Isis at Philae.
One tantalizing but frustrating piece of evidence, however, raises the
possibility that the flute you just saw was not isolated but that the
Kushites used Greek or, at least, the Greek script, relatively widely for
religious purposes. Sir John Garstang discovered during his
excavations at Meroe an offering table in the noble cemetery at Meroe
that was inscribed in Greek letters. Unfortunately, all that we have of
this important find is a muddy photograph so, barring its rediscovery,
we cannot determine whether the offering formula had been translated
into Greek or, alternatively, the Greek alphabet had been adapted to
write Meroitic just as was being done in Egypt at about the same time.
[27]
Can we say anything more about the extent of the knowledge of Greek
in Kush? Most scholars doubt it, but there is one piece of evidence that
suggests that Greek did, in fact, become fairly widely known at Meroe.
Fragments exist of two victory thrones set up at Meroe by kings of
Axum bearing Greek inscriptions celebrating the establishment of
Axumite authority over Kush in the 4 &supth; th century AD.
[28] Now, Axumite royal inscriptions were regularly inscribed in
Ge'ez, Sabaean—a South Arabian language--and Greek. The fact,
therefore, that Axumite kings chose Greek and not one of their other
official languages for their monuments at Meroe suggests that they
believed that it was the language most likely to be understood there.
Unfortunately, this has to remain only a suggestion for the moment.
Be that as it may, the establishment of Axumite suzerainty over Kush
marked the beginning of a profound transformation throughout Nubia.
That transformation took almost three centuries and changed
fundamentally the political and cultural life of Nubia. The first step in
this transformation was the disappearance of the kingdom of Kush in

the mid-fourth century AD, and with it the political order that had
dominated the upper Nile valley for more than a millennium.
More than a century of conflict followed between two of Kush's former
subjects, the Nobatai—the ancestors of the contemporary Nubian
peoples--and the Blemmyes. By the end of the 5 &supth; th century AD
that struggle had ended with the victory of the Nobatai and the
replacement of the Kushite empire with three Nobatai dominated
kingdoms: Nobadia in northern Nubia, Makuria in central Nubia, and
Alwah in southern Nubia. By the end of the sixth century AD the three
kingdoms had converted to Christianity--specifically, to the
Monophysite form of Christianity followed by the Coptic Church to the
present. Fast forward almost another century and the new Nubian
kingdoms were faced with a new political reality: the establishment of
Arab rule in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean and isolation from
what was left of the Roman Empire.

CHRISTIAN NUBIA [29]
Taken together