Introduction to the Religion of Kush

The topic of 'religion' poses a challenge for the research on Nubia insofar as the world of ideas has been eminently shaped and transformed by the intense contacts with the Egyptian culture. The deities in most cases appear in Egyptian habitus, the temples and relics of their cult display the forms of those of the neighbour in the north. In this synopsis on the deities venerated, on cult practice, concepts of the hereafter and mortuary customs, it is attempted to outline the characteristic Nubian connection of indigenous, Egyptian and later also Hellenistic dimensions. The chronological organisation of the chapters reflects the development. The splitting up in chapters on the 25th dynasty, in which the Nubian rulers were essentially active in Egypt, the Napatan period, which was still intensely influenced by Egyptian concepts, and the Meroitic period with its stronger emphasis on native elements, outlines the central concepts, as well as also short-lived manifestations, of the Kushite religion.