E.Ye.
The author considers the problem of boundaries between the Ptolemaic Egypt and Kush as arising from political relations of the two countries in the time of the earlier six Ptolemies. The relations are shown to be mostly conflicting, the Ptolemies' hankering after elephant hunting in the territories of Kush and coveting the gold mines of Wadi Allaqi lying at the root of the antagonism. Another cause of discord was the Dodekaschonos province.
The Ptolemies' southward expansion began at the time of Ptolemy I Lagos who invaded the regions inhabited by Irem tribes. Ptolemy II's campaign (described by Diodorus Siculus and Theocritus) resulted in Kush having to pay tribute to Greeks, and being subordinated to Ptolemies' power. The story of this campaign dated by year 16 of Ptolemy II's rule, was inscribed in the stela of Pithom.
Under the king Arkamani, Kushites succeeded in gaining mastery of the northern regions of Kush against the claims of Ptolemies. Analysis of Arkamani's inscription in Dakka and of other texts mentioning the presence of Arkamani in Kalabsha and the island of Philae has shown that Kushites managed to oust Ptolemy IV from Dodekaschoenos province. The further fate of Kushites in the north was closely related to the course of rebellion in Thebaide. The defeat of the insurrection resulted in Ptolemies consolidating their position in Dodekaschoenos and Kusites being forced out of that province, Under Ptolemy VI Kush lost part of its northern regions and again became tributary to Ptolemies' power.
S.S.Solov ieva
The relationships of Assyria with Egypt and Kush in VIII-VII cc.B.C. are represented clearly enough in written documents-chronicles and inscriptions of Assyrian kings. However, this information is quite one-sided, being mostly confined to accounts of Assyria's wars against Egypt and Kush and its military triumphs.
The finds of things produced in Egypt and Kush (i.e. artifacts) and brought into the territory between the two rivers help to supplement and enrich the documentary data.
Very demonstrative are the finds made in the excavations of the Mesopotamian cities Kalhu (the northern Nimrud) and Nippur (the modern Nuffar). A great number of ivory articles manufactured in the so-called Egyptianized style and things from Kush and Egypt proper (a gold and ivory plaquette portraying a Lioness bouncing upon an Ethiopian among the papyrus and lotus plants, a figurette of a Nubian bringing tribute, a plaquette representing the god Bes, a fragment of scarab inscribed with the name Taharka in a cartouche, imressions of seals engraved in Egyptian manner found on clay tablets in the tradesmen's house, an Egyptian seal manufactured of glassy paste, Egyptian scarabs in the scribes' quarter) give certain evidence of diplomatic and trade relations, military conflicts, cultural and religious influences that existed between Assyria and the countries of Egypt and Kush in the VIII-VII cc,B.C.
Notes on the History of Countries of the Red Sea Basin (Based upon Mterial of Bible tradition).
I.Sh,Shifman
The author has carefully investigated every mention of the gold-bearing country of Ophir as well as of the country of Kush and Kushites contained in the Old Testament.
Analyzing the problem of Ophir the author first of all suggests that the spelling of the name used in Septuagint and elsewhere and traceable to the Hebrew s/so-pir reflects the attempt of Bible translators into Greek to adjust the Old Testament toponymic term "Ophir" to the form it had accepted and was generally used in the Hellenistic Egypt by the end of the II-nd c, B.C. The history of contacts of the Eastern Mediterranean region with Ophir is analyzed in detail, the author concluding that the present level of our knowledge enables us only to state that the country of Ophir was situated somewhere along the sea way leading from the Arabian Gulph across the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean. The author believes, that Ophir kept up contacts withthe Southern Arabia of old, and it was thanks to the merchants of South Arabia, who acted as intermediaries, that most of Ophir's gold went to Palestine.
As concerns the Biblical country of Kush and Kushites, the author starts with discussing the problems arising from the study of ideas of the "Oikoumêne" that had been formed among the peoples inhabiting the Eastern Mediterranean region in the first half of the first millennium B.C. A detailed analysis of the famous Genealogical Table follows, Kush taken into special consideration as well as a number of other ethnonymic and toponimic names contained in the Table. The author draws interesting inferences concerning the localization of the "Kushite" and "Arabian" Havilah and Sheba.
Greek Borrowings in the Coptic and the Old Nubian
Ye.B.Smagina
Since the Hellenistic period the Greek language was widely used in the Nile Valley. When Christianity penetrated into those regions, the most important Christian texts were translated into the local languages (the Coptic in Egypt and the Old Nubian in the Northern Nubia). Linguistic contacts resulted in a great number of Greek words getting adopted by both the languages. One finds in both of them religious terms (those denoting ideas and notions of Christianity and also particulars of church life and usage) and words referring to the system of chronology and the calendar. Texts in Old Nubian are few in number and almost all of them of religious purport so that there is hardly any trace of certain types of borrowings widely represented in the Coptic language. There are ideological terms (words denoting abstract ideas and philosophic notions), social and political terms (those of politics, law and court of justice, trade etc.) and some other. In Coptic texts a few Greek auxiliary words are also extent, used when the Coptic had no appropriate word-form but also alongside with Coptic synonyms and sometimes joined to them.
Greek loan-words undergone the inevitable changes submitting to the structure of the language that adopted them. Some of the borrowings served to form new words with the help of affixes of the native language.