They claim to rule the Kasu'or Meroitic Ethiopians; and the fifth inscription records an expedition along the Atbara and the Nile to punish the Nuba and Kasu, and a fragment of a Greek inscription from Meroe was recognized by Sayce as commemorating a king of Axum.
Little is known of the language of the ancient Nubians or of its connexion, if any, with the language, known as Meroitic, of the "Ethiopians" who preceded them.
The hieroglyphs and inscriptions in Meroitic belong mostly to the first six centuries A.D.; the existing Nubian MSS.
Here are the temples of Debfld, the temple and quarries of Kertassi, the temples of Kalabsha, Bet el Wali, Dendr, Gerf Husn, Dakka, Maharaka, Es-Seba, Amgda and Derr, the grottos of Elles ya, the tombs of Aniba, the temple of Ibrim, the great rock-temples of Abu-Simbel, the temples at Jebel Adda and Wadi Halfa, the forts and temples of Semna, the temples of Amgra (Meroitic) and Soleb.
For the graves yielded not only new types of statues, bronzes, ivory carvings and painted pottery - all of the highest artistic value - but also a large number of stone stelae inscribed with funerary formulae in the Meroitic script.