war and conquest: Africa farmers became too much Apparently, raiders using chariots swept out of the northern Sahara and drove the farmers out The Greek historian Herodotus (ca 484–between 430 and 420 b.c.e.) suggested the attackers were the Garamantes, a Berber group from the northern coastal area of North Africa The fighting was probably very one-sided, with the attackers using not only chariots but also javelins and shields against farmers who had only bows The farmers were probably part of an ethnic group that already occupied much of West Africa Their descendants may have been the Bantu-speaking people who eventually spread over most of the continent Warfare as modern people think of it, with large numbers of warriors or soldiers united in a single cause, may have taken place in Africa in many places, but this is not known because of the lack of archaeological or written evidence The earliest records of war tend to come from the earliest literate peoples of Africa, the Egyptians, Kushites, and Axumites of northeastern Africa NUBIA Egyptian culture may have begun around 5000 b.c.e in farming communities in Upper Egypt—the southern half of what became ancient Egypt By 3500 b.c.e the culture was spreading north At the same time, a strong local culture was developing in Nubia, which was south of Egypt The Nubians of this time were several different groups, some farmers and others pastoralists By about 2250 b.c.e a Nubian confederation had formed under one chief just south of Egypt in an area called Wawat This confederation and Egypt traded with each other Nubian warriors were noted for their ferocity, and for most of their history after 2250 b.c.e they were in demand as mercenaries in armies as far away as Mesopotamia Nonetheless, Wawat and much of the region around it were rich in gold, and for this prized commodity Egypt sent an army to occupy Nubia This was not easily done, even though the Nubians’ military technology was inferior to that of the Egyptians The Egyptians had composite bows, an import from the Near East A composite bow had an inner lining of bone, a middle lining of wood, and an outer lining of animal skin It sometimes was made of more than one kind of wood, each kind intended to provide strength or springiness The composite bow was powerful, and the arrows it launched could penetrate the animal-skin shields of the Nubians Some of the nomads among the Nubians continued to fight for decades by raiding the Egyptians, but the Egyptians built several forts in the region that eventually enabled them to defeat efforts to drive them away KUSH There seems to have been much activity south of the Egyptian conquests in Nubia A kingdom called Karmah, after one of its most important cities, became an important trading center for eastern Africa Whatever Karmah’s military problems, they were significant enough for the kingdom to 1123 fortify its cities with walls By 1650 b.c.e Karmah had extended its territory almost as far north as the fi rst cataract on the Nile Karmah had taken advantage of a period of political chaos in Egypt, the Second Intermediate Period (ca 1640–ca 1532 b.c.e.) The Egyptian king Thutmose I (r ca 1504–ca 1492 b.c.e.) invaded Karmah His army sacked the city and extended Egyptian influence south of the fift h cataract of the Nile Over the next 400 years Egypt tried to make the land it called Kush into a cultural disciple of Egypt The children of the political elite of Kush were raised in Egypt, where they were taught to worship Egyptian gods, to follow Egyptian customs, and to speak, read, and write Egyptian By 950 b.c.e the Kushites had developed a strong kingdom, and its leaders regarded themselves as the true inheritors of ancient Egyptian culture Egypt had fallen again into chaos, having become divided among many petty kings who contended for power The Nile Delta had several independent city-states A strong dynasty had been founded in Kush by King Alura (r ca 780–ca 760 b.c.e.) The wars in Egypt had cut the Kushites off from worship at important sites of their religion Thus, Alura’s successor, Kashta (r ca 760–ca 747 b.c.e.), sent his son Piankhi (r 751–716 b.c.e.) in 748 b.c.e to secure Thebes The exact details about the army Piankhi took with him are not known, but it probably numbered more than 10,000 troops Its principal soldiers were spearmen, still mostly equipped with spears with stone tips They had chariots but not in great numbers The Kush had war elephants of a species now probably extinct that was easier to train than the notoriously irritable African elephants from farther south Piankhi himself probably rode an elephant; at least, Kushite kings are depicted in Kushite art as riding elephants Their bows were probably still not composite The organization of the army probably was into infantry, chariots, and elephants Women could be military leaders in Kush, and it is likely that some of Piankhi’s officers, including generals, were women This suggests that women played other roles in the army, but evidence is scant for their participation in infantry or other units Regional Egyptian governors and chieftains usually submitted to Piankhi on his way to Thebes His object was not to destroy but to preserve, so he did not loot and sack Instead, he secured access to Thebes, where he worshipped When he assumed the throne of Kush, he made his capital in Napata, far to the south of Egypt, along the Nile Napata was a major site for the worship of the Egyptian god Amun, who at the time was the principal deity in Kush In the early 720s b.c.e the Egyptian chief of the city of Saïs in the Nile Delta, Tefnakhte (r ca 724–717 b.c.e.), raised an army and navy and marched and sailed south along the Nile King Nimlot of the city of Hermopolis surrendered to Tefnakhte Tefnakhte then sent his fleet toward Thebes How Piankhi actually regarded these events is unclear, but he may have viewed Tefnakhte’s aggression toward Thebes as a threat to Kush’s influence in Upper Egypt, of which Thebes was the capital Piankhi sent an army into Egypt He divided it into