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Subject: Neshsi does not mean negro which was translated as with james henery
breasted
The ancient peoples of Nubia as recorded by the Egyptians are as follows:
First, the riverine Nubians were called Nehsy, and this term would apply to
the Kerma Kushites whom the Middle Kingdom Pharaohs came into contact with.
In the eastern deserts dwelt the Medja, a bedouin type population that migrated
for its living. After the Kushites emerged into a powerful Kingdom, and the
Hyksos seized Lower and Middle Egypt, the semi-independent Upper Egyptians turned
to the Medja for military help. As bedoiuns they were superb trackers, and I'm
willing to see them as the fellows who captured the Hyksos messenger on his
way to Kush, whose message Kamose intercepted. If he didn't know before, he
knew after, that the Kushites and Hyksos were allied. This spelled curtains
for both as the Egyptians ousted the Hyksos.
Amenhotep I was the first pharaoh to penetrate deep into Kush, and his successor
brought the body of the Kushite ruler hanging head downward on his flagship
after his campaign against Kush. Thutmose II also campaigned against Kush, but
it was Hatshepsut who dealt them the death blows. She led three campaigns that
crushed Kush. Thereafter the Egyptians moved out of the forts and started building
towns. Thutmose III did not mount any campaign and when he did go to Kush in
his fiftieth regnal year, it was to show the flag.
The other Nubian population was the Tjemeh, who lived west of the Nile Valley.
Harkhuf mentions that on one of his trips to Yam, the chief he dealt with had
gone to smite the Tjemeh. So they were that early at least. Later Ramesses II
had his viceroy of Kush pressgang a group of Tjemeh into building the Wady es-Sebua
temple for him, later in his reign. So the Tjemeh were still there around 1240
B.C. Most people regard the Tjemeh as a southern branch of the Libyan population
of antiquity.
That rounds out the picture. So, in conclusion, the Nehsy were the riverine
Kushites who are the people called Kush by the Egyptians.
Most sincerely,
Frank J. Yurco University of Chicago -- Frank Joseph Yurco fjyurco@midway.uchicago.edu
