Excavations of early Nubian societies also uncovered hints as to how their daily lives greatly influenced their spiritual beliefs.

3700-2800 BC) revealed the domestication of animals, agricultural cultivation, elaborate pottery that was polished red and black, and fine amulets, figurines and necklaces made of ivory.

[4] These goods were also found in burials at the Terminal A Group Cemetery L at Qustul and suggest that Nubians in Lower Nubia also had ritualistic practices that were independent of Ancient Egyptian religion.

The materials that comprised the burial goods also revealed that Nubians traded regularly with Egypt and peoples in Western Asia, who saw Nubia as "a corridor to sub-Saharan Africa" and its exotic goods of ebony, giraffe tails, elephants, stones, ostrich eggs, etc.

[4] Archeologist Bruce Williams concluded that much of early Pre-Dynastic culture that's often attributed to Egypt is also Nubian in origin.

He maintained that Nubia developed its own complex, Dynastic culture that was not an imitation of Egypt and that both emerging kingdoms "belonged to the 'great East African substratum'.

Outside of C Group, the tomb biography about Pepy I by Weni the Elder revealed the names of six other Nubian kingdoms: Medja, Wawat, Yam, Irtjet and Setju.

"[4] They were also dressed in loincloths or wrapped in sheep skin, surrounded by grave goods of weapons, jewelry, mirrors, vessels of water, pottery, and other personal possessions.

[4] During the New Kingdom Period (ca 1550-1077 BC), Ahmose I and Thutmose I relaunched campaigns in Nubia, which lasted for eighty-eight years.

1076-723 BC), Napata was regarded as one of the most significant trade centers of the Old World, and Nubia was divided into independent cultures.

Their conquests paved the way for King Piankhi (also called Piye) to conquer all of Egypt and found the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (ca.

[4] While it is well-documented that Nubians worshipped Egyptian gods, such as Aman (also called Amen and Gem Aten) and Isis, artifacts also revealed that Egyptians also worshipped Nubian deities, such as Dedwen (also called Dedun), Bes, Menhit and Mandulis (Melul in Meroitic).

[4] There are also deities that were "shared" at the border of Lower Nubia and Upper Egypt and considered to be both Nubian and Egyptian, such as Bastet, Satis and Anaka.

[4][7] Circa 655/53 BC, the Kingdom of Kush would lose their hold on territories north of Lower Nubia, marking the Twenty-fifth Dynasty as the last Kushite rulers of Egypt.

Beginning in the Late Period, Kush and Egypt transitioned through centuries of diverse rulers, who assimilated Kushite/Egyptian culture and left traces of their own.

[4] During Assyrian rule, the sacking of Thebes resulted in the destruction of numerous temples that were devoted to Kushite and Egyptian deities.

[14][15] Under Persian rule, Cambyses II and Ochus (also called Artaxerxes III) persecuted followers of traditional Egyptian religion.

Both were known to instruct their guards to plunder temples, pillage towns, steal religious text, and slaughter sacred animals.

Further diminishing the role of Egyptian deities in governmental affairs, the cult of Alexander associated him with the Greek gods Zeus and Apollo rather than Amun and Ra.

[4] In the 270s BC, Ptolemy II invaded Nubia and defeated the Kingdom of Kush, gaining access to Kushite territory and the control of lucrative gold deposits in a region known as Dodekasoinos.

[4] The Roman Empire (30 BC-641 AD) eventually conquered Egypt after Caesar Augustus defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII.

[24][18] In 25 BC, Amanirenas, a Kushite Kandake, commanded an army of about 30,000 Nubian warriors and was successful in preventing the expansion of the Roman Empire into Nubia.

Under King Ezana, Aksum responded with a large military force and plundered Meroë circa 350 AD.