834 religion and cosmology: Africa being Not enough is known to say for sure how long this has been a general African belief Complex early civilization, such as that of Egypt, necessarily depended on rich agricultural production, but farming was not the only way to develop social complexity In the African Sahel, on the southern fringe of the Sahara, at about the same time that Egyptian civilization was developing, a way of life called pastoralism began Pastoralism is based on the herding of cattle and other livestock, and it has survived through the centuries into modern times Cattle, because they are the key source of life, necessarily play a prominent role in the religions of pastoralists For example, they may be sacrificed as a ritual offering or gift to the gods or to the ancestors There is evidence of animal sacrifice from the very earliest period of pastoralism Early pastoralists left small stone and earthen monuments in various locations across the Sahel and the Sahara, some of them associated with animal bones (In earlier times, the Sahara was wetter and thus could support this pastoralist way of life.) In Niger and Chad archaeologists have discovered evidence of cattle sacrifices that are approximately 7,000 years old Not all the monuments associated with the pastoralists of this region and time period had to simply with cattle; some clearly had other functions One of the most notable sites of African prehistory is Nabta Playa, a ceremonial center Limestone stela with images of the goddess Tanit (first century c.e.), from Carthage (modern-day Tunisia); such stelae were set up over burial urns containing the cremated bodies of babies, small children, and animals sacrificed to the goddess (© The Trustees of the British Museum) located in southern Egypt near the border with Sudan and Libya Among its monuments stands a small circle of stones that was aligned to face the north and south on one axis and the axis traversed by the sun as it rose across the sky on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice Th is is said to be one of the world’s earliest circular astronomical monuments, predating Stonehenge by many centuries Burials have been found in Sudan that date from the Neolithic period, from around 7,000 years to 4,000 years before our era The dead were buried wearing adornments such as ostrich eggshell beads, with their bodies painted with red or yellow ocher During their lifetimes, people from this era also commonly had their teeth fi led, probably as a marker of adult status or for some other ritual purpose This custom was practiced widely in North Africa and was also known to have been practiced in Kenya The religion of the ancient Nubians of southern Egypt and northern Sudan appears to have some association with the religion of Sahelian peoples, as well as that of the Egyptians to their north At Karmah, the first Nubian center and the oldest urban site yet found in Africa, there are round tumuli with cattle sacrifices that appear similar to those constructed by the pastoralists But the people of the kingdom of Karmah elaborated upon these practices and took them in their own direction During the height of its power (ca 1700– 1550 b.c.e.), a massive mud-brick temple with an area of some 1,700 square yards dominated the city skyline Nearby, powerful kings were buried in huge mounds One of the largest of these measures nearly 300 feet around The king was accompanied in death by nearly 400 of his subjects They appear to have been sacrificed and buried in the king’s grave in order to serve him in the next world They were not simply ordinary people, but archers interred with their bows and valuables such as semiprecious stones, bronze mirrors, and jewelry At the end of Egypt’s New Kingdom (ca 1550–ca 1070 b.c.e.), in the first millennium b.c.e., the Nubian kingdom of Kush came to power Its rulers would become the pharaohs of all Egypt, forming the Twenty-fift h Dynasty (ca 712–ca 657 b.c.e.) During this time their most important shrines were located in Upper Nubia in and around Napata, a town situated along the Nile to the south of old Karmah For centuries Napata had been the southernmost outpost of Egyptian rule, and the New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III had constructed on the nearby sacred mountain of Jebel Barkal a temple to the mystical god Amon This was a crucial event in Nubian religious history because it led to the spread of Egyptian religion among the Nubian people The Nubian pharaohs of the Twenty-fift h Dynasty looked to both Egypt and to their own traditions To show their connection to ancient Egypt, for example, they revived the practice of pyramid building, but on a smaller scale and in a different style than had been seen during the Old Kingdom (ca 2575– ca 2134 b.c.e.) Still, the continued loyalty of these pharaohs to Nubia is demonstrated by the fact that all of their pyramids and the burial sites associated with them were located in their