The Etymology of ḫЗšt and k3š= Kush

I don't know the etymological meaning of Wawat. The etymology of kushite: ḫ_s, is determined by geography and ethnicity. The vowel associated with K_sh can be an /a/,/e/ or /u/. The root word is interpreted as a geographical term probably meaning hilly area.

The surrounding non Kush populations usually refered to the people living in these hilly areas as "blacks" or Nehesy. Thusly, Kush would mean "hilly land where the Nehesy [from the Sudan] live. I have not been able to determine what the etymology of Kush is based on the Kushite languages up to now.


The Kushites were originally called ḫЗšt ,Ta-Seti, Nehesy and Tehenu by the Egyptians The Kushites were called ḫ3s.t(j) beginning in Narmer’s time, and k3š in Middle Egyptian beginning with the 18th Dynasty.



The Kushites were called ḫЗst from Nubia and Taleh (Lower Egypt) into the Levant. Kushites had early settled in the Levant since Narmer times. We find Narmer's name on jars and serekhs from excavations in Israel and Palestine , for example Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah and more(4). A bulla dating to this period makes it clear that this part of the Negev was called ḫЗts.t ("Kush") or ḫ3s.tj ("Kushite").
The Old Kingdom rulers also referred to the Kusites in Nubia as ḫ3st .





Most researchers accept the contemporary meaning of Gardiner's N25 symbol as "Rulers of foreign lands" not Kush”. But this was not the first meaning assigned this sign. Breasted translated N25, as "heqa ḫ3st ". In my book the Kushites, Who, What, When, Where, I explain that the Hyksos were Blacks native to Lower Egypt.

Semantically reading N25 as "Rulers of foreign land" is unintelligent, for example “Wawat Rulers of foreign lands” , is incorrect, because Wawat was the name of a nation, not a king. As a result, ḫ3st, was used to identify the nationality of the Wawat, Kau and other Kushite = ḫ3st.

Thusly, the inscription of Weni line 46 : “His majesty made war on the Asiatic Sand-dwellers and his majesty made an army of many ten thousands; in the entire South, southward to Elephantine, and northward to Aphroditopolis [Busiris]; in the Northland on both sides entire in the [stronghold], and in the midst of the [strongholds], among the Irthet "heqa ḫ3st [Kusites], the Mazoi "heqa ḫ3st [Kushites], the Yam "heqa ḫ3st [Kushites], among the Wawat "heqa ḫ3st [Kushites], among the Kau "heqa ḫ3st [Kushites], and in the land of Temeh.”
The Hyksos were also referred to as ḫ3st. The Hyksos ruled from 1650-1550.

The New Kingdom lasted from 1549-1292. During the New Kingdom Egyptians used the name Aamw, as a generic name for the Asian, the term : Habiru, was ethnonym for one of the Asian tribes. It is clear that if the Habiru and Heqa Khasut were the same people, they would have had the same name given the fact the New Kingdom, began at the end of the Heqa Khasut Dynasty.



There are many Hyksos inscription where they were identified as ḫ3st . The Hyksos door jamb signs reads “King of the Kushites. ḫ3st is also found on the Hyksos scarabs. These scarabs often begin with the title Heqa ḫ3st and the plural marker III, and should read “King of the Kushites”.
This is obvious when we look at the Khnumhotep II, inscription. Here we see above a Nubian ibis heqa ḫЗst, under the ibis is the name Abisharie. This inscription reads: "The Kushite King Abisharie".


The Greeks called Kush: Ethiopia.

The earliest mention of the term k3š , is mentioned on the Buhen stela from the Sety1 (1294-1279). Kush was also written “KSH” in Egyptian text dating between 1550-1069 BC.
The native name of the Kingdom was recorded in Egyptian as k3š, based on the New Kingdom-era Akkadian transliteration as the genitive kūsi.

It is also an ethnic term for the native population who initiated the kingdom of Kush. The term is also displayed in the names of Kushite persons, such as King Kashta (a transcription of k3š-t3 "(one from) the land of Kush"). Geographically, Kush referred to the region south of the first cataract in general. Kush also was the home of the rulers of the 25th dynasty.

Some researchers believe Kush was derived from Qvs. Kush can not be derived from Qevs, there is no 'v', in Meroitic.


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The Meroites called themselves Qus, but we may never know the exact meaning of Kush. L. Torok and J. Leclant have found In the Meroitic text that the Meroites referred to themselves as Qeš. I noted that in the Tanyidamani Stelas the Meroites called themselves Kushites/Qoshites. In the Tanyidamani inscription we read Qor ene Tañyidamani ne al e Qosne I bl p mni , “The Monarch, the Commander, the good and noble Tañyidamani, give [this] Kushite leave to praise and to supplicate Amani”.

The Handbook of Oriental Studies (New York:Brill,1997) out lines the history of the term Kush in relation to the Kushites on pages 2-3. Torok points out that the name for the first ruler of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Kashta, probably meant "the Kushite" his nomen was k3š-t3 "of the land of Kush". He also noted that Kush, also appears as the ancestral kingdom of Piya in his Sandstone Stela and King Arqamani in the Second Century BC received the mortuary Horus name "The Kushite whose-coming-into-being -is divine".

The textual evidence make it obvious that the people of Meroe, and earlier rulers of Kerma and Napata from the same region, may have called themselves Kushites.




The people of Upper Nubia and the Sudan were known in Egyptian as k-'-s and k-'-s-I, as ḫЗts.t or Khasut which corresponds to Kashit and k3š-t3. The Hebrew people called the Kushites kus. In the cuneiform inscriptions the Sudanese were called Kusiya. In the Ethiopic inscriptions of Ezana, the Kushites were called Kashi or Kasu. In Sumerian the Kushites were called Melukha = Kasi and Kasi = Kush. The Meroites identified themselves as Qoš, Qes, Qos.

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In conclusion, the presence ḫ3st in Line 46 of the Weni Inscription and the Narmer bulla indicates that since this area was called ḫЗts.t or Kush, since Narmer ruled the area he was a Kushite.

The k3š seems to have been used to refer to the Kushites during the New Kingdom.

The modern interpretation of Gardiner’s Egyptian sign N25 as ḫЗts.t is wrong. There is no evidence that /t/ should be added to ḫЗts.t, as a result I believe N25 was originally ḫЗs, not ḫЗst . Writing just Heqa ḫЗst means Kushite King, while adding three lines makes the plural: King of the Kushites.

Thusly on the Semqen scarab we have Semqen king of the Kushites. On the Khnumhotep II Beni Hassan inscription we have Heqa ḫЗst in front of the lead Hyksos above the Nubian ibis, and the name Abisharie below heqa ḫЗst.

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Pioneering study proves Olmec DNA is African DNA

The Olmec people were Mande speaking people who migrated to Mexico around 1200 BC. This was supported by the fact that they called themselves Xi and the textual evidence found in Izapa  Stela #5.  Izapa Stela # 5  shows the Olmecs sailing on a boat to Mexico.

This reality was further confirmed by Olmec skeletons , and inscribed Olmec artifacts excavated on Olmec sites. The decipherment of the Olmecs text indicated they spoke a Malinke-Bambara language that belongs to the Mande family of languages.

We now have Olmec DNA. Enrique  Villamar Becerril (1),  has found that the Olmec carried mtDNA  A, which is a subclade of the Macrohaplogroup N. Haplogroup N originated in Africa.

Enrique wrote: "The pioneering study of ADNMT carried out on Olmec individuals, one from San Lorenzo and the other from Loma del Zapote, resulted, in both cases, in the unequivocal presence of the distinctive mutations of the “A” maternal lineage. That is, the origin of the Olmecs is not in Africa but in America, since they share the most abundant of the five mitochondrial haplogroups characteristic of the indigenous populations of our continent: A, B, C, D and X. “

The discovery that the Olmec carried haplogroup A does not prevent the Olmec from being African as claimed by Villamar Bercerril , because foundational Blacks in the United States and Africans, including the Mande speakers carry mtDNA A, X and etc.

There are no “pure” Mexindians. Lisker (5) noted that between 5-50% of Indian genes are African genes. The Mixe, Zenu , Wayuu and other Mexican groups with YAP+ associated A-G transition at DYS271. Haplotype DYS271  is of African origin. In addition,  The Maya speaking Ch’ol and Chontal at Campeche carry R-M173, E1b1b, K and T. These are DNA haplogroups common to Africans.

 

Indian y-chromosome haplogroups C and D show African admixture at locus DYS271.  The American mtDNA haplogroups A and B are part of the haplogroup N macrohaplogroup.

African people carry mtDNA A common to mongoloid Native Americans and  y-chromosome R, so they probably passed on these genes to mongoloid Native Americans

The mtDNA A haplogroup common to Mexicans is also found among the Mande speaking people and some East Africans (2-4). Haplogroup A is found among Mixe and Mixtecs (2).The Mande speakers carry mtDNA haplogroup A, is common among Mexicans (4). In addition to the Mande speaking people of West Africa, Southeast Africa Africans also carry mtDNA haplogroup A (3).

In addition to DNA, the Spanish explorers reported many Africans in Mexico. The Spanish explorers mentioned Black Nations and Black tribes in the Americas, they met, even before African slaves were landed in America. The Spanish said the Aztecs were Negroes.

 Paul Gaffarel noted that when Balboa reached America he found "negre veritables" or true Blacks. Balboa noted "...Indian traditions of Mexico and Central America indicate that Negroes were among the first occupants of that territory." This is why so many Mexicans have "African faces".

In conclusion, Olmec have left us many skeletons, and textual evidence indicating that they were Mande speakers. We have also illustrated that The Spanish found many African communities when they came to America. As , a result, it is only natural that the Olmecs carried African genes like mtDNA haplogroup A. Moreover the presence of haplogroup A among the Olmec, result from Mande speakers carrying this haplogroup in Africa.

References:

1.                 Villamar Becerril Enrique, “Estudios de ADN y el origen de los olmecas”, Arqueología  

Mexicana, núm. 150, pp. 40-41.

2.                    Bonilla C, Gutierrez G, Parra E J, Kline C, Shriver M D. (2005). Admixture of a rural population of the State of Guerrero,Mexico, Am J Phys Anthropol. Dec;128(4):861-9.

3.                   Salas A, Richards M, De la Fe T, Lareu M V, Sobrino B, Sanchez-Diz P, Macaulay V, Carracedo A. (2002). The making of the West African mtDNA Landscape, Am J. Hum. Genet, 71:1082-1111.

4.                   Jackson B A, Wilson J L, Kirbah S, Sidney S S, Bassie L, Alle J A D, McLean D C Garvey W T.(2005). Am J Phys Anthropol. 128:156-163.

5.                   Suarez-Diaz,(2014) Indigenous populations in Mexico. Medical anthropology in the Work of Ruben Lisker in the 1960’s. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 47 (p.117)

We need a True History of the Nile Valley not just a History of Ancient Egypt

No one can deny that ancient Egypt was the greatest Civilization of Africa and that it led to the rise of Western Eurasia.

But we need to teach the world the role Nile Valley Kushites played in World History.

Europeans want to maintain the view that Kush was always ruled by Egypt and that Egypt was non-Black civilization. This is a false perspective. Both the Kushite and Egyptian civilizations were Black.

We must move away from this Eurocentric view of history, and look at Nile Valley Kushite history as an independent history from the history of Egypt..We are beginning to see now that Kushites were not just called Nehesy,they also called ḫ3s.t(j) beginning in Narmer’s time into the Old Kingdom, and k3š in Middle Egyptian beginning with the 18thDynasty.

The new history of the Nile Valley Kushites from Nubia up to Lower Egypt , must acknowledge that the Kushites spread civilization into Eurasia. It is a history that acknowledges Egypt as a great Black Civilization--but maintains that Egypt was mainly concerned with Egypt.

KemtUr S. Elagip has set the standard that all research and history regarding African people must meet " without discrimination and exclusion. ". To me this idea that one people or tribe can make history in isolation, is false . 

The great African empires Egypt, Kerma, Meroe, Mali, Songhay, had leaders who may have come from a partucular tribe, formed Federations or Confederations made up of varied tribes seeking One goal rising up the nation and the people of the Confederation. Ancient Black civilizations were founded on the idea of inclusion To these wise men there was no single religion or tribe better than any other tribe.. Truely, the history of the greatest Blacks civilizations were based on "WE"--not "I".

In summary Kushites possessed a worldview, which led them to explore much of Africa and Eurasia.This history will show that the civilizations of Sumer and India were also founded by Kushites from the Nile Valley. The Sumerians acknowledge their Kushite origins when they declared their kings were the kings of Kish; while in India the ancient Purana and Pali literature identifies the Nile Valley as the origin of Indian Civilization. The Puranas of India claim Kushites ruled the world for 7000 years.

Buddha came from Nubia

Buddhism originated in the Nile Valley. Anta Diop in The African Origin of Civilization . wrote that “It would seem that Buddha was an Egyptian priest, chased from Memphis by the persecution of Cambyses. This tradition would justify the portrayal of Buddha with woolly hair. Historical documents do not invalidate this tradition…There is general agreement today on placing in the sixth century not only Buddha but the whole religious and philosophical movement in Asia with Confucius in China, Zoroaster in Iran. This would confirm the hypothesis of a dispersion of Egyptian priests at that time spreading their doctrine in Asia. (p.287)”

The ancient literature of India written in the Epic Purana and Pali text support  Diop’s view that Buddhism originated in Africa. Dr. Liny Srinivasan in her books Desi (2011) and  Crete to Egypt: Missing Links of the Rigveda (2013) explains that the priests of the Epic Purana and Rigveda came from the Nile Valley and Levant; and the history mentioned in these text is about these regions not India.

Dr Liny explains (2011,2013) that much of Pali and Epic Purana literature is about the Nile Valley, especially Kush called Kaši (Kashi) and  Lower Egypt during and after  the fall of the Hyksos Dynasty . She maintains that after the fall of the Hyksos in Lower Egypt there was a dispersal of Kushite priest and mercenaries into the Levant and Anatolia.

The Egyptians called Lower Egypt: Tameh. The people of Tameh were called  ḫЗst .  This name for the people of Lower Egypt, the Levant and Nubia goes back to Narmer times. The Kushites were called ḫЗst in Africa and the Levant. Kushites had early settled in the Levant since Narmer times. We find  Narmer's name  on jars and  serekhs from excavations in Israel and Palestine , for example Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah and more . A bulla dating to this period makes it clear that this part of the Negev was called ḫЗts.t ("Kush") or ḫ3s.tj ("Kushite").

The Egyptian term for Kushites ḫЗst  agrees with Kaši (Kashi) the Pali and Purana text name for Nubia. After the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Nubian Kushites were usually referred to as Nehesy. During the New Kingdom the Kushites in Lower Egypt were called ḫЗst . and the Nubian Kushites were called K3š .

 In relation to Buddhism Dr. Liny (2013) explained that the Pali text, makes it clear that the original Budhha, Bodhisatta was born a prince of Kaši (Kashi) or a viceroy of Kaši (Kashi) (p.379). This Buddha was called Chanda,Chendak or Chenda-Kumara in the land of Gold, i.e., Egyptian Nub.

Gautama Buddha was also a Kushite. He was born in the city of Kapilavastu. Dr. Srinivasan (2013) says that Kapilavastu, is the Kushite city of Byblos or Egyptian Kpn (p.45). Gautama Buddha was born c.  563 and died in 483 BC. He was a member the Saka, tribe which Dr. Srinivasan claims originated in Nubia. He was a Kushite priest that preached in Kapilvastu or Byblos.

Indian literature establishes the Buddha in Kaši (Kashi) Nub, and Heliopolis. The Pali literature claims he was born in Saka. The Egyptian coffin text, according to Dr. Srinivasan (2013) is mentioned in the Egyptian coffin text to a riparian land called the “Land of Sk”.   Dr. Srinivasan explains that the ‘Land of Sk’, is associated with the “House of the Red Crown”—the royalties of the Lower Egyptian Kingdom” in the Delta. Chanda Buddha was a priest at Heliopolis and Memphis before he was forced out of Egypt.

Beja tribal people were called Blemmyes in ancient times.     Blemmyes may have played an important role in Buddhist because Blemmyae, a prominent group in the Meroitic Sudan are mentioned in Pali text Tipitaka .     

Some Meroites  played an important role in Buddhist because Blemmyae, a prominent group in the Meroitic Sudan are mentioned in Pali text Tipitaka (see:JDM Derrett, (2002) A Blemmya in India, Numen 49:460-474). Dr.Derrett wrote that in early Pali text " we have a Blemmya (an African) in front rank Buddhist texts of very respectable age (p.465).

The Buddhist text where Blemmya were mentioned are very old. The Vinaya pitaka, is dated to the 4th century B.C.E.

If Blemmya are mentioned in Buddhists text we can be sure that Meroites were not ignorant of Kharosthi. This would explain why many of the Meroitic symbols agree with Kharosthi. They agree because some Meroites were probably already literate in Kharosthi due to the influence of Buddhism in the Meroitic Empire.

The Egyptian historical literature makes it clear that Buddhism was practiced by Nile valley populations in Lower Egypt, and Nubia. Memphis was a center of Buddhist worship. This makes Diop's mention of Memphis  quite interesting because it is here that Petrie (1908) found evidence of Buddhist colonist in Egypt.

 Petrie claimed the iconography date d back to the Persian period of Egyptian rule (c 525-405BC). he wrote:"on the right side, at the top is the Tibetan Mongolian, below that the Aryan woman of the Punjab, and at the base a seated figure in Indian attitude with the scarf over the left shoulder. These are the first remains of Indians known on the Mediterranean. Hitherto there have been no material evidences for that connection which is stated to have existed, both by embassies from Egypt and Syria to India, and by the great Buddist mission sent by Asoka as far west as Greece and Cyrene. We seem now to have touched the Indian colony in Memphis, and we may hope for more light on that connection which seems to have been so momentous for Western thought" (p.129).

If Petrie's  dating is correct this puts Buddhists in Egypt two hundred years before Asoka, sent Buddhist missionaries to Egypt.The Classical writers report on Indian sages in the region. This makes it clear that Buddhist had probably been living in Meroitic Empire and Egypt for 600 years before the Meroites invented Meroitic writing.

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In summary Buddha came from Nile Valley . It was the Nehesy and Heqa ḫЗst people from the Nile Valley, including the Blemmya that were the foundation of Buddhist doctrine.

Reference:

Anta Diop. (1975). The African Origin of Civilization .

W. M. Flinders Petrie,(1908)  The peoples of the Persian Empire, Man (1908) No.71:pp.129-130.

J.D.M. Derrett, (2002) A Blemmya in India, Numen 49:460-474

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, Thomas E Levy,David Alon,Yorke M. RowanYorke M. Rowan.(1997). Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B. C. E.): An Interim Report on the 1994-1995 Excavations. Available from 6/8/2020; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302287010_Egyptian-Canaanite_Interaction_at_Nahal_Tillah_Israel_ca_4500-3000_B_C_E_An_Interim_Report_on_the_1994-1995_Excavations/figures?lo=1

.Liny Srinivasan (2011). Desi

 Liny Srinivasan . (2013)  Crete to Egypt: Missing Links of the Rigveda .

The Tehenu and Tamahu

The original inhabitants of the Sahara where the Kemetic civilization originated were Blacks not Berbers or Indo-European speakers Winters,1994). These Blacks formerly lived in the highland regions of the Fezzan and Hoggar until after 4000 BC. This ancient homeland of the Dravidians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Niger-Kordofanian-Mande and Elamite speakers is called the Fertile African Crescent. ( Anselin, 1989, p.16; Winters, 1983,1985,1991). 

We call these people the Proto-Saharans (Winters 1985,1991). The generic term for this group is Kushite. This explains the analogy between the Bafsudraalam languages outlined briefly above (Winters, 1994). These Proto-Saharans were called Ta-Seti and Tehenu by the Egyptians. Farid (1985,p.82) noted that "We can notice that the beginning of the Neolithic stage in Egypt on the edge of the Western Desert corresponds with the expansion of the Saharan Neolithic culture and the growth of its population".

The inhabitants of the Fezzan were round headed Africans. (Jelinek, 1985,p.273) The cultural characteristics of the Fezzanese were analogous to C-Group culture items and the people of Ta-Seti . The C-Group people occupied the Sudan and Fezzan regions between 3700-1300 BC (Jelinek 1985).

The inhabitants of Libya were called Tmhw (Temehus). The Temehus were organized into two groups the Thnw (Tehenu) in the North and the Nhsj (Nehesy) in the South. (Diop 1986). The Nehesy represented as the singular Kushite or African type. As a result, in most translations of Egyptian text by Egyptologists Nehesy, was translated as Negro. They did this to imply that the Egyptians were non-Black, and only the Nehesy were Blacks in the Nile Valley.

A Tehenu personage is depicted on Amratian period pottery (Farid 1985 ,p. 84). The Tehenu wore pointed beard, phallic sheath and feathers on their head.

The Temehus are called the C-Group people by archaeologists (Jelinek, 1985; Quellec, 1985). The central Fezzan was a center of C-Group settlement. Quellec (1985, p.373) discussed in detail the presence of C-Group culture traits in the Central Fezzan along with their cattle during the middle of the Third millennium BC. The Tehenu and Tamehus are depicted on Rameses III Table of Nations.

The Temehus or C-Group people began to settle Kush around 2200 BC. The kings of Kush had their capital at Kerma, in Dongola and a sedentary center on Sai Island. The majority of the Tamehu did not migrate into Kerma, they remained in the Fezzan and other parts of Libya. The same pottery found at Kerma is also present in Libya especially the Fezzan.

The Temehus/ Tehenu were agro-pastoral population that lived both in villages and dmi'w 'towns'. The Tehenu lived in the Delta between the Temehu and the Egyptians. The Egyptians referred to all of the people in this area most often by the generic tern "Tehenu”.

Oric Bates, in the The Eastern Libyans (1914), wrote the following




As you can see from the quote from Bates the Temehu were recognized as an African population.

The Tjemhu/Temehu which included the controled an area from Cyrenaica to Syria. As a result, in textual material from the reign of Ramses II, there is mention of Temehu towns in Syria. David O'Connor makes it clear that Ramses III referred to these Temehu by the term Tehenu/ Tjehnyu (p.64).

The use of different names to describe the Tehenu and Asian in the Ramses III Table of Nations is understood in relation to the political and ethnic conditions in Egypt and Western Asia during this period. The research appears to indicate that the physiognomy of the Libyans had changed by this time. This resulted , for the most part from the invasion of Egypt by Sea Peoples in association with the Libu (Libyans).

The members of the coalition that attacked Egypt were led by Meshesher the wr 'ruler' of the coalition. Each group was led by a "great one" or a magnate. The Meshwesh were semi-nomads that lived both in villages and dmi'w 'towns'. The Tehenu lived in the Delta between the Temehu and the Egyptians. The Egyptians referred to all of the people in this area most often by the generic tern "Tehenu".


The Meshwesh were very hostile to the Tehenu/Tjehnya. In fact, the first mention of the Meshwesh in Ramses III inscriptions relating to 1188, was the attack on the Tehenu, by the Meshwqesh, Soped and Sea People .

David O'Connor makes it clear that the the records of Ramses III make it clear that the Meshweshy "savagely" attacked the Tehenu and looted their cities during their advance to Egypt (p.35 & 105).

The coalition of the Meshweshy had each unit of the army organized into "family or tribal ' units under the leadership of a "great one". As result to understand why the Asian and Tehenu figures on the Table of Nations are identified differently you have use both the pictorical and textual material from the reign of Ramses III to understand the representations.

As a result, Palestianian -Syrian personage or figure D, is labled Tehenu because he was probably a member of one the Meshwesh units that fought the Egyptians, thus he was labled Tehenu ( David O'Connor (1990).

The Meshwesh are different from the Tehenu and the original Tamehu recorded by the Egyptians prior to the New Kingdom. Below we see the traditional depiction of a Tamehu, the sidelock, shoulder cape and clean face note absence of feathers in the hair.

The Meshwesh wore Tehenu traditional costumes but they are not believed to be real Tehenu. The Tehenu and the Temehu usually wore different costumes. In the New Kingdom depictions of the Temehu, the Meshwesh have "long chin beards", like the Syrian-Palestinians and Peoples of the Sea. They wear kilts, sheaths and capes open at the front tied at one shoulder. Like the earlierTehenu they wore feathers as a sign of High Status.

David O'Connor makes it clear that there was "marked hetergeneity of the Tjemhu" (p.41). The first attack by Libyans on Egypt were led by the Libu during the 5th year of Ramses III's reign. Diop has provided convincing evidence that the Libu, later migrated into Senegal, where they presently live near Cape Verde.

The difference in dress among the Meshwesh and Tehenu, and their hostility toward the Tehenu, have led many researchers to see the Temehu of the New Kingdom as a different group from the original Temehu of Egyptian traditions. O'Connor (p.74) in the work cited above makes it clear that the Temehu in Ramses III day--"[have] hairstyles, dress and apparently ethnic type [that] are markedly different from the Tjehnyu/tjemhu of the Old Kingdom (Osing, 1980,1018-19).

Various explanations have been offered: Wainwright, for example, concluded that 'Meshwesh was a mixed tribe of Libu like tribesmen with their native chiefs who become subject to a family of Tjehnu origin'(1962,p.92), while Osing suggested that the New Kingdowm Tjemhu had displaced or absorbed the earlier Tjehnyu but had selectively taken over or retained some Tjehnyu traits, in the case of the rulers for Meshwesh (1980,1019-1020). Dr. O'Connor is of the opinion "that some rulers of the later New Kingdom Tjemhu deliberately adopted traits they discovered from the Egyptians to be characteristic of ancient Tjehnyu/ Tjemhu, so as to increase there prestige, or in some way had these rtraits imposed upon them by the Egyptians" (p.74).

It is my opinion that given the organiztion of the Libyans into mhwt "family or tribal groups', sometime prior to 1230 BC over an extended period of time Indo-European speaking people later to be known as Peoples of the Sea entered Western Asia and Libya and were adopted by Tehenu families. This adoption of the new immigrants by Tehenu/Tamehu probably led to the Meshwesh and Soped adopting Tehenu customs but maintaining their traditional beards,. The original Temehu, like the Libu probably saw the integration of Sea Peoples into Temehu society as a way to increase their number and possibily conquer Egypt.

The C-Group or Temehus also founded the Kerma dynasty of Kush. Diop (1986, p.72) noted that the "earliest substratum of the Libyan population was a black population from the south Sahara". Kerma was first inhabited in the 4th millennium BC (Bonnet 1986). By the 2nd millennium BC Kushites at Kerma were already worshippers of Amon/Amun and they used a distinctive black-and-red ware (Bonnet 1986; Winters 1985b,1991). Amon, later became a major god of the Egyptians during the 18th Dynasty.

References:

Anselin,A.(1984). "Zeus, Ethiopien Minos Tamoul", Carbet Revue Martinique de Sciences Humaines,no. 2:31-50

Bonnet,C. (1986). Kerma: Territoire et Metropole. Cairo: Instut Francais D'Archeologie Orientale du Caire

Diop, A.(1987). Precolonial Black Africa. (trans. ) by Harold Salemson, Westport: Lawrence Hill & Company

Jelinek,J. (1985). "Tillizahren,the Key Site of the Fezzanese Rock Art". Anthropologie (Brno),23(3):223-275.

O'Connor,D. (1990) "The nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) society in later New Kingdom; in Libya and Egypt c1300-750 BC”. (Ed.) by Athony Leahy (pp.29-113), SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies and the Society for Libyan Studies, 1990.

Quellec,J-L le. (1985). "Les Gravures Rupestres Du Fezzan (Libye)". L'Anthropologie, 89 (3):365-383.

Winters, C.A. (1983). "The Ancient Manding Script". In Blacks in Science:Ancient and Modern. (ed.) by Ivan van Sertima, (New Brunswick: Transaction Books) pp.208-215.

__________. (1985). "The Proto-Culture of the Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians". Tamil Civilization,3(1):1-9.

___________. (1991). "The Proto-Sahara". The Dravidian Encyclopaedia, (Trivandrum: International School of Dravidia). Linguistics) pp.553-556. Volume l.

__________.(1994) Afrocentrism: A Valid Frame of Reference. Journal of Black Studies, December 1, 1994, pp.170-90.

Was Narmer a Kushite

There is epigraphic evidence that indicates that Narmer was probably a Kushite. Narmer ruled an area extending from the Nile Valley into the Levant.

The Levant had early been settled by people from the Nile Valley. Beginning as early as 5000 years ago Kushites the ḫЗšt, lived from the Nile Valley below Egypt, all the way to the Levant and Anatolia. The Kushites belonged to the C-Group culture of Nubia. The Kushites spoke Niger-Congo and Dravidian languages (1) . The Niger-Congo (NC) Superfamily of languages is the largest family of languages spoken in Africa. Researchers have assumed that the NC speakers originated in West Africa in the Inland Niger Delta. The research indicates that the NC speakers originated in the Saharan Highlands 12kya and belonged to the Ounanian culture (1).

The Ounanian culture is associated with sites in central Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Mauretania and Niger (1). The Ounanian tradition is associated with the Niger-Congo phyla (1). This would explain the close relationship between the Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages.

In the Eastern Sahara many individual types of tanged and shouldered arrowheads occur on early Holocene prehistoric sites along with Green Saharan/Wavy-line pottery (2-3) . 'Saharo-Sudanese Neolithic' wavy-line, dotted wavy line and walking-comb pottery was used from Lake Turkana to Nabta Playa, in Tibesti , Mauritania, on into in the Hoggar, in Niger. This pottery evolved into the Beaker Bell ceramics of Europe.

The Kushites from the Levant and Anatolia took cattle domestication and millet cultivation to Europe. There is no archaeological evidence of the herding of Cattle and millet cultivation older than the Nabta Playa material (4).

At Nabta Playa the people herded cattle and cultivated crops. The Kushites cultivated pennisetum millet at Nabta Playa (c. 7950 BC ) and probably herded cattle (5-7).

The Kushites were called ḫЗst in Africa and the Levant. Kushites had early settled in the Levant since Narmer times. We find  Narmer's name  on jars and  serekhs from excavations in Israel and Palestine , for example Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah and more(4). A bulla dating to this period makes it clear that this part of the Negev was called ḫЗts.t ("Kush") or ḫ3s.tj ("Kushite").

The  presence of this bulla indicates that since this area was called ḫЗts.t or Kush, since Narmer ruled the area he was probably a Kushite. 

The modern interpretation of Gardiner’s Egyptian sign N25 as ḫЗts.t is wrong.  There is no evidence that /t/ should be added to ḫЗts.t, as a result I believe N25 was originally ḫЗs, not ḫЗst . Writing just Heqa ḫЗst means Kushite, while adding three lines makes the plural: Kushites. Thusly on the Semqen scarab we have Semqen king of the Kushites. On the Khnumhotep II  Beni Hassan inscription we have Heqa ḫЗst in front of the lead Hyksos above the Nubian ibis, and  the name Abisharie below heqa ḫЗst.

The Kushites were called ḫЗšt .Ta-Seti and Tehenu by the Egyptians (1). The Egyptian Pharaoh Sahure referred to the Tehenu leader as “Hati Tehenu” . The name  Hati, correspond to the name Hatti for a Kushite tribe in Anatolia. The Hatti  people often referred to themselves as Kashkas (9).

The early hunter-gathers and farmers in Europe from the Levant herded cattle, and cultivated millet.

A center of cattle worship was the Kiseiba -Nabta region in Middle Africa. At Nabta archaeologists have found the oldest megalithic site dating to 6000-6500 BC, which served as both a temple and calendar. This site was found by J. McKim Malville of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Fred Wendorf of Southern Methodist University.

The Kushites spread cultivation of Pennisetum millet and cattle herding into Anatolia, South Asia and Europe. As cattle herding Kushites frequently moved from place to place millet was an ideal domesticate.

Millet was an especially favorite crop for the mobile Kushites because the grains are 1) a high yield per plant; 2) millet is drought tolerant and can be grown in various terrains; 3) millet has a short growing season so pastoralists  could grow and harvest their crops in time to move their camp(s); and 4) the panicum millet has shallow roots so Kushite farmers could cultivate the crop with a hoe (7).

As a result, we have in the archaeological literature the name Ounan-Harif point. This name was proposed for the tanged points at Nabta Playa and Bir Kiseiba. Harifian is a specialized regional cultural development of the Epipalaeolithic of the Negev Desert. Harifian has close connections with the late Mesolithic cultures of Fayyum and the Eastern Deserts of Egypt, whose tool assemblage resembles that of the Harifian (8-10).

In summary, The Kushites were called ḫЗs and ḫЗst in Africa and the Levant. Kushites had early settled in the Levant since Narmer times. We find  Narmer's name  on jars and  serekhs from excavations in Israel and Palestine .For example , Narmer jars and  serekhs have come from excavations  at Tel Erani, Arad, 'En Besor, Halif Terrace/Nahal Tillah and more(4). A bulla dating to this period makes it clear that this part of the Negev was called ḫЗts.t ("Kush") or ḫ3s.tj ("Kushite"). This bulla suggest that Narmer was a Kushite. Obviously since Narmer ruled the country he would not refer to himself as a foreign ruler , or foreign land because he ruled the land.

References:

1. Winters, C. (2012). Origin of the Niger-Congo Speakers. WebmedCentral GENETICS,3(3): WMC003149 doi: 10.9754/journal.wmc.2012.003149

2. Drake N A, Roger M. Blench, Simon J. Armitage, Charlie S. Bristow, and Kevin H. White. (2010). Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert,  Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienece. 2011 108 (2) 458-462; published ahead of print December 27,2010, doi:10.1073/pnas.1012231108

3. Vernet R, Ott M, Tarrou L, Gallin A, Géoris-Creuseveau J.  (2007). Excavation of the mound of FA 10 (Banc d'Arguin) and its contribution to the knowledge of the culture paleolithical Foum Arguin, northwestern Sahara (Translated from French) J Afr Archaeol 5:17–46.

4. Thomas E Levy,David Alon,Yorke M. RowanYorke M. Rowan.(1995). Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B. C. E.): An Interim Report on the 1994-1995 Excavations. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/302287010_Egyptian-Canaanite_Interaction_at_Nahal_Tillah_Israel_ca_4500-3000_B_C_E_An_Interim_Report_on_the_1994-1995_Excavations      [accessed Dec 26 2017]

5.Brass, M. (2013). Revisiting a hoary chestnut: the nature of early cattle domestication in North-East Africa. Sahara (Segrate, Italy), 24, 65–70.

6. Mitchell P., Paul Lane (Ed.),(2013). The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford .

7. Miller N.F., Robert N Spengler, Michael Frachetti. (2010). Millet cultivation across Eurasia: Origins, spread, and the influence of seasonal climate, The Holocene , Vol. 26 10:1566-1575

8. Fregel  R, et al (2017). Neolithization of North Africa involved the migration of people from both the Levant and Europe. bioRxiv 191569; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191569

9.  Winters, C. (2018). The Kushites: Who, What, When, Where. Createspace.

10. Haplogroup R1 was spread by African Kushites into Europe. There was no Back Migration from Europe to Africa, http://bafsudralam.blogspot.com/2018/02/haplogroup-r1-was-spread-by-african.html