Nubian C Group

The conventional designation of the indigenous population of Nubia in the late 3rd millennium BC. There is disagreement as to the extent to which these people were the direct descendants of the preceding Nubian A Group population. There are apparent connections between the C Group and contemporary peoples inhabiting the Red Sea hills, east of the Nile. Livelihood depended to a large extent on their herds of small stock and cattle. Settlement sites investigated consist mainly of circular houses with their lower walls of stone. In later C-Group times, more elaborate buildings were erected, and there was an increase in the quantity of luxury goods imported from Egypt. Both these developments reached their peak at Karmah. Egypt no longer controlled Lower Nubia, which was settled by the C Group and formed into political units of gradually increasing size; relations with this state deteriorated into armed conflict in the reign of Pepi II. Karmah was the southern cultural successor of the Nubian A Group and became an urban center in the late 3rd millennium BC, remaining Egypt's chief southern neighbor for seven centuries.

The conventional designation of the indigenous population of Nubia in the late 3rd millennium bc. There is disagreement as to the exent to which these people were the direct descendants of the preceding Nubian A Group population, there being apparent connections also between the C Group and contemporary peoples inhabiting the Red Sea hills, east of the Nile. It is clear that this livelihood depended to a large extent on their herds of small stock and cattle, but the importance of cultivated foodstuffs has not yet been adequately demonstrated. Such settlement sites as have been investigated consisted mainly of circular houses with their lower walls of stone. In later C-Group times more elaborate buildings were erected, and there was an increase in the quantity of luxury goods imported from Egypt. Both these developments reached their peak at Kerma.