search in Beja lexical material for the closest common ancestor and thence delineates a related Cushitic language existing in pre-Meroitic Lower Nubia. The disappearance of the C-Group language is somewhat of a mystery. It is possible that with successive phases of Egyptian, Kushite, and Meroitic suzerainty in Lower Nubia that this language became demographically and politically marginalized well before the arrival of Nile Nubian speakers. Notes References History of Nubia Neolithic cultures of Africa 24th-century BC establishments 2nd-millennium BC disestablishments Archaeological discoveries with year of discovery missing Kerma culture Afroasiatic peoples