General History of Africa • II

Ancient Civilizations
of Africa

Abridged Edition

Volume I Methodology and African Prehistory

Editor J. Ki-Zerbo

Volume II Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Editor G . Mokhtar

Volume III Africa from the Seventh to Eleventh Century'

Editor M . El F asi
Assistant editor I. H r b e k

Volume IV Africa from the Twelfth to Sixteenth Century'

Editor D . T . Niane

Volume V Africa from the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century '

Editor B . A . Ogot

Volume VI Africa in the Nineteenth Century until the 1880s'

Editor J. F . A . Ajayi

Volume VII Africa under Foreign Domination 1880-1935

Editor A . Adu Boahen

Volume VIII Africa since 1935*

Editor A . A . Mazrui
Assistant editor C . W o n d j i

'forthcoming
The abridged edition of
THE UNESCO GENERAL HISTORY OF AFRICA
is published by the following publishers
In Ghana, Sierra Leone,
the Gambia and Cameroon by
Ott-Attafua
P . O . Box 2692
Accra, Ghana
In Kenya by
Heinemann Kenya
P . O . Box 45314
Nairobi, Kenya
In Nigeria by
Heinemann Nigeria
P . O . Box 6205
Ibadan, Nigeria
In Tanzania by
Tanzania Publishing House
P . O . Box 2138
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
In Uganda by
Uganda Bookshop Publishing
P . O . Box 7145
Kampala, Uganda
In Zambia by
Multimedia Zambia
Box 320199
Lusaka, Zambia
In Z i m b a b w e ,
Botswana, Swaziland and Malawi by
Baobab Books
P . O . Box 1559
Harare, Zimbabwe
In the United States of America
and Canada by
The University of California Press
2120 Berkeley W a y
Berkeley, California 94720
And in the United Kingdom, Europe
and the rest of the world by
James Currey Publishers
54B Thomhill Square
Islington, London N l 1 B E
and
UNESCO
7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700, Paris
International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa ( U N E S C O )

General History of Africa • II *

Ancient Civilizations
of Africa
EDITOR G. MOKHTAR
Abridged Edition

JAMES CURREY • CALIFORNIA • UNESCO

First published 1990 by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization
7 Place de Fontenoy, 75700, Paris

James Currey Ltd

54b Thomhül Square, Islington
London N I 1 B E

and

University of California Press

2120 Berkeley W a y , Berkeley
California 94720, United States of America

©Unesco 1981 and 1990

ISBN (Unesco): 92 - 3 - 102585 - 6

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

General history of Africa. - Abridged ed.
2, Ancient civilization of Africa.
1. Africa, to 1980
1. Mokhtar, G . II. Unesco International Scientific Committee for the drafting ofa
General History of Africa
960

ISBN 0-85255-092-8 (James Currey)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ancient civilizations of Africa / editor, G . Mokhtar. — Abridged ed.
p. c m . — (General history of Africa / International
Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa
( U N E S C O ) : 2)
ISBN 0-520-06697-9 (University of California Press)
1. Africa—History—To 1498. 1. Mokhtar, Gamal el Din 1918 II. Series:
General history of Africa (Abridged version) : 2.
D T 2 0 . G 4 5 2 vol.2
[DT25]
960 s—dc20
[960'.2] 89-20358
CIP

Typeset in Bembo by Colset Pte Ltd, Singapore

and printed in Britain by Villiers Publications, London N 6
 Contents

Preface by Amadou-Mahtar M ' B o w , former Director-General of Unesco vit

Description of the project b y B . A . O g o t , former President, International
Scientific C o m m i t t e e for the Drafting of a General History of Africa xii
Note on chronology xiv
List of the Members of the International Scientific Committee for the Drafting
of a General History of Africa xvii
Biographies of authors xix

Introduction 1
1 Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 15
Annex to Chapter 1: Report of the symposium on 'The Peopling
of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script' 33
2 Pharaonic Egypt 62
3 Pharaonic Egypt: society, economy and culture 19
4 Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 90
5 The legacy of Pharaonic Egypt 103
6 Egypt in the Hellenistic era 119
7 Egypt under Roman domination 131
8 The importance of Nubia: a link between Central Africa
and the Mediterranean 141
 Contents

9 Nubia before Napata ( - 3100 to - 750) 148

10 The Empire ofKush: Napata and Meroe 161
11 The civilization of Napata and Meroe 172
12 The spreading of Christianity in Nubia 185
13 Pre-Axumite culture 192
14 The civilization of Axum from the first
to the seventh century 203
15 Axum: political system, economics and culture, first to
fourth century 214
16 Christian Axum 224
11 The proto-Berbers 236
18 The Carthaginian period 246
19 The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 261
20 The Sahara in classical antiquity 286
21 Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa 296
22 The East African coast and its role in maritime trade 306
23 East Africa before the seventh century 313
24 West Africa before the seventh century 325
25 Central Africa 339
26 Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 351
21 The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 362
28 Madagascar 313
29 The societies of Africa south of the Sahara
in the Early Iron Age 383
Conclusion 390
Bibliography 394
Index 412
 Preface

AMADOU-MAHTAR KVBOW
Former Director-General of Unesco (1974-1987)

For a long time, all kinds of myths and prejudices concealed the true history of Africa
from the world at large. African societies were looked upon as societies that could have
no history. In spite of important work done by such pioneers as Leo Frobenius, Maurice
Delafosse and Arturo Labriola, as early as thefirstdecades of this century, a great m a n y
non-African experts could not rid themselves of certain preconceptions and argued that
the lack of written sources and documents made it impossible to engage in any scientific
study of such societies.
Although the Iliad and Odyssey were rightly regarded as essential sources for the
history of ancient Greece, African oral tradition, the collective m e m o r y of peoples
which holds the thread of m a n y events marking their lives, was rejected as worthless. In
writing the history of a large part of Africa, the only sources used were from outside the
continent, and the final product gave a picture not so m u c h of the paths actually taken
by the African peoples as of those that the authors thought they must have taken. Since
the European Middle Ages were often used as a yardstick, modes of production, social
relations and political institutions were visualized only by reference to the European
past.
In fact, there was a refusal to see Africans as the creators of original cultures which
flowered and survived over the centuries in patterns of their o w n making and which
historians are unable to grasp unless they forgo their prejudices and rethink their
approach.
Furthermore, the continent of Africa w a s hardly ever looked upon as a historical
entity. O n the contrary, emphasis was laid on everything likely to lend credence to the
idea that a split had existed, from time immemorial, between a 'white Africa' and a
'black Africa', each unaware of the other's existence. The Sahara was often presented as
an impenetrable space preventing any intermingling of ethnic groups and peoples or any
exchange of goods, beliefs, customs and ideas between the societies that had grown up
on either side of the desert. Hermetic frontiers were drawn between the civilizations of
Ancient Egypt and Nubia and those of the peoples south of the Sahara.
It is true that the history of Africa north of the Sahara has been more closely linked
with that of the Mediterranean basin than has the history of sub-Saharan Africa, but it
is n o w widely recognized that the various civilizations of the African continent, for all
their differing languages and cultures, represent, to a greater or lesser degree, the
viii Preface

historical offshoots of a set of peoples and societies united by bonds centuries old.
Another phenomenon which did great disservice to the objective study of the African
past w a s the appearance, with the slave trade and colonization, of racial stereotypes
which bred contempt and lack of understanding and became so deep-rooted that they
distorted even the basic concepts of historiography. From the time w h e n the notions of
'white* and 'black' were used as generic labels by the colonialists, w h o were regarded as
superior, the colonized Africans had to struggle against both economic and psychologi-
cal enslavement. Africans were identifiable by the colour of their skin, they had become
a kind of merchandise, they were earmarked for hard labour and eventually, in the
minds of those dominating them, they came to symbolize an imaginary and allegedly
inferior Negro race. This pattern of spurious identification relegated the history of the
African peoples in m a n y minds to the rank of ethno-history, in which appreciation of
the historical and cultural facts was bound to be warped.
The situation has changed significantly since the end of the Second World W a r and
in particular since the African countries became independent and began to take an active
part in the life of the international community and in the mutual exchanges that are its
raison d'être. A n increasing number of historians has endeavoured to tackle the study of
Africa with a more rigorous, objective and open-minded outlook by using - with all
due precautions - actual African sources. In exercising their right to take the historical
initiative, Africans themselves have felt a deep-seated need to re-establish the historical
authenticity of their societies on solid foundations.
In this context, the importance of the eight-volume General History of Africa, which
Unesco is publishing, speaks for itself.
T h e experts from m a n y countries working on this project began by laying d o w n the
theoretical and methodological basis for the History. They have been at pains to call in
question the over-simplifications arising from a linear and restrictive conception of
world history and to re-establish the true facts wherever necessary and possible. They
have endeavoured to highlight the historical data that give a clearer picture of the
evolution of the different peoples of Africa in their specific socio-cultural setting.
T o tackle this huge task, m a d e all the more complex and difficult by the vast range of
sources and the fact that documents were widely scattered, Unesco has had to proceed
by stages. Thefirststage, from 1965 to 1969, was devoted to gathering documentation
and planning the work. Operational assignments were conducted in thefieldand
included campaigns to collect oral traditions, the creation of regional documentation
centres for oral traditions, the collection of unpublished manuscripts in Arabic and
Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script), the compilation of archival
inventories and the preparation of a Guide of the Sources of the History of Africa, culled
from the archives and libraries of the countries of Europe and later published in eleven
volumes. In addition, meetings were organized to enable experts from Africa and other
continents to discuss questions of methodology and lay d o w n the broad lines for the
project after careful examination of the available sources.
T h e second stage, which lasted from 1969 to 1971, was devoted to shaping the
History and linking its different parts. T h e purpose of the international meetings of
experts held in Paris in 1969 and Addis Ababa in 1970 was to study and define the
problems involved in drafting and publishing the History; presentation in eight volumes,
Preface ix

the principal edition in English, French and Arabic, translation into African languages
such as Kiswahili, Hausa, Fulfulde, Yoruba or Lingala, prospective versions in German,
Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese, as well as abridged editions designed for a
wide African and international public.1
T h e third stage has involved actual drafting and publication. This began with
the appointment of the 39-member International Scientific Committee, two-thirds
African and one-third non-African, which assumes intellectual responsibility for the
History.
T h e method used is interdisciplinary and is based on a multi-faceted approach and a
wide variety of sources. T h efirsta m o n g these is archaeology, which holds many of the
keys to the history of African cultures and civilizations. Thanks to archaeology, it is
n o w acknowledged that Africa was very probably the cradle of mankind and the
scene - in the Neolithic period - of one of the first technological revolutions in
history. Archaeology has also shown that Egypt was the setting for one of the most
brilliant ancient civilizations of the world. But another very important source is oral
tradition, which, after being long despised, has n o w emerged as an invaluable instru-
ment for discovering the history of Africa, making it possible to follow the movements
of its different peoples in both space and time, to understand the African vision of the
world from the inside and to grasp the original features of the values on which the
cultures and institutions of the continent are based.
W e are indebted to the International Scientific Committee in charge of this General
History of Africa, and to its Rapporteur and the editors and authors of the various
volumes and chapters, for having shed a n e w light on the African past in its authentic
and all-encompassing form and for having avoided any dogmatism in the study of
essential issues. A m o n g these issues w e might cite: the slave trade, that 'endlessly
bleeding w o u n d ' , which was responsible for one of the cruellest mass deportations in
the history of mankind, which sapped the African continent of its life-blood while
contributing significantly to the economic and commercial expansion of Europe; colo-
nization, with all the effects it had on population, economics, psychology and culture;
relations between Africa south of the Sahara and the Arab world; and, finally, the
process of decolonization and nation-building which mobilized the intelligence and
passion of people still alive and sometimes still active today. All these issues have been
broached with a concern for honesty and rigour which is not the least of the History's
merits. B y taking stock of our knowledge of Africa, putting forward a variety of
viewpoints on African cultures and offering a n e w reading of history, the History has
the signal advantage of showing up the light and shade and of openly portraying the
differences of opinion that m a y exist between scholars.
By demonstrating the inadequacy of the methodological approaches which have
long been used in research on Africa, this History calls for a n e w and careful study of the
twofold problem areas of historiography and cultural identity, which are united by links
of reciprocity. Like any historical w o r k of value, the History paves the w a y for a great
deal of further research on a variety of topics.
It is for this reason that the International Scientific Committee, in close collaboration
1. At the time of going to press, Volumes I and II have been published in Arabic, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Portuguese
and Spanish; Volume IV in Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese and Volume VII in Spanish.
x Preface

with Unesco, decided to embark on additional studies in an attempt to go deeper into a

number of issues that will permit a clearer understanding of certain aspects of the
African past. T h e findings being published in the series 'Unesco Studies and Docu-
ments - General History of Africa'2 will prove a useful supplement to the History, as
will the works planned on aspects of national or subregional history.
T h e General History sheds light both on the historical unity of Africa and also its
relations with the other continents, particularly the Americas and the Caribbean. For a
long time, the creative manifestations of the descendants of Africans in the Americas
were lumped together by some historians as a heterogeneous collection oí Africanisms.
Needless to say, this is not the attitude of the authors of the History, in which the
resistance of the slaves shipped to America, the constant and massive participation of the
descendants of Africans in the struggles for the initial independence of America and in
national liberation movements, are rightly perceived for what they were: vigorous
assertions of identity, which helped forge the universal concept of mankind. Although
the phenomenon m a y vary in different places, it is n o w quite clear that ways of feeling,
thinking, dreaming and acting in certain nations of the western hemisphere have been
marked by their African heritage. T h e cultural inheritance of Africa is visible every-
where, from the southern United States to northern Brazil, across the Caribbean and on
the Pacific seaboard. In certain places it even underpins the cultural identity of some of
the most important elements of the population.
T h e History also clearly brings out Africa's relations with southern Asia across the
Indian Ocean and the African contributions to other civilizations through mutual
exchanges.
I a m convinced that the efforts of the peoples of Africa to conquer or strengthen their
independence, secure their development and assert their cultural characteristics must be
rooted in historical awareness renewed, keenly felt and taken up by each succeeding
generation.
M y o w n background, the experience I gained as a teacher and as chairman, from
the early days of independence, of thefirstcommision set up to reform history and
geography curricula in some of the countries of West and Central Africa, taught m e
h o w necessary it was for the education of young people and for the information of the
public at large to have a history book produced by scholars with inside knowledge of the
problems and hopes of Africa and with the ability to apprehend the continent in its
entirety.
For all these reasons, Unesco's goal will be to ensure that this General History of
Africa is widely disseminated in a large number of languages and is used as a basis for
producing children's books, school textbooks and radio and television programmes.
Y o u n g people, whether schoolchildren or students, and adults in Africa and elsewhere
will thus be able to form a truer picture of the African continent's past and the factors

2. T h e following eleven volumes have already been published in this series: The peopling of Ancient Egypt and the
deciphering of Meroitic script; The African slave trade from thefifteenthto the nineteenth century; Historical relations across the
Indian Ocean; The historiography of Southern Africa; The decolonization of Africa: Southern Africa and the Horn of Africa;
African ethnonyms and toponytns; Historical and socio-cultural relations between black Africa and the Arab world from 1935 to the
present; The methodology of contemporary African history; Africa and the Second World War; The educational process and
historiography in Africa; Libya Antiqua.
Preface xi

that explain it, as well as a fairer understanding of its cultural heritage and its contribu-
tion to the general progress of mankind. T h e History should thus contribute to
improved international co-operation and stronger solidarity a m o n g peoples in their
aspirations to justice, progress and peace. This is, at least, m y most cherished hope.
It remains for m e to express m y deep gratitude to the members of the International
Scientific Committee, the Rapporteur, the different volume editors, the authors and all
those w h o have collaborated in this tremendous undertaking. T h e w o r k they have
accomplished and the contribution they have m a d e plainly go to show h o w people from
different backgrounds, but all imbued with the same spirit of goodwill and enthusiasm
in the service of universal truth can, within the international framework provided by
Unesco, bring to fruition a project of considerable scientific and cultural import. M y
thanks also go to the organizations and governments whose generosity has made it
possible for Unesco to publish this History in different languages and thus ensure that it
will have the worldwide impact it deserves and thereby serve the international c o m m u -
nity as a whole.
 Description of the Project
B. A. OGOT
President, International Scientific Committee for the
Drafting of a General History of Africa

T h e General Conference of Unesco at its 16th Session instructed the Director-General

to undertake the drafting of a General History of Africa. T h e enormous task of imple-
menting the project w a s entrusted to an International Scientific C o m m i t t e e which was
established by the Executive Board in 1970. This Committee, under the Statutes
adopted by the Executive Board of Unesco in 1971, is composed of thirty-nine m e m b e r s
(two-thirds of w h o m are African and one-third non-African) serving in their personal
capacity and appointed by the Director-General of Unesco for the duration of the
Committee's mandate.
T h e first task of the Committee w a s to define the principal characteristics of the
w o r k . These were defined at thefirstsession of the C o m m i t t e e as follows:
(a) Although aiming at the highest possible scientific level, the history does not seek
to be exhaustive and is a w o r k of synthesis avoiding dogmatism. In m a n y respects,
it is a statement of problems showing the present state of knowledge and the main
trends in research, and it does not hesitate to s h o w divergencies of views where
these exist. In this w a y , it prepares the ground for future w o r k .
(b) Africa is considered in this w o r k as a totality. T h e aim is to s h o w the historical
relationships between the various parts of the continent, too frequently subdi-
vided in works published to date. Africa's historical connections with the other
continents receive due attention, these connections being analysed in terms of
mutual exchanges and multilateral influences, bringing out, in its appropriate
light, Africa's contribution to the history of mankind.
(c) The General History of Africa is, in particular, a history of ideas and civilizations,
societies and institutions. It is based on a wide variety of sources, including oral
tradition and art forms.
(d) T h e History is viewed essentially from the inside. Although a scholarly w o r k , it is
also, in large measure, a faithful reflection of the w a y in which African authors
view their o w n civilization. W h i l e prepared in an international framework and
drawing to the full on the present stock of scientific knowledge, it should also be a

1. During the Sixth Plenary Session of the International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of
Africa (Brazzaville, August 1983), an election of the n e w Bureau was held and Professor Ogot was replaced by Professor
A . A d u Boahen.
XÜ
Description of the project

vitally important element in the recognition of the African heritage and should
bring out the factors making for unity in the continent. This effort to view things
from within is the novel feature of the project and should, in addition to its
scientific quality, give it great topical significance. B y showing the true face of
Africa, the History could, in an era absorbed in economic and technical struggles,
offer a particular conception of h u m a n values.

The Committee has decided to present the w o r k covering over three million years of
African history in eight volumes, each containing about eight hundred pages of text
with illustrations, photographs, maps and line drawings.
A chief editor, assisted if necessary by one or t w o assistant editors, is responsible for
the preparation of each volume. The editors are elected by the Committee either from
a m o n g its members or from outside by a two-thirds majority. They are responsible for
preparing the volumes in accordance with the decisions and plans adopted by the
Committee. O n scientific matters, they are accountable to the Committee or, between
two sessions of the Committee, to its Bureau for the contents of the volumes, the final
version of the texts, the illustrations and, in general, for all scientific and technical
aspects of the History. T h e Bureau ultimately approves the final manuscript. W h e n it
considers the manuscript ready for publication, it transmits it to the Director-General of
Unesco. T h u s the Committee, or the Bureau between committee sessions, remains
fully in charge of the project.
Each volume consists of some thirty chapters. Each chapter is the w o r k of a principal
author assisted, if necessary, by one or t w o collaborators. T h e authors are selected by
the Committee on the basis of their curricula vitae. Preference is given to African authors,
provided they have requisite qualifications. Special effort is also m a d e to ensure, as far as
possible, that all regions of the continent, as well as other regions having historical or
cultural ties with Africa, are equitably represented a m o n g the authors.
W h e n the editor of a volume has approved texts of chapters, they are then sent to all
members of the Committee for criticism. In addition, the text of the volume editor is
submitted for examination to a Reading Committee, set up within the International
Scientific Committee on the basis of the m e m b e r s 'fieldsof competence. The Reading
Committee analyses the chapters from the standpoint of both substance and form. T h e
Bureau then givesfinalapproval to the manuscripts.
Such a seemingly long and involved procedure has proved necessary, since it provides
the best possible guarantee of the scientific objectivity of the General History of Africa.
There have, in fact, been instances w h e n the Bureau has rejected manuscripts or insisted
on major revisions or even reassigned the drafting of a chapter to another author. Occa-
sionally, specialists in a particular period of history or in a particular question are con-
sulted to put thefinishingtouches to a volume.
The w o r k will be published first in a hard-cover edition in English, French and
Arabic, and later in paperback editions in the same languages. A n abridged version in
English and French will serve as a basis for translation into African languages. T h e
Committee has chosen Kiswahili and Hausa as thefirstAfrican languages into which
the work will be translated.
Also, every effort will be m a d e to ensure publication of the General History of Africa
 Description of the project

in other languages of wide international currency such as Chinese, Portuguese, Russian,

German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, etc.
It is thus evident that this is a gigantic task which constitutes an immense challenge
to African historians and to the scholarly community at large, as well as to Unesco
under whose auspices the work is being done. For the writing of a continental history of
Africa, covering the last three million years, using the highest canons of scholarship and
involving, as it must do, scholars drawn from diverse countries, cultures, ideologies and
historical traditions, is surely a complex undertaking. It constitutes a continental,
international and interdisciplinary project of great proportions.
In conclusion, I would like to underline the significance of this work for Africa and
for the world. At a time w h e n the peoples of Africa are striving towards unity and
greater co-operation in shaping their individual destinies, a proper understanding of
Africa's past, with an awareness of c o m m o n ties a m o n g Africans and between Africa and
other continents, should not only be a major contribution towards mutual under-
standing among the people of the earth, but also a source of knowledge of a cultural
heritage that belongs to all mankind.

Note on chronology

It has been agreed to adopt the following method for writing dates. With regard to
prehistory, dates m a y be written in two different ways.
O n e w a y is by reference to the present era, that is, dates B P (before present), the
reference year being + 1950; all dates are negative in relation to + 1950.
T h e other w a y is by reference to the beginning of the Christian era. Dates are
represented in relation to the Christian era by a simple + or - sign before the date.
W h e n referring to centuries, the terms B C and A D are replaced by 'before the Christian
era' and 'of the Christian era'.
S o m e examples are as follows:
(i) 2300 B P = -350
(ii) 2900 B C = -2900
A D 1800 = + 1800
(iii) Fifth century B C = Fifth century before the Christian era
Third century A D = Third century of the Christian era.
 Members of
the International Scientific Committee
for the Drafting
ofa General History of Africa

The dates cited below refer to dates of membership.

Professor J. F. A . Ajayi Professor H . Djait

(Nigeria), from 1971 (Tunisia), from 1975
Editor Volume VI
Professor J. D . Fage
Professor F. A . Albuquerque Mourao ( U K ) , 1971-81 (resigned)
(Brazil), from 1975
H . E . M . El Fasi
Professor A . A . Boahen (Morocco), from 1971
(Ghana), from 1971 Editor Volume III
Editor Volume VII
The late Professor J. L . Franco
The late H . E . Boubou H a m a
(Cuba), from 1971; deceased 1989
(Niger), 1971-8 (resigned in 1978);
deceased 1982 The late M r M . H . I. Galaal
Dr (Mrs) Mutumba M . Bull (Somalia), 1971-81; deceased 1981
(Zambia), from 1971 Professor D r V . L. Grottanelli
Professor D . Chanaiwa (Italy), from 1971
(Zimbabwe), from 1975 Professor E . Haberland
Professor P. D . Curtin (Federal Republic of Germany),
(USA), from 1975 from 1971
Professor J. Dévisse Dr Aklilu Habte
(France), from 1971 (Ethiopia), from 1971
Professor M . Difuila H . E . A . Hampâté Bâ
(Angola), from 1978 (Mali), 1971-8 (resigned)
The late Professor Cheikh Anta Diop D r I. S. El-Hareir
(Senegal), 1971-86; deceased 1986 (Libya), from 1978
xvii
 Committee for the Drafting of the General History of Africa
Dr I. Hrbek Professor C . Ravoajanahary
(Czechoslovakia), from 1971 (Madagascar), from 1971
Assistant Editor Volume III
The late Professor W . Rodney
Dr (Mrs) A . Jones (Guyana), 1979-80; deceased 1980
(Liberia), from 1971
The late Professor M . Shibeika
The late Abbé Alexis Kagame (Sudan), 1971-80; deceased 1980
(Rwanda), 1971-81; deceased 1981
Professor Y . A . Talib
Professor I. M . Kimambo
(Singapore), from 1975
(Tanzania), from 1971
Professor J. Ki-Zerbo The late Professor A . Teixeira da Mota
(Burkina Faso) from 1971 (Portugal), 1978-82; deceased 1982
Editor Volume I Mgr T . Tshibangu
M r D . Laya (Zaïre), from 1971
(Niger), from 1979 Professor J. Vansina
Dr A . Letnev (Belgium), from 1971
(USSR), from 1971
The late Rt. H o n . Dr E . Williams
Dr G . Mokhtar (Trinidad and Tobago), 1976-8; resigned
(Egypt), from 1971 1978; deceased 1980
Editor Volume II
Professor A . A . Mazrui
Professor P. Mutibwa (Kenya)
(Uganda), from 1975 Editor Volume VIII,
Professor D . T . Niane not a member of the Committee
(Senegal), from 1971
Editor Volume IV Professor C . Wondji
(Ivory Coast)
Professor L. D . Ngcongco Assistant Editor Volume VIII,
(Botswana), from 1971 not a member of the Committee
Professor T . Obenga
Secretariat of the International
(People's Republic of the Congo), Scientific Committee
from 1975 A . Gatera, Director,
Professor B . A . Ogot Division of Cultural Studies
(Kenya), from 1971 and Policies
Editor Volume V I, rue Miollis, 75015 Paris
 Biographies
of the authors who contributed
to the main edition
The abridged version was prepared from the texts
of the main version written
by thefollowing authors:

INTRODUCTION G . Mokhtar (Egypt); specialist in archaeology; author of numerous publications on the history of
Ancient Egypt; former Director of the Service of Antiquities.

CHAPTER. 1 Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal); specialist in human sciences; author of numerous works and articles on
Africa and the origin of m a n ; Director of the Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of Dakar.

CHAPTER 2 A . A b u Bakr (Egypt); specialist in the ancient history of Egypt and Nubia; author of numerous publi-
cations on Ancient Egypt; Professor at the University of Cairo; deceased.

CHAPTER 3 J. Yoyotte (France); specialist in Egyptology; author of numerous publications on Egyptology;

Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

CHAPTER 4 A . H . Zayed (Egypt); specialist in Egyptology and ancient history; author of numerous works and
articles on Ancient Egypt; Professor of Ancient History.

CHAPTER 5 R . El Nadoury (Egypt); specialist in ancient history; author of numerous works and articles on the
history of the Maghrib and of Egypt; Professor of Ancient History and Vice-Chairman of the Faculty
of Arts, University of Alexandria.

CHAPTER 6 H . Riad (Egypt); specialist in history and archaeology; author of numerous works on the Pharaonic
and Graeco-Roman periods; Chief Curator of the M u s e u m of Cairo.

CHAPTER 7 S. Donadoni (Italy); specialist in the history of Ancient Egypt; author of a number of works on
cultural history; Professor at the University of R o m e .

CHAPTERS S. A d a m (Egypt); specialist in Egyptian history and archaeology; author of numerous publications on
Ancient Egypt; Director of the Centre of Documentation and Studies on the Art and Civilization of
Ancient Egypt.

CHAPTER9 N . M . Sherif (Sudan); specialist in archaeology; author of numerous works on the archaeology of
Sudan; Director of the National M u s e u m at Khartoum.

CHAPTER 10 J. Leclant (France); specialist in Egyptology; author of numerous works and articles on Ancient
Egypt; Professor at the Sorbonne; M e m b e r of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres.

CHAPTER 11 A . A . Hakem (Sudan); specialist in ancient history; author of numerous works on ancient Sudan;
Head of the Department of History at the University of Khartoum.

CHAPTER 12 K . Michalowski (Poland); specialist in Mediterranean archaeology; author of numerous publications

on the art of Ancient Egypt; Professor of Archaeology; Deputy Director of the National M u s e u m ,
Warsaw.
XX Biographies of Authors who contributed to the main edition

CHAPTER 13 H . de Contenson (France); specialist in African history; author of works on Ethiopian archaeology
and Christian Nubia; engaged in research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
(CNRS).

C H A P T E R 14 F. Anfray (France); specialist in archaeology; author of a number of articles on archaeological research

in Ethiopia; Head of the French Archaeological Mission to Ethiopia.

CHAPTER 15 Y . M . Kobishanov (USSR); historian, author of numerous articles on African anthropology; m e m -

ber of the U S S R Academy of Sciences.

CHAPTER 16 Tekle Tsadik Mekouria (Ethiopia); historian; writer; specialist in the political, economic and social
history of Ethiopia from its origins to the 20th century; retired.

CHAPTER 17 J. Desanges (France); specialist in the history of Ancient Africa, author of numerous works and
articles on Ancient Africa; lecturer at the University of Nantes.

CHAPTER 18 B . H . Warmington ( U K ) ; specialist in the history of ancient R o m e : author of many works on North
Africa; lecturer in Ancient History.

CHAPTER 19 A . Mahjoubi (Tunisia); specialist in Ancient History of North Africa; author of numerous works and
articles on Tunisian archaeology, assistant professor at the University of Tunis.
P. Salama (Algeria); archaeologist; specialist in the history of the ancient institutions of the Maghrib;
professor at the University of Algiers.

CHAPTER 20 P. Salama.

CHAPTER 21 M . Posnansky ( U K ) ; historian and archaeologist; author of a number of important works on the
archaeological history of East Africa.

CHAPTER 22 A . M . H . Sheriff (Tanzania); specialist in the history of the East African slave trade; lecturer at the
University of Dar-es-Salaam.

CHAPTER 23 J. E . G . Sutton ( U K ) ; specialist in prehistory; author of numerous works and articles on African
history; former President of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

CHAPTER 24 B . Wai-Andah (Nigeria); specialist in archaeology; author of works on the archaeology of West
Africa; lecturer at the University of Ibadan.

C H A P T E R 25 F. Van Noten (Belgium); specialist in prehistory and archaeology; author of numerous works and
publications on prehistory of Central Africa; Curator at the Royal Museum of Prehistory and
Archaeology.

CHAPTER 26 J. E . Parkington ( U K ) ; archaeologist; author of works on the prehistory of Southern Africa;

professor of archaeology.

CHAPTER 27 D . W . Phillipson ( U K ) ; archaeologist; author of works on the archaeology of East and Southern
Africa.
CHAPTER 28 P. Verin (France); specialist in history and archaeology; author of numerous publications on
Madagascar and the civilizations of the Indian Ocean; engaged in research on Madagascar.

CHAPTER 29 M . Posnansky.

CONCLUSION G . Mokhtar.
 Introduction

The present volume of A General History of Africa deals with that long period of the
continent's history extending from the end of the Neolithic era (Stone Age), that is,
from around the eighth millennium before the Christian era to the beginning of the
seventh century of the Christian era.
That period, which covers some nine thousand.years of Africa's history, has been
roughly sub-divided into four major geographical zones:
(1) the corridor of the Nile, Egypt and Nubia (Chapters 1 to 12);
(2) the Ethiopian highlands (Chapters 13 to 16);
(3) that part of Africa often later called the Maghrib, and its Saharan hinterland
(Chapters 17 to 20);
(4) the rest of Africa, including the African islands in the Indian Ocean (Chapters 21
to 29).
This division is largely determined by the present regional compartmental nature of
research into African history. It might have seemed more logical to arrange the
volume according to the continent's chief ecological divisions, which offer the same
living conditions to the h u m a n groups inhabiting them, without any true physical
barriers.
Such a division, more satisfying than the one that has had to be used, was unfor-
tunately impossible. T h e separation into sections which is reflected in the plan adopted
here derives very largely from the colonization of the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies. T h e archives of the history of Africa, which consist of reports of excavations or
of texts and iconography, are for some regions assembled, classified and published
according to an order which is irrelevant and arbitrary to the present situation in
Africa, but which is very difficult to call in question.
This volume of A General History of Africa, perhaps even more than the one that
preceded it, must depend on inconclusive and tentative assessments. This is because
the period it covers is obscure, owing to the scarcity of sources in general, and of
solidly-dated sources in particular - except in respect of certain relatively privileged
regions such as the Nile Valley and the Maghrib. For the greater part of the
continent, it must be repeated, hard verifiable facts in the period are exceptions rather
than the rule.
Yet another point should be stressed: the archaeological sources available to the
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

historian are extremely inadequate. Because of the prohibitive costliness in m e n and

money, excavations are not uniformly spread over the continent as a whole. There is
not everywhere the density of excavation that is found notably along the coast, in the
hinterland of the northern fringe and, above all, in the Nile Valley from the sea to the
Second Cataract.
This lack of archaeological information cannot, unfortunately, be supplemented by
reports of foreign travellers, contemporaries of the events or facts that concern this
volume. T h e forbidding nature of the continent deterred outsiders. T h e continent's
rugged nature, and its very size, discouraged, in antiquity as later, deep penetration by
those from outside. It will be noted that, in the present state of our knowledge,
Africa is the only continent where voyages around the coastline have thrown an
important light on history.
These considerations notwithstanding, the inconclusive assessments of Africa from
- 8 0 0 0 to + 7 0 0 are not mere guesses or suppositions; they are based on available data,
although these are often rare and inadequate. A s should be expected, the task of
contributors to this w o r k has been to collect, weigh and assess those sources very
carefully. A s specialists in the regions whose history - no matter h o w frag-
mentary - they trace, they present here the synthesis of what m a y legitimately be
deduced from the data at their disposal. Their assessments, subject to re-examination
w h e n further sources are available, will, w e are persuaded, provide encouragement
and research guidelines to future historians.
S o m e evaluation of the density of Africa's population during the crucial period
between - 8000 and - 5000 is very necessary, because this is in fact the birth period of
the cultures that were later to become differentiated. Moreover the demographic
pattern of the period would have a bearing on the evolution of the art of writing: a
high or low population density would encourage or m a k e unnecessary the develop-
ment of writing. T h e originality of Ancient Egypt, in contrast with the rest of Africa
at the same period, perhaps, resides mainly in the fact that the high population density
found in ancient times along the banks of the Nile between the First Cataract and the
southern portion of the Delta gradually compelled the use of writing, simply in order
to co-ordinate the irrigation system vital to these peoples' survival. In contrast, the
use of writing was not essential south of the A s w a n Cataract, which was a region of
low population density where the small somatic groups w h o occupied the country
remained independent of each other. Thus it is regrettable that the population density
pattern during that period is beyond scientific investigation and certification.
Lastly ecology, which altered considerably both in space and in time, played an
important part. T h e environment of - 7000 to - 2400, a period of 4,600 years, which is
m u c h more than half the period studied in this volume, was very different from that
which obtained after the second half of the third millennium. This latter environ-
ment, which seems to have been very similar to the present, strongly determined the
pattern of h u m a n societies living in it. C o m m u n i t y life is not and cannot be the same
in the great subtropical desert zones, southern as well as northern, as in the great
equatorial forest; or in the mountain ranges as in the great river basins; or in the
swamps as in the great lakes. The influence of these major ecological zones is of capital
importance for the growth of the routes which permitted movement from one sphere
Introduction 3

to another, for example, from the Maghrib or mountainous Ethiopia or the Nile
Valley towards the central basins of the C o n g o , Niger and Senegal rivers; or again,
from the Atlantic coast towards the R e d Sea and the Indian Ocean. Yet those routes
are still very little explored. They are guessed at or rather they are 'presumed', m u c h
more than actually k n o w n . A systematic archaeological study of them should teach us
a great deal about the history of Africa. In fact, it is only w h e n they have been
discovered and fully investigated that w e shall be able to undertake a fruitful study of
the migrations between - 8 0 0 0 and - 2 5 0 0 which followed the last great climatic
changes and which profoundly altered the distribution of h u m a n groups in Africa.
A s m a y be seen, the chapters of V o l u m e II of A General History of Africa constitute
points of departures for future research m u c h m o r e than a rehearsal of well-established
facts. Unfortunately, as has been stressed before, such facts are extremely rare except
in the case of some regions that are very small in comparison with the immense size
of the continent of Africa.

Egypt: geographical position

In large part parallel to the shores of the R e d Sea and the Indian Ocean, to which
depressions perpendicular to its course give it access, the Nile Valley, south of the
eighth parallel north and as far as the Mediterranean, is also wide open to the west,
thanks to valleys starting in the C h a d region, the Tibesti and the Ennedi and ending
in its course. Lastly, the broad span of the Delta, the Libyan oases and the Suez
isthmus give it wide access to the Mediterranean. Thus open to east and west, to
south and north, the Nile Corridor is a zone of privileged contacts, not only between
the African regions bordering it, but also with the more distant centres of ancient
civilization of the Arabian peninsula, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean world,
western as well as eastern.
H o w e v e r , the importance of this geographical position varied with time. In Africa
the end of the Neolithic A g e was characterized by a final wet phase that lasted till
around - 2300 in the northern hemisphere. During that period, which extended from
the seventh to the third millennium before the Christian era, the regions east and west
of the Nile enjoyed climatic conditions favourable to h u m a n settlement and, conse-
quently, contacts and relations between the east and west of the continent were as
important as those established between the north and the south.
In contrast, after - 2400, the very drying-up of that part of Africa lying between
the thirtieth and fifteenth parallels north m a d e the Nile Valley the major route of
communication between the continent's Mediterranean coast and what is n o w called
Africa south of the Sahara. It w a s via the Nile Valley that raw materials, manufac-
tured objects and, no doubt, ideas m o v e d from north to south and vice versa.
It is clear that, because of climatic variations, the geographical position of the
middle Nile Valley, as of Egypt, did not have the same importance, or more exactly
the same impact, during the period from - 7 0 0 0 to - 2 4 0 0 as it did after that date.
Between those years, h u m a n groups and cultures could m o v e freely in the northern
hemisphere between east and west as well as between south and north. This w a s the
primordial period for the formation and individualization of African cultures.
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

From - 2400 to the seventh century of the Christian era, however, the Nile Valley
became the privileged route between the continent's north and south. It was via that
valley that exchanges of various kinds took place between black Africa and the
Mediterranean basin.

Sources for the history of the Nile Valley in antiquity

The sources at our disposal are of an archaeological nature and thus silent - at least
apparently - and literary. T h e former, especially for the earliest periods have only
recently been sought out and collected together. T h e literary sources, on the other
hand, have a long tradition.
Well before Jean-François Champollion ( +1790 to +1832), w h o in the nineteenth
century deciphered old Egyptian scripts, mysterious Egypt had aroused curiosity. As
early as the sixth century before the Christian era the Greeks had already called
attention to the differences between their customs and beliefs and those of the Nile
Valley. Thanks to Herodotus, their observations have come d o w n to us. T o gain a
better understanding of their n e w subjects, the Ptolemaic kings had a history of
Pharaonic Egypt compiled on their o w n behalf in the third century before the
Christian era. Manetho, an Egyptian, was put in charge of writing this general
history of Egypt. H e had access to the ancient archives and was able to read them. If
his work had come d o w n to us in its entirety, w e would have been spared m a n y
uncertainties. Unfortunately it disappeared w h e n the Library of Alexandria was
burned. T h e excerpts preserved in various compilations, which were too often
assembled for apologetic purposes, none the less provide us with a solid framework of
Egyptian history. In fact, the thirty-one Manethonian dynasties remain today the firm
foundation of the relative chronology of Egypt.
T h e closing of the last Egyptian temples under Justinian I in the sixth century of
the Christian era led to the abandonment of Pharaonic forms of writing, whether
hieroglyphic, hieratic or demotic. Only the spoken language survived, in Coptic; the
written sources gradually fell into disuse. It was not until +1822, w h e n Jean-François
Champollion deciphered the script that w e once again had access to ancient docu-
ments drawn up by the Egyptians themselves.
O f course these Ancient Egyptian literary sources have to be used with caution, for
they are of a particular nature. Most often they were prepared with a specific purpose:
to enumerate a Pharaoh's achievements or to ensure eternal worship. Into these t w o
catégories of documents fall the lengthy texts and historical images that adorn some
parts of Egyptian temples, and also the venerable ancestor lists such as those carved in
the Karnak temples during the Eighteenth Dynasty and at Abydos during the
Nineteenth.
For compiling royal lists like those referred to above, the scribes used documents
drawn up either by priests or by royal officals, which presupposes the existence of
properly maintained official archives. Unfortunately only two of these documents
have come d o w n to us, but even they are incomplete. They are:
The Palermo Stone (so called because the largest fragment of the text is preserved in
the m u s e u m of that Sicilian city) is a diorite slab carved on both faces, which preserves
Introduction

i
BB891
1m
M

T/ie Palermo Stone (A. H. Gardiner, T h e Egypt of the Pharoahs, Oxford University
Press, 1961)
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
PLATE III
VIII VII

The Papyrus of Turin (A. H. Gardiner, The Royal Canon of Turin, Oxford, 1954.
Photo, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Introduction 1

for us the names of all the Pharaohs w h o reigned in Egypt from the beginning to the
Fifth Dynasty, around - 2450. Starting with the Third Dynasty, the Palermo Stone
lists not only the names of the sovereigns in the order of their succession but also, year
by year, the most important events of each reign.
The Turin Papyrus, preserved in that city's m u s e u m , is no less important, although
it consists only of a list of rulers, with their complete protocol and the number of
years, months and days of their reigns, arranged in chronological order. It provides a
complete list of all the Pharaohs from the earliest times to around - 1200.

Egyptian chronology
The Palermo Stone, the Turin Papyrus and the royal lists on monuments are all the
more important for the history of Egypt in that the Egyptians did not use any
continuous or cyclical eras similar to our systems: such as, for example, before or after
Christ, the years of the Hegira, or the Olympiads. Their computation was based on
the person of the Pharaoh himself and each date w a s given by reference to the
sovereign ruling at the time the document was drawn up. This practice explains
the importance, for establishing chronology, of knowing both the names of all the
Pharaohs w h o reigned and the duration of each one's reign. Not only does the order
of succession itself remain controversial for certain periods, w h e n the Turin Papyrus
and Palermo Stone have no references, but even the exact length of reign of some
sovereigns remains u n k n o w n . At best, w e have only the earliest k n o w n date of a
given Pharaoh, but his reign m a y have lasted long after the erection of the m o n u m e n t
carrying that date.
Even with these gaps, all the dates provided by the sources at our disposal added
together give a total of over 4,000 years. This is the long chronology accepted by the
first Egyptologists until about +1900. It was then realized that such a time span was
impossible, for further study of the texts and monuments showed, first, that at
certain periods several Pharaohs reigned simultaneously and that there were thus
parallel dynasties, and, secondly, that occasionally a Pharaoh took one of his sons as
co-regent. Since each of the rulers dated his monuments according to his o w n reign,
there was thus some overlapping, and by adding together the reigns of parallel
dynasties and those of co-regents, with the reigns of the official sovereigns, one
necessarily arrived at a total figure which was m u c h too high.
It would probably have been impossible to solve this problem, if one peculiarity of
the ancient Pharaonic calendar had not provided a sure chronological framework, by
linking that calendar to a permanent astronomical phenomenon the tables for which
were easy to establish. W e are here referring to the rising of the star Sothis - our
Sirius - co-ordinated with the rising of the sun, at a latitude of Heliopolis-Memphis.
This is what is called the 'heliacal rising of Sothis', which was observed and noted in
antiquity by the Egyptians. These observations supplied the 'Sothic' dates on which
Egyptian chronology rests today.
At the outset the Egyptians, like most of the peoples of antiquity, seem to have
used a lunar calendar, notably to set the dates of religious festivals. But alongside that
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

astronomical calendar they used another, a natural calendar based on the periodic
repetition of an event that was all-important for their existence - the flood of the
Nile.
In that calendar the first season of the year, called 'Akhet' in Egyptian, saw the
beginning of the flood. For about four months thefieldswould become saturated
with water. In the next season the land gradually coming out from the flood waters
became ready for sowing. This was the season of Peret, literally 'coming out'. In the
third andfinalseason the Egyptians harvested and then stored the harvest. This was
the season of Shemou.
Whatever their reasons, the Egyptians, by linking the beginning of theflood,and
consequently thefirstday of the n e w year, with an astronomical phenomenon, have
provided us with a means of setting positive reference points for their long history.
At the latitude of Memphis the very gentle beginning of the flood took place about
the middle of July. Observation over a few years appears to have sufficed to show the
Egyptians that the beginning of the flood recurred on average every 365 days. They
thereupon divided their year of three empirical seasons into a year of twelve months of
thirty days each. They then assigned four months to each of the seasons. B y adding
five additional days (in Egyptian the '5 heryou renepet', the five over - in addition
to - the year), the scribes obtained a year of 365 days which was by far the best of all
those adopted in antiquity. However, although very good, that year was not perfect.
In fact, the earth completes its revolution around the sun, not in 365 days, but 365Vi
days. Every four years the Egyptians' official year lagged one day behind the
astronomical year, and it was only after 1,460 years - what is called a Sothic
Period - that the three phenomena, sunrise, rise of Sothis and beginning of the flood
occurred simultaneously on thefirstday of the official year.
This gradual lag between the t w o years had an important consequence: it enabled
modern astronomers to determine w h e n the Egyptians adopted their calendar, that
date necessarily having to coincide with the beginning of a Sothic period.
By combining the astronomical dates with the relative dates provided by the
sources at our disposal - the Turin Papyrus, the Palermo Stone, the dated monuments
of various epochs - w e have been able to reach a basic chronology, the most certain
of all those of the ancient Orient. It sets the beginning of the history of Egypt
at - 3 0 0 0 .
T h e conquest by Alexander of Macedón in - 332 marks the end of the history of
Pharaonic Egypt and the beginning of the Hellenistic period (cf. Chapter 6).

The Nilotic environment

It is perhaps useful to quote here a sentence written by Herodotus (11,35) at the end
of his description of Egypt: 'Not only is the Egyptian climate peculiar to that
country, and the Nile different in its behaviour from other rivers elsewhere, but the
Egyptians themselves in their manners and customs seem to have reversed the ordinary
practices of mankind.' O f course, w h e n he wrote that sentence Herodotus was
thinking only of the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. It is none the less true
Introduction 9

that, of all the countries of Africa, Egypt is the one with the most distinctive
environment. It owes this to the regime of the Nile. Without the river, Egypt would
not exist. This has been said over and over again since Herodotus: it is a basic truth.
F r o m the end of the Neolithic Age, around - 3300 to - 2400, north-western Africa,
the Sahara included, enjoyed a relatively moist climatic system. At that period Egypt
was not dependent solely on the Nile for its subsistence. T h e steppe still extended
both east and west of the valley, providing cover for abundant game and favouring
considerable cattle-raising. Agriculture w a s then still only one of the components of
daily life, and cattle-raising - even hunting - played at least as important a role. A
census of this basic wealth was made every t w o years. T h e scenes decorating the
mastabas of the Old K i n g d o m from the end of the Fourth Dynasty to the Sixth
Dynasty ( - 2500 to - 2200) clearly show that cattle-raising occupied an essential place
in Egyptian life at that time.
W e m a y thus suspect that man's search for control of the river - the fundamental
achievement of Egyptian civilization, which enabled it toflourish- was probably
stimulated in the beginning not by the desire to m a k e better use of the flood for
agriculture, but more especially to prevent damage by the rising waters. It is
sometimes forgotten that the overflowing of the Nile is not solely beneficial: it can
bring disaster, and it was no doubt for themselves that the valley's inhabitants learned
to build dykes and dams to shield their villages and to dig canals to dry out their
fields. So they slowly acquired experience that became vital for them w h e n the climate
of Africa between the thirtieth andfifteenthparallels north gradually became as dry as
it is today, transforming into absolute desert the immediate neighbourhood of the
Nile Valley, both in Egypt and in Nubia. Thereafter, all life in the valley was strictly
conditioned by the river's rise.
Using the dyke-building and canal-digging techniques which they had perfected
over the centuries, the Egyptians little by little developed the system of irrigation by
basins (hods), thus securing not only their survival in a climate increasingly desert-
like, but even the possibility of expansion (see Chapters 4 and 8 below).
It is no exaggeration to say that this unique system of irrigation is at the very root
of the development of Egyptian civilization. It explains h o w h u m a n ingenuity slowly
managed to overcome great difficulties and succeeded in changing the valley's natural
ecology.
By profoundly changing the conditions imposed upon him by nature, m a n played
an essential part in the emergence and expansion of civilization in the Nile Valley.
Egypt is not only a gift of the Nile; it is, above all, a creation of m a n .

The settlement of the Nile Valley

As early as the Palaeolithic Era (Ice A g e ) m a n occupied, if not the actual valley, at
least its immediate neighbourhood and notably the terraces overlooking it. Suc-
cessions of wet and dry periods during the Palaeolithic and Neolithic Ages (see
Volume I) inevitably changed the population density, first one w a y then the other,
but the fact remains that, as far back in time as w e can go, homo sapiens has always
been living in Egypt.
10 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

T o what race did he belong? F e w anthropological problems have given rise to so

m u c h impassioned discussion. Yet this problem is not n e w . Already in + 1 8 7 4 there
was argument about whether the Ancient Egyptians were 'white' or 'black'. A
century later a Unesco-sponsored symposium in Cairo proved that the discussion was
not, nor was likely soon to be, closed. Recently an anthropologist cast doubt upon
the very possibility of finding positive means of determing the race to which a given
skeleton belongs - at least as regards very ancient h u m a n remains, such as those from
the Palaeolithic Era, for instance. T h e traditional criteria applied by physical
anthropoligists - facial index, length of limbs, etc. - are no longer accepted by
everyone today. Nevertheless, it is highly doubtful whether the inhabitants w h o
introduced civilization into the Nile Valley ever belonged to one single, pure race.
The very history of the peopling of the valley refutes such a possibility.
M a n did not penetrate all at once into a valley that w a s empty or inhabited only by
wild animals. H e settled there gradually in the course of thousands of years, as the
very density of the h u m a n groups or the variations in climate forced him to seek
additional resources or greater security. O w i n g to its position at the north-eastern
corner of the African continent, it w a s inevitable that the Nile Valley as a whole, and
Egypt in particular, should become the terminal point for movements of people
coming not only from Africa but also from the Middle East, not to mention more
distant Europe. It is, therefore, not surprising that anthropologists should have
believed they could discern, a m o n g the several very ancient Nilotic skeletons at their
disposal, representatives of the C r o - M a g n o n race, Armenoids, negroids, leucoderms,
etc., although these terms should only be accepted with caution. If an Egyptian race
ever existed - and this is open to doubt - it was the result of mixtures whose basic
elements varied in time as well as in space.
O n e fact remains, however, and that is the continued existence in Egypt, as in
Nubia, of a certain physical type which it would be vain to call a race, since it varies
slightly according to whether w e are concerned with Lower or Upper Egypt. Darker
in the south than in the north, it is in general darker than in the rest of the
Mediterranean basin, including North Africa. The hair is black and curly and the face,
rather round and hairless, is in the Old Kingdom sometimes adorned with a
moustache. Relatively slim as a rule, it is the h u m a n type that frescoes, bas-reliefs and
statues of the Pharaohs have made familiar to us.
This shows that in the Nile Valley w e have to do with a h u m a n type, not a race, a
type gradually brought into being as m u c h by the habits and conditions of life peculiar
to the valley as by the mixtures of which it is the product. It is more than probable
that the African strain, black or light, is preponderant in the Ancient Egyptian, but in
the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to say more.

Writing and environment

Egypt was thefirstAfrican country to make use of writing, if w e judge from the
employment in the hieroglyphic system of pictograms representing objects that had
long ago ceased to be used. It is possible to set its invention at the Amratian period,
Introduction 11

called also the Nagada I (see V o l u m e I), that is, around - 4 0 0 0 , if w e follow the dates
suggested by carbon 14 dating, at the beginning of the historic period. Thus it is one
of the oldest k n o w n systems of writing. It developed very rapidly, since it appears
already established o n the N a r m e r palette, thefirsthistoric Egyptian m o n u m e n t ,
which can be dated at - 3 0 0 0 . Moreover, the fauna and flora used in the signs are
essentially African.
Egyptian writing is fundamentally pictographic, like m a n y ancient types of writ-
ing, but, whereas in China and Mesopotamia, for example, the originally pictographic
signs rapidly evolved towards abstract forms, Egypt remained faithful to its system till
the end of its history.
But this system thus completed had several flaws. It necessarily utilized a greater
number of signs - more than 400 ordinary ones are k n o w n - which could leave the
reader perplexed as to h o w to read them. In addition, it was impossible atfirstsight
to k n o w whether a given sign w a s employed as a word-sign designating the object
represented, or whether it w a s used as a phonetic sign. T h e Ancient Egyptians
invented also what Egyptologists call phonetic complements. These consist of twenty-
four word-signs each of which has only one consonant. T h e scribes gradually came to
use them to indicate phonetic reading of the signs.
It is evident that these twenty-four simple signs in fact play the part of our letters,
and that w e have here in embryo the invention of the alphabet, since these signs
express all the consonants of the Egyptian language and since Egyptian, like Arabic
and H e b r e w , does not write the vowels. Hence there was no w o r d in the language
that could not have been written simply by means of signs. H o w e v e r , the Egyptians
never took the final step in this direction, and, far from employing only the simple,
almost alphabetic signs alone they further complicated their writing system by
bringing into it, in addition to the signs used phonetically and their phonetic
complements, n e w purely ideographic signs. These signs were placed at the end of the
words. They made it possible to classify those words into a given category at first
sight. For example, verbs designating a physical action, such as 'to strike', 'to kill',
were followed by the sign of a h u m a n arm holding a weapon.
W i t h its intricate system of word-signs, plurisyllabic phonetic signs, phonetic
complements and ideographic determinatives - a medley of signs, some to be pro-
nounced and others not to be pronounced - hieroglyphic writing is complex, cer-
tainly, but it is also very evocative.
O n e of the forces presiding over the invention and development of hieroglyphic
writing in the Nile Valley is undoubtedly to be found in the need for its inhabitants to
act together in a concerted manner to combat the disasters periodically threatening
them, a m o n g others the flooding of the Nile.
T h e political unification of Egypt by Menés around - 3000 was bound to strengthen
further the development of administration and, therefore, of writing. Moreover,
because of the very fickleness of the flood, one of the central government's respon-
sibilities w a s to stock as m u c h food as possible in times of plenty, to palliate the
shortages which might always occur at short notice. Consequently the leaders, in this
case the Pharaoh, must k n o w exactly what the country had available, so as to be able,
in case of need, either to ration or to distribute the existing resources to the regions
12 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

most seriously affected by the famine. This was the basis of Egypt's economic
organization and, in fact, of its very existence. It required on the material level a
complex accounting system for incomings and outgoings, as regards both
commodities and personnel, which explains the essential role devolving on the scribe
in the civilization of Ancient Egypt.
T h e contrast between Egypt and the Nubian Nile Valley gives us a better
understanding of the role of writing and the reasons for its existence in the emergence
and development of the Egyptian civilization. South of the First Cataract w e are in
the presence of a population having the same composition as that of Upper Egypt.
However, Nubia w a s always unwüling to accept the use of writing, although the
permanent contacts which it maintained with the Egyptian valley could not have left
it in ignorance of that use. T h e reason for this stage of affairs seems to reside in the
difference in the w a y of life. O n the one hand, w e have a dense population that the
requirements of irrigation and control of theriveron which its very existence depends
have closely bound into a hierachical society in which each individual plays a specific
role in the country's development.
O n the other hand, in Nubia w e have a population that at the d a w n of history
possessed a material culture equal, if not superior, to that of Upper Egypt, but the
population of which was divided into smaller groups spaced farther apart. Those
groups were more independent and more mobile, because stock-raising required
frequent moves and played at least as important a part in the economy as did
agriculture, the latter very limited in a valley narrower than in Egypt. T h e Nubian
peoples did not feel the need for writing. They were always to remain in the domain
of oral tradition, only very occasionally using writing and then solely, it seems, for
religious purposes, or w h e n they were subject to a central monarchical type of
government (see below, Chapters 10 and 11).

African Egypt - receptacle of influence

Around - 3700 a unification of the material culture in the t w o centres of civilization
in the Nile Valley occurred. O r , to be more precise, the southern centre, while still
maintaining its distinctive characteristics, partially adopted the culture of the northern
centre. This penetration southward of the northern civilization is often associated,
on the one hand, with the invention of writing and, on the other, with the appear-
ance in Egypt of invaders more advanced than the autochthonous inhabitants.
A s regards writing, w e have seen earlier that a purely Nilotic, hence African origin
not only is not excluded, but probably reflects the reality. However, the originality
and the antiquity of the Egyptian civilization should not hide the fact that it was also a
receptacle for m a n y influences. Moreover, its geographical position predisposed it in
this direction.
T h e relatively moist climate at the end of the Neolithic Era and throughout the
pre-dynastic period, which saw the crystallization of civilization in Egypt, made the
Arabian desert between the R e d Sea and the Nile Valley permeable, so to speak. It
was undoubtedly by that route that Mesopotamian influences, whose importance,
Introduction 13

incidentally, m a y have been exaggerated, penetrated into Egypt. It would seem also,
in spite of the lack of sufficient investigation, that some contacts existed between the
population of the Libyan desert and those of the Nile Valley.
T o the north, it seems that in very early times the links, by w a y of the isthmus of
Suez between Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian corridor, were not as close as they were
to become after the establishment of the O l d K i n g d o m . H o w e v e r , there again, very
ancient traces of contacts with Palestine are to be noted, and the Osiris m y t h m a y
have risen out of relationships between the Deltaic centre of civilization and the
wooded coast of Lebanon - relationships which would thus date back to extremely
ancient times.
At first glance the ties with the south seem m u c h clearer, but their importance is
difficult to assess. From the fourth century before the Christian era, people south of
the First Cataract (see Chapter 10 below) were in close contact with the lower Nile
Valley. In the pre- and proto-dynastic eras exchanges between the t w o groups of
peoples were numerous in pottery techniques and the manufacture of enamelled clay
(Egyptian faience), use of the same pigments, use of similar weapons, the same belief
in a life after death, related funerary rites. During these contacts the Egyptians must
have had relations, direct or through intermediaries, with the people of more distant
Africa, as m a y be deduced from the number of ivory and ebony objects that have been
collected from the oldest Egyptian tombs. Even if w e accept that the ecological
boundary line of ebony w a s farther north than it is today, it w a s still very far from
Lower Nubia, and this provides us with a precious piece of evidence of contacts
between Africa south of the Sahara and Egypt. Apart from ivory and ebony, incense -
which appears very early - and obsidian, both items foreign to the Nile Valley, could
have been imported by the Egyptians. T h r o u g h this trade, techniques and ideas would
have passed the more easily from one area to the other in that, as w e have seen, there
was in the Egyptians a considerable African strain.
Thus, whichever w a y w e turn, whether west or east, north or south, w e see that
Egypt received outside influences. H o w e v e r , these never profoundly affected the origi-
nality of the civilization that w a s gradually taking shape on the banks of the Nile,
before in its turn influencing adjoining regions. T o allow of an estimation of the part
that outside influences m a y have played at the beginning of civilization in the Nile
Valley, a good knowledge would be needed of the archaeology of the whole country
in ancient times.
A very comprehensive knowledge is required for a profitable comparison of the
archaeological material collected in Egypt with that provided by the neighbouring
cultures, designed to bring to light importations or imitations, the sole tangible proof
of large-scale contacts.
But, while the archaeology of the fourth millennium before the Christian era is
fairly well k n o w n , both in Upper Egypt and in L o w e r Nubia (between the First and
Second Cataracts), the same does not apply to the other parts of the Nile Valley. T h e
Delta, in particular, is virtually u n k n o w n to us in respect of the pre- and
proto-dynastic periods, except for some very rare localities on its desert fringe. All
references to possible influences coming from Asia during those periods, by w a y of the
Suez isthmus or the Mediterranean coast, are yet to be authenticated by investigation.
14 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

W e encounter the same difficulties in the case of the upper Nile Valley, between
the Second and Sixth Cataracts. O u r ignorance of the earliest archaeology of this vast
region is all the more regrettable, in that it must have been there that contacts and
trade between the Egyptian part of the Nile Valley and Africa south of the Sahara
took place.
 Origin
of the A ncient Egyptians

T h e general acceptance, as a sequel to the w o r k of Professor Leakey, of the hypothesis

of mankind's monogenetic and African origin, makes it possible to pose the question
of the peopling of Egypt and even of the world in completely n e w terms. M o r e than
150,000 years ago, beings morphologically identical with the m a n of today were living
in the region of the great lakes at the sources of the Nile and nowhere else. This
notion means that the whole h u m a n race had its origin, just as the ancients had
guessed, at the foot of the Mountains of the M o o n . F r o m this t w o facts of capital
importance result:
(a) T h e earliest m e n were ethnically homogeneous and negroid. Gloger's L a w ,
which would also appear to be applicable to h u m a n beings, lays it d o w n that
warm-blooded animals evolving in a w a r m , humid climate will secrete a black
pigment (eumelanin). Hence if mankind originated in the tropics around the
latitude of the great lakes, he was bound to have b r o w n pigmentation from the
start and it w a s by differentiation in other climates that the original stock later
split into different races.
(b) There were only two routes available by which these early m e n could m o v e out
to people the other continents, namely, the Sahara and the Nile Valley. It is the
latter region which will be discussed here.
F r o m the Upper Palaeolithic to the dynastic epoch, the whole of the river's basin was
taken over progressively by these negroid peoples.

Evidence of physical anthropology on the race of the Ancient Egyptians

It might have been thought that, working on physiological evidence, the findings of
the anthropologists would dissipate all doubts by providing reliable and definitive
truths. This is by no means so: the arbitrary nature of the criteria used, as well as
abolishing any notion of a conclusion acceptable without qualification, introduces a
considerate amount of scientific hair-splitting.
Nevertheless, although the conclusions of these anthropological studies stop short
of the full truth, they still speak unanimously of the existence of a negro race from the
most distant ages of prehistory d o w n to the dynastic period. It is not possible in this
paper to cite all these conclusions: they will be found summarized in Chapter X of
15
16 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

D r Emile Massoulard's Historie et protohistorie d'Egypte (Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris,

1949). W e shall quote selected items only.
Miss Fawcett considers that the Negadah skulls form a sufficiently homogeneous collection
to warrant the assumption of a Negadah race. In the total height of the skull, the auricular
height, the length and breadth of the face, nasal length, cephalic index and facial index,
this race would seem to approximate to the negro; in nasal breadth, height of orbit, length
of the palate and nasal index, it would seem closer to the Germanic peoples; accordingly
the Pre-Dynastic Negadians are likely to have resembled the negroes in certain of their
characteristics and the white races in others, (pp. 402-3)
These measurements, which would leave an open choice between the t w o extremes
represented by the negro and the Germanic races, give an idea of the elasticity of the
criteria employed.
'Falkenburger reopened the anthropological study of the Egyptian population in a
recent w o r k in which he discusses 1,787 male skulls varying in date from the old
Pre-Dynastic to our o w n day. H e distinguished four main groups.' The sorting of the
pre-dynastic skulls into these four groups gives the following results for the whole
pre-dynastic period: ' 3 6 % negroid, 3 3 % Mediterranean, 11% Cro-Magnoid and
2 0 % of individuals not falling in any of these groups but approximating either to the
Cro-Magnoid or the the negroid.'
T h e point about these conclusions is that despite their discrepancies the degree to
which they converge proves that the basis of the Egyptian population w a s negro in
the pre-dynastic epoch. T h u s they are all incompatible with the theory that the negro
element only infiltrated into Egypt at a late stage. Far otherwise, the facts prove that
it w a s preponderant from the beginning to the end of Egyptian history, particularly
w h e n w e note once m o r e that 'Mediterranean' is not a synonym for 'white',
Elliot-Smith's 'brown or Mediterranean race' being nearer the mark. Elliot-Smith
classes these proto-Egyptians as a branch of what he calls the b r o w n race, which is the
same as Sergi's 'Mediterranean or Eurafrican race'. T h e term 'brown' in this context
refers to skin colour and is simply a euphemism for negro. It is thus clear that it w a s
the whole of the Egyptian population which w a s negro, barring an infiltration of
white nomads in the proto-dynastic epoch.
In Pétrie's study of the Egyptian race w e are introduced to a possible classification
element in great abundance which cannot fail to surprise the reader.
Pétrie . . . published a study of the races of Egypt in the Pre-Dynastic and Proto-Dynastic
periods working only on portrayals of them. Apart from the steatopygian race, he
distinguishes six separate types: an aquiline type belonging to an invading race coming
perhaps from the shores of the Red Sea; a 'sharp nosed' type almost certainly from the
Arabian desert; a 'tilted nose' type from Middle Egypt; a 'jutting beard' type from Lower
Egypt and a 'narrow-nosed' type from Upper Egypt. Going on the images, there would
thus have been seven different racial types in Egypt during the epochs w e are considering.
T h e above m o d e of classification gives an idea of the arbitary nature of the criteria
used to define the Egyptian races. Be that as it m a y , it is clear that anthropology is far
from having established the existence of a white Egyptian race and would indeed tend
to suggest the opposite.
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 17

Nevertheless, in current textbooks the question is suppressed: in most cases it is

simply andflatlyasserted that the Egyptians were white and the honest layman is left
with the impression that any such assertion must necessarily have a prior basis of solid
research. But there is no such basis, as this chapter has s h o w n . A n d so generation after
generation has been misled.

H u m a n images of the proto-historic period: their anthropological value

T h e study of h u m a n images m a d e by Flinders Pétrie o n another plane shows that the
ethnic type w a s black: according to Pétrie these people were the A n u , whose n a m e
has been traced to the proto-historic epoch.
A s w e shall see later M i n , w h o w a s worshipped by the A n u , w a s called by the
tradition of Egypt itself 'the great negro'.
After a glance at the various foreign types of humanity w h o disputed the valley
with the indigenous blacks, Pétrie describes the A n u , w h o occupied southern Egypt
and Nubia, according to a certain portrait of Tera Neter, as blacks.
Amélineau lists in geographical order the fortified towns built along the
length of the Nile Valley b y the A n u blacks: Esneh, 'the southern O n ' or
Hermonthis, Denderah, a t o w n called O n in the n o m e of Tinis, and 'the northern
O n ' , or Heliopolis.
T h e mural in t o m b S D 6 3 (Sequence Date 63) of Hierakonpolis shows the native-
born blacks subjugating the foreign intruders into the valley, if w e accept Petrie's
interpretation: 'Below is the black ship at Hierakonpolis belonging to the black m e n
w h o are s h o w n as conquering the red m e n . '
T h e images of m e n of the proto-historic and of the dynastic period in no w a y
square with the idea of the Egyptian race popular with Western anthropologists.
Wherever the autochthonous racial type is represented with any degree of clearness, it
is evidently negroid. N o w h e r e are the Indo-European and Semitic elements s h o w n
even as ordinary freemen serving a local chief, but invariably as conquered foreigners.
T h e rare portrayals found are always s h o w n with the distinctive marks of captivity,
hands tied behind the back or strained over the shoulders. A proto-dynastic figurine
represents an Indo-European prisoner with a long plait on his knees, with his hands
bound tight to his body. T h e characteristics of this object s h o w that it w a s intended as
the foot of a piece of furniture and represented a conquered race.
T h e typically negroid features of the Pharaohs (Narmer, First Dynasty, the actual
founder of the Pharaonic line; Zoser, Third Dynasty,; Cheops, the builder of the
Great Pyramid, a C a m e r o o n type; Menthuhotep, founder of the Eleventh Dynasty,
very black; Sesostris I; Q u e e n Ahmosis Nefertari; and Amenhophis I) s h o w that all
classes of Egyptian society belong to the same black race.
There are t w o variants of the black race:
(a) straight-haired, represented in Asia b y the Dravidians and in Africa by the
Nubians and the T u b u or Teda, all three with jet-black skins:
(b) the kinky-haired blacks of the Equatorial regions.
Both types entered into the composition of the Egyptian population.
18 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

1.1 Proto-historicfigure ofTera-Neter, a negro nobleman of the A nous race who were the
first inhabitants of Egypt (C. A . Diop, Antériorité des civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité
historique? Présence Africaine, 1967)
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 19

1.2 A pharaoh of the First

Egyptian Dynasty, said to be
Narmer(C. A . Diop,
Antériorité des civilisations
nègres: mythe ou vérité
historique? Présence Africaine,
1967)

1.3 Djeser - typical negro, pharoah

of the Third Dynasty (C. A . Diop,
Antériorité des
civilisations nègres: mythe o u
vérité historique?
Présence Africaine, 1967)
20 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Melanin dosage test

In practice it is possible to determine directly the skin colour, and hence the ethnic
affiliations of the Ancient Egyptians, by microscopic analysis in the laboratory; I
doubt if the sagacity of the researchers w h o have studied the question has overlooked
the possibility.
Melanin (eumelanin), the chemical substance responsible for skin pigmentation, is,
broadly speaking, insoluble and is preserved for millions of years in the skin of fossil
animals. There is thus all the more reason for it to be readily recoverable in the skins
of Egyptian m u m m i e s . Although the epidermis is the main site of the melanin, the
melanocytes penetrating the derm at the boundary between it and the epidermis -
even where the latter has mostly been destroyed by the embalming materials - show a
melanin level which is non-existent in the white-skinned races. The samples I myself
analysed were taken in the physical anthropology laboratory of the Musée de
L ' H o m m e in Paris off the m u m m i e s from the Marietta excavations in Egypt. T h e
same method is perfectly suitable for use on the royal m u m m i e s of Thutmoses III, Seti
I and Ramses II in the Cairo M u s e u m , which are in an excellent state of preservation.
N o more than a few square millimetres of skin would be required to mount a speci-
m e n , the preparations being a few /xm in thickness and lightened with ethyl benzoate.
They can be studied by natural light or with ultraviolet lighting which renders the
melanin grains fluorescent.
Either w a y let us simply say that the evaluation of melanin level by microscopic
examination is a laboratory method which enables us to classify the Ancient Egyptians
unquestionably among the black races.

Osteological measurements
A m o n g the criteria accepted in physical anthropology for classifying races, the
osteological measurements are perhaps the least misleading (in contrast to
craniometry) for distinguishing a black m a n from a white m a n . By this criterion, also,
the Egyptians belong a m o n g the black races. This study was made by Lepsius at the
end of the nineteenth century and his conclusions remain valid. Subsequent method-
ological progress in the domain of physical anthropology in no way undermines what
is called the 'Lepsius Canon' which, in round figures, gives the bodily proportions of
the ideal Egyptian, short-armed and of negroid or negrito physical type.

Blood groups
It is a notable fact that even today Egyptians, particularly in Upper Egypt, belong to
the same Group B as the populations of western Africa on the Atlantic seaboard and
not to the A 2 Group characteristic of the white race prior to any cross-breeding. It
would be interesting to study the extent of Group A 2 distribution in Egyptian
m u m m i e s , which present-day techniques make possible.
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 21

The Egyptian race according to the classical authors of antiquity

T o the Greek and Latin writers contemporary with the Ancient Egyptians the latter's
physical classification posed n o problems: the Egyptians w e r e negroes, thick-lipped,
kinky-haired and thin-legged. S o m e of the following evidence drives h o m e the
point.
(a) Herodotus, 'the father of history', - 4 8 0 (?) to - 4 2 5 .
W i t h regard to the origins of the Colchians w h o lived o n the shores of the Black
Sea, he writes:
It is in fact manifest that the Colchidians are Egyptians by race . . . several Egyptians told
m e that in their opinion the Colchidians were descended from soldiers of Sesostris. I had
conjectured as m u c h myself from two pointers,firstlybecause they have black skins and
kinky hair and secondly and more reliably for the reason that alone a m o n g mankind the
Egyptians and the Ethiopians have practised circumcision since time immemorial. T h e
Phoenicians and Syrians of Palestine themselves admit that they learnt the practice from the
Egyptians while the Syrians in the river T h e r m o d o n and Pathenios region and their neigh-
bours the Macrons say they learnt it recently from the Colchidians. These are the only
races which practise circumcision and it is observable that they do it in the same w a y as the
Egyptians.
Herodotus reverts several times to the negroid character of the Egyptians and each
time uses it as a fact of observation to argue m o r e or less complex theses.
(b) Aristotle, - 3 8 9 to - 3 3 2 , scientist, philosopher and tutor of Alexander the
Great.
In one of his minor w o r k s Aristotle attempts to establish a correlation between the
physical and moral natures of living beings and leaves us evidence o n the Egyptian-
Ethiopian race which confirms what Herodotus says.
(c) Lucian, Greek writer, + 1 2 5 (?) to + 1 9 0 .
T h e evidence of Lucian is as explicit as that of the t w o previous writers. H e intro-
duces t w o Greeks, Lycinus and Timolaus, w h o start a conversation.
Lycinus (describing a y o u n g Egyptian): This b o y is not merely black; he has thick
lips and his legs are too thin . . . his hair w o r n in a plait behind s h o w s that he is
not a freeman.
Timolaus: But that is a sign of really distinguished birth in Egypt, Lycinus. All
freeborn children plait their hair until they reach m a n h o o d . It is the exact opposite
of the custom of our ancestors w h o thought it seemly for old m e n to secure their
hair with a gold brooch to keep it in place.
(d) Apollodorus,firstcentury before the Christian era, Greek philosopher.
'Aegyptos conquered the country of the black-footed ones and called it Egypt after
himself.'
22 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

1 . 4 A Indo-European captives (C. A . Diop,

Antériorité des civilisations nègres: mythe o u
vérité historique? Présence Africaine, 1967)
1.5 -4 Semitic captives at the time of thepharoahs;
Sinai rock(C. A . Diop, Antériorité des civilisations
nègres: mythe ou vérité historique?Présence
Africaine, 1967)
1.6 Y Libyan prisoner (C. A . Diop, Antériorité des
civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité historique?
Présence Africaine, 1967)
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 23

1.7 Cheops, Pharoah of the Fourth Egyptian Dynasty, builder of the Great Pyramid
(C. A . Diop, Antériorité des civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité historique?
Présence Africaine, 1967)
24 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

1.8 MentuhotepI(C.A. Diop, Antériorité des civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité

historique? Présence Africaine, 1967)
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 25

1.9 Ramses II and a modem Batutsi (C. A . Diop, Antériorité des civilisations nègres:
mythe ou vérité historique? Présence Africaine, 1967)
1.10 The Sphinx as found by thefirst French scientific mission in the nineteenth century.
The typically Negro profile is thought to be that ofthepharoah Khafre orKhefren
(ca.-2600, IV Dynasty, the builder of the second pyramid ofGiza (C. A . Diop, Antériorité des
civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité historique? Présence Africaine, 1967)
26 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

(e) Aeschylus, - 5 2 5 (?) to - 4 5 6 , tragic poet and creator of Greek tragedy.

In The Suppliants, Dañaos, fleeing with his daughters, the Danaids, and pursued b y
his brother Aegyptos with his sons, the Aegyptiads, w h o seek to w e d their cousins b y
force, climbs a hillock, looks out to sea and describes the Aegyptiads at the oars afar
off in these terms: 'I can see the crew with their black limbs and white tunics.'
A similar description of the Egyptian type of m a n recurs a few lines later in verse
745.
(f) Achilles Tatius of Alexandria.
H e c o m p a r e s the h e r d s m e n o f the Delta to the Ethiopians a n d explains that they are
blackish, like half-castes.
(g) Strabo, - 58 to about + 25.
H e concurs in the theory that the Egyptians and the Colchoi are of the same race
but holds that the migrations to Ethiopia and Colchoi had been from Egypt only.
'Egyptians settled in Ethiopia and in Colchoi.'
(h) Diodorus of Sicily, about - 6 3 to + 1 4 . Greek historian and contemporary of
Caesar Augustus.
According to Diodorus it w a s probably Ethiopia which colonized Egypt, and was
led into Egypt by Osiris.
A m m i a n u s Marcellinus, about + 3 3 0 to + 4 0 0 , Latin historian, writes: '. . . the
m e n of Egypt are mostly b r o w n or black with a skinny and desiccated look'.
This cursory review of the evidence of the ancient Graeco-Latin writers on the
Egyptians' race shows that the extent of agreement between them is impressive and is
an objective fact difficult to minimize or conceal.
W e add here the evidence of Volney, w h o travelled in Egypt between + 1 7 8 3 and
+ 1785, i.e. at the peak period of negro slavery, and w h o m a d e the following
observations on the true Egyptian race, the same which produced the Pharaohs,
namely, the Copts:
All of them are puffy-faced, heavy-eyed and thick-lipped, in a word, real mulatto faces. I
was tempted to attribute this to the climate until, on visiting the Sphinx, the look of it
gave m e the clue to the enigma. Beholding that head characteristically Negro in all its
features, I recalled the well-known passage of Herodotus which reads: 'For m y part I
consider the Colchoi are a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black-
skinned and kinky-haired.' In other words the ancient Egyptians were true negroes of the
same stock as all the autochthonous peoples of Africa and from that datum one sees h o w
their race, after some centuries of mixing with the blood of Romans and Greeks, must
have lost the full blackness of its original colour but retained the impress of its original
mould.
T o this testimony of Volney, Champollion-Figeac, brother of Champollion the
Younger, was to reply in the following terms: ' T h e t w o physical traits of black skin
and kinky hair are not enough to stamp a race as negro and Volney's conclusion as
to the negro origin of the ancient population of Egypt is glaringly forced and
inadmissible. '
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 27

The Egyptians as they saw themselves

It is no waste of time to get the views of those principally concerned. H o w did the
Ancient Egyptians see themselves? Into which ethnic category did they put them-
selves? W h a t did they call themselves? T h e language and literature left to us by
Egyptians of the Pharaonic epoch supply explicit answers to these questions which the
scholars cannot refrain from minimizing, twisting or 'interpreting'.
The Egyptians had only one term to designate themselves:^ fi$ = k m t = the
negroes (literally). This is the strongest term existing in the Pharaonic tongue to
indicate blackness. This word is the etymological origin of the well-known root kamit
which has proliferated in modern anthropological literature. T h e biblical root kam is
probably derived from it and it has, therefore, been necessary to distort the facts to
enable this root today to mean 'white' in Egyptological terms whereas, in the
Pharaonic mother tongue which gave it birth, it meant 'black'.
It is a remarkable circumstance that the Ancient Egyptians should never have had
the idea of applying these qualificatives to the Nubians and other populationsjaf Africa
to distinguish them from themselves. T h e Egyptians used the expression ^ J P
= nahas to designate the Nubians; and 'nahas' is the name of a people, with no
colour connotation in Egyptian. It is a deliberate mistranslation to render it as 'negro'
as is done in almost all present-day publications.

The divine epithets

Finally, 'black' or 'negro' is the divine epithet, invariably used for the chief beneficent
gods of Egypt, whereas all the malevolent spirits are qualified as desrêt = red; w e
also k n o w that to Africans this form applied to the white nations; it is practically
certain that this held good for Egypt too, but I want in this chapter to keep to the
least debatable facts.
T h e surnames of the gods are these:
^ $ = K m w r = the 'Great Negro' for Osiris.
= k m = the black + the name of the god.
^ j^ = kmt = the black + the name of the goddess.
T h e k m (black) ^ J ^ qualificative is applied to Hathor, Apis, M i n , Thoth,
etc. $ ^ ~ ^ set k m t = t n e black w o m a n = Isis. O n the other hand 'seth', the
sterile desert, is qualified by the term desrêt = red. T h e wild animals which Horus
fought to create civilization are qualified as desrêt = red, especially the
hippopotamus.

The witness of the Bible

The Bible tells us: '. . . the sons of H a m (were) Kush, and Mizraim (i.e. Egypt), and
Phut, and Canaan. A n d the sons of Kush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and
Raamah, and Sabtechah'.
Generally speaking, all Semitic tradition (Jewish and Arab) classes Ancient Egypt
with the countries of the blacks.
28 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

The importance of these depositions cannot be ignored, for these are peoples (the
Jews) w h o lived side by side with the Ancient Egyptians and had nothing to gain by
presenting a false ethnic picture of them. N o r is the notion of an erroneous
interpretation of the facts any more tenable.

Culture data
A m o n g the innumerable identical cultural traits recorded in Egypt and in present-day
black Africa, it is proposed to refer only to circumcision and totemism.
According to the extract from Herodotus quoted earlier, circumcision is of African
origin. Archaeology has confirmed the judgement of the 'father of history', for
Elliot-Smith was able to determine from the examination of well-preserved m u m m i e s
that circumcision was the rule a m o n g the Egyptians as long ago as the proto-historic
era, i.e. earlier than - 4 0 0 0 .
Egyptian totemism retained its vitality d o w n to the R o m a n period and Plutarch
also mentions it. T h e researches of Amélineau, Loret, Moret and Adolphe
Reinach have clearly demonstrated the existence of an Egyptian totemic system.

Linguistic Affinity
Wolof, a Senegalese language spoken in the extreme west of Africa on the Atlantic
Ocean, is perhaps as close to Ancient Egyptian as Coptic. A n exhaustive study of this
question has recently been carried out. In this chapter enough is presented to show
that the kinship between Ancient Egyptian and the languages of Africa is not
hypothetical but a demonstrable fact which it is impossible for modern scholarship to
thrust aside.
As w e shall see, the kinship is genealogical in nature:

EGYPTIAN COPTIC WOLOF

^ = kef = to grasp, to (Saïdique dialect) kef = to seize a
take a strip (of keh = to tame prey
something)

w EGYPTIAN WOLOF
% j\ = feh = go away feh = rush off
W e have the following correspondence between the verb forms, with identity or
similarity of meaning: all the Egyptian verb forms, except for two, are also recorded
in Wolof.

EGYPTIAN WOLOF
feh-ef feh-ef
feh-es feh-es
feh-n-ef feh-ôn-ef
Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 29

feh-n-es feh-ôn-es
feh-w feh-w
feh-wef feh-w-ef
feh-w-es feh-w-es
feh-w-n-ef feh-w-ôn-ef
feh-w-n-es feh-w-ôn-es
feh-in-ef feh-il-ef
feh-in-es feh-il-es
feh-t-ef feh-t-ef
feh-t-es feh-t-es
feh-tyfy feh-ati-fy
feh-tysy feh-at-ef
feh-tw-ef mar-tw-ef
feh-tw-es mar-tw-es
feh-kw(i) fahi-kw
feh-n-tw-ef feh-an-tw-ef
feh-n-tw-es feh-an-tw-es
feh-y-ef feh-y-ef
feh-y-es feh-y-es

EGYPTIAN WOLOF
= «=> 1 M mer = love mar = lick
Egyptian and W o l o f demonstratives
There are the following phonetic correspondences between Egyptian and Wolof
demonstratives.

EGYPTIAN WOLOF

ep ->• w
= pw P^ b
(ipw) —* bw w - w
= pwy
(ipw) —* bwy w —* w
y -* y
pn , bane f p -+ b
(ipn) -> U "*_"
balé
= pf bafe p -* b
(ipf)- f-f
= pf3 -» bafa p -» b
30 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

—•
f f
3 -* a
Pfy
(ipfy)/ bafy F
y
—y
~>
f
b

y
ba p -» b
3 -» â
= iptw batw p -» b
t - * • t
w • w
= iptn batné ' -»b P
t -* t
Bátale f n -> n
n - 1
iptf
iptf batafé P —i b
t —> t
f —» t

The comparison could be carried further to show that the majority of the
phonemes remain unchanged between the two languages. The few changes which are
of great interest are the following.

(a) T h e correspondence n (E) —* 1 ( W )

EGYPTIAN WOLOF
n 1
= nad =
= ask lad = ask
= nah =
= protect lah = protect
1 | O = ben ben = well up bel bel = well up

JL1i5l = teni == g r o w old talé = important

= tefnwt = the goddess born tefnit = 'spit out* a h u m a n
¿^ of R a ' s spittle being
teflit = spittle
tefli = spitter

la = nebt = plait let = plait

nib = to plait hair
temporarily

(b) The correspondence h (E) -* g ( W )

Origin of the Ancient Egyptians 31

EGYPTIAN WOLOF
h g
x— = hen = phallus gen = phallus
Î JL, /& = h w n = adolescent ewne 1 ,,
IZL71 = adolescent
gone )
I<2-^s = hor = Horus gor = vir (? male ?)
. = hor g w n = the youth gor gwné = young man
-Jr Horus (m.ä.m)

It is still early to talk with precision of the vocalic accompaniment of the Egyptian
phonemes. But the w a y is open for the rediscovery of the vocalics of Ancient
Egyptian from comparative studies with the languages of Africa.

Conclusion
The structure of African royalty, with the king put to death, either really or
symbolically, after a reign which varied but was in the region of eight years, recalls
the ceremony of the Pharaoh's regeneration through the Sed feast. Also reminiscent of
Egypt are the circumcision rites mentioned earlier and the totemism, cosmogonies,
architecture, musical instruments, etc., of black Africa. Egyptian antiquity is to
African culture what Graeco-Roman antiquity is to Western culture. The building up
of a corpus of African humanities should be based on this fact.
It will be understood h o w difficult it is to write such a chapter in a work of this
kind, where euphemism and compromise are the rule. In an attempt to avoid
sacrificing scientific truth, therefore, w e made a point of suggesting three
preliminaries to the preparation of this volume, all of which were agreed to at the
plenary session held in 1971. Thefirsttwo led to the holding of the Cairo Symposium
from 28 January to 3 February 1974. In this connection I should like to refer to certain
passages in the report of that symposium. Professor Vercoutter, w h o had been
commissioned by Unesco to write the introductory report, acknowledged after a
thorough discussion that the conventional idea that the Egyptian population was
equally divided between blacks, whites and half-castes could not be upheld. O n the
subject of Egyptian culture: 'Professor Vercoutter remarked that, in his view, Egypt
was African in its way of writing, in its culture and in its way of thinking. '
Professor Leclant, for his part, 'recognized the same African character in the
Egyptian temperament and way of thinking'.
In regard to linguistics, it is stated in the report that 'this item, in contrast to those
previously discussed, revealed a large measure of agreement among the participants.
The outline report by Professor Diop and the report by Professor Obenga were
regarded as being very constructive.'
32 Ancient Civilizations ofAfrica

Similarly, the symposium rejected the idea that Pharaonic Egyptian was a Semitic
language. 'Turning to wider issues, Professor Sauneron drew attention to the interest
of the method suggested by Professor Obenga following Professor Diop. Egyptian
remained a stable language for a period of at least 4,500 years. Egypt was situated at
the point of convergence of outside influence and it was to be expected that
borrowing had been made from foreign languages, but the Semitic roots numbered
only a few hundred as compared with a total of several thousand words. The Egyptian
language could not be isolated from its African context and its origin could not be
fully explained in terms of Semitic; it was thus quite normal to expect to find related
languages in Africa.'
The genetic, that is, non-accidental relationship between Egyptian and the African
languages was recognized: 'Professor Sauneron noted that the method which had
been used was of considerable interest, since it could not be purely fortuitous that
there was a similarity between the third person singular suffixed pronouns in Ancient
Egyptian and in Wolof; he hoped that an attempt would be made to reconstitute a
paleo-African language using present-day languages as a starting point.'
A n e w page of African historiography was accordingly written in Cairo. T h e
symposium recommended that further studies be made on the concept of race. Such
studies have since been carried out, but they have not contributed anything n e w to
the historical discussion.
The rediscovery of the true past of the African peoples should not be a divisive
factor, but should contribute to uniting them, each and all, binding them together
from the north to the south of the continent so as to enable them to carry out
together a n e w historical mission for the greater good of mankind; and that is in
keeping with the ideal of Unesco. 1

1. NOTE BY THE EDITOR OF THE VOLUME

The opinions expressed by Professor Cheikh Anta Diop in this chapter are those which he presented and developed at
the Unesco symposium on 'The peopling of Ancient Egypt' which was held in Cairo in 1974. The arguments put
forward in this chapter have not been accepted by all the experts interested in the problem (cf. Introduction, above).
Gamal MOKHTAR
 Annex to Chapter 1: Report ofthe
symposium on 'The Peopling of
Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering
ofthe Meroitic Script'1
Cairo, 28January-3 February 1974

Summary report2
The symposium was held in two stages: the first took place from 28 to 31 January
1974 and concerned 'The peopling of Ancient Egypt', the second dealt with 'The
deciphering of the Meroitic script' and took place from 1 to 3 February 1974.
The participants were as follows:
Professor Abdelgadir M . Abdalla (Sudan)
Professor A b u Bakr (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Mrs N . Blanc (France)
Professor F. Debono (Malta)
Professor J. Dévisse (France)
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal)
Professor Ghallab (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Mrs J. Gordon-Jaquet (United States of America)
Professor L. Habachi (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Professor R . Holthoer (Finland)
Professor S. Husein (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Professor Kaiser (Federal Republic of Germany)
Professor J. Leclant (France)
Professor G . Mokhtar (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Professor R . El Nadury (Arab Republic of Egypt)
Professor T h . Obenga (People's Republic of the Congo)
Professor S. Sauneron (France)
Professor T . Säve-Söderbergh (Sweden)
Professor P. L. Shinnie (Canada)
Professor J. Vercoutter (France)
Professor Hintze (German Democratic Republic), Professor Knorossov, Professor

1. This annex should have been inserted as an Annex to the whole volume and placed after the Conclusion.
2. The present report is an abridged version of the final report of the symposium. It was prepared by the Inter-
national Scientific Committee's Rapporteur at the request of the Committee, for insertion in this volume. The Pro-
ceedings of the Symposium have been published in the series The General History of Africa - Studies and Documents
N o . 1, Unesco, Paris, 1978.
33
34 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Piotrovski (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and Professor Ki-Zerbo (Burkina

Faso) were invited to the symposium but were unable to attend and sent their
apologies.
In accordance with the decisions of the International Scientific Committee, Profes-
sor J. Dévisse, the Committee's Rapporteur, was present and prepared the final
report of the symposium.
Unesco was represented by M r Maurice Glélé, programme specialist,
Division of Cultural Studies, representing the Director-General, and Mrs Monique
Melcer, Division of Cultural Studies.

1 Symposium on the peopling of Ancient Egypt

T w o papers previously commissioned by Unesco from Professor J. Vercoutter and
Mrs N . Blanc? provided a basis for discussion.
Three important stages m a y be distinguished in the discussion.
A Summary of the introductory papers.
B Preliminary statements made by most of the participants.
C General discussion.

A S u m m a r y of the introductory papers

(1) Professor Vercoutter drew attention to a number of points dealt with in greater
detail in his written report, and made a number of further observations.
(a) In spite of recent progress, physical anthropology had so far provided relatively
little reliable data except in Nubia. The information available was insufficient to
enable provisional conclusions to be drawn with regard to the peopling of
Ancient Egypt and the successive phases through which it m a y have passed.
Furthermore, this information was not homogeneous as regarded either time or
space and historians often disagreed as to h o w it should be interpreted. T h e
methods themselves were being called in question; but it was n o w generally
agreed that craniometry did not meet the requirements of such research.
A number of regions had still not been studied in any depth. This applied to
the entire Delta during the pre-dynastic and proto-dynastic periods, and to
Upper Egypt prior to Neolithic times. Little was k n o w n of the area between
the Second and Sixth Cataracts in Neolithic and proto-dynastic times. Similarly,
the links existing in ancient times between the Sahara, Dârfûr and the Nile had
as yet been very little studied.
In that respect, the work that had been done lagged behind what had been
achieved in North Africa and in the Syria-Palestine zone.
Evidence at present available did not warrant the assertion that the popula-
tions of northern Egypt had been different from those in the south. Similarly,
the gap between Palaeolithic and Neolithic was probably due to the fact that
insufficient research had yet been done in that field.
3. These documents are attached to the Final Report, 1974.
Annex to Chapter 1 35

(b) Insufficient and unsatisfactory use had been m a d e of iconography; the studies
which had been carried out were based mainly o n cultural criteria. T h e
iconographie material available, however, has extremely significant character-
istics from the the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards.
(c) Outline of the t w o opposing theories in their most extreme form:
(i) T h e people w h o lived in Ancient Egypt were 'white', even though their
pigmentation w a s dark, or even black, as early as the pre-dynastic period.
Negroes m a d e their appearance only from the Eighteenth Dynasty
onwards.
F r o m the proto-dynastic period onwards, according to some, the
population remained the same; others believed that foreign penetration
into Africa profoundly altered the conditions of cultural life.
(ii) Ancient Egypt w a s peopled, 'from its Neolithic infancy to the end of the
native dynasties', by black Africans.

(2) M r s Blanc reported o n her research findings.

(a) Mindful of the fact that, for reasons which were themselves historical, the
historiography of the valleys of the Nile had been based on the assumption that
there w a s a civilized Egyptian valley providing a wealth of historical evidence,
and another valley farther south, which was black and primitive, and of interest
only to anthropologists, M r s Blanc hoped that historical research in the valley as
a whole would in future be m o r e balanced. This would m e a n abandoning
traditional historical methods and broadening the field of inquiry to embrace a
n e w methodology. M r s Blanc saw the w o r k which had been going o n in Nubia
for the last twenty years or so as a first step towards the re-examination of the
question which faced the symposium.
(b) In order to escape from the traditional view of the Nile Valley which traced its
historical development in a north-south direction, from the 'more civilized' to
the 'less civilized', M r s Blanc drew attention to the Nile regions situated
between the twenty-third parallel and the sources of the river in U g a n d a . H e r
analysis took into account the dividing line, which she regarded as being of
fundamental ecological importance, along the tenth parallel, where the advance
of Islam stopped.
Between the twenty-third and the tenth parallels, the Nile, being a navigable
waterway, could apparently have played a role comparable to that which it
played farther north, in Egypt. This did not occur, and the ecological conditions
in this reach of the river no doubt provided the principal explanation.
M r s Blanc went on to m a k e an overall examination, in the light of this fact, of the
respective contributions of settled and nomadic populations throughout the area
considered.
But, after tracing the history of the population changes since the coming of the
Muslim Arabs, she concentrated particularly o n reviewing hypotheses concerning the
peopling of this zone prior to their arrival. She emphasized that the Nile Valley
facilitated communication with W e s t Africa and sub-Saharan Africa and that it w a s
36 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

reasonable to put forward the hypothesis that the civilizations which emerged there
might be authentically African rather than civilizations intermediate between the
Mediterranean world and black Africa.
Dârfur, to the west, about the social and political organization of which, prior to
the seventeenth century, little is k n o w n , nevertheless played an important part as a
regional centre of economic development.
T o the east, the region of Sennâr, inhabited by the Fundj, was the centre of a
'black sultanate' which was originally neither Arab nor Muslim.
The zone between the Nile and the R e d Sea occupied by the Bedja was barely able
to support settled populations, on account of the harsh ecological conditions.
South of the tenth parallel, the ecological conditions were totally different. In this
area, there were isolated populations about which little was k n o w n either from
archaeological research or from oral tradition. Hypotheses on the peopling and history
of this zone today have little evidence to support them, and it is only in more
southerly regions, in the interlacustrine zone in East Africa, that fairly thorough
historical studies have been carried out.

B Preliminary statements by participants

(1) Professor Säve-Söderbergh gave information about the Scandinavian exca-
vations in the Sudan between 1960 and 1964. These excavations established that
there were contacts between the Nile Valley and North Africa and the Sahara. T h e
subjects covered by the publications4 included 7,000 rock drawings and the analysis of
the remains of 1,546 h u m a n individuals. V a n Nielson (Vol. 9) had defined relations
between the A Group, C Group, N e w Kingdom Group, etc. Comparative studies
yielded different results, depending on whether craniometry only was used or anthro-
pological and technological factors as a whole. Iconographical and physical anthro-
pology studies lent support to the idea that there had been a migration of Saharan
peoples and of groups coming from the south, and that they also had had considerable
contacts with the Ancient Egyptians. For the Mesolithic period, comparisons had to
be made on the basis of fewer than 100 skeletons. Valid conclusions were impossible
in the case of Nubia, but more accurate data could be obtained on the Neolithic
period.
In any event, Professor Säve-Söderbergh thought that it was impossible to base a
study of the peopling of Egypt in ancient times, or any other similar study, on racial
distinctions. In future, other lines of inquiry should be followed. Different cultures,
contemporary with one another but isolated, might nevertheless belong to the same
techno-complex. This n e w method confirmed that Egypt was African. But, if one
looked beyond this finding, it was apparent that there were m a n y other problems.
Nagada I and II did not belong to the same techno-complex as Nubia or the
contemporary Sudan. In the Sudan, the zone extending from Kassala to Chad and
from W â d ï Haifa to Khartoum was a single, large techno-complex unit. T h e A

4. See Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia, publications (especially Vol. 1, Rock Pictures, Vol. 2,
Pre-Cemmic Siles, Vol. 3, Neolithic and A-Croup Sites, and Vol. 9, Human Remains).
Annex to Chapter 1 37

Group constituted another and more recent techno-complex between the First and
Third Cataracts and possibly beyond.
(2) Professor Cheikh Anta Diop gave an extensive account of his ideas. H e sum-
marized a written paper, picking out the main points.

(a) From the anthropological point of view, research carried out since the discover-
ies of Professor Leakey led to the conclusion that the h u m a n race first came into
existence in Africa in the region of the sources of the Nile. Gloger's L a w , which
presumably applied just as m u c h to the h u m a n race as the other species, stated
that warm-blooded animals which evolved in a w a r m , humid climate had a dark
(eumelanin) pigmentation. T h e earliest h u m a n beings on earth were therefore
ethnically homogeneous and negroid. T h e population spread out from this
original area, reaching other regions of the earth by only t w o routes: the Nile
Valley and the Sahara.
In the Nile Valley, this spread took place from the south in a northerly
direction, in a progressive movement, between the Upper Palaeolithic and the
proto-historic periods.
Even Professor Massoulard had reached the conclusion that the population of
Ancient Egypt perhaps comprised at least three different racial elements:
negroids, amounting to over one-third of the total, 'Mediterranean' people and
people of the C r o - M a g n o n type. Professor Diop inferred from this that the
population of Egypt was basically negro during the pre-dynastic period, a
conclusion contradicting the theory that the negro element spread to Egypt in
later times.
Skeletons with fragments of skin attached, dating from very ancient times,
before the practice of mummification was introduced, had been discovered by
Elliot-Smith. These fragments, stated Professor Diop, contain melanin in
sufficient quantity to establish them as negro skin.
In the quest for positive proof, Professor Diop had studied a number of
preparations being subjected to laboratory examination in Dakar. These con-
sisted of samples of skin taken from m u m m i e s found in the Mariette excava-
tions. They all revealed - and Professor Diop invited the specialists present to
examine the samples - the presence of a considerable quantity of melanin
between the epidermis and the dermis. Melanin, which was not present in
white skin, persisted for millions of years (notwithstanding frequent affirma-
tions to the contrary) as could be seen from an examination of the skins of fossil
animals. Professor Diop hoped to be given the opportunity of carrying out
similar research on the skins of the Pharaohs whose m u m m i e s were in the Cairo
M u s e u m collection.
H e went on to state that a conclusive anthropological study would also
include osteological measurements and the study of blood groups. It was
remarkable, for example, that present-day Egyptians, particularly in Upper
Egypt, belonged to the same blood group, B , as the population of West Africa,
and not to Group A 2 , which was characteristic of the white race.
(b) Iconography: O n the basis of an important iconographical drawing and the
38 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

definitions given in this w o r k , Professor Diop contended that it w a s unneces-

sary to dwell on details which, for example, distinguished negroes from other
personages - the latter being aristocratic - in the same t o m b : this difference of
representation w a s of social origin. T h e c o m m o n people were iconographically
distinguished from m e m b e r s of the ruling class.
(c) Professor Diop went o n to speak of the evidence provided by ancient written
sources, pointing out that Greek and Latin authors described the Egyptians as
negroes. H e referred to the testimony of Herodotus, Aristotle, Lucian,
Apollodorus, Aeschylus, Achilles Tatius, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Diogenes
Laertius and A m m i a n u s Marcellinus. M o d e r n scholars, he said, refused to take
account of those texts. B y contrast, an eighteenth-century author, Volney, did
speak of the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt as negroes. Furthermore, the biblical
tradition also considered Egypt as belonging to the descendants of H a m .
Professor Diop considered that the science of Egyptology, a product of imperial-
ism, had m u c h to answer for in denying all the facts to which he had just
referred.
(d) Professor Diop then turned his attention to the w a y in which the Egyptians
described themselves. T h e y used only one w o r d for this purpose: K M T , 5 'the
strongest term existing in the language of the Pharaohs to indicate blackness',
which w a s translated by Professor Diop as 'the negroes'. Consequently, this
hieroglyph w a s not written with crocodile scales but with a piece of charcoal.
(3) Professor D e b o n o contributed an extensive review of the information given in
Volume 1.
(4) Professor Leclant began by stressing the African character of Egyptian civiliza-
tion. But it was necessary to distinguish clearly, as Professor Vercoutter had done,
between 'race' and culture.
Physical anthropology in Egypt was in its infancy. Nevertheless, there was no
justification for relying on the totally outmoded studies of Chantre, Elliot Smith,
Sergi, or D r Derry. Furthermore, there had already been important restatements of
current knowledge such as that by Wierczinski.6 Groups working in Nubia had also
shown considerable interest in physical anthropology, with the result that Nubia,
reputedly 'poor' in archaeological remains, paradoxically seemed likely to become far
better k n o w n than Egypt in this respect.7 Archaeological expeditions n o w gave great
prominence to osteological studies, an innovation which was greatly to be
welcomed. 8
In cultural studies, rock engravings, which showed an enormous degree of
uniformity from the R e d Sea to the Atlantic, were worthy of careful study. These
traces had been left by successive cultural groups, hunters, herdsmen, or others.

5. This word gaveriseto the term 'Hamite' which has been much used subsequently. It is also found in the Bible in
the form ' H a m ' .
6. Bulletin of the Egyptian Geographical Society, 31, 1958, pp. 73-83.
7. Professor Leclant referred to the work of Nielsen, Strouhal, Armelagos, Rogalsky, Prominska, Chemla and Billy.
8. See an important recent article, D . P. Van Gerven, D . S. Carlson and G . J. Armelagos, 'Racial history and
bio-cultural adaptation of Nubian archaeological populations', JAH, vol. X I V , no. 4, 1973, pp. 555-64.
Annex to Chapter 1 39

T h e peopling of Ancient Egypt was a considerable problem and it would be very

premature, at this stage, to adopt a synoptic approach as a means of solving it. T h e
problem should be approached through separate, precise studies. For this purpose, the
collaboration of specialists in disciplines not represented at this symposium was
indispensable. All the participants were 'general historians', qualified to compile and
synthesize data supplied by specialists; such data were, for the m o m e n t , very
inadequate.
In any case, it was retrograde to have recourse to authorities w h o were today
completely outdated, such as Lepsius or Pétrie. They might be recognized as having
'historical' importance but Egyptology had made great progress since their day.
As for iconographical evidence, the only problem was to k n o w h o w the Egyptians
considered themselves in relation to other m e n . They called themselves R M T (Rame),
that is to say ' m e n ' ; other people they regarded as an amophous mass extending in all
directions, designated by the cardinal points. For example, the statues of prisoners at
Sakkara (Sixth Dynasty, 2300 before the Christian era) were partly northerners
(Asians, Libyans) and partly southerners (Nubians, negroes). Stereotypes of north-
erners (whites) and southerners (negroes.) under the sandals of Pharaoh confirmed that
representation.
(5) Professor Ghallab spoke of the successive elements which could be identified in
the peopling of Africa between the Palaeolithic period and the third millennium
before the Christian era.
In north-east Africa, a large quantity of stone objects dating from the second
pluvial period had been found in the Nile Valley and the oases. Professor Ghallab
distinguished at least six ethnic groups in the Egyptian population during the
Mesolithic period, which, however, were united by a homogeneous culture. H e con-
sidered that the h u m a n race during the Palaeolithic period w a s more or less h o m o -
geneous and 'Caucasian'; the first negro types in Africa were Asselar m a n and
O m d u r m a n m a n . In the late Palaeolithic period, the black race appeared from the
Atlantic to the R e d Sea. A m o n g the earliest Egyptians, however, traces had been
found of 'Bushmen', some of whose characteristics were modified as a result of their
becoming acclimatized to Mediterranean ecological conditions. Even today, there
were vestiges of this 'Bushman' type in the population of Egypt. A negro culture did
not really appear prior to the Neolithic period.
(6) Professor Abdelgadir M . Abdalla did not think it important to establish
whether the Ancient Egyptians were black or negroid: what w a s most remarkable
was the degree of civilization they had achieved.
Iconographie evidence made it clear that the creators of the Napata culture had
nothing in c o m m o n with the Egyptians: their anatomical characteristics were c o m -
pletely different. If the Egyptians were black, what colour were the m e n of the
Napata culture?
Turning to the subject of linguistics, Professor Abdalla stated that K M (Kern) did
not mean 'black' and its derivatives did not refer to the colour of individuals. H e gave
a linguistic demonstration in his turn to illustrate his theory, which differed from that
of Professor Diop. H e concluded that the Egyptian language was not a purely African
language; it belonged to a proto-Semitic group, as could be abundantly demonstrated
40 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

by supporting examples. Professor Abdalla considered that the linguistic examples

given by Professor Diop were neither convincing nor conclusive and that it w a s
hazardous to m a k e too uncompromising a correlation between a language and an
ethnic structure or an individual. A comparison d r a w n between a dead language and
living languages w a s bound to be inconclusive; the similarities which had been
pointed out were fortuitous and nothing w a s so far k n o w n of the evolution of ancient
African languages. T h e evidence which had been given to support the theory of
kinship w a s in fact far m o r e consistent with the theory of the spread of Ancient
Egyptian throughout Africa than of its kinship with present-day African languages.
W h y should it be assumed that Ancient Egyptian and W o l o f were related, but not
ancient Egyptian and Meroitic, for example? T h e language of Napata and Meroitic
were at opposite poles from one another.
Professor Abdalla hoped that the inquiry would be pursued in the strictest fashion.
(a) H e considered it impossible to establish any automatic correlation between an
ethnic group, a socio-economic system and a language.
(b) It w a s impossible to reach scientifically valid conclusions by working 'on a large
scale'. There were almost no unambiguous examples in history of major
migrations accompanying major cultural transformations.
(c) 'Negro' w a s not a clearly defined concept today as far as physical
anthropologists were concerned. A skeleton did not provide evidence of skin
colour. Only the tissues and the skin itself were important in that respect.
(d) It w a s imperative to broach the study of palaeo-pathology and of funerary
practices without delay.
(7) Professor Sauneron intervened in the course of a lively exchange of views on
linguistic matters between Professors Abdalla and Diop. Professor Sauneron stated
that in Egyptian KM (feminine KMT) meant 'black', the masculine plural was KMU
( K e m o u ) , and the feminine plural KMNT.
The form KMTYW could m e a n only t w o things: 'those of K m t ' , 'the inhabitants
of K m t ' ('the black country'). It w a s a derived adjective (nisba) formed from a
geographical term which had become a proper n a m e ; it w a s not necessarily 'felt' with
its original meaning (cf. Frank, France, French).
T o designate 'black people', the Egyptians would have said Kmt or Kmu, not
Ktntyw. In any case, they never used this adjective to indicate the black people of the
African hinterland w h o m they k n e w about from the time of the N e w K i n g d o m
onwards, nor, in general, did they use names of colours to distinguish different
peoples.
(8) Professor O b e n g a in his turn reverted to the linguistic demonstration which
had been begun by Professor Diop. 9
(a) After criticizing Professor Greenberg's method, on the basis of the recent w o r k
by Professor Istvan Fodor 10 and remarking that, since the w o r k of Ferdinand de
9. The full text, as transmitted to the Rapporteur by Professor Obenga, is attached as Annex II in the Final Report
of the symposium.
10. I.Fodor, The Problems in the Classification of the African Languages (Centre for Afro-Asian Research of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 1966), p. 158.
Annex to Chapter 1 41

Saussure, it w a s an accepted fact that linguistic evidence w a s the most obvious

means of establishing whether t w o or more than t w o peoples were culturally
related, Professor O b e n g a endeavoured to prove that there w a s a genetic
linguistic relationship between Egyptian (Ancient Egyptian and Coptic) and
modern negro-African languages.
Before making any comparison, one must be on one's guard against
confusing typological linguistic relationship, which gave no clue as to the pre-
dialectal ancestor c o m m o n to the languages being compared, and genetic rela-
tionship. For example, modern English, considered from the typological point
of view, had affinities with Chinese; but, from the genetic point of view, the
two languages belonged to distinct language families. Similarly, Professor
O b e n g a rejected the notion of a mixed language as linguistic nonsense.
Genetic relationship depended on establishing phonetic laws discovered by
comparison between morphemes and phonemes of similar languages. O n the
basis of such morphological, lexicological and phonetic correspondences, one
could arrive at c o m m o n earlier forms. In this w a y , a theoretical 'Indo-
European' language had been reconstructed in the abstract and had been used as
an operational model. It w a s indicative of a c o m m o n cultural macrostructure
shared by languages which subsequently evolved along separate lines.
(b) Professor O b e n g a drew attention to important typological similarities in gram-
mar: the feminine gender formed by the use of the suffix - 1 , the plural of nouns
by the suffix -w(ou, u). H e next analysed complete word-forms and noted
similarities between those of Ancient Egyptian and a considerable number of
African languages; between Egyptian and W o l o f the correspondence w a s total.
This series of demonstrations led Professor O b e n g a to the conclusion that
morphological, lexicological and syntactic similarities amounted to convincing
proof of the close relationship between Ancient Egyptian and negro-African
languages of today. This kind of parallelism w a s impossible between Semitic,
Berber and Egyptian.
H e then dealt with comparisons of ways of expressing 'to be' in verb-noun
combinations: the c o m m o n archaic form in the Bantu language w a s the same in
this respect as that of the most archaic form of Ancient Egyptian. T h e analysis
of negative morphemes, of the emphatic future and of linking particles led to
the same conclusions as the previous examples. Professor O b e n g a considered,
therefore, that it would prove possible to discover a c o m m o n genetic structure.
(c) Lastly, Professor O b e n g a spoke of what he considered to be the most interesting
aspect of the comparison.
H e drew parallels between the forms taken in different languages by certain
words: palm, spirit, tree, place; and also between certain small phonemes: for
example, KM (Kern), black in Ancient Egyptian, becomes Käme, kemi, kern in
Coptic; ikama in Bantu (with the meaning of charred by exposure to excessive
heat), kante in Azer (cinder). Rome, ' m a n ' in ancient Egyptian, becomes lomi
in Bantu. T h e same phonemes have the same functions in the different lan-
guages compared.
Professor O b e n g a inferred from these comparisons that it would be
42 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

possible in the future to identify a 'negro-Egyptian' language, analogous to

'Indo-European'. In this context, and in view of the undeniable c o m m o n
cultural background of all these languages, there w a s a sound basis for the
development of future studies.
(9) Professor Gordon-Jaquet stated that the study of Egyptian toponomy could
perhaps be brought to bear in support of the assertion that no massive immigrations
or invasions of foreign populations had arrived in Egypt at least since Neolithic times.
It was a well-known phenomenon that topographical names were extremely long-
lived and that each successive language group inhabiting the same area would leave its
mark on that area in the form of place names, more or less numerous, depending on
the size of the population and the length of time of its predominance in that area. A n y
important permanent addition to the Egyptian population from the exterior would
certainly have left its mark on the toponomy of the country. This was not the case.
The toponomy of Egypt was very homogeneous, displaying names whose etymology
could almost without exception be explained by the Egyption language itself. It w a s
only at the Ptolemaic period and still later, after the Arab conquest, that names of
respectively Greek and Arabic origin were added to the basic fund of Egyptian names.
It was only in the peripheral regions, Nubia, the Western Oases and the Eastern
Delta - regions in immediate contact with neighbouring peoples speaking other
languages - where names whose etymology could be traced to these foreign lan-
guages were to be found.
(10) Professor Dévisse briefly abandoned his role as Rapporteur to inform the
symposium of the unexpected results of an iconographie study.11
Three manuscripts12 included representations of black Egyptians which merited
consideration. After eliminating what could be attributed to biblical tradition (the
descendants of H a m ) , and allegorical representations in a consciously archaic manner
(Hades, Night), there remained a variable proportion of Egyptians represented with
negro features and colouring. Admittedly, some of these were servants, but - and on
this point the scenes selected were extremely interesting - others were free Egyptians.
Some of them - about a third of the participants - were around the table of Joseph,
w h o w a s giving a banquet for his Israelite brothers seated at another table; others
were taking part in the sale of Joseph to Potiphar, w h o was himself represented as
white. Probably the most remarkable aspect of these representations, which were
consistently realistic in their details, lay in the characteristic costume w o r n by these
black Egyptians (particularly in the eleventh-century octateuch). T h e negroes, w h o
were clearly differentiated from Egyptians wearing beards and turbans, were in m a n y
cases carrying spears and wore a 'panther skin' leaving the right shoulder bare.
Professor Dévisse considered these observations all the more interesting because there
were considerable contacts between Byzantium and Egypt during the Fatimid period,

11. This very wide-ranging international study will be the subject of a publication in three volumes two of which
have already been published. T h e study has been carried out by the Menil Foundation (Houston, United States of
America), a unit of which in Paris has co-ordinated the collection of a vast quantity of iconographie material.
12. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, N e w Acquisitions: latin 2334 (VI-VHe?), Vatican grec 747 (Xle), Vatican grec
746 (XHe).
Annex to Chapter 1 43

and because the representations which dated from this period were far more realistic
than in the older manuscript.
It was very difficult to interpret these documents: they pointed both (o the
Byzantine cultural background and to the biblical tradition. Nevertheless, they
reflected a 'northerner's view' of the Egyptians which was not consistent with the
standard 'white-skinned' theory.

C General discussion
The general discussion made it clear that a number of participants, in varying degrees,
thought it desirable, in the present state of knowledge, to undertake macro-analyses
embracing the history of Ancient Egypt as a whole, or, in some cases, the entire
continent of Africa; certain other participants, on the other hand, thought that it
would be wiser to take geographical micro-analyses very m u c h further on a discipli-
nary or interdisciplinary basis.

(I) Chronological analysis of the results achieved

T h e discussion on this point was opened by Professor Cheikh Anta Diop. Since the
Upper Palaeolithic period, the initial homogeneity of the h u m a n race had gradually
declined; the population of Egypt was neither more nor less homogeneous than the
population of other parts of the world. T h e first appearance of the h u m a n race was
currently believed to have occurred in Africa 5,300,000 years ago B P . T h e origins
were African.
Homo sapiens appeared about -150,000 and progressively spread to all the then
habitable parts of the Nile basin. M e n living in Egypt at that time were black.
Rejecting the opposing theory, referred to by Professor Vercoutter in his report
concerning the peopling of Egypt during the pre-dynastic period, Professor Diop
stated that the 33 per cent of 'white' Egyptians with a fairly dark, or even black,
pigmentation were in fact black, as were the 33 per cent of half-castes; adding the last
33 per cent of the population mentioned by D r Massoulard and admitted to be black,
Professor Diop expressed the opinion that the population of Egypt as a whole was
black throughout the proto-dynastic period.
H e went on to reassert the general theory which he had previously outlined
concerning the black population of Egypt which gradually became hybridized.
At another point in the discussion, Professor Diop explicitly stated that the black
population of Upper Egypt began to retreat only at the time of the Persian occupation.
H e ended by making two general observations: one concerned the use of the word
negroid, a term which he considered unnecessary and pejorative; the other concerned
the arguments which were being put forward to contest his ideas, and which he
considered to be negative, lacking in critical rigour and not based on the facts.
Professor Diop's theory was rejected in its entirety by one participant.
N o n e of the participants explicitly voiced support for the earlier theory concerning
a population which was 'white' with a dark, even black, pigmentation. There was no
more than tacit agreement to abandon this old theory.
Numerous objections were made to the ideas propounded by Professor Diop. These
44 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

objections revealed the extent of a disagreement which remained profound even

though it was not voiced explicitly. In respect of certain sequences, the criticisms
arose out of the line of argument put forward.
In so far as very ancient times were concerned - those earlier than what the French
still called the 'Neolithic' period - participants agreed that it was very difficult to
find satisfactory answers.
Professor Debono noted the considerable similarity between pebble cultures in the
different regions where they had been discovered (Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Egypt).
The same was true of the Acheulean period, during which biface core tools were
similar in a number of regions of Africa.
O n the other hand, the homogeneity of the Sangoan industry, found in East
Africa, progressively diminished as one moved farther north. At Khor A b u Anga (Sai
Island in the Sudan), there was a more or less complete range of tools. From W â d ï
Haifa onwards, a number of elements were apparently lost. In Egypt, only one of the
industry's typological characteristics was retained, between Thebes and Dahshur near
Cairo.
In the Middle Palaeolithic period, the striking of Levallois flakes with Mousterian
variants differed greatly between Egypt and areas situated farther south or west.
In the Palaeolithic period, for reasons which remain obscure but which were
probably due to changed climatic and ecological conditions, Egypt became isolated
from the rest of Africa with regard to the stone tool-making industry, and original
industries were created (Sebilian, Epi-Levalloisian or Hawarian, Khargian).
Furthermore, at the same period there was an attempt at foreign penetration by the
Aterians from north-east Africa. Traces of them were found as far as the southern
Sahara. Having reached the Siwa Oasis and also, in large numbers, the Khargah
Oasis, they spread out in the Nile Valley and their traces had been found at Thebes.
Other evidence dating from the same period had been noted at W â d ï H a m a m a t
(Eastern Desert), at Esna (mingled with Khargian remains), at Dara, at Djabal
A h m a r near Cairo, and as far as W â d ï Tumilat in the Eastern Delta (mingled
with Epi-Levalloisian remains). It was probable that at the same time there was a
small-scale admixture of other races, rapidly absorbed by the native population.
A n equally interesting intrusion of foreign peoples into Egypt was that of the
Natoufians of Palestine, whose presence at Halwan near Cairo had long been an
established fact. Recent excavations had shown that these people inhabited a larger
area. Stone implements, attributable to these Natoufians, had been found at Fayyüm
and in the Eastern Desert along a belt extending in an east-west direction across the
Nile Valley at this point.
Professor Sauneron considered that, in view of the existence of chipped pebbles in
the old Pleistocene strata of the Theban hills, it could be inferred that h u m a n beings
had inhabited the Nile Valley since very ancient times.
Professor Ghallab stated that the inhabitants of Egypt in Palaeolithic times were
Caucasoids. H e went on to say the recent excavations had provided evidence of the
existence of m e n of the 'San' type in the population during the pre-dynastic period.
Professor Shinnie was in agreement regarding the settlement of Homo sapiens, but
without mentioning the colour of his skin, and dated thefirstsettled population of
Annex to Chapter 1 45

the Nile Valley at about 20,000 years ago. Subsequently, various h u m a n groups came
from different regions, increasing this population and altering its composition.
The discussion was no less lively concerning the Neolithic and pre-dynastic periods.
Professor A b u Bakr emphasized that the Egyptians had never been isolated from other
peoples. They had never constituted a pure race and it was impossible to accept the
idea that in the Neolithic period the population of Egypt was entirely black. T h e
population of Egypt in Neolithic times was a mingling of m e n from the west and east,
w h o had been incorrectly called Hamitic.
This was also the theory of Professor El Nadury. In Neolithic times migrants from
all parts of the Sahara had infiltrated the sedentary population settled in the n' ¡;h-
western part of the Delta, resulting in an intermingling of m a n y ethnic groups, rrom
that period onwards there was no break in continuity as regards the population until
dynastic times. T h e site of Merimdé with its wealth of clearly stratified
archaeological material showed that the peopling of this area had been a gradual
process.
Professor Vercoutter firmly stated his conviction, with regard to the peopling of
Egypt in ancient times, that the inhabitants of the Nile Valley had always been mixed;
outside elements coming from west and east had been numerous, particularly in pre-
dynastic times.
During the pre-dynastic period and the beginning of the dynastic period, a further
element, coming from the north-east and described as Semitic, was added to the
population. Like Professor A b u Bakr, Professor El Nadury thought it a striking fact
that, during the First Dynasty, fortifications had been built at Abydos, in all
probability for the purpose of preventing immigration from the south towards the
north.
Professor A b u Bakr referred to the case of the yellow-haired, blue-eyed wife of
Cheops as an example of the existence of 'non-black' people in Egypt. Professor Diop
regarded this isolated instance as an exception which proved the rule.
In the course of the discussion, Professor Obenga added some important points and
emphasized the interest of ancient written sources concerning the population of
Egypt. Herodotus, in a passage concerning the Colchians which was neither disputed
by modern scholarship nor invalidated by the comparative critical study of m a n u -
scripts, endeavoured to show, through a series of critical arguments, that the
Colchians were similar to the Egyptians: 'They speak in the same w a y as they do,
they and the Egyptians are the only peoples to practise circumcision, they weave
linen like the Egyptians'; these similarities were in addition to t w o other features
which they had in c o m m o n , their black pigmentation and their crinkly hair.
Professor Leclant maintained that ancient writers used the expression 'burnt face'
(Ethiopians) to refer to Nubians and negroes but not to Egyptians. Professor Obenga
replied that the Greeks applied the word 'black' (tnelas) to the Egyptians. Professor
Vercoutter, in particular, asked in what precise context Herodotus had defined the
Egyptians as negroes. Professor Diop replied that Herodotus referred to them on three
occasions: in speaking of the origin of the Colchians, in speaking of the origin of the
Nile floods, and in discussing the oracle of Z e u s - A m o n .
In Professor Leclant's opinion, the unity of the Egyptian people was not racial but
46 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

cultural. Egyptian civilization had remained stable for three millennia; the Egyptians
described themselves as R E M E T (Rome in Coptic) and, particularly in their
iconographie representations, drew a distinction between themselves and the peoples
of the north and those of the south w h o differed from them. Professor Obenga denied
that Egyptians, in using the word R E M E T , drew a racial distinction between
themselves and their neighbours; he considered the distinction made to be similar to
that which led to Greeks to differentiate between themselves and other peoples,
w h o m they termed Barbarians.
Professor Leclant noted that important palaeo-African features in the cultural life of
Egypt were worthy of study. A s an example, he mentioned the baboon, which was
an attribute of the G o d Thoth, and the frequent appearance in iconography of
'panther' skins as a ritual garment during the worship of Osiris by Horus. In his
opinion, however, the Egyptians, whose civilization was culturally stable for three
millennia, were neither white nor negro.
Professor Sauneron then questioned the very idea of a homogeneous population,
particularly if it was alleged to have existed from the earliest appearance of m a n in
Egypt up to the pre-dynastic period. H e considered that none of the evidence
currently available gave grounds for doubting that the population of Egypt was
mixed.
The conclusion of the experts w h o did not accept the theory, put forward by
Professors Cheikh Anta Diop and Obenga, that the Nile Valley population had been
homogeneous from the earliest times until the Persian invasion, was that the basic
population of Egypt settled there in Neolithic times, that it originated largely in the
Sahara and that it comprised people from the north and from the south of the Sahara
w h o were differentiated by their colour. In opposition to this theory, Professors Diop
and Obenga submitted their o w n theory to the effect that the valley was peopled
uniformly by black people and that the movement had been from south to north.

(2) Existence or non-existence of migrattons of consequence towards the Nile Valley

As regards this item, the proceedings of the symposium remained very confused.
More than one discussion was inconclusive.
Generally speaking, participants considered that the 'large-scale migrations' theory
was no longer tenable as an explanation of the peopling of the Nile Valley, at least up
to the Hyksos period, w h e n linguistic exchanges with the Near East began to take
place (Holthoer). O n the other hand, several experts thought that population
exchanges had evidently occurred with immediately adjacent regions in the valley,
although very divergent opinions were expressed concerning the role played by
geographical or ecological factors in creating natural or artificial obstacles to such
population movements.
At all events, it was generally agreed that Egypt had absorbed these migrants of
various ethnic origins. It followed that the participants in the symposium implicitly
recognized that the substratum of the Nile Valley population remained generally
stable and was affected only to a'limited extent by migrations during three millennia.
W h e n the later periods came to be examined, however, it proved impossible to
reach this very broad measure of theoretical agreement.
Annex to Chapter 1 47

A s regards the Palaeolithic period, Professor Cheikh Anta Diop put forward the
hypothesis that Homo sapiens settled progressively in the valley as far as the latitude of
Memphis. Professor A b u Bakr said that too little information was available concern-
ing this period and that the northern part of the Nile Valley might not have been
inhabited at all. Professor Obenga, on the other hand, considered that between the
Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic periods there had been continuous settlement by
a uniform population; the Egyptians themselves had laid emphasis on this in their oral
traditions, mentioning the Great Lakes as their original homeland and Nubia as a
country identical with theirs.
W h e r e the Mesolithic merged with the Neolithic (Professor Vercoutter) or during
the Neolithic period (Professors Habachi and Ghallab), it seemed likely that fairly
large movements of population took place from the Sahara towards the Nile Valley.
Professor Vercoutter hoped that these movements, about which very little was at
present k n o w n , would be dated accurately and that the relevant archaeological
material would be collected and studied.
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop submitted certain details by w a y of reply. Radio-
carbon dating for the Western Sahara showed that a period of d a m p climate had
extended from about 30,000 B P to 8,000 B P , with intermittent periods of
drought, similarly, the dating of the ensuing dry period was becoming clearer. Similar
datings should be obtained for the Eastern Sahara; by combining the results obtained
with palaeo-climatic research and with studies of tombs and carvings, the information
which Professor Vercoutter wanted would be obtained.
Professor Habachi unreservedly supported the theory of migrations from the Sahara
on the basis of k n o w n studies. Professor Säve-Söderbergh considered that the
majority of Neolithic cultures in the Nile Valley belonged to a techno-complex of
Saharan and Sudanese cultures; nevertheless, migratory movements were probably
intense, especially prior to and at the end of the Neolithic subpluvial period.
As an alternative to the hypothesis postulating a migration from the Sahara largely
during Neolithic times, Professor Diop put forward the hypothesis that the popula-
tion had spread northwards from the south. H e restated the idea, to which reference
had been made several times during the discussion, that, during the Capsian period,
this culture covered a vast area extending from Kenya to Palestine.
O n the subject of the proto-dynastic and pre-dynastic periods, Professors Diop and
Vercoutter agreed that the population of the Egyptian reaches of the Nile Valley was
homogeneous as far as the southern extremity of the Delta. These t w o experts were
in partial agreement on the hypothesis of migration southwards from the north,
Professor Vercoutter finding this theory difficult to accept and Professor Diop
rejecting it. Disagreement emerged on the subject of defining the nature of these
people more precisely. Professor Diop regarded them as being the A n u and identified
them in the picture noted by Pétrie in the temple of Abydos.
During the dynastic period, the stability of the population of the Egyptian reaches
of the Nile Valley was attested by the stability of its culture; Professor Diop showed
that the Egyptian calendar had been in use as early as - 4 2 3 6 , and from the beginning,
had a cyclic pattern of 1,461 years. H e considered that, until the Persian invasion, that
stability had been threatened only by a very powerful earthquake which occurred in
48 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

about - 1 4 5 0 . This had givenriseto a series of migrations which affected the equilib-
rium of all countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean basin. Seafaring peoples
then attacked the Egyptian Delta at a period contemporaneous with the disappearance
of the Hittites and the appearance of the proto-Berbers in North Africa. Apart from
this major upheaval, the only important episode in the life of the Egyptian people,
even if it were not associated with a migration, was the conquest of Egypt in a south-
north direction by the unifying Pharaoh Narmer in about - 3300.
There was no discussion of this analysis, but other analyses were put forward:
Professor Säve-Söderbergh sought to establish, on the basis of the Nubian excava-
tions, at what periods and in what conditions the Egypt of the Pharaohs had become
cut off from the south. In Nubia, the most ancient culture gradually disappeared at
the end of the First Dynasty or perhaps at the beginning of the Second. The C Group
which succeeded it did not appear before the Sixth Dynasty. This meant that there
was a 'chronological gap' of about 500 years, between - 2800 and - 2300, on which no
infomation was available today. It was clear that, as a result of this situation, active
contacts between Pharaonic Egypt and the south were destroyed or discontinued.
There was another instance of the same situation: no archaeological remains dating
from the period between - 1 0 0 0 and the beginning of the Christian era were to be
found in Lower Nubia. The earliest Meroitic remains which had been discovered there
dated from thefirstcentury of the Christian era; exchanges between Egypt and the
south had therefore varied considerably between - 2800 and the Meroitic period.
Professors Vercoutter and Leclant noted the appearance, from the Eighteenth
Dynasty onwards, of a type of negro representation which was totally different from
anything that had existed earlier (the tomb of Houy or the tomb of Rekhmire, for
example). H o w did these n e w populations make their appearance in Egyptian
iconography? W a s it the result of contacts between Egyptians and the south or
because of migrations northwards into Nubia of populations living farther south?
Professor Shinnie objected that this information gave no grounds for inferring that
there had been a northward migration from the south which had affected the
population of Egypt.
Professor Leclant considered that, with the exception of the Eighteenth-Dynasty
example already mentioned, no important change had occurred prior to the Twenty-
fifth Dynasty, w h e n the Kushites from the Dongola region appeared in Egypt. H e
was inclined, incidentally, to regard this as attributable rather to the transitory
increase of a particular influence in the life of the Egyptian population than to
migrations of peoples.
T w o main facts became very plain during the discussion and were not seriously
contested:
(a) There is a twofold problem in connection with the Nile Delta13 in prehistoric
times.
Firstly, as Professor Debono pointed out, this region, unlike Upper Egypt, is
13. Professor Holthoer drew attention to the following work: D . G . Réder, 'The economic development of
Lower Egypt (Delta) during the archaic period ( V - I V [centuries] before our era)', a collection of articles which
appeared in the Journal of Ancient Egypt, 1960 (translation of the Russian title).
Annex to Chapter 1 49

very little k n o w n , as the excavations being carried out at Merimde, El Omari

and Meadi-Heliopolis have not yet been completed.
The h u m a n remains so far discovered dating from prehistoric times and from
the archaic period are different from those found in Upper Egypt.
Secondly, it appears certain that h u m a n factors which affected life in Lower
Egypt or the Delta, in so far as they can be discerned prior to the dynastic
period, differ from those which were operative in the valley south of this
region.
(b) The study of the ancient substratum of the population has been made possible in
northern Nubia by the intensive archaeological research organized under
Unesco's auspices. For a great variety of reasons, this has not been the case in
the remainder of the Egyptian part of the Nile Valley, where research concern-
ing pre-dynastic times and ancient material cultures had produced far fewer
results than in northern Nubia. The reservations and the unwillingness of some
of the experts to drawfinalconclusions are probably due in part to this fact.

There is no doubt that one other factor at least added to the complexity of a
discussion which often took the form of successive and mutually contradictory
monologues. This factor emerged clearly from a phrase uttered by Professor Obenga,
although it was not commented upon. Professor Obenga considers it self-evident that
a homogeneous cultural substratum necessarily implies a homogeneous ethnic
substratum.
Whether or not these t w o ideas lend themselves to simultaneous consideration, it
seems likely that they were not kept sufficiently apart during the discussions and
that, as a result, the conclusions reached were less clear-cut than they might otherwise
have been. T h e possibility of finding points of agreement was probably affected by
this fact.
Nevertheless, if they are considered without reference to racial issues, two major
themes did ultimately meet with almost unanimous agreement, at least as working
hypotheses.
It was probably in Neolithic times that the population of the Egyptian Nile Valley
was most affected by large-scale migrations. T w o theories are current in this
connection: according to one, the migrants came, in the main, in a north-south
direction from the entire area of the Eastern Sahara; according to the other, these
movements of population came along the Nile from the south; from proto-dynastic
times onwards, the population of Egypt was very stable. The nature of the peopling
was not radically altered by the various population movements which affected the
political life and the military situation of Egypt, by the consequences of Egypt's
commercial relations, by the internal efforts towards agricultural settlement of by
infiltrations from nearby regions. This ethnic stability was accompanied by a high
degree of cultural stability.
However, during the discussion of the hypothesis of a homogeneous population,
which was favoured by Professor Diop, and the hypothesis of a mixed population,
which was supported by several other experts, it became clear that there was total
disagreement.
50 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

(3) Results of the physical anthropology inquiry

At various points in the discussion, it became apparent that the terms used hitherto
for the purposes of racial description required to be more clearly defined.
M r Glélé, the representative of the Director-General of Unesco, inter-
vened to reassure those experts w h o advocated outlawing the terms 'negro', 'black'
and 'negroid' on the grounds that the concept of race was outmoded and efforts
should be made to bring m e n closer together by repudiating any reference to race.
M r Glélé reminded the participants that Unesco was committed to the cause
of promoting international understanding and co-operation in the cultural sphere and
that it had not been the intention of the Organization, w h e n deciding to hold the
symposium, to giveriseto tensions between peoples or races but rather, as far as the
present state of knowledge permitted, to elucidate and clarify one of several subjects
which were matters of doubt, namely, the question of the peopling of Ancient Egypt
from the point of view of its ethnic origin and of its anthropological relationships.
W h a t was needed, therefore, was to compare the alternative theories, to assess the
scientific arguments on which they were based, and to take stock of the situation,
drawing attention, where appropriate, to any gaps. H e emphasized that the terms
negro, negroid, black, had, in any case, been used hitherto; that they appeared in all
scientific studies, as also did the word 'Hamitic' or 'Chamitic', even though doubts
had been expressed on their validity in the course of the current symposium; he also
stated that the authors of the General History of Africa would make use of those words,
to which readers were already accustomed. Whatever general opinion one might
have, it remained true that these words, as used in both scholarly and popular works,
were not devoid of meaning and were inseparable from value judgements, whether
implicit or otherwise. H e corroborated a statement made by one expert with reference
to Unesco's publications on racial problems. Unesco had not repudiated the idea of
race; the Organization had drawn up a special programme to study race relations and
had stepped up its efforts to combat racial discrimination. There had been several
publications on this important problem. It was therefore out of the question for the
symposium, in studying problems bearing on the peopling of Ancient Egypt, to reject
out of hand, and without proposing any n e w system, the generally accepted classifi-
cation of peoples as white, yellow and black - a typology which had traditionally
been used by Egyptologists to classify the people of Egypt. Furthermore, if the tradi-
tional vocabulary currently used by historians needed revision, it should not be revised
merely for the history of Africa but for the entire world; if the symposium considered
the matter important, it could be submitted for consideration at the international level
to the historians' association. Pending the introduction of n e w terms, the terms black,
negro, negroid and Hamitic, which were currently used, should be more clearly
defined.
T h e debate on this point was opened by Professor Vercoutter. H e recalled that the
problem had been raised by the w o r k of Junker, w h e n he used the word 'negro' to
denote the type of representations which appeared under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and
was subsequently caricatured by the Egyptians. Junker used the word negro primarily
in reference to West Africa, emphasizing both the pigmentation and certain facial
characteristics.
Annex to Chapter 1 51

Professor Vercoutter was inclined to think that, in place of this old point of view,
more specific criteria were essential in order to provide a scientific definition of the
black race; in particular, he mentioned a blood criterion, the question of the precise
significance of the degree of skin pigmentation and whether, for example, the
Nubians should be considered as negroes.
Various attitudes emerged with regard to these questions. Several participants
hoped that the word 'race', which on a number of recent occasions had aroused
strong feelings, would be used with circumspection. Professor Obenga replied that
the notion of race was recognized as valid by scientific research and that the study of
races did not necessarily involve racialism.
T h e discussion brought out the difficulty of giving a scientific content to the terms
under review. Even more, perhaps, it brought out the fact that more than one expert
was reluctant, for highly respectable reasons, to use those terms, which could rightly
be regarded as having dangerous or pejorative implications. S o m e experts pointed out,
moreover, that the basic answers on this issue could not be expected to come from
historians and archaeologists, but only from, specialists in physical anthropology.
Professor Säve-Söderbergh was supported by a considerable number of the
participants w h e n he expressed the hope that racial terminology would be studied by
specialists on modern physical anthropology. A strict scientific definition would be of
use with regard not only to Africa but also, and perhaps more so, to Asia; similarly,
the concepts of mixed population, composite population and groups of populations
needed sharper definition. Unesco already had before it a request to this effect in
connection with research being carried out in Nubia.
M r Glélé said that if the criteria for classifying a person as black, white
or yellow were so debatable, and if the concepts which had been discussed were so
ill-defined and perhaps so subjective or inseparable from habitual patterns of thought,
this should be frankly stated and a revision should be made of the entire terminology
of world history in the light of n e w scientific criteria, so that the vocabulary should be
the same for everyone and that words should have the same connotations, thus
avoiding misconceptions and being conducive to understanding and agreement.
Professors Diop and Obenga were ill-advised, however, to refer to the series of
criteria established by anthropologists to characterize the negro: black skin, facial
prognathism, crinkly hair, flat nose (the facial and nasal indicators being very
arbitrarily selected by different anthropologists), negritic bone structure (ratio between
upper and lower limbs). According to Montel, the negro had aflatand 'horizontal'
face. Professor A b u Bakr observed that, if that were the case, the Egyptians could
certainly not be considered as negroes.
Professor Diop went on to specify that cranial measurements had never provided
any statistical basis for specifying that a particular brain size w a s characteristic of one
race or another.
H e considered that there were t w o black races, one with smooth hair and the other
with crinkly hair and, if the skin colour was black, it was unlikely that the other
fundamental characteristics which he had previously enumerated would not be found.
Lastly, whereas the blood-group A 2 was characteristic of white people, black people
tended to have Group B , or, in a more limited number of cases, Group C .
52 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Professor Shinnie replied that the American specialists w h o m he had consulted

while preparing for the symposium had told him that skeletal studies had some
importance but that they did not in themselves provide a basis for determining race,
and that the criteria regarded as adequate by Professor Diop were, rightly or wrongly,
no longer considered to be so by American specialists.
Professor Obenga considered that there were t w o groups within a single black race,
one with smooth hair and the other crinkly hair. Professor Obenga reverted to the
general question which was before the symposium: if the notion of race was accepted
as valid and if the notion of a black race was not rejected, what was to be said of the
relationship between this race and the Ancient Egyptians?
Professor Diop considered that the findings of the anthropological inquiry already
provided an adequate basis on which to draw conclusions. Negroid Grimaldian
m a n appeared about - 3 2 0 0 0 . C r o - M a g n o n m a n , the prototype of the white race,
about - 20000, Chancelade m a n , the prototype of the yellow race, in the Magdalenian
period, about - 1 5 0 0 0 . T h e Semitic races were a social phenomenon characteristic of an
urban environment and were a cross between black and white races.
H e was, therefore, in no doubt: the first inhabitants of the Nile Valley belonged to
the black race, as defined by the research findings currently accepted by specialists in
anthropology and prehistory. Professor Diop considered that only psychological and
educational factors prevented the truth of this from being accepted.
As the assumption behind the research being carried out in Nubia was favourable to
a universalistic view, the research findings were of little use in the current discussion.
Professor Diop was not in favour of setting up commissions to verify patent facts
which, at the present time, simply needed formal recognition: in his view, all the
information currently available, even that which derived from the superficial studies
made in the nineteenth century, supported the theory that, in the most ancient times,
the Egyptians were black-skinned and that they remained so until Egypt ultimately
lost its independence. In response to the various questions put to him, Professor Diop
stated that the samples already provided by archaeology were adequate to support his
argument. H e was unable to accept Professor Vercoutter's proposal that anthro-
pological documentation antedating about 1939 should be regarded as of dubious
reliability owing to its lack of scientific rigour.
Professor Diop's forceful affirmation was criticized by m a n y participants.
The main criticism was voiced by Professor Sauneron, w h o observed that the total
number of people w h o had occupied the Nile Valley between the beginning of
historical times and the present day could reasonably be estimated at several hundred
million individuals. A few hundred sites had been excavated and some 2,000 bodies
studied; in view of the sparseness of the data thus obtained, it was totally unrealistic
to infer from them such ambitious general conclusions. A s the available samples gave
nothing like a complete picture, it was advisable to wait until a rigorous and
sufficiently comprehensive inquiry into general features had provided universally
acceptable evidence.

(4) The validity of the iconographie inquiry

In thisfieldalso there were t w o opposing theories. Professor Diop considered that, as
Annex to Chapter 1 53

the Egyptians were black, their painted iconography, which, incidentally, he had not
cited in support of his argument, could represent only black people. Professor
Vercoutter, w h o was supported by Professors Ghallab and Leclant, considered that
Egyptian iconography, from the Eighteenth Dynasty onwards, showed character-
istic representations of black people w h o had not previously been depicted; these
representations meant, therefore, that at least from that dynasty onwards the
Egyptians had been in contact with peoples w h o were considered ethnically distinct
from them.
Professor Diop remarked that, in the course of his introductory statement, he had
submitted a series of representations drawn exclusively from sculpture. H e regarded
all these as representing black people or as showing features characteristic of black
societies. H e asked for specific criticisms of these records and invited participants to
produce comparable representations of whites in dignified or commanding postures
dating from early Pharaonic times. Various participants replied that there had never
been any question of discovering in Egypt representations comparable to those of
Greek statuary, for example. Professor Vercoutter said that numerous representations
could be produced in which h u m a n beings were painted red rather than black, but
that Professor Diop would refuse to recognize these as non-black. Professor El Nadury
did not deny that there were black elements in the population of Egypt during the Old
Kingdom but said that it seemed hardly likely that the entire population was black.
Professor Vercoutter stated that the photographic reproduction of Pharaoh Narmer
was considerably enlarged, that the features were probably distorted, and that to
regard the person represented as black involved a subjective assessment. This was also
the opinion of Professor Säve-Söderbergh, w h o said that the photograph could just
as well be interpreted as a picture of a Laplander.
Professor Vercoutter did not dispute that there might have been black elements in
Egypt throughout history, and he himself adduced a number of further examples of
their being represented graphically. H e took issue with the facts as presented,
however, on t w o counts: they had been drawn indiscriminately from the whole
Pharaonic period, without clear references; and the selection had been made to
support a theory. O n this score, Professor Diop replied that he had made a point of
submitting only carved objects or scenes in order to avoid the likelihood of discussion
on the significance of colours, but that he had been obliged to use the material
available to him at Dakar. T h e list was comprehensive; it extended from the Old
Kingdom to the end of the Pharaonic period. T h e evidence did, indeed, support a
theory and any contrary theory must of necessity be supported by iconographie
representations of 'non-black' Egyptians.
During the lengthy discussion on colours, Professors Vercoutter, Sauneron and
Säve-Söderbergh, on the one hand, and Professor Diop, on the other, were again in
disagreement. During the discussion, nothing was conceded by either side. The only
apparent point of agreement was that the matter warranted further study, in
particular with the help of specialized laboratories.
Professor Vercoutter conceded that there were representations of black people in
Egyptian sculpture during the Old Kingdom, and he gave supporting examples. But
he did not consider that they were representative of the Egyptian population as a
54 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

whole, which was, in any case, also represented by contemporay sculptures showing
quite different features.
Professor Vercoutter wondered w h y the Egyptians, if they did regard themselves as
black, rarely, if ever, used carbon black in their representations of themselves but used
a red colour instead. Professor Diop considered that this red colour was indicative of
the black Egyptian race and that the yellow colouring of the womenfolk illustrated
the fact, to which attention had been drawn by American anthropologists, that
w o m e n , in a number of racial groups studied, were, as a rule, of a paler hue than the
men.
(5) Linguistic analyses
This item, in contrast to those previously discussed, revealed a large measure of
agreement among the participants. T h e outline report by Professor Diop and the
report by Professor Obenga were regarded as being very constructive.
Discussion took place on t w o levels.
In response to Professor Diop's statement that Egyptian was not a Semitic
language, Professor Abdalla observed that the opposite opinion had often been
expressed.
A grammatical and semantic debate took place between Professor Diop on the
radical which he reads KMT, derives from KM 'black' and considers to be a collective
noun meaning 'blacks, i.e. negroes' and Professor Abdelgadir M . Abdalla w h o adopts
the accepted reading of it as KMTYIV and translation as 'Egyptians', the plural of
KMTY 'Egyptian', the nis&j-form from KMT 'black land, i.e. Egypt'. T h e latter
reading and translation were affirmed by Professor Sauneron.
Turning to wider issues, Professor Sauneron drew attention to the interest of the
method suggested by Professor Obenga following Professor Diop. Egyptian remained
a stable language for a period of at least 4,500 years. Egypt was situated at the point of
convergence of outside influence and it was to be expected that borrowings had been
made from foreign languages, but the Semitic roots numbered only a few hundred as
compared with a total of several thousand words. The Egyptian language could not be
isolated from its African context and its origin could not be fully explained in terms of
Semitic, it was thus quite normal to expect to find related languages in Africa.
However, a rigorous methodical approach required the difficult problem of the
5,000-year gap to be faced: this was the period separating Ancient Egyptian from
present-day African languages.
Professor Obenga drew attention to the fact that a language which was not fixed
by a written form and which developed normally might retain certain ancient forms;
he had cited examples of this in the communication he had given on thefirstday of
the symposium.
Professor Sauneron noted that the method which had been used was of considerable
interest, since it could not be purely fortuitous that there was a similarity between the
third person singular suffixed pronouns in Ancient Egyptian and in Wolof; he hoped
that an attempt would be made to reconstitute a palaeo-African language, using
present-day languages as a starting-point. This would facilitate comparison with
Ancient Egyptian. Professor Obenga considered this method to be acceptable. Proies-
Annex to Chapter 1 55

sor Diop thought it essential to derive a research method from linguistic comparisons,
and he provided a specific example of what he had in mind. H e regarded'the Dinka,
Nuer and Shilluk groups and their respective languages, on the one hand, and Wolof,
on the other, as being ethnically and, to a lesser extent, linguistically related.
Senegalese proper names occurred in the groups in question at clan level. More
specifically, Professor Diop believed that he had found a m o n g the K a w - K a w , in the
Nubian hills, the clearest link between Ancient Egyptian and Wolof.
Professor Vercoutter pointed out, as a matter of interest, that in the tomb of
Sebek-Hotep there were representations of three Nilotes w h o were indubitably
ancestors of the Dinka or the Nuer.

(6) Development of an interdisciplinary and pluridisciplinary methodology

There was complete agreement on this point as to the necessity of studying in as m u c h
detail as possible all the zones bordering on the Nile Valley which were likely to
provide fresh information on the question submitted to the symposium.
Professor Vercoutter considered it necessary to give due weight to the palaeo-
ecology of the Delta and to the vast region which Professor Balout had termed the
African Fertile Crescent.
Professor Cheikh Anta Diop advocated tracing the paths taken by peoples w h o
migrated westwards from Dirfur, reaching the Atlantic seaboard by separate routes,
to the south along the Zaïre Valley and to the north towards Senegal, on either side
of the Yoruba. H e also pointed out h o w worth while it might be to study Egypt's
relations with the rest of Africa in greater detail than hitherto, and he mentioned the
discovery, in the province of Shaba, of a statuette of Osiris dating from the seventh
century before the Christian era.
Similarly, a general study might be made of the working hypothesis that the major
events which affected the Nile Valley, such as the sacking of Thebes by the Syrians, or
the Persian invasion of - 525, had far-reaching repercussions on the African continent
as a whole.

D General conclusion
It is to be expected that the overall results of the symposium will be very differently
assessed by the various participants.
Although the preparatory working paper sent out by Unesco gave particulars of
what was desired, not all participants had prepared communications comparable with
the painstakingly researched contributions of Professors Cheikh Anta Diop and
Obenga. There was consequently a real lack of balance in the discussions.
Nevertheless, for a number of reasons, the discussions were very constructive.
1 In m a n y cases, they clearly showed the importance of exchanging n e w scientific
information.
2 They brought h o m e to almost all the participants the shortcomings of the
methodological criteria which had hitherto been used in research.
3 They drew attention to examples of n e w methodological approaches on the basis
56 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

of which the question before the symposium could be studied in a more scientific
manner.
4 Thisfirstmeeting should, in any case, be regarded as providing a basis for further
international and interdisciplinary discussions, and as a starting-point for further
researches which were clearly shown to be necessary. T h e large number of
recommendations is a reflection of the desire of the symposium to suggest a
future programme of research.
5 Lastly, the symposium enabled specialists w h o had never previously had the
opportunity of comparing and contrasting their points of view to discover other
approaches to problems, other sources of information and other lines of research
than those to which they were accustomed. From this point of view also, the
symposium undeniably proved constructive.

E Recommendations
The symposium draws the attention of Unesco and other competent bodies to the
following recommendations.

(1) Physical anthropology

It is desirable:
(i) that an international inquiry be organized by Unesco, either by consulting
universities in a sufficient number of countries, or by consulting individual
experts of international repute, or alternatively by convening a symposium,
with a view to establishing very precise standards on the strictest possible
scientific principles for defining races and for identifying the racial type of
exhumed skeletons;
(ii) that the collaboration of the medical services of several Unesco m e m b e r states
be sought for the purpose of carrying out statistical observations during
post-mortem examinations on the osteological characteristics of skeletons;
(iii) that a re-examination be made of h u m a n remains which are already in the
possession of m u s e u m s throughout the world, and that a rapid study be made
of remains discovered during recent excavations in Egypt, in particular in the
Delta, with a view to adding to the available information;
(rv) that the Egyptian authorities do everything in their power to facilitate the
necessary study of examinable vestiges of skin, and that these authorities agree
to set up a department specializing in physical anthropology.

(2) Study of migrations

It is desirable that the following studies be undertaken:
(i) a systematic archaeological study of the earliest periods during which the Delta
was inhabited. This operation might be preceded by the analysis of a core
sample taken from the soil of the Delta. T h e study and the dating of this
geological core sample could be carried out simultaneously in Cairo and in
Dakar;
Annex to Chapter 1 57

(ii) a comparable inquiry in the regions of the Sahara near to Egypt and in the
oases. This inquiry should comprise the simultaneous study of rock drawings
and paintings and of all available archaeological material. Here again, geologi-
cal samples might be analysed and dated at the same time;
(iii) a survey in the valley itself, comparable to that which has been carried out in
northern Nubia, which would be concerned with non-Pharaonic tombs, with
the study of ancient material cultures and, in general, with the prehistory of
the valley as a whole;
(iv) an inquiry on palaeo-African vestiges in Egyptian iconography and their
historical significance. T h e cases of the baboon and of the leopard ('panther')
skin have already been cited by the symposium. It would undoubtedly be
possible to discover others.

(3) Linguistics
The symposium recommends that a linguisitc study be made without delay on the
African languages which are in imminent danger of disappearing: K a w - K a w has been
suggested as a very significant case in point.
At the same time, the co-operation of specialists in comparative linguistics should
be enlisted at international level in order to establish all possible correlations between
African languages and Ancient Egyptian.

(4) Interdisciplinary and pluridisciplinary methodology

T h e symposium earnestly hopes that:
(i) interdisciplinary regional studies m a y be undertaken in several regions, with
the following priorities:
Dlrfur
the region between the Nile and the R e d Sea
the eastern fringe of the Sahara
the Nile region south of the tenth parallel
the Nile Valley between the Second and Sixth Cataracts,
(ii) an interdisciplinary inquiry be made as a matter of urgency on the K a w - K a w ,
w h o are in imminent danger of extinction.

II Deciphering of the Meroitic script

(1) A preliminary report had been prepared by Professor J. Leclant at the request of
Unesco."
(a) T h e Meroitic language, which was used by the cultures of Napata and Meroe,
was still not understood, although the script had already been deciphered.
T h e historical account of the studies m a d e on Meroitic showed h o w systematic
research on the inscriptions, which had gradually been collected in a haphazard w a y in
the course of excavations, had been started only in recent years. Archaeological

14. See this preliminary report in Annex IV of the Final Report of the symposium (1974).
58 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

research was likely to bring to light more inscriptions in the future; none had so far
been discoverd in the region between the Second and Fourth Cataracts: the same was
true of the travel routes in the direction of the R e d Sea, the great valleys of the west,
Kordofan and Dirfur.
It was particularly important to persevere with archaeological work as it could
reasonably be hoped that a bilingual inscription might one day be discovered.
(b) T h e results were published in full in the Meroitic Newsletters, thirteen issues of
which had so far appeared, which made it possible rapidly to publicize findings w h e n
they were sometimes still only tentative. Regular meetings of specialists had taken
place - at Khartoum in December 1970, in East Berlin in September 1971, and in
Paris in June 1972 and again in July 1973; the results of the last-mentioned meeting
were set out in Information Note N o . 34 issued by the International Scientific
Committe for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, Unesco.
Computer processes had also been used for analysing the Meroitic language for a
number of years. As a result, there had been considerable and rapid progress in this
Held.
B y compiling lists of stichs, it had been possible to m a k e a start on analysing the
structure of the language. T h e index of words recorded n o w comprised 13,405 units
and a means had been found of putting questions to the machine.
O n this basis, an effort had been m a d e , by using words of which the meaning w a s
k n o w n or could be inferred, to compare the language with Egyptian or Nubian.
(c) Professor Leclant ended his presentation with an account of the lines of research
n o w being followed:
Professor Hintze was working on structures;
Professor Schaenkel was working on improving the data to be recorded by the computer;
Professor Abdelgadir M . Abdalla was going forward with an inquiry about which he was
to speak briefly; it had achieved results which corroborated the findings of the
international team.
Future efforts would include making a comparison between Meroitic and other
African languages and discovering its place a m o n g a group of African languages, in
particular in relation to Nubian; other comparisons would be m a d e with the lan-
guages spoken in areas bordering on the Ethiopian region. Lastly, it would be
desirable to compare Meroitic with African languages as a whole.

Discussion
(2) Professor Abdalla confirmed that he endorsed the system adopted for transcribing
Meroitic and the method which had been devised for recording the texts. H e drew
attention to the gaps in our knowledge: almost complete ignorance of the system of
pronouns, of the use of demonstrative pronouns, of the nature of prefixes and
suffixes. It w a s essential to k n o w with what other languages Meroitic w a s linked.
Professor Abdalla w a s in favour of carrying out a kind of dissection of the
language, so as to study its components. H e drew attention to the mobility of the
elements forming personal names in which these elements had social implications:
Annex to Chapter 1 59

the same mobile elements recurred in the names of several m e m b e r s of a given family;
the names of certain children comprised elements taken from the names of their
mother and father; certain names were titles; others contained place-names.
(3) Professor Shinnie said that there were three possible methods of approach: the
discovery of a bilingual text; the internal analysis of the structure of the language; and
comparison with other African languages.
Direct comparison between the t w o principal non-Arabic languages of northern
Sudan and of the M G r o u p had proved fruitless: Meroitic might prove to be a help in
making this comparison.
(4) Professor Kakosy, w h o w a s present as an observer, laid stress o n the necessity
of studying documentary sources. H e stated that there were in Budapest fragments of
offering tables which c a m e from a site close to A b u Simbel; he proposed to include
these fragments forthwith in the Repertory of Meroitic Epigraphy.
(5) Professor Cheikh Anta D i o p w a s very pleased with the progress achieved.
Pending the possible future discovery of a bilingual text, he suggested that use should
be m a d e of the computer-based methods which had m a d e possible the partial
deciphering of the M a y a hieroglyphs b y the Leningrad team headed b y Professor
Knorossov. M o s t scripts had been deciphered with the help of bilingual or multi-
lingual texts. T h e correct procedure in the case of Meroitic w o u l d be to combine
multilingualism and the potentialities of the computer in the following manner:
(a) Purely as a methodological procedure, a relationship should be postulated
between Meroitic and negro-African languages, thus creating a multilingual
situation.
(b) A s , at the present time, 22,000 Meroitic words could be read with s o m e degree
of certainty, a 500-word basic vocabulary should be d r a w n u p on punched cards
for each of 100 African languages carefully selected b y a suitable group of
linguists. T h e w o r d s selected might be those indicating, for example, the parts
of the body, terms of kingship, religious terminology, terms relating to material
culture, and so o n .
(c) T h e computer should be p r o g r a m m e d to recognize, for example, three identical
consonants, t w o identical consonants, etc.
(d) O n the basis of the results obtained, a comparison should be m a d e of the
structures of the languages thus juxtaposed.
This m e t h o d w a s m o r e rational than the haphazard comparison of linguistic struc-
tures, because too little w a s as yet k n o w n about the g r a m m a r of Meroitic. T h e
method w a s m o r e efficient than awaiting the result of a non-comparative study of the
internal structure of Meroitic.
Professor Leclant endorsed this investigatory and operational procedure as being
likely to provide very valuable information. H e thought that it would be useful not
only to m a k e a concordance of features actually present but also of features not present
(the absence of certain structures or certain sequences).
M r Glélé asked to w h a t extent the methods used for deciphering other
languages could also serve to clear u p the mystery surrounding the Meroitic language.
H e stated that Professor Knorossov and Professor Piotrovski had been invited to the
60 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

meeting on the same basis as Professor Holthoer and Professor Hintze in order to
provide the required information.
Professor Leclant said that a very wide-ranging study of this matter had been made
at meetings held in Paris and London during the summer of 1973. The work both on
the Mohenjodaro script and on Maya had not yet got beyond the stage of working
hypotheses.
Professor Diop hoped, however, that the idea of using comparative methods side
by side with the study of structures would not be abandoned. His proposal was
approved by Professor Sauneron, w h o took the opportunity of emphasizing the
importance of the work which had already been done by the Meroitic Studies Group.
Subsequent discussion bore more especially on the languages of the Sudan; Profes-
sor Säve-Söderbergh emphasized that, in any case, it was important that they be
studied, since quite apart from the comparison with Meroitic, a knowledge of these
languages would assist in advancing African linguistics. Professor Säve-Söderbergh at
this stage submitted the outline of a recommendation to this effect. H e also
emphasized that it was possible, even with quite small funds, to set up an efficient
secretariat and to accelerate the collection of material, its processing by computer and
the redistribution of information.
Lastly, there was discussion of the content of the recommendation. Professor Diop
hoped that the excellent work done by the Meroitic Studies Group would be
continued with full international collaboration, that a systematic compilation of the
vocabulary would be made in the Sudan and that an identical compilation would be
carried out in other regions of Africa with the collaboration of Professor Obenga.
Professor Sauneron accepted these proposals in their entirety. As it was uncertain what
bearing this work would ultimately prove to have on. the deciphering of Meroitic, he
hoped that the study of African languages would be developed independently, for its
o w n sake, even if it were partly incorporated in the overall project. It was likely to be
very protracted and it was essential that a thoroughly sound method should be
established from the outset, after strict critical appraisal. Professor Obenga endorsed
this idea and suggested that an inventory should be made of the grammatical features
of Meroitic which were currently k n o w n . Professor Leclant considered that this
proposal could be put into effect immediately. Professor Habachi hoped that the need
for an archaeological inquiry would not be neglected.
In response to a methodological proposal made by Professor Obenga,
M r Glélé stated that the methods to be adopted would be decided w h e n
the membership of the international team responsible wasfinalized.H e explained that
Unesco was supporting the studies being carried out in Khartoum with regard to
Sudanese languages and was in a position to provide study grants in accordance with
its normal procedures. Unesco was financing and directing a programme on African
linguistics and had just adopted a ten-year plan for this purpose.

Recommendations
(l)(a) T h e meeting expresses its satisfaction for the work accomplished by the
Meroitic Study Group in Paris in collaboration with scholars of m a n y other
Annex to Chapter 1 61

countries, and wishes to express its opinion that the w o r k is well grounded
and promises good results.
(b) T h e meeting has unanimously decided to suggest the following measures to
further the project:
(i) the speeding up of the computer processes by making available addi-
tional funds, and circulating the information, in revised and improved
form, to the main centres of Meroitic studies;
(ii) to produce lists and where possible, of Meroitic personal names, place
names and titles, and to classify linguistic structures, and to pursue
collaboration with specialists in African linguistics;
(iii) to establish and publish a complete corpus of all Meroitic texts with
bibliography, photographs, facsimiles and transcriptions on the basis of
the existing files (Répertoire d'Epigraphie Méroitique);
(iv) to produce a complete Meroitic vocabulary.
(c) Since the results of the project so far obtained are scientifically sound and
promise a successful development, and since the greater expense of the
project as a whole has already been met with funds from various sources, this
meeting n o w considers it to be imperative to assure the continuation and
completion of the project by providing funds for the following purposes:
(i) costs of secretariat and personnel for the documentation and scientific
publication of the material;
(ii) costs of inquiries in collections and m u s e u m s ;
(iii) travel expenses of specialists;
(iv) costs of card punching and computer time.
(2) T h e next step of research would be comparative structural and lexicographical
studies of African languages, in the first place the languages of the Sudan and the
border regions of Ethiopia, some of which are n o w dying out. This would best be
done by giving Sudanese students at the University of Khartoum a linguistic training,
preferably such students w h o have these languages as their mother tongue.
Such training would also be of value for m a n y other purposes. Such a project,
which would complement the valuable w o r k already under w a y in the Sudan, would
require to be negotiated with the University of Khartoum, and funds would be
required for the necessary scholarships.
(3) In addition a wider linguistic survey of all African languages with the purpose
of collecting key words w a s desirable. Such a survey should be m a d e in collaboration
with the Meroitic Study Group and be directed by specialists chosen by Unesco in
collaboration with the International Scientific Committee for the General History of
Africa. T h e choice should be limited to about 500 words of selected categories from
some 100 languages.
This collection, w h e n computerized, would be a valuable tool not only for the
deciphering of the Meroitic language but for m a n y other linguistic problems of
modern Africa.
 Phamonic Egypt

The end of the glacial period in Europe brought major climatic changes to the lands
south of the Mediterranean. T h e decrease in rain caused the nomadic peoples of
Sanaran Africa to immigrate to the Nile Valley in search of a permanent water supply.
Thefirstactual settlement of the Nile Valley m a y thus have begun in early Neolithic
times (about - 7000). T h e Egyptians then entered on a pastoral and agricultural life.
Shortly before the d a w n of history, the Egyptians learned the use of metals in what
is called the Chalcolithic (or Cuprolithic) period, in which metal gradually supplanted
flint. Gold and copper also made theirfirstappearence, though bronze was not used
until the Middle K i n g d o m and the use of iron apparently did not become widespread
until the closing period of Pharaonic history.

Prehistory
The first settlers in Egypt did not find life easy and there must have been fierce
competition a m o n g the different h u m a n groups to secure the land along the edge of
the Nile and in the relatively restricted area of the Delta. These people, coming from
the west and east as well as from the south, were doubtless of different somatic
groups. It is not surprising that the different natural obstacles, together with the
diversity of origin, should atfirsthave separated from one another the groups which
settled in different areas along the valley. In these groups, w e can see the origin of the
nomes, or territorial divisions, which formed the basis of the political structure of
Egypt in historical times.
T h e great achievement of the prehistoric period was control of the land (see Intro-
duction). T h e early Egyptians managed to clear the ground in their immediate neigh-
bourhood for cultivation, drain the swamps and build dykes against the incursions of
flood water. Gradually the benefits of using canals for irrigation were learned. Such
work required organized effort on a large scale and this led to the growth of a local
political structure within each district.
S o m e m e m o r y of the growth of political unity in Egypt m a y perhaps be deduced
from some of the fragments of early literary evidence. This suggests that in the dim
and distant past, the nomes of the Delta had apparently formed themselves into coali-
tions. T h e western nomes of this region were traditionally united under the god
Horus, while those of the eastern part of the Delta were joined under the god Andjty,
62
Pharaonic Egypt 63

Lord of Djedu, w h o was later assimilated by Osiris. The western nomes, it has been
suggested, conquered those of the east and formed a united kingom in northern
Egypt, so that the worship of Horus as the chief god prevailed throughout the Delta,
spreading gradually to Upper Egypt to overwhelm Seth, the chief god of an Upper
Egyptian coalition.

Archaic period ( -3200 to -2900)

The first event of historical importance k n o w n to us is the union of these two
prehistoric kingdoms, or rather the subjugation of Lower Egypt by the Upper
Egyptian ruler w h o m tradition designated as Menés, while archaeological sources
seem to call him Narmer. H e begins thefirstof the thirty dynasties, or ruling fami-
lies, into which the Egyptian historian Manetho ( - 280) divided the long line of rulers
d o w n to the time of Alexander the Great. The family of Menés resided at Thinis in
Upper Egypt, the foremost city of the district, which embraced the sacred town of
Abydos. It was near Abydos, with its sanctuary of the god Osiris, that Pétrie exca-
vated the huge tombs of the kings of thefirstt w o dynasties. Certainly it was the
southern kingdom which gained dominance over the whole country and, soon after
itsfirstvictory, set up a capital at Memphis, near the junction of the t w o lands.
The kings of the first t w o dynasties of the archaic period still remain rather
nebulous figures to us. Yet without doubt this period was one of hard work for
consolidation. During the 300 years of the First and the Second Dynasties the culture
of the later years of the pre-dynastic period continued, but during the Third and
Fourth Dynasties political unity was achieved and the new state was stable enough to
express itself in a distinctively Egyptian way.

The Old Kingdom (-2900 to -2280)

Third Dynasty
It has already been noted that the kings of thefirsttwo dynasties (archaic period)
appear to have been primarily concerned with conquest and consolidation. W e believe
that the new d o g m a of divine kingship actually began with the Third Dynasty and
that it was not until then that Egypt became a single, united nation. This Third
Dynasty was founded by King Zoser, w h o was evidently a strong and able ruler. Yet
his fame has been overshadowed, to a great extent, by that of his subject I-em-htp, a
m a n renowned from his o w n day until n o w as an architect, physician, priest, magi-
cian, writer and maker of proverbs. T w o thousand three hundred years after his death
he became a god of medicine in w h o m the Greeks (who called him Imeuthes) recog-
nized their o w n Askelepios. His outstanding accomplishment as an architect was the
step pyramid, an extensive funerary complex built for his Pharaoh at Sakkara
(Saqqara), on an area of 15 hectares in a rectangle 544 by 277 metres. H e endowed the
construction with a fortress-like enclosure wall, but introduced a striking innovation
in substituting stone for brick.
The other kings of the Third Dynasty are as shadowy as those of the first two
64 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

dynasties, although the huge unfinished step pyramid of King Sekhem-Khet (who was
perhaps Zoser's son and successor) at Sakkara, is sufficient indication that Zoser's
pyramid complex was not unique. King H u n y , w h o closes the Third Dynasty, is the
immediate predecessor of Snefru, the founder of the Fourth Dynasty. A pyramid at
Meidum, some 70 kilometres to the south of Cairo, was built for him. This structure,
originally constructed in steps, underwent several enlargements and changes of design
before it wasfinished(perhaps by Snefru) as a true pyramid.

Fourth Dynasty
The Fourth Dynasty, one of the high points in Egyptian history, opens with the long
and active reign of Snefru, whose annals, as preserved in part on the Palermo Stone,
tell us of successful military campaigns against the Nubians to the south and the Libyan
peoples to the west, the maintenance of traffic (particularly in timber) with the
Syrian coast, and extensive building operations carried out year after year and involv-
ing the erection of temples, fortresses and palaces throughout Egypt. Snefru reigned
for twenty-four years, and probably belonged to a minor branch of the royal family.
T o legitimize his position he married Hetep-Heres, the eldest daughter of H u n y , thus
carrying the royal blood over to the n e w dynasty. H e had two pyramids constructed
at Dahshur, the southern being rhomboidal in shape, the northern of true pyramid
form and of a size which begins to approach that of the Great Pyramid of Khufu at
Giza.
Snefru's successsors Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren) and Mankaure (Mycer-
inus) are remembered chiefly by the three pyramids which they erected on the high
promontory at Giza, 10 kilometres south-west of modern Cairo. The pyramid of
Khufu has the distinction of being the largest single building ever constructed by
m a n , and for the excellence of its workmanship, accuracy of its planning and beauty
of its proportions remains the chief of the Seven Wonders of the World. The pyra-
mids of Khufu's son and grandson, though smaller, are similar in construction and in
the arrangement of their subsidiary buildings.

Fifth Dynasty
This dynasty stemmed from the growing of the priesthood of Heliopolis. A legend in
the Westcar Papyrus relates that the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty were the
offspring of the god R e and a lady named Radjeded, wife of a priest at Heliopolis.
These three brothers were Weserkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare. Sahure is k n o w n chiefly
for the splendid bas-reliefs which decorated his funerary temple at Abusir, north of
Sakkara (Saqqara). It is well k n o w n that, though the royal pyramids of the Fifth
Dynasty were far smaller than the great tombs of the Fourth Dynasty and of inferior
construction, the funerary temples adjoining the pyramids were elaborate structures
extensively decorated with painted bas-reliefs.
Near the pyramid complex most of the kings of this dynasty built great temples to
the Sun-god, each dominated by a towering solar obelisk.
In addition to the erection and endowments of many temples listed in the Palermo
Stone, the Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty were active in safeguarding the frontiers of
Pharaonic Egypt 65

Mediterranean Sea
Rosett
Alexandria
Saji'
Athribis
Abu Roach» Heliopolis
Cairo
Memphis
DEPRESSION eidum

Bern Hassan
Speos Artemid El Bersha
DESERT Hermopolis Amarna (Akhetatori) »
Meir*
OF LIBYA

minis.
Dandara
Abydos Koptos
DAKHLAH • Thebes Karnak
OASIS""; xor
ElKab

swan)
Taffa-üebod4Philae_K rt ¡
Tropic of Cancer
Bet-el-0uttf41<âïâbsha
Dendour
Oakka Kouban
Amba di-el-Sebua
AbuS,mbel_ irr^Korosko
à
2nd Cataract^^ Half a
Semna Wes
Temple of Amada
The seven temples of
N U Ramses II in
Lower Nubia
(Old country of Ouaouat)
200
km

2.1 The Nik from the Third Cataract to the Mediterranean (Centre d'etudes et de
documentation sur l'Ancienne Egypte, Amada-CahierI)
66 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

S E C O N D INTERMEDIATE PERIOD

I H>kK» 3

Twelfth D y n u t :

Menthu-Hotep Mil
Antef I-III

Eleventh Dynasty

Oicopi

Founh Dynist)

Wctcclur

Fifth Dynitlv

Senunen III

Twelfth D v n i m

2.2 Chronology of Egyptian history (Diagram byJ. Vercoutter)

Pharaonic Egypt 67

NEW KINGDOM

JJfJjJüIl Ijîjtij
1 \

Shcthonq
Owflon
TikclM
Twenty-fourth Dynasty

Tcfnakhi
Btkcnrenel

Twelfth Dynut>
T w e n t y - S A h Dynasty
n-Ankhy (Ptye)
Shabaka
Shabalaki
Taharo.

Twenty-aiith Dynasty
Hauhepihut M}.
Psimeiik 1
Eifhtccnih D y n m Necho
PumctU II
AprKS
Anuii
Pumetîk 111

Twcnty-tevenlh Dynasty
Fjhwpian Cimbyi«
DtnusI

Twcnl>-fifth D> Xna

Altierin
Dtniu II
Twenly-eighlh Dynasty

Amynis
Twenty-ninth Dynssty
3»»-
Nenheniei M l
Achora
Thirtieth Dynasty
37»-
Nectanebo III
Te»
Second Persian Epoch

A r m e r a s III
Darn» III
68 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Egypt and in expanding the existing trade relations with neighbouring countries.
Punitive expeditions against the Libyans of the western desert, the Bedouins of Sinai
and the Semitic peoples of southern Palestine were recorded on the walls of their
funerary temples. Great seagoing ships visited the coast of Palestine during the reigns
of Sahure and Issessi. Egyptian ships also reached the shores of the land of Punt on the
Somali coast to procure highly valued cargoes of myrrh, ebony and animals, among
other goods. The traffic with Syria in cedar w o o d continued to thrive, and the ancient
port of Byblos on the coast below the wooded slopes of Lebanon saw more and more
of the Egyptian timber fleet.
Sixth Dynasty
There is no evidence that political disturbances in the country accompanied the transi-
tion from the Fifth to the Sixth Dynasty. W i t h the long and vigorous reign of Pepi I
(the second king) the dynasty showed its strength. For thefirsttime an Egyptian king
abandoned purely defensive military tactics and carried the might of his army into the
heart of the enemy country. W i t h the large army under Uni, the Egyptian general,
the enemies were driven back to their homelands as far north as M o u n t Carmel and
trapped, in the last five campaigns, by landing troops from an Egyptianfleetfar up
the Palestine coast. During this time, Pepi I did m u c h to expand and consolidate
Egyptian power in Nubia.
O n the death of Pepi I's son Merenre, another of his sons, Pepi II, a child of six,
ascended the throne and ruled the country for ninety-four years, dying in his hun-
dredth year after one of the longest reigns in history.
The second year of Pepi II's reign was marked by the return of Herkhuf, the
nomarch of Elephantine, w h o had been travelling in Nubia and had reached the
province of Y a m , whence he had brought back arichcargo of treasures and a dancing
pygmy as a gift for the king. W i t h great enthusiasm, the eight-year-old king sent a
letter of thanks to Herkhuf, requesting him to take every precaution that the p y g m y
should arrive at Memphis in good condition.
T h e very long reign of Pepi II came to an end in political confusion which can be
traced back to the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty, w h e n the growing power of the
nomarchs of Upper Egypt enabled them to build their tombs in their o w n districts
and not near the king's pyramid on the necropolis. A rapidly increasing process of
decentralization took place. T h e impoverishment of the royal house is plain from the
absence of monuments after those built by Pepi II. It is not clear whether the forces of
disintegration were already too strong for any Pharaoh to combat, or whether the
very long and feebly defensive reign of Pepi II hastened the collapse. W h a t is clear is
that the Old Kingdom ended almost immediately after his death and then began a
period of anarchy which w e call the First Intermediate Period.

The First Intermediate Period ( - 2280 to - 2060)

O n the death of Pepi II, Egypt disintegrated in an explosion of feudal disorder. A
period of anarchy, social chaos and civil war began. Along the length of the Nile
Valley local princelings battled with each other amid such confusion that Manetho
Pharaonk Egypt 69

mentioned in his history of Egypt that the Seventh Dynasty included seventy kings
w h o reigned for seventy days.
Little is k n o w n of the Seventh Dynasty and, even when w e have a record of the
names of the kings, the order of their reigns is disputed. Soon, however, a n e w royal
house emerged at Heracleopolis (in Middle Egypt) and some attempt was made to
continue the Memphis culture. These kings of the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties evi-
dently controlled the Delta, which had become a prey to marauding desert nomads.
Upper Egypt, however, had split up into its old units, each n o m e under the control of
a local ruler. The subsequent history of Egypt is characterized by the growth of a
Theban power which, in the Eleventh Dynasty, was destined to gain control, first of
Upper Egypt and, not very long afterwards, of the whole country.
The condition of Egypt following the collapse of the Old Kingdom, which had
realized the highest material and intellectual achievements of the country, is best
described by the sage Ipu-wer. His writings, which seemingly go back to the First
Intermediate Period, have been preserved an a papyrus of the N e w Kingdom which is
n o w in the Leiden M u s e u m . In one of the passages he described the social revolution
which took place in the early part of the First Intermediate Period and the absence of
any sort of centralized authority.
Yet out of the turmoil certain positive values were born: an inspiring n e w emphasis
on individualism, for example, social equality and the dignity of the c o m m o n m a n .
Thus, amidst the chaos, the Egyptians evolved a set of moral standards upholding the
individual. This is apparent from the well-known papyrus k n o w n as the Protests of the
Eloquent Peasant dating from the Tenth Dynasty. It is the story of a poor peasant w h o ,
having been robbed of his belongings by a wealthy landowner, insists upon his rights.

The Middle Kingdom ( -2060 to -1785)

Although the Egyptians glimpsed democratic values, the vision did not endure. It
seemed clear in times of trouble, yet dimmed with the return of prosperity and discip-
line in the Middle Kingdom, which was the second great period of national develop-
ment. Egypt was once more reunited by force of arms. Thebes, previously an
u n k n o w n and unimportant name, put an end to the rule of Heracleopolis and laid
claim to the entire state of Egypt and in winning the war reunited the T w o Lands
under a single rule.
King Menthuhotep stands out as the dominant personality of the Eleventh Dynasty.
His great task was the reorganization of the country's administration. All resistance
to the royal house had been crushed, but there may have been occasional minor upris-
ings. Menthuhotep II, w h o had a long reign, built the funerary temple at Deir el
Bahari which is the greatest monument of the period at Thebes.
Following Menthuhotep II's rule, the family began to decline. Under the last king
of the Eleventh Dynasty, a certain Amenemhet, vizier to the king w h o also bore other
titles, is probably identical with the founder of the Twelfth Dynasty, King
Amenemhet, and thefirstof a succession of powerful rulers.
Amenemhet I adopted three important measures which were strictly adhered to by
his successors. H e established a n e w capital called Ithet-Tawi (Holder-of-the-Two-
70 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

2.3 Kephren (J. Pirenne, Histoire de la civilisation de l'Egypte Ancienne, vol 1, Neuchâtel,
Paris, 1961)
Pharaonic Egypt 71
Lands) not far south of Memphis, from which he could better control Lower Egypt;
he initiated the custom of placing his son beside him on the throne as co-regent; and he
planned the subjugation of Nubia and established a trading station further south then
had ever been attempted before.
Senusret I followed in the steps of his father and through his o w n energy, ability and
breadth of vision was able to implement plans for the enrichment and expansion of Egypt.
A series of expeditions led by the king himself, or by his able officers, tightened
Egyptian control over Lower Nubia. The king's activities to the west seem to have been
confined to punitive expeditions against the T e m e n w Libyans and to the maintenance
of communications with the oases. His policy with the countries of the north-west was
to defend his boundaries and to continue trading with the countries of western Asia.
The two subsequent kings, Amenemhet II and Senusret II, were apparently not
interested in the consolidation and expansion of Egypt's foreign conquests. Senusret
III, however, is remembered for the reconquest and subjugation of Lower Nubia,
which he reduced to the status of a province of Egypt. The long and prosperous reign
of his successor, Amenemhet III, was characterized by an ambitious programme of
irrigation, leading to vast agricultural and economic expansion in the Fayyüm.
With Amenemhet IV the royal family was evidently beginning to lose its vigour.
His brief and undistinguished reign, followed by the even briefer reign of Queen
Sobek Neferu, marks the end of the dynasty.
The Second Intermediate Period ( -1785 to -1580)
The names borne by some of the Pharaohs of the Thirteenth Dynasty reflect the
existence in Lower Egypt of a large Asiatic population. This element was no doubt
increased by the immigration of large groups from the lands north-east of Egypt,
forced southward as a result of widespread population movements in western Asia.
The leaders of these groups were called Hka-Hasut by the Egyptians, meaning Rulers
of Foreign Countries, from which was derived the Manethonian term Hyksos which
is n o w generally applied to the people as a whole.
The Hyksos only began seriously to challenge the political authority of the Thir-
teenth Dynasty about the year - 1 7 2 9 . By - 1 7 0 0 , however, they had emerged as a
well-organized, well-equipped and warlike people, and they conquered the eastern
part of the Delta, including the town of Hat-Wert (Avaris), which they refortified
and used as their capital.
There is no doubt that the Hyksos occupation had a profound effect on the nation.
They introduced the horse, the chariot and body-armour into Egypt. The Egyptians,
w h o had never before had need of such equipment, eventually turned them successfully
against the Hyksos and expelled them from the land. They began a war of liberation,
conducted by the rulers of the Theban n o m e . The few surviving records of this period
mostly concern the war fought by the kings of the late Seventeenth Dynasty against
the Asiatic oppressors after nearly 150 years of occupation. A h m o s efinallysucceeded
in driving the invaders out of the Delta, capturing their capital, Avaris, and following
them into Palestine where he laid siege to the stronghold of Sharuhen. After that he
proceeded northwards and raided the land of Zahi (the Phoenician coast). Thus Hyksos
power was finally broken.
72 Ancient Civilizations ofAfrica

2.4 Queen Hatshepsut seated (C. A lfred, N e w Kingdom Art of Ancient Egypt.
Photo, The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York)
Pharaonk Egypt 73

The New Kingdom ( -1580 to -1085)

Eighteenth Dynasty
King Ahmose I was hailed by posterity as the father of the N e w Kingdom and the
founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Ahmose I's son, Amenhotep I, was followed by Thutmose I and II and then by
Queen Hatshepsut, w h o married each of her half-brothers, Thutmose II and III, in
turn. In the fifth year of her reign, however, Hatshepsut was powerful enough to
declare herself supreme ruler of the country. T h e two peaceful decades of her reign
were prosperous for Egypt. She concentrated her attention upon the country's inter-
nal affairs and upon great building enterprises (mainly her magnificent temple at
Western Thebes). T h e two achievements of which she was most proud were the
expedition to Punt and the raising of two great obelisks at the temple of Karnak.
Following the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III at last came into his o w n . His
first act as king was to overthrow the statues of Hatshepsut and erase her name and
image wherever they appeared. His revenge appeased, he swiftly formed an army and
marched against a coalition of the city states of the Palestine-Syria-Lebanon region,
which had joined forces at the city of Megiddo and which were preparing to revolt
against Egypt's domination. Marching with astonishing speed, Thutmose III surprised
the enemy and drove them to cover within the city walls. With the surrender of
Megiddo the whole country as far as the southern Lebanon came under Egyptian
control. In all, Thutmose III undertook seventeen campaigns abroad and Egyptian
arms commanded respect in Syria for many years thereafter. Egypt wasfirmlyestab-
lished as a world power with a far-reaching empire.
Thutmose III was followed by two able and energetic Pharaohs, Amenhotep II and
Thutmose IV, the latter being closely connected with the kingdom of Mittani, for he
married the daughter of the royal house. It is this lady w h o appears on the m o n u -
ments as the Pharaoh's chief queen and the mother of Amenhotep III.
W h e n Amenhotep III succeeded his father he was probably already married to his
principal queen, Teye. The young king's accession to the throne came at a time when
the country was at the peak of its political power, and was economically prosperous
and culturally developed. Moreover, the world was at peace and both the Pharaoh and
his people could enjoy the many pleasures and luxuries which life n o w had to offer
them. Towards the end of his reign, as is evident from the Tell-al-Amarna letters, the
absence of a show of military force encouraged energetic m e n to scheme for indepen-
dent power and to revolt against Egyptian authority. Amenhotep III, however, seems
not to have been unduly concerned. It was as a builder and patron of the arts that he
earned his reputation for magnificence. T o him w e o w e the Luxor temple, the other
large buildings at Karnak, and many others both in Egypt and elsewhere such as at
Soleb in Nubia.
Though the cult of Aton began under Amenhotep III, its growth seems to have had
little effect on the worship of the other gods until later in his reign, possibly not until
the thirtieth year of the reign, the probable date w h e n his son Amenhotep IV (later
k n o w n as Akhenaton) became co-regent. Physically weak, with a frail, effeminate
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

2.5 Akhenaton before the sun (C Mokhtar)

Pharaonic Egypt 75

body, the new king had in him the makings of neither soldier nor statesman. H e was
mostly concerned with matters of the mind and spirit.
In his youthful fanaticism, Amenhotep IV instituted a radical change of policy which
led to a direct attack on the priesthood of A m o n . Amenhotep IV atfirstcontinued to
live at Thebes, where he had a great temple to Aton erected east of A m o n ' s temple at
Karnak. Then, obviously embittered by the reaction to his reforms in Thebes, he
decided to withdraw from the city. H e founded a new residence at Tell-al-Amarna in
Middle Egypt, which he called Akhot Aton (the horizon of Aton) where he lived until
his death some fourteen years later. H e changed his name to Akh-en-Aton (He-who-is-
serviceable-to-Aton).
Not content with proclaiming Aton as the sole true god, Akhenaton assailed the
older deities. While tumult raged about him, Akhenaton lived in his capital wor-
shipping his sole god. This worship of the creative power of the sun in the name of
Aton required no images of the god and was carried out in the open air of the temple
court.
The Atonist revolution did not survive the death of Akhenaton. His co-regent and
successor, Semenekh-Ka-Re, almost immediately initiated a reconciliation with the
priesthood of A m o n . Semenekh-Ka-Re did not reign for more than three years and
was followed by Tut-Ankh-Aton, w h o eventually changed his name to Tutan-
khamun. Since w e k n o w that this young Pharaoh died at about 18 years of age and
that he reigned for at least nine years, he was probably about eight years old at his
accession. During the reign of T u t - A n k h - A m o n , and even after his death, there was
some hesitation in repudiating Aton w h o , in spite of the restoration of A m o n , main-
tained a place among the gods which continued during the short reign of King A y
w h o followed T u t - A n k h - A m o n . It was only with Horemheb, as the last king of the
Eighteenth Dynasty, that the persecution of Aton began with the same persistence
that had formerly applied to A m o n .
Horemheb came from a line of provincial noblemen in a small town of Middle
Egypt. His long career as commander of the Egyptian army and as an administrator
gave him an opportunity of assessing the political corruption which had increased
dangerously since the beginning of Akhenaton's reign. O n accession he promptly
initiated a widespread series of reforms which were beneficial to the country. H e also
issued a decree to expedite the collection of national revenue and abolished corruption
among military and civil officials.
Ninteenth Dynasty
Horemheb showed great favour to an army officer called Pa-Ramesses w h o m he made
vizier and chose to succeed him on the throne, establishing the Nineteenth Dynasty.
However, Pa-Ramesses was already an old m a n and reigned for only two years, to be
followed by his son and co-regent Seti I, thefirstof a line of warriors w h o turned all
their efforts towards recovering Egypt's prestige abroad. As soon as Seti I came to the
throne, he faced serious danger from a coalition of Syrian city-states encouraged, and
even sustained, by the Hittites. H e was able to defeat the coalition and enable Egypt
to regain control over Palestine. After repulsing a Libyan attack, w e find Seti once
again in northern Syria where Egyptian troops came into contact with the Hittites for
76 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

the first time. H e captured Kadesh but though the Hittites were forced to retire
temporarily they retained their influence in northern Syria. The war was continued by
his successor Ramses II.
Under Ramses II the royal residence and administrative centre was moved to a city
in the north-east part of the Delta, called Per-Ramesse, where a military base was
established, suitable for marshalling large bodies of infantry and chariotry. In the fifth
year of his reign Ramses II set out at the head of four armies against a powerful coali-
tion of Asiatic people assembled by the Hittite king Mutawallis, and continued his
father's attempts to regain Egypt's holdings in northern Syria. Though, in the famous
battle near Kadesh, Ramses led the vanguard of his forces into an enemy trap, he
nevertheless managed to gather his forces and convert what might have been defeat
into questionable victory. Detailed representations and accounts of this battle, and
some of the more successful campaigns in Palestine and Syria which preceded and fol-
lowed it, were carved on the walls of Ramses II's rock-cut temples at Abu-Simbel and
at El-Derr in Lower Nubia, in his temples at Abydos and Karnak, on the pylon which
he added to the temple at Luxor as well as in his funerary temple called the Rames-
seum. Hostilities between the two countries continued for a number of years. It was
not, in fact, until the twenty-first year of his reign that Ramses IIfinallysigned a
remarkable peace treaty with the Hittite king Hattusilis. Thereafter cordial relations
were maintained between the two powers and Ramses married the eldest daughter of
Hattusilis in a ceremony widely announced as a symbol of peace and brotherhood.
With the death of Hattusilis a n e w danger began with the movement of the Sea
Peoples from the Balkans and the Black Sea regions, w h o soon overwhelmed the
Hittite kingdom.
The ageing Ramses, w h o reigned for sixty-seven years after signing the treaty,
neglected the ominous signs from abroad and his vigorous successor, Merneptah,
found himself faced with a serious situation w h e n he came to the throne.
In the meantime a great number of warlike Sea Peoples had moved into the coastal
region to the west of the Delta and, entering into an alliance with the Libyans,
threatened Egypt. Merneptah met them and, in a great battle in the western Delta in
thefifthyear of his reign, he inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the invaders. O n
the Merneptah stelae he also recorded his military activities in the Syro-Palestine
region and listed a number of conquered cities and states including Canaan, Askalon,
Gezer, Y e n o a m and Israel - the last mentioned for thefirsttime in Egyptian records.
Twentieth Dynasty
Merneptah's death was followed by a dynasty struggle and the throne was successively
occupied byfiverulers whose order and relationship one to another has not yet been
clearly established. Order was restored by Sethnakhr, w h o reigned for two years as the
first king of the Twentieth Dynasty. H e was succeeded by his son Ramses III w h o , in a
reign of thirty-one years, did as m u c h as could be done to revive the glories of the N e w
Kingdom. In hisfifthand eleventh years of rule he decisively defeated invading hordes
of western Libyans and in the eighth year beat back a systematic invasion by land and
sea of the Sea Peoples.
In dealing with the internal ills which also beset the country, Ramses III was less
Pharaonic Egypt 77

successful than in defending it against foreign armies. The country was harassed by
labour troubles, turbulence among government workers, an inflationary rise in wheat
prices and a fall in the value of bronze and copper. Decadence grew in the reigns of
subsequent kings from Ramses IV to Ramses X I . T h e feeble hold of the royal house
became still more precarious as the power of the priests of A m o n increased, till finally
they chose a high priest, Heri-Hor, to ascend the throne and begin a n e w dynasty.

Period of decline
Twenty-first to Twenty-fourth Dynasties ( - 1 0 8 5 to - 720)
In the Twenty-first Dynasty, rule was divided by c o m m o n consent between the
princes of Tanis in the Delta and the Heri-Hor Dynasty at Thebes. O n the death of
the latter, Smendes (ruler of the Delta) seems to have taken control of the whole
country. This period saw the flowering of a n e w power, a family of Libyan descent
from the Fayyüm. O n e of the members of this family, named Sheshonq, seized the
throne of Egypt and started a dynasty which lasted for about 200 years.
Towards the end of the Twenty-second Dynasty, Egypt was divided into squabbling
petty kingdoms and was menaced both by Assyria and by a powerful independent
Sudan. Then a m a n named Pedibast set up a rival dynasty, whose kings continued to
bear the names of the Twenty-second Dynasty. At that time Egypt maintained peace-
ful relations with Solomon in Jerusalem, w h o even took an Egyptian princess to wife.
In the fifth year of the reign of Solomon's successor, however, Sheshonq attacked
Palestine. Though Egypt did not endeavour to hold Palestine, she regained something
of her former influence and profited by a greatly increased foreign trade.
The Twenty-fourth Dynasty had one king only, namely Bakenrenef, w h o m the
Greeks called Bocchoris, son of Tefnakht. Bocchoris endeavoured to give support to
the king of Israel against the Assyrian king, Sargon II, but his army was beaten at
Raphia in - 7 2 0 . His reign ended when the Sudanese king Shabaka invaded Egypt.

T h e Sudanese and Assyrian Twenty-fifth Dynasty ( - 7 2 0 to -658)

There was another invasion of Egypt in about - 720, but this time from the south.
From a capital at the Fourth Cataract, Piankhi, a Sudanese w h o ruled the Sudan
between the First and Sixth Cataracts, found himself powerful enough to challenge
the throne of the Pharaohs. His dynasty lasted for sixty years before the Assyrians,
after many campaigns, succeeded in putting an end to it.

Saitic K i n g d o m ( - 6 5 8 to - 5 3 0 )
Egypt was freed from Assyrian domination by an Egyptian named Psammetik. In - 658
he managed, with the help of Gyges of Lydia and Greek mercenaries, to throw off all
vestiges of Assyrian overlordship and start a new dynasty, the Twenty-sixth. The kings
of this dynasty tried valiantly to restore Egypt's position by promoting commercial
expansion. Upper Egypt became a rich agricultural region, growing produce which
Lower Egypt sold.
78 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Persian period ( - 530 to - 322)

In the reign of Psammetik III, Egypt had to endure conquest by the Persians under
Cambyses, and with his occupation the history of the country as an independent power
was in effect ended. T h e Twenty-seventh Dynasty was headed by Persian kings. T h e
Twenty-eighth was a local dynasty established by Amyrtaios, w h o organized a revolt
during the trouble-ridden reign of Darius II. By means of alliances with Athens and
Sparta, the kings of the Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Dynasties contrived to maintain
the independence thus gained for about sixty years.
The second Persian domination of Egypt began under Artaxerxes III in - 3 4 1 . This
was soon brought to an end by Alexander the Great, w h o invaded Egypt in - 332, after
defeating Persia at the battle of Issus.
 Pharaonk Egypt:
society, economy and culture

Economy and society

Fields and marshes
The establishment of the Pharaonk state around the year - 3000 and the little-known
period that followed undoubtedly corresponded with great economic development.
There is no means of knowing whether the need to co-ordinate irrigation was the
principal cause of the formation of a unified state, or whether the unification of the
country under the Thinite kings, together with the development of writing, made it
possible to co-ordinate the regional economies by rationalizing basic construction
work and ensuring the organized distribution of food resources. W h a t is clear is that,
until the nineteenth century of the Christian era, Egypt's prosperity and vitality were
to be tied to the cultivation of cereals (wheat, barley). A system of flood basins, which
controlled and distributed the flood water and silt inside earth embankments, endured
until the modern triumph of year-round irrigation: there is evidence that it existed as
early as the Middle Kingdom, and in all probability it had taken shape even earlier.
Obviously, this system only permitted one crop a year. O n the other hand, the
shortness of the agricultural cycle made plenty of manpower available for major
operations on the construction of religious and royal buildings. T h e Ancient
Egyptians also practised year-round irrigation by raising water from the canals or from
pits dug d o w n to the water-table, but for a long time h u m a n legs and human
shoulders bearing yokes were the only 'machines' for raising water k n o w n , and
watering by means of ditches was used only for vegetables, fruit trees and vineyards.
Bread and beer made from grain were the staple diet, but the Ancient Egyptians'
food was astonishingly varied. O n e is struck by the types of cakes and bread listed in
the texts. A s today, gardens provided broad beans, chick peas and other pulses,
onions, leeks, lettuces and cucumbers. Orchards furnished dates, figs, sycamore nuts
and grapes. Skilful cultivation of the vine, practised mainly in the Delta and in the
oases, produced a great variety of wines. Bee-keeping provided honey. Oil was
extracted from sesame and nabk, the olive tree introduced during the N e w Kingdom
remaining rare and not very successful.
Pharaonic Egypt did not transform the whole of the Nile Valley into productive land
and gardens. The vast marshes and lakes along the northern edges of the Delta and the
79
80 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

shores of Lake Moeris, and the low-lying land on the edge of the desert and in the
meanders of the Nile were exploited differently. In these pehu abundant and varied,
wildfowl were hunted or trapped. There was fishing with seine-net, eel-pot, line or
basket, for the Nile offered a wide variety of fish which had a definite place in the
people's diet. Finally, the marshland gave pasturage for cows and oxen.
The tables of the gods and the great had to be well furnished with beef. T h e
cutting-up of the carcass was a fine art, the animal fats being widely used to make
perfumed unguents. W e k n o w that the Old Kingdom Egyptians tried to raise a
number of species - oryx, antelope, etc., and even cranes and hyenas - but this
proved labour-consuming and the results were disappointing. In contrast, they were
very successful in raising poultry, notably the Nile goose. T h e meat of goats, so
harmful to the valley's few trees, and sheep raised on fallow land and the fringes of
the desert, as well as pigs (in spite of some prohibitions), acquired a considerable place
in the people's diet. T w o African species domesticated by the Egyptians were
particularly successful and are closely linked in our minds with the Pharaonic past: the
ass, used as early as the archaic period, not for riding but as a beast of burden, and
the domestic cat, which did not appear until the end of the Old and the beginning of
the Middle Kingdom.

Mining and industry

The nobility hunted hare and big game in the desert for sport and as a means of
varying the ordinary fare, but this could not have had m u c h economic importance.
W h a t the desert did offer was a wide range of mineral resources: the green and black
dyes of the Arabian desert used to treat and embellish the eyes even in prehistoric
times; the beautiful hard stone used by the builders and sculptors (limestone, granite,
alabaster, quartzite and semi-precious stones like the Sinai turquoise or Nubian
cornelians and amethysts. The manufacture of glazes developed very early, prompting
the manufacture of objects with the look of turquoise or lapis lazuli. N e w Kingdom
Egypt improved its glass-making techniques, and became a past master in these
processes.
O n e of therichesderived by the country from the arid wastes surrounding it was
gold, which came from the Arabian desert and Nubia, and which was more highly
prized than silver, although the latter, an improved metal, was always rarer and, in
the Old Kingdom, more precious than gold. T h e deserts contained a number of
copper deposits, but these were of a rather low grade, except in Sinai, and Egypt soon
became dependent on copper from Asia.
If Ancient Egypt had to import metals and timber from its Asian neighbours, its
industrial capacity was unsurpassed in t w o domains. The Pharaohs exported textiles,
Egyptian linen being then of an unequalled fineness, and paper. Papyrus, useful in so
many ways - for sails, ropes, clothing, footwear - above all made possible the
manufacture of a veryflexiblewriting surface, which was the source of the scribe's
power and which was in heavy demand abroad from the m o m e n t alphabetic writing
spread around the eastern Mediterranean. Intensive cultivation of papyrus probably
contributed greatly to the disappearance of the marshes, the haunt of the birds,
Pharaonic Egypt: society, economy and culture 81

3.1 Rendering the accounts Q. Pirenne, Histoire de la civilisation de l'Egypte Ancienne,

vol 1, Neuchâtel, Paris, 1961. Photo, Fondation egyptologique Reine Elisabeth)

3.2 Fishing (J. Pirenne, Histoire de la civilisation de l'Egypte Ancienne, vol. 1, Neuchâtel,
Paris, 1961. Photo, Archives photographiques, Paris)
82 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

crocodiles and hippopotamuses that, as the Ancient Egyptians themselves felt, bright-
ened the landscape.
The development of transport was one determining factor in the progress of the
Pharaonic regime. O x e n were hardly ever harnessed to anything but the plough or the
funeral sledge; the ass, hardier and less demanding, was the ideal beast of burden in
the fields as on the desert trails (we k n o w that the horse, introduced during the
second millennium, remained a luxury for warriors, and that the rich economic
potential of the wheel, the principle of which was k n o w n as early as the Old
Kingdom, was not exploited). Less efficient, certainly, although the technique of
using them in teams was k n o w n , the ass preceded and supplemented the camel, which
only came very slowly into use in the countryside after the Persian era. For bulk
transport over long distances Egypt used its river and its canals: small craft and large
boats were rapid and reliable. In addition, even at a very early date, sailing boats plied
the R e d Sea and the Mediterranean. For moving the heavy stone blocks needed for
sacred buildings in particular, Pharaonic engineering had invented ingenious methods
of an astonishing simplicity, using, for instance, the lubricating properties of wet m u d
to m o v e simple sledges (without wheels or rollers), profiting from theriseof the Nile
tofloatbarges loaded with enormous blocks, or using reed matting for drogues.

T h e economic and social system

A survey of the available material on the economic and social system of Ancient
Egypt gives the impression that everything stemmed from the king. H e had a
religious duty to ensure the cosmic order, the security of Egypt and the happiness of
its people in this world and the next, not only by exercising his authority as king, but
by maintaining the worship of the gods, with the result that he shared his economic
prerogative with the temples. O n the other hand, both in officiating in those temples
and in managing the nation's affairs, Pharaoh, theoretically the sole priest, sole
warrior, sole judge and sole producer, delegated his power to a whole hierarchy: one
w a y of paying these officials was to assign them land, the revenue of which became
theirs.
Certainly, the expeditions to Punt, Byblos, Nubia and the deserts to seek out
exotic commodities and stones were normally sent out by the king and led by
government officials. T h e building of the temples was likewise a government
function, whilst, during the imperial era, the annexed territory of Kush and the
Palestinian and Syrian protectorates were, for instance, directly exploited by the
crown. In contrast, the development of the land in Egypt itself did not depend
exclusively on the crown. Alongside the royal domain were the lands owned by the
gods, w h o possessed fields, flocks, workshops, etc. Moreover, at least from the
Eighteenth Dynasty on, warriors were given hereditary tenure of land. High officials
received gifts of land that they managed themselves. W e do not k n o w h o w inherit-
able private fortunes were made, but it is obvious that there were some and that, apart
from the official position that one could only hope to be able to hand on to one's
children, there were 'household effects' that could be bequeathed freely. Small-
holdings are k n o w n to have existed, notably in the N e w Kingdom, w h e n the term
Phamonic Egypt: society, economy and culture 83

'fields of poor m e n ' in fact designated the lands of small independent farmers w h o
were quite distinct from tenants working thefieldsof the king or the gods. Relatively
few in number, the foreigners deported to Egypt in the era of the great conquests
were specialists (Palestinian viticulturists, Libyan drovers) or military settlers; the
slaves acquired by private individuals were often only household servants and,
although there is evidence that it existed, slave labour is believed to have provided
only a limited amount of manpower for agriculture.
In the market towns, royal domains and temples, specialization was carried to a
high degree. Guilds, sometimes with an elaborate hierarchy, of bakers, potters,
flower-arrangers, founders, sculptors, draughtsmen, goldsmiths, water-carriers,
watchmen of all kinds, dog-keepers, shepherds, goat-herds, goose-herds, etc. worked
for the king or the temples, skills being handed d o w n from father to son.

T h e civil service
The organization and distribution of production, the management of public order and
the supervision of all activities were the responsibility of civil servants under the
authority of either the prince - the Pharaoh or, in periods of schism, the local
chiefs - or the temples. These officials were recruited from the scribes, the knowledge
of writing being the gateway to all learning and all higher technical skills. Those
scribes, trustees of both the religious and lay cultures, reigned over all professional
activities. They might be engineers, agronomists, accountants, ritualists or even army
officers and many combined several capacities. T h e greatest of them lived in fine style
in this world and expected to do the same in the one to come, and their wealth, not to
speak of their influence, gave them powers of patronage.
Pharaonic history seems to have been acted out to the rhythm of the struggle
between high officialdom, which tended to set itself up as a hereditary and autono-
mous power, and the monarchy, clinging to the right to control appointments. Thus
the Old Kingdom disappeared w h e n , in the southern provinces, the dynasties of
hereditary 'great chiefs' or prefects became strong. In the Second Intermediate Period,
high office became a personal property that could be bought and sold. T h e end of the
N e w Kingdom came w h e n the Theban priesthood and the southern military com-
m a n d were joined and became the apanage of a dynasty of high priests of A m o n .
Political organization
The avowed ideal of Egyptian society was thus a strong monarchy, regarded as the
sole means of giving the country the driving force necessary for its well-being. T h e
sovereign was the embodiment of the public service: the term 'Pharaoh' comes from
per-ao, which the Old Kingdom designate the 'Great House' of the prince, including
his residence and his ministers, and which in the N e w Kingdom finally came to
designate the person of the king. H e was of a different nature from the rest of
mankind: the legends about his predestination, the four canonic names and the
epithets that he added to his personal name, the protocol surrounding him, the p o m p
and circumstance accompanying his appearances and decisions, his endlessly repeated
likenesses, cartouches and title lists in the sacred buildings, his jubilee celebrations, the
84 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

style of his tomb (Memphis pyramid, Theban rock-cut tomb) all stress this difference.
There is some mystery about royal succession. It was certainly customary for son to
succeed father on the throne, in conformity with the mythical model of Osiris and
Horus, and in the N e w Kingdom designation or recognition of the n e w king by the
oracle of A m o n was the guarantee of the n e w monarch's legitimacy. Thus direct
'divine right' outweighed dynastic legitimacy.
Four w o m e n became Pharaohs. Strangely enough, thefirstt w o (Nitokris and
Sebeknefru) mark the end of a dynasty and the other t w o (Hatshepsut and Tauosre)
were treated as usurpers by posterity. Honours were showered on the mothers, wives
and daughters of the king. S o m e princesses of the Middle Kingdom, and more
especially later, Teye, first wife of Amenhotep III, and Nefertari,firstwife of Ramses
II, received exceptional honours. Ahhotep, under Amasis, or Ahmosis-Nefertari,
under Amenhotep I, seem to have wielded a determining influence in political and
religious matters. The attribution of the ritual function of 'divine wife of A m o n ' to
princesses or queens shows the key role of femininity and the female in the worship of
the cosmic god.
A study of the title lists of high and low officials and the few legislative and
administrative texts that have come d o w n to us gives a more or less accurate notion of
government organization: the government of the nomes, the hierarchy of the
priesthood and distribution of the religious obligations on the priests, royal or priestly
administration of the arable land, flocks, mines, granaries, river transport, justice, and
so on.
At the top of the system sat the tjaty or 'vizier', to use a traditional Egyptological
term. This prime minister, responsible for public order, was before all else the
supreme legal authority in the land after Pharaoh and the Minister of Justice.
N o n e the less, the tjaty (of w h o m there were t w o in the N e w Kingdom) was not the
king's sole counsellor, or even necessarily the principal one. M a n y dignitaries boasted
of having been consulted by their sovereign behind closed doors or having been
selected for special missions and, in the imperial era, the governor of Nubia, an
honorary 'royal son', was answerable directly to Pharaoh and was almost sovereign in
his o w n territory. S o m e personalities, Amenhotep, the scribe of recruits and the son
of Hapi, an architect gradually elevated to the rank of the gods for his wisdom, or
Khamois, the high priest of Ptah and one of Ramses II's many sons, were no doubt as
influential as the viziers of their time.
Military organization
The king was responsible for national security. In theory, all credit for victories and
conquests was his. Ramses II made great propaganda capital, in words and images,
from having stood alone with his bodyguard at Kadesh, reaffirming the primacy of
the king, sole saviour by divine grace, over an army from which his dynasty had
in fact emerged. A s early as the time of the pyramids, the country had had a
specialized high c o m m a n d , simultaneously military and naval, commanding troops
already accustomed to manoeuvring and parading in disciplined ranks. In the third
millennium, however, the peoples of the neighbouring countries posed no very great
threat. Raiding parties easily thinned out the population of Nubia to Egypt's
Phantome Egypt: society, economy and culture 85

3.3 Filling the granaries (A. Badawy, A History of Egyptian architecture, Los Angeles,
1966)
86 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

advantage; triumphal campaigns for which the rural population w a s levied en masse
were enough to intimidate and plunder the sedentary peoples on the Libyan and Asian
borders, while 'desert scouts' supervised the movements of the hungry Bedouins.
W h a t w e k n o w best about the Memphis troops relates to their participation in
operations of economic interest and in the great building operations. T h e 'teams of
elite young recruits' serving as the king's bodyguard supervised the transport of stone
for pyramids and some major expeditions to the Sinai mines or the eastern quarries. A
specialized paramilitary corps, the sementi, prospected and exploited the gold mines of
Nubia and the desert. W i t h the First Intermediate Period, the division of the
kingdom into rival principalities modified military organization: the prince's personal
retinue and the contingents from the nomes were joined by auxiliary troops.
The N e w Kingdom, a time of great international conflicts, was to see an unpre-
cedented expansion of the professional army, divided into t w o arms of service,
chariots and infantry, and subdivided into large army corps. T h e soldiers received
small grants of land, and under the Ramses m a n y captives - Nubians, Syrians,
Libyans, the pirate Sea Peoples - were enlisted and also given such grants. In spite of
their relatively rapid assimilation the Libyans set themselves up as an autonomous
force and ended by making their chieftain Pharaoh. In the n e w class of empires the
Saite kings were to rely on n e w military settlers recruited from the Ionians, Carians,
Phoenicians and Judaeans, whilst in thefinalwars against the Persian empire the last
native Pharaohs, like their opponents, hired Greek mercenaries recruited by cosmo-
politan adventures.

Religious and moral conceptions

Myths
Certainly one of the great achievements of Pharaonic civilization, and perhaps one of
its weaknesses, was its splendid image of the world and the forces ruling it, a coherent
image manifesting itself in its myths,rituals,art, language and works of wisdom. T o
apprehend the forces of nature and natural phenomena, mythology accepted all the
images and legends handed d o w n by tradition. There m a y be several 'sole' deities; the
sky is a liquid ceiling, the belly of a c o w , the body of w o m a n , a sow, etc. Thus there
existed several conceptions of the origins of the universe, which were combined in
various ways into the great syntheses elaborated on a local basis through the ages, each
of which could be re-enacted in all its purity through performance of a given ritual
act, on which it conferred a cosmic dimension.
A divine dynasty ruled this world. In those days Seth killed Osiris; revived by the
attentions of Isis and Anubis, the embalmer, Osiris became the paragon of all dead
kings and, by extension, of all the dead. H e is also the image of the sun that dies every
evening, and the lymph that flowed from his body is taken to be the water that rises
each year.
Corresponding to the divine order there are not only the structure and rhythms of
the physical world, but a moral order - Ma'at - the norm of truth and justice which
declares itself w h e n R a triumphs over his enemy and which, for the happiness of
Pharaonic Egypt: society, economy and culture 87

mankind, should reign in the functioning of institutions and in individual behaviour.

' R a lives by Ma'at.' Thoth, the god of scholars, Ra's accountant, the judge of the
gods, is 'happy by Ma'at'.

T h e gods
The doctrines and images w e have just mentioned are accepted in all temples. T h e
hymns singing the cosmic attributes and the wondrous providence of the god-creator
take up the same themes, whether it be a primordial goddess like Neith, or an
earth-god like Ptah. T h e great myths such as the passion of Osiris - as well as the
basicritualpractices - are c o m m o n to all centres of population; but different gods,
each with his o w n name, traditional image, animal manifestation and associated gods,
are the 'masters' of the various towns: K h n u m at Elephantine, Isna and elsewhere,
M i n at Coptos and A k h m i m , M o n t at Hermonthis, A m o n at Thebes, Sebek at
Fayyûm and elsewhere, Ptah-Seker at Memphis, Ra-Harakhte-Atum at Heliopolis,
Neith at Sais, Bast at Bubastis, Uadjit at Buto, Nekhbet at El Kah; and there were
m a n y local gods called by the name of Horus, m a n y goddesses w h o are fearsome
Sekhmets or kindly Hathors. It seems that this religion tended, through the identifica-
tion of certain gods with others, to reduce that plurality to a few types: a supreme
deity, generally a sun-god and often explicitly identified with R a ( A m o n - R a ,
Haroeris-Ra, etc.); a consort goddess (Mut = Bast = Sekhmet = Hathor, etc.); the
warrior god-son of the Horus-Anhur type; a dead god of the Osiris type (Seker, Seph,
etc.). T h e maze of theoretical problems presented by a multiform pantheon gave rise
to m u c h theological and even philosophical speculation. The attitude of the celebrated
Akhenaton, w h o would recognize only the visible disc of the sun as the sole true god,
still lay in the main stream of Egyptian thought, but was heretical in the manner in
which it upset tradition, which, allowing for the mysterious, accepted and reconciled
all forms of piety and thought.

The temple
Each god created his town, each looked after his o w n domain and, beyond that
domain, all Egypt. T h e king concerned himself with all the gods simultaneously. T o
achieve this, sacred science employed the magic of word and gesture, of writing and
images and of architectural forms, all processes also used to ensure the after-life of the
dead. The ceremonies conducted by the initiate priests accompanied theritualacts with
verbal formulas reinforcing their power of compulsion by means of spells recalling
mythical precedents. The depiction of these rites and the writing of these texts on the
walls of the temples perpetuated their action. T h e architect made the temple a scale
model of the universe, thus giving it permanence: the pylon is the mountain of the
rising sun, the dark sanctuary is the place where the sun sleeps, the columns represent
the primordial s w a m p out of which creation arose and the base of its walls are the soil
of Egypt. A high brick perimeter wall isolates it and its gardens and service buildings
from the impurities that might pollute the divine; the officiating priests and those
privileged persons admitted to the témenos are required to performritualpurifications
and observe prohibitions relating to food, clothing and sexual activity. In order to
88 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

show that it is actually Pharaoh performing the ritual, scenes carved into the walls
depict him carrying out the variousritesand presenting in long processions the nomes
of Egypt, the phases of the flood and the minor gods that preside over the various
economic activities of life. Throughout the day the idol, in other words the shape
through which one m a y communicate with the god, is purified, censed, clothed, fed
and invoked at length in hymns which exhort the god to awake, reaffirm his divine
power and entreat his benevolent activity. During the great festivals, the god emerges
in procession to recharge himself with divine energy from the rays of the sun, to visit
the tombs of dead kings and past gods, and to re-enact the mythical events through
which the world took shape.

Law
Religion and ethics in Ancient Egypt stress the maintenance of strict discipline, which
benefits the whole community of subjects and the exclusive activity of the royal
person in government ritual. It is thus all the more striking that Pharaonic law
remained resolutely individualistic. In relation to royal decisions and to legal pro-
cedure and penalties, m e n and w o m e n of all classes seem to have been equals before
the law. T h e family was limited to father, mother and their young children, and
w o m e n enjoyed equal rights of property ownership and judicial relief. In general,
responsibility was strictly personal. T h e extended family had no legal substance and
the status of a m a n was not defined in relation to his lineage. In the domain of law,
Pharaonic Egypt was distinctly different from traditional Africa and curiously antici-
pates the modern societies of Europe.

Funerary beliefs and practices

The same individualism reigned in regard to beliefs and practices concerning life after
death. Each, according to his means, provided for his o w n after-life, that of his
spouse and that of his children, in the event of their premature death. The son should
participate in his father's funeralritesand, if the need should arise, ensure his burial.
The h u m a n (or divine) being includes, in addition to the mortal flesh, several
ingredients - the Ka, the Ba, and other lesser-known entities - whose nature remains
difficult to define and whose interrelationships are obscure. Funerary practices are
intended to ensure the survival of these 'souls', but a well-known feature of Egyptian
religion is the linking of that survival to the preservation of the body itself by means
of mummification, and the making of elaborate arrangements to enable the dead to
enjoy an after-life at least as active and happy as life in this world. A n Ancient
Egyptian tomb was composed of a superstructure open to the surviving relatives and a
vault where the deceased lay, accompanied by magical or domestic objects. Persons of
wealth paid a regular stipend under contract to processional priests, w h o from father
to son would be responsible for bringing offerings of food; and, as afinalprecaution,
the compelling power of the spoken and written word and the magic of carved and
painted images were employed. In the chapel - mastaba or hypogeum - the effective
rituals of internment and offering are made eternal; other scenes recreate the w o r k and
Pharaonic Egypt: society, economy and culture 89

pleasures of an ideal world; statues and statuettes create a multitude of substitute

bodies. O n the planks of the coffin, on the stones of the vault, on a 'Book of the
Dead' given into the m u m m y ' s keeping, are copied the formulae recited at the time of
burial and spells enabling the deceased to enjoy all his faculties, escape the dangers of
the Other W o r l d and fulfil his divine destiny.
 Egypt's relations
with the rest of Africa

It is n o w commonly acknowledged that archaeological research has revealed no decisive

evidence of contact between Egypt and Africa south of Meroe. A few years ago there
was talk of the discovery of Egyptian objects far away in the heart of the continent. A
statuette of Osiris, dating from the seventh century before the Christian era, was
found in Zaire on the banks of the River Lualaba, near the confluence of the
Kalmengongo; a statue inscribed with the cartouche of Thutmose III ( - 1 4 9 0 to
-1468) was found south of the Zambezi. However, a critical study of the circum-
stances in which these objects were discovered makes it impossible at the present time
to conclude that they indicate the existence of relations in the seventh or fifteenth
centuries before the Christian era between Egypt and the regions mentioned above.
A . Arkell reached the conclusion, on the strength of not very convincing evidence,
that there were contacts between Byzantine Egypt and modern Ghana.
However, this by no means signifies that w e should conclude on the basis of a
silentio reasoning that no links existed in ancient times between Egypt and the rest of
the African continent.
For instance, the influence, in certain respects, of Egyptian civilization on other
African civilizations m a y be regarded by some as established. Eva Meyerowitz takes
the fact that the Akan have adopted the vulture as the symbol of self-creation to be a
proof of Egyptian influence. She also stresses the links between the god Ptah and the
Akan god O d o m a n k o m a , both bisexual, w h o , after creating themselves, created the
world with their o w n hands. Although an interesting association, this is not
conclusive evidence that contacts existed between Ancient Egypt on the one hand and
the ancient Akan or the region of the Bight of Benin on the other.
In the same w a y the serpent cult, arising from studies in all African civilizations by
many distinguished scholars, was considered from early times likely to be derived
from an Egyptian origin. But this view discounts the fact that ancient cultures
observed their environment very closely and were perfectly capable of drawing their
cults from their o w n observation.

Western neighbours: Saharans and Libyans

It is generally agreed that in the pre-dynastic period frequent h u m a n exchanges with
90
Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 91

the Sahara declined. Very little is k n o w n about these exchanges and it is sometimes
claimed they did not exist. In the dynastic period it is certain that Egypt exerted an
influence on the Sahara, although again very little is k n o w n about it.
In fact, for the Egyptians, according to the latest research, the Saharans during the
dynastic period were mainly the Libyans w h o gradually concentrated in the north of
one of the most vast and inhospitable deserts in the world. T h e situation was different
in the Neolithic period w h e n the rapid spread of the desert, which increased during
the dynastic period, forced the Libyans, shepherds and hunters, back to the periphery
of their former habitat, or led them, starving, to knock at the door of the Nilotic
paradise which had to be defended against them. Their pressure continued
unremittingly, but w a s seldom crowned with success, except perhaps in the western
part of the Delta where the Saharan population is undoubtedly ancient and h o m o -
geneous. In the great oases encircled by their desert - Khariya, Dakhila, Farafira
and Sïwa - the Egyptian nobility took to hunting.
These oases had to be crossed in order to g o southwards towards Chad ór
northwards towards the Fezzân and the Niger. H o w e v e r , w e have today no proof
that these routes were used regularly during the dynastic period.
Research on these routes, apart from their inherent interest, should certainly be
undertaken. Archaeology and toponymy should m a k e it possible to find out whether
or not the Egyptians used these major African traffic routes to go to Tibesti, Dlrfur,
Bahr al Ghazâl and C h a d , or to the Fezzân and Ghadamës.
At all events, at least from the Nineteenth Dynasty onwards, the Libyans formed a
reserve of m a n p o w e r and soldiers for Egypt. Libyan captives, recognizable by the
feathers they wore as a head-dress, had a good reputation as soldiers, particularly as
charioteers. They were enrolled in the army where their proportion grew with the
passing of centuries. A s cattle breeders they supplied livestock for Egyptian consump-
tion, either as tribute or seized from them as booty during raids. Thus they played an
economic role comparable to that of the Nubians.
In the thirteenth and twelfth centuries before the Christian era, the Libyans were
driven by necessity to try to penetrate into Egypt. Seti I and Ramses II erected a
network of fortifications against them and captured the boldest invaders. After t w o
vain attempts to return to the western part of the Delta whence they had been chased,
the Libyans obtained from Ramses III, in the twelfth century before the Christian era,
permission to settle there. In exchange, they played a greater part in the military
defence of Egypt. In the tenth century, and for nearly t w o centuries thereafter,
Libyans ruled Egypt under the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties. This
n e w state of affairs aroused strong reactions in Upper Egypt where attempts were
made to oust them with the support of the K i n g d o m of Napata.
W h e n considering the relations between Egypt and other nations, whether African
or not, the still almost u n k n o w n part played by the Delta should never be forgotten.

Southern neighbours
As an African nation, the Egyptians may have been tempted to penetrate a long way
92 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

'•^rmm

4.1 Tfce tribute of Libyan prisoners of the ancient Empire (W. Smith, Interconnections in the
Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 93

Ancient Near East, 1965. Photo, Yale University Press)

94 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

inland along the Nile, at least as far as the Fourth Cataract. They m a y also have been
attracted to Chad, passing through the ancient valleys which lead to the left bank of
the Nile, and to Ethiopia with its wealth of ivory. Southwards a major obstacle would
probably have been extensive marshlands which the Egyptians would have found
difficult to reach or cross, which throughout antiquity protected the secrets of the
high Nile valleys. Although w e can today follow the history of Egypt's northern
relations and of the portages between the R e d Sea and the Nile fairly easily,
archaeological data concerning the Ancient Egyptians' landward relations with the
distant south are sadly lacking.
Already in the First Dynasty forts protected the south of Egypt against its southern
neighbours. More and more, throughout their long c o m m o n history, political and
cultural differences and conflicting interests separated the territories north of the First
Cataract from those that lie south of the Fourth Cataract. Nevertheless, relations,
which were complex and diverse, were never completely broken off between the
Egyptians and their southern neighbours, w h o m they called the Nehesi.
At all events, Lower Nubia interested the Egyptians on account of the gold it
produced, and the more southerly Nilotic regions because of the routes leading to the
African interior by the White Nile, the Saharan valleys or Därfur. Throughout the
history of Egypt, access to the south was a predominant concern. This probably also
explains the importance attributed to the control of the western oases, another access
route parallel to the Nile.
From the beginning of the Old Kingdom, the Sudan, like Libya, represented for
the Egyptians a source of manpower, livestock and minerals. T h e Nubians, famous
for their archery, held a prominent place in the Egyptian army.
The Egyptians began to organize their links with the Sudan at the end of the Fifth
Dynasty. During the same period, a n e w political and economic post, k n o w n as the
Governorship of the South, was established. T h e holder was responsible for guarding
the southern gate of Egypt, for organizing commercial exchanges and facilitating the
circulation of trading expeditions. Unas, a Governor of the South under the Sixth
Dynasty, was in c o m m a n d of recruits from different parts of Nubia: Nehesi (Nubians)
from the land of Irhtet, Madja, Y a m , W a w a t and K a u .
At the end of the Old Kingdom trade relations between Egypt and the Sudan were
interrupted. However, the Prince of Edfu relates on the wall of his tomb at Mealla
that grain was sent to W a w a t to prevent famine. This is evidence that relations
between Egypt and Nubia continued at that time. Furthermore, Nubian soldiers
played an important part in the battles in Middle Egypt during the First Intermediate
Period. There exist painted wooden models of a company of Nubian archers, forty
strong, which show the importance accorded by the Egyptians to the Sudanese
soldier.
At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom the kings of Egypt, threatened by Asiatic
Bedouins, appear to have asked the inhabitants of the Sudan for help. This tends to
prove that relations between Egypt and the Sudan, interrupted during the First
Intermediate Period, had been resumed. In all likelihood, some Egyptians crossed into
the Sudan. From the stelae found at Buhen, w e k n o w that several Egyptian families
lived in Nubia for a long time during the Middle Kingdom. They had Egyptian names
Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 9

and worshipped the local gods. T h e kings of that period built fourteen forts in Nubia
to safeguard their frontiers and trading expeditions.
W h e n the Hyksos seized the northern and middle parts of Egypt, K u s h increased
its independence and power. T h e K i n g d o m of K u s h w a s a potential danger to the
Pharaohs.
A n Egyptian text reveals that during the w a r to overthrow the Hyksos, K a m o s e ,
the last Pharaoh of the Seventeenth Dynasty, w a s informed of the capture of a
messenger from the Hyksos king inviting the King of K u s h to be his ally against the
Egyptians. W i t h the Eighteenth Dynasty, pressure on the Sudan once again became
very strong and relations were expanded on an unprecedented scale. Simultaneously
the Egyptianization of the regions between the Second and the Fourth Cataracts
gathered m o m e n t u m . In the reign of Thutmose III, the shape of the tombs in this
region changed. Egyptian-shaped tombs were built, and small pyramids like those
found at Deir al-Medina were constructed. Hence the similarity of the cities of Buhen
and Aniba to Egyptian cities. Likewise ushabtis and scarabs were found in tombs in
the Sudan. T h e names and drawings on -the princes' tombs were inscribed in a
typically Egyptian w a y . T h e t o m b of Heka-Nèfer, prince of Aniba during the reign of
Tutankhamun, is like the rock tombs in Egypt.
Nubia and Egypt had never been so close before. In - 1 4 0 0 the temple of Soleb w a s
built. T h e military, and sometimes the administrative, part played by Sudanese w a s
greater than ever before and reached its culmination w h e n the Ethiopian dynasty
dominated Egypt. Nevertheless, although Egyptianized, the inhabitants of the high
valleys did not become Egyptian. A distinct culture continued to express itself, albeit
in Egyptian form, even at the time of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
T h e latter restored to Egypt an African aspect recorded in the Bible,firstw h e n the
Lord protects the Hebrews from the assault of the Assyrians, by inspiring their king
in a dream with the fear of an attempt against him by Tir-hakah, the King of
Ethiopia, and, second, w h e n the H e b r e w King Hezekiah sought an alliance with the
Pharaoh and his people.
T h e conquest of Thebes by the Assyrians coincided with the rise in the south of the
Meroitic empire. T h e defence of this region against the assault from the north became
all the more necessary in that the Egyptian armies henceforth included large contin-
gents of H e b r e w , Phoenician and Greek mercenaries. In the absence of the necessary
research, the relations, certainly difficult, between the n e w Nilotic empire and Egypt
are little k n o w n .

Punt
A s in the case of other problems of African history, a great deal of ink, not always of
excellent quality, has flowed in order to locate the fabled land of Punt, with which the
Egyptians had relations, at least during the N e w Empire, and which the images at Deir
al-Bahri reveal. Attempts were m a d e to place this country and, today, agreement has
almost been reached on the location of Punt in the H o r n of Africa, although m u c h
hesitation as to its exact boundaries still exists. O n e tempting theory is that it w a s
96 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

4.2 Nubian tribute ofRekh-mi-Re (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 97
98 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

situated on that part of the African coast which stretches from the Poitialeh River in
northern Somalia to Cape Guardafui. It is a mountain area with terraced plantations
reminiscent of those depicted at Deir al-Bahri. M a n y trees, including the incense-
producing balsam, grow on those terraces.
Agreement seems to have been virtually reached to the effect that Egyptian vessels
sailed to Punt to seek precious incense and many other products. It seems also that
Cape Guardafui was the southernmost point for ships for Punt and that the latter's
southern boundaries were near this cape. A s for its northern boundaries, they may be
said to have changed from century to century.
In the light of other indications w e can identify the two shores of the land of the
god with the two banks of the strait of Bab al-Mandeb. Further proof is supplied by
the fact that the incense-bearing tree grew equally well at Arabia Felix and in Africa.
W e can trace successive stages in the relations between Egypt and Punt. T h e first
preceded the reign of Queen Hatshepsut. At that time, the Egyptians had very little
information about Punt. They obtained incense from middlemen w h o spread legends
about the country in order to raise the price of incense. The few Egyptians k n o w n to
have completed the voyage to Punt were bold m e n . T h e second period began with
Queen Hatshepsut. Afleetoffiveships, according to the artist w h o decorated the
temple at Deir al-Bahri, was sent to bring back incense-bearing trees.
In a room of the same temple at Deir al-Bahri, there is a picture of Hatshepsut's
divine birth in which her mother, A h m o s e , is awakened by the scent of incense from
the land of Punt. Here, the association of the name of Punt with her divine origin is
evidence of thefriendshipbetween the Queen of Egypt and Punt, whose inhabitants
worshipped A m o n .
The pictures of this expedition have taught us about life in the land of Punt, its
plants, animals and inhabitants, and its cone-shaped huts, built on piles amidst palm,
ebony and balsam trees.
T o judge by the pictures of Punt in the temples, there is nothing n e w to report
after Queen Hatshepsut's reign. Then the texts mention the Puntite's arrival in
Egypt. T h e Puntite chieftains were required to bring gifts to the Pharaoh, w h o
ordered one of his subordinates to receive them and their gifts. There is some evidence
of trading in R e d Sea ports between Puntites and Egyptians and of the transporting of
goods from Punt by land between the R e d Sea and the Nile ( T o m b of A m o n - M o s e at
Thebes and T o m b N o . 143).
Towards the end of the reign of Ramses IV, relations with Punt came to an end.
But the m e m o r y of Punt remained in the minds of the Egyptians.
Perhaps w e should include among the testimonies to these relations in ancient times
the fact that a headrest in modern Somali is called a barchi or harki, which is similar to
its name in Ancient Egyptian. Moreover, the Somalis call their N e w Year the Feast of
Pharaoh.

The rest of Africa

Endeavours by a people or its leaders to establish relations with other countries arise
from diverse motives which can, in the last resort, generally be reduced to simple
Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa 9

terms. Needs are a powerful spur to exploration and efforts to establish relations.
Egypt's relations with Africa are too often thought of as a one-way flow, as the
spreading of her culture abroad. This is to overlook the fact that she depended
materially on the sale of certain African products. Consequently, influences m a y well
have been reciprocal. In thisfield,everything has still to be done and investigation is
very arduous.
A naval exploration of the African coasts at the time of Pharaoh Necho II, - 610 to
- 5 9 5 , has attracted the attention of research workers, but not all agree on the
historical accuracy of the facts reported a century later by Herodotus. Necho II, w h o
comes very late in the line of Pharaohs, undertook m a n y other operations.
Should w e also attribute to curiosity and a taste for the exotic the expedition which
Harkuf undertook on behalf of Pepi II and which gave rise to conclusions both
contradictory and difficult to accept? Harkuf, as mentioned below, brought back a
dwarf dancer for Pepi II from the Land of Y a m . T h e conclusion is sometimes drawn,
on the assumption that the dwarf was a p y g m y , that this example, unique of its kind,
proves the existence of relations between Egypt, the Upper Nile and Chad. Harkuf's
expedition belongs to history, whereas m a n y others are more or less in the realm of
legend orfiction.In thefirstplace very little is k n o w n about the ancient habitat of the
pygmies and it is dangerous to assume that they were found in large numbers in the
upper regions of the Nile basins. Secondly, there is no proof that the dwarf concerned
was a p y g m y , and, lastly, it is still not k n o w n for certain where the Land of Y a m was
situated.
T h e observation often made, that African fauna is present in Egyptian iconography,
is by no means conclusive evidence, in the present state of knowledge, of the existence
of Egyptian relations with the heart of Africa. T h e ape, the sacred animal of Toth,
and the panther skins, required for the priestly vestments for the rites of the cult of
Osiris performed by Horus and also for the garb of the Pharaohs, m a y have c o m e
from bordering countries or from occasional chance exchanges between merchants.
Before w e can form a clear idea of the extent of the Egyptians' knowledge of Africa,
a great deal of research must be done to investigate the chronology as well as the
quantitative and qualitative significance of the m a n y references to animals found in
Egyptian texts and images.
Whether relations with Africa were impelled by need or by curiosity, the evidence
assembled is very flimsy and its interpretation too difficult and too controversial for
any conclusion to be reached in the present state of our knowledge. Yet there are
m a n y ways open for rewarding research.
T h e question has often arisen whether the column-based headrest invented by the
Egyptians has spread with their civilization to other regions of Africa. Again, caution
is advisable and the temptation to be diffuse must be avoided. Are this and other head-
rests exclusively African, originating from Egypt? D o they exist in other cultures far
from Africa? Are they not rather of a functional nature and therefore likely to have
been invented at different places far apart?
In another field, should it be concluded, as some research workers have perhaps
been too quick to do, that any form of sacred royalty in Africa is of Egyptian origin,
the result of a physical and historical relationship between Ancient Egypt and its
100 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

4.3 TAe íriiuíe ofPunt (Metropolitan Museum ofArt, New York)

Egypt's relations with the rest of Africa
102 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

African creators? Should w e not think of spontaneous developments more or less

spaced out in time?
W h a t were the routes taken by the cult of the ram, the sacred animal of A m o n ,
which is honoured in Kush, in the Sahara, a m o n g the Yoruba and a m o n g the Fon?
For the time being, all these resemblances and presences must be listed, without
leaping to conclusions.
In m a n y fields, it is possible to point to the similarity between Ancient Egyptian
techniques, practices or beliefs and African ones of more or less recent origin. O n e of
the most attractive examples atfirstsight is that of the doubles (known as Kas in
Ancient Egypt) of the physical person to which the Egyptians and many present-day
African societies attach importance. T h e after-life forms of these doubles a m o n g the
Bantu, Ule or A k a n , for instance, make it very tempting to associate them with
Egyptian concepts in Pharaonic times.
A comparison has also been drawn between Egyptian inhumation rite's and those
described by al-Bakrî for the kings of Ghana in the eleventh century of the Christian
era.
There would be no end to the list that could be made of practices of a similar nature
accumulated for decades in studies of a more or less scientific nature. Linguistics also
provides an enormous area for research, where probabilities at present outnumber
certainties.
All this leads to the conclusion that Egyptian civilization very probably had an
influence on more recent African civilizations, though to what extent is still little
k n o w n . In trying to assess the latter, it would be wise also to consider h o w far
influence was exercised in the opposite direction, that is to say, on Egypt. This is a
fascinating inquiry which has only just been begun.
 The legacy
ofPharaonic Egypt

Pharaonic Egypt's valuable contributions to the world can be traced in m a n y fields

including history, economics, science, art and philosophy. Specialists in these, and
m a n y otherfields,have long realized the importance of this legacy, even though it is
often impossible to determine in what w a y it w a s passed on to neighbouring or
subsequent cultures.
Indeed, that legacy, or at least the evidence w e have of it, which is so important for
the history of mankind, was transmitted in large part by classical antiquity (first by
the Greeks, and later by the R o m a n s ) before passing to the Arabs. N o w , the pre-
Hellenes and Greeks did not come into contact with Egypt before - 1 6 0 0 or there-
abouts and close ties were not established until the seventh century before the
Christian era, with the spread of Greek adventurers, travellers and later settlers in the
Mediterranean basin, particularly in Egypt. At the same time, the Greeks and their
forerunners in the second andfirstmillennia before the Christian era were in contact
with the civilizations of Asia Minor and, through them, with the ancient Mesopo-
tamian world of which they were the continuation. It is, accordingly, often very diffi-
cult to ascertain the exact cultural milieu, whether Asian or Egyptian, both so closely
linked, in which this or that invention or techniquefirstappeared.
In addition, the difficulty of establishing the chronology of the remote periods of
antiquity makes attributions of the paternity of ideas very hazardous. Lastly, the
possibility of convergences cannot be disregarded. T o cite but one example: there is
good reason to believe that writing was discovered at about the same time both in
Egypt and Mesopotamia without there necessarily having been any influence of one
civilization on the other.
For all that, the legacy bequeathed by Egypt to succeeding civilizations, and to the
ancient civilizations of Africa in particular, is not to be underestimated.

Contribution of prehistoric Egypt

O n e of the earliest and most remarkable advances made by Egypt was in thefieldof
economics. At the end of the Neolithic period, around - 5000, the Ancient Egyptians
gradually transformed the Nile Valley, enabling its inhabitants to progress from a
food-gathering economy to a food-producing one, and this important transition in
103
104 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

h u m a n development in the valley had great consequences, material as well as moral.

For the growth of agriculture made it possible for the Ancient Egyptian to adopt a
settled, integrated village life and this development affected his social and moral
development not only in prehistoric times, but also during the dynastic periods.
O n e of the first results of this Neolithic revolution in the valley was that the
Ancient Egyptian started to think of the natural forces around him. H e saw these,
especially the sun and the river, as gods, w h o were symbolized in m a n y forms,
especially in the animals and birds with which he was most familiar. In developing
agriculture he also established the principle of co-operation within the community,
for, without such co-operation a m o n g the people of the village, agricultural produc-
tion would have been limited.
Pharaonic civilization was remarkable for the continuity of its development. Once a
thing was acquired, it w a s passed on, with improvements, from the d a w n of the
history of Egypt to its close. This was h o w Neolithic techniques were transmitted and
enriched in the pre-dynastic period ( - 3500 to - 3000) and were subsequently preserved
w h e n the historical period was in full flower.
These changes in Neolithic times were characteristically reflected in the growth of
town planning in Egypt. A striking example of this can be found in one of the oldest
villages in the Nile valley: Merimda Beni Salama on the western edge of the Delta.

Historical times
In the Egyptian Pharaonic civilization of historical times two main currents can be
discovered. Thefirstis the material legacy. T h e second, also descended from the most
distant past, is the more abstract cultural legacy. They are interrelated and together
comprise the Egyptian cultural phenomenon. T h e material legacy includes crafts and
science (geometry, astronomy, chemistry), applied mathematics, medicine, surgery
and artistic productions. T h e cultural side covers religion, literature and philosophic
theories.

Craft contribution
The Ancient Egyptians' contribution in the crafts can be traced in stone, metal, glass,
ivory, bone and m a n y other materials. They explored and exploited the various
natural resources of the country and gradually refined the techniques required in
making stone and copper tools such as axes, chisels, mallets and adzes designed with
great skill for use in building as well as in industry for such purposes as drilling holes
or fixing blocks. They also fashioned b o w s , arrows, daggers, shields and throwing-
clubs.
For a long period, and even during historical times, the tools and arms inherited
from the Neolithic period continued to be made of stone. T h e chalk cliffs bordering
the Nile are rich in flints of large size and excellent quality which the Egyptians
continued to use long after the discovery of the use of copper and bronze.
Very little use was made of iron for metal vases until the very end of the Pharaonic
period, so Egyptian metal-working techniques are confined to the use of gold, silver,
The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 105

copper, and copper alloys such as bronze and brass. Traces of the mining and
processing of copper ore by Egyptians have been found in Sinai as well as in
Nubia.
A s long ago as the early dynastic period (-3000), the Egyptians k n e w , and
employed in making their copper tools, all the basic techniques of metal-working such
as forging, hammering, casting, stamping, soldering and riveting techniques, which
they mastered very rapidly. As well as tools, large Egyptian copper statues have been
found which date from - 2300. Texts of an earlier time, dating back to - 2900, note the
existence of statues of the same type, and scenes from mastabas of the very earliest
period depict workshops where gold and electrum, which is a blend of gold and silver,
are being fashioned into jewellery.
Egypt provides us with a wealth of information on the techniques used by
craftsmen. In the workshops depicted in paintings or bas-reliefs on the tomb walls,
both above and below ground, one sees, for example, carpenters and cabinet-makers
at work making furniture and the tools they used, saws, drills, adzes, chisels and
mallets, all faithfully represented and with infinite detail, as well as the manner in
which they used them. A s a result, w e k n o w that the Egyptian saw was a pull-saw
and not a push-saw, like the modern saw.
A s well as these pictorial representations, the Ancient Egyptians left in their tombs
models of workshops with model craftsmen making various objects. These models are
invaluable to the historian in interpreting the techniques and the manner in which
they developed. Furthermore the large quantities of artisan objects which have been
found attest to the variety of industries in Ancient Egypt. For example, in the
making of jewellery they used gold, silver and precious and semi-precious stones such
as felspar, lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst and cornelian, fashioning them with
remarkable precision into crowns, necklaces and other items of adornment.
The cultivation of flax rapidly led to great ability in hand-spinning and linen-
making. The latter was k n o w n from the start of the Neolithic period (c. - 5000). The
w o m e n spun the flax, doing so with great skill since they frequently handled t w o
spindles simultaneously. Characteristic of Egyptian spinning was the length of the
thread produced and this required a technique which placed the spindle some feet
away from the raw fibre. T o make the distance even greater, the w o m e n perched on
high stools. Their looms were atfirsthorizontal, and then, beginning in the Middle
Empire, vertical, which enabled them to produce the very long fabrics required for the
loose-fitting everyday clothing, as well as for the funerary ritual m u m m y wrapping
and shrouds.
The w o o d , leather and metal industries were also perfected and the products of
these industries have survived in good condition to the present day.
Other objects produced by Egyptian craftsmen included silver vases, wooden
coffins, combs and decorated ivory handles. The Ancient Egyptians also had a special
talent for weaving wild reeds into mats and the spun fibre of the palm-tree made
possible the production of sturdy nets and ropes. Pottery manufacture, which started
in prehistory in a rough form, developed into finer red, black-rimmed pottery, and
then polished and incised pottery. These vessels were used for storing various
materials, but some were for decorative purposes.
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

5.1 Giza: Cheops' boat (the Solar boat). Source unknown

The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 107

Egypt contributed, if not the invention, at least the distribution of glass-making

techniques to world civilization. While it is true that Mesopotamia and the civiliza-
tions of the Indus were likewise familiar at a very early time with glazing, the
technique which is the basis of glass-making, there is no evidence to suggest that they
spread it abroad. T h e most one can suppose, therefore, is that once again there was a
phenomenon of convergence and that glass-making was discovered independently
both in Asia and in the Nile Valley.
Glass was used for beads and also for vases of a great variety of shapes, from grace-
ful stemmed chalices to vases in the form of fishes. They were usually polychromatic
and always opaque. Transparent glass made its appearance under Tutankhamun
(c. -1300). Starting about - 700, Egyptian polychromatic glass vases, in the form called
alabaster, spread throughout the Mediterranean area.
In the latter period, hieroglyphic signs, moulded in coloured glass, were set in
w o o d or stone to make inscriptions. T h e techniques of the Pharaonic glass-makers
were handed d o w n to craftsmen of the Hellenistic period, w h o invented brown glass.
Alexandria then became the main centre for the manufacture of glassware, exporting
its products as far as China. T h e Meroitic empire later imported some glassware from
Alexandria but, above all, adopted its manufacturing techniques and spread them to
the upper Nile Valley.
O n e of the most important industries was that of the production of papyrus, which
was invented by the Ancient Egyptians. N o plant played a more significance role in
Egypt than the papyrus reed. Its fibres were used for boat-making and for caulking,
for the wicks of oil lamps, for mats, baskets, ropes and hawsers. T h e hawsers which
served to moor the pontoon bridge that Xerxes tried to lay across the Hellespont were
made in Egypt out of papyrus fibres. W h e n tied together in bundles, papyrus stems
served as pillars in early architecture until classical architects took them as a model for
their simple or clustered columns, whose capitals were shaped like closed or open
flowers. But, above all, papyrus fibre was used to make 'papyrus', from which the
word 'paper' is derived.
Papyrus was made by placing crosswise successive layers of fine strips taken from
the stem of the plant which, after pressing and drying, formed a large sheet.
Twenty sheets of papyrus joined together while they were still moist formed a
scroll three to six metres in length. Several scrolls could be joined together and reach a
length of 30 or 40 metres. It was this scroll that constituted the Egyptian book. O f all
the writing materials employed in antiquity, papyrus was certainly the most practical.
It was supple and light. Its sole drawback was its fragility.
The papyrus used in Egypt from the time of the First Dynasty (c. - 3000) until the
end of the Pharaonic period was later adopted by the Greeks, the R o m a n s , the Copts,
the Byzantines, the Aramaeans and the Arabs. A large part of Greek and Latin
literature has come d o w n to us on papyrus. Papyrus scrolls were one of the principal
exports of Egypt. Papyrus was, unquestionably, one of the major legacies bequeathed
to civilization by Pharaonic Egypt.
All these industries depended on techniques and skills and led to the creation of a
body of artisans, and to improved techniques. M u s e u m s and private collections
throughout the world contain hundreds, even thousands, of archaeological examples
108 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

of the various products of Ancient Egypt.

Not the least of their technical contributions to the world were their tradition and
ability in stonemasonry. It was no easy task to transform huge blocks of granite,
limestone, basalt and diorite from the raw material into the well-shaped, polished
masonry required by various architectural designs.
Moreover, the search for stone to build their monuments, no less than prospecting
for ores and efforts to discover fibres, semi-precious stones and coloured pigments,
contributed to the spread of Egyptian techniques to Asia and Africa.
The Egyptians did not hesitate to fetch their stone from the open desert, sometimes
going as far as 100 kilometres from the Nile. The quarry from which the diorite came
for the famous statute of Chephren in the Cairo M u s e u m lies in the Nubian desert
some 65 kilometres to the north-west of A b u Simbel. Quarries were worked from the
d a w n of Egyptian history (c. -2800).
The only tools used by the Egyptian stoneworker were the wooden mallet and
copper chisel for soft stones like limestone, and the pick, chisel and hard stone
hammer for metamorphic rocks like granite, gneiss, diorite and basalt. W h e n the
quarry was located far from the Nile, an expedition was launched with sometimes as
many as 1,400 m e n comprising officers and soldiers, porters and quarrymen, scribes
and doctors. Such expeditions were equipped to remain for long periods out of Egypt
and must have contributed to the spread of Egyptian civilization, especially in Africa.
The skills acquired by stoneworkers in the early dynastic period led the Egyptians,
by the time of the Old Kingdom (c. -2400), to h e w theirfinalresting-places in solid
rock. M u c h before this date, from - 3000 to - 2400, the building of tombs, planned as
the dwelling-places of the dead, had already led them to build imposing super-
structures which, in time, with the changes which occurred in architecture, led to the
step pyramid and then to the pyramid proper.
The Egyptian expertise in woodworking is brilliantly manifested in their ship-
building. T h e necessities of daily life in the Nile Valley, where the river is the only
convenient thoroughfare, made expert boatmen of the Egyptians from the earliest
times. Boats occupied a prominent position in their earliest works of art from
prehistoric times on. Since in their belief an after-life was closely modelled on earthly
life, it is not surprising that they placed models of boats in their tombs, or represented
scenes of boat construction and river scenes on tomb walls. They would even
sometimes bury actual boats near the tombs ready for use by the dead. This was the
case at Heluan in a burial ground of thefirstt w o dynasties, and at Dahshur, near the
pyramid of Sesostris III. But a more recent discovery is extraordinary. In 1952 t w o
great pits, dug into the rock and covered with huge limestone slabs, were discovered
along the southern side of the Great Pyramid. In the pits, partially disassembled, but
complete with oars, cabins and rudders, were discovered the very boats used by
Cheops. O n e of these boats has been removed from the pit and restored. T h e other
one is still waiting to be taken out of its tomb.
Cheops' boat, n o w in a special m u s e u m , has been rebuilt. W h e n found it consisted
of 1,224 pieces of w o o d which had been partially disassembled and stacked in thirteen
successive layers in the pit. The boat measures 43.4 metres long, 5.9 metres wide, and
has a capacity of about 40 tons. T h e side planks are 13 and 14 centimetres thick. Its
The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 109

draught is difficult to calculate precisely, but was clearly very light in relation to the
ship's mass. Although it does possess a rudimentary frame of timbers, Cheops' boat
has no keel, and is flat-bottomed and narrow. The most remarkable fact is that it was
built without any nails: the pieces of w o o d are held together solely by the use of tenon
and mortise joints. The constituent elements, planks, timbers and cross-members, are
tied to each other with ropes. The ship contains a large, spacious central cabin, as well
as a covered shelter in the b o w . There was no mast, and it was either propelled by
oars or was towed, even though the sail had been in use in Egypt long before Cheops'
reign. Amphibious military expeditions far from Egypt on the R e d Sea and the
Euphrates were made possible by this method of boat construction, assembling
separate sections which were then tied to one another.

Scientific contributions
The Pharaonic contribution to science and applied mathematics has left a valuable
legacy in thefieldsof physics, chemistry, zoology, geology, medicine, pharmacology,
geometry and applied mathematics. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians gave to humanity a
large store of experience in each of thesefields,some of which were combined in order
to execute a specific project.

Mummification
O n e outstanding example of the genius of the Ancient Egyptians is mummification.
It shows their mastery of a number of sciences including physics, chemistry, medicine
and surgery. Their ability in each branch was an accumulation of long experience. For
example, they exploited their discovery of the chemical characteristic of natron, which
was found in certain areas of Egypt, particularly in the W l d ï el-Natrun, by using the
chemical attributes of this substance in the practical fulfilment of the demands of their
belief in the after-life. For the Ancient Egyptians believed in the continuity of life
after death and-emphasized this belief in a practical w a y by preserving the human
body. The compounds of natron have been analysed in modern times as a mixture of
sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, salt and sodium sulphate. T h e Ancient
Egyptian, therefore, was aware of the chemical functions of these substances. In the
process of mummification he soaked the body in natron for seventy days. H e drew the
brain out through the nostrils and he also removed the intestines through an incision
made in the side of the body. Such operations as these necessitated an accurate
knowledge of anatomy, and the good state of preservation of the m u m m i e s illustrates
this intimate knowledge.

Surgery
It was, undoubtedly, the knowledge they acquired from mummification that enabled
the Egyptians to develop surgical techniques at a very early period in their history.
W e have quite a good knowledge of Egyptian surgery, in fact, thanks to the Smith
Papyrus, a copy of an original which was composed under the Old Kingdom,
110 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

5.2 Model ofa weaver's workshop, twelfth dynasty, about -2000 (Metropolitan Museum
ofArt, New York)
The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 111

between - 2600 and - 2400. This papyrus is virtually a treatise on bone surgery and
external pathology. Forty-eight cases are examined systematically. In each case, the
author of the treatise begins his account under a general heading: 'Instructions
concerning (such and such a case)', followed by a clinical description: 'If you observe
(such symptoms)'. T h e descriptions are always precise and incisive. They are followed
by the diagnosis. If the surgeon can treat the patient, the treatment to be administered
is then described in detail.
Several of the treatments indicated in the Smith Papyrus are still used today.
Examination of m u m m i e s has revealed traces of surgery, for example the jaw dating
from the Old Kingdom which has two holes bored to drain an abscess, or the skull
fractured by a blow from an axe or sword and successfully reset.
All this bears testimony to the skill of the surgeons of Ancient Egypt, a skill which
it would be fair to assume was handed on in Africa as well as in Asia and to classical
antiquity, by the doctors w h o were always attached to Egyptian expeditions to
foreign lands. Moreover, it is k n o w n that foreign sovereigns like the Asian prince
of Bakhtan, Bactria, or Cambyses himself brought in Egyptian doctors, that
Hippocrates 'had access to the library of the Imhotep temple at Memphis' and that
other Greek physicians later followed his example.
Medicine
Medical knowledge can be considered as one of the most important early scientific
contributions of the Ancient Egyptians to the history of m a n . Documents show in
detail the titles of Egyptian physicians and their differentfieldsof specialization. In
fact the civilization of the ancient Near East and the classical world recognized the
ability and reputation of the Ancient Egyptians in medicine and pharmacology. O n e
of the most significant personalities in the history of medicine is Imhotep, the vizier,
architect and physician of King Zoser of the Third Dynasty. His fame survived
throughout Egyptian ancient history to Greek times. Deified by the Egyptians under
the name Imouthes, he was identified by the Greeks with Askelepios, the god of
medicine. In fact, Egyptian influence on the Greek world in both medicine and
pharmacology is easily recognizable in remedies and prescriptions. S o m e medical
instruments used in surgical operations have been discovered during excavations.
Written evidence of Ancient Egyptian medicine comes in medical documents such
as the Ebers Papyrus, the Berlin Papyrus, the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus and many
others which illustrate the techniques of operations and detail the prescribed cures.
In contrast to the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, which is highly scientific, the
purely medical texts were based on magic. T h e Egyptians regarded sickness as the
work of the gods or malevolent spirits, which provided justification for resorting to
magic. This explains w h y some of the remedies prescribed on the Ebers Papyrus, for
example, resemble a magical incantation rather than a medical prescription.
Despite this aspect, the Egyptian doctor examined his patient and determined the
symptoms of his complaint. H e than made his diagnosis and prescribed treatment. All
the extant texts describe this sequence, from which it m a y be concluded that it was
standard procedure. T h e examination was made in two stages, some days apart, if the
case was unclear. A m o n g the ailments identified and competently described and
112 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

treated by Egyptian doctors were gastric disorders, stomach swelling, skin cancer,
coryza, laryngitis, angina pectoris, diabetes, constipation, haemorrhoids, bronchitis,
retention and incontinence of urine, bilharzia, opthalmia, etc.
The Egyptian doctor treated his patient by using suppositories, ointments, syrups,
potions, oûs, massages, enemas, poultices, and even inhalants, whose use the
Egyptians taught to the Greeks. Their pharmacopoeia contained a large variety of
medicinal herbs, the names of which, unfortunately, elude translation. Egyptian
medical techniques and medicines enjoyed great prestige in antiquity, as w e k n o w
from Herodotus. T h e names of nearly a hundred Ancient Egyptian physicians have
been passed d o w n to us through these texts. A m o n g the specialists there were also
veterinarians.

Mathematics (arithmetic, algebra and geometry)

Mathematics is an important field of science in which the Ancient Egyptians worked.
The accurate measurements of their enormous architectural and sculptural monuments
are worthy proof of their preoccupation with precision. They would never have been
able to reach this pitch of perfection without a m i n i m u m of mathematical capacity.
T w o important mathematical papyri have come d o w n to us from the Middle
Kingdom ( - 2000 to - 1 7 5 0 ) , those of M o s c o w and Rhind. T h e Egyptian method of
numeration, based on the decimal system, consisted of repeating the symbols for
numbers (ones, tens, hundreds, thousands) as m a n y times as necessary to obtain the
desired figure. There w a s no zero. It is interesting to note that the Egyptian symbols
for the fractions xh. Vi, VA, and so on originate in the myth of Horus and Seth, in
which one of Horus' falcon eyes was torn out and cut into pieces by Seth. It is these
pieces that symbolize certain fractions.
Egyptian mathematics m a y be considered under the three headings of arithmetic,
algebra and geometry.
Egyptian administrative organization required a knowledge of arithmetic. It is not
surprising that the scribes spent an enormous amount of time keeping records of the
area of land under cultivation, the quantities of products available and their distribu-
tion, the size and quality of the staff, and so on.
All the problems posed and solved in Egyptian treatises on arithmetic have one trait
in c o m m o n : they are all material problems of the type that a scribe, isolated in some
remote outpost, would have to solve daily, like the calculation of the number of
bricks required to build an inclined plane. It was basically an empirical system, with
little in it of an abstract nature.
It is not exactly dear whether one m a y properly speak of an Egyptian algebra, and
specialists in the history of science hold different views on this matter. T h e question
whether Egyptian algebra existed or not depends therefore on whether one accepts or
rejects the possibility of doing algebra without abstract symbols.
T h e Greek writers Herodotus and Strabo concur in the view that geometry was
invented by the Egyptians. The need to calculate the area of land eroded or added each
year by the flooding of the Nile apparently led them to its discovery. A s a matter of
fact, Egyptian geometry, like mathematics, was empirical. In ancient treatises, the
The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 113

task wasfirstand foremost to provide the scribe with a formula that would enable
him to find rapidly the area of afield,the volume of grain in a silo or the number of
bricks required for a building project. N o n e the less, the Egyptians k n e w perfectly
well h o w to calculate the area of a triangle or a circle, the volume of a cylinder, of a
pyramid or a truncated pyramid, and probably that of a hemisphere. Their greatest
success was the calculation of the area of a circle.
Knowledge of geometry proved of considerable practical use in land surveying,
which played a significant role in Egypt. There are many tombs with paintings
showing teams of surveyors busy checking that the boundary-stones offieldshave not
been shifted and then measuring with a knotted cord, the forerunner of our
surveyor's chain, the area of the cultivated land. T h e surveyor's cord or nouh is
mentioned in the earliest texts (c. - 2800).

Astronomy
The documentation w e possess on Egyptian astronomy is not at all comparable to the
material available on mathematics, surgery and medicine. There is reason to believe,
however, that treatises on astronomy did exist. Although the Carlsberg 9 Papyrus,
which describes a method for determining the phases of the m o o n , was undoubtedly
written during the R o m a n period, it derives from m u c h earlier sources and is devoid
of any Hellenistic influence; the same is true of the Carlsberg I Papyrus. Unfortu-
nately the earlier sources are not extant and the Egyptian contribution to astronomy
must therefore be deduced from practical applications made on the basis of observa-
tions. This contribution is, however, far from insignificant.
As w e have seen in the Introduction, the Egyptian calendar year was divided into
three seasons of four months, each having thirty days; to these 360 days, five were
added at the end of the year. T h e 365-day calendar year, the most accurate k n o w n in
antiquity, is at the origin of our o w n calendar year inasmuch as it served as the basis of
the Julian reform ( - 4 7 ) and of the Gregorian reform of + 1582. Side by side with this
civil calendar, the Egyptians also used a religious, lunar calendar and were able to
predict the moon's phases with adequate accuracy.
Ever since the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt, Europeans have been struck by the
accuracy of the alignment of structures built at the time of the Pharaohs, particularly
the Pyramids, the four façades of which face the four cardinal points. T h e Great
Pyramids deviate from true north by less than one degree. Such accuracy could have
been achieved only by astronomical observation. T h e Egyptians were perfectly capable
of such accuracy because they possessed a corps of astronomers, working under the
authority of the vizier, whose job it was to observe the night sky, to note the rising of
the stars, especially of Sirius (Sothis), and, above all, to determine the passage of the
hours of darkness. These, for the Egyptians, varied in length according to the seasons:
night, which was supposed to contain twelve hours, always commenced at sunset and
ended at sunrise. Tables have come d o w n to us which indicate that each night hour
was marked, month by month, at ten-day intervals, by the appearance of a constella-
tion or a star of the first magnitude. T h e tables distinguished thirty-six such
constellations or stars which constituted decans, each one of which inaugurated a
114 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

ten-day period. Certain tombs have paintings representing the sky. T h e stars are
represented in picture form, which has made it possible to identify some of the
constellations recognized by the Egyptians. Ursa Major is called the O x Leg; the stars
surrounding Arcturus are represented by a crocodile and a hippopotamus coupled
together; Cygnus is represented by a m a n with his arms extended; Orion by a person
running with his head turned back; Cassiopeia by a figure with outstretched arms;
and Draco, Pleiades, Scorpius and Aries by other figures.
T o determine the daytime hours, which also varied according to the seasons, the
Egyptians used a gnomon, a simple rod planted vertically on a graduated board with a
plumb-line attached. This instrument served to measure the time spent on the
irrigation of thefields,since the water had to be distributed impartially. As well as the
gnomon, the Egyptians had water-clocks which were placed in their temples. These
water-docks were borrowed and perfected by the Greeks and are the clepsydras of
antiquity.
Architecture
The Ancient Egyptians applied their mathematical knowledge to the extraction,
transportation and positioning of the huge blocks of stone used in their architectural
projects. They had a long tradition of using m u d bricks and various kinds of stone
from very early times. Theirfirstuse of heavy granite was during the beginning of the
third millennium before the Christian era. It was used for the flooring of some tombs
belonging to the First Dynasty at Abydos. In the Second Dynasty they used limestone
in constructing the. walls of tombs.
A n e w phase was started in the Third Dynasty. This was a vital development in the
history of Egyptian architecture, for it was the construction of thefirstcomplete
building in stone. This is the step pyramid at Sakkara (Saqqara), which forms a part of
the huge funerary complex of King Zoser.
Egypt developed a wide variety of architectural forms, of which the pyramid is,
undoubtedly, the most characteristic. T h efirstpyramids were step pyramids and it
was not until the Fourth Dynasty (c. - 2300) that they gradually became triangular in
form. From that period, the architects gave up the use of the small stones of the Third
Dynasty in favour of large blocks of limestone and granite.
Until the R o m a n conquest, civil architecture continued to use sun-dried brick,
even in the building of royal palaces. T h e outbuildings of Ramses in Thebes and the
great Nubian fortresses provide a very good idea of the versatility of this material. It
could be used with the utmost refinement, as can be seen from the palace of
Amenhotep IV at Tell-al-Amarna with its pavements and ceiling decorated with
paintings. Another contribution in thefieldof architecture was the creation of the
column. Columns were atfirstattached to the wall, but later became free-standing.
In developing this architectural skill the Ancient Egyptians were m u c h influenced
by the local environment. For example, in arriving at the idea of a column, they were
inspired by their observation of wild plants such as reeds and papyrus. They cut the
capitals of the columns into the shape of lotus flowers, papyrus and other plants, and
this was another architectural innovation. T h e lotus, papyrus palm and fluted
columns of Ancient Egypt were adopted in the architecture of other cultures.
The legacy ofPharaonic Egypt 115

It is likely that the Ancient Egyptians invented the vault during the Second
Dynasty (c. -2900). T o begin with it was built of bricks, but by the Sixth Dynasty
the Egyptians were building stone vaults.
The great Giza Pyramid was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. A
building of such great proportions stands proof of the architectural and administrative
ability of the Ancient Egyptians. The construction of the ascending corridors, leading
to the granite chamber of the king, and the existence of two openings or vents, on the
northern and southern sides of the royal chamber, extending to the outside to provide
ventilation, are good examples of their ingenuity.
The exact proportions, measurements and orientation of the chambers and corri-
dors of the pyramids, to say nothing of the cutting and erection of giant obelisks in
solid stone, indicate the possession of great technical skills from very early times.
The technical knowledge acquired by the Egyptians in construction and irrigation
as the result of digging canals and building dykes or dams manifested itself in other
fields allied to architecture. B y - 2550, they had sufficient skill to build a d a m of hewn
stone in a wadi near Cairo. Somewhat later, their engineers cut navigable channels in
the rocks of the First Cataract at A s w a n .
Garden design and town planning are other aspects of Egyptian architecture. T h e
Egyptians had a great fondness for gardens. Even the poor managed to plant a tree or
two in the narrow courtyards of their houses. W h e n they were rich, their gardens
rivalled their residences in size and luxury. The garden was arranged around the pool
or pools, for there could be several of them. They served asfishponds, as reservoirs
for watering and as a source of cooling fresh air for the house near by. Frequently, the
master of the house had a light wooden pavilion built near the pool where he could
come for a breath offreshair in the evening and receive friends for cold drinks.
These artificial pools were occasionally quite large. Snefru's palace lake was large
enough for him to sail upon it, accompanied by young, lightly-clad girls plying the
oars, and Amenhotep III had a vast pool built in his Theban palace. This very
Egyptian taste for gardens and parks later passed to R o m e .
There are earlier examples of town planning than those attributed to Greek genius.
As early as - 1 8 9 5 , under the reign of Sesostris II, the city of Lahun was built inside a
rectangular wall. T h e city had both administrative and residential buildings. T h e
workers' houses, nearly 250 of which have been excavated, were built in blocks along
streets four metres wide which ran into a central thoroughfare eight metres wide.
Each house occupied a ground area of 100 to 125 square metres and contained a dozen
rooms on a single level. Located in another quarter of the city were the houses of the
leading citizens - town houses which sometimes had as many as seventy rooms, or
more modest homes which were, nevertheless, considerably larger than those of the
workers. These houses were also built along rectilinear avenues running parallel to the
city walls. The avenues had a drain running d o w n the centre.
The large fortresses in Nubia were patterned on the same lines, and the same urban
plan was adopted, under the N e w K i n g d o m , at Tell-al-Amarna, among other places,
where the streets crossed at right angles, though the city itself did not have the
geometrical severity of Lahun.
While Egypt unquestionably made a major contribution in thefieldof architecture,
116 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

it is nevertheless more difficult to judge the impact it had on the world as a whole in
this sphere. Architects in m a n y cultures have used, and are still using, colonnades,
pyramids and obelisks which are undeniably of Egyptian origin. It is difficult not to
discern in the clustered columns of Sakkara (Saqqara) and the proto-Doric columns at
Benï Hasan the remote ancestors of the columns of Greek, and later R o m a n , classical
art. O n e fact, at least, seems established: the architectural traditions of the Pharaohs
made their w a y into Africafirstvia Nubia, which transmitted forms such as pyramids
and pylons, a m o n g others, as well as techniques such as building with small,
well-shaped blocks of h e w n stone.

Cultural contributions
This side of the Egyptian Pharaonic legacy is an abstract one. It includes the
Egyptians' contributions in the fields of writing, literature, art and religion.
Literature
The Egyptians developed a hieroglyphic writing system in which m a n y of the
symbols came from their African environment. For this reason it can be assumed to be
their original creation rather than borrowed (see Introduction).
The Ancient Egyptians atfirstexpressed themselves in pictorial ideograms which
were soon formalized into symbols reflecting phonetic sounds which, in their later
abbreviated form, could be considered as a step towards an alphabetic script.
Cultural contacts with the Semitic script developed in Sinai, where there appeared
distinctive forms of writing which borrowed forms possessing affinities with
hieroglyphics, m a y have contributed to the invention of the true alphabet which was
borrowed by the Greeks and had its influence on Europe. Apart from this, the
Ancient Egyptians invented the tools of writing. Their discovery of papyrus, handed
d o w n to classical antiquity, thanks to its light weight,flexibilityand the almost
unlimited dimensions of papyrus 'scrolls', certainly played a role in the diffusion of
thought and knowledge. There is an extensive literature dating from Pharaonic times
covering every aspect of Egyptian life, from religious theories to literature, such as
stories, plays, poetry, dialogues, etc. This literature can be considered as one of the
most vital cultural legacies of Ancient Egypt.
S o m e of the most impressive examples of Egyptian literature are those written during
the First Intermediate Period and during the early Middle Kingdom. O n e most eminent
scholar of Egyptology, James Henry Breasted, considered this literature as an early sign
of intellectual and social maturity. H e described this period as a d a w n of conscience w h e n
a m a n could debate with his o w n soul on metaphysical matters. Another example of the
literature of this period was a work written by the 'Eloquent Peasant' which expresses
dissatisfaction with the community and with the condition of the land. This could be
considered as an early step towards social revolution and democracy.
Lastly, it is conceivable that certain specimens of Egyptian literature have survived
to our day in the marvellous stories of Arabic literature. These stories seem at times
to have their source in Egyptian oral tradition. It has, for example, been possible to
establish a parallel between the story of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' from The
The legacy of Pharaonic Egypt 117

Arabian Nights and a Pharaonic story, 'The Taking of Joppe', and between 'Sindbad
the Sailor' and 'The Shipwrecked Sailor,' a Pharaonic tale of the Middle Kingdom.

Art
In the field of art, the Ancient Egyptians expressed their ideas in a great m a n y
techniques including sculpture, painting, reliefs and architecture. They combined
worldly affairs and activities with hopes for the after-life, and their art was particu-
larly expressive because it gave representation to beliefs that were deeply held. For
them there was only a semblance of death w h e n all signs of life ceased, for the h u m a n
being still continued to exist in every w a y . But to survive they required the support of
the body, through mummification or, failing that, through an image. Statues and
statuettes, bas-reliefs and tomb paintings are there to perpetuate the life of the
individual in the after-world. T o heighten the intensity of the gaze, the eyes of
the statues were inlaid, and even the eyebrows were fashioned in copper or silver. The
eyeballs were made of white quartz and the pupils were made of resin. This required
great skill and experience in the shaping of metal, which can be seen in the large
number of statues dating from every historical period which have been found at
various archaeological sites.
In the field of minor arts, the Ancient Egyptians produced a very large number of
amulets, scarabs and seals, and also ornamental objects and jewellery, which are no
less beautiful because of their small size. It is undoubtedly these small objects which
were most widespread and esteemed in Africa, the Near East and even in Europe. It is
often the wide distribution of these objects that makes it possible to discover the
bonds which linked Egypt to other nations long ago.

Religion
Religion can be considered as one of the philosophical contributions of Egypt. For the
Ancient Egyptians developed a number of theories concerning the creation of life, the
role of the natural powers, and the response of the h u m a n community towards them;
also the world of the gods and their influence on h u m a n thought, the divine aspect of
kingship, the role of the priesthood in the community and the belief in eternity and
life in the after-world.
Their profound experience in such abstract thought influenced the Egyptian
community to such an extent that it had a lasting effect on the outside world also.
Particularly apparent to the historian is the Egyptian religious influence in certain
Graeco-Roman religious objects, as can be seen by the popularity of the goddess Isis
and her cult in classical antiquity.

Transmission of the Pharaonic legacy. Role of the Syro-Palestinian

Corridor
Phoenicia played a special and important role in transmitting the Pharaonic legacy to
the rest of the world.
118 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Egypt's influence on Phoenicia can be traced through the economic and cultural
contacts between the t w o areas. Such a relationship became apparent w h e n trade and
exploration started to expand during pre- and proto-dynastic times, in order to fulfil
the vast needs of those periods. Even the invention of writing as an essential means of
communication developed partly as a result of economic and religious factors. Contact
with Phoenicia was indispensable for the importing of vital raw materials such as
w o o d , which was necessary for the erection and construction of shrines and religious
monuments.
The influence of Egyptian culture on biblical wisdom, a m o n g other things, is
noteworthy. W i t h regard to the Levant, commercial and cultural relations existed
throughout the second and first millennia before the Christian era, which include the
Middle and N e w K i n g d o m , as well as under the late dynasties. Relations naturally
increased following Egyptian political and military expansion, and Egyptian artistic
influence can be seen in various Syrian and Palestinian sites, in statues, sphinxes and
decorative patterns. T h e exchange of gifts helped in expanding cultural and c o m m e r -
cial relations. Phoenicians played an important cultural and commercial role in the
Mediterranean world and carried elements of Egyptian culture to other areas.
Egyptian hieroglyphic writing has been traced in the Semitic script of the Levant.
This can be observed by comparing some typical Egyptian hieroglyphs, the proto-
Sinaitic signs, and the Phoenician alphabet. T h e proto-Sinàitic elements were influ-
enced by the Egyptian hieroglyphic ideograms, and these ideograms were simplified in
a w a y which m a y be considered as a step towards alphabetical signs. Proto-Sinaitic
writing could be taken as a step towards the Phoenician alphabet and hence towards
the European alphabet.
This vast Pharaonic legacy, disseminated through the ancient civilizations of the
Near East, has in turn transmitted to modern Europe a civilization by w a y of the
classical world.
 Egypt
in the Hellenistic era

At the death of Alexander the Great, his empire comprised Macedonia, a large part of
Asia Minor, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, and Egypt, extending into Asia
to the east as far as the Punjab. After his death in - 3 2 3 , three dynasties founded by
three of his generals were already well established to control the empire: the
Antigonids in Macedonia, the Seleucids in Asia in what had been the Persian empire,
and the Ptolemies in Egypt.
T h e Ptolemies reigned over Egypt for three centuries, initiating a period that was
very different from preceding periods in the country's history.

A new type of state in Egypt

Under rather more than a dozen Ptolemies, Egypt was initially strongly marked by
the stamp of the foreign rulers and the demands of the n e w policy, with subsequent
slow assimilation, as before, of the n e w masters of the Delta.
The forward defence of the capital, which, probably from the time of Ptolemy II
onwards, was situated on the sea coast for the first time in Egypt's history, in
Alexandria, necessitated military and naval ascendancy in the eastern Mediterranean.
T o ensure an adequate supply of timber for shipbuilding it was necessary to limit
construction w o r k in Egypt, to develop royal plantations in the Nile Valley and to
import timber from the Aegean and the islands. T h e most spectacular aspect of this
maritime development was the establishment of bases for elephant-hunting all along
the African coast as far as Somalia, and the construction, at enormous expense, of
ships designed for transporting the beasts. Hippalus' discovery, in the reign of Ptolemy
III, of the pattern of the monsoons shortened the journey to India and made it less
dangerous and less expensive. Trade relations with Asia naturally increased. T h e
Ptolemies spared no effort to improve relations between the R e d Sea and the Delta.
The canal dug by Darius I from the eastern arm of the Nile towards the Bitter Lakes
was deepened in the reign of Ptolemy II and made more easily navigable by large
vessels. H e also established a route between Coptos in the Thebaid and Berenice on
the R e d Sea.
The foreign policy of the Ptolemies involved them in heavy expenditure, which had
to be balanced by a very large income going into the royal coffers. A partial solution
to the problem was provided by strict control over the economy and by the
119
120 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

supervision of exports, some of which were systematically developed under royal

monopoly. Increased production of exportable commodities led to a systematic policy
of bringing virgin soil under cultivation at royal expense, but the ruler remained
indifferent to the welfare of the Egyptian farmers.
Another w a y of meeting the vast cost of armaments and imports was the export to
the Mediterranean of African products: ivory, gold, ostrich feathers and ostrich eggs
were bought in places to the south of Egypt and in the Horn of Africa, for resale in
the Mediterranean. Other merchandise was brought from the Indian Ocean; rare
woods, dyes, silks and precious stones were re-exported to Greece and the whole of
the eastern Mediterranean.
The processing industry was well developed in the Delta and the region of
Alexandria. A special effort was made to obtain wool and to introduce Arab and
Milesian sheep. Alexandria had the monopoly of the manufacture of papyrus. The art
of glass-making reached a very high degree of refinement, n e w methods being
perfected under the Ptolemies. For centuries Alexandria was renowned as a centre for
the making of glassware. Alexandria also possessed great skill in the working of
metals such as gold, silver and bronze, its inlaid vases being highly valued.
In order to deal with Egypt's financial problems, a strong currency was needed. T o
expand trade with the rest of the Hellenistic world, the currency had to be tied to that
world's monetary standards, which were alien to Egypt. A complete, n e w financial
system was therefore built up. A central state bank was set up in Alexandria, with
branches in the capitals of the nomes and sub-branches in the major villages. There
were also private banks, which had a secondary role in the country's economic life.
Foreigners were socially, politically and economically in a very different position
from that of the native population and had far greater advantages. T h e high officials
of the palace and the members of the government were foreigners, as were also the
army officers and the soldiers. In agriculture, foreigners had a better chance than
Egyptians of becoming landowners.
The Greeks, w h e n theyfirstcame, had their o w n gods and their o w n religious
beliefs, which were very different from those of the Egyptians. Very soon, however,
there grew up a tendency to associate certain Greek gods with certain Egyptian gods,
and a n e w trinity was created, consisting of Serapis as the father-god, Isis as the
mother-goddess, and Harpocrates as the son-god. The focal point of this n e w religion
was the Serapeion of Alexandria, which was erected to the west of the city. W e have
very little information about the appearance of this temple, but w e k n o w from
R o m a n historians that it stood on a high platform reached by a stairway of a hundred
steps. A s early as the third century before the Christian era, the cult of Serapis was
rapidly spreading on the islands of the Aegean Sea. B y thefirstcentury, people every-
where were invoking Serapis and Isis as saviours. Worship of them spread far afield,
the cult of Isis reaching Uruk in Babylonia and that of Serapis reaching India.

A renowned capital on the coast 'beside Egypt'

It was during the reign of the Ptolemies that Alexandria was founded, a city so
prosperous that it became not only the capital of Egypt, but also the most important
Egypt in the Hellenistic era 121

city of the Hellenistic world. It must be stressed that Egypt, which had suffered
military defeat and been politically incorporated into the Macedonian empire, exerted
a matchless fascination on Alexander, w h o wanted to m a k e it the site of one of his
most renowned urban schemes and perhaps thought of establishing the capital of his
empire there. Furthermore, Egyptian learning was held in such esteem that the
scholars of the empire soon began coming to live in Alexandria. Under the Ptolemies,
Alexandria m a y be regarded as the intellectual capital of the Mediterranean world.
The site of the n e w city had been chosen by Alexander the Great while on his w a y
from M e m p h i s to the oasis of A m m o n i u m (Siwa) to consult the famous oracle at the
temple of A m m o n in - 3 3 1 . H e had been struck by the excellent position of the strip
of land lying between the Mediterranean to the north and Lake Mareotis to the
south, well away from the marshes of the Delta and yet close to the Canopic branch
of the Nile. T h e site was occupied by a small village called Rhacotis, well protected
from the waves and storms by the island of Pharos.
The architect Dinocrates devised a plan to connect the island of Pharos with the
mainland by means of a wide mole called the Heptastadion because it was seven stadia
(approximately 1,200 metres) long. This mole has n o w disappeared beneath the
alluvial deposits that have built up from both sides.
The building of the Heptastadion resulted.in the formation of two harbours: the
one to the east - the 'Portus M a g n u s ' - being larger than the one on the west side,
which w a s called 'Portus Eunostos' or the port of safe return. There was also a third
harbour on Lake Mareotis for inland trade.
Under Ptolemy I Soter, the major political role was still held by M e m p h i s , but,
after the body of Alexander had been transported (it is said) to the n e w capital,
Ptolemy II established the seat of power of the dynasty permanently there.
The city was divided into five districts, called by the first five letters of the Greek
alphabet. Unfortunately, w e k n o w very little about these districts. T h e royal quarter
occupied nearly one-third of the city adjoining the eastern harbour. It was the most
attractive part of the city, with the royal palaces surrounded by gardens with
magnificent fountains and cages containing animals brought from all over the k n o w n
world. This district also contained the famous m u s e u m , the library and the royal
cemetery.
In the streets of the city m a n y languages were spoken; Greek in its various dialects
was, of course, the most widespread. Egyptian was the language of the inhabitants of
the native quarters, while in the Jewish quarter Aramaic and H e b r e w were the
prevailing tongues and other Semitic languages might also be heard.
Alexandria w a s particularly famous for certain m o n u m e n t s whose location is n o w
difficult to determine. S o m e of the most important parts of the Hellenistic city are
today below sea-level, and the rest is buried deep below the modern city. W h e n
speaking of the m o n u m e n t s of the ancient city, therefore, w e often rely as m u c h on
the description of ancient authors as on what archaeologists have uncovered.
In the southern part of the island of Pharos, at the entrance to the eastern harbour,
stood the famous lighthouse (the Pharos), which ranked as one of the Seven W o n d e r s
of the W o r l d . T h e Alexandrian lighthouse gave its name and its basic form to all the
lighthouses of antiquity.
122 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

6. 1 Lighthouse at Alexandria (Thieresch, Der Pharos Antike Islam und Occident)

Egypt in the Hellenistic era 123
This lighthouse was completely destroyed in the fourteenth century, so that our
knowledge of its shape and arrangement is derived from a few classical references and
some descriptions by Arab historians.
Ancient coins and representations on mosaics give us an idea of its shape. It was
designed by Sostratus of Cnidus in about - 2 8 0 in the reign of Ptolemy II. It was
about 135 metres high and was constructed chiefly of limestone. T h e friezes and
ornamental w o r k were partly in marble and partly in bronze.
T h e m u s e u m , with its enormous library, w a s by far the most important achieve-
ment of the Ptolemies in Alexandria. It was started by Ptolemy I Soter on the advice
of an Athenian refugee, Demetrius of Phaleron. T h e buildings have been described by
Strabo as follows: ' T h e royal palaces also comprise the M u s e u m , which contains a
walk, an exedra and a vast hall in which the M u s e u m ' s philologists take their meals
together. There are also general funds for the maintenance of the college and a priest
set over the M u s e u m by kings, or, at the present time, by Caesar.' Scientists and m e n
of letters lived in this institution. They were housed and fed and were able to give
themselves up entirely to their research and studies, with no menial duties to perform.
Demetrius of Phaleron had advised Ptolemy Soter to create a library which would
bring together the whole of contemporary culture by means of the purchase and
systematic copying of manuscripts, and very soon more than 200,000 volumes had
been collected. T h e management of this cultural repository was entrusted to illustri-
ous specialists of the contemporary Greek world. There was also a smaller library in
the Serapeion holding 45,000 volumes. N o institution like the m u s e u m of Alexandria
existed anywhere else in the Hellenistic world. T h e only library that could compete
with that of Alexandria was the one at Pergamon. W e are largely indebted to the
library of Alexandria for the survival of the tragedies of Aeschylus, the comedies of
Aristophanes, the odes of Pindar and Bacchylides and the histories of Herodotus and
Thucydides.
Certain poets acted both as secretaries and as courtiers. Callimachus composed his
famous elegy, The Lock of Berenice, there, as well as m a n y other works. In the elegy
Berenice, the wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, v o w s to give the gods a lock of her hair if
he returns safely from the war in Syria. O n his return, the queen fulfils her v o w . O n
the following day the royal lock was vanished from the temple. A t that time, C o n o n ,
the astronomer, had just discovered a n e w constellation and so he christened it
'Berenice's Hair' and invented the myth that the gods themselves had carried off the
lock from the temple and placed it in the heavens. T h e constellation still bears the
name C o m a Berenices to this day. Callimachus honoured the astronomer's courtly
tribute in an elegy which w e possess only in the Latin translation by Catullus (c. - 84
to - 5 4 ) .
Geographers, cosmographers and astronomers played a large part in Alexandrian
scientific development. W e shall see, however, that they o w e d certain discoveries of
theirs essentially to Egypt and not only to the library of Alexandria.
Eratosthenes, the father of scientific geography, was born at Cyrene in about - 2 8 5 .
In about - 2 4 5 , Ptolemy offered him the post of librarian, which he had until his
death. His most remarkable achievement was his attempt to measure the circumfer-
ence of the earth, basing his calculations on the relationship between the shadow cast
124 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

at the summer solstice on the sundial at Alexandria and the absence of shadow at
Syene (Aswan). H e concluded that the circumference of the entire earth was 252,000
stadia (i.e. 46,695 kilometres), which is greater by one-seventh than the actual
circumference (40,008 kilometres). It was also Eratosthenes w h o catalogued 675
stars.
The geographer Strabo (c. - 6 3 to + 24), to w h o m w e o w e the oldest systematic
account of the geography of Egypt, was born in Cappadocia, spent most of his life in
R o m e and Asia Minor, andfinallysettled in Alexandria. Although Strabo belongs to
the R o m a n period, the core of his work was Hellenistic. His treatise on geography
comprises seventeen volumes, with his description of Egypt taking up nearly two-
thirds of thefinalvolume.
Geography and astronomy presuppose a very advanced knowledge of mathematics.
A m o n g the museum's eminent m e n was the famous mathematician Euclid ( - 3 3 0 to
- 275), w h o was thefirstto be given charge of the mathematics department and wrote
an important work on astronomy (the Phaenomena) as well as the famous treatise on
geometry (the Elements), which remained the basic work on the subject and was
translated into Latin and Arabic. Archimedes of Syracuse ( - 287 to - 212), one of the
greatest mathematicians of Euclid's school, discovered the relationship between
diameter and circumference, the theory of the spiral and the law of gravity. His most
important contribution to mathematics and mechanics, however, was his invention
k n o w n as the Archimedean screw, a device still used in Egypt for raising water.
Apollonius of Perga, the great geometrician, came to Alexandria from Palmyra in
about - 240 to work in the mathematics'school of Alexandria, and owes his renown to
his work on conic section. H e was the founder of trigonometry.
From the third century on, the mathematics school at Alexandria took on its o w n
distinctive characteristics and became the principal focus of Greek mathematics.
Theophrastus, w h o lived at the time of Ptolemy I, is regarded, on account of his
work on the history and physiology of plants, as the founder of scientific botany.
Diodorus Siculus, the historian, visited Egypt in - 5 9 . T h efirstbook of his
historical work Library of History, written in Greek, is given over to an account of the
myths, kings and customs of Egypt. According to Diodorus, thefirstappearance of
m a n on earth took place in Egypt. H e says (I, 10): 'At the beginning of the world,
m a nfirstcame into existence in Egypt, both because of the favourable climate of the
country and because of the nature of the Nile. '
Physicians, too, came to work at the m u s e u m and at the library, the intellectual
freedom which reigned there enabling them to make progress in the study of anatomy
by dissecting corpses.
Herophilus of Asia Minor, w h o came to Egypt in thefirsthalf of the third century
before the Christian era, was the first to discover the connection between the
heartbeat and the pulse and to distinguish between arteries and veins. Some of the
names he gave to the parts of the body are still in use today, e.g. the duodenum and
the torcula herophili.
Erasistratus, another eminent surgeon w h o was also born in Asia Minor, threw
new light on the anatomy of the heart while working in Alexandria.
Here again, the renown of the medical school of Alexandria was to be long-lived.
Egypt in the Hellenistic era 125

There is an obituary verse preserved in Milan which says of the physician to w h o m it

relates: 'Egypt the all-sublime w a s his fatherland. '
In the course of time, the native Egyptian element made its presence felt more and
more. Manetho, an Egyptian from Samanud in the Delta, was one of the most famous
scholar-priests of the beginning of the third century before the Christian era. His chief
w o r k , the Aegyptiaca, would have been our best source of information on the history
of ancient Egypt had it reached us in its entirety. T h e fragments which still exist
contain lists of the names of kings arranged in dynasties and mentioning the duration
of each king's reign, a method adopted by modern historians.

Egyptian influence on Hellenistic culture

W e have seen that the Ptolemies strove to develop relations between Egypt and the
Indian Ocean. W h e r e land exploration is concerned there is still m u c h discussion as to
whether they had a systematic policy to trace the course of the Nile and m a k e use of
the river, far to the south, as a route for penetration and commerce. It is, however,
certain that exploration to the south of Egypt took place. Timosthenes, navarch of
Philadelphia, visited Nubia; Aristo reconnoitred the Arabian coasts; Satyrus followed
the African coast to a point south of Cape Guardafui. T h e accounts of these
explorations have been recorded and provide material for the w o r k of scholars such as
Agatharchides.
These explorers, furthermore, were following in illustrious footsteps. In about
- 5 0 0 , Hecataeus of Miletus, thefirstGreek geographer to visit Egypt, wrote the first
description of the world. Unfortunately only fragments of his geographical treatise
have survived. In Egypt he travelled as far as Thebes and it seems very probable that
he included a detailed description of Egypt in his treatise. Hecataeus considered the
earth to be aflatdisc with Greece at its centre. H e divided the world into t w o
continents, Europe and Asia, the latter consisting of Egypt and the whole of North
Africa, k n o w n at that time under the n a m e of Libya. H e imagined that in the south
the Nile connected with the River Oceanus, which encircled the whole world.
Herodotus of Halicarnassus had visited Egypt in about - 450. H e went as far south as
Elephantine, which he described as the frontier between Egypt and Ethiopia.
Herodotus devoted the second of the nine books of his History to Egypt. H e was the
first geographer to mention Meroe by name, having actually met Meroites at A s w a n .
Herodotus also thought that the earth w a sflatbut, unlike Hecataeus, he did not
think it w a s circular, nor did he believe that it w a s encircled by the River Oceanus.
H e divided the world into three continents: Europe, Asia and Libya (i.e. Africa),
stating that the last was surrounded on all sides by the sea except at the point where it
was joined to Asia.
Diodorus Siculus described the course of the Nile in thefirstbook of his w o r k . H e
was of the opinion that the Nile rose in Ethiopia and contained a large number of
islands including the one called Meroe. Diodorus devoted the whole of his third book
to Ethiopia, that is, to what is n o w called the Sudan. Strabo, like him, referred to the
Meroe region as an island and also gave details of its inhabitants.
Even more surprising was the slow absorption of the Greek milieu by the
126 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Egyptian. It would seem that the Egyptians did not give w a y to cultural pressure.
They kept an independent attitude towards the Ptolemies, unlike the Greeks, w h o
displayed a striking adulation of the sovereign. Yet the Greek language at that time
enjoyed international status and was easier to write than Egyptian. Officially,
everyone spoke Greek. It has been noticed by archaeologists, however, that almost as
many papyri are found in demotic as in Greek. Greek law was very slow to be
reflected in Egyptian legal instruments, while the Egyptian calendar gradually pre-
vailed over the Greek. W h a t is more, by means of the Greek language an entire
Egyptian heritage became available to a world it would never have reached without
the n e w linguistic medium which served to convey it.
Art can probably be said to be the sphere in which the Egyptian and even black
African impregnation of Hellenistic culture was the most surprising and spectacular.
The Greeks, lovers of the theatre as they had been in Athens, built monuments in
Egypt which reflected their taste.
At first, naturally enough, artistic techniques and tastes among the Greek c o m m u -
nity in Egypt were similar to those in other Greek communities of the far-flung
empire. It is also true that products from the Alexandrian workshops resembled those
of Greece to some extent and showed the influence of fashions foreign to Africa.
There are a great m a n y examples of this important art in the Graeco-Roman M u s e u m
at Alexandria. O n e of the most remarkable is tha head of Alexander which belongs to
the tradition of the school of Lysippus. But innovation was also taking place in
Alexandria, the most important n e w technique being that described by archaeologists
by the Italian term sfumato, which is a blending of light and shade on the softened
contours of the facial features, not m u c h attention being paid to the representation of
hair or cheeks. T h e latter were usually modelled in stucco, which lends itself to the
soft modelling preferred by the Alexandrian artists. W h e n these parts were added they
were usually coloured.
In Pharaonic Egypt, the Nile had been depicted as a fat m a n with breasts, bearing
lotus or papyrus, the plants growing in the Nile Valley. T h e Greeks represented him
as a strong, bearded m a n either seated or reclining with hippopotamuses, crocodiles or
a sphinx, the symbols of Egypt. Representations of royal personages followed the
same pattern. Painting, which remained very faithful to the Greek models throughout
the fourth and third centuries, began in the second to include scenes that were
Egyptian in style side by side with others in Greek style, as, for example, in one of the
tombs of Anfushi in Alexandria. T h e main burial chamber is decorated from the very
entrance in a mixture of Egyptian and Greek styles, both in its architecture and in its
painted decoration.
Mosaics appeared first in the eastern Mediterranean and possibly in Alexandria
itself. Several mosaic pavements with pictorial motifs have been discovered in and
around Alexandria. T h e most important is inscribed with the name 'Sophilos' and,
inside the central rectangle, shows the head of a w o m a n with a mast and yard-arm.
This head is crowned with a head-dress in the form of a ship's prow and is thought to
have been a personification of the city of Alexandria.
N o doubt the most surprising aspect of Egypt's Hellenistic production, however,
in the richness of its invention and tastes, was the proliferation of humorous,
Egypt in the Hellenistic era 127

grotesque or realistic statuettes representing scenes from daily life and depicting
Egyptians and black Africans. T h e small figurines in bronze, marble, terracotta or
plaster were m a d e for the c o m m o n people, but the existence of more valuable pieces
attest to the general popularity of these themes.

Egypt in the Hellenistic era: relations with Libya

Through Cyrenaica (the eastern part of Libya), certain aspects of Hellenistic civiliza-
tion found their w a y from Egypt into North Africa. This was not the first time that
Greek civilization had appeared in Cyrenaica, for w e k n o w that Greeks from the
Dorian island of Thera emigrated to Cyrenaica, where they founded Cyrene, their
first colony, in - 6 3 1 . This w a s followed by the founding of four more colonies,
the port of Cyrene (later Apollonia), Tauchira, Barca (present-day Al-Merg) and
Euhesperides. These colonies, especially Cyrene, were products of Greek civilization
and underwent the normal political changes that took place in every Greek city. W i t h
the founding of Cyrene began the reign of the Battiad Dynasty, which came to an end
as a result of internal strife in about - 440. T h e n followed the usual conflict between
aristocracy and democracy, and Cyrenaica became a land of confusion and strife.
T h e whole of the ancient world w a s at this time on the eve of a great upheaval
with the coming of Alexander the Great, w h o invaded Egypt in the autumn of - 332
and pressed westwards to Paraetonium (present-day Marsa-Matrûh) on his w a y to the
Siwa oasis to consult the oracle of A m m o n . Cyrene, and probably the other cities too
(having in fact misunderstood Alexander's intentions and wishing to prevent his
invasion of Cyrenaica), attempted to safeguard their independence by sending ambas-
sadors to meet him at Paraetonium and profess their cities' loyalty. But they would
not preserve their independence for ever, for in - 3 2 3 after Alexander's death,
Ptolemy, while still satrap of Egypt, seized the opportunity provided by the internal
struggles at Cyrene and annexed Cyrenaica, thus initiating the Hellenistic period in
that country. Except for a brief period of independence (c. - 258 to - 246), the domina-
tion of Cyrenaica by the Ptolemies lasted from - 322 to - 96, w h e n Ptolemy Apion (son
of Ptolemy Euergetes II), w h o w a s ruling over Cyrenaica, bequeathed it to the
R o m a n people and it w a s combined with Crete into a R o m a n province.
Under the Ptolemies, the towns were given n e w names, some of which were
Ptolemaic dynastic names. Cyrene kept its n a m e , but Tauchira was rechristened
Arsinoe (present-day Tokra), and Barka's port w a s given the n a m e of Ptolemais
(present-day Tolmeta) and superseded Barka as the official city centre. Euhesperides
gave w a y to a n e w city which received the n a m e of Berenice (present-day Benghazi) in
honour of Berenice, the Cyrenaean princess and wife of Ptolemy III. Cyrene's port
was raised to city rank and given the n a m e of Apollonia (present-day Susa).
Cyrenaica was peopled by a mixture of races. In the cities, besides the Greeks there
was a non-Greek population composed of Jews and m a n y other foreigners. Outside
the cities, the rural population (georgoi) consisted of native Libyans and mercenary
soldiers w h o had settled there as cleruchs.
These georgoi tilled the arable lands of Cyrenaica, m a d e up of the royal lands
(gêbasilikê), the city lands (gêpolitike), and the land left to the native Libyans. This
128 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

social structure resulted in a clash between the native Libyans and the Greek settlers.
Cyrenaica in the Hellenistic period was a country of great economic importance,
being regarded as one of the granaries of the ancient world. It has been said that
Cyrene sent a gift of 800,000 medimni of grain to the Greek cities in metropolitan
Greece during the famine of - 3 3 0 to - 3 2 6 . M u c h has been said about its wool, its
horse-breeding, and the famous silphium of Cyrenaica, which was a monopoly of the
Battiad kings and probably remained a monopoly of the Ptolemies.
This gift of grain is not the only evidence of the close relations existing between the
Greeks of Cyrenaica and those in Greece itself. It is well k n o w n that Cyrene
contributed greatly to the intellectual life of the Greeks, especially in the fourth
century, through its renowned philosophers and mathematicians. A s a result of its
close intellectual contacts with Athens, Cyrene made it possible for philosophy and a
great m a n y branches of learning to flourish on the Cyrenaican plateau. It was here
that the philosophical school k n o w n as the Cyrenaics developed. This was a minor
Socratic school founded by Aristippus (c. - 4 0 0 to - 3 6 5 ) , the grandson of the
Aristippus w h o was friend and companion to Socrates. This intellectual activity and
fertility were still evident in the Hellenistic era. W e need only cite as evidence the
names of Callimachus ( - 305 to - 240) and Eratosthenes ( - 275 to - 1 9 4 ) w h o were
among those to leave Cyrene for Alexandria to enrich the latter's activity in the
development of the sciences and literature. At the academy, the m u s e u m and the
library, they added to the s u m of creative intelligence in Alexandria and enabled
the city to become the main pole of intellectual attraction in the Hellenistic era.
M a n y statues of philosophers, poets and the nine Muses have been discovered at
Cyrene. T h e discovery of a bust of Demosthenes, albeit a R o m a n copy, is very
significant since it shows the high esteem in which such a great Greek orator was held
by the Greek population of Cyrene.
Some fine examples of Alexandrian sculpture have been found a m o n g the numerous
marble statues at Cyrene. The few original portraits from Hellenistic times show very
close affinities with what is k n o w n as the Hellenistic art of Alexandria. It is not
surprising that the technique used in Alexandria was copied to a certain extent at
Cyrene. Another similarity between the Greek sculpture of Cyrenaica and that of
Alexandria can be seen in the Cyrenaean busts. A comparison of Cyrenaean funerary
busts with Egyptian m u m m y portraits clearly reveals the close similarity between
them. Even w h e n the pieces in question are from the R o m a n era, there is no denying
their Ptolemaic origin.
From Cyrene came painted Hellenistic pottery and terracotta figurines. These
figurines were produced in local workshops which had started by reproducing and
imitating Greek terracottas, but gradually evolved their o w n characteristic style.
Study of thesefigurinesis rewarding as they reflect the daily lives of the inhabitants of
Cyrenaica, especially in the cities.
In the sphere of religion, the dynastic Ptolemaic cult found its w a y to Cyrenaica, as
can be seen from the large number of dedicatory inscriptions to the Ptolemaic kings
and queens. The cities of Cyrenaica also adopted the cult of Serapis, and temples to
Isis and Osiris have been found at Cyrene and Ptolemais.
From Cyrenaica, this Graeco-Egyptian cult probably reached Tripolitania, which
Egypt in the Hellenistic era

6.2 Cleopatra VII. Source unknown

130 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

was never ruled by the Ptolemies in pre-Roman times. The sanctuary of Serapis and of
Isis was discovered at Leptis M a g n a , and it is interesting to note that at Sabrata the
cult of Isis was combined with Isiac rites. T h e cults of Isis and Serapis must have
extended farther west as the cult of Isis became more general and as the Serapis cult
started giving the ancient world a n e w hope of a better life.
M u c h of what has been said about Hellenistic Cyrenaica concerns only the Greeks,
since information concerning the native Libyans and the extent to which they were
influenced by Hellenistic civilization is scarce and hard to find. W e k n o w that the
native Libyans, driven away from the fertile coastal lands and contained in the
interior, did not welcome the presence of the Greeks. Hellenistic civilization, never-
theless, owed m u c h to this region of North Africa which enabled it to develop and
flourish for three centuries.
 Egypt
under Roman domination

Rome: from alliance to domination over Egypt

Egypt passed from the rule of the Ptolemies to that of R o m e almost imperceptibly.
Relations between Alexandria and R o m e had for a long time, since Ptolemy
Philadelphias, been very friendly. H e was the first of the line to sign a treaty of
friendship with R o m e and send an embassy there, in - 2 3 7 . Half a century later
Ptolemy Philopator had remained friendly to R o m e during its war with Hannibal
( - 2 1 8 to - 2 0 1 ) and R o m e had reciprocated by saving Egypt's independence when
Antiochus III invaded it in - 1 6 8 . Nevertheless, after establishing that position the
republic had in practice become able and accustomed to controlling Egyptian affairs in
a way that became all too obvious in the Ptolemies' last years. T h e aim of Cleopatra
VII ' s intrigues with R o m a n generals between - 5 1 and - 3 0 had probably been to
make them espouse her kingdom's interests, but her unconditional support of her
friend Mark Antony lost her the throne for good as soon as Octavian conquered him
in - 3 1 .
The attitude of its n e w master towards Egypt showed clearly the importance
which R o m e attached to this n e w province of its empire. It stationed three legions
there, nearly 15,000 m e n . Their duty was to restore control over the country in which
anarchy had raged during the Ptolemies' final reigns which led to the destruction of
Thebes in - 8 8 .
The R o m a n emperor, therefore, succeeded the Ptolemies in Egypt, and tried to
take their place in its structure. H e took charge of its religion, and was soon k n o w n as
the builder of numerous temples. H e also took charge of its everyday well-being, and
used the army not only to keep public order but also to repair the canal system, badly
damaged during the disorders of the last Ptolemies.

Roman administration
The R o m a n emperor, however, copied the Ptolemies' administration of Egypt as a
kind of vast personal estate, the whole income from which was managed by the
crown. This exploitation by Augustus soon became the starting-point of the whole
policy he devised for Egypt, which continued even though his successor reproached
131
132 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

the prefect with excessive taxation, reminding him that sheep ought to be shorn but
not flayed.
The emperor's direct authority was shown by his personal appointment of the
prefect, w h o was always a knight (not a senator), to the highest office in the country,
and of the other officers (the procurators) w h o acted in his name. A small
administrative detail clearly illustrates Egypt's special character: it was the only
country in the whole empire where years were counted by the emperor's reign and
not named after the consuls holding office. This perpetuated the ancient Ptolemaic
and Pharaonic practice and invested the R o m a n head of state with an aura of royalty
unrecognized anywhere else in the empire's organization.
The government's geographical unit was the n o m e which was subdivided into t w o
toparchiai each containing a number of villages. T h e nomes of Upper Egypt formed
together a higher unit, the Thebaid, which resembled the Heptanomis (the seven
nomes of Middle Egypt) and the nomes of the Delta. A n o m e was governed by a
strategos w h o had beside him as an administrative technician a royal scribe (also a
Ptolemaic title). Junior officials administered lesser units, according to even older
traditions.
The central government, however, was n e w . Its kernel was established in
Alexandria, the old royal city. This general staff of the government was composed
entirely of R o m a n citizens nominated by the emperor. First came the prefect, the head
of all the departments, including the treasury, the army and the courts. His power
was limited only by the power of appeal against his decisions to the emperor in
person. T h e prefect, to enable him to perform his duties, had a council which also
consisted of R o m a n knights. The juridkus, the dikaiodotes and the archidikastes helped
him to administer justice; the procurator usiacus helped him to administer financially the
funds which accrued to the emperor in person; and a knight had charge of the
temples. The groups of nomes also came under the authority of the three epistrategoni,
w h o were knights with the rank of procurator. The only judge was the prefect, w h o
could obviously delegate his power to others, especially to the strategos, but w h o alone
was responsible. H e made a circuit of the country each year to settle the most difficult
cases; it was called the conventos. H e applied R o m a n law to R o m a n citizens and to
others he applied the aliens' law, which took account of the manners and customs of
the country, with a number of exceptions.
These examples alone show that the R o m a n presence had the capacity to change
the structure of Ptolemy's Egypt. Since the beginning of the period of Augustus,
however, other factors had still greater potentiality for change. T h e Ptolemaic
administration was highly centralized and mostly consisted of paid officials, whose
salaries came from their right to manage farms differing in size according to the
importance of their duties. T h e army, likewise, was a hereditary organization which
carried with it the right, also hereditary, to cultivate properties whose size was fixed
according to certain criteria (whether the official was Greek or Egyptian, whether he
had a horse to feed or not, and so on).
The R o m a n occupiers, in their need to set group against group, resorted to the
ancient custom and restored to the Greeks their privileged position, this time not only
in fact but also in law. The Egyptians paid a poll-tax (the laographia to which a m a n
Egypt under Roman domination 133

was liable merely by existing) from which the Greeks were exempt. The inhabitants
of the provincial capitals, the métropoles, paid less than villagers; peasants might not
leave the land they tilled, the idia. So the important thing was to belong to a
Greek-educated family. A m a n could claim this only if he could show by documents
that his two grandfathers had both attended a gymnasion, a Greek school. The right of
the Egyptians as such disappeared in this n e w social setting, the chief purpose of
which was to organize a solid middle class with a stake in the future of the empire.
It will be convenient here to mention the particular status of the autonomous cities
(poleis) under the Ptolemies, such as Ptolemais in Upper Egypt and the ancient and
glorious Naucratis in the Delta. The third polis, Alexandria, was still the greatest port
in the Mediterranean, rivalling R o m e in population and importance. Nevertheless, it
lost its senate and became the base of the naval unit k n o w n as the Augusta
Alexandrina fleet, while quite close to the city the R o m a n army was encamped at
Nicopolis. T h e Alexandrians, whose scathing and forceful wit was famous, were
never on good terms with their new masters and lost no opportunity of showing it.

Egypt under Roman domination

For quite a long time these bases of the R o m a n dominion were left alone. Provincial
life went on in a pax Romana paid for by the taxes based on the wheat levy, the
annona, which was a source of periodical rebellion and protest. Tiberius ( + 14
to + 37), w h o succeeded Augustus, was able to reduce to two the number of legions
stationed in Egypt. It was under his successor that disorders between the Greeks of
Alexandria and the many Jews w h o lived in the city broke out for the first time.
The relations between the government and the Jews of Egypt were embittered
during the revolt in Judaea. Vespasian ( + 69 to + 79), w h o had become emperor in
Syria and was acclaimed in Alexandria, recalled the legions from Nicopolis for the
siege of Jerusalem. After its destruction in Trajan's reign ( + 98 to + 117) the Jews of
Egypt rose in rebellion and besieged Alexandria, in troubles which were long
remembered as the Jews' W a r . W h e n the general Marcius Turbo defeated the rebels,
the Jewish colony in Alexandria ceased to exist.
Apart, however, from these particular events, the empire's first century and the
early years of its second were a period of relative calm and prosperity. The emperor
Nero ( + 54 to + 68) sent explorers into the Kingdom of Meroe, with which R o m e
had peaceful trading relations; Vespasian became very popular in Alexandria, which
attributed miraculous powers to him; Trajan reduced the legions stationed in Egypt
to one only, which indicates that the situation was calm. H e also drove a canal
between the Nile and the Red Sea to increase trade with the East and compete with
the caravan routes which led to Syria through countries outside R o m a n control.
These measures benefited Alexandria, which was still the chief port in the whole
Mediterranean. Moreover, w h e n famine devastated the country, Trajan sent in
much-needed wheat, reversing for once the principle that Egypt had to pay the annona
to R o m e .
Hadrian ( + 117 to + 138) showed still greater interest in the country, and in
+ 130 and + 131 made a fairly long journey there with his wife. Egypt owed to him
134 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
the repair of the destruction caused in Alexandria by the Jews' W a r and the
foundation in Middle Egypt of the town of Antinopolis to commemorate his
favourite Antinous. There were, however, also practical reasons for founding that
city, which was given the rank of a polis, or free city, and became a centre friendly to
R o m e in the interior of Egypt and the starting-point of a caravan route between the
Red Sea and the Nile Valley.
The economic situation of the peasants and smallholders, which is documented in
detail in papyri, nevertheless showed that the discrimination in favour of the middle
class, which had been a principle of R o m a n policy, would bear bitter fruit. T h e
humble folk became poor and unrest began to stir. O n e of its first signs was the
murder of the prefect at Alexandria in the reign of Hadrian's successor, Antoninus
Pius ( + 138 to + 161), w h o had to go to Egypt to restore order. His son Marcus
Aurelius, the philosopher and philanthropist ( + 161 to + 180), faced a still more
critical situation w h e n the boukobi, the cattlemen of the Delta, broke out in a
ferocious revolt. It was headed by an Egyptian priest called Isidor and the rebels were
united by a mystical enthusiasm due, some said, to the practice of ritual cannibalism;
but they fought heroically for their right to a less miserable life and to racial
recognition. T h e Alexandrians were this time on the R o m a n side because they had
privileges which the Egyptians had not.
The tension between R o m e and Egypt went on growing in spite of the reforms of
Septimus Severus ( + 193 to + 211), w h o gave the Alexandrians back their senate,
boule, which signified autonomy and which Augustus had dissolved. W h e n Car acalla,
his successor ( + 211 to + 217), visited Alexandria he was so enraged by the citizens'
jeers that he proudly ordered a general massacre of youths after he had assembled them
on the pretext of wishing to enrol them in the army. After the slaughter the troops
left their quarters in Nicopolis and stayed in the city to force it into submission.
These episodes of blood and violence partly offset the importance of the emperor's
best-known action, which was the grant of the Antoninian constitution in + 212.
This supreme document made citizens of all the inhabitants of the empire and
removed the barriers which until then had separated R o m a n citizens from provincials.
Until then, except for officials from abroad, R o m a n citizens had very rarely been
found in Egypt. They were mostly Egyptians w h o had served in the R o m a n army,
had gained their citizenship on retirement after twenty or twenty-five years' ser-
vice, and had gone back to their h o m e towns as notables in the little group of
metropolitans.
The constitution did away, in principle, with the dual status of the empire's
inhabitants. The ordinary law became that of R o m e and the general structure of the
society accordingly completely changed. Nevertheless, if any country felt this social
revolution less than the rest, it was Egypt. Together with the constitution the general
administrative system was also changed. W h e n Alexandria recovered its senate, a
general reform altered the standing of the towns. The métropoles became cities (poleis)
and took over the direct administration of their provinces.
Egypt was no longer the empire's granary. That function was performed by Africa
(the present Maghrib), from the end of the second century onwards. This could only
mean that Egypt was exhausted. A movement that started, spread and became
Egypt under Roman domination 135

7.1 Polish excavations at Kam el-Dikka, A lexandria: Roman baths and hypocaust
7.2 Baouitpainting (K. ¡Vessel, Koptische Kunst, Recklinghausen, 1963. Photo, Cairo
Museum)

Jf.
136 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

increasingly dangerous was theflight(anachoresis) of cultivators from their fields into

the desert because they could no longer pay the taxes the state demanded of them.
Towards the middle of the third century a series of highly dramatic events
happened. A prefect of Egypt, Marcus Julius Aemilianus, had himself proclaimed
emperor in + 262 and was heavily defeated by Gallienus after reigning a few months.
Foreign peoples appeared on the frontiers, raided the country and even occupied tracts
of it for some time. It was not by chance that in the reign of Claudius II ( + 268
to + 270) an Egyptian named Thimagenes called the Palmyrians into the country. These
people lived in a rich caravan town and were allied to the empire but independent of
it. Their queen, Zenobia, without an open breach with R o m e , sent in an army 70,000
strong which gave the legions a great deal of trouble because victories were useless
when the people sided with the invaders. Even w h e n Aurelian took the situation in
hand and drove the Palmyrians out, some anti-Roman sections of the population led
by one Firmus joined those of the invaders w h o still remained in Egypt. They also
linked themselves to a race which began to be spoken of with terror, the Blemmyes.
These were nomads w h o were spreading into Lower Nubia and often appeared in
Upper Egypt out of the desert, which they dominated, and terrorized the cultivators.
The general w h o succeeded in dominating the Palmyrians, the Blemmyes and their
allies, the Egyptian guerillas, was Probus ( + 276 to + 282), w h o succeeded Aurelian
after commanding his forces. H e made serious efforts to improve the situation of the
country, which was well on the road to ruin and no longer reacted to a social life
centred in a traditional administration. The welcome given even the Blemmyes, w h o
behaved like nomad raiders, showed clearly that the community would have to be
strengthened from inside by giving its members n e w confidence. This was doubtless
Probus' aim w h e n , having beaten the invading barbarians and become emperor, he set
his army to dig canals and improve agriculture.
The n e w emperor saw the situation clearly and gave up Nubia which was open to
invasion by the Blemmyes and to the Nobades, w h o were an African people akin to
them, on condition that they should undertake to guard the empire's southern
frontier. For this service they were paid sums which their petty kings (reguli, basiliskoi)
enjoyed calling tribute.
Egypt itself was n o w divided into three provinces, each of which had formerly been
an epistrategy. T h e t w o northern provinces, the Delta and Heptanomis (the seven
nomes) were n o w named Aegyptus Jovia and Aegyptus Herculia and administered by
a civil governor (praeses) w h o had no authority over the armed forces. The southern
province, the Thebaid, which was more exposed to invasion, was placed under a dux,
w h o held both the civil and the military power. Egypt lost its character as a separate
province and struck the same coinage as the rest of the empire. T h e community
tended, slowly at first and later more and more obviously, to fall into fixed patterns
which provided a refuge for the taxpayer w h e n taxation became too heavy. O n e
conséquence was that the state had to enforce immobility: no one was allowed to
leave his post. Peasants had to remain peasants and stay on the same land, so that they
became serfs of the soil, but also the honestiores (the respectable citizens) were bound
fast to their duties as taxpayers and administrators. Anachoresis soon became a
necessity for all social levels. ^Only persons with clear-cut political authority could
Egypt under Roman domination 137

defend their position. Naturally the less fortunate tended to join the groups surround-
ing these potentates, relying on their protection against the tax-gatherer and handing
over their property to them to look after. T h e government used every legal means of
opposing this slide towards a society dominated and organized by large landowners;
but the law was powerless because it took no account of the causes underlying the
trend it was trying to stop. W h e n the large landowners had become entitled to regard
themselves as the collectors of the taxes which they o w e d to the state (autopragia), the
property system had become completely different. T h e smallholding which at the
beginning of the empire had been the strength of the middle class disappeared before
the baronial estate - and baronial authority - which broke u p the old municipal
administrative units into other economic units.

The impact of Christianity on Egyptian society

The religious experience of Egypt m a y have helped to spread another religion of
salvation, which Christianity in some of its aspects could be considered to be,
especially in a country where concern with the hereafter had always been a powerful
factor in religious speculation. Egypt, moreover, had for long centuries had a Jewish
colony whose presence had as early as Ptolemy Philadelphus been a motive for the
Greek translation of the Bible called the Septuagint. A knowledge of the scriptural
root of Christianity was, therefore, likely in Egypt from an early period and a m o n g
different communities and m a y have helped to spread the n e w religion at its outset.
Very little is really k n o w n about all this. W h a t seems important is that the spread
of Christianity was similar to that of other religious experiences, such as those of the
Gnostics or the Manichaeans, whose original texts Egypt has preserved on papyrus or
parchment found in its soil. All this points to a crisis in the traditional world, whose
traditional religion no longer satisfied the spiritual needs of the people. In Egypt
religious precept demanded that the language of the country be adopted as the ritual
tongue. Christianity as well as Gnosticism and Manichaeism adopted Coptic in one or
other of its various provincial or regional dialects. N o t only did this mean that
preachers spoke to the humblest classes of the people, w h o had been shut out of the
Greek culture of the ruling classes, but also that in religion thefirstplace was given to
the native population and to that national culture which had virtually been denied the
benefits of the constitution of Antoninus and shut out of the n e w categories of
citizens of the empire. Whereas in the official view the native Egyptian was a dediticius
not worth the trouble of assimilating, for the Christians the word Hettena meant a
'pagan' and therefore an object of contempt.
The number and importance of Christians w a s reflected, by a strange but not
u n c o m m o n paradox, in their frequent persecution by the emperors. That of Decius
( + 2 4 9 to +251) left a series of peculiar records in Egypt. Certificates were issued to
persons w h o had m a d e in the presence of the authorities a traditional sacrifice by burn-
ing a few grains of incense as a greeting to the emperor. Those w h o refused were
presumed to be Christians and were liable to be punished as disloyal subjects. But the
persecution which eclipsed all others in the popular m e m o r y and started the Coptic or
the martyrs' era was that which Diocletian ( +303) unleashed with all the energy and
138 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

rigour of which that prince was capable. It was the final test, which showed the
futility of opposing a movement which had already taken permanent hold. A few
years later Constantine acknowledged at Milan ( +313) the right to be a Christian,
and began the long task of assimilating the Christian society to the needs of the
empire. From that m o m e n t the history of Christianity in Egypt was bound up firmly
with the relations between Alexandria and Constantinpole, the n e w imperial capital.

The distinctive role of Egypt within the Christian empire

From the time w h e n the empire officially became Christian under Theodosius, the
history of Egypt was directly affected by the official attitude of the emperors, w h o
increasingly claimed the right to lay d o w n , from Constantinople, the d o g m a to be
taught and accepted throughout the empire. T h e desire for juridical unity was soon
combined with an insistence on the religious uniformity k n o w n as orthodoxy.
As a religion, Christianity rests on certain articles of faith, and, from the earliest
centuries of its existence, differing views and interpretations of these articles have
brought Christians intofierceconflict with one another.
As long as the church w a s unable to come out into the open, quarrels a m o n g the
faithful had no political significance, but as soon as the Christian community finally
became representative of the majority of the subjects of the empire, their feuds became
affairs of state. Even Constantine frequently had to intervene to settle discussions
which were poisoning relations between groups of Christians and which, in the guise
of theology, often threatened public order. T o Constantine's practical and authoritar-
ian mind, religious discussion - heresy - ought to disappear and give w a y to an order
and definitively acknowledged conception of what was true and hence lawful. His
successors followed his example, and his attitude was the root of the constant tension
that existed between the court at Constantinople and the bishopric of Alexandria,
each considering itself responsible for maintaining the true faith, or orthodoxy.
In Alexandria Christianity acquired, at a very early date and by the normal process
of growth, a character that was rather different from that of Christianity in the rest of
the country. The Greek culture with which the city was impregnated was visible even
in the w a y the n e w religion had been received. T h e change to Christianity took the
form not of a revolutionary act of faith but of an attempt to justify certain n e w
concepts and integrate them into the broad framework of the philosophy and
philology of antiquity. This attitude, however, had little appeal for the non-Greek
population of the country, whose type of religious experience w a s more instinctive.
As for the Bishop of Alexandria, his situation in relation to his priests (presbyteroi) was
a very special one since they formed, as was usual in the early church, a very powerful
college. T o maintain his authority he therefore had to rely on the provincial bishops
(the chorepiskopoi or bishops of the chora, i.e. Egypt outside Alexandria) w h o depended
on him for their consecration.
In this conflict of interests and attitudes very serious disputes broke out. T h e first
of these began w h e n Bishop Melecius of Lycopolis (Asyut) supported the advocates of
rigorism in refusing to admit into the bosom of the church those w h o had proved
wanting during the persecutions.
Egypt under Roman domination 139

Another dispute, which had m u c h more serious consequences, arose from the
differences of opinion between scholars and between philosophical schools concerning
the dual h u m a n and divine nature of Christ. Did he have t w o indissociable natures, a
single divine nature - his humanity being but an outward show - or t w o separate
natures? T h e priest Arius, in Syria, opted for the second solution to the problem,
stinging the church into an official rejoinder condemning him. T h e most ardent
defender of orthodoxy was Saint Athanasius ( + 2 9 3 to +373), Patriarch of
Alexandria, w h o in the midst of this storm successfully stood up even to those
emperors w h o supported Arianism and w h o was recognized as the champion of the
church both by the Greeks and by the R o m a n s . Half a century later, another Patriarch
of Alexandria, Cyril ( + 4 1 2 to +444), opposed the doctrine of Nestorius, the
Patriarch of Constantinpole, and successfully stood up to the emperor, Theodosius II.
O n this occasion, Cyril corrected the previous affirmations of the theologians by
stressing that there were in Christ one person and t w o natures. After his death, the
m o n k Eutyches, backed by Cyril's successor, Disocurus, went a stage farther by
maintaining that there was but one nature in Christ. T h e Council of Chalcedon
condemned this doctrine in + 4 5 1 . It subsequently became a self-evident truth for the
Alexandrians, with their pride in the learning and holiness of their patriarchs. This
philosophico-theological movement was later to be k n o w n as Monophysitism.
T h e decision of the Council of Chalcedon ( +451), which definitively settled the
matter by declaring belief in the intimate union of two natures in Christ to be an
article of faith, started a crisis in Alexandria which lasted until the Muslim conquest.
T h e bitter and sometimes bloody feuds between the faithful took place mainly in
the city of Alexandria. Echoes of the often scandalous events which took place in that
city reached the provinces, but the Christianity of the Nile Valley, in point of fact,
succeeded in demonstrating its practical flavour. Hence the formation of religious
communities which perhaps had precedents both in 'pagan' Egypt and a m o n g the
Jews in Egypt (such as the Thérapeutes whose virtuous practices Philo described) but
which n o w became pillars of the n e w religion. Different phases can be distinguished
in the history of this movement, k n o w n as monasticism. Itsfirstoutstanding figure
was Paul of Thebes ( + 2 3 4 to +347), a hermit w h o , with his disciple Anthony ( + 2 5 1
to +336), fled the world and organized a group of anchorites. Last but not least there
was Pachomius ( + 276 to + 349), w h o with great practical sense devised groups w h o
shared certain tasks and responsibilities, were subject to a code of discipline and lived
together in a highly developed communal life (Koinobia). This brings us to Shenout of
Atripa ( + 3 4 8 to +466) w h o , at the White Convent (Deir-al-Abyad), subjected m e n
and w o m e n to the strictest discipline and perfected in Egypt the system which was
further developed in medieval Europe.
In the end, however, the Alexandrian spirit of resistance, which was essentially
theological, coincided in the sixth century with that of the anchorites. Constantinople
was exerting increasingly heavy pressure to impose on a reluctant Egypt the doctrines
of the Council of Chalcedon and m a n y others subsequently laid d o w n in C o n -
stantinople. Circumstances combined to discredit, in Egypt, the rich and authoritarian
official church, which was responsible for keeping order, and to confer popularity on
the persecuted Monophysites, w h o in thefifthcentury received tremendous doctrinal
140 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

support from Syria and were joined in the sixth century by other persecuted Syrians.
A general feeling of lassitude overcame Egyptians of all social classes. T h efirmbelief
that the Egyptian position was right and just was reinforced by many incidents in the
growing number of apocryphal texts relating to episodes of Christ's life in Egypt.
The Byzantines had become undesirable aliens, representing an unwelcome political
occupation.
The papyri have preserved very precise information on the m o o d of the population
at its various levels. The same feeling of fear, privation and weariness was everywhere.
N o wonder that the country, exhausted by a rapacious and ineffectual administration,
divided internally by disputes and estranged from Constantinople by mutual distrust,
was drained of its economic strength.
Not many years were to pass before the vulnerability of Byzantine rule was shown
up by two military defeats.
The Sassanid king, Chosroes II, wanted to weaken the power of Byzantium. T h e
Sassanids already dominated the southern part of Arabia and were hindering Byzantine
trade in the R e d Sea. They struck in three directions: towards Anatolia and
Byzantium, towards Aleppo and Antioch, and towards Aqaba and Egypt, reaching
the Nile Delta in + 6 1 5 . The Persian occupation was marked by the insurrection of
the Jews, finally liberated from the long R o m a n oppression, and by the open
reappearance of the Monophysite Church, which for some years became the only
official church.
The reconquest of Egypt by Heraclius in + 629 gave the Byzantines only a brief
respite, compelled as they were to exercise surveillance over a colony which had by
then become virtually ungovernable. Terror reigned in +632, under the Melchite
Patriarch, when Byzantium decided to impose a n e w orthodoxy which was neither
that of the Council of Chalcedon nor that of R o m e nor yet Monophysitism. From
+ 639 onwards the Muslims adopted a threatening posture, and in + 6 4 2 the
Egyptians gave themselves up to the new conquerors, w h o had promised to establish
more equitable economic and fiscal conditions. T h e Arab conquest marked the
beginning of a new era in Egyptian history.
 The importance of Nubia:
a link between Central Africa
and the Mediterranean

A glance at a physical m a p of Africa is enough to bring out the importance of Nubia

as a link between the Great Lakes and the C o n g o Basin of Central Africa on the one
hand and the Mediterranean on the other: T h e Nile Valley, m u c h of which runs
parallel to the Red Sea d o w n the Nubian 'Corridor', with the Sahara to the west and
the Arabian or Nubian desert to the east, brought the ancient civilizations of the
Mediterranean into direct contact with black Africa. T h e discovery of a fine bronze
head of Augustus at Meroe, less than 200 kilometres from Khartoum, need cause no
surprise. Nubia stands astride an African crossroads. It is a meeting-place for civiliza-
tions to the east and west, to the north and south of Africa, as well as those of the
Near East, distant Asia and Mediterranean Europe.
Historically, as the most ancient Egyptian texts bear out, travellers coming from
the north entered Nubia a little south of Al-Kab. T h e Egyptian province situated
between Thebes and A s w a n was long called Ta-Seti, the 'Land of the B o w ' , in
Ancient Egyptian, and the hieroglyphic documents traditionally apply this term to
what w e call Nubia. Greater Nubia, in earliest times, thus began with the sandy areas
of the Nile Valley, where the 'Nubian sands' take over from the limestone to the
north. Originally it included the First Cataract. Its southern limit is more difficult to
determine, but archaeological research has shown that from the fourth millennium
before the Christian era the same or related cultures extended throughout the whole
region from the edge of the Ethiopian highlands in the south to the Egyptian part of
the Nile in the north.
The history and archaeology of Lower Nubia are fairly well k n o w n and, once all the
historical, archaeological and anthropological studies under w a y have been published,
w e shall be able to form an accurate picture of the role this part of Nubia once played
in linking north and south. However, the situation as regards Nubia south of Batn
al-Hadjar is quite different and m u c h less satisfactory. W i t h the exception of a few
very small regions, m u c h of the country is still a terra incognita from the archaeological,
and therefore historical, point of view.
Apart from archaeological research, ancient Pharaonic texts, as well as some in
Latin and Greek, yield a little information about the early history of civilization in
Nubia, and give us some idea of its role in the evolution of Africa. But these sources
cannot make up for the lack of archaeological and literary information concerning the
greater part of Nubia.
141
142 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

In short, Nubia is so situated that it ought to provide more well-dated information

than any other African country concerning the historical links between Central and
North Africa and between the east and west of the continent. But w e have so little to
go on, except for the northern part of the country, that our knowledge of the nature,
importance and duration of these links is necessarily very inadequate.
From about - 7 0 0 0 , and above all during the humid periods towards the end of
Neolithic times, there seems to have been a c o m m o n material culture throughout
Nubia. It was only towards - 3000 that a distinct difference developed between the
civilization of the lower, Egyptian part of the Nile Valley and that of the upper,
Nubian part. Until this time very similar, if not identical, funeral customs, pottery,
stone and, later, metal instruments are found from Khartoum in the south to Matuar,
near Asyut, in the north. They show h o w similar the various regions were as regards
social organization, religious beliefs and funeral rites, as well as the general w a y of
Ufe, in which hunting, fishing and animal husbandry were associated with an as yet
crude form of agriculture.
Towards - 3 2 0 0 the art of writing appeared in Egypt, whereas Nubia south of
the First Cataract remained attached to its o w n social systems and its oral culture.
By - 2800 writing was in general use in Egypt. Yet there is a clear sign that exchanges
between Egypt and the Nubian Corridor were frequent, and probably of greater
historical importance than the occasional raids which from about - 3000 onwards the
Pharaohs were in the habit of launching against the Ta-Seti - the Land of the B o w -
between the First and Second Cataracts.
These raids, however, which are referred to in the earliest Egyptian texts (see
Chapter 9), provide thefirstindication of the dual aspect - military and economic -
of north-south contacts along the Nile Valley. Despite their ambiguity, these contacts
reveal the importance of the Nubian Corridor in providing a link between Africa and
the Mediterranean.
By - 3200, under the First Dynasty, the Egyptians already had sufficient knowledge
of the country to risk sending a body of troops as far as the beginning of the Second
Cataract. Thus w e learn that under Snefru (about - 2 6 8 0 ) the Pharaoh's forces
captured 110,000 prisoners and 200,000 head of cattle, figures which confirm both
the size of the population, and the large scale of animal husbandry in their society.
A n important archaeological find in + 1 9 6 1 - 2 has helped to cast a little more light
on the background of the history of the Nubian Corridor. A settlement of the
Egyptian Old Kingdom was discovered at Buhen, with Pharaonic seals, some dating
from the end of the Fourth Dynasty, but most from the Fifth Dynasty. This settle-
ment was linked to a group of furnaces used for smelting copper.
The discovery reveals, first, that the Egyptians did not depend solely on Asian
copper - from Sinai in particular - and that they had already thoroughly prospected
for metals in African Nubia. Secondly, it indicates something of great importance:
that the Egyptians had been able - or had been obliged - to introduce smelting
techniques to the upper Nile Valley. T h e Buhen find proves that African copper was
produced at this time. The Egyptian documents of the Sixth Dynasty, the last dynasty
of the Old Kingdom, include several accounts of expeditions into Upper Nubia (see
Chapter 9). At the beginning of this dynasty these expeditions were clearly of a
The importance of Nubia: a ¡ink between Central Africa and the Mediterranean 143

lE!l e p6h a n t i n e ! ^ , ,
EGYPTIAN
' £fe
Qerfassi. "enmiT
t Barrage
Kalabasha Amberkab
NUBIA Murwau* Abu Hor
Gerf Hussein! Dendour
DakkaJ WadiAllagí
Maharraga^
A j /^Sayala
ii* JWADI EL ARAB
A n i b a j ü T ^ W ^ a d i el Sebua
T o s h k a ^ ^ ^ Korosko

Buhen J»Wad¡ Haifa

fA\rgiss/f 2nd Cataract

SUDANESE
NUBIA
160 km

3rd Cataract

8.1 Ancient Nubia (after K. Michalowski, Faras: Die Kathedral aus d e m Wistensand,
Benziger Verlag, 1967)
144 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

commercial nature, and peaceful. Clearly this commerce also furthered the circulation
of ideas and techniques in both directions. T h e Egyptian pantheon even acquired a
new African deity, Dedun, provider of incense. T o improve their communications
with the south, the Egyptians dug out navigable channels in the rapids of the First
Cataract at Aswan; this policy, initiated in the third millennium before the Christian
era, was to be continued by the Pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom and later by those of
the N e w Kingdom.
Egyptian expeditions took the overland routes as well as routes along the river
valley. At that time the overland routes were certainly not desert tracks, because the
Neolithic humid phase had barely ended; the journey south, if not in the shade, must
have abounded with springs and water-holes, since pack-animals such as asses, which
need regular supplies of water, were in normal use.
Whether they followed the valley or went overland, it seems very likely that, from
these early times, the Egyptians were already in touch with Africa south of the Sahara,
and that the Nubian Corridor played an important part in these contacts. Under Pepi
II, towards - 2 2 0 0 , an Egyptian expedition brought back from the distant south a
'dwarf for the sacred dance' (see Chapter 9). The word used to describe this person is
deneg, whereas the usual term employed for a dwarf in the hieroglyphic texts is nemu.
W e might well wonder - and the answer is likely to be positive - whether deneg
refers in fact to a p y g m y . If this is so - and the translation deneg = p y g m y is n o w
broadly accepted - the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom must have been in direct or
indirect contact with this race from the equatorial forest. W e can therefore conclude
that the Egyptians of the Old Kingdom had contacts with Central Africa, and that
Nubia and its inhabitants did m u c h to make such contacts possible.
In any case, contacts between Egypt and Central Africa probably go back a very
long way, since the word deneg occurs in the Pyramid Texts. Admittedly, there is a
great deal of disagreement as to w h e n these texts were written, but even if w e take
the most conservative estimate they could not be later than the Fifth Dynasty, and it is
very probable that they are m u c h older.
From - 2200 to - 1580, the Nubians between Aswan and Batn al-Hadjar remained in
close contact with Egypt, either because Egypt administered the region directly
(c. - 2 0 0 0 to c. -1700), or because many Egyptians became permanent residents in the
country (c. - 1 6 5 0 to c. -1580), very probably in the service of the n e w Kingdom of
Kush. A s they continued to keep in touch with their h o m e region, Thebes, they
helped to spread Egyptian ideas and techniques.
Farther south, from Batn al-Hadjar onwards, lay the Kingdom of Kerma, named
after the most important centre scTfar discovered. Archaeological finds in the very
few sites so far excavated reveal links not only with Egypt but also, from - 1 6 0 0 on-
wards, with the Asiatic Hyksos, w h o appear to have been in direct contact with them.
It is quite easy to determine the northern limit of the area administered by Kerma: it
is Batn al-Hadjar. But the southern boundary is quite another matter. Finds of Kerma
pottery between the White Nile and the Blue Nile south of Khartoum in +1973
appear to suggest that, even if the Kingdom of Kerma itself did not extend as far as
the present-day Gezira, its influence did, and so brought it into close touch with the
Nilotic world of the Sudds.
The importance of Nubia: a link between Central Africa and the Mediterranean 14

It is particularly unfortunate that w e cannot be certain h o w far the Kingdom of

Kerma extended towards equatorial Africa, since this kingdom, probably the first
African 'empire' k n o w n to history, had achieved a high degree of civilization which
enabled it to exert a profound influence on countries situated to its south, along the
upper Nile and in Central Africa, as well as to the east and west.
W e need only emphasize that this kingdom m a y have greatly influenced neigh-
bouring cultures through its techniques, especially in metallurgy, and that its political
strength, to which the size of its capital bears witness, m a y have enabled it to project
its influence far afield. Unfortunately there has been little or no archaeological
exploration in the outlying areas of the kingdom, so that w e are not yet in a position
to do more than speculate about the role of the Kingdom of Kerma in transmitting
ideas, techniques or languages.
The improvements made by the Egyptians to the north-south route from - 2 0 0 0
to - 1 7 8 0 prove conclusively that the Nubian Corridor was still the principal artery
between Africa, the lower Nile Valley and the Mediterranean world: the navigable
channels through the First Cataract were kept clear, a Joilkos - a track for hauling
boats over land - was constructed parallel to the impassable rapids of the Second
Cataract, and a d a m was built at Semna to facilitate navigation of the minor rapids of
Batn el-Hadjar. All this shows that the Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty were bent on
making the passage south as satisfactory as possible.
W h e n Sesostris III fixed the Egyptianfrontierat Semna, he further reinforced the
military defences against the possibility of attacks by a powerful aggressor from the
south, but a famous text records his c o m m a n d that these fortifications should not
hinder the commercial traffic from which both Egyptians and Nubians had m u c h to
gain.
Not m u c h is k n o w n about the troubled period from - 1 7 8 0 to - 1 5 8 0 , which
Egyptologists call the Second Intermediate Period, but it seems to have been a golden
age for the Kingdom of Kush, the capital of which, Kerma, appears to have taken
advantage of the weakening grip of Egyptian rulers to increase the amount of trade
between the lower and upper Nile Valley, from which it profited.
Contact between the African Kingdom of Kush and Egypt seems to have been
closest during the Hyksos period ( - 1 6 5 0 to -1580). All along the Nubian Corridor
scarabs and seal-marks bearing the names of the Asiatic kings then ruling Egypt have
been found. The Africans of the middle Nile had such close links with the Asiatics of
the Delta that w h e n the Theban Pharaohs of the Seventeenth Dynasty embarked upon
the reconquest of Middle and Lower Egypt the Hyksos king naturally turned for help
to his African ally and proposed taking joint military action against their c o m m o n
enemy, the Pharaoh of Egypt (see Chapter 9).
In any case, the relations between Theban Upper Egypt and the Kushites of Kerma
were both hostile and complementary. From - 1 6 5 0 to - 1 5 8 0 Thebans serving the
King of Kush brought their technical expertise to Middle Nubia, and the presence of
m a n y Egyptians stationed in thefortressesof Lower Nubia ensured that Kush would
maintain contact with the Hyksos rulers in the north. Moreover, the last Pharaohs of
the Seventeenth Dynasty employed Madja mercenaries both in their internal struggles
to unify Upper Egypt and in the war to drive out the Hyksos.
146 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Egypt m

farasBuhenJj*Wad¡Hali a
jebel Sheik Suleiman^k Abka
Ouronarbijí« <?^

f
Amara / * K u b b
isâï
• ß
tboteb

SesebJ

-p^3rd Cataract
^Tombos Abu Hamed
ÇKerma
TArgo
/
5
Mongola
"TKawa
J Kurgus^,

)
V With Cataract
S
V
\
Gebet Barkat.
ri
i "•Nuri
1L
5 Old „ / Napata 5th Cataract j£
ÍDongola K u r r ^ < s anam
1
Atbarajt

0i . . i
100
.i
km

Wad ben
j /

^,^*Meroe
6th Cataract J* •Musawwarat
^Jf 'Bara
•Naga Sofra
Shakeinab* 'Shagudud

Khartoumilk Gebet Geili,

ba

%
V
8.2 l7/>per Sudanese Nubia (after F. and U. Hintze, Alte Kulturen in Sudan, Munich, 1966)
The importance of Nubia: a link between Central Africa and the Mediterranean 1

The Pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Thutmosids, realized that a united
African kingdom on the other side of its southern border could be dangerous for
Egypt: a Hyksos-Kushite alliance had almost reduced Theban ambitions to nothing.
The Theban Pharaohs knew also that Africa south of Semna was richly endowed
with the raw materials and manpower Egypt lacked, and they would not rest until
they had complete control of the Nubian Corridor, the sole means of reaching that
part of Africa whose resources were so essential to their Asian policy.
By the time of Thutmose I the entire region between the Second and Fourth
Cataracts had been conquered. T h e Egyptians n o w had direct control of the desert
roads to Dârfur, Kordofan and Chad. But they could also advance towards the Great
Lakes region of Africa, either by simply following the Nile from A b u H a m i d - stone
inscriptions including cartouches of Thutmose I and Thutmose III have been found in
this area - or by cutting across the Bayuda Desert from Korti to rejoin the main
course of the Nile, via W â d ï M u k a d d a m and W â d ï A b u D o m , at the Fifth Cataract.
Besides being far shorter, this route avoided the difficulties of the south-west-north-
east upstream journey between Korti and A b u H a m a d , as well as those of navigating
the Fourth and Sixth Cataracts.
The few thorough anthropological studies of the peoples that stayed in the Nile
Valley between the Second and Fourth Cataracts, despite the Pharaonic occupation,
throw up no evidence of important ethnic changes in Nubia at this time. O n the
contrary, they reveal that the physical type of the people living in the region has
displayed a remarkable continuity. This means that, until w e k n o w more, w e can
accept that the negroes w h o appear in the iconography of the N e w Kingdom met the
Egyptians in their o w n country; and w e m a y conclude that direct contacts, even if
only during brief military expeditions, existed between Egyptians and negroes in the
heart of Africa between - 1 4 5 0 and - 1 2 0 0 .
This short survey has shown that Nubia's special and sometimes involuntary role as
an intermediary, which arose from its geographical position between Central Africa
and the Mediterranean, was well established by - 1 8 0 0 . It also brings out some
constant features - the fact that it was important for Egypt to have access to African
resources, together with Nubia's interest in the northern cultures - which brought
about a continuing interchange that went on with varying degrees of intensity
throughout the succeeding periods from - 1 2 0 0 to +700.
The kingdom of Napata ( - 800 to - 300) and the empire of Meroe ( - 300 to + 300),
the civilizations of Ballana and Kustul (X-Group) ( + 300 to + 600) and the Christian
kingdoms after + 6 0 0 , all saw Nubia as the essential link between Central Africa and
the Mediterranean civilizations. Like the Hyksos before them, the Persians, Greeks,
R o m a n s , Christians and Muslims all discovered the world of black Africa in Nubia.
 Nuhia before Napata
(-3100 to-750)

The A-Group period

Around the end of the fourth millennium before the Christian era there flourished in
Nubia a remarkable culture k n o w n to archaeologists as the A - G r o u p . T h e copper
tools and the pottery of Egyptian origin unearthed from A - G r o u p graves show the
flowering of the A - G r o u p culture to have been contemporary with the First Dynasty in
Egypt ( -3100). This culture is denoted, as are also some other Nubian cultures, by a
letter of the alphabet because it was non-literate, no specific references to it exist on
the part of literate peoples, nor can it be associated with any particular place of
discovery or important centre. Yet it was a period of prosperity marked by a
considerable increase in population.
Definite A - G r o u p archaeological remains have so far been discovered in Nubia
between the First Cataract in the north and Batn-al-Hadjar in the south. But pottery
similar to that of the A - G r o u p has been found on the surface in various sites farther
south in the northern Sudan.
Ethnically the A - G r o u p people were very similar in physical characteristics to the
pre-dynastic Egyptians. They were semi-nomadic, probably herding sheep, goats and
some cattle. They usually lived in small camps, moving whenever a pasturage became
exhausted.
The A - G r o u p belongs to the Chalcolithic culture. This means that essentially it
was Neolithic, but with a limited usage of copper tools, all of which were imported
from Egypt. O n e of the important characteristics of the A - G r o u p culture is the
pottery found in the graves of the people associated with it. Typical of the A - G r o u p
culture is a fine, thin pottery with a black-burnished inside, while its outside has
red-painted decoration in imitation of basketwork. W i t h this type of pottery are also
found large bulbous jars with a pointed base, pots with 'wavy ledge' handles and
deep-pink conical jars of Egyptian origin.
As for the burial customs of the A - G r o u p people, two types of grave are k n o w n to
us. T h efirsttype was a simple oval pit about 0.8 metres deep while the other was an
oval pit 1.3 metres deep with a sunk chamber on one side. T h e body, which was
enclosed in a leather shroud, was placed in a contracted position on the right with the
head normally to the west.

148
Nubia before Ñápala (-3100 to -750) 149

The end of the A-Group

The A-Group, which is thought to have continued in Nubia to the end of the Second
Dynasty in Egypt ( -2780), was followed by a period of marked cultural decline and
poverty. This period lasted from the beginning of the Egyptian Third Dynasty
( -2780) to the Sixth Dynasty ( -2258). The culture found in Nubia during this era
was termed the B-Group by the early archaeologists, w h o worked in the area. They
claimed that Lower Nubia during the Egyptian Old Kingdom was inhabited by a
distinct native group different from the preceding A-Group. Though some scholars
still consider it valid, this hypothesis has been rejected by others.
The continuity of A-Group features in graves of the so-called B-Group culture
makes it probable that they were simply graves of impoverished A-Group people
w h e n their culture was on the decline. The n e w features recognizable in the B-Group,
which differentiate it in some aspects from its predecessor, were perhaps the outcome
of the general decline and poverty.

Egypt in Nubia
From very early times the Ancient Egyptians were dazzled by Nubia because of its
riches in gold and other luxury goods, and they continuously endeavoured to bring
the trade and economic resources of that land under their o w n control. Thus w e see
that the history of Nubia is almost inseparable from that of Egypt. A n ebony tablet
from the time of Hor-aha, the first king of the Egyptian First Dynasty, seems to
celebrate a victory over Nubia. T h e Egyptian artefacts discovered at Faras in the
A-Group graves which belong to the reign of Djer and Ouadji, the third and fourth
rulers of the First Dynasty, also indicate contact between the two countries even at
that remote time.
However, the earliest record of Egyptian conquest in Nubia is the very important
document n o w exhibited in the Antiquities Garden of the Sudan National M u s e u m in
Khartoum. This is a scene originally engraved on a sandstone slab on the top of a
small knoll, k n o w n as Djabal Shaykh Sulaymän, about seven miles south of W i d ï
Haifa town on the west bank of the Nile. It belongs to the reign of King Djer,
the third king of the First Dynasty already mentioned. T h e scene records a battle on
the Nile waged by King Djer against the Nubians.
Another record of Egyptian hostile actions in Nubia is a fragment of an inscribed
stone, from Hierakonpolis which shows King Ka»ekhem of the Second Dynas^.
kneeling on a prisoner representing Nubia. T h e Palermo Stone tells us that King
Snefru destroyed Ta-Nehasyu, the land of the Nubians, and captured 7,000 prisoners
and 200,000 cattle and sheep.
It is evident that the Egyptians found no difficulty in exploiting the vast mineral
resources of Nubia. Recent archaeological discoveries at Buhen, just below the Second
Cataract, have shown the existence of a purely Egyptian colony at Buhen in the
Fourth and Fifth Dynasties. O n e of the industries of this Egyptian settlement was
working copper, as is shown by the furnaces and remains of copper ore found in it.
The names of several kings of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties were found there on
papyrus and jar sealings.
150 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

T w o records of King Merenre discovered at the First Cataract m a y be taken as an

indication that Egypt's southern border was at A s w a n during the Sixth Dynasty
( - 2 4 3 4 to -2242); yet it seems that the Egyptians even at that period exerted some
sort of political influence over the Nubian peoples, for these records show that King
Merenre came to the district of the First Cataract to receive the homage of the chiefs
of Medju, Irtet and W a w a t . Peace reigned in Nubia during the Sixth Dynasty and the
Egyptians recognized the great importance of the commercial potentialities of that
land and its significance for the economic well-being of their o w n country. Harkhuf,
the famous caravan leader w h o served in the reigns of Merenre and Pepi II, led four
missions to the Land of Y a m , a region not yet identified but certainly beyond the
Second Cataract to the south.

The C-Group period

Towards the end of the Egyptian Old Empire or sometime during the period
of Egyptian history called by Egyptologists the First Intermediate Period ( - 2240
to -2150) there appeared in Lower Nubia a n e w independent culture k n o w n to
archaeologists as the C-Group. Similar to its forerunner, the A-Group, this culture
was also a Chalcolithic culture. It lasted in this part of the Nile Valley up to the time
when Nubia was completely Egyptianized in the sixteenth century before the
Christian era.
O n e theory suggests that this culture might be a continuation of its predecessor the
A-Group, for they were related to each other. Another claims that the culture grew
out of influences introduced into Nubia by the arrival of a n e w people. The supporters
of this theory differ a m o n g themselves on the question of the original h o m e of these
n e w people and on the direction from which they came. Cultural and anatomical data
have been cited to support the various arguments. Some claim that the n e w people
immigrated into Lower Nubia from the eastern desert or the region of the River
Atbara. Others believe that they came from the west, specifically from Libya. A
recent theory rejects the migration hypothesis and sees the C-Group culture as the
outcome of cultural evolution.
It seems clear that the C-Group were essentially cattle-herding people w h o lived in
small camps or occasionally settled in villages. The houses discovered in the region of
W ï d ï Haifa were of two types: one had round rooms, the walls of which were built
of stones plastered with m u d , and the other type had square rooms built of
mud-brick.
The earliest burials of the C-Group culture are characterized by small stone
superstructures over round or oval pits. T h e semi-contracted body was laid on its
right side with the head oriented east and often placed on a straw pillow. The body
was frequently wrapped in a leather garment. This type of grave gave w a y to another
of large stone superstructures over rectangular pits, often with rounded corners and
sometimes lined with stone slabs. A third type, which is later in date, is also found
among the C-Group. N o w w e find brick chapels often built against the north or east
of the stone superstructures. Burials were commonly oriented north to south. T h e
grave-goods consisted of different forms of pottery, stone, bone and ivory bracelets,
Nubia before Napata (-3100 to -750)

9.1 C-Group pottery (Ministry of Culture and Information of the Democratic Republic of
152 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
shell ear-rings, bone and faience beads, leather sandals, mother-of-pearl discs for
armlets and Egyptian scarabs.

The Middle Kingdom

The rulers of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom directed their attention to the land south
of Egypt, namely, Nubia. This move began under the kings of the Theban Eleventh
Dynasty. O n a fragment from the temple of Gebelein in Upper Egypt, Menthuhotep
II is depicted striking his enemies, among w h o m w e find Nubians. A rock inscription
of Menthuhotep III at the First Cataract refers to an expedition 'with ships to
W a w a t ' which is the Shellal-Wâdï Haifa reach of the Nile. Moreover, there are
references which make IF probable that the Egyptians of the Eleventh Dynasty had
occupied Nubia as far south as W â d ï Haifa. There are, for instance, several graffiti on
two hills west and north of 'Abd al-Gadir village on the west bank of the Nile just
below the Second Cataract which mention Antef, Menthuhotep and Sebekhotep, and
which relate to quarrying, hunting and clerical work.
Several pieces of evidence indicate that the permanent occupation of this part of
Nubia was begun by Amenemhet I, the founder of the Twelfth Dynasty. H e is
thought to have been partly of Nubian origin. The occupation of Nubia commenced
by Amenemhet I was completed by his son and successor Senusret I. O n a large
inscribed stone put up in the eighteenth year of Senusret I at Buhen by an officer
named Mentuhotep, the Theban war-god Montu is shown presenting to the king a
line of bound war-prisoners from ten Nubian localities.
Kush, though soon used by the Egyptians to describe a large southern land, was
originally a restricted Nubian territoryfirstheard of during the Middle Kingdom.
A second indication of the victory over Nubia w o n by Senusret I, which left the
Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty in full control of the country north of Semna, is
provided by an inscription found in the tomb of A m e n y , the monarch of Beni Hasan
in Egypt. This tells us that A m e n y sailed southward in the company of the king
himself and 'passed beyond Kush and reached the end of the earth'.
The reasons which prompted the Egyptians to occupy part of Nubia were both
economic and defensive. Economically they wanted, on the one hand, to secure skins,
ivory and ebony and, on the other hand, to exploit the mineral wealth of Nubia. T h e
security of their kingdom necessitated the defence of its southern frontier against the
Nubians and the desert dwellers to their east. T h e strategy was to maintain a buffer
between the border of Egypt proper in the region of the First Cataract and the land
south of Semna, which constituted the source of real menace to them, in order to
control traffic along the Nile and eradicate any threat to their country from Kush.
The defensive nature of the Egyptian occupation of Nubia during the Middle
Kingdom period is clearly manifested by the number and the strength of the fortresses
the kings of the Twelfth Dynasty were compelled to build in the occupied territory.
A late Middle Kingdom papyrus discovered in a tomb near the Ramesseum at Luxor
names seventeen Nubian forts between Semna in the south and Shellal in the north.
The strength of these forts and the effort made to render them impregnable can be
seen from the fortress at Buhen, which was one of the best-preserved forts in Nubia
Nubia before Napata (-3100 to -150) 153

9.2 The western fortifications of the Middle Kingdom fortress at Buhen (Ministry of
Culture and Information of the Democratic Republic of Sudan)
154 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

before it was flooded by the waters of the A s w a n High D a m . This formidable Middle
Kingdom fortress consisted of an elaborate series of fortifications within fortifications
built on a rectangular plan measuring 172 by 160 metres.
Following the collapse of the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos invasion, the
Egyptians lost their control over Nubia. T h e forts were ransacked and burnt by the
natives, w h o seem to have seized the opportunity of the collapse of the central
government in Egypt to regain their independence.

K e r m a ( - 1 7 3 0 to - 1 5 8 0 )
W e have already noticed that the southern boundary of the Egyptian Middle
Kingdom was unquestionably fixed at Semna by Senusret III. But the important
excavations carried out by the American archaeologist G . A . Reisner, between
1913 and 1916 at Kerma, revealed what has come to be k n o w n as the Kerma
culture. This culture has since been the subject of conflicting interpretations from
scholars.
The ancient site of Kerma comprises t w o remarkable edifices locally k n o w n as the
Western Dufufa and the Eastern Dufufa. The former is a solid mass of sun-dried brick
and the latter is a funerary chapel, also in mud-brick, surrounded by a large cemetery
of m o u n d graves. Both buildings are typical of Middle Kingdom construction. In the
light of these archaeological discoveries, Reisner concluded that: (a) the walls under-
neath the Western Dufufa are those of an Old Kingdom trading post; (b) the
Western Dufufa was, in the Middle Kingdom, the southernmost stronghold in the
chain of forts built by the Egyptians, between A s w a n and Kerma, to safeguard their
interests in Nubia; (c) Kerma was the headquarters of Egyptian Governors-General,
thefirstof w h o m might have been Hapidjefa; (d) the Egyptian Governors-General
were buried in the cemetery near the Eastern Dufufa in an Egyptian fashion; and (e)
when the Hyksos invaded Egypt the fortified outpost at Kerma was destroyed by the
Nubians.
Reisner's interpretation of the archaeological evidence discovered at Kerma was
first questioned by Junker. The Western Dufufa was too small for a fort and was also
dangerously isolated, being situated 400 kilometres away from the nearest Egyptian
fort at Semna. Moreover, the raw materials, such as graphite, copper oxide, haematite,
mica, resin, rock crystal, cornelian, ostrich egg-shell, discovered in the various rooms
indicate that the Western Dufufa was a fortified trading post rather than an
administrative centre.
As for the cemetery, Reisner's view that it was the burial place of Egyptian
Governors was based solely on the discovery of the statues of Hapidjefa and his wife in
one of the large burial mounds. The m o d e of burial in these large graves at Kerma was
entirely Nubian. Here mummification was not practised and the dead m a n was buried
on a bed with his wives, children and attendants in the same grave. N o w , bearing in
mind that these graves are Egyptian neither in their construction nor in their method
of burial, and knowing that the Egyptians dreaded being buried abroad mainly
because they might lose the appropriate burial rites, it becomes peculiarly difficult to
believe that a person of Hapidjefa's social and political status would have been buried
Nubia before Napata (-3100 to -150) 155

in a foreign land in a fashion utterly alien to Egyptian religious beliefs. Moreover,

among the things found in the supposed tumulus of Hapidjefa were numerous
grave-goods unquestionably dating from the Second Intermediate Period or the
Hyksos period. From this, Säve-Söderbergh and Arkell concluded that the statues
found in this m o u n d grave had been exchanged by Egyptian traders for Nubian
commodities with the local princes of Kerma during the Second Intermediate Period.
Thus Reisner's theory concerning the Western Dufufa and the cemetery around
the Eastern Dufufa has been generally rejected. Instead most scholars advocate the
view that the Western Dufufa was only an Egyptian trading post, while the cemetery
was the burial ground of the native princes.
Hintze, re-examining the different theories put forward regarding the Kerma
problem, sees that they 'contained inner contradictions making their correctness
dubious'. In the first place he notes that the arguments raised by Junker, rejecting
Reisner's interpretation, hold good also to refute Junker's o w n assumption that the
Western Dufufa was a fortified trading post. Hintze also considers it unlikely that an
Egyptian fortified trading post would have existed in this part of Nubia at this time,
particularly if Kerma is taken as the political seat of Kush, which was the traditional
enemy of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom. A n d as all the scholars whose views he
has re-examined agree that the cemetery is a Nubian cemetery and that the Eastern
Dufufa is a funerary chapel attached to it, Hintze points out the improbability of the
Pharaoh sending an Egyptian official to 'vile Kush' in order to repair a chapel to a
Nubian cemetery. Lastly, Hintze stresses what has already been shown by Säve-
Söderbergh, namely, that the cemetery belongs to the Second Intermediate Period;
that is to say, that it is later than the Western Dufufa and therefore the supposed
Governors of the Western Dufufa in the Middle Kingdom could not have been buried
there.
This is a simple theory which sounds nearer to the truth, especially as regards the
evidence from the cemetery. The date of the objects found in the graves and the m o d e
of their construction and burial rites clearly show that they were not built for the
Middle Kingdom Egyptian Governors-General. But substantial evidence is still needed
to prove that the Western Dufufa was the residence of the native ruler of Kush. T h e
existence of an ordinary Egyptian trading post at Kerma during the Middle Kingdom
cannot be ruled out as easily as Hintze contends. T h e site dug by Reisner is the only
site so far excavated in the Dongola region, and even this single site is not yet fully
excavated. T h e Dongola area is rich in Kerma sites, and, until systematic
archaeological research is carried out there, a great deal will remain unknown
regarding the Kerma culture.

Kerma culture
Typical sites of the Kerma culture have been discovered in Nubia only as far north as
Mirgissa, indicating that the Second Cataract was the boundary between the Kerma
and C-Group cultures. T h e characteristic features of the Kerma culture were a thin,
highly-polished black-topped red ware that was made on a potter's wheel. It has been
suggested that a great deal of the material in question was actually manufactured by
156 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Egyptian craftsmen, but it could equally be said that it was produced to meet local
taste by native craftsmen w h o had acquired Egyptian techniques.

The New Kingdom ( -1580 to -1050)

W h e n the Egyptians had re-established themselves after the liberation of their country
from the Hyksos, they once again began to turn their attention to their southern
frontier and this led to the largest conquest of Nubia ever achieved by Egypt
throughout its ancient history.
The occupation of Nubia was accomplished by Amosis, successor of Kamose and
founder of the Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty. The main source of our information on
his military activities in Nubia and also those of his immediate followers is the
autobiography of the Admiral A h m o s e , a simple shipmaster-captain, son of Ebana,
inscribed on the walls of his tomb at El Kab in Egypt. Here w e are told that 'His
Majesty went up to Khent Hennefer (an unidentified region in Nubia) to overthrow
the Nubians after he had destroyed the Asiatics.' Amosis was able to rebuild and
enlarge the fortress of Buhen and erect a temple there. H e m a y even have advanced to
Sai Island, 190 kilometres upstream from Buhen, for a statue of him was found there
together with inscriptions relating to himself and his wife.
However, it was Tuthmose I ( - 1 5 3 0 to -1520) w h o accomplished the conquest of
the northern Sudan, thus bringing the independence of the Kingdom of Kush to an
end. O n his arrival at T u m b u s , the southern end of the Third Cataract, he set up his
great inscription. From there he continued his push southwards, effectively occupying
the whole reach between Kerma and Kurgus, 80 kilometres south of A b u H â m â d ,
where he left an inscription and perhaps built a fort. Thus Nubia came to be fully
controlled by Egypt and a n e w and remarkable era in its history began, which left
permanent marks on its cultural life throughout the following periods.
Nubia under the Eighteenth Dynasty
From a rock inscription between A s w a n and Philae dating from the first year of
Tuthmose II, w e k n o w that there was a revolt in Nubia after the death of Tuthmose
I. It also informs us that an expedition had been sent and the rebels quelled. After this
punitive mission, peace was restored and firmly established in Nubia for some years.
Peace prevailed throughout the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, w h o succeeded
Tuthmose II. The most important m o n u m e n t of her time in Nubia is the magnificent
temple she built inside the Middle Kingdom citadel walls at Buhen. It was dedicated
to Horus, the falcon-headed god, Lord of Buhen. T h e importance of this temple lies
in its great historical and artistic interest.
She also built a temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor at Faras, on the west bank
of the Nile, just on the modern political border between Egypt and the Sudan.
The Annals of Tuthmose III inscribed on the walls of the great temple of A m o n at
Karnak show us the payment of the tribute of W a w a t for eight years and of Kush for
five years. This clearly indicates that the tribute of Nubia regularly flowed into the
King's Chest, and that peaceful conditions continued in the reign of Tuthmose III. In
his second year he rebuilt in stone the ruined mud-brick temple of Senusret III at
Nubia before Napata (-3100 to -750) 157

Semna West and dedicated it to the Nubian gods D e d w e n and K h n u m and to the
deified Senusret III. This temple ranks among the best-preserved free-standing temples
of pre-Ptolemaic date in the whole Nile Valley.
Tuthmose III was succeeded by Amenophis II, during whose reign Nubia was at
peace. H efinishedbuilding the temple of A m a d a started by his father Tuthmose III.
O n a stele dating from the third year of his reign and set up in that temple,
Amenophis II records his victorious return from his campaign in Asia with the bodies
of seven princes.
From the reign of Tuthmose IV, w h o followed Amenophis II, w e have a record, at
the island of Konosso near Philae, of one successful expedition to quell a revolt in
Nubia. This record is dated the year eight of Tuthmose IV.
Tuthmose IV was succeeded by his son Amenophis III w h o led a campaign against
Nubia as far as Karei in the fifth year of his reign. H e erected at Soleb the most
magnificent temple in the whole of Nubia. T h e temple was dedicated to his o w n
living image. Amenophis III also built a temple for his queen, Teye, at Sedeinga, 21
kilometres north of Soleb on the same side of the Nile.
The political upheaval in Egypt caused by the religious revolution of Amenophis IV
( - 1 3 7 0 to -1352) did not disrupt peace in Nubia and building activities continued as
before. At Sesebi, south of Soleb opposite Delgo, Amenophis IV, before he changed
his name to Akhenaton, built a group of three temples on a c o m m o n substructure.
They were inside a small walled town which included a shrine dedicated to Aton the
new god. At K a w a a small temple was also built by his successor Tutankhamun. At
Faras, H u y , viceroy of Nubia under Tutankhamun, built a temple and a walled
settlement.
The end of the Eighteenth Dynasty brought trouble in Egypt, but seems to have
had no effect on peace and stability in Nubia. O n the whole Nubia developed peace-
fully during the whole of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Nubia under the Nineteenth Dynasty
From the time of Akhenaton onwards, Egypt became continuously weaker internally
and externally. Akhenaton was a m a n of dreams and his religious movement brought
much harm to the empire. There was every reason to fear open civil war and general
anarchy. At this critical moment Egypt was lucky enough to find a deliverer in the
person of a general named Horemheb, an able and experienced leader.
Ramses I ( - 1 3 2 0 to -1318), the real founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, succeeded
Horemheb. In the second year of his reign he put up a stele in the temple of
Hatshepsut at Buhen on which he tells us that he increased the number of the priests
of that temple and its slaves, and that he added new buildings.
After the death of Ramses I, his son Seti I ( - 1 3 1 8 to -1298) ascended the throne.
In Upper Nubia Seti I built a town at Amara West, some 180 kilometres south of
W â d ï Haifa. H e probably also built the great temple of A m o n at Djabal Barkal near
Kereima. There is very little evidence of military activities in Nubia during the reign
of Seti I. It seems that nothing necessitated serious military expeditions, but this does
not mean that small punitive missions may not have been dispatched to Nubia.
Seti was succeeded by his son Ramses II (-1298 to -1232). W e have numerous
158 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

references to military activity in Nubia during the rule of this Pharaoh, w h o reigned
for a long time, but as they give no dates or place names they are not very useful. In
general, peace seems to have prevailed in Nubia during the time of Ramses II and this
is supported by the enormous building activities undertaken by him throughout
Nubia.
In the third year of his reign w e find Ramses II at Memphis, consulting with his
officials about the possibility of opening the Alaki country to develop the gold mines
there, which his father had unsuccessfully attempted to exploit. T h e viceroy of Kush,
w h o was present, explained the difficulty to the king and related the fruitless attempt
of his father to supply the route with water. However, another attempt was ordered
by the king and it proved successful, for water was reached only twelve cubits below
the depth dug by Seti I. At Kuban, where the road leading to the W â d ï al-'Allàkî
mines left the Nile Valley, a stele was erected commemorating this achievement.
Ramses II initiated enormous building activities in Nubia. T h e temple of A b u
Simbel, one of the largest rock-cut structures in the whole world, is without doubt a
unique piece of architectural work. It is h e w n into a great head of sandstone rock on
the left bank of the Nile. T h e site of this great temple was perhaps selected because the
place was considered sacred long before the temple was cut there. It was dedicated to
Re-Harakhte, the god of therisingsun, w h o is represented as a m a n with the head of
a falcon wearing the solar disc.

Egyptianization of Nubia
The early stages of the Egyptian occupation of Nubia during the N e w Kingdom
encountered resistance. But the Nubians soon settled d o w n under the n e w Egyptian
administration to a peaceful development of their country never before experienced.
W e have already seen that temples were built all over Nubia by the kings of the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. Then towns important as religious, commer-
cial and administrative centres grew around those temples. Nubia was entirely
reorganized on purely Egyptian lines and a completely Egyptian system of
administration was set up, entailing the presence of a considerable number of Egyptian
scribes, priests, soldiers and artisans. This ultimately resulted in complete
Egyptianization of Nubia. T h e natives adopted the Egyptian religion and worshipped
Egyptian divinities. T h e old burial customs gave w a y to Egyptian rites.

The end of the N e w Kingdom

O n account of its wealth and also because of the importance of its troops, Nubia
towards the close of the N e w Kingdom started to play a significant role in the internal
political affairs of Egypt itself. Disorder, weakness, corruption and struggles for
power were the characteristic features of the time in Egypt. T h e competing parties in
those struggles, fully appreciating the importance of Nubia in their dealings, endeav-
oured to win the support of the administration there. King Ramses-Siptah of the
Nineteenth Dynasty went himself to Nubia in thefirstyear of his reign in order to
appoint Seti as the viceroy of Nubia. His delegate brought gifts and rewards from the
king to the higher officials of Nubia. Merneptah-Siptah, the last king of the
Nubia before Napata (-3100 to -750) 159

9.3 The temple ofA menophis III at Soleb (Ministry of Culture and Information of the
Democratic Republic of Sudan)
160 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Nineteenth Dynasty, was even forced to send one of his officials to fetch the tribute of
Nubia, although dispatching the tribute was the duty of the viceroy of Nubia when
the Pharaoh exercised real power and actual control of his empire.
During the Twentieth Dynasty the situation in Egypt deteriorated enormously.
There was a harem conspiracy in the time of Ramses III ( - 1 1 9 8 to -1166) which
aimed at deposing the reigning sovereign. O n e of the conspirators, the sister of the
commander of the b o w m e n in Nubia, persuaded her brother to assist in the execution
of the plot. But it is evident that the viceroy of Nubia remained loyal to the Pharaoh.
Under Ramses X I , the last king of the Twentieth Dynasty, a rebellion-broke out in
the region of Asyut. T h e king with the help of Pa-nehesi, the viceroy of Kush, and
his troops succeeded in quelling the revolt and in restoring order in Upper Egypt.
Following this rising, a certain Heri-Hor became the Chief Priest of A m a r in Thebes.
It seems that he was made the Chief Priest by Pa-nehesi and his Nubian soldiers and
one supposes that he was one of his followers. In the nineteenth year of Ramses X I ,
after the death of Pa-nehesi, Heri-Hor was appointed viceroy of Nubia and vizier of
Thebes. Thus he became the actual master of Upper Egypt and Nubia. Following the
death of Ramses X I , he became king ( - 1 0 8 5 ) and with him started a n e w line of
rulers in Egypt. Then chaos reigned in Egypt and with it a dark age commenced in
Nubia, to continue until the eighth century before the Christian era, when Kush
suddenly emerged as a great power.
 The Empire ofKush:
Napata andMeroe

Though today the region is extremely isolated, behind a barrier of deserts and the
difficult hurdles of the Second, Third and Fourth Cataracts of the Nile, Dongola and
the adjacent basin of the Middle Nile were formerly the centre of rich and powerful
political structures. In the first half of the second millennium the so-called Kerma
culture marked a rich and prosperous kingdom, the Kush of the Egyptian records.
T h e extremely patchy archaeological prospection of this still little-known zone is
quite inadequate for fixing the history of this sector after the brilliant but relatively
short phase of Egyptian domination under the N e w Empire ( - 1 5 8 0 to -1085); for
nearly three centuries, the link between Africa and the Mediterranean world seems to
be broken and almost total silence blankets Nubia. But from the end of the ninth
century before the Christian era w e get a reawakening: G . A . von Reisner's
excavation of the El-Kurru necropolis near Napata below the Fourth Cataract revealed
the tombs of a succession of princes: initially mounds, and later masonry structures of
mastaba type.

Sudanese domination in Egypt: the Twenty-fifth or 'Ethiopian' Dynasty

These are the royal ancestors of the line which effected the union of Egypt and the
Sudan, k n o w n in general history as the Twenty-fifth or 'Ethiopian' Dynasty of
Egypt. It was long thought that this dynasty descended from Egyptian refugees from
the Theban region, on the strength of the similarity of certain names and the position
of the god A m o n and his priesthood. Later some arrow-heads of Saharan type led to a
belief in the dynasty's Libyan origin. In actual fact it sprang from the soil and may
perhaps represent the succession of the ancient sovereigns of Kerma.

T h e Stele of Peye (Piankhi)

With the succeeding monarch, the illustrious Piankhi, whose name is nowadays
normally written as 'Peye', w e enter the main stream of history: one of the inscriptions
which he caused to be carved at Napata, and which, rediscovered in the middle of the
last century, is n o w preserved in the Cairo M u s e u m and k n o w n as the Stele of
Victory, is one of the longest and most detailed texts of Ancient Egypt. O n front,
back and sides are 159 lines of hieroglyphs describing the deliberations of the king in
161
162 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

his palace and the phases of his campaign against the Libyan princes w h o were masters
of Middle Egypt and the Delta. Another great stele of Peye's, discovered in 1920,
defines the federative character of the Kushite empire conjointly with a proclamation
of the supremacy of the god A m o n .
King Shabaka
Towards - 7 1 3 , Shabaka, brother of Peye, ascended the throne. H e brought the entire
Nile Valley as far as the Delta under the empire of Kush and is reputed to have had
Bocchoris, dynast of Sais, w h o resisted him, burnt to death; the compilers of the lists
of the kings of Egypt regard him as the founder of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. T h e
Weltpolitik of the Middle East drew the Kushites towards Asia where Assyrian
pressure was beginning to make itself felt; the appeals from princes and cities of Syria-
Palestine and in particular from Jerusalem became urgent. But, to begin with,
Shabaka seems to have preserved good relations with Assyria. In the Sudan and Egypt,
he launched a policy of monument-building which was expanded under his successors,
the two sons of Peye,firstShabataka ( - 6 9 8 to - 6 9 0 ) , and then the glorious Taharqa
( - 6 9 0 to -664).

King Taharqa: the struggle against the Assyrians

Taharqa's name is found on numerous monuments throughout the whole length of
the Nile Valley. H e built his sanctuaries at the foot of the holy mountain of Djabal
Barkal, a kind of sandstone table formation which dominates the large fertile basin of
Napata. His name is to be seen at several other places in Nubia such as K a w a . In the
Theban region he erected colonnades on the four main faces of the Temple of Karnak
and constructed in them large numbers of small chapels with which the cults of A m o n
and Osiris were associated. W e have evidence of his presence at Memphis and in the
Delta. Various texts, in particular a number of large stelae discovered by Griffith at
K a w a , throw more light on the king's policy: shrine-building, sumptuous offerings
of plate, sanctuary equipment, precious materials, endowments and personnel.
The sixth year of the reign is particularly celebrated, when the lowering of a high
flood of the Nile waters afforded an occasion for stressing the prosperity of the
kingdom.

King T a n o u t a m o n : the end of Sudanese domination in Egypt

By that time Taharqa had already been succeeded by his nephew Tanoutamon, son of
Shabataka. T h e so-called Stele of the Dream shows successively the appearance of two
serpents - an obvious allusion to the double Uraeus of the Ethiopian sovereigns - the
crowning of Tanoutamon at Napata, his march to the north, the taking of Memphis,
building works at Napata, a campaign in the desert and the ensuing submission of the
local princes. But in actual fact, with the defeat inflicted by the Assyrians, the
Kushites withdrew southward and their dynasty in Egypt ended.
The Empire ofKush: Napata and Meroe 163

A twin monarchy
W e shall do well to pause over thisfifty-yearperiod during which Egypt and the
Sudan combined as a great African power. T h e Kushite kingdom presents itself as a
twin monarchy; its symbol is the double Uraeus. In their general style, their clothing
and their attitudes the sovereigns of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty copy the Pharaohs of
Egypt w h o preceded them and whose successors, if not descendants, they claim to be.
The style of their monuments is typically Pharaonic. They also wear ornaments
characteristic of the Sudan. A popular head-dress is a kind of close cap fitting tightly
to the neck with a sidepiece protecting the temple; a thick knotted head-band holds it
in place leaving t w o streamers hanging behind the shoulders. Ear-rings and the
pendants of necklaces are adorned with rams' heads, the ram being the sacred animal
of A m o n . A m o n is in fact the great god of the dynasty, worshipped in four major
sanctuaries - Napata, Tore (probably Sanam), K a w a and Pnubs (Tabo in the Isle of
Argo).
The glory of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty was great; a whole tradition about it
developed a m o n g the classical authors. A n d in fact the art of this epoch shows great
vigour. Taking over the best of the past tradition, the Kushites gave it n e w power
and notable force.

Napata, the first capital of the Kushite Empire

After the retreat of the Kushites from Egypt under the assaults of Assyrians, their
history is m u c h more difficult to determine; even the chronology is extremely vague.
For a millennium a state survived, becoming ever more African, the Kingdom of
Kush, the name of its o w n choice from the ancient native name for the territory. In
the eyes of conventional Egyptology this represents a long period of decadence during
which the Pharaonic influences became progressively corrupted. In actual fact, it is a
culture out of Africa which alternately entrenches itself in its specificity or seeks to
align itself with the Egyptian civilization - itself, for that matter, African properly
speaking; from time to time echoes reach it from the Mediterranean, in particular after
the foundation of Alexandria.
T o begin with, the capital remained at Napata at the foot of the sacred mountain,
Djabal Barkal. Later, almost certainly in the sixth millenium before the Christian era,
IFwas transferred m u c h farther south to Meroe. There is little certainty as to the
extent of the Kushite kingdom and so far the differences between its component
regions are still unclarified. In the far north, Lower Nubia, a kind of no man's land,
remained in dispute between the Meroites and whoever were masters of Egypt: Sai tes,
Persians, Ptolemies and latterly R o m a n s . Its revival then was probably due to the
introduction of the sakiya (water-wheel) (see Chapter 11). In the heartland of the
empire, Nubia proper, extending along the river (Napata, Dongola and Kerma
basins), appears always to have been appreciably different from the steppe region of
the 'Island of Meroe'. Eastward in Butana there are numerous unexcavated sites,
while the caravan routes and the Red Sea littoral are still awaiting exploration.
At Napata the tombs of the Nuri cemetery are a m o n g the essential elements for
164 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

determining the history, still very inadequately k n o w n , of the kings of the Napatan
Dynasty. The first few rulers are still very m u c h Egyptianized. As in the case of the
Twenty-fifth Dynasty kings, their burial places are surmounted by Egyptian-style
pyramids whose form is more reminiscent of those of the high dignitaries of the last
days of the N e w Empire than of the royal pyramids of the Fourth Dynasty; the
decoration of their burial chambers and their solid granite sarcophagi follow the
Egyptian style in every particular.
O f the first t w o kings barely more than the names are k n o w n ; they were Atlanarsa
( - 6 5 3 to - 6 4 3 ) , son of Taharqa, and the former's o w n son, Senkamanisken ( - 6 4 3
to - 6 2 3 ) . T h e t w o sons and successors of Senkamanisken, first Anlamani ( - 6 2 3
to - 593), succeeded by Aspelta ( - 593 to - 568), are better k n o w n . At K a w a a stele of
Anlamani describes the king's progress through the provinces and his provision for
their temples, a campaign against a people w h o could be the Blemmyes, the coming
of the queen-mother, Nasalsa, and the consecration of the king's sisters as sistrum-
players before the god A m o n in each of his four great sanctuaries.
This king's brother and successor, Aspelta ( - 5 9 3 to - 5 6 8 ) , left t w o great inscrip-
tions. T h e Enthronement or Coronation Text dates from thefirstyear of the reign
and shows the army mustered near Djabal Barkal, the decision of the leaders to con-
sult A m o n of Napata and the god'¿"designation of Aspelta, whose descent through
the 'Royal Sisters' is particularly distinguished, the king's assumption of the royal
emblems and his thanks to and invocation of the god, his joyful reception by the army
and his gifts to the temples. T h e Stele of the Appanaging of the Princesses, of the
third year of the reign, is preserved in the Musée du Louvre: it is the
description of the investiture of a princess as priestess. A further text discovered
by G . A . Reisner at Djabal Barkal narrates the foundation by the sovereign of a chantry
in honour, long after his death, of Khaliut, son of Peye. T h e attribution to Aspelta
of the Stele of Excommunication is more doubtful, the names of the king having been
defaced.

The expedition of Psammetik II and the fall of Napata

Aspelta was a contemporary of Psammetik II. This is one of the few really secure
synchronisms, almost the only one in a thousand years of history. In - 5 9 1 , or the
second year of the king's reign, the land of Kush was invaded by an Egyptian
expedition, reinforced by Greek and Carian mercenaries, under t w o generals, Amasis
and Potasimto, and Napata was captured.

Transfer of the capital to Meroe

Thenceforward the Kushites aimed at keeping a greater distance between themselves
and their powerful northern neighbours; it is undoubtedly to this Egyptian raid,
whose importance has long been underestimated, that w e must attribute the transfer
of the capital from Napata to Meroe, m u c h farther south, at no great distance from
the Sixth Cataract. Aspelta is in fact the first attested Meroe sovereign.
In —525 a Persian danger developed. W e k n o w the reply of the Nubian king to the
The Empire ofKush: Napata and Meroe 165

ambassadors of Cambyses: ' W h e n the Persians bend, as easily as I, b o w s as big as this,

then let them march against the Ethiopians in superior numbers.' Cambyses did not
take this advice: his army was unable to effect a crossing of the Batn al-Hadjar and had
to retire with heavy losses. For all that, the Persians counted the inhabitants of Kush
as their subjects. A shield is set aside for them on the pediment, inscribed with the
peoples of the empire, of the magnificent statue of Darius recently brought to light at
Susa. It is conceivable that a narrow belt of Nubian territory remained under their
sway, and there were Kushite contingents in the armies of Darius and Xerxes.
A further possible explanation for the transfer of the Kushite capital m a y have been
climatic and economic considerations. A t Meroe the steppes were m u c h more
extensive than in the basins around Napata, h e m m e d in by deserts. T o livestock was
added agriculture, cultivation being perfectly possible in this zone of summer rainfall.
Enormous irrigation basins (hafirs) were dug out adjacent to the principal sites.
C o m m e r c e must have been brisk, as Meroe was an ideal entrepôt for the caravan
routes between the Red Sea, the upper Nile and Chad.
For long centuries, which remain obscure, historians have little more to go on than
royal tombs. Their excavator, G . A . Reisner, set about matching the list of attested
royal names which the pyramids brought to light, with chancy results which have
undergone m a n y revisions since then and m a y be still liable to amendment. The last
king buried at Nuri was Nastasen (a little before - 3 0 0 ) . Thereafter royal and princely
interments took place in the Meroe cemeteries.
W e have several inscriptions of King Amannoteyerike (a little before - 4 0 0 ) .
T h e best describes the election of the king, a 'strong m a n of 41', and there are
accounts of military expeditions, religious festivities, a torchlight tattoo, the visit of
the queen-mother, restoration work on buildings and donations to sanctuaries.
Next w e get Harsiotef, whose famous inscription is devoted partly to ceremonies
and partly to campaigns against a multitude of different enemies. It is the same with
the stele of Nastasen carried off by Lepsius to Berlin. This stele m a y , incidentally, give
us a synchronism if one of the inscriptions is indeed the name of Khababash, fleetingly
king of Egypt. In one of his campaigns Nastasen captured 202,120 head of cattle and
505,200 of small livestock. O n e would like to be able to 'place' all the peoples
mentioned in the inscriptions; the spoils are often enormous and quite obviously w e
need to look in the Nilo-Chadian savannah for certain ethnic groups.

The philhellene Ergamenos

The renaissance which appears to mark the succeeding decades is confirmed in Greek
historiography's account of 'Ergamenos'. After writing of the all-powerful position
of the Kushite priests, w h o could even constrain the king to commit suicide if he had
ceased to please the people, Diodorus of Sicily relates h o w a sovereign steeped in
Greek culture, Ergamenos, dared to fight back and had a number of priests put to
death. Doubts nevertheless subsist as to the identity of Ergamenos. At the same time,
w e also find reliefs in purely Meroitic style: head-dress, ornaments and royal regalia
are of local inspiration and the faces do not conform to the Egyptian canon. Along
with the Pharaonic divinities, worship is paid to purely Meroitic gods. Undoubtedly
166 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

10.1 Ethiopian black granite statue ofKing Aspelta (Photo, Museum ofFine A rts, Boston)
The Empire ofKush: Napata and Meroe 167

relations with Egypt subsisted, since w e have sanctuaries of c o m m o n Egyptian and

Nubian dedication at Philae and at Dakka in Lower Nubia. However, the revolts in
the south of Ptolemaic Egypt at the end of the third century before the Christian era
may have been backed by the Nubian kings: Ptolemy V had to campaign in the
country and Ptolemy V I established colonies in the Triacontaschone.
T h e Meroitic language and form of writing
With Queen Shanakdakhete (around - 1 7 0 to - 1 6 0 ) w e appear to get the accession to
full power of a typically local matriarchy. It is on an edifice in her name at Naga that
w e find inscriptions engraved in Meroitic hieroglyphs which are among the most
ancient k n o w n .
These hieroglyphs are borrowed from Egyptian but differ in their values. They are
written and read the other way round from Egyptian ones; this m a y attest a deliberate
desire to be different. With these hieroglyphs there goes a cursive form of writing,
often abbreviated; the signs seem to be derived in part from the demotic writing used
in Egypt at that period for administrative and private documents. Whatever the case
m a y be, the Meroitic language, whose nature is still not k n o w n , and the graphic
system are completely different from the Egyptian: the twenty-three signs used
represent the consonants, some vowels and syllabics; groups of 'colons' usually
separate the individual words. In +1909 the English scholar F. L . Griffith found the
key to transliteration. Since then the texts have been classified into different types,
with comparable expressions set side by side in parallel, particularly those taken from
funerary texts. In recent years computer techniques have made possible the systematic
recording of texts which have been transliterated, together with their detailed
analyses. For the time being, however, the translation as such of the 800-odd texts
recovered remains as a whole impossible. Thefirstlong Meroitic texts appear on two
stelae of King Taniydamani, w h o is dated about the end of the second century before
the Christian era.

R o m e and M e r o e
Following the sack of Aswan by the Meroites (which was probably w h e n the statue of
Augustus was captured, the head of which has been discovered buried under the
threshold of one of the palaces of Meroe), the prefect of R o m a n Egypt, Petronius,
mounted a punitive expedition and captured Napata in - 2 3 . A permanent garrison
was established by the R o m a n s at Primis (Kasr Ibrim), which held off the Meroites.
In - 21 or - 20 a peace treaty was negotiated at Samos, where Augustus was staying at
the time. T h e R o m a n garrison appears to have been withdrawn; the exaction of a
tribute from the Meroites was renounced and the frontier between the R o m a n and
Meroitic empires was fixed at Hiera Sycaminos (Muharraka).
T h e Meroitic empire at its height
This period around the start of the Christian era is one of the peaks of Meroitic
civilization, as a number of buildings attest. T h e names of Akinidad and of Queen
Amanishakheto are inscribed in Temple T at K a w a , and a palace discovered at Ouad
168 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

ben Naga close by the river has been attributed to the queen. Her fine tomb is still to
be seen in the Northern Cemetery of Meroe. T h e pyramid, with the traditional
eastern approach of pylon chapel, is one of the most imposing in the old city and in
1834 yielded to the Italian adventurer Ferlini the elaborate jewels which are today
the glory of the Munich and Berlin museums. Similar ornaments adorn the reliefs,
where queens and princes display a rather flashy luxury which is to some degree
reminiscent of that of another civilization - of rich merchants - on the frontiers of
the Hellenized world, namely, Palmyra.
Natakamani, son-in-law and successor of Amanishakheto, and his wife, Queen
Amanitere ( - 1 2 to + 1 2 ) , were also great builders, and their names are indisputably
those recurring most frequently on the Kushite monuments. Throughout the major
cities of the empire these monuments speak of the power of a dynasty at its apogee. In
the north, at a site south of the Second Cataract, the king and queen built a temple at
Amara in which the reliefs are Egyptian work, the only non-Egyptian element being
the detail of the royal Meroitic head-dress. In the Isle of Argo just above the Third
Cataract, the two colossi have long been accepted as Natekamani's. The royal couple
also put in hand the restoration of Napata, devastated by Petronius' expedition, and in
particular the temple of A m o n . At Meroe itself, the names of Natekamani and his
consort appear in the great Temple of A m o n jointly with the name of the prince
Arikankharor. At O u a d ben Naga, the South Temple is their work. They devoted
particular attention to Naga, the great centre of the steppe-country south of Meroe:
the frontal approach to the Temple of A m o n became a pylon whose decoration com-
bines Egyptian influences and purely Meroitic features, while the most famous build-
ing is the Naga Lion Temple whose reliefs are among the most representative
examples of Meroitic art.

M e r o e and the surrounding countries —

It is in the next few years that w e get the famous episode recorded in the Acts of the
Apostles (8:28-39) of the deacon Philip's conversion, on the road from Jerusalem to
Gaza, of 'an Ethiopian, an eunuch, a minister of Candace, the Queen of the
Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure'. Whatever the value and significance of this
evidence, it does show that Meroe was k n o w n afar.
There is quite another direction in which researchers were long tempted to look for
connections with the outer world: one representation of Apedemak, the Lion-god,
shows him with a threefold lion's mask and four arms. This has suggested India, as
have reliefs at Naga which show a lotus flower with a serpent rising from it. The neck
of the serpent becomes a human body with one arm which is the mask of Apedemak
wearing a triple crown. T h e most recent research, however, is inclined to abandon
this hypothesis.
Meroe continued to intrigue the R o m a n s . Towards + 6 0 Nero sent two centurions
up the Nile; on their return they stated that the land was too poor to be worth
conquering. A n inscription in Latin is carved on one of the walls of Mussawwarat,
while R o m a n coins, though in very small numbers, reached parts of Nubia and the
Sudan; a coin of Claudius has been found in Meroe, one of Nero at Karanog, a coin of
The Empire o/Kush: Napata and Meroe 169

10.2 Queen Amanishakheto: relief from the Beg N6 pyramid at Meroe (]. Leclant)
170 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Diocletian far into Kordofan (El Obeid), and another of the middle of the fourth
century of the Christian era at Sennar.
The most constant relations maintained by Meroe were with the Temple of Isis at
Philae: embassies were sent regularly with rich gifts for the sanctuary of the goddess,
where quantities of graffiti have been preserved in demotic, in Greek and in Meroitic.
They enable us to establish the sole synchronism of one of the last Meroitic reigns,
that of Teqorideamani ( +246 to +266), w h o sent ambassadors to Philae in +253.
W e k n o w very little of the last centuries of Meroe. The indigenous component in the
culture becomes more and more important. T h e control of the caravan routes
between the Nile Valley, the R e d Sea and the Nilo-Chadian savanqah was probably
not easy to maintain.
Decline and fall of Meroe
The Meroites, w h o until then had beaten back the raids of the nomad peoples,
thenceforward became a tempting prey for their neighbours, Axumites to the south,
nomadic Blemmyes to the east and Nubas to the west. It is almost certainly this last
group, mentioned for thefirsttime by Eratosthenes in - 2 0 0 , to which should be
ascribed the overthrow of the Meroitic empire.
O n this w e have no more than indirect evidence. Towards + 330, the Kingdom of
A x u m , which had grown up on the high tablelands of present-day Ethiopia, had
rapidly attained the summit of its power; Ezana, the first monarch to embrace
Christianity, reached the confluence of the Atbara and boasts of having mounted an
expedition yielding m u c h booty 'against the Nubas'. From this w e m a y conclude that
the Meroitic kingdom had already collapsed at the time of Ezana's campaign. From
then onwards inscriptions in Meroitic ceased and it m a y be that this was w h e n the
Meroitic language gave place to the tongue ancestral to present-day Nubian. Even
the pottery, while remaining faithful to its millenary tradition, acquires n e w
characteristics.
Whatever the importance of the penetration of Meroitic influences through the rest
of Africa, the role of Kush should never be underestimated: for over a thousand years,
first at Napata and then at Meroe, there flourished a strongly original civilization
which, beneath an Egyptian-style veneer fairly constantly maintained, remained
profoundly African.

Nubia after the fall of Meroe: 'Group X'

It can be taken that the Nubas from the west or south-west were the 'carriers' of the
Nubian language, whose offshoots even today are living tongues both in certain
mountainous regions of Dirfur and in the various sectors of Upper and Lower Nubia.
The barbarian luxury of the Group X king was revealed in the period +1931-3,
when the English archaeologists Emery and Kirwan, at Ballana and Kustul, a few
miles south of A b u Simbel, excavated enormous tumuli which J. L . Burckhardt, the
unwearying pioneer surveyor of Nubia, had already noted at the start of the previous
century. Surrounded by their wives, their servants and their richly caparisoned horses,
the dead reposed on litters as in the old days of Kerma. Their heavy diadems and silver
The Empire o/Kush: Napata and Meroe 171

bracelets set with coloured stones, have a wealth of reminders of Egypt or Meroe,
such as the ram's head of A m o n bearing a huge crown atef, the fringes of uraei or the
busts of Isis. Alexandrian influences are clearly apparent in the treasures of silverware
which strewed thefloor;a m o n g the ewers, cups and patens, there was an incised plate
showing Hermes seated on a globe with a griffin by his side; there are also huge
bronze lamps and a wooden chest inlaid with panels of carved ivory. But the pottery
is still of the traditional Meroitic type so that the qualities of a truly Nubian technique
persist over the millennia.

Nobades or B l e m m y e s
W h o were the people of Group X - Nobades or Blemmyes? The Blemmyes were war-
like nomads customarily identified with the Bedja ethnic groups of the eastern desert.
As regards the Nobades or Nobates, after m u c h disputation they are accepted as
Nubas.
In any event Blemmyes and Nobades are barely more than names for us, and it
seems preferable to use the term 'Group X ' or 'Ballana culture'.
Ancient literary evidences and epigraphic documents enable us to trace the main
historical outlines. T h e historian Procopus claims that, towards the end of the third
century, when the R o m a n emperor Diocletian pulled back the frontier to the First
Cataract, he encouraged the Nobates to leave the oasis region and to establish
themselves on the Nile, reckoning on their serving as a screen for Egypt against the
incursions of the Blemmyes. In actual fact, under Theodosius towards +450, Philae
was attacked by the Blemmyes and the Nobades; they were driven back eventually by
forces commanded by Maximinus, and then by the prefect Florus.
After the advent of Christianity, the people of Nubia were permitted to continue
to visit the sanctuary of Isis at Philae and for certain major feasts were allowed to
borrow the statue of the goddess. Kasr Ibrïm may have been one of the staging posts
for this pilgrimage, for what seems to have been a statuette of Isis in painted
earthenware was found there. It was only under Justinian, between + 535 and + 537,
that his general, Narses, closed the Temple of Philae and expelled the last priests.
 The civilization
ofNapata andMeroe

Political organization
The nature of kingship
The most outstanding feature of political power in Nubia and central Sudan from the
eighth century before the Christian era to the fourth century of the Christian era
seems to have been its remarkable stability and continuity. Unlike m a n y of the ancient
kingdoms, the country escaped the upheavals associated with violent dynastic
changes. Indeed one can say that basically the same royal lineage continued to rule
uninterruptedly under the same traditions.
O n e of the peculiar features of the Meroitic political system was the choice of a n e w
sovereign by election. Classical authors, from Herodotus, fifth century before the
Christian era, to Diodorus of Sicily,firstcentury before the Christian era, express
their surprise about this usage, so different from that in other ancient kingdoms.
Fortunately w e are able to reconstruct the succession procedures from Napatan
inscriptions which describe the choice and coronation ceremonies in great detail. T h e
Napatan coronation inscriptions are our best source for the understanding of the
political institutions, in particular the features of kingship and the other related
institutions. Although they are written in the contemporary style of Egyptian
hieroglyphics, they show great differences from the usual run of similar N e w
Kingdom inscriptions. Thus they have to be regarded as a product of their o w n
culture.
A m o n g these inscriptions the three latest, those of Amani-nete-yerike ( - 4 3 1
to - 405), Harsiotef ( - 404 to - 369) and Nastasen ( - 335 to - 310) show that the kings
were anxious to observe strict traditional practices and proclaim their insistence on
the traditions and customs of their ancestors. At the same time, these texts give more
details than the earlier ones, though their language is difficult to follow. They show a
remarkable consistency in their subject matter and even sometimes in their
phraseology. Thus, in all three cases, the king before his appointment was described as
living a m o n g the other royal brethren at Meroe. H efirstsucceeded to the throne at
Meroe and then he journeyed northward to Napata for the ceremonies. Amani-nete-
yerike says categorically that he was elected by the leaders of his armies to be king at
the age of 41 and that he had fought a war before he could proceed to Napata for the
172
The civilization of Napata and Meroe 173

coronation. Even w h e n he reached Napata, he went into the royal palace where he
received the crown of Ta-Sti as a further confirmation of his assumption of kingship.
After this he entered the temple for the ceremony where he asked the god to grant
him his kingship, which the god did as a matter of formality.
Earlier inscriptions confirm the conclusion that the succession to the throne was
fixed before the king entered the temple. Thus the succession of Taharqa ( - 689
to - 6 6 4 ) was decided by Shebitku ( - 7 0 1 to - 6 8 9 ) w h o lived at Memphis in Egypt.
Taharqa was s u m m o n e d from a m o n g his royal brethren and journeyed northward, no
doubt visiting Napata en route, and paid homage at Gematon (Kawa) before
proceeding to Thebes.
Details of the ceremonies are given in Tanwetamani's ( - 664 to - 653) stele: he lived
somewhere outside Napata, perhaps a m o n g his other royal brothers with his mother
Qalhata; there he wasfirstproclaimed king and then started a festival procession,
journeying northward to Napata and farther on to Elephantine and Karnak. It seems
thus that the place where he had been before the start of the procession was south of
Napata, i.e. Meroe. Consequently, the decision regarding the succession was made
outside Napata, according to normal practice. Anlamani ( - 623 to - 593) describes
festivals at Gematon, where the stele was found, in similar terms and adds that he
brought his mother to attend these ceremonies, as did Taharqa before him.
Important conclusions emerge from these inscriptions. O n e is that the journey
northward to visit various temples was an important part of the coronation ceremony
which every king would have to make on his accession to the throne; the second is
that the Temple of A m u n in Napata had a special role in this ceremony and that this
remained unchallenged. All this has a direct bearing on G . A . Reisner's theory of the
existence of two independent kingdoms of Napata recently restated by Hintze.
This theory was put forward by G . A . Reisner to explain the number of royal
cemeteries. His basic assumption was that a royal burial was closely connected with
the capital: a king would be buried not very far from his royal residence. Hence, the
cemetery of El-Kurru, the earliest royal cemetery, and the cemetery of Nuri, which
succeeded El-Kurru, were royal burial places up to the time of Nastasen, w h e n the
capital was Napata. Subsequently, the t w o cemeteries of Begrawiya South and North
became royal cemeteries w h e n the capital was moved to Meroe around - 3 0 0 ,
after the reign of Nastasen. At Djabal Barkal, in Napata, however, there are two
groups of pyramids. Archaeological and architectural considerations convinced
Reisner that the first group fell immediately after Nastasen and the second group
dated from thefirstcentury before the Christian era and ended w h e n the R o m a n s
raided Napata in - 23 or soon after. Each group was assigned to a branch of the royal
family ruling at Napata independently from the main ruling family at Meroe.
A n analysis of all the relevant texts shows that the office of king was hereditary in
the royal lineage. In Napata and Meroe the king was chosen a m o n g his royal
brethren. The initiative in choosing a n e w sovereign came from the army leaders, high
officials and clan chiefs. A n y claimant of doubtful ability or unpopular with the
electors might well be passed over. Further, it is plain that in theory the crown was to
pass to the brothers of a king before descending to the next generation: from a m o n g
twenty-seven kings ruling before Nastasen, fourteen were the brothers of preceding
174 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

kings. There were, of course, exceptions w h e n this or that king usurped the throne,
but in such cases he tried to justify and legalize his action. There are also some signs
that the right to the throne might depend even more on claims through the maternal
line than on royal paternity. The role of the queen-mother in the choice of a new king
is seen from many inscriptions. S o m e of these traits have close parallels among
kingdoms and chiefdoms in various parts of Africa.
All the coronation ceremonies point to a sacral kingship in Napata and Meroe: the
king was considered to be an adopted son of various deities. H o w far he himself was
regarded as a god, or as the incarnation of a god, is not clear, but since he was chosen
by the gods his actions were directed by them through the precepts of customary law.
Strabo and Diodorus Siculus relate cases where priests, acting avowedly under divine
instructions, ordered the king to commit suicide. They state that this custom persisted
until the time of Ergamenos (about - 2 5 0 to - 1 2 5 ) , w h o had had a Greek education
which freed him from superstition and w h o executed the leading priests for their
presumption. After that time the custom of royal suicide disappeared.
The rulers of Napata and Meroe used traditional Pharaonic titles in their inscrip-
tions. Nowhere in their titulature do w e encounter a Meroitic word for king. T h e
title kwr (read aere, qer or aeren) appears only- in Psammetik II's account of his
conquest of Kush w h e n he mentions the king Aspelta. Though this title must have
been the usual form of address of Kushite sovereigns, it was not allowed to intrude
into the monuments of Kush.
T h e candace: the role of the queen-mother
The exact role played by royal ladies in the earlier periods is not quite clear, but there
are many indications that they occupied prominent positions and important offices in
the realm. During the Kushite rule over Egypt the office of the chief priestess (Dewat
Neter) to the god A m u n in Thebes was held by the daughter of the king and gave her
great economic and political influence.
The queen-mother's important role at the election and coronation ceremonies of
her son is mentioned by Taharqa and Anlamani in such a way as to leave no doubt
about her decisive influence and specific status. She also exercised an influence through
a complicated system of adoption, whereby the queen-mother, designated by the title
Mistress of Kush, adopted the wife of her son. O n the stele of Nastasen ( - 335 to - 310)
the upper scene shows his mother Pelekhs and his wife Sakhakh each holding a
sistrum which seems to have been the sign of their office. The inscription of Anlamani
says that he had dedicated each of his four sisters to one of the four temples of A m u n
to be sistrum players and to pray for him before this god.
In the later period these queens - either mothers or wives - started to assume
political power and proclaim themselves sovereign, even adopting the royal title Son
of R e , Lord of the T w o Lands (sa Re, neb Tawy) or Son of R e and King (sa Re,
nswbit). M a n y of them became famous, and in Graeco-Roman times Meroe was
k n o w n to have been ruled by a line of candaces, kandake or queens-regnant.
The title is derived from the Meroitic Ktke or Kdke meaning queen-mother.
Another title - aere - meaning ruler was not used until the Meroitic script appeared.
As a matter of fact w e have only four queens k n o w n to have used this title, namely
The civilization ofNapata and Meroe 175

Amanirenas, Amanishekhete, Nawidemak and Maleqereabar, all by definition being

candaces. It is noteworthy that in the royal tombs of Nuri, from Taharqa (died - 6 6 4 )
to Nastasen (died about - 3 1 0 ) there is no evidence of a queen having the full burial of
a reigning monarch and during this period no reigning queen is k n o w n . The earliest
attested reigning queen was Shanakdekhete, early in the second century before the
Christian era and she was allowed a full royal burial in Begrawiya North. Most
probably, in the beginning, the title and the office did not mean more than
queen-mother. From Shanakdekhete onwards w e have a series of reigning queens, but
beginning with Amanirenas in thefirstcentury before the Christian era there seems to
be another development. This was the close association of thefirstwife of the king
and, perhaps, their eldest son on m a n y of the important monuments. This suggests
some degree of co-regency since the wife w h o survived her husband often became the
reigning candace. However, this system did not last for more than three generations
and seems to come to an end after Natakamani, Amenitere and Sherakarer in the first
half of thefirstcentury of the Christian era. All this points to the internal develop-
ment of a local institution which was not a copy of a foreign practice such as that of
the Ptolemies in Egypt, for example Cleopatra. Indeed w e can observe h o w these
institutions grew in complexity over the centuries.
Central and provincial administration
At the centre of the administration stood the king, an absolute autocratic ruler, whose
word was law. H e did not delegate his power to any person, nor did he share it with
anyone. In fact, there is a total absence of one administrator, such as a High Priest for
all the temples, or a vizier in whose hands some degree of power was concentrated.
The royal residence formed the centre of the administrative system. According to a
recent survey of the evidence it seems that Meroe was the only town which can be
regarded as the royal residence and centre of administration. Piankhi was rather vague
as to his place of residence, while it is obvious that Memphis was the capital of his
immediate successors of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. However, Taharqa
clearly indicates that he was living a m o n g his royal brothers with his mother. From
other inscriptions it is clear that these royal brothers lived at Meroe.
The central administration was run by a number of high officials whose Egyptian
titles are preserved in t w o stelae of Asyelta. A m o n g them w efind- apart from army
commanders - the chiefs of the treasury, seal bearers, heads of archives, the chief
scribe of Kush and other scribes.
Military leaders appear several times on these inscriptions at critical points. They
were charged with proclaiming the succession of a n e w king and carrying out the
traditional ceremonies of coronation. In fact, they m a y have had some significant role
in the choice of the successor. From this one can suppose that, most probably, the
majority were members of the royal family, and perhaps even senior members. It was
customary for the king not to go into battle but to stay in his palace, assigning the
conduct of the war to one of the generals.
As for the administration of the provinces, there are traces of royal palaces to be
found in many localities. Each palace formed a small administrative unit, headed
perhaps by a chief seal bearer w h o kept the stores and accounts of the residence.
176 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

11.1 Pyramid of
King Natekamani at
Meroe with ruins of
chapel and pylon in
foreground (Photo,
Oriental Institute,
University of Chicago)

11.2 Granite ram

at Naqa (Photo,
Oriental Institute,
University of
Chicago)
The civilization ofNapata and Meroe 177

However, in the later period starting perhaps towards the end of thefirstcentury
before the Christian era w e have enough records of provincial administrators to
reconstruct at least the skeleton of the northern province of the kingdom which seems
to have developed very fast in response to the unsettled conditions following the
R o m a n conquest of Egypt and their unsuccessful attempt to advance farther south
into Nubia. T o meet this situation on the frontier a special administration for Lower
Nubia was created. At its head was the Paqar, qar a prominent court personality,
possibly a royal prince, if thefirstholder m a y be considered to have established the
rule. T h efirstwas Akinidad, the son of Teritiqas and Amanirenas, w h o fought
against the R o m a n invasion of Nubia. The same title was also borne by Arkankharor,
Arikakhatani and Sherekarer (the king of the Djabal Kayli rock pictures) and the three
sons of Natakamani and Amanitere ( - 1 2 to +12). Their names with the title pqr have
been found on inscriptions from Napata, Meroe and Naqa.
Under the Paqar, the leading officer in charge of the administration was the peshte.
T w o other important posts under the peshte were the pelmes-ate (general of the
water) and pelmes-adab (general of the land). These two officers seem to have been
responsible for looking after the meagre, yet vital, communications of Nubia by land
and by water, to ensure the flow of trade with Egypt, to control the frontiers and
check the dangerous movements of the nomads both to the east and west of the Nile.
These officials were helped by other minor officials, scribes, priests and local
administrators.

Economic and social life

Ecology
The Kingdom of Kush depended on a broad basis of economic activity. It was as
varied as the geographical diversity of the region which extended from Lower Nubia
to the south of Sennâr and to the Djabal M o y a region in the southern Djazira plain
and included extensive areas between the Nile Valley and the R e d Sea. Similarly large
areas on the west of the Nile were probably under Meroitic influence, though their
extent is still u n k n o w n . This wide area ranges from arid lands to those which receive
appreciable summer rainfall. In Nubia economic activity was based on the type of
agriculture usual in the Nile Valley where the river with its single course provides the
only source of water. Recent archaeological w o r k has indicated that the levels of the
Nile were low and, since Nubia lies outside the rain-belt, the ecological conditions
were not suitable for an agriculture designed to support an appreciable population. In
fact it has been suggested that during the early part of the Napatan period Lower
Nubia was for a considerable length of time entirely depopulated and that it was only
from the third or second century before the Christian era, and as a result of the intro-
duction of the sâkiya, that it became repopulated.
In Upper Nubia flood plains, such as the Kerma Basin, the Letti Basin and Nuri,
made cultivable thanks to the Nile flood or by the use of water-lifting devices,
permitted the growth of large urban centres of considerable historical importance such
as those at Barkal, K a w a , Tabo, Soleb or Amara. In this area agrarian economy
178 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

played a greater role and plantations of dates and vines, in particular, are referred to
several times in the inscriptions of Taharqa, Hersiotef and Nastasen.
From the junction of the River Atbara with the main Nile southward, the Nile is
no longer that decisive single course which cuts through desert land. Instead, each of
the Nile tributaries (the Atbara, Blue Nile, White Nile, Dinder, Rahad and so on) is
equally important and offers the same agricultural and other economic possibilities,
but with a wider area of cultivation.

Agriculture and animal husbandry

At the time of the rise of the Napata kingdom, animal husbandry had a millenary
tradition and, together with agriculture, formed the main source of subsistence of the
people. Apart from long-horned and short-horned cattle, the people bred sheep, goats
and to a lesser extent horses and donkeys, as beasts of burden. Camels were intro-
duced only comparatively late, at the end of the first century before the Christian era.
The primacy of cattle-breeding in the kingdom of Kush is attested in many ways:
in iconography, in burial rites, in metaphors - an army without a leader is compared
to a herd without a herdsman, and so on.
Offerings to the temples consisted mainly of livestock and it seems that the wealth
of the kings, the aristocracy and the temple priests was measured in cattle. T h e
accounts of classical authors, Strabo and Diodorus of Sicily, leave no doubt about the
pastoralist character of Meroitic society, which in m a n y respects was similar to later
African cattle-breeding societies.
Throughout the whole history of Napata and Meroe, the development of agricul-
ture in the northern parts was influenced by both climate and the scarcity of fertile
land in the very narrow valley of the Nile. The chief irrigation machines at this time
were the shadïtf, to be superseded later by the sakiya. The latter, called in Nubian hole,
appeared in Lower Nubia only in Meroitic times, but a more precise date is difficult to
determine. The sites at Dakka and at G a m m a i , dating from the third century before
the Christian era, seem to be the oldest to contain remains of sakiya. T h e introduction
of this irrigation machine had a decisive influence on agriculture, especially in
Dongola, as this wheel lifts water three to eight metres with m u c h less expenditure of
labour and time than the shadüf, which is driven by h u m a n energy; the sakiya, on the
other hand, is driven by buffalo or other animals.
The main cereals cultivated were barley, wheat and, above all, sorghum or durra of
local origin, and also lentils {Lens esculenta), cucumbers, melons and gourds.
A m o n g technical crops, the first place belongs to cotton. It was u n k n o w n in
Ancient Egypt but there are many indications that its cultivation in the Nile Valley
started in the Kingdom of Kush before the beginning of the Christian era. Evidence
from earlier times is scanty, but about the fourth century before the Christian era the
cultivation of cotton and the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in Meroe reached
a very high level. It is even maintained that the export of textiles was one of the
sources of wealth of Meroe. The Axumite King Ezana boasted in his inscription that
he destroyed large cotton plantations in Meroe.
A n important branch of agriculture was the cultivation of fruit in orchards and
The civilization ofNapata and Meroe 179

grapes in vineyards. M a n y of these belonged to temples and were cultivated by slaves.

Generally speaking there existed in the Napata and Meroe periods the same
branches of agriculture as in Ancient Egypt, but in another relationship. Animal
husbandary dominated; agriculture and garden and orchard cultivation were less
developed, though cotton started to be cultivated here m u c h earlier than in Egypt. So
far as is k n o w n the agricultural products were not exported, as they were hardly suffi-
cient for local consumption.
Mineral resources
During antiquity the Kingdom of Kush, it is said, was one of the richest countries of
the k n o w n world. This renown was due more to the mineral wealth of the border
lands to the east of the Nile than to the core of the kingdom itself.
Kush was one of the main gold-producing areas in the ancient world. Gold was
mined between the Nile and the R e d Sea, mostly in the part to the north of the
eighteenth parallel, where m a n y traces of ancient mining are to be found. Excavations
at Meroe and Mussawwarat es-Sufra have revealed temples with walls and statues
covered by gold leaf. Gold and its export not only were one of the main sources of the
wealth and greatness of the kingdom, but greatly influenced foreign relations with
Egypt and R o m e . It has been computed that during antiquity Kush produced about
1,600,000 kilograms of pure gold.
The eastern desert was rich in various precious and semi-precious stones such as
amethyst, carbuncle, hyacinth, chrysolith, beryl and others. Even if these mines were
not all controlled by the Meroitic kingdom, in the last resort all their products went
through Meroitic trade channels, and so increased the fame of Meroe as one of the
richest countries in the ancient world.
The problem of iron working
The large mounds of slag found near the ancient town of Meroe and elsewhere in the
Butana have been the cause of m u c h speculation on the importance of iron in Meroitic
civilization. It has been maintained that the knowledge of iron smelting and iron
working in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa was derived from Meroe. Already
in 1911 A . H . Sayce declared that Meroe must have been the 'Birmingham of ancient
Africa' and this view was current until quite recently among scholars, and became
accepted theory in the majority of works dealing with African or Sudanese history.
In recent years this generally accepted view has been contested by some scholars
w h o have raised a number of serious objections to it, pointing out that the iron
objects found in graves are extremely few in number. In any case, one cannot deduce a
knowledge of the smelting of iron from examples of its working-up into objects.
T o w n s , crafts and trade
It has been suggested that urban development in Lower Nubia followed political
development and the growing interest of the Meroites in their northern borders with
Egypt. They "benefited from trade relations with Egypt and consequently large towns
and thriving local communities located in strategic positions such as Kasr Ibrim or
180 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Djabal Adda grew up in Lower Nubia. Political and religious life centred round a local
magnate or a family with hereditary administrative or military office. This aristocracy
lived in castles like that at Karanog or in palaces like the Governor's Palace in
Mussawwarat es-Sufra.
Pliny, quoting as his authorities Bion and Juba, has preserved the names of m a n y
Meroitic towns on both banks of the Nile, situated between the First Cataract and the
town of Meroe.
The town of Faras, Pakhoras, was the main administrative centre of the province
called Akin, which corresponded to Lower Nubia. Some official buildings have been
excavated, among them the so-called Western Palace dating from the first century of
the Christian era and built of sun-dried bricks, and a fortification situated on the river
bank. South of Faras Meroitic settlements are rare. The region is inhospitable and the
valley too narrow to meet the needs of a large population. Only at K a w a , opposite the
modern city of Dongola, do w e find wider lands and increased signs of ancient
occupation.
Upstream from K a w a there are no sites of importance until Napata is reached. Its
place in royal ceremonies and religious customs has already been stressed. T h e
importance of this town derived from its location at the northern end of the caravan
route which skirted the three scarcely navigable cataracts. All goods from the
southern and central parts of the kingdom, as well as from the interior of Africa, had
to go through Napata. Though the town site of Napata remains partly unexplored,
the royal cemeteries at El-Kurru, Nuri arid Djabal Barkal, as well as the temples of
Djabal Barkal and Sanam, have all been investigated. W e can thus assess the impor-
tance of Napata as a royal and religious centre in the earlier period of the history
of Kush.
The next important urban centre in the Nile Valley was at Dangeil, five miles
north of Berber, where the remains of brick buildings and walls have been discovered.
The site itself seems to lie on an important route leading from Meroe to the north.
O n the Island of Meroe, which corresponds roughly to the modern Butane plain
lying between the Atbara and the Blue Nile, m a n y traces of Meroitic settlement have
been found.
Although the city of Meroe is mentioned for thefirsttime in the last quarter of the
fifth century before the Christian era, in the inscription of Amannateieriko in the
K a w a temple under the name of B.rw.t, the lowest excavation strata show that a large
settlement existed on this site already in the eighth century. T h e part hitherto
excavated and examined is sufficient to show that Meroe at its height was an
enormous city with all the attributes of urban life. A s such Meroe must be numbered
among the most important monuments of early civilization on the African continent.
The main elements of the excavated parts of the city are the royal city with palaces, a
royal bath and other buildings, and the Temple of A m u n . In the vicinity were found
the Temple of Isis, the Lion Temple, the Sun Temple, many pyramids and non-royal
cemeteries.
Not far away from Meroe lies the site of W a d ben Naqa, consisting of ruins of at
least t w o temples. Recent excavations have revealed a large building which was
perhaps a palace, and a beehive structure which may have been an enormous silo. This
The civilization of Napata and Meroe 181

and m a n y scattered mounds in the vicinity indicate the importance of this town, the
residence of the candaces and a Nile port.
A m o n g other important sites, the following should be mentioned. Basa, lying in
W â d ï H a w a d , has a temple and an enormous hafir surrounded by stone statues of
lions. T h e most interesting feature is that this town did not grow haphazardly, but
was strictly planned according to the terrain then covered by trees and shrubs. O f
exceptional importance from m a n y points of view is Mussawwarat es-Sufra in the
W â d ï al-Banat at some distance from the Nile. Its main feature, the Great Enclosure,
consists of m a n y buildings and walled enclosures surrounding a temple built in the
first century before the Christian era, or a little earlier.
Apart from their administrative and religious functions, the Meroitic towns were
also important centres of craft and trade. T h e existing evidence indicates a high
technological and artistic level of crafts. Although in the earlier period Egyptian
influence is unmistakable, from the third century before the Christian era, Meroitic
craftsmen and artists created a highly original and independent artistic tradition.
Pottery is the best-known of all the products of the Meroitic civilization and owes
its fame to its quality both of texture and of decoration. There are t w o distinct
traditions: the hand-made pottery made'by w o m e n which shows a remarkable conti-
nuity of form and style and reflects a deep-rooted African tradition, and the wheel-
turned ware made by m e n which is more varied and responsive to stylistic changes.
Jewellery was another highly developed craft. It has been found in considerable
quantities, mostly in royal tombs. A s with other artefacts, the earlier jewellery was
closely modelled on Egyptian styles and only later examples are characteristically
Meroitic in style and ornamentation. T h e main materials were gold, silver and
semi-precious stones, and the range of artefacts goes from plaques to necklaces,
bracelets, ear-rings and finger-rings.
Cabinet-makers produced various kinds of furniture, especially beds, but also
wooden caskets, strong-boxes and even musical instruments. Weavers made cotton
and linen textiles. Tanners processed hides and leather.
All this indicates that in Meroe there existed a comparatively large class of
craftsmen to which belonged also artists, architects and sculptors. H o w these crafts
were organized is so far u n k n o w n , as the names of crafts in Meroitic inscriptions
remain undeciphered. It is likely that workshops for the temple services existed as in
Egypt and perhaps ergasteries were organized at the royal court.
The Kingdom of Kush formed an ideal entrepôt for the caravan routes between the
R e d Sea, the Upper Nile and the Nile-Chad savannah. It is therefore not surprising
that foreign trade played an important role in the Meroitic economy as well as in its
politics. Foreign trade was directed mainly to Egypt and the Mediterranean world and
later perhaps to southern Arabia. The chief trade route went along the Nile, although
in some parts it crossed the savannah, for instance, between Meroe and Napata, and
Napata and Lower Nubia. The Island of Meroe must have been criss-crossed by m a n y
caravan routes and it was also the starting-point for caravans to the R e d Sea region,
northern Ethiopia, Kordofan and Dirfur. The control of this large network of routes
was a constant worry to the Meroitic kings, for the nomadic peoples very often raided
the caravans. T h e rulers built fortresses at strategic points in the Bajude steppe -
182 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

between Meroe and Napata, for instance - to protect the trade routes and also dug
wells along them.

Social structure
In the absence of any direct information, it is almost impossible to present a coherent
picture of the social structure in Meroe. So far w e k n o w only about the existence of a
higher or ruling class composed of the king and his relatives, of a court and provincial
aristocracy that fulfilled various administrative and military functions, and of a very
influential temple priesthood. At the opposite end of the social scale our sources often
mention the existence of slaves recruited from prisoners of war. From indirect
evidence w e can surmise that, apart from cultivators and cattle-breeders w h o must
have formed the majority of the Meroitic population, there existed a middle class of
craftsmen, traders and various minor officials and servants, but nothing at all is
k n o w n about their social status. Until more evidence becomes available, any attempt
to characterize the type of social and production relationships would be premature.

Religion
General features
The Meroitic peoples derived most of their official religious ideas from Egypt. T h e
majority of gods worshipped in Meroitic temples correspond to those of Egypt, and
earlier Meroitic kings considered A m u n the highest god, from w h o m they derived
theirrightsto the throne. The priests of the temples of A m u n exercised an enormous
influence, at least to the time of King Ergamenes, w h o seems to have broken their
former absolute control. But even later kings showed - at least in their inscriptions -
a veneration for A m u n and his priests, w h o were variously favoured by gifts of gold,
slaves, cattle and landed property.
Along with Pharaonic divinities such as Isis, Horus, Thoth, Arensnuphis, Satis,
with their original symbols, purely Meroitic gods were worshipped like the Lion-
god Apedemak or the god Sebewyemeker (Sbomeker). The official cult of these gods
began as late as the third century before the Christian era. It seems that they were
formerly local gods of the southern parts of the empire and came to prominence only
w h e n the Egyptian influence began to fade and was replaced by more particularly
Meroitic cultural traits.
Apedemak, a warrior god, was a divinity of great importance to the Meroites. H e
is depicted with a lion's head, and lions played some part in the ceremonies of the
temple, especially in Musawwarat es-Sufra. At the same place w e find another
Meroitic god u n k n o w n to the Egyptians, Sebewyemeker, w h o was perhaps the chief
local god, since he was considered as creator. Some goddesses are also depicted at
Naqa, but their names and place in the Meroitic pantheon remain u n k n o w n .
The presence of two sets of divinities, one of Egyptian and the other of local origin,
is reflected also in temple architecture.
The civilization ofNapata and Meroe 183

A m u n temples
Religious symbolism played an important role in the designing of temples in Ancient
Egypt. T h e act of worship was expressed in elaborate and complex rituals and each
part of the temple had a specific role in the progress of the ritual. These various parts,
e.g. halls, courtyards, chambers, chapels, etc., were laid out axially producing a long
processional corridor. Such temples were built in the Dongola region by Peye and
Taharqa and their successors. T h e most important of these temples dedicated to
A m u n - R e in Napata was built at Djabal Barkal. Meroe does not figure in earlier
coronation inscriptions as having a temple to A m u n , but towards the end of the first
century before the Christian era the city was honoured by the building of one of these
temples and a long inscription in Meroitic script was set up in front. This temple
became perhaps the leading temple of A m u n - R e in the later period of the kingdom.

Lion temples
The name 'lion temple' is suggested by a marked preponderance of lion figures,
whether sculptured in the round, guarding the approach and the entrance of temples,
or in relief in a prominent position. T h e figure of the lion represents also the chief
Meroitic god Apedemak. This does not mean that every temple of this kind was
dedicated solely to Apedemak. T h e existence of this type has been observed by
different authorities, but in the description of individual temples various names have
been given to them. Thus, w e hear of the Apis Temple, Isis Temple, Sun Temple,
Augustus-head Temple, Fresco Chamber, and so on. T h e use of the term 'lion
temple' would eliminate further misunderstanding, the figure of the lion being its
most distinctive feature. Statues of rams are associated with A m u n temples at Barkal,
K a w a , Meroe, Naqa, where the lion statues are entirely absent, even w h e n the
lion-god Apedemak was probably one of the deities worshipped and w h e n his figure
appeared among those of the other deities. Although ram-headed deities, A m u n - R e
and K h n u m , appear quite often on the reliefs of these lion temples there is no single
instance of a ram statue being found associated with any of the lion temples.

Distribution and types of lion temples

Besides thirty-two recorded lion temples, there are fourteen other sites in which the
presence of lion temples is almost certain. If w e add to this the occurrence of priestly
titles associated with temples in localities such as Nalete, Tiye, etc., the number of
these temples must have been very great indeed. They seem to have been distributed
throughout the whole realm of Meroe. From a study of this distribution it is apparent
that there are four localities where several temples have been discovered: Naqa with
eight temples, Musawwarat es-Sufra and Meroe with six temples at each site and
Djabal Barkal with three temples.
All lion temples can be divided into two basic types. T h efirstis a two-chamber
temple, the earliest examples of this type being built of plain mud-brick without a
pylon. T h e second type has a single chamber only and most of these temples have a
184 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

pylon in front, although the earlier examples are without it.

T w o local sources can be suggested for the appearance of the second type of lion
temple. That it had developed from thefirsttype seems evident from the fact that
B 900 was reconstructed at a subsequent date with the plan of the second type. O n the
other hand, there are several small single-chamber structures at both Barkal and
Kerma from which the second type might have derived its origin. T h e earliest
examples of this type can be found perhaps below Meroe M 250, possibly dating from
Aspelta, and below temple 100 of Musawwarat es-Sufra dating from before - 500.
Although the t w o types of temple - A m u n and lion temples - suggest at first
glance t w o kinds of religion, a careful reconsideration shows that in fact there was
only one religion in Meroe. For the coexistence of t w o religions would presuppose
either a considerable degree of religious tolerance which can hardly be expected at that
time, or fierce conflict and continuous religious wars and this does not appear on any
form of record. O n the contrary, the pantheon worshipped in the A m u n temples
seems also to have been worshipped in the lion temples, except that certain gods were
given more prominence in one temple than in another. T h e gods are after all a
mixture of Egyptian gods such as A m u n - R e or the Osirian triad or indigenous local
gods such as Apedemak, Mandulis and Sebewyemeker. The differences in the temple
plans indicate differences rather in the rituals than in the religion. T h e rituals
connected with coronation ceremonies needed an Amun-temple type to accommo-
date processions and festivities. This form of religious practice made it possible to
incorporate various local gods and beliefs without conflict and hence helped to give
coherence for a very long period to a kingdom composed of very diverse elements.
 The spreading ofChristianity
in Nubia

T h e social structures and historical events of Nubia's early Christian period were
shaped by two main factors. O n e of these was the decline of the Kingdom of Meroe.
The other was the Romanization and then the Christianization of Egypt, its northern
neighbour. After the fall of the Kingdom of Meroe, a Nobadian state was formed in
northern Nubia between the First Cataract and the Dal, i.e. the area between the
Second and the Third Cataracts. It emerged after a long series of struggles between
the Blemmyes and the Nobades, w h o finally gained control of the Nile Valley and
pushed the Blemmyes (Bega or Buga) out into the eastern desert.
T h e Polish excavations at Faras confirmed that ancient Pachoras was the capital of
the Kingdom of the Nobades towards the end of its existence. It was the site of their
sovereigns' palace, which was transformed later into the earliest cathedral.
The remains of their material culture show that the contrasts in their society's
living standards were extreme. T h e masses were relatively poor. Their humble burial
places made the British archaeologist, G . A . Reisner, use the term 'the X - G r o u p
Culture' - for lack of a more exact historical definition. In contrast to the c o m m o n
people's low level, the ruling classes, princes and court cultivated the traditions of
Meroitic art and culture. T h e most representative remains of the material culture of
the tenuous upper crust of society are the lavish tomb furniture of the well-known
tumuli of Ballana, discovered in 1938 by W . B . Emery, and the sovereigns' palace of
Nubia at Faras mentioned earlier.
T h e Polish excavations at Faras led to the discovery under the Nobadian sovereigns'
palace of a Christian church built of unbaked bricks that must have antedated the end
of thefifthcentury. This early dating has, it is true, recently been contested, but the
facts are that a m o n g ' X - G r o u p ' tombs there have been found Christian graves and
that Christian oil lamps and pottery, decorated with the sign of the cross, appear in
X - G r o u p settlements on Meinarti Island. This is strong evidence that very early, even
before the official Christianization of Nubia by the mission headed by the priest
Julianos which was sent out by Empress Theodora of Byzantium, the Christian faith
had reached the Nobades and readily made converts a m o n g the poor. A further
argument for an early penetration of Nubia by the Christian faith is the existence
there of monasteries and hermitages since the end of the fifth century. It can,
therefore, be confidently stated that the Christian religion had gradually infiltrated

185
186 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

into Nubia before its official conversion which, according to John of Ephesus, took
place in +543.
M a n y factors explain this early Christianization of the country of the Nobades.
Both the R o m a n empire, still hostile to Christianity in the third century, and the
Christian empire, in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, persecuted those w h o did
not obey official injunctions with regard to religion. Hence many Egyptians perhaps,
and also Nubians fleeing from Egypt, m a y have brought their faith to the Nobades
dwelling south of Aswan. T h e traders' caravans passed through Aswan on their
southward route, carrying beliefs along with the rest. Byzantine diplomacy, too,
played anything but a small role in the fifth and sixth centuries, Byzantium being
anxious to remain on good terms with A x u m in the face of the Persian threat in the
Red Sea. In + 524 a formal treaty enabled A x u m to send Blemmyes and Nobades to
take part in the projected expedition in the Y e m e n . T h e priests were certainly not
inactive in these transactions and relationships.
By order of Empress Theodora, the priest Julianos gave Monophysite baptism only
to the sovereigns of the country. Under the influence of Christian Egypt most of its
people had been strongly attracted to the n e w faith and had adopted it m u c h earlier. A
church on the banks of the Nile in an outlying district was serving a humble Christian
community back in the sixth century. T h e conversion of the Nobadian rulers to
Christianity was for them an important political act. They no longer had a well-
defined religious ideology with which to hold the people's allegiance and Christianity
n o w gave them access to Egypt, where since the fourth century the bishop had resided
on the island of Philae. Through Egypt they could reach the Mediterranean and the
centre of the civilization of that era - Byzantium.
The Kingdom of the Nobadae (Nüba in Arabic), k n o w n as Nobadia, extended
from Philae to the Second Cataract. Its capital was Faras. In the south as far as ancient
Meroe, another Nubian kingdom emerged in the sixth century with Old Dongola
(Dünküla in Arabic) as its capital. This kingdom was later called Makuria (Mukurra
in Arabic). In contrast to northern Nubia, which had adopted the Monophysite doc-
trine, Makuria was converted to orthodox Melkite by a mission which Emperor
Justinian sent out in + 567 to + 570.
As a result of the Polish excavations carried out at Old Dongola since +1964, four
churches and the Christian royal palace have been identified. O n e of these buildings
dates back to the end of the seventh or the beginning of the eighth century. Beneath it
the remains of an earlier church built of unbaked bricks have been discovered. This
religious building, which was not the cathedral, hadfivenaves and was supported by
sixteen granite columns 5.20 metres in height. In view of the magnitude of the
remains discovered, there is reason to think that the enthusiastic descriptions given by
an Arab traveller in the eleventh century were historically accurate: Dongola was an
important capital, at least as regards its monuments.
Finally, between + 6 6 0 and + 7 0 0 the Makurites also adopted the Monophysite
doctrine and the fact was not without important consequences. Towards + 5 8 0 , with
the support of the Nobadae, a Byzantine mission came to Alodia and its leader,
Bishop Longinos, noted that the country had already been partly converted by the
Axumites. Towards the end of the sixth century Nubia was therefore a Christian
The spreading of Christianity in Nubia 187

country consisting of three kingdoms: Nobadia in the north, Makuria in the centre
and Alodia in the south. Their mutual relations are not even yet entirely clear, at any
rate in respect of thefirstperiod of their independence.
Since Monneret de Villard's research in 1938, many archaeological discoveries have
been accumulated, particularly through the 'Nubian campaign' organized under
the auspices of Unesco in 1960-5 to explore ground that was to be flooded by the
Nile water above the Sadd al-'Äali, the High D a m . In some parts of northern Nubia
the slow rise of the water level in the storage basin allowed digging to continue
until 1971, and at Kasr Ibrïm, which is not flooded, till the present day.
The results of the research of these years have often been exceptionally valuable and
have brought the problems of Christian Nubia back into the foreground.
Although Nubia, unlike Egypt, was not part of the Byzantine empire, there
undoubtedly existed between them definite links forged by the missions of the priests
Julianos and Longinos. T h e organization of the Nubian government, as its
nomenclature shows, was strictly modelled on the Byzantine bureaucracy. Though
the Persian invasion of Egypt in +616" shopped at the northern frontier of Nubia,
evidence exists that the northern kingdom was invaded by Sassanid detachments
stationed south of the First Cataract. In any case the invasion by Chosroes II broke
the direct links between Nubia and Egypt, by then Christian, and in particular the
contacts between the Nubian clergy and the patriarchate of Alexandria, which officially
supervised the church of Nubia. In +641 Egypt came under the rule of the Arabs.
Christian Nubia was severed from the Mediterranean culture for centuries to come.
At first the Arabs did not consider the conquest of Nubia important, and only
made raids into the north. Therefore, as soon as Egypt submitted, they signed with
Nubia a treaty called a bakt, which bound the Nubians to pay an annual tribute of
slaves and certain goods and the Arabs to provide a suitable quantity of food and
clothing. During the seven centuries of Christian Nubia's independence, both sides
regarded the treaty as valid in principle, but more than one armed clash occurred.
Thus, almost as soon as the hakt was signed, the Amir 'Abdallah ibn A b u Sahr raided
Dongola in + 6 5 1 - 2 ; but that did not interrupt the constant trade between Nubia and
Muslim Egypt.
Northern and central Nubia united to form one state, doubtless in consequence of
thefirstskirmishes between the Arabs from Egypt and the Nubians. Makrizï, quoting
earlier Arab sources, states that in the middle of the seventh century the whole of
central and northern Nubia as far as the Alodian border was ruled by the same king,
Kalidurut. T h e Christian sources seem to prove that the union of Nubia was the
work of King Merkurios, w h o came to the throne in + 6 0 7 and is said to have
introduced Monophysitism into Makuria. H e set up the capital of the united kingdom
in Dongola.
T o this day the question of Monophysitism in Nubia is not entirely clear, especially
as regards the kingdom's relations with the orthodox Melkite church. It is still
possible that the Melkite doctrine persisted in some form in the interior of the
kingdom. It is k n o w n that as late as the fourteenth century the province of Maris, the
former kingdom of northern Nubia, was subject to a Melkite bishop w h o , as
metropolitan resident in Tafa, ruled over a diocese which included the whole of
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

12.1 Faras cathedral (Photo, Warsaw National Museum)

The spreading of Christianity in Nubia 189

Nubia. Moreover, except in the eighth century, Alexandria always had t w o patri-
archs, a Monophysite and a Melkite.
W h e n King Kyriakos learned that the U m a y y a d governor had imprisoned the
Patriarch of Alexandria, he attacked Egypt on that pretext and penetrated as far as
Fustât. A s soon as the Patriarch was released, the Nubians went h o m e . Kyriakos'
expedition to Fustit proves that Nubia did not confine itself strictly to defence, but
also took offensive action against Muslim Egypt.
Military expeditions, however, are not the sole evidence of the vigour of the
Nubian state after the beginning of the eighth century. Archaeological discoveries
have also proved the extraordinary development of culture, art and monumental
architecture in Nubia during that period. In +707 Bishop Paulos rebuilt Faras
Cathedral and decorated it with splendid murals.
Some important religious buildings in Old Dongola date from that period. Other
Nubian churches, such as those of 'Abdallah Nirkï and Al-Sabu'a, were splendidly
decorated with murals, which became a constant feature of ceremonial decoration.
The Christian period was a time of rapid economic development in Nubia. T h e
population of northern Nubia was about 50,000. The introduction of sâkiya irrigation
in the Ptolemaic and R o m a n periods had enlarged the area under cultivation by
watering it between the abundant Nile floods of that time, and it produced wheat,
barley, millet and grapes. T h e abundant date harvest from the palm plantations also
raised the country's living standards.
Trade with neighbouring countries increased but extended far beyond them. T h e
inhabitants of Makuria sold ivory to Byzantium and copper and gold to Ethiopia.
Their merchants' caravans went to the heart of Africa, to the lands which are n o w
Nigeria and Ghana. T h e well-to-do classes preferred Byzantine dress. T h e w o m e n
wore long robes, often decorated with coloured embroidery.
As has already been said, the organization of power in Christian Nubia was
modelled on Byzantium. The civil governor of the province was the eparch, whose
authority was symbolized by the horned crown which he wore on a helmet decorated
with a crescent. H e usually wore a full robe held in by a scarf. The fringes of the
bishops' stoles, which they wore over their rich and complex liturgical vestments,
were adorned with small bells.
That the Nubians were famous archers is attested by many ancient and Arab
authors. In addition to the b o w they used the sword and the javelin.
Sacred buildings, with a few rare exceptions, were built of unbaked bricks. Only in
the cathedrals of Kasr Ibrîm, Faras and Dongola were the walls made of stone or
burnt bricks. Most churches were built in the basilical style, but cruciform or
central-plan churches are sometimes found in Nubian architecture. The decoration of
thefirstperiod, that is, until the end of the seventh century, can only be deduced
from the monumental cathedrals mentioned above.
Except for parts of converted pagan buildings, for example at Faras, the decoration
was of sandstone and repeated the traditional scroll-work pattern borrowed by
Meroitic art from the Hellenistic art of the R o m a n east. Mention should be made of
the beautiful sculptured volutes of the foliated capitals. Icons painted on wooden
panels or carved were probably used at that time as ritual images.
190 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

12.2 Head of St Anne: a mural in North

Aisle of Faras Cathedral (eighth century) (Photo,
Warsaw National Museum)

'"' 12.3 Christian Nubian ceramic (G. Mokhtar)

The spreading of Christianity in Nubia 191

The oldest monuments of Christian art in Nubia are powerfully influenced by

Coptic Egypt. This is chiefly shown by their subjects, e.g. the frieze of doves or
eagles recalling their images on Coptic stelae.
From the eighth century onwards Nubian churches were decorated with fresco secco
paintings. Thanks to the Faras discoveries of +1961-4, it is possible, from more than
120 mural paintings in perfect condition, including portraits of bishops whose dates of
office can be found in the List of Bishops, to deduce a general evolution of style in
Nubian paintings, which is confirmed by fragments of murals from other Nubian
churches.
Faras was at that time undoubtedly the artistic centre at least of northern Nubia.
T h e style of the paintings found north of Faras at 'Abdallah Nirkï and Tamit, and
south of it at Sonki Tino, is definitely provincial by comparison with the great works
at Faras.
From the beginning of the eighth century to the middle of the ninth, Nubian
painters preferred violet tones in their pictures. This period of Nubian painting was
strongly influenced by Coptic art, the traditions of which were derived from the
expressive style of the Fayyüm portraits. O n e of the most representative works of that
period is the head of St A n n e of Faras (now in the W a r s a w M u s e u m ) , but the
influence of Byzantine art and its themes can also be seen.
Later that style developed, and until the middle of the tenth century white is clearly
predominant. This m a y be due to the influence of Syro-Palestinan painting, which is
distinguished by a characteristic w a y of rendering double folds of vestments and
certain iconographie features. Perhaps the fact that Jerusalem was at that time a goal
of pilgrimage for all the countries of the Christian East m a y account for this develop-
ment in contemporary Nubian painting.
Very close ties between the Monophysite Kingdom of Nubia and the Monophysite
sect of the Jacobites of Antioch are also k n o w n to have existed at that time. Deacon
John and A b u Salih both mention that in the reign of King Kyriakos the Monophysite
(Jacobite) Patriarch of Alexandria was the head of the Nubian church. A very strong
realist trend then appeared for thefirsttime in Nubian painting; its best example is
the portrait of Bishop Kyros of Faras (now in Khartoum M u s e u m ) .
Excavation has unearthed a vast quantity of artefacts, pottery being the most
abundant. W . Y . A d a m s has made a systematic study of them. H e finds that they
yield evidence of interesting technical, stylistic and economico-social developments.
Even before + 750, A s w a n supplied the south with an appreciable proportion of the
ceramics used there. This trade was not interrupted w h e n the Muslims settled in Egypt.
T o s u m up, until the ninth century, Nubia enjoyed an initial period of prosperity
which was not greatly disturbed by its usually peaceful Muslim neighbours. T h e
cultural unity of early Christian Nubia is difficult to discern. In Faras, the aristocracy
and the administrative officials spoke Greek, as did the dignitaries of the church. T h e
clergy also understood Coptic, which was perhaps the language of many refugees. A s
for Nubian, while it was widely spoken by the population, the only traces remaining
of a written form of the language date from a later period, probably not earlier than
the middle of the ninth century.
Christian Nubia's golden age, around + 8 0 0 , was yet to come.
 Pre-Axumite culture

The northern regions of Ethiopia, which were to emerge from prehistoric times about
the fifth century before the Christian era, do not seem to have been very densely
populated in an earlier age. T h e scant information w e have, however, indicates that
human groups developed there in m u c h the same w a y as in the rest of the Horn of
Africa.
During the last ten millennia before the Christian era pastoral peoples seemed to
have lived here, w h o made drawings of their humpless, horned cattle on the rocky
crags that stretched from the north of Eritrea to the land of the Hareri; their herds
resembled those that were raised at the same period in the Sahara and in the Nile
Basin. These peoples were in contact with the Egyptian world from a very early date.
Linguistically, the Kushite element is also of importance; it was of local origin and
was beginning to be perceptible in other spheres. T h e recent discoveries made at
Gobedra, near A x u m , show that the practice of millet-growing and the use of pottery
began in the third or fourth millenium. Thus there is reason to believe that, alongside
pastoral activities, a recognizable Ethiopian type of agriculture began to develop from
this time. T h e n e w techniques were probably associated with a more settled w a y
of life, which created more favourable conditions for the development of higher
civilization.
While the founding of the city of A x u m and the appearance of a royal Axumite
dynasty can be dated from the second century before the Christian era, from the
evidence of the geographer Claudius Ptolemy, corroborated a hundred years or so later
by the Periplus Maris Erythraei and by archaeological discoveries, ancient Greek and
Latin writers tell us almost nothing about the centuries leading up to these events.
They merely tell us that, in the middle of the third century before the Christian era,
Ptolemy II founded Philadelphus, the port of Adulis, which was enlarged by his
successor Ptolemy III, and which Pliny, around the year + 75, said he considered one of
the most important ports of call on the R e d Sea. H e also mentions the numerous
Asachae groups w h o lived by elephant-hunting in the mountains which were a five-day
journey away from the sea. T h e association that is frequently suggested between this
ethnic term and the name of A x u m is highly conjectural.
Apart from legendary accounts, information must be sought in the series of
archaeological discoveries that have been made since the beginning of the twentieth
century. They enable us to reconstruct the pre-Axumite period, which, as w e k n o w
192
Pre-Axumite culture 193
from the studies of F. Anfray, consists of a south Arabian period and a transitional
period.

The south Arabian period

This is the period w h e n 'south Arabian influence was strong in northern Ethiopia'.
T h e chief sign of this influence is the existence in Eritrea and Tigre of monuments and
inscriptions which are akin to those current in south Arabia during the supremacy of
the Kingdom of Saba. Thanks to the palaeographic and stylistic studies of J. Pirenne,
the parallel examples found in south Arabia can be dated from the fifth and fourth
centuries before the Christian era. It is generally agreed that the same dates apply to
the finds made in Ethiopia, although the hypothesis put forward by C . Conti-Rossini
of a time-lag between the t w o shores of the R e d Sea cannot be definitely ruled out;
according to F . Anfray, 'there is reason to think that in future it will be necessary to
reduce the time-span, and perhaps to advance the dates of the south Arabian period'.
The only remaining architectural m o n u m e n t of this period is the temple of Yeha. It
is built of large blocks, carefullyfittedtogether, with bossage and corner-stones, and
consists of a rectangular celia about 18.6 metres by 15 metres resting on an
eight-tiered pyramidal base. As J. Pirenne points out, the façades, which are preserved
up to a height of about 9 metres, are treated in a similar w a y to several buildings
found in Mârib, the capital of the K i n g d o m of Saba, but the plan of Yeha is not like
that of any of the south Arabian sanctuaries k n o w n to us. Another building in Yeha,
badly ruined, comprises rectangular megalithic pillars standing on a high terrace; it is
situated on Grat-Beal-Guebri and seems to date back to the same period. Similar pillars
exist at t w o other sites. S o m e are to be seen at the top of the hill of Haoulti, south of
A x u m , where they are set up in no apparent order and m a y not be in their original
position. At Kaskasé, on the road from Yeha to Adulis, there are six pillars
whose arrangement is not yet understood, as the site has not yet been excavated.
These pillars are reminiscent of the rows of gigantic four-cornered pillars that adorn
the sanctuaries of Mârib ( A w w a m Bar'an) and Timna (the temple of Ashtar).
The sculptures found at Yeha also point to Mârib, as for example thefriezeof
ibexes and the fluted and denticulated plaques, which are also found in the Melazo
region, at Haoulti and Enda Cerqos, and which m a y have served as wall coverings.
The Melazo area has proved to be rich in sculptures dating back to the south Arabian
period: as well as the stelae of Haoulti and the decorated plaques mentioned above,
there are a number of works that were used again later in modified forms. T h e most
outstanding examples are the naos and the statues discovered at Haoulti.
The m o n u m e n t that is called a naos on a proposal by J. Pirenne - a better term than
the previously suggested 'throne' - is carved from a single block of fine local
limestone about 140 centimetres high. It has four feet shaped like a bull's hooves
which support a base decorated with t w o bars and surmounted by a niche covered
with ornamentation except for the back, which is quite smooth. T h e niche is topped
by a dais in the shape of a depressed arch 67 centimetres wide and 57 centimetres deep;
along the edge, which is 7 centimetres high, there run t w o rows of reclining ibexes
that converge towards a stylized tree standing on the tip of the naos; similar ibexes,
194 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

pointing inwards towards the niche, cover the edges of both sides in superimposed
metopes 13 centimetres wide.
The external surface of each side is decorated with the same scene in bas-relief: a
small beardless figure holding a staff precedes a large bearded m a n holding a sort of
fan. Their noses are slightly aquiline, giving them a Semitic appearance, and their hair
is represented by small lozenges. T h e small figure wears a plain robeflaringright
d o w n to the ankles, and a mantle covering his shoulders; on the righj-hand side of the
naos, a masculine proper noun is written over his head in Sabaean script: ' R F S '
(Rafash). The large figure wears a baggy loin-cloth with aflapfalling d o w n behind,
held at the waist by a belt that appears to the knotted at the back with one end
hanging free; a cloak thrown over his shoulders is held in place by two corners tied
in a large, flat knot on his chest. O n the left-hand bas-relief, he is holding an
object described as a fan with both hands, but on the right-hand bas-relief he is
wearing a quadruple bracelet on his left wrist and holding a sort of club in his right
hand.
The same site at Haoulti yielded several statues of a similar type, only one of which
is almost complete. It represents a seated w o m a n with her hands on her knees, dressed
in a long robe with narrow vertical pleats shown by grooves that follow the lines of
her body. Over the robe she wears a wide necklace composed of three thick, ringed
strands from which hangs a scutiform pectoral; this is counterbalanced between her
shoulder-blades by an ornament in the shape of a trapeze with six vertical stems. T h e
statue was meant to fit into a seat, for the backs of the legs areflattenedand have a
vertical lug, badly damaged, in the middle.
Apart from the fragments of at least two similar statues, there was a headless
statue, less delicately executed than the one described above, but otherwise differing
from it only in that its sole ornament was a three-stranded necklace and it was
seated on a small stool decorated with a bar.
The posture of the Haoulti statues recalls that of a statuette discovered accidentally
with miscellaneous other antiquities at Addi Galamo, on the western edge of the
Tigre plateau. The statuette is only about 40 centimetres high. The hands rest on the
knees, but hold t w o cylindrical cups that were probably intended to serve as
receptacles for offerings. T h e hair is represented by lozenges, and there are grooves
bearing the traces of a necklace with a counterweight and of bracelets that m a y have
been made of some precious metal. T h e robe is not pleated, but is decorated with
rosettes, probably inlaid, that may represent embroidery, and it ends in afringe.T h e
seat is decorated with a bar.
W h e n F. Anfray excavated Matara, an important site in the neighbourhood of
Kaskasé, a fragment of a head of the same type as the Haoulti head was
unearthed in a pre-Axumite stratum of M o u n d B , but the workmanship is m u c h
more rudimentary and the details are in high relief.
Another statuette, on show at the National M u s e u m of R o m e ( M N R 12113) has
many points in c o m m o n with the Haoulti statues. It represents a seated w o m a n
whose head and arms have been broken. Its height as it stands at present is 13.7
centimetres. The w o m a n wears a long,flutedrobe, a ringed, double-stranded necklace
from which there hangs a row of beads, a pectoral and a counterweight. The lower
Pre-Axumite culture 195

part is in the shape of a base on which is inscribed a south Arabian name, Kanan.
According to J. Pirenne, the script dates from the end of the fourth century before the
Christian era.
South Arabia has so far only yielded objects presenting such general similarities as
the seated position, some of which are feminine; representations of seated w o m e n on
the funerary bas-reliefs of Mârib, H â z and the Aden M u s e u m , and the statue
of 'Lady Bar'at at T i m n a ' , in which J. Pirenne sees the great south Arabian
goddess.
As early as the ninth and eighth centuries before the Christian era the type of the
seated w o m a n or goddess, often holding a goblet, is very c o m m o n in the area under
Syro-Hittite control. There seems to be a real relationship between the Ethiopian
statues and those of Asia Minor in the late seventh and early sixth centuries before the
Christian era. J. Pirenne has pointed out certain affinities between the orientalized
Greek art of the sixth century or the derived style of the fifth century and south
Arabian art.
While analogies with the seated statues are found in the Semitic Near East and in
the orientalized Hellenic world, there is evidence of an Egyptian, and more specifically
Meroitic, influence in the counterweighted necklaces, inspired by the mankhit, and in
the pleated robes which, as J. Pirenne has observed, recall the tunics of the queens of
Meroe and the corpulence that they inherited from Ati of Punt, a contemporary of
Hatshepsut.
Such comparisons highlight the diversity of the influences reflected in these seated
w o m e n of Tigre, but they provide no definite answer to the question of what they
represent. Neither can any conclusive argument be drawn from the inscribed base
found at Addi Galamo, which seems to be associated with the statuette. O n e might
even hesitate to regard them as queens or dignitaries or, as J. Pirenne maintains, as
representations of the great goddess.
W e would be inclined, then, to reject the hypothesis of an empty throne of
the type found in Phoenicia, Adulis or Tacazzé, and to return to our first
impression, considering, like J: Pirenne, that the object is 'a stone reproduction of a
processional naos', in which a cult statue rested. Apart from a few fragments found at
Haoulti which might c o m e from a similar m o n u m e n t , this naos is unique of its kind.
Although nothing analogous has c o m e to light in south Arabia - which might be due
to the present state of archaeological research in the Y e m e n - some of its features have
been found there, treated in a rigorously identical fashion.
T h e same bull's hooves are seen on stone furniture identified by G . van Beek and
on a marble statuette from Mârib. Reclining ibexes, often arranged in superimposed
metopes and on the edge of a flat stele, an example of which was recently discovered
at Matara, occur frequently in the Sabaean region (Mârib, H â z ) .
W e also find ibexes associated with a stylized tree, the fruits of which they seem to
be eating, on an altar from Mârib. T h e religious significance of these ibexes, whether
associated with-a 'tree of life' or not, appears to be in no doubt: G r o h m a n n seems to
have proved that the ibex symbolized the god of the m o o n , Almaqah, to w h o m the
bull was also dedicated.
While the technique of the lateral bas-relief is closer to the Persian Achemenidean
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

13.1 Incense altar ofAddi Galamo (Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology)

Pre-Axumite culture 197

style than to the south Arabian works k n o w n to us at present, which are apparently
of later date, there are parallels between the figures represented and the bronze
sculpture in the round from Mârib: hair, eyes, ears, loin-cloth and sandals.
T h e sculpture of the south Arabian period is also represented by sphinxes,
although, apart from a small fragment discovered at Melazo, they have so far been
found only in Erythrea. T h e best-preserved sphinx comes from Addi Gramaten,
north-east of Kaskasé. Its hair is plaited, as it is in some Axumite pottery heads
of a later period and as it is w o r n by the w o m e n of Tigre today, and round its neck is
a three-stranded necklace. T h e necklace is also found on the forequarters of t w o
sphinxes with hammer-wrought facets that stand out from a stone plaque found at
Matara. Another sphinx, very badly damaged, has been found at Dibdib, south of
Matara. J. Pirenne points out that these lions with h u m a n heads have nothing in
c o m m o n with the griffins and winged sphinxes of the Phoenician tradition which
were produced in south Arabia at a later period. Perhaps w e should look for Egyptian
or Meroitic prototypes, origins already suggested for a south Arabian head with
plaited hair and a necklace.
O n e category of objects carved in stone that is particularly well represented in
northern Ethiopia is that of incense altars. Most of these belong to a type that is well
k n o w n in south Arabia: a cubic altar with architectural decoration often standing on a
pyramidal base. T h e most beautiful example, which, according to J. Pirenne, surpasses
all the south Arabian examples, is the altar of Addi Galamo, but a series of altars in
various states of preservation has been found at Gobochela in Melazo, several have
been found at Yeha, and fragments have been found at Matara and also at unidentified
places. A group of four altars found at Gobochela represents a hitherto u n k n o w n
variety: the cylindrical incense altar on a base in the shape of a truncated cone. Here
the decoration is confined to the south Arabian divine symbol of a crescent sur-
mounted by a disc and to a frieze of triangles. A s for the small cubic altar of south
Arabia, w e only have t w o objects which seem to belong to the south Arabian period.
O n e , unearthed at Matara, is thefirstin Ethiopia to be referred to specifically as a
perfume-burning altar, a mqtr. T h e second, found near the preceding site at a place
called Zala Kesedmai, differs in the bas-reliefs that decorate its sides. O n one side is the
divine symbol of the disc and crescent, and on the opposite side a stylized 'tree of life'
that recalls the 'tree of life' of Haoulti. T h e ibexes on the t w o remaining sides are
turned towards this tree.
As in south Arabia, beside these incense-burning altars, w e find libation altars,
which can be recognized by the channel allowing the offered liquid to run out. At
Yeha were found several platforms similar to those at Hureidha or the Mârib region,
with a drainage channel in the shape of a bucranium. O n others, there are fine
inscriptions in relief and friezes of beam-ends like those of the perfume-burning altars.
T h e first specimen mentioned, one of the second group, and a unique libation altar at
Matara all bear the local n a m e of this series of objects, mtryn, a term which is not
corroborated in south Arabia. T h e Matara site also yielded thick sacrificial tables
similar to thefirstone from Yeha. T h e libation altar of Addi Gramaten bears a m u c h
closer resemblance to the more elaborate type with a frieze of beam-ends and a tiered
base. T h e altar at Fikya, near Kaskasé, which is in the shape of a bowl with
198 Ancient Civilizations of Ajrica

protomes of sphinxes or lions, is rather more reminiscent, according to J. Pirenne, of

shapes c o m m o n in Meroitic art.
A H that the archaeological excavations have given us in the w a y of material
remains, apart from these sculptures, is a type of pottery which is as yet little k n o w n .
F. Anfray attributes to this period tulip-shaped vases and large jars with handles and
horizontal ridges that come from Matara and Yeha. H e compares this material with
what was found at Es-Soba, a few kilometres north of Aden, which seems to date
from the sixth century before the Christian era.
The epigraphic documents that palaeography allows us to attribute to the most
ancient period are all in south Arabian script but, according to A . J. Drewes, they fall
into two groups. T h efirstgroup consists of inscriptions on monuments written in
the authentic Sabaean language with a few local peculiarities; the second includes
inscriptions on rocks written in a script which imitates that of thefirstgroup but in
fact transcribes a Semitic language thought to be only related to Sabaean.
The texts mention not only the terms used for cult objects such as perfume-burners
or sacrificial tables, as w e saw above, but also the names of a number of deities w h o
constitute a pantheon almost identical with that of the Kingdom of Saba. The most
comprehensive list k n o w n at present appears on a block that was re-utilized in the
church of Enda Çerqos at Melazo: '. . . 'Astar and Hawbas and Almaqah and
D l t - H i m y a m and Dlt-Ba'dan . . .'
'Astar appears in two other inscriptions, one from Yeha and the other of u n k n o w n
origin. It is simply the Ethiopian form of the name of the star-god Athtar, w h o is also
associated with Almaqah in three votic texts, one at Yeha and two at Matara. At the
latter site there is an altar dedicated to Shron, which is an epithet of this god, w h o is
identified with the planet Venus.
The moon-god w h o seems to have been most venerated in Ethiopia, as well as in
Saba, is Almaqah. In addition to the inscriptions of Matara, Yeha and Enda
Çerqos w e have already mentioned, all the texts at Gobochela in Melazo, as well
as the altar at Addi Galamo and a libation altar at Yeha, are dedicated to him alone.
The solar cult is represented by a pair of goddesses, D â t - H i m y a m and Dit-Ba'dan,
w h o seem to correspond to the summer sun and the winter sun.
Whereas dedicatory texts usually give only thefiliationof the high-ranking persons
concerned, the Gobochela texts reveal that the population was organized in clans.
Four texts from this site and one from Yeha mention 'Lhy, of the Grb clan, of the
family of (or son of) Y q d m ' l F q m m of Mârib'; this person is associated with his
brother S B H H M W on some of the dedications; at Yeha, he consecrates his worldly
goods and his son H y r m h to 'Astar and Almaqah. It is probable that the terms
Y Q D M ' L and F Q M M denote ethnic groups, but w e are sure that G R B does. T h e
expression 'of Mlrib' and 'of Hadaqan' in the two Matara texts refer to toponyms
rather than to ethnic groups; they m a y concern places founded in the north of
Ethiopia by south Arabian colonists, but, according to L . Ricci, these terms would
rather seem to indicate that these groups came originally from Arabia proper.
The political organization of northern Ethiopia during the south Arabian period
seems to have been a hereditary monarchy, two of whose dynasts, R b h and his son
L m m , bear the same title 'King Sr'n of the tribe of Yg'd thukarrib of D'iamat
Pre-Axumite culture 199

and of Saba' '; thefirstof these t w o sovereigns added on the altar of Addi Galamo:
'descendant of the tribe W ' r n of Raydan'. The second is also mentioned on the altar
of u n k n o w n origin dedicated to 'Astar; the same L m m , or another sovereign bearing
the same name, is mentioned in t w o texts at Matara, in one of which he is associated
with a certain Sumu'alay, the name borne by a Sabaean rhukarrib. T h e fact that the
link with the W a r e n ethnic group of Raydan is explicitly mentioned shows the
importance which these kings attached to their south Arabian descent.
Architecture, works of art, epigraphy and the data provided by the texts on
religious beliefs and social organization in northern Ethiopia - all afford evidence of a
strong south Arabian influence in thefifthand fourth centuries before the Christian
era. A s F. Anfray reminds us, the emergence of this predominantly Semitic culture
was preceded by several centuries of silent penetration; 'small groups of immigrants
peddled south Arabian culture', no doubt under the pressure of economic and
demographic circumstances which w e do not yet understand. It is not impossible, as
the same investigator suggests, that these colonies introduced n e w agricultural
techniques, in particular the use of the swing-plough, and built the first stone
villages of Ethiopia.
The appearance of a cultural unit whose internal coherence is evident, however,
throughout the northern part of the Ethiopian plateau must certainly have coincided
with the rise to power and the survival as a dominant class of one group, but w e shall
probably never k n o w whether this group consisted of descendants of south Arabian
colonists or of indigeneous inhabitants w h o had assimilated this superior culture so
well that they had made it their o w n .

The intermediary period

A m u c h stronger impression of a local culture having assimilated foreign influence is
conveyed by material dating from the second pre-Axumite period, which has been
called the intermediary period.
S o m e characteristics of south Arabian origin are no doubt still perceptible but, as
F. Anfray has made clear, it is no longer a case of direct influences but of internal
developments growing from earlier contributions. Inscriptions in a m u c h rougher
script are used to transcribe a language less and less like the original south Arabian
dialect. Mukarribs are no longer mentioned, but a text found at Kaskasé refers
to a king bearing a south Arabian n a m e , W a r e n Hayanat ( W ' R N H Y N T ) , descen-
dant of Salamat. T h e G R B clan, well vouched for at Gobochela in Melazo during the
south Arabian phase, still exists, although its links with Mârib are no longer stated,
for one of its members dedicates a cube-shaped incense altar with a pyramidal base to
Almaqah; a crude statuette of a bull is also dedicated to the same deity. At Addi
Gramaten, a later hand has added to the altar a second dedication to D â t - H i m y a m ,
and to the sphinx a name: W a h a b - W a d d . The epigraphic documentation is completed
by inscriptions composed of cursive south Arabian letters.
The architecture of the intermediary period is hardly represented except by the
religious buildings unearthed in the region of Melazo. All the objects from Gobochela
were found, either re-utilized for other purposes or else in situ, by J. Leclant in a
200 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

rectangular structure oriented on an east-west axis; it consists of a surrounding wall

18.1 by 7.3 metres which encloses an esplanade leading to a celia 8.9 by 6.75 metres.
The latter opens by a door in the middle of the western side, and the eastern part is
occupied by a bench on which the sacred objects were placed.
A characteristic of this period is the great accumulation of objects in underground
deposits such as the well tombs of Yeha and Matara or the pits of Sabea and Haoulti.
Iron implements, the manufacture of which was probably introduced during this
phase, are mainly represented at Yeha by rings, scissors, swords and daggers; a sword
and some rings have also been found at Matara. Several fragments of iron objects have
also been collected round the temples at Haoulti.
However, bronze is m u c h jnore prevalent than iron, perhaps because of its greater
resistance to corrosion. A large number of thick, open rings with a rectangular section
was found at Sabea, and an object of the same type was lying on a bench in one of the
sanctuaries at Haoulti. These rings were possibly worn as bracelets or anklets in the
Meroitic fashion, but it m a y be asked whether they were not also used as money.
Weapons are represented by a crescent-shaped axe or halberd and t w oriveteddaggers
from Haoulti, as well as t w o knives from Matara, one riveted and another with a
crescent-shaped p o m m e l . The Yeha tombs have further yielded cooking-pots, balance-
pans and a small bell; fragments of receptacles were also collected on the hill-top at
Haoulti. Needles and pins come from Haoulti, Yeha and Matara. Small bronze beads
are reported from Sabea, Haoulti and Yeha.
There is one last category of bronze objects that reflect a south Arabian tradition,
namely, the pierced plaques called identity badges. A . J . Drewes and R . Schneider
distinguish between two classes. T h e first contains the plaques from Sabea and
Haoulti and most of those from Yeha. T h e second class, which is only found at the
Yeha site, is composed of larger, thicker plaques, fitted with a handle and shaped
somewhat like a stylized animal, a bull, an ibex, a lion or a bird; the plaques in this
class contain proper names written in cursive south Arabian.
W h e n w e consider the high technical level revealed by these objects, it seems
plausible to attribute to the Ethiopian bronze-workers of this intermediary stage - as
F. Anfray suggests - other works such as a miniature pair of bull's hooves near the
Haoulti sanctuaries, and the powerful figurine of a bull from Mahabere D y o g w e ,
which would appear to afford further evidence of the cult of Almaqah.
Gold is used for ornaments such as finger-rings at Yeha and Haoulti, ear-rings,
beads and coiled wire at Haoulti. Countless little pieces of necklaces of various
colours, made of glass-paste orfrit,are found on all the sites of this period, and pieces
made of stone are also found at Sabea and Matara.
Other stone objects include small sandstone mortars or incense burners, disc-shaped
or rectangular, found at Yeha, Matara and Haoulti, a seal found at Sabea, an alabaster
vase and an incised ring made of serpentine found at Yeha.
Lastly, the deposit at Haoulti contained two earthenware amulets representing a
Ptah-patec and a Hathoric head, while in the lower levels at Matara a cornelian amulet
representing a Harpocrat was found. A m o n g the finds at Addi Galamo were four
bronze vessels, including a bowl decorated with finely engraved lotus flowers and
frogs, and a fragment of a vase with an embossed line of cattle. This group of objects
Pre-Axumite culture

13.2 Bronze bull of Makabere Dyogwere (Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology)

202 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

is particularly interesting as they are of Meroitic origin and provide evidence of

relations between Ethiopia and the Nile Valley. Some Meroitic influence can also be
seen in the pottery of this period, which is highly characteristic.
While the ex-votos of Haoulti indicate that the basis of the economy was mainly
agricultural and pastoral, the rapid progress made by metal-working in bronze, iron
and gold, by the quantity production of stone or glass-paste objects, and by potters
shows that a class of specialized craftsmen had n o w appeared. It certainly seems that
the process of urbanization was under w a y in a number of centres founded during the
south Arabian period, such as Melazo, Yeha and Matara, or in more recent settle-
ments such as Adulis. While the m e m o r y of the south Arabian traditions had not yet
died out, the n e w stimulus seems to have come from the Kingdom of Meroe, which
played a primary role in the diffusion of metal-working techniques over Africa.
It is quite possible that the decline of Meroe, on the one hand, and the waning
power of the south Arabian kingdoms, on the other, allowed the Ethiopians to
control all trade in gold, incense, ivory and products imported from the Indian Ocean.
 The civilization ofAxum
from thefirst
to the seventh century

According to primary sources, the history of the Kingdom of A x u m extends from

the first century of the Christian era over almost a thousand years. It includes two
armed incursions into south Arabia in the third, fourth and sixth centuries, an expedi-
tion to Meroe in the fourth century and, during thefirsthalf of that same century, the
introduction of Christianity.
A score of kings, most of them k n o w n only from their coinage, succeeded one
another on the A x u m throne. T h e earliest king actually recorded is Zoscales,
mentioned in a Greek text belonging to the end of thefirstcentury, but it is still an
open question whether he is the same as the Za-Hakalé w h o occurs in the tradi-
tional lists of monarchs.
O u r knowledge of Axumite civilization comes from various sources, from authors
of antiquity, such as Pliny, w h o mentioned Adulis, to Arab chroniclers such as Ibn
Hishâm and Ibn Hawkal. But these texts are mostly somewhat vague, and the
greater part of our evidence comes from local epigraphy and the gradually increasing
amount of archaeological material. Inscriptions, which are few, began to be collected
in the nineteenth century. The discovery of the inscriptions by Ezana, by Kaleb, and
by one of the latter's sons (Waazelia), in Greek, Ge'ez and pseudo-Sabaean, yielded all
kinds of information, added to in the last twenty years by other evidence of a similar
kind, including cave inscriptions and texts on sheets of schist found in Eritrea. These
date from the second century, and are the earliest writings of the Axumite period.

Area
Archaeology shows the Axumite kingdom as a tall rectangle roughly 300 kilometres
long by 160 kilometres wide, lying between 13° and 17° north and 30° and 40° east.
It extended from the region north of Keren to Alagui in the south, and from Adulis
on the coast to the environs of Takkaze in the west. Addi-Dahno is practically the
last-known site in this part, about 30 kilometres from A x u m .

Proto-Axumite period
The name of A x u m appears for thefirsttime in the Periplus Maris Erythraei ('Circum-
navigation of the Erythrean Sea'), a naval and commercial guide compiled by a
203
204 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

merchant from Egypt. The work dates from the end of thefirstcentury. Ptolemy, the
second-century geographer, also mentions the place.
The Periplus describes Adulis as 'a large village three days' journey from Koloè, a
town of the interior and the chief market for ivory. From this place to the city of the
people called the Axumites is another five days' journey. Here is brought all the
ivory from the land beyond the Nile, across the region called Cyenum- and thence to
Adulis.' So this village served as an outlet for A x u m , especially for ivory. T h e text
says that rhinoceros horn, tortoise-shell and obsidian were also sold there. These
things were a m o n g the exports from Adulis mentioned by Pliny before the Periplus;
the name of Adulis is thus referred to before that of A x u m . According to Pliny,
Adulis was in the land of the Troglodytes. Since thefirstcentury the R o m a n s and the
Greeks k n e w of the existence of the Axumite people and of their 'towns' in the
hinterland of Adulis.
Archaeology gives us little information about the material culture of the early
centuries of the period. A few inscriptions of the second and third centuries are
practically the only datable evidence. They offer the earliest forms of the Ethiopie
alphabet, the use of which has survived to the present day. Even so they are not the
oldest inscriptions found in the Axumite area: several others, of south Arabian type,
belong to the second half of the last millennium before the Christian era. The south
Arabian script was the model for the Ethiopie. T h e shape of the letters changed
considerably in the second century of the Christian era, moving away from the south
Arabian script.

Axumite sites
Adulis and A x u m which, according to the Periplus, were at the t w o ends of the route
used in antiquity, are the most important Axumite sites, and also the only ones where
the ancient name, attested in texts and inscriptions, has been preserved locally d o w n
to the present. Adulis is a deserted site, but the people of the nearby villages still call
the ruins Azuli. All, or nearly all, the other ancient sites have names which are
certainly not those of Axumite antiquity.

Axum
The city of A x u m enjoyed a great reputation in the third century of the Christian era,
according to a text of the period attributed to Mani, which describes the kingdom as
the 'third in the world'. A n d indeed in the town itself, great buildings and m u c h
other material evidence preserve the m e m o r y of a great historical epoch.
At the beginning of this century a German mission sketched and photographed all
the visible monuments. In the western part of the town they uncovered the ruins of
three architectural complexes which they rightly identified as the remains of the
palace. Subsequent work, in particular that of the Institute of Archaeology, has
brought new buildings to light and revealed a wealth of facts about the ancient royal
city.
O f the three edifices k n o w n to tradition.as Enda-Semon, Enda-Mikael and Taakha-
The civilization ofAxum from the first to the seventh century 2

M a r y a m , all that remained were the basements, but today they can only be seen in the
sketches and photographs of the German mission.
The ruins of another imposing building lie under the church of Maryam-Tsion, to
the east of which, below the level of the terrace, the remains of a basement varying in
width from 42 to 30 metres still survive.
T o the west of the town, from 1966 to 1968, the Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology
discovered and studied another architectural complex. These ruins, situated at
Dongour, to the north of the Gondar road, are those of a castle belonging to about
the seventh century. Four irregular groups of buildings, containing about forty rooms
in all, are so arranged as to form a square enclosure around the main part of the castle.
Three ovens of baked bricks have been uncovered in the western part of the site. In
one room in the outbuildings, to the south, a brick structure bearing traces of flames
seems to have been a heating device.
The Dongour site is the finest example of Axumite architecture that can be seen
today. It does not seem to have been a royal residence; it was more probably inhabited
by some leading citizen.
Another outstanding building, the remains of which are attributed by tradition to
Kaleb and his son Guebra-Masqal, once stood on a hill to the north-east of A x u m . A
pair of what might be called chapels were raised over crypts consisting of several
vaults built of and covered by stone slabs.
At Bazen, to the east of the town, some oven-type tombs are hollowed out of the
rocky hillside. S o m e have a shaft, and vaults on each side at the bottom. T h e same
sector contains a multiple tomb with a stairway of seventeen steps, also hollowed out
of the rock, and dominated by a stele which in ancient times did not stand alone, since
an English traveller at the beginning of the nineteenth century tells of having seen
fourteen fallen 'obelisks' here.
The ancient city covered the area between the giant stelae and the Dongour site,
and ruins lie everywhere under the surface. W h e n excavations can be undertaken in
the places traditionally called Addi-Kiltè and Tchaanadoug, they will bring to light a
vast stretch of A x u m ' s past.
Adulis
There are few remains on the surface of this site, which is not on the coast but about
four kilometres inland. A s far as can be judged from the evidence above ground, they
lie within a rectangle roughly 500 metres long and 400 wide. In 1868 a British
expeditionary force which landed near by dug up some remains of the buildings, but
of the work undertaken since little remains apart from the walls uncovered by
Paribeni's mission in 1906, and those found in 1961 to 1962 by the mission of the
Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology.
At the beginning of 1906, Sundstrom, a Swede, discovered a large edifice in the
northern sector, and shortly afterwards Paribeni uncovered t w o smaller ruins to the
east and the west. All these ruins consist of the tiered and stepped basements of
rectangular structures which are surrounded by outbuildings. Sundstrom called the
one he uncovered a 'palace'.
The basement revealed to the west of this complex by Paribeni displays the same
206 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

architectural features. It is about I8V2 metres long. The upper part was covered by a
pavement, and comprised the remains of the pillars of a nave. At the eastern end a
semicircular apse between t w o rooms was a sufficient indication that the ruins were
those of a basilica.
T o the east of Sundstrom's discovery, Paribeni found the basement of another
church. There were t w o striking features: a baptismal tank in the room south of the
apse and, in the centre of the building, the remains of eight pillars arranged
octagonally. A square plan and a rectangular plan are thus combined in the same
building.
O n the Erythrean plateau, 135 kilometres south of Asmara, near Sénafé, there is
one of the oldest archaeological sites in Ethiopia: its lowest levels belong to a
large building of the south Arabian period.
The Institute of Archaeology carried out systematic excavations of the Matara site
between 1959 and 1970. These digs have revealed four large villas, three Christian
churches, and an ordinary residential quarter consisting of some thirty houses. T h e
four villas are of the n o w familiar type, with a main dwelling constructed over a tiered
basement and surrounded by outhouses. A s elsewhere, masonry piers buried under
the rooms of the main building served as bases for the posts supporting the
vestibules.
The ordinary houses consist of t w o or three rooms; the walls are of an average
thickness of 70 centimetres. Remains of hearths, brick ovens and numerous recep-
tacles have made it possible to locate the living quarters. There is another type of
house intermediate in size between the villas and the ordinary dwellings.
T o the south and east of the town there are religious edifices which are outwardly
very m u c h like the other structures: they have a central building surrounded by
courtyards and outhouses; the method of construction was exactly the same.

Kohaito
O n this site, which lies north of Matara at a height of 2,600 metres, many ruins of
architectural interest can be seen. Ten or so mounds scattered over quite a large area
contain the remains of large buildings belonging to the end of the Axumite period
and, in all probability, fragments of still older structures. Several pillars are still
standing on the mounds. It is thought that most of them belonged to churches of
about same size as those at Matara. The walls on all the hillocks display the features of
Axumite masonry w o r k and are laid out on the same rectangular pattern as those
visible on other sites of the period. A s well as these ruined buildings, to the
north-north-east there was a d a m consisting of regular courses of perfectly fitted
blocks of stone. Its function was to impound the waters on the south-eastern side of a
natural basin commonly k n o w n as the Safra Basin.
T o the east there is a rock-hewn shaft tomb which comprises two rooms or
burial-vaults. A cross of the Axumite type cut into the rock adorns one of the sides of
the tomb.
In a ravine near the site the rock is painted and carved with figures representing
oxen, camels and other animals.
The ciutlizatwn ofAxum from the first to the seventh century 207

Towns and markets

The big settlements formed compact and crowded communities where dwellings
stood close together and clustered round large buildings designed for various pur-
poses. Excavations at A x u m , Adulis and Matara have shown that these places were
real urban centres. In the quarter of Matara inhabited by the c o m m o n people there is a
narrow winding alley between the houses. All this points to a comparatively large
population whose activities were not wholly confined to agriculture.
The presence of coins sheds light on the development of the economy. Further
evidence is afforded by the nature of the objects which have been unearthed:
glassware and Mediterranean amphoras. W o r k s of art (such as a bronze lamp and
various articles made of gold) suggests that luxury was not u n k n o w n .

Axumite architecture-general characteristics

The chief characteristics of Axumite architecture are the use of stone, a square or
rectangular layout, the regular alternation of projecting parts and recessed parts,
tiered basements with large buildings erected over them, and a type of masonry which
uses no other mortar but clay. In addition, there is the striking fact that these
distinctive features are reproduced practically everywhere. All the major edifices,
religious or otherwise, stand on the same type of tiered base and are reached by
monumental stairways, often comprising seven steps. They are all surrounded by
outbuildings from which they are separated by small courtyards.
It m a y be taken as certain that the castles and villas comprised at least one storey
above the ground floor, which, given its height, ought rather to be called the first
floor. Given the smallness of the rooms at this level, and the fact that they were
cluttered with pillars or posts, it is probable that the real living quarters were on the
floor above. It is an open question whether the big castles of A x u m had several upper
storeys.
The Axumites included timber a m o n g their building materials. T h e frames of
doors and windows were of w o o d and at certain points in the walls, especially at the
corners of rooms, joists were let into the masonry to strengthen it. T h e beams
supporting the floors of rooms in upper storeys, or the roofs, which were probably
flat, were of course wooden.
It was also the custom to make the basements of large buildings as solid as possible
by laying large blocks of h e w n stone at the corners or along the top in long rows.
M a n y of these blocks are to be seen in buildings of the late Axumite period, some of
them having been used before in a previous structure.

Monolithic monuments
The stelae of A x u m are of several types. They are scattered about afield,and there is
no doubt that in antiquity they marked the places of graves. S o m e are over 20 metres
high. This type of stele is found in various places, though they are most plentiful near
the group of giant stelae. There are seven stelae in this group. They are remarkable for
208 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

their decorative carvings. Only one is still standing. Five lie broken on the ground.
The seventh was taken to R o m e and in 1937 it was erected near the Caracalla
Theatre where it still stands.
The carvings imitate many-storeyed buildings. T h e tallest of the stelae, which was
about 33 metres high, depicts nine superimposed storeys on one of its sides: a lofty
dwelling, complete with door, windows, butt-ends of beams, is perfectly carved in
hard stone. T h e meaning of this imaginary architecture is entirely u n k n o w n . There
are practically no points of comparison between it and any other examples elsewhere.
O n e of these stelae has lances carved on the pediment. Another, which is not one of
those representing architecture, displays a sort of shield.
At Matara and Anza, on the eastern plateau, there are two round-topped stelae
about five metres high. They display two distinctive features: a crescent which is the
symbol of south Arabian religion and an inscription in Ge'ez. Such inscriptions have a
commemorative significance; this has been definitely established, at least at Matara.
Palaeographic factors indicate that they date from the third or the beginning of the
fourth century. T h e workmanship of these monoliths is the same as that of the
smooth stelae at A x u m .
Thrones loomed large in Axumite culture. They are mentioned in two inscriptions
of Ezana. In the sixth century, Cosmas noted the presence of a throne close to a stele
at Adulis. 'The throne has a square base. It is made of excellent white marble' and
'entirely . . . h e w n out of a single block of stone'. Both throne and stele were
'covered with Greek characters'. T h e inscription on the throne was composed by an
Axumite sovereign w h o ruled in about the third century. T h e significance of these
monuments is not clear. Are they thrones commemorating victories? Votive seats?
Symbols of regal power? They are as m u c h of an enigma as the great stelae.
The group near Maryam-Tsion is arranged so that all the thrones face east, in the
same direction as the carved sides of the stelae. If this arrangement is the original one,
it is possible that they were turned towards a temple which may have stood at that
time on the site of the present church, where there are many ruins.
The inscriptions themselves are cut into the hard stone, a kind of granite. O n e of
Ezana's texts, which is in three different scripts - Ethiopie, south Arabian and
Greek - is engraved on both sides of a stone over t w o metres high.
This fondness for large-scale monuments appears to have prevailed in the case of
statues too. At the beginning of the century a flat stone was discovered at A x u m
which displayed hollowed-out footprints 92 centimetres long. T h e stone had been
used as the plinth for a statue, probably of metal. Ezana's inscriptions say that he
erected statues in honour of the divinity. O n e such text reads: 'As a token of
gratitude to H i m w h o begot us, Ares the Unvanquished, w e have raised statues, one
of gold, another of silver and three of bronze, to His glory.' N o Axumite statue has
yet been recovered, but the archaeological investigations are far from complete. F e w
representations of animals have been discovered, either in stone or in metal. Cosmas
tells us that he saw 'four bronze statues' of unicorns (no doubt rhinoceroses) 'in the
royal palace'.
The civilization of Axum from the first to the seventh century 209

Pottery
Axumite sites yield large quantities of terracotta vessels, some broken and others
intact. Such pottery, mainly utilitarian, has been found in both red and black
terracotta, the former easily predominating. In m a n y of the pots, the outer surface is
finished in matt colour; some are coated with red slip. There is no evidence at all of
the use of the wheel.
The vessels vary in size, and are not always decorated. W h e n they are, the
decoration usually consists of geometric designs, either carved, painted, moulded or
stamped. T h e motifs are rarely taken from nature: just a few ears of corn, moulded
birds and snakes. The Christian cross appears over and over again on the rims, sides or
bottoms of vessels.
There is a difference between the pottery from the east of the plateau and that from
the west. In the A x u m area w e find a kind of vessel with linear incisions on its sides,
but this type is rare on the eastern plateau. There is a bowl from Matara, with a boss
and ribs under the rim, of which no counterpart has so far been discovered in the
A x u m area, but here, on the other hand, w e find a jar with a spout in the form of a
h u m a n head which has not yet been paralleled elsewhere.
The information yielded by current investigations enables us to classify groups of
pottery finds according to chronological series, but more excavation will have to be
done before w e have anything like accurate datings.
Imported pottery, mainly jars with handles and ribbed sides, is also found in the
Axumite layer of all the sites. These amphoras, of which there are a large number at
Adulis, are of Mediterranean origin. There is no trace of such amphoras in the
pre-Axumite levels. In the Axumite layer are also found m a n y fragments of glass
phials, bottles and cups, and blue-glaze vessels dating from the end of the Axumite
period and mostly imported from the Indian Ocean. There are also little cups which
look like terra sigillata, probably imported from Egypt.

A few special objects

Archaeological research has led to the discovery of various objects, such as seals
fashioned in stone or terracotta and engraved with geometric motifs or profiles of
animals; little tools made of various metals; terracotta dice; fragments of blades;
figurines of animals; female statuettes similar to the fertilityfiguresof prehistory; and
so on. O f special interest are a bronze lamp and a treasure hoard brought to light
during excavations at Matara.
The first consists of an oblong bowl resting on a stem made to resemble a
colonnade of stylized palm-trees. O n top of the bowl is a round boss decorated with a
pattern which represents a dog wearing a collar, in the act of catching an ibex. O n the
reverse of the bowl a bucrane is modelled in light relief. T h e lamp stands 41
centimetres high; the bowl is 31 centimetres long. T o judge by its symbolism -
which seems to be that of the ritual chase, especially in view of the presence of the
bucrane - the lamp probably came from south Arabia, where similar objects have
been discovered.
210 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
14.1 Neck of a bottle (Ethiopian
Institute of Archaeology)

14.2 Perfume pan, Alexandrian

style (Ethiopian Institute of
Archaeology)
The civilization of Axum from the first to the seventh century

The treasure was found in a bronze vessel 18 centimetres high. It consists of t w o

crosses, three chains, a brooch, 68 pendants, 64 necklace beads, 14 coins of R o m a n
emperors of the second and third centuries (mainly the Antonines), and t w o bracteates.
All the articles are of gold, and in a remarkably good state of preservation. Judging
from where they were found, they must have been gathered together in about the
seventh century.
Sometimes Axumite levels yield south Arabian inscriptions and fragments of
perfume-braziers from the fifth century before the Christian era. T h e stones are
usually broken and have been reused by Axumite builders. These levels also produce a
few articles imported from Egypt or Nubia, or, as at Haoulti, terracotta figurines
which, according to Henri de Contenson, the explorer of this site, 'seem related to
those met with in India in the Mathura and Gupta periods'. H e also points out, in this
connection, that 'thefirstt w o centuries of the Christian era were precisely the heyday
of the traders w h o established contacts between India and the Mediterranean via the
R e d Sea'.

Numismatics
Axumite coins are of special importance. It is through them alone that the names of
eighteen kings of A x u m are k n o w n .
Several thousand coins have been found. T h e ploughed fields around A x u m throw
up a good many, especially during the rainy season w h e n the water washes away the
soil. Most are of bronze, and they vary in size from 8 to 22 millimetres. T h e coins
carry various symbols. Those of the early kings (Endybis Ousanas I, Wazeba, Ezana)
bear the disc and crescent. All coins made after Ezana's conversion to Christianity
depict the cross, either in the middle of one side or a m o n g the letters of the legend
inscribed round the edge. In some cases the bust of the king is framed by t w o bent
ears of corn or one straight ear is represented in the centre, as on the coins of Aphilas
and Ezana. Perhaps the ears of corn were emblems of power to ensure the fertility of
the land.
The legends are written in Greek or Ethiopie, never in south Arabian. Greek
appears on the very earliest coins; Ethiopie begins only .with W a z e b a . T h e words of
the legend vary: ' B y the grace of G o d ' , 'Health and happiness to the people', 'Peace
to the people', ' H e will conquer through Christ'. A n d , of course, the name of the
king is shown, with the title 'King of the Axumites', or 'King of A x u m ' .

Script and language

The earliest alphabet used in Ethiopia, which dates back to the fifth century before the
Christian era, is of a south Arabian type. It transcribes a language that is akin to the
Semitic dialects of south Arabia.
The first examples of Ethiopie script, properly so called, date from the second
century of the Christian era. They are consonantal in form. T h e characters are still
reminiscent of their south Arabian origin, but they gradually evolve their o w n
distinctive shapes. T h e direction of the writing, which was initially variable, became
212 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

fixed, and it then ran from left to right. T h efirstinscriptions were engraved on tablets
of schist. They are not numerous and comprise a few words. T h e oldest was
discovered at Matara. A n inscription engraved on a metal object has been found
which dates from the third century. It mentions King Gadara and is thefirstEthiopie
inscription k n o w n to bear the name of A x u m . Other texts were engraved on stone.
The great inscriptions of King Ezana belong to the fourth century. It is with them
that syllabism first appears, soon becoming the rule in Ethiopie script. Vocalic signs
become integrated into the consonantal system, denoting the different tone qualities
of the spoken language.
This language, as revealed in the inscriptions, is k n o w n as Ge'ez. It is a m e m b e r of
the southern group of the Semitic family. It is the language of the Axumites. About
thefifthcentury the Bible was translated into Ge'ez.

The rise ofAxumite civilization

Five centuries before the Christian era a special form of civilization marked by south
Arabian influences was established on the northern Ethiopian plateau. It was essen-
tially an agrarian civilization, and it prospered during the fifth and fourth centuries
before the Christian era. In the course of the following centuries it declined, at least
judging by the present lack of archaeological documentation. But the culture did not
die out. S o m e of its characteristics were preserved in the Axumite civilization. It is
also noteworthy that, especially on the eastern plateau, most Axumite buildings
occupy the same sites as those of the pre-Axumite period. This betokens a kind of
continuity.
However, the archaeological finds dating from thefirstcenturies of the Christian
era reveal m a n y aspects that are n e w . Although the writing used in the inscriptions
was derived from a south Arabian script, a considerable change is n o w apparent.
Religion, too, has altered. The names of all the ancient gods have disappeared except
for that of 'Astar. They are replaced in the Ezana texts by the names of the triad
M a h r e m , Beher and Meder. A s regards architecture, while it continues to be
characterized by the use of stone and w o o d and by the tiered basement of its
buildings, it displays various n e w features. Pottery is very different in workmanship,
shape and decoration, and imported ceramics are also found, while glassware occurs
in all sites. T h e name of A x u m appears (for thefirsttime in the historical records of
this period), and it is probably significant that the site seems to have had no
appreciable past before thefirstcentury.

Economic factors
During the Axumite era, as in the preceding centuries, agriculture and animal
husbandry formed the basis of economic life. But in Axumite times these developed
along quite distinctive lines, no doubt because of two factors in particular.
A U ancient sources indicate that maritime trade increased in the R e d Sea in the
course of thefirstt w o centuries. This is attributed to the R o m a n expansion in this
area, which was facilitated by progress in navigation. W e k n o w that navigational
The civilization ofAxum from the first to the seventh century 21

methods improved at the beginning of thefirstcentury. The pilot Hippalus showed

h o w sailors could make use of the winds to the best advantage, and this undoubtedly
gave an impetus to sea traffic. Strabo records that 'every year, in the time of
Augustus, a hundred and twenty ships set out from M y o s H o r m o s ' .
Commercial connections multiplied. Ships brought cargoes and made it possible to
trade with India and the Mediterranean world. Adulis was the meeting-point for
maritime trade, as it was - and this is the second factor - for inland trade. In the
interior, a traffic w a s growing in a very valuable commodity - ivory. In fact, Pliny
and the author of the Periplus place it first on the list of the exports from Adulis.
A x u m was the great collecting-centre for ivory from various regions. It was an article
which was indispensable to the luxury-loving R o m a n s . In the age of the Ptolemies
the Ethiopian elephant was already highly prized. Armies used it as a sort of tank.
Later it was hunted for its tusks. Whenever the authors of antiquity talked of Adulis,
A x u m or Ethiopia (East Africa), they always gave prominence to elephants and their
ivory. They mentioned other goods - hippopotamus hides, rhinoceros horn, tortoise-
shell, gold, slaves, spices - but they took a special interest in elephants. In 1962, the
mission from the Ethiopian Institute of Archaeology found an elephant's tusk in the
Axumite ruins at Adulis, and, in 1967, they discovered pieces of a terracotta figurine
of an elephant in the walls of the castle at Dongour.

The African roots

The civilization of A x u m developed in the first centuries of the Christian era, but its
roots lie deep in prehistory. It was foreshadowed in the culture of the last five cen-
turies before the Christian era. Archaeology is attempting to define its characteristic
features, but only a few aspects of the subject have been investigated so far, and the
cataloguing of the data of antiquity is by no means complete. T h e main task ahead is
to determine what came from external influences and what was really indigenous: like
other civilizations, that of A x u m w a s the result of an evolutionary process aided by
geographic condition and historical circumstances. T h e indigenous contribution is
naturally of great importance, for there can be no doubt that Axumite civilization is,
above all, the product of a people whose ethnic identity is progressively emerging
from the study of its inscriptions, language and traditions. Archaeology is gradually
revealing the unique character of A x u m ' s material achievements. M u c h remains to be
done, and future research will concentrate o n interpreting the significance of the
evidence dug out of the soil. But already w e k n o w that the civilization of A x u m
owes its particular quality to its African roots.
 Axum:
political system, economics and culture,
first tofourth century

Historical sources of the second and third centuries record the rapid rise of a n e w
African power: A x u m . Claudius Ptolemy was thefirstto mention the Axumites as
one of the peoples of Ethiopia. This situation in north-east Africa resembles that
described in Aethiopica, the novel by Heliodoros, a Graeco-Phoenician author of the
third century, w h o describes the arrival of the Axumite ambassadors as friends and
allies of the Meroitic king. The Periplus Maris Erythraei, where one can find data on
different periods from before + 1 0 5 to the beginning of the third century of the
Christian era mentions the 'metropolis of the so-called Axumites' as a little-known
city and the kingdom of its ruler Zoscales as very young. Zoscales ruled all the R e d
Sea coast of Erythrea, but the hegemony in the Bëdja desert belonged to Meroe. T h e
balance between these two powers - the old metropolis of the Meroites and the
young metropolis of the Axumites - recalls the novel by Heliodoros. T h e earliest
sources to mention the Axumites' expansion to south Arabia are the Sabaean
inscriptions of the end of the second and the beginning of the third centuries which
report on the 'Abyssinians' or Axumites w h o waged war in Y e m e n and occupied
some of its territories. Between + 1 8 3 and + 2 1 3 the Axumite kings, Gadara and his
son, seem to have been the most powerful rulers in southern Arabia and the real
leaders of the anti-Sabaean coalition. At the end of the third and in the early years of
the fourth centuries, 'Azbah, an Axumite king, also waged war in South Arabia'.
Subsequently, the Himarites united the country but the Axumite kings claimed to
be their sovereign, as can be seen from their titles.
W a r s in southern Arabia were also reported in two Greek inscriptions by Axumite
kings whose names and dates of reign are u n k n o w n . T h e author of the longer
inscription conquered the coastal parts of Y e m e n 'till the land of the Sabaeans' and
vast territories in Africa 'from thefrontiersof Egypt' to the land of incense of Somali.
By about + 270 the fame of the new state had reached Persia. The 'Kephalaia' of the
prophet Mani ( + 216 to + 276) calls A x u m one of the four greatest empires of the world.
W h a t resources and organization did A x u m have to achieve such successes?

Occupations
For the most part the Axumites were engaged in agriculture and stock-breeding,
practically the same types of occupation as those of the present-day Tigre peasants. In
214
Axunt: political system, economics and culture 21

the foothills and on the plains, cisterns and dams were constructed as reservoirs for
rainwater and irrigation canals were dug. Inscriptions indicate that wheat and other
cereals were sown; viticulture also existed. Large herds of cattle, sheep and goats were
kept; other domestic animals were asses and mules. Like the Meroites, the Axumites
had learned to capture and domesticate elephants, but these were reserved for the use
of the royal court.
The crafts and trades of blacksmiths and other metal-workers, potters, builders,
stonemasons and carvers, a m o n g others, attained a very high level of skill and artistry.
The most important technical innovation was the use of iron tools. Another innova-
tion was the introduction of a cohesive cementing solution in building, which led to
the development of a form of stone and timber construction.

Political structure
A x u m may have been initially a principality which in the course of time became the
capital province of a feudal kingdom. History confronted its rulers with various tasks,
the most urgent of which was the establishment of their power over the segmentary
states of northern Ethiopia, and the assembling of these into one kingdom. It
sometimes happened that a n e w ruler, 'on. ascending the throne, was obliged to
inaugurate his reign with a countrywide campaign to enforce at least formal submis-
sion on the principalities.
The founding of a kingdom served as the basis on which to build an empire. From
the close of the second century up to the beginning of the fourth, A x u m took part in
the military and diplomatic struggle waged between the states of southern Arabia.
Following this, the Axumites subjugated the regions situated between the Tigre
plateau and the valley of the Nile.
The state was divided into A x u m proper and its vassal kingdoms, the rulers of
which were subjects of the A x u m king of kings, to w h o m they paid tribute. T h e
Greeks called the Axumite potentate the basileus (only Athanasius the Great and
Philostorgius termed him tyrant); the vassal kings were k n o w n as archontes, tyrants
and ethnarchs. Syrian writers, such as John of Ephesus, Simeon of Beth-Arsam and
the author of the Book of the Himyarites, accorded the title of king (mlk') to the
Axumite 'king of kings' and also to the kings of Himyar and 'Aiwa, w h o were his
subjects. But the Axumite term for all these was 'negus'. Mention is made of army
neguses (nägästa säräwit). Apart from leading armies in time of war, these neguses
assumed c o m m a n d of building operations. A m o n g the neguses, the inscriptions
name kings of four ethnic groups of Bega (Bêdja), each ruling over about 1,100
subjects, and the ruler of the Agabo principality whose subjects numbered scarcely
more than between 200 and 275 grown m e n , or a total of 1,000-1,500 persons. Vassal
kingdoms were situated on the Tigre plateau and in the region of Zula Bay (Agago,
Metin, A g a m e , etc.), beyond the Taqqaze river (Walka'it, Samên, A g a w ) , in the arid
regions around the Ethiopian uplands (Agwezat) and likewise in the Arabian
peninsula. After Ezana's victory, these kingdoms extended to Upper Nubia, between
the Fourth Cataract and Sennar. A power hierarchy was thus created, from the A x u m
king of kings d o w n to the chiefs of separate communities.
216 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

T w o methods of collecting tribute existed: either the vassal rulers (such as Abraha,
King of Himyar) sent a yearly tribute to A x u m , or the King of A x u m , accompanied
by a numerous retinue, travelled round his domains gathering tribute and victuals for
his attendants on the way. T h e vassal kings followed the same method. A compro-
mise between these two methods was achieved by the vassals delivering tribute at
appointed stages along the king's route.
The sources contain no information on the administrative system of A x u m . Near
relatives of the king assumed an important part in the direction of affairs. It is
understandable, therefore, that the R o m a n emperor Constantine II addressed his
letter not only to Ezana, but also to Se'azana, his brother. Military expeditions were
led as a rule by the king, his brother, or other kinsmen. Armies of less importance,
commanded by army kings, were made up of warriors from the communities or
ethnic groups.
The rulers of A x u m settled warlike groups along the borders of the state:
Abyssinians in southern Arabia, four ethnic groups of Bega in the Matlia region, or in
the Byrn land (which possibly lay in Begemdir).
Far too little is k n o w n about the history of this kingdom to enable us to trace the
development of its political system. It m a y be assumed, however, that, at the time
when the A x u m monarchy flourished, something like a centralizing process took
place in its structure.
The c o m m o n norms of law that prevailed in the kingdom may be studied in the
first juridical records of A x u m : in the four laws from the Safra.

Commerce and commercial policy

The position held by the A x u m kingdom in world commerce was that of a first-rate
trading power, as evidenced by the minting of its o w n gold, silver and copper
coinage. It was thefirststate in tropical Africa to introduce a coinage. The minting of
coin, especially gold, was not only an economic but also a political measure,
proclaiming to the whole world the independence and prosperity of the A x u m state.
The first Axumite king to put his o w n coinage into circulation was Endybis (in the
second half of the third century). T h e Axumite coins bore a basic resemblance to
Byzantine coins of the same period.
The wares enumerated in the Periplus, with the exception of gold and emeralds,
were only such as could be obtained by hunting, trapping and collecting. Agricultural
and dairy produce, and goods produced by craftsmen or tradesmen, are not mentioned.
If these were exported, it must have been in very limited quantities, and to places within
the bounds of the Roman-Byzantine empire. The famous Ethiopian wheat may possibly
have been exported to neighbouring countries, although the earliest, extremely vague,
information about this dates from the tenth century. O n the contrary, to judge from
the accounts in the Periplus, Adulis imported certain foodstuffs such as small quantities
of Laodicean (Syrian) and Italian wine and olive-oil; the ports of the Horn of Africa
received cereals, wine and the juice of the young Diospolis grape from Egypt, wheat,
rice, bosmor, sesame oil and sugar-cane from India. Apparently, some of these
products, such as sugar-cane, must have been shipped to Adulis as well.
Axum: political system, economics and culture 217

In general, archaeological data confirm and supplement the accounts left by the
Periplus. Excavations in strata dating from the period under review at A x u m , Adulis
and Matara, and the finds at Hawila-Asseraw and D e b r e - D â m o , yielded m a n y objects
of non-Ethiopian origin, some of which must have reached that country through
trade. Most of the foreign wares came from the Roman-Byzantine empire, especially
from Egypt; they included amphoras which evidently served as vessels for wine or oil;
fragments of glassware, gold ornaments and necklaces of R o m a n silver coins
(Matara), beautiful gem (Adulis), lamps of bronze and a bronze balance and weights
(Adulis and A x u m ) .
Objects of Indian origin have also been found: a seal in Adulis, terracotta figurines
in A x u m , 104 gold coins dating from the reigns of the Kushana kings before the
year + 200 in D e b r e - D ä m o . Pre-Islamic Arabia yielded silver and bronze coins found
accidentally in Erythrea and during excavations at A x u m and a lamp of bronze from
Matara. Examples of Meroe workmanship are numerous: fragments of ceramic vessels
have been found in m a n y places, statuette-amulets in faience of Hathor and Ptah in
A x u m and in cornelian of Horns in Matara, sculptured stelae showingfiguresof
Horus on crocodiles and bronze bowls found at Hawila-Asseraw. S o m e of these
objects may have reached Ethiopia from Sudan in the course of trade, but probably
most of them were spoils of war, or tribute.
The unification of a considerable part of north-east Africa by the Axumites soon
enriched their nobility. A m o n g these wealthy people, the R o m a n , Arabian and Indian
merchants found customers for their luxury goods, which were the most profitable of
all.
The profits accruing from the creation of the powerful A x u m kingdom enriched
not only the nobility but also the whole of the privileged ethno-social group of
Axumites w h o were the citizens of the capital community. M a n y of the goods
enumerated in the Periplus were imported for a wider stratum of the population.
Bracelets of imported brass worked by local smiths, spears of imported iron and other
metal articles in local use, as well as clothing made of foreign fabrics were transformed
into saleable wares for local markets, by this means becoming available to both the
urban and the rural populations. Finally, foreign merchants and other foreign groups
settled in Adulis, A x u m and different Ethiopian towns, and brought in quantities of
imported goods. It was a m o n g these groups that wine and olive-oil found a ready sale.
Excavated objects such as the balance and weights, the seal, R o m a n and Kushana
coins were obviously traces left by Roman-Byzantine and Indian merchants w h o had
lived in Adulis and A x u m . A m o n g those w h o traded with the A x u m kingdom, Arab
tradition recalls the Banü-Kuraysh from Mecca, Cosmas Indicopleustes speaks of
islanders from Socotra, and 'Pseudo-Calisthenes' mentions Indians. T h e relative
importance of overseas cities and countries for Ethiopian trade in the early sixth
century m a y be judged by the number of ships that entered the Ethiopian harbour of
Gabaza in the summer of +525. This list is to be found in the Martyrdom of Aretha,
and a detailed analysis of it has been made by N . V . Pigulevskaya.
In A x u m , as in other African kingdoms of antiquity, herds constituted wealth but
it was extremely difficult to transform them into saleable merchandise. The systematic
export of herds by sea was out of the question although the Axumites contrived to
218 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

send some animals singly, even some elephants belonging to the army of Abraha.
Cattle could, of course, be driven into the African interior for sale to the people
there - Cosmas Indicopleustes mentions that caravans of Axumites drove cattle into
Sasu - but a considerable proportion of these animals must inevitably have been
needed for victualling the caravan itself.
O n e kind of merchandise for which the demand never slackened throughout the
centuries was that of slaves. There are references in the Ezana inscriptions and sources
connected with Axumite-Himyarite wars to prisoners taken in warfare w h o were
regarded as desirable merchandise by foreign slave-traders. Gold and silver seized as
spoils of war, or as tribute sent from Nubia, from the Bêdja, A g a w , Himyar and
other countries were brought by caravans from Sasu and minted as coin which went
to pay for the foreign goods required by the king and his nobles.
Although industry in A x u m did not result in any important volume of saleable
commodities, the abundance of agricultural and animal products permitted the
Axumites to load trading vessels and caravans. Thus they provided their o w n food and
commodities for h o m e consumption and also for some trade with other countries.
Some idea of h o w they organized their commerce is given by Cosmas
Indicopleustes in his account of h o w Sasu supplied gold to A x u m from its many
goldfields. 'From year to year the Axumite king sends, through the archon of A g a w ,
people to bring back gold. M a n y travel with these people for the same purpose, so
that altogether there might be more than five hundred.' The gold conveyed from Sasu
was in nuggets the size of the wolf-beans k n o w n as tankaras. It seems that the nucleus
of a caravan consisted of the king's agents, accompanied by some other people, w h o
might be nobleman's agents and rich Axumites, but not foreigners.
The political hegemony of the Axumite kingdom on the world's trade-routes
proved no less profitable than direct participation in trade.
W h e n he had subjugated Upper Nubia, southern Arabia, the Lake Tana region,
and the peoples of the deserts surrounding Ethiopia, the King of A x u m controlled the
routes linking Egypt and Syria with the countries of the Indian Ocean, and also with
the interior of north-east Africa. The Straits of Bab-al-Mandeb, which, like the Straits
of Malacca and Gibraltar, constituted one of the three main sea highways of the
ancient world, also came under Axumite control. In antiquity, Bab-al-Mandeb was a
busy sea-route linking the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, India, Ceylon, the Straits of
Malacca, and the countries of south-east and eastern Asia. From the Gulf of Aden
another route branched out along the coast of Somalia to East Africa. This route was
explored and used by mariners from southern Arabia and in the earliest centuries of
the Christian era - by those of India and the R o m a n empire as well.
During the period under review the R e d Sea trade flourished, though stories of
piracy were current at about the same time. Peoples from the African and the Arabian
coasts of the southern R e d Sea and the Gulf of Aden engaged in piracy. R o m a n
authors characteristically attributed piratical attacks in this region to changes in the
political attitude of A x u m and other Red Sea states towards the R o m a n s .
R o m a n merchants had a vital interest in the establishment of security along the
trade-routes within the sphere of Axumite hegemony, and consequently in its
unifying policy. For this reason they supported the union of the Roman-Byzantine
Axum: political system, economics and culture 219

empire with the Axumite kingdom. It would not, however, be correct to represent
the A x u m kings simply as promoters of Roman-Byzantine policy, including its
religious and commercial aspects. They pursued an independent political course that
corresponded with Byzantine policy, particularly w h e n the predominantly economic
interests of the t w o powers coincided. A n instance of this m a y be drawn from the
sixth century w h e n , despite the frequent voyages of the Byzantines to India, they
considered that the Ethiopians had more stable trade relations with that country.
In the fourth century and the beginning of thefifth,the harbours of Adulis and the
Horn of Africa scarcely attracted the attention of R o m a n geographers. Between the
fifth and sixth centuries, however, Adulis became the leading port between Clysme
and the ports of India.
The fact that Adulis then reached a peak of prosperity which it never achieved
before or after was due, not to successful resisting of any type of competition, but
solely to the active patronage of the early feudal A x u m state. It was understandable,
then, that Adulis should be called 'the officially established market' in the Periplus.

Culture
The development of the early feudal empire was reflected in the ideology and culture
of A x u m over a period lasting from the second to the fourth century. T h e brief
inscriptions devoted to the gods underwent a gradual transformation into detailed
accounts of the victories w o n by the King of Kings. Particularly interesting in this
respect are the Ethiopian and Greek inscriptions of Ezana, w h o attained the peak of
epigraphic style in an inscription giving the fullest account of his Nubian campaign.
The inscription reveals genuine eloquence, religious feeling and a free use of complex
conceptions. King Ezana is represented as irreproachably fair-minded and m a g -
nanimous. This inscription m a y be justifiably termed a literary achievement. It has
points in c o m m o n with folk-poetry and Ethiopian literature of a later period.
A parallel evolution took place in the mottoes on Axumite coinage. Coins dating
from the third to the mid-fourth century bear the ethnic sobriquet peculiar to each
monarch, which consists of the word be'esi (man) and an ethronym relating to the
name of one of the Axumite 'armies'. It was in some way associated with the ethnic
and military structure of the A x u m state and possibly stemmed from the military
democracy of the Ethiopians of antiquity. Currency coined in the time of Ezana and
his successors bore a Greek motto signifying ' M a y the country be satisfied!' It is
evident that this demagogic device reflects an official doctrine, thefirsttraces of which
m a y be discovered in the inscriptions of Ezana. Clearly the king aimed at making
himself popular with the nation. Later on, this motto gave place to pious Christian
formulas.
In the recurrent change of mottoes on coins, and in the royal inscriptions of A x u m ,
two warring tendencies can be seen in the ideology of officialdom: the monarchical
idea bound up with Christian unity and the demagogic notion stemming from local
traditions.
W i t h the idea of empire came the development of the gigantesque in architecture
and the figurative, such as the colossal monolithic stelae, 33.5 metres in height,
220 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
15.1 Gold money from the reign
of King Endybis. (Source unknown)

15.2 Greek inscription from

Ezana (fourth century). (Source
unknown)
Axum: political system, economics and culture 221

erected on a platform 114 metres.in length; the monolithic basalt slab measuring 17.3
by 6.7 by 1.12 metres; the huge metal statues; the vast royal palaces of Axumite kings
Enda-Mikael and Enda-Simeon; and particularly the palatial set of buildings, Taaka-
M a r y a m , extending over an area of 120 metres by 80 metres - all these are
unparalleled in tropical Africa. W i t h the taste for the gigantesque, a tendency towards
the decorative became noticeably stronger in architecture. T h e combination of stone
and w o o d in building, with alternate stone blocks worked to a greater or lesser extent
at various points in the edifice, with wooden beams and rubble filling cemented with
a cohesive solution, greatly simplified the builders' task and made it possible to
achieve a highly decorative effect. During this period architecture and sculpture in
Ethiopia were of a striking originality which, however, did not exclude adaptation of
different cultural influences from the R o m a n empire, southern Arabia, India and
Meroe. Especially significant were the Syrian influences that stemmed from the spread
of Christianity.
The four-towered palace of the Axumite kings is mentioned by Cosmas
Indicopleustes. According to the reconstruction made by D r Krenker, it was a castle,
and the arrangement of. the adjacent buildings - palaces, temples and other
sanctuaries - made it the most inaccessible part of the city.
T h e pre-Christian religion of the Axumites closely resembled that of ancient
southern Arabia. It was a complex polytheism with the characteristics of agricultural
and stock-breeding cults. The deities worshipped were Astar, the embodiment of the
planet Venus, and the chthonic deities Behêr and Meder, both symbolizing earth.
Behër and Meder (as a single deity) followed Astar in inscriptions. A relic of this form
of worship was the Ethiopian Christian term Egzi'abher (God; or, literally, the god
Behêr, or god of earth.)
The moon-deity Hawbas had been worshipped in southern Arabia and in pre-
Axumite Ethiopia. Conti-Rossini produced evidence to show that the god Gad and
his cult, against which medieval saints struggled, was none other than the god of the
m o o n . Conti-Rossini connected this cult of the m o o n with the fact that the taurine
antelope was held sacred in modern Eritrea.
Symbols of the sun and m o o n are found on stelae from A x u m , Matara and Anza,
and on the coinage of the Axumite kings of pre-Christian times. They refer probably
to M a h r e m , the dynastic and ethnic deity of the Axumites. In the 'pagan' bilingua of
Ezana, the M a h r e m of the Ethiopian text is given the Greek name, Ares. All the
'pagan' Greek inscriptions of the Axumite kings, with the exception of the
Sembrythes' inscriptions in which the name of the god is absent, use the name Ares.
As is well k n o w n , the Athenian Ares was worshipped as the god of war. It follows,
then, that his double, M a h r e m , was also worshipped as the god of war. In the
Axumite inscriptions Ares-Mahrem, in his capacity of W a r - g o d , is termed 'invin-
cible', 'unconquerable by his enemies' and ensuring victory. In his capacity as the
ethnic progenitor, Ares is called the 'god of the Axumites' in the inscriptions from
Abba-Pantalewon. A s the dynastic deity, the kings called Mahrem-Ares their
'greatest god', ancestor of kings.
It is clear that M a h r e m , god of war and monarchy, reigned supreme over the astral
and chthonic deities in the same w a y that a consecrated monarch dominated a people;
222 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

at the same time, war, personified by M a h r e m , predominated over peaceful labour and
was looked upon as a more sacred task, more honourable than peasants' toil,
sanctified though this might be by the precepts of their forefathers. Plainly discernible
in the religion of A x u m are the characteristic features of early class ideology, that of a
feudal society in the process of formation.
The Axumites offered sacrifices to their gods. Domestic animals constituted the
bulk of these offerings. O n e of Ezana's inscriptions records that a dozen oxen were
offered up to M a h r e m at a single sacrifice. According to ancient Semitic custom, some
kinds of donation for sacrifice were brought in ritually immaculate clothing; for
others this was not obligatory. But already in the pre-Axumite period the living
sacrificial animal was supplanted by its consecrated image. Bronze and stone images of
sacrificial bulls, rams and other animals, m a n y bearing inscriptions, have been
preserved.
Ancestor-cult, especially of dead kings, occupied an important place in the religion
of the Axumites. It was customary to dedicate stelae to them: häwelt, a word
stemming from the root h-w-l, means 'to go round', or 'to worship', and is
comparable to the Islamic worship of the Ka'ba. Sacrifices were brought to the altars
and to the pedestals of stelae carved in the form of altars, and the blood of the
sacrifices flowed d o w n into hollows h e w n in the form of bowls. T h e graves of
Axumite kings were regarded as the city's holy places. Vessels and other objects found
in burial grounds indicate belief in a life beyond the grave. S o m e indirect references
suggest the existence of a cult of 'lords of the mountains' reminiscent of correspond-
ing cults in Arabia.
During the early Axumite period religious ideas from countries near and far
penetrated into Ethiopia. In the Monumentum Adulitanum mention is made of
Poseidon, a sea-god w h o was evidently worshipped by the inhabitants of Adulis and
along the southern part of the Red Sea coast. The holy places of Almaqah, 'national'
god of the Sabaeans, worshipped by King Gadara of A x u m , were situated at Melazo
and perhaps at Hawila-Asseraw. T h e recently discovered stele at A x u m , with the
Egyptian symbol of Ufe, the ankh, and objects pertaining to the cult of Hathor, Ptah
and Horus, as well as scarabs, suggests that adherents of the Egyptian-Meroe religion
were residing at some time in A x u m , Adulis and Matara. The small images of Buddha
found at A x u m were probably brought there by Buddhist merchants from India.
As a result of foreign cultural influences, the subculture of the Axumite monarchy
was not only national, but also international in character. Side by side with Ge'ez, the
Greek language was used as a state and international language. Apparently, kings like
Za-Hekale and Ezana k n e w Greek (the Periplus reports that 'King Zoscales' was
literate in Greek and Ezana's mentor was a Graeco-Phoenician, Frumentius, later the
first bishop of A x u m ) . T h e majority of Axumite kings of the third and fourth
centuries minted coins with Greek mottoes. W e k n o w of six royal Greek inscriptions
of A x u m .
W e have no reason to think that Sabaean was one of the official languages of the
early Axumite kingdom. O n e of the three texts of Ezana pseudo-trilingual (in fact,
Ge'ez-Greek bilingual) is written in later Himyaritic script and has some exaggerated
peculiarities of Sabaeo-Himyaritic orthography. The same script is used in three other
Axum: political system, economics and culture 223

royal inscriptions of A x u m by Ezana, Kaleb and W a ' a z a b . Thus together with an

inscription of Tsehuf-Emni (Eritrea) w e have five 'pseudo-Himyaritic' texts from
Ethiopia. Their language is Ge'ez with very few Sabaean words.
It is not clear w h y Axumite kings used the 'pseudo-Himyaritic' scripts side by
side with that of normal Ethiopie in their inscriptions of definitely official character.
But in all cases it is evidence of south Arabian influence.
Perhaps the use of the Himyaritic script, as well as that of vocalized Ethiopie, and
the introduced figures were innovations of Ezana's rule, and these innovations were
interrelated.
The hypothetical Greek influence on the creation of the Ethiopie alphabet has not
been proved, although the Greek origin of the system and the main signs of Ethiopie
figures, as theyfirstappeared in Ezana's inscriptions, is certain.
The vocalized Ethiopie alphabet so closely reproduces the phonematic system of
Ge'ez that it is inconceivable that any but an Ethiopian could have been its creator.
This alphabet, with the addition of some signs, has been in continuous use in Ethiopia
till this day and is generally regarded as the outstanding achievement of the Axumite
civilization.
Soon after its creation, the Ethiopie vocalized script began to influence the scripts
of Transcaucasia. D . A . Olderogge suggested that Mesrop Mashtotz used the
vocalized Ethiopie script w h e n he invented the Armenian alphabet. Not long before
this time (at the end of thefifthcentury) the Ethiopie script m a y have been introduced
into Armenia by the Syrian bishop Daniel.
It was through the mediation of north Syria that A x u m and Armenia had cultural
relations at this time. W e have some evidence about the Syrians in A x u m and about
Syrian influence on Axumite architecture, particularly in the grand monolithic stelae
in the form of multi-storey buildings. S o m e analogy with south Arabian and Indian
architecture of the time can also be seen. During the second and third centuries w e
m a y reasonably suggest that Meroitic influence predominated. All the articles of
Meroitic handicraft found in Ethiopia belong to this period. Elephants m a y have been
introduced into the Axumite royal ritual under the influence of India as well as that of
Meroe.
The Axumite kingdom was not only an important trading power on the routes
from the R o m a n world to India and from Arabia to north-east Africa, but also a great
centre of culture which seeped d o w n these routes. In their turn, m a n y of the ancient
civilized countries of north-east Africa and south Arabia determined m a n y features of
the Axumite culture under whose domination they lived.
 Christian Axum

Traditional pre-Christian cults in Axum

U p to the eighteenth century, religion, whatever its form, played a major part in
every human society. In general, polytheism preceded monotheism. Present-day
Christian centres were once cradles of traditional religion. N o nation has adopted
Christianity withoutfirstpassing through a period of traditional religion.
Ethiopia is no exception to that rule; it was not privileged to accept monotheism
directly, withoutfirstpractising the most diverse forms of worship. In a country like
Ethiopia, it was natural for several cults to exist and to be transmitted from father to
son.
A m o n g the inhabitants of ancient Ethiopia the Kushitic groups, unlike the ruling
classes, had escaped assimilation to Semitic culture, and worshipped different natural
objects such as giant trees, rivers, lakes, high mountains or animals. All these were
believed to shelter good or evil spirits, to w h o m various annual or seasonal offerings
and sacrifices had to be made.
The peoples of Semitic origin w h o had not' inherited the Kushitic cult, and the
Semitized Kushites, fairly advanced as compared with the previous groups, w o r -
shipped nature in its celestial and terrestrial forms (the sun, m o o n and stars, the land
and the earth) under the names of the triad M a h r e m , Behèr and Meder. These were in
rivalry with foreign or semi-national gods of south Arabia or Assyro-Babylonia such
as Almuqah, A w b a s , Astart, w h o in turn were assimilated to the Greek gods Zeus,
Ares and Poseidon.
This somewhat arbitrary assimilation was allowed by certain kings of A x u m whose
culture was Greek. But it did not shake the foundations of the divinity of M a h r e m ,
regarded as the national god. The M a h r e m of the Axumites could be called Zeus by a
Greek and A m o n by a Nubian of Egyptian culture, since every m a n spoke in his o w n
language. It will be remembered that w h e n Alexander the Great made his triumphal
entry into Egypt in - 332, he was received by the priests as the son of A m o n .
Old Ethiopian texts dating from the time of King A m d e Tsion ( +1313 to +1342)
report the existence of a cult of the serpent 'arwe', side by side with the practice of the
L a w of Moses. This serpent was sometimes considered as a dragon-god and some-
times as thefirstreigning king, Arwe-Negus, father of the Queen of Sheba. T h e
popular belief surely belongs to the legendary history of ancient Ethiopia, before the
224
Christian Axum 225

d a w n of its authentic history. All nations have some such legend preceding their
ancient and medieval histories.
The Semites w h o came from south Arabia and are the ancestors of the Tigre and
the Amara, living on the high plateau, were said to have brought with them several
south Arabian cults. The existence of these creeds, quoted confusedly by travellers, is
confirmed by epigraphic and numismatic documents.
The practice of pre-Christian cults at the court of A x u m before its conversion to
Christianity is attested by the temple of Yeha (which is still standing), scattered stelae,
castle sites and votive objects.
However, a point to be clarified is whether this comparatively developed religion
was a royal and aristocratic preserve or was practised also by the people at large. A s for
the existence of Judaism in Ethiopia, several factors testify to the presence of a group
which professed the Jewish religion; the history of the kings, Tanke Neguest,
mentions it briefly. This was a group which perhaps even ruled for a certain time.
Even if w e leave aside the fantastic story of Kbre Neguest (Glory of the Kings)
which the Ethiopian clerics consider as a basic work of history and literature and in
which all the kings of A x u m are wrongly said to be linked with Solomon and Moses,
certain traditions handed d o w n through the centuries refer to the presence of believers
in the Jewish faith.
But with the introduction of Christianity, which was either preceded or followed
by a transfer of power into the hands of other groups (Sabaeans, Habesan and others),
the Jews, as everywhere else, were victims of prejudice and violence and withdrew
into less accessible areas.

The coming of Christianity to Axum

The n e w religion founded in Palestine by Christ and spread by his militants
throughout all the empires of East and West arrived, in its turn, at the court of
A x u m , in the midst of a polytheistic cult followed by the Kushites and of a
sub-Arabic religion practised by the Semites and the Semitized Kushites.
O n the basis of the apocryphal texts of the Acts of the Apostles drawn up by a
certain Abdia, part of the population mistakenly believes that Saint Matthew was the
first to bring Christianity to Ethiopia. This view, however, is supported by no
document worthy of belief.
The history of the kings, Tarike Neguest, attributes to the famous Frumentius the
privilege of having introduced Christianity into the country. Frumentius is later called
the Enlightener (Kessate Brhan) or Abba Selama, which means, Father of Peace. T h e
arrival of Frumentius in Ethiopia, his departure for Alexandria and his return to
A x u m are described in detail by Eusebius and Rufinus.
According to Rufinus, a certain Meropius of Tyre wished to go to the Indies with
two young relatives, Frumentius and Aedesius. O n their return, his boat was attacked
by the population of a port. Meropius died and the t w o young brothers were taken to
the King of A x u m . T h e younger one, Aedesius, became a cup-bearer, whilst
Frumentius, owing to his Greek culture, became the king's counsellor and treasurer,
as well as tutor to the royal children. This king seems to have been Ella Amida, father
226 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

of King Ezana. After the death of Ella Amida, his wife became regent and asked the
two young m e n to remain with her to administer the country until her son was old
enough to reign.
So Frumentius brought up the young prince to love the new Christian religion. H e
then departed with his brother Aedesius. While Aedesius returned to Tyre to help his
aged parents, Frumentius went to Alexandria to visit the Patriarch Athanasius, and
told him of the favourable attitude of the royal family of A x u m towards Christianity,
urging Athanasius to send a bishop there. T h e patriarch, being unwilling to send a
bishop w h o knew neither the language nor the customs of the country, therefore
consecrated Frumentius himself as bishop of the church of A x u m and sent him back to
Ethiopia. Frumentius then baptized the king and all the royal family.
It is from this date, therefore, that Christianity spread in A x u m . The first Christian
king, educated and then baptized by Frumentius, appears to have been Ezana, the son
of Ella Amida. A n d there is every reason to believe that the example of the king and
the royal family was widely followed.
While recognizing the part played by Frumentius, w e suggest that the change of
religion should be attributed to another cause. Thanks to epigraphic and numismatic
documents, and to travellers' reports, w e k n o w that the court of A x u m was on
friendly terms with Constantinople. There were considerable commercial and cultural
exchanges between the two countries. Eusebius, in his Vita Constantini, mentions the
presence of Ethiopians in Constantinople durjng the reign of Constantine. The use of
the Greek script and the Greek language at the court of A x u m is also very significant.
King Zoskales in the first century of the Christian era spoke and wrote Greek, as did
Ezana himself. All this clearly indicates the preponderance of Greek culture in the
Axumite kingdom.
N o w the Emperor of Constantinople, Constantine the Great, was the contempo-
rary of King Ella Amida and of Ezana. T h e splendour of Constantine's court and his
leaning towards Christianity were doubtless recounted and enlarged upon by other
travellers, besides Frumentius, w h o are not mentioned in the annals. All this must
have made a deep impression on the court of A x u m and on Frumentius himself, w h o
finally found the king and his family ready to embrace the n e w Christianity which
was already widespread at the court of Constantinople.
The transfer from one religion to another is, of course, never easy, and it must have
been even less so for the kings, w h o loved their god as their o w n father. A king's
honour was always linked to his god. T h e interests of the court and of the religious
leaders were almost everywhere identified with one another. W h e n a king like Ezana
called his god 'unconquerable', he was in fact thinking only of himself. Through the
attribute he was seeking his o w n invincibility.
W e can therefore imagine the difficulties that Ezana had to face, as did his
contemporary, Constantine the Great. For indeed the Emperor of Constantinople,
although he presided over Christian councils and arbitrated in the religious disputes of
the patriarchs, was baptized only on his death-bed, since he feared betrayal by the
believers in the old cults of Zeus and Ares.
Similarly, as Guidi and Conti-Rossini have pointed out, King Ezana and his
family - through fear or pride - did not suddenly abandon their old god in favour of
Christian Axum 227

the Christian religion. The famous inscription registered by Deutsche A x u m expedi-

tion ( D A E ) in Volume II, which begins with the words 'with the help of the Lord of
Heaven and Earth' and which is considered by all Ethiopians as Ezana'sfirstindica-
tion of his Christianity, clearly shows his desire to assimilate the new religion to the
old belief in the gods Beher and Meder, by avoiding any mention of the name of
Christ, Christ's unity with G o d , and the Trinity which he forms with the Father and
the Holy Spirit. T h e expression 'Lord of Heaven and Earth' - Igzia Semay W e m ,
first pronounced in the fourth century by thefirstChristian king - has remained in
use d o w n to the present day.
Neither foreign works nor local accounts so far published give any specific date for
the introduction of Christianity to A x u m . T h e history of the kings, Tanke Neguest,
as well as the Guedel Tekle Haymanot, states that the brothers Frumentius and
Aedesius arrived in + 2 5 7 and that Frumentius returned to A x u m as bishop in + 3 1 5 .
Other sources of the same kind give the dates +333, +343, +350, and others. All
these dates seem to be arbitrary. Certain foreign works state that King Ella Amida,
father of Ezana, died about + 3 2 0 to +335. Taking fifteen years as the age of
majority, and allowing for the departure and return of Frumentius, the baptism of
King Ezana must therefore have occurred between +350 and +360.
A n inscription in Greek characters, discovered at Philae, mentions the visit in +360
of an Axumite viceroy, a Christian named Abratoeis, to the R o m a n emperor, w h o
received him with all the honours due to his rank. T h e emperor must have been
Constans II (+341 to +368), the son of Constantine the Great. Although a
Christian, he had adopted the doctrine of Arius, w h o denied the unity and the
consubstantiality of the three persons of the Holy Trinity and consequently the perfect
equality of Jesus Christ with the Father. T h e Council of Nicaea, held in +325 and
presided over by the father of Constantine II, had condemned the doctrine.
A n implacable enemy of Arius was precisely Athanasius, w h o had consecrated
Frumentius bishop of A x u m . This patriarch was himself later ousted on the orders of
the semi-apostate emperor, w h o nominated a certain George, very favourable to
Arianism, to replace him.
The news of the arrival in A x u m of Frumentius, a fervent supporter of the
Patriarch Athanasius, w h o had consecrated him, was not likely to please the Emperor
of Constantinople. H e immediately dispatched a letter to King Aizanz (Ezana) and to
his brother Saizana, generously calling them his 'greatly honoured brothers'. In a
friendly manner, he requested them to send back Frumentius to the n e w patriarch,
George, in Alexandria, so that his case could be examined by the latter and his
colleagues, w h o alone had the power to decide whether or not Frumentius was
worthy to head the bishopric of A x u m .
Unfortunately, w e do not possess the document that might have revealed the
reaction of the t w o brothers on receipt of this letter. Although the national interest
forced them to maintain friendly relations with the powerful Emperor of Con-
stantinople, it would seem that they did not comply with his request. All the local
sources affirm that Frumentius carried out his episcopal duties peacefully to the end of
his life.
228 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

The spread of Christianity

The introduction and spread of Christianity by Bishop Frumentius and the two
brother-kings (Abraha and Atsbaha) are widely recognized. All the local sources
confirm this. A curious fact is that, in the many texts dating from this period and
written before the end of the nineteenth century, there is no trace of the name Ezana,
which appears to be the king's 'pagan' name. N o r , to m y knowledge, does any
epigraphic or numismatic inscription mention the name Abraha, which is presumably
the king's baptismal name. So w e have different names for the same m a n w h o , by
good or bad fortune, was, like Constan tine the Great, a semi-'pagan' and a semi-
Christian during his reign.
The influence of the two brothers, and especially that of Abraha, was enormous in
the country. H e built the city of A x u m and itsfirstcathedral. Several churches and
convents claim to have been founded by him, though w e should not forget h o w much
help was given in his work by his brother Atsbaha and by Bishop Frumentius, as well
as by other religious leaders not mentioned in the sources.
Thefirstproselytism in favour of the n e w religion seems to have been well received
by a part of the population linked to the court by ethnic and cultural ties. These were
Sabaean, Habesan, Himyard of Semitic stock, ancestors of the Tigre and the Amhara,
w h o accepted their masters' religion without difficulty.
After the introduction of Christianity, and as those converted to the faith increased
in numbers, journeys to the holy places became frequent. In a letter sent from
Jerusalem in the year + 386, a certain Paola wrote to her friend Marcella w h o lived in
R o m e : ' W h a t should w e say of the Armenians . . . of the Indian and Ethiopian
people, w h o hasten to this place (Jerusalem); where they show exemplary virtue . . .?'
Saint Jerome, doctor of the Latin church, also mentions the continual arrival of
Ethiopians at the holy places.
The spread of Christianity in the Kingdom of A x u m during the fifth and sixth
centuries was the work of churchmen w h o m all the traditional texts describe as
Tsadkan (Just) or Tesseatou Kidoussan (Nine Saints). But their arrival in
the Kingdom of A x u m involved the latter in the theological quarrels current at the
time in the large cities of the Byzantine empire.
After the condemnation of Arius in +325, it was the turn of the Patriarch of
Constantinople, Nestorius, to arouse a great polemic by publicly professing the
humanity of Christ in opposition to the doctrine established at Nicaea on the divine
nature of Christ. According to Nestorius, the two natures of Christ (human and
divine) were quite distinct and separate. The Virgin Mary was the mother of Christ as
a m a n , not as G o d , and therefore should not be called Theotokos, or Mother of G o d ,
but merely Christotokos, Mother of Christ.
This proposition met with strong opposition from Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria,
and from Pope Celestine of R o m e . Nestorius was condemned in Ephesus ( +431) as a
heretic and thrown into prison.
His successor Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, put forward another idea on the
two natures of Christ (human and divine), without, however, denying that Christ
was true m a n and true G o d . In Flavian's view, each of Christ's two natures was
Christian Axutn 229

perfect and distinct, and united only in the person of Christ. Dioscoros, Patriarch of
Alexandria, at once opposed this viewpoint. Christ, he said, had but one nature,
which was at once human and divine. This was the Monophysitism whose chief
defender was the scholar Eutyches. Close argument degenerated into uproar dur-
ing the Council held at Ephesus in +442. Dioscoros and Eutyches emerged vic-
torious from this stormy debate; the loser, having been soundly flogged by his
opponents, died very soon afterwards and Dioscoros returned triumphant to
Alexandria.
A council composed of 636 prelates and doctors of the church was held in +451 in
Chalcedon, under the presidency of the Emperor Marcian. T h e discussion became so
confused that it was impossible to discern either victor or vanquished, and the
question had to be put before the Pope of R o m e , w h o was considered to be the
supreme head of all the churches. Pope Leo the Great declared in a letter that he was
in favour of the doctrine of the two separate natures of Christ. The Council therefore
condemned Dioscoros. His opponents, armed on the one hand by the opinion of the
supreme head of the universal church, and on the other by the support of the Emperor
Marcian, went so far as to manhandle' and beat Dioscoros in revenge for the
ill-treatment of the Patriarch Flavian. Dioscoros was then banished to an island in
Galatia.
N o w , ever since the time of Frumentius, the Kingdom of A x u m had, as w e k n o w ,
come under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Alexandria, whence it received its
bishop and canon law. T h e kings and bishops of A x u m were therefore naturally
upholders of the Monophysite cause, which was later, in Ethiopia, to take the name of
Tewahdo. T h e news of the ill-treatment inflicted on their patriarchfilledthem with
great hatred of the supporters of the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. For the
Monophysites life became unbearable throughout the whole Empire of C o n -
stantinople, since the conquerors of Chalcedon threatened and insulted them inces-
santly. T o escape from this intolerable existence the Monophysitesfledtowards Egypt
and Arabia. It was at this time that the famous Nine Saints arrived in the Kingdom of
A x u m , where they sought refuge with others w h o professed the same doctrine as
themselves.
They carried out their apostolate in various places. Abba Aregawi went up to
Debre-Dimo, where the cult of the Python appeared to have taken root among the
local population. Abba Guerima settled at Mettera (Madera) near Senafe, and Abba
Aftse at Yeha, where one can still see the ancient temple dedicated to the god
Almaqah (fifth century). Penteleon and Likanos remained in the city of A x u m , while
Alef and Tsihma went to Bhzan and to Tseden Tsedeniya; Ym'ata and Gouba settled
in the region of Guerealta.
In the places where they lived, convents and churches dedicated to them are still to
be seen today. Some are carved into giant rocks, and are accessible only by means of a
rope. In the convent of Abba Ym'ata, also built on a rock, at G o h (Guerealta), there
is a circular painting representing the Nine Saints.
Christianity, as introduced in the fourth century by Frumentius, was therefore
consolidated by these saints. They were, of course, helped by the successors of King
Ezana, such as Kaleb and Guebre Meskel, w h o were fervent Christians. In their
 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

16.1 Debre Damo (Tekle Tsadik Mekouria)

Christian Axum 231

teaching of the Gospel, the Nine Saints upheld the Monophysite doctrine for which so
many Christians had suffered ill-treatment and exile.
However, the spreading of Christianity was not due solely to these nine monks
w h o came from the Byzantine empire. Guided by bishops such as the famous Abba
Metta'e, hundreds of native and foreign monks certainly helped to propagate the
Christian faith, although they did not have the privilege, like the Nine Saints, of
being mentioned by name in the annals. Starting from the northern regions, Chris-
tianity was implanted in other provinces such as Begemdir, Godjam and Shoa, among
the Bëdja and the Amhara. The Christian religion benefited from the faithful support
of kings, queens, princes, governors and dignitaries of the church, w h o had many
convents and churches built in places where the traditional cults had flourished.
A n d n o w w e come to the question of the language in which these monks, w h o
came from all corners of the Byzantine empire, taught the Gospel. The people of the
upper classes close to the court were more or less polyglot and spoke Greek, Syriac or
Arabic; in their case there does not seem to have been any linguistic problem. But the
foreign monks were obliged to study the language of the country before they could
make themselves understood by the people in general. Possibly some of the pilgrims
w h o went to the holy places in Jerusalem, Constantinople and Alexandria spoke
Greek or Syriac and could act as interpreters, or could teach the people themselves
directly.

The Kingdom of Axum and south Arabia

It has long been k n o w n that groups of peoples of Semitic origin crossed the Red Sea
and settled in northern Ethiopia, probably seeking more fertile and richer lands than
their o w n desert country. The newcomers possessed a higher form of civilization than
that of indigenous peoples (most of w h o m were Bëdja, A g u e w , and so on, of
Kushitic origin) and ended by taking over the central power and founding the cities of
Yeha, Matara, A x u m and other places.
Other groups of the same origin (Sabaeans, Himyarites) remained in their native
land, while those w h o had crossed the Red Sea became more and more powerful, to
the point where the central government of A x u m seemed strong enough to some to
be considered the third world power. Royal castles, temples, circles and crescents,
symbolizing the gods Mahrem and Almaqah all confirm the identity of the two
peoples w h o lived on either side of the Red Sea.
Until the beginning of the fourth century the Semitic people on the opposite shores
of the R e d Sea practised the same traditional religion, that is, the worship of the
m o o n , with the crescent as its symbol, which is still honoured today by the Muslim
Arab states. Perhaps the Prophet M u h a m m a d did not require converts to abandon this
symbol, whereas the bishops of A x u m put pressure on the Christian kings to replace
it by the Christian symbol of the cross.
Struggle between Christians and Jews in south Arabia
Other groups of Hebraic religion had been living in this same region of south Arabia
for a long time, perhaps since the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in - 587
232 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

and its occupation by the Lagidae. But their numbers increased greatly after the third
destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in + 70, w h e n Jews persecuted by the
Romans received a welcome from their compatriots settled in south Arabia.
Furthermore, many Monophysites left the Byzantine empire and sought refuge in
Arabia after the Council of Nicaea and even more after that of Chalcedon, w h e n
Arians were condemned and persecuted. There, with the help of the kings and the
Christians of A x u m , they founded a powerful community. Under the rule of the
Emperor Justin I ( + 5 1 8 to +527), many Syrian Monophysites were expelled by
order of the emperor, and left for Hira (Nadjaf, n o w in Iraq) and from there reached
south Arabia and settled in Nadjrän. But the Christians, thanks to the unfailing help
of the Axumites, increased in number and developed and organized their community.
M a n y churches were built. Nadjrän and Zafar (Tafar), for instance, became great
Christian cultural centres and major trading posts.
The Jews, too, with the talent they show in all fields, had formed a community in
Saba and in Himyar and sought to control trade there. So a sharp rivalry developed
between Christians and Jews.
Massacre of the Christians of Nadjrän by the Jews
While the Emperor Justin I reigned in Byzantium (+518 to +527), Kaleb was
Emperor of A x u m . It was at this time that the Jews, with the help of the Himyarites,
massacred the Christians of Zafar and Nadjrln. This event is recorded mainly by the
religious authors of the period, Procopius and Sergius.
Sergius, w h o claims to have gathered his information from eye-witnesses, gives the
following version of the event which Conti-Rossini has translated into Italian in his
Storia di Ethiopia. D h û N u w â s or Nasruc, king of the Himyarites, persecuted the
Christians, with the support of the Jews and the 'pagans'. Bishop Thomas therefore
went to Abyssinia to seek aid, and found it. T h e Abyssinians, led by a certain
Haywana, crossed the R e d Sea and prepared to attack D h ü N u w â s . The latter, not
being able to withstand so strong a force, signed a peace treaty with the Abyssinian
leader Haywana w h o , after leaving part of his army behind him, returned home.
With the bulk of the troops gone, D h û N u w i s treacherously massacred the Chris-
tians of Zafar and burned all the churches, together with the 300 Christian soldiers left
as a garrison. But the worst massacre described by the authors of this period took
place in + 523 at Nadjrän, the most highly developed of the Christian centres.
King Kaleb's maritime expedition
After the massacre of +523, a nobleman named Umayyah managed to get back to
A x u m and told King Kaleb and the bishop what had happened to the Christians.
Other Christians escaped to Constantinople to inform the Emperor Justin. Through
the Patriarch Timothy of Alexandria, Justin sent a letter to Kaleb urging him to
avenge the bloodshed of Christians. So King Kaleb hastily assembled an army that
would guarantee victory. H e is said to have obtained 120,000 m e n and 60 warships
from the Emperor Justin. However, other authors state that he left with his o w n
ships which were anchored at Adulis, and that his army numbered no more than
30,000 soldiers.
Christian Axum 233
Towards the end of M a y +525, Kaleb embarked and set sail with all his ships for
south Arabia where the Himyarite king awaited them. In fact, when the king and his
army arrived they found the enemy port blocked by chains and guarded by soldiers
ready to defend themselves.
Without waiting for the end of the battle, King Kaleb looked for a more
propitious place to land his troops. B y chance, one of the family of D h ü N u w â s , w h o
had been captured in battle, told them of such a place and the king, accompanied by
some twenty boats, succeeded in disembarking. This enabled him to put the rest of
the King of Himyar's soldiers toflight.It was while the main part of the contingent
continued to fight that D h u N u w ä s fell into King Kaleb's hands, with seven of
his companions. Kaleb, wishing to avenge the shedding of Christian blood,
unhesitatingly killed him on the spot.
At Nadjrân, the king was present at a ceremony to commemorate the martyr-
d o m of the Christians w h o had lost their lives in the massacre, and before he returned
to A x u m he had a monument built in Marib in m e m o r y of his victory. Kaleb also
erected a monument in Marib, so that his name might be remembered by future
generations. Before his return to A x u m the king left a certain Summyapha A w s a at
Zafar, under the orders of Abreha, w h o was the best-known Christian general at the
court of A x u m , as also in south Arabia.
A contingent of 10,000 m e n was left as a garrison. After his successful campaign,
Kaleb received a triumphal welcome, as one can well imagine, on his return to A x u m .
Yet, instead of savouring the fruits of victory, this king, w h o was both religious and
warlike, retired to the convent of Abba Penteleon to lead a monastic life and swore
never to leave it. H e sent his crown to Jerusalem, begging Bishop Yohannes to hang
it before the door of the Holy Sepulchre in accordance with a v o w he had made before
the campaign.
The King's decision to abdicate after such a victory is admirable in itself, if the facts
reported in the traditional texts are accurate. But another text states that Kaleb
remained on his throne until + 542. It is quite possible, if his war against D h u N u w a s
took place in Arabia in +525, that he reigned for another seventeen years, unless there
is an error of dating, after his return to A x u m .

Literature
A x u m had several alphabets which were used by m e n of letters and by the court for its
administration. A m o n g the stelae of A x u m , some carry inscriptions only in Sabaean,
or in Ge'ez or sometimes in Greek, but seldom in all three languages together.
Sabaean was the alphabet of the Sabaean peoples, which are thought to be among the
ancestors of the Axumites, described in the traditional text as Neguede Yoktan
(kabila of Yoktan) and from w h o m the present-day Amhara, Tigre, Gouraghe,
Argoba and Harrari (Aderes) are descended.
Greek, like English today, was the vehicular language of that period, a foreign
tongue introduced into A x u m because of the kingdom's cultural, economic and
political relations with the Byzantine empire. In the end, it was Ge'ez, at first
without vowel signs and later vocalized, that became from the sixth and seventh
234 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

centuries onwards the official national language of the Axumites, the language of the
Aga'izyan - another name given by the natives, which means liberators.
In general, the language provides research workers with useful pointers, but does
not in itself enable the ethnic group to be identified. For a native might be of Semitic
origin, of Axumite nationality and Greek culture and another might be of Bêdja or
Blemmye stock, a Nubian by birth or nationality, and of Egyptian culture. Therefore
a person w h o spoke or wrote Ge'ez was not necessarily an Axumite.
After the Arab conquest in the Middle East and North Africa during the seventh
century, Greek and Sabaean gave way to Ge'ez, which began to be used in all circles -
civil, military and religious. Greek maintained its influence only throught the transla-
tion of the Bible from Greek into Ge'ez, and through certain works of the fathers of
the church such as Cyril of Alexandria or St John Chrysostom.
The first inscription which marks the beginning of Christian Axumite literature is
the one which the D A E registered under N o . II, in which King Ezana, newly
converted, described his victory over the people of Noba (the Nubians), w h o had
dared to dispute his power beyond the River Takazi and had put his emissaries to
death. O n e can believe in the moral sense of this conquering emperor w h e n he accuses
'the Noba of ill-treating and oppressing the people of Mengourto, Hasa and Baria, the
people of black and red colour (Seb'a tselime, seh'a que'yh), of having twice broken the
oath they had taken.' W a s this the result of his new religion?
The influence of Christianity appears also on the numerous coins of the kings of
A x u m , where the Christian symbol of the cross replaced the crescent, symbol of the
ancient religion. Certain Axumite kings, wishing for publicity or to gain the
sympathy of their people, had unusual legends inscribed on their coins. The coinage of
King W a z e d or Wazeba (son of King Kaleb - sixth century) had his effigy on one
side and on the other the inscription: 'Let the people be joyful.' Most significant are
the coins of King Lyouel, which bear his crowned head on one side (to the right of
the crown there is a small cross) and a cross on the other, which would seem to
indicate that he was a fervent Christian. O n another coin of the same king the
inscription 'Christ is with us' figures in Ge'ez, without a vowel sign. This is the first
time the name of Christ is mentioned.
The Old Testament was gradually translated from Greek into Ge'ez during the
fifth and sixth centuries. T h e Bible came into use in Ethiopia, and its teaching
assumed vital importance in the court and in ecclesiastical circles, until it eventually
became the sole basis of science and philosophy without, however, overshadowing
certain works of the fathers of the church.
After the Council of Chalcedon in +451, the Nine Saints and their disciples arrived
in Ethiopia and strengthened the influence of Monophysitism among the Ethiopian
clergy. That is w h y the Ethiopian church systematically avoided all other works, of
whatever value, that came from the West. O n e remembers the agreement between
'Amr ibn Alas, the companion of the Prophet M u h a m m a d , on one hand, and, on the
other, the Patriarchs Benjamin and Chenouda, at the siege of Heliopolis in +640
during the conquest of Egypt. Their hatred of the Patriarch Mukaukis and of all those
w h o professed the doctrine of the t w o natures of Christ led the Egyptian
Monophysites to rally to the side of the Muslims.
Christian Axum 235
For the Amhara dynasty, w h o were said to have descended from Solomon and were
the legitimate heirs of the kings of A x u m , the most revered kings were David and his
son Solomon. Then followed Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great and
Theodosius II, the t w o latter because of the help they had given to Christianity. T h e
biblical persons of most renown for the monks were Joshua, Samson and Gideon. The
Song of Songs, the Proverbs, the Book of the W i s d o m of Solomon, the W i s d o m of
the Son of Sirach, etc., were considered works of true philosophy, more than the
writings of Plato or Aristotle. Virgil, Seneca and Cicero and the medieval scholars of
the West were totally u n k n o w n .
The Christian society of Ethiopia loves and admires David more than anyone else,
considering him to be the ancestor of Mary and of the so-called Solomonian dynasty.
The Ethiopian religious adore the Book of Psalms and believe that by reading the
psalm for the day each morning they will be protected from all evil. Like David, they
believe that Almighty G o d is their exclusive ally.
Whilst some religious use the psalms as prayers, others employ them for magico-
religious purposes. T h e scholar knows by heart the appropriate psalm for each
circumstance, to gain happiness or to avoid misfortune, to ward off a threatening
plague or to be protected from gunfire. Generally they quote Psalms 6, 7, 10, 57 and
others.
Part of the heritage that Ethiopia received from Christian A x u m is the liturgical
chants assembled in a work k n o w n as the Degoua. According to fourteenth-century
local sources, the author was a native of A x u m called Yared, a contemporary of King
Guebre Meskel and of Abba Aregawi, one of the Nine Saints.
In reading this book of religious chants in detail, one sees that the texts are drawn
from the Bible, from the works of the early patriarchs, from the famous theologians
of the third to the eighth centuries, and from the apocryphal books. They are
arranged poetically and concisely and form a great collection divided into several
books, chapters and verses. Then all the verses are separated (thefirstline is usually
written in red) and there is a verse for each annual and monthly feast. They are all
written in praise of angels, saints, martyrs, the Virgin Mary and God, and are used for
the morning and evening services.
Biblical literature and liturgical chants have a long traditional history, part authen-
tic and part legend. They form part of the inheritance that Christian A x u m has
generously bequeathed to the Ethiopians over the centuries.
 The proto-Berbers

T h e ethnic components of the Libyan population were more or less settled before the
arrival of the Phoenicians on the African coasts at the beginning of the first
millennium before the Christian era; they were not to alter at any time during the
whole of antiquity, for it would not seem that the Phoenician and R o m a n demo-
graphic accretions were of any consequence. In fact the demographic contribution of
the Phoenicians to Africa Minor cannot be assessed precisely. It is unlikely, however,
that the Carthaginians would have had such constant recourse to mercenaries on the
battlefield if those of Phoenician origin had been more numerous. T h e demographic
contribution of the R o m a n s is also difficult to evaluate.
At least thirteen millennia before the Christian era there existed a culture very
improperly k n o w n as Ibero-Maurusian. Its bearers, the race of Mechta el-Arbi, were
tall (1.72 metres on average) and dolichocephalic. They had low foreheads and long
limbs and were addicted to the removal of the incisors. A trend towards
mesobrachycephalism and signs of slenderness have been detected on certain sites,
notably at Columnata in western Algeria towards - 6000.
T h e Ibero-Maurusian culture, properly so called, disappeared at the end of the
ninth millennium. This did not happen suddenly everywhere, however. It was
supplanted by the Capsian culture in Cyrenaica, but yielded more indecisively to local
cultures in western Algeria and Morocco. N o evidence of its existence is to be found
on the north-eastern coasts of Tunisia, and it left few traces in the Tangiers area. This
culture could not have come from Europe, since it arose before the beginnings of
navigation across the Straits and from and to Sicily. It is tempting to think that its
origins were eastern, but it m a y have come rather from the north of the Nilotic
Sudan, as J. Tixier claims. Subsequently, as they came under pressure from migrating
peoples, the Ibero-Maurusians doubtless took refuge in the hills and m a y be regarded
as constituting one of the anthropological components of the population of the
djebels.
In about - 7000 there appeared m e n of fairly tall stature, of Mediterranean race, but
not devoid of negroid characteristics. They are k n o w n as Capstans, after the site of
Capsa (now Cafsa). They flourished in an area which has not been exactly defined,
but which certainly lay inland without, apparently, extending to the westernmost
borders of North Africa or to the southern Sahara. They settled usually on a hillock or
a slope near a source of water, but sometimes on plains featuring lakes or marshes, and
236
The proto-Berbers 237

their diet included snails. This culture also came from the east and it could not have
spread by sea. It must be reckoned to have come to an end by about the year - 4500.
Although the Capsian crania are identical with m a n y contemporary types, it is
thought that true proto-Berbers were not in evidence until the Neolithic Age, since
Capsian funeral rites do not appear to have survived in the Libyco-Berber world. It
will be noted, however, that the custom of using and decorating ostrich eggs which
characterized the Capsian way of life persisted throughout the Neolithic era up to the
time of the Libyan peoples mentioned in historical records, such as the Garamantes.
The latter, according to Lucían, used the eggs for countless purposes and this is
confirmed by excavations at A b u Ndjem (inland Tripolitania). Nevertheless,
Neolithic m a n in Africa Minor can doubtless be regarded as a cousin of the
Capsian. At all events, the historical peopling of the Maghrib is certainly the result of
a merger, in proportions not yet determined, of three elements: Ibero-Maurusian,
Capsian and Neolithic.
It is generally agreed that the Neolithic A g e began with the appearance of ceramics.
Recent carbon-14 measurements indicate that the use of ceramics spread outwards
from the central and eastern Sahara, within that area stretching from the Ennedi to
the Hoggar. The ox had undoubtedly become domesticated by - 4 0 0 0 at the latest. It
is not impossible that cattle were domesticated earlier in the Acacus. Evidence of a
Neolithic culture in the Capsian tradition dates from a somewhat later period - in
about - 5350 at Fort Flatters, even a little earlier in the valley of the Sawura - and does
not become established in the northern part of the Capsian area before - 4500. In the
region lying between these t w o currents which affect 'the Maghrib of the high lands
and the Northern Sahara', Neolithic characteristics do not emerge until m u c h later.
The humid period of the Neolithic A g e came to an end towards the middle of the
third millennium, as is attested by the dating of guano from the Taessa (Atakor in the
Hoggar). Arkell's w o r k on the fossil fauna and flora on Mesolithic and Neolithic sites
in the Khartoum region gives some support to this finding as regards the valley of the
upper Nile. From this time on North Africa, almost totally cut off from the whole
continent by desert, found itself virtually an island, only able to communicate easily
with the rest of Africa through the narrow corridor of Tripolitania.
As early as the close of the third millennium before the Christian era the painted
potsherds of Gar Cahal, in the Ceuta area, bear a resemblance to the Chalcolithic
ceramics of Los Millares. W e must therefore assume sea-route contacts which may
perhaps take us back to the fourth millennium.
From - 2000, ivory and ostrich eggs were imported into Spain, while bell-shaped
vessels of Iberian origin make their appearance in the Ceuta and Tetuan areas.
Towards - 1 5 0 0 , copper and bronze arrow-heads are to be found in the west of Africa
Minor, no doubtfirstimported by Iberian hunters; but they do not appear to have
spread westward beyond the region of Algiers. Because of the lack of tin, the use of
bronze is hardly noticeable in North Africa. At the other end of Africa Minor, from
Korba to Bizerta, the presence offlakesof obsidian originating from the Lipari Islands
and worked in Sicily and Pantellaria provides evidence of the beginnings of navigation
in the Messina Straits. G . C a m p s has drawn attention to the numerous borrow-
ings made from then onwards by eastern Africa Minor from European neighbours:
238 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

rectangular tombs with short access passages and right-angled bays, cut into the cliffs
and k n o w n as 'haounet', existed in Sicily as early as - 1 3 0 0 ; the Algerian and Tunisian
dolmens are of a type similar to those widely found in Sardinia and Italy; the
Castellucio ceramics which were c o m m o n throughout Sicily towards - 1 5 0 0 , with
geometrical designs painted in brown or black on a paler background, are the
forerunners of Kabyle pottery; and so forth. M o r e distant influences from Cyprus or
Asia Minor came through Malta, Pantellaria and Sicily as soon as Aegean, and then
Phoenician, sailors began to reach those islands.
The separateness of Africa Minor, lying on the borders of the continent, the result
both of the drying-up of the Sahara and of the appearance of navigation, needs to be
stressed. However, not all links with Africa south of the Sahara were broken. While
the climate of North Africa in ancient times was very m u c h the same as it is today, the
marginal belt of the Sahara continued for a long time to be better watered and more
wooded in its hilly expanses with aquifers lying m u c h closer to the surface so that
water was more accessible; the horse could therefore be used for Saharan travel. In the
Fezzin in particular, surface overspills from aquifers persisted for a long time. W e can
regard as evidence of the original African unity the fact that, in ancient times,
dark-skinned m e n w h o m the Greeks were later to call Ethiopians, that is, 'burnt
faces', were in contact with the Libyco-Berber world, in most of the oases of the
Sahara, in the Fezzän and on all the Saharan slopes of the Atlas range. They led a
peaceful existence and engaged not only in food-gathering and hunting, but also in
agriculture based on extremely ancient methods or irrigation.
It would certainly be a mistake to imagine a wholly Ethiopian Sahara in the
Neolithic and proto-historical ages, even if w e are careful to give the term 'Ethiopian'
its broadest sense of ' m a n of colour' and refrain from interpreting it as 'Negro'.
M . C . Chamla has recently thought it possible to establish that only one-quarter of
the skeletons of this period could be identified with black m e n , while over 40 per cent
show no negroid characteristics. O n the other hand, the remains of a child discovered
in a rock-sheltered deposit in the Acacus and dated approximately between - 3446 and
- 1 8 0 , are negroid. In the Punic burial grounds, negroid remains were not rare and
there were black auxiliaries in the Carthaginian army w h o were certainly not Nilotics.
Libyco-Berbers (Maurii and Numidians on the coast, Getules on the plateaux),
white or half-breed Saharans on the borders of the desert - such as Pharusians,
Nigrites or Gar amant es, 'Ethiopians' scattered from the Sus to the Djarid - these
were the peoples of Africa Minor at the time of thefirstPhoenician sea voyages, and
such they remained throughout antiquity.

The proto-Berhers in their relations with the Egyptians and the Peoples
of the Sea
Libya's historical sources in the second millennium before the Christian era whether
inscriptions or figured objects, are essentially Egyptian in character and concern
Libyan populations in contact with Egypt w h o were able to settle in the north-west
of the Delta before the unification of the Nile Valley.
The proto-Berbers 239

As early as the pre-dynastic era, towards the middle of the fourth millennium,
the ivory handle of the Djabal al-Arak knife m a y perhaps have portrayed long-haired
Libyans, naked except fo7 a belt holding up the phallic covering. This interpretation
has, however, been contested and w e cannot be certain of the Libyan identity in an
iconography before the emergence of the first name given to the Libyans by the
Egyptians, that of Tehenou. According to W . Holscher, this name appears on a
fragment of a schist palette belonging to King Scorpio, and next on an ivory cylinder
from Hierakopolis dating from the reign of Narmer (third millennium). This second
object pictures the Pharaoh's booty and prisoners. But it is a bas-relief of the funeral
temple of Sahure (First Dynasty, c. - 2500) that enlightens us about the physical aspect
and clothing of the Tehenou.
These m e n were tall, with sharp profiles, thick lips, full beards and a characteristic
hair-style, with a heavy growth on the back of the neck, locks reaching to the
shoulders and a small quiff upright above the forehead. They wore distinctive broad
ribbons around their shoulders, crossing on the breast, and necklaces hung with
pendants. They inhabited the Libyan desert and its oases during the third millennium.
Under the Sixth Dynasty, towards - 2 3 0 0 , reference was made to the Temehou.
These were not a branch of the Tehenou, as O . Bates surmised, but a n e w ethnic
group with paler skins and blue eyes, including a considerable proportion of fair-
haired individuals. It has been suggested that they are identical with the Group C
people w h o settled in Nubia during the Middle Empire and the beginnings of the
N e w Empire, and this hypothesis is strengthened by a resemblance between the
pottery of that group and the pottery found in W â d ï H o w a r , 400 kilometres
south-west of the Third Cataract.
They often wore feathers in their hair and were sometimes tattooed. Their weapon
is the b o w , or sometimes a sword or boomerang. These features are also noted by
Herodotus among the Syrtes Libyans of thefifthcentury.
The forays of the T e m e h o u became more menacing during the Nineteenth
Dynasty. After Seti I had driven them back c. - 1 3 1 7 , Ramses II incorporated Libyan
contingents into the Egyptian army and organized a defence line along the Mediterra-
nean shore as far as el-Alamein. The stele at the latter spot confirms the occupation of
the region by Ramses II and is thefirstobject referring to the Libou. From the name
of these people the Greeks derived the geographical term Libya, which then applied to
their area of movement, and then, step by step, to the whole of Africa. Under
Merneptah, in - 1227, mention is made of the Meshwesh as western neighbours of the
Libou. Both the Libou and the Meshwesh appear to have formed part of the broader
group of the T e m e h o u . Having occupied the oases of Bahriyya and Farâfra, the
combined ethnic groups were defeated north-west of Memphis by the Egyptians.
The two best-known Egypto-Libyan wars, however, are dated - 1 1 9 4 to - 1 1 8 8 , in
the reign of Ramses III. They are recorded in the Harris Grand Papyrus and in
inscriptions and reliefs of the Pharaoh's funeral temple at Medinat-Habou. First the
Libou, then the Meshwesh, tried in vain to overcome Egyptian resistance on the Nile,
and were defeated one after the other.
T h e victories of Ramses III had one particularly important consequence: they
enabled him to control the western oases through which the cult of the Theban
240 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
A m o n was spreading, particularly the oasis of Siwa, gradually reaching Tripolitania
along the 'thirst tracts' and, in the Punic period, exerting an undoubted influence on
the cult of the god Ba'al A m m o n , a near h o m o n y m .
Such are the first pieces of evidence which tell us something about the Libyans in
the most easterly part of their wide area of settlement. It should be noted that the
Peoples of the Sea are only mentioned once in an inscription at Karnak, as being in
constant contact with the Libyans during the reign of Merneptah in - 1 2 2 7 , and that
this inscription itself m a y be the result of an amalgam of several campaigns. But, even
if w e grant that there were detachments of Peoples of the Sea a m o n g the Libyans, can
w e go on to assert that these were the peoples w h o taught the Libyans the use of
chariots,firstin the confines of Egypt and then throughout the Sahara?
This proposition has the support of somefirst-rateSahara specialists, although there
are few similarities between the Aegean and the Saharan portrayals of chariots, as is
well demonstrated by an archaeologist of classical antiquity such as G . Charles-Picard
and a specialist on the horse such as J. Spruytte. T h e Saharan chariots are seen in a
horseman's perspective and not in profile; the platform is not raised and rests on the
centre of the axle, well away from the wheels, thus limiting the passenger load in
practice to one driver, whose hands hold a kind of short whip and not a weapon. T h e
horses, mostly Barbaries, are harnessed by means of a collar-yoke, not a yoke resting
on the withers. Although they are indeed shown in an extended position ('flying
gallop'), neither their hocks nor their knees appear. In the Aegean documents,
moreover, the 'flying gallop' is not the stance of harnessed horses. Thus the Saharan
chariots would seem to be strongly characterized as somewhat fragile 'sporting'
vehicles.
Therefore, w e should probably distinguish the Saharan chariots from the war
chariots of antiquity identified a m o n g the foes of Ramses III and later among the
Garamantes (four-horse chariots), the Arbytes, the Zoeces, the Libyans in the service
of Agathocles in the neighbourhood of Carthage, the Pharusians and the Nigretes.
Rather than assume a borrowing from the Peoples of the Sea, w e will be closer to the
truth in allowing, with W . Holscher, that the Libyans borrowed the chariot from the
Egyptians w h o had used it ever since the Hyksos invasion four orfivecenturies earlier.
The origins of the Saharan chariots remain a mystery. They were made entirely of
w o o d , the design was very simple, and they m a y have been constructed according to
an original technique. Moreover, the Barbary (or Mongol) horse, of small size, having
a convex face and forehead line, a prominent and hollow backbone with five lumbar
vertebrae, and sloping hindquarters, cannot be derived from the Arab-Oriental breed
with its square-cut profile, as ridden by both the Hyksos and the Aegeans. It m a y
perhaps have spread from East Africa and the Sudan, but this is only a hypothesis. W e
m a y note that both in the Saharan rock carvings and in carvings of the R o m a n era
within the Limes, portrayals of the Arab-Asiatic horse are exceedingly scarce,
although they exist. However, even supposing that these cases do not confront us
with a stylized image foreign to African realities, it remains true that until the arrival
of the Arabs the Barbary horse was the dominant species in Africa Minor.
The proto-Berbers 241

Life of the Berbers before the foundation of Carthage

As H . Basset and G . C a m p s have rightly underlined, agriculture was not introduced
to the Libyco-Berbers by the Phoenicians, but had been practised by them since the
close of Neolithic times. Engravings and paintings of the Metal A g e represent a
swing-plough in a more or less diagrammatic form at La Cheffia (eastern Constantine
region), and in the High Atlas, west of Tebessa, in the region of the Douar Tazbent,
a pattern of squares is what remains today of primitive hydraulic installations dating
from m u c h earlier than the epoch of native kingdoms. Users of these installations had
equipment still partly made of stone.
They had already been familiar for a very long time with the harnessing of oxen,
which is depicted both in Egyptian frescoes and in High Atlas engravings. O n the
other hand they do not appear to have k n o w n any mechanical method of threshing
their crops before Punic times and were content to let the grain be trodden out by
heavy cattle.
Botanists have shown that hard wheat (perhaps brought from Abyssinia) and barley
were grown in North Africa long before the arrival of the Phoenicians, together with
beans and chick-peas, although the latter derived their Berber name, ikiker, from the
Latin cicer.
Archaeological research into funerary monuments confirms the existence in remote
antiquity of large sedentary groups practising agriculture in Africa Minor. The tomb
furniture testifies, as is well demonstrated by G . C a m p s , to the great antiquity of the
Berber rural culture. W e can agree with this scholar that a m a p of the distribution of
the proto-historical burial grounds containing ceramics will give us a reasonably
accurate notion of the geographical spread of agriculture. A study of ceramic shapes
has enabled G . C a m p s to throw some light on the way of life of the Libyco-Berbers at
this time. The typology is very close to that of contemporary ceramics: bowls, basins
and goblets to contain liquids and broths, more or less shallow plates, large dishes
somewhat similar to those used in our day for baking unleavened bread, griddlecakes
and pancakes.
A kind of fruit-dish on a stem base is also found from the proto-historical age up to
the present day. Perforations show that from the earliest times the Berbers hung their
eating-vessels on the wall. O n the other hand, there are no modern equivalents of the
ancientfiltering-pots,and G . C a m p s has wondered whether they were not used for
separating honey or for preparing infusions.
Archaeologists have also established that the nomads of the southern sites carried
ornamental weapons and wore bracelets, metallic pendants or porcelain beads more
often than did the sedentary inhabitants. Some scraps of fabric indicate the use of
striped cloth. Rock engravings found near Sigus attest to the existence in ancient
times of the burnous, which is perhaps the origin of legends concerning headless m e n
or m e n with their faces in their chests. Such cloaks were apparently also worn by the
Blemmyes of the Arabian desert on the borders of Upper Egypt.
The chief source of wealth of the nomads was the raising of sheep, goats and
cattle. A n engraving showing a milking scene has been found at Djorf Torba, west
of Colomb Béchar, in an area n o w completely barren. According to Elien ( N A ,
242 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

17.1 Libyan stelefrom Abizar, south-east of Tigzirt (Photo, Museum ofAntiquities, Algiers)
The proto-Berbers 243

VII, 10.1) these nomads did not have slaves, but used dogs instead; the same
comments have been made regarding the R e d Sea Troglodytes and the Ethiopians of
the Nile swamps. Hunting was naturally a c o m m o n activity, and Ptolemy mentions
some Oreipaei hunters living in southern Tunisia near the Ethiopian border, w h o
were neighbours of the Nybgenite Ethiopians roaming the lands south of the Djarïd.
O f the social organization of the Libyco-Berbers in times preceding those described
in classical sources w e k n o w very little, at least if w e ignore recurrent attempts at
reconstitution based on later evidence. T h e imposing size of the mounds of the Rharb
in Morocco, or of the mausoleum of the Medracen in the Constantine region, suggests
that, in those parts of both the western and eastern Maghrib which were independent
of Carthage, monarchies had sprung up at least as early as the fourth century.
Nothing more can be asserted, for the brilliant picture of Libyan social organization
painted by St Gsell is mainry based on R o m a n documents of the imperial age, and
even on the evidence of the poet Corippus w h o was a contemporary of Justinian.

Religious beliefs of the Libyco-Berbers

It is difficult to gain an insight into the religious beliefs of the Libyco-Berbers before
the impact of the Punic Phoenicians and, later, that of the R o m a n s . Proto-historical
archaeology never allows us to reconstitute more than rites, and even then, in the case
of Africa Minor, the possibility is confined to funerary rites.
A m o n g the Libyans, the sense of holiness appears to have crystallized around a
great variety of objects. Supernatural power was often thought to be manifested in the
surrounding countryside, hence the m a n yfluvialor mountain genie worshipped in the
inscriptions of R o m a n times. M o r e precisely localized, divine power could reside in
the commonest objects. R o u n d or pointed stones, such as granite pebbles, symbol-
izing the human face or phallus, were objects of worship.
The animals which symbolize most obviously the power to procreate - the bull,
the lion and the ram - are precisely those which the Libyans venerated. Athanasius
(Contra Gentes, 24) informs us that the ram was considered as a divinity by the
Libyans under the name of A m o n . Mention should also be made of the fish-cult
characteristic of the area which is n o w Tunisia: it partly explains the wealth of fish
images found in Tunisian mosaics. T h efish- a phallic symbol - warded off the evil
eye. A fish-shaped phallus ejaculating between t w o female pudenda is shown in a
mosaic from Susa. Alongside the fish, the shell was widespread as a symbol of the
female sex throughout Africa Minor; it served the living as a charm and comforted the
dead in their tombs.
Sacrifices in honour of the dead were performed in front of their tombs in a
reserved area facing the rising sun. Sometimes the vital force of the dead m a n was
symbolized by means of a monumental stone in the form of an obelisk or a stele.
Herodotus (IV, 172) informs us that the Nasamonians consulted their ancestors about
the future by sleeping on their tombs. G . C a m p s believes that this incubation ritual is
the reason for the existence of the bazinas and tumuli of platform shape, but the
Saharan monuments incorporating a chapel and chamber appear to be the best adapted
to this custom. It was probably widespread throughout the Saharan populations, since
244 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

17.2 Lions from KborRoumia (M. Christofte, Le tombeau de la chrétienne,

The proto-Berbers 245

they expressed astonishment at the fact that the Atlantes (Herodotus, IV, 184) never
had any visions in sleep.
The Libyans do not appear to have worshipped major god figures represented
in a more or less h u m a n form. According to Herodotus (IV, 188) they only sacri-
ficed to the sun and the m o o n . However, those of the Djarïd area were more
inclined to offer sacrifices to Athena, Triton and Poseidon, while the Atarantians
(IV, 184), the westerly neighbours of the Garamantes, cursed the sun. Cicero relates
(Rep., V I , 4) that Massinissa gave thanks to the sun and other divinities in the sky.
T h e sun continued to be worshipped in several towns of R o m a n Africa such as
Maktar, Althiburos, Thugga and Sufetula, but some Punic influence m a y have been at
work here and there.
Apart from the two major heavenly bodies, both epigraphy and literary sources
reveal a profusion of divinities, often mentioned only once, and sometimes even
referred to collectively, e.g. the Dii Mauri. A carving found near Bêdja appears to
picture a kind of pantheon of seven divinities. But this no doubt reflects a kind of
polytheism introduced under Punic influence, which led the Libyans to personalize
the divine powers. Left tq themselves, the Libyans were always drawn more to the
sacred than to the gods.
 The Carthaginian period

The entry of the Maghrib into recorded history begins with the arrival on its coasts of
sailors and settlers from Phoenicia. T h e reconstruction of the history of this period is
complicated by the fact that the sources are almost all Greek and R o m a n , and for
these two peoples the Phoenicians of the west, especially under the leadership of
Carthage, were for most of it bitter enemies. Hence the picture in the sources is a
hostile one. N o Carthaginian literature has survived; the contribution made by
archaeology is also limited because in most cases the Phoenician settlements are
overlaid by m u c h more substantial R o m a n towns, though in the last two decades
some progress has been made. T h e development of the indigenous Libyan cultures
before the third century is likewise to some degree obscure. The archaeological picture
of the first millennium is one of continuing slow evolution, but with Phoenician
influences operating with increasing effect from about the fourth century. T h e
particular phenomenon of widespread, large, stone-built surface tombs appears to
have no connection with the m u c h earlier megalithic cultures of northern Europe.
The largest, such as the tumulus of Mzora and the Medracen, are probably connected
with the growth of larger ethnic units in the fourth or third centuries. Greek and
R o m a n authors refer to a large number of different peoples by name, but for the period
under review generally divide the non-Phoenician inhabitants of the Maghrib into
three main groups. In the west, between the Atlantic and the Mulucca (Moulouya),
were the Mauri, and the name Mauretania, earlier Maurousia, was given to their
territory, but later the designation was extended m u c h farther east beyond the Chelif.
Between the Mauri and the m a x i m u m western extension of the Carthaginians inland
territory (see below) were the Numidae with their territory Numidia. T h e third
group were the Gaetuli, the name given to true nomads along the northernfringesof
the Sahara. T h e classical names for these groups, and for individual peoples, are used
throughout this chapter.

The earliest Phoenician settlements

Tyre and the other Phoenician cities (such as Sidon and Byblus) from about - 1 0 0 0
were the most active trading cities in the eastern Aegean and Near East, little
interrupted by the growth of the Assyrian empire. T h e motive which sent Phoenician
traders into the western Mediterranean was the search for sources of metal, in
246
The Carthaginian period 247

particular gold, silver, copper and tin. This led them at early date to Spain, which
remained one of the chief sources of silver in the Mediterranean world even in the
R o m a n period. Their power also increased through this commerce, carried on for a
long time, and they were able to send out numerous colonists to Sicily and the
neighbouring islands, to Africa, Sardinia and Spain itself. Traditionally the earliest
Phoenician foundation in the west was on the site of the modern Cadiz, the name
itself deriving from the Phoenician Gadir, meaning a fort, presumably representing its
origin as a trading post. T h e Phoenicians used both a northern route, along the
southern coasts of Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, and a southern one, along
the coast of North Africa. Along the latter route it has been estimated that there was
probably an anchorage used by the Phoenicians every 30 miles or so, though the
development of such anchorages into permanent settlements depended on various
factors; the classic sites were offshore islands or promontories with landing-places on
either side. In addition, general strategic factors led to the advancement of some sites
as opposed to others; it is significant that three of the most important, Carthage and
Utica (Utique) in North Africa, and Motya (Mozia) in Sicily, are all well placed on
the narrows leading from the eastern into the western Mediterranean and dominate
both the southern and northern routes.

Foundation of Carthage
The name Carthage (Latin: Carthago) represents the Phoenician name Kart Hadasht,
meaning N e w City. This m a y imply that the place was destined from the start to be
the chief settlement of the Phoenicians in the west, but w e k n o w too little of the
archaeology of its earliest period to be certain of this. T h e traditional date for the
foundation is - 8 1 4 , long after the traditional dates for Cadiz (-1110) and Utica
( -1101). These latter dates have a legendary appearance. A s for the date of Carthage,
the earliest uncontested archaeological material is of the middle of the eighth century
before the Christian era, that is, within a couple of generations of the traditional date.
Nothing of historical value can be derived from the foundation legends transmitted to
us in various versions by Greek and R o m a n authors. Material of about the same date
comes from Utica, and of seventh- or sixth-century date from Leptis M a g n a (Lebda),
Hadrumetum (Sousse), Tipasa, Siga (Rachgoun), Lixus (on the O u e d Loukkos) and
Mogador, the last being the most distant Phoenician settlement so far k n o w n . Finds
of parallel date have been made at Motya in Sicily, Nora (Nuri), Sulcis and Tharros
(Torre di S. Giovanni) in Sardinia and at Cadiz and Almunecar in Spain. It must be
emphasized that, unlike the settlements which the Greeks were making in Sicily and
Italy and elsewhere in the eighth and seventh centuries, all the Phoenician settlements,
including Carthage itself, remained small places, with perhaps no more than a few
hundred settlers at most, for generations. Furthermore, they long remained politi-
cally subordinate to Tyre, as was to be expected having regard to their prime function
as anchorages and supply points.
248 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Carthaginian leadership of the western Phoenicians

The emergence of Carthage as an independent city, followed by her leadership of the
rest of the Phoenicians in the west and the creation of an empire based in North
Africa, with profound historical consequences for the whole of the western Mediterra-
nean area, began in the sixth century before the Christian era. During the seventh
century there appears to have been no great conflict between Phoenicians and Greeks,
and Greek imports are k n o w n from m a n y Phoenician sites in the Maghrib; but
in - 580 the city of Selinus (Selinunte) and other Sicilian Greeks tried to drive the
Phoenicians from their settlements at Motya and Palermo. Carthage appears to have
taken the lead in repelling this attack, which if successful would have led the Greeks
on to threaten the Phoenician settlements in Sardinia and opened the Spanish trade
from which they had so far been excluded. Following this success, the Phoenician
settlements on Sardinia were consolidated. A final success in this period was in Africa
itself; a Spartan named Dorieus tried to found a settlement at the mouth of the Kinyps
river (Wâdl Oukirri) in Libya. Carthage regarded this as an intrusion and within
three years was able to drive out the Greeks with help from the native Libyans.
The burden of leadership of the Phoenicians of the west seems to have been too
heavy for the manpower available to Carthage. U p to the sixth century they relied on
their o w n citizens. In the middle of the century, under the leadership of M a g o , the
policy of hiring mercenary troops on a large scale was initiated, a policy followed for
the remainder of Carthaginian history. O f the non-Carthaginian elements which were
hired, the Libyans provided the biggest share. They were particularly useful as light
infantry. A s mercenaries, or under treaties of alliance at a later date, Numidian and
Mauretanian cavalry from the northern parts of modern Algeria and Morocco were a
significant part of all large Carthaginian armies; Spanish, Gallic, Italian and finally
Greek mercenaries are found in the service of Carthage at various dates.
The generation after the success against Dorieus saw profound changes a m o n g the
Greek cities of Sicily, which reacted seriously on Carthage. Gelon, ruler of Gela and
from - 485 of Syracuse, initiated a war to avenge Dorieus and planned a campaign to
conquer the area of Phoenician settlement around the Gulf of Gabes. A s a result,
Carthage sought friends in Sicily a m o n g those opposed to Gelon and in - 480 put a
large mercenary army into the island, perhaps taking advantage of the fact that the
same year saw the invasion of Greece by Persia. A figure for the Carthaginian fleet at
this date is given as 200 ships, which puts it on a par with that of Syracuse and not
m u c h less than that of Athens. However, the intervention ended in complete disaster
with the destruction of the army and thefleetat a great battle at Himera. Gelon was
unable or unwilling to follow up this success and allowed peace on a moderate war
indemnity.

Expansion in North Africa

The defeat of Himera was followed by seventy years of peace in which Carthage
avoided conflict with the Greeks, but was even so able to maintain her trading
monopoly. More important, she turned towards the acquisition of territory in Africa
The Carthaginian period 249

itself. This change occurred as Carthage was increasingly isolated by Greek successes
elsewhere,firstagainst the Persians, in which the Phoenicians lost heavily, and then
against the Etruscans in Italy. T h e n e w policy is associated with the Magonid family,
led at this time by H a n n o , son of Hamilcar w h o had been defeated at Himera, and
w h o is loosely described by the late Greek writer Dio Chrysostom, as 'transforming
the Carthaginians from Tyrians into Africans'.
While the amount of land conquered in the fifth century and the number of
settlements n o w grown to towns, albeit small ones, is uncertain, it began to approach
the m a x i m u m which Carthage ever controlled. Most important was the conquest of
the Cap B o n peninsula and a considerable area of land to the south of Carthage, at
least as far as Dougga. This included some of the most fertile land in Tunisia, an area
where later R o m a n settlement was particularly dense. It provided the essential supply
of food and the possibility of a m u c h larger population in the city. M a n y
Carthaginians had estates in Cap Bon at a later date. Land in Cap Bon counted as city
land and the inhabitants were presumably reduced to servile or semi-servile status.
Inhabitants of the rest of the conquered territory were obliged to pay tribute and
provide troops. T h e number of Phoenician settlements on the coast was added to by
those n o w established by Carthage herself, though w e are ignorant of some of their
names. Like the settlements, they were small places, of a few hundred inhabitants,
established where native peoples came to trade their goods, as is indicated by the fact
that the Greeks called them emporta - markets.
The boundary between the Carthaginian empire and the area of Greek colonization
in Cyrenaica was on the Gulf of Sidra, but settlements on the coast of Libya were few.
The most important was at Lepcis where it is probable that permanent settlement was
made w h e n the expedition of Dorieus to the vicinity showed that there was a danger
of Greek intrusion. At Sabratha, there was a settlement by the early fourth century.
Lepcis became the administrative centre of the settlements round the Gulf of Gabes
and is k n o w n to have been a wealthy place at the end of the Carthaginian period, and
its Phoenician culture even remained dominant for over a century under R o m a n rule.
The source of its wealth is generally held to be trans-Saharan trade, since the area was
the terminus of the shortest route by w a y of Cidamus (Ghadlmes) to the Niger.
However, w e do not k n o w in what this trade consisted, except that semi-precious
stones are mentioned. T h e agricultural wealth of the area in R o m a n times owed its
origin to the Carthaginian settlers. Traditionally Lepcis Minor and Hadrumetum
were founded from Phoenicia, not Carthage, and the latter became the largest town
on the east coast of Tunisia. From Neapolis (Nabeul) a road ran across the base of Cap
Bon to Carthage. West of Carthage lay Utica, second only to Carthage in impor-
tance; it was, like Carthage, a port though it is n o w ten kilometres inland.

The Empire of Carthage

Carthage was criticized by her enemies for the harsh treatment and exploitation of her
subjects, and there were certainly several categories among these. The most privileged
areas were doubtless the old Phoenician settlements and those established by Carthage
herself, whose inhabitants were called Libyphoenicians by the Greeks. They appear to
250 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

have had local officials and institutions similar to those of Carthage herself. They had
to pay dues on imports and exports and sometimes troops were levied from them.
After - 348 they seem to have been forbidden to trade with anyone except Carthage.
The position of Carthaginian subjects in Sicily was affected by their proximity to
Greek cities; they were allowed their o w n institutions and issued their o w n coinage
throughout thefifthcentury in a period w h e n Carthage herself did not issue coins.
Their trade does not seem to have been restricted; on the analogy of R o m a n practice
when Sicily fell to R o m e , a tribute of one-tenth of the produce was levied. T h e
Libyans of the interior were the worst off, though ethnic structures appear to have
been permitted to them. It seems that Carthaginian officials directly supervised the
collection of tribute and the enrolment of soldiers. T h e normal exaction of tribute
seems to have been one-quarter of the crops, and at a critical point in thefirstw a r
with R o m e half was taken.

Carthaginian trade and exploration

West Africa
There was general agreement a m o n g the Greeks and R o m a n s that Carthage depended
more on trade than any other city, and w h e n they thought of a typical Carthaginian
they thought of a merchant. Further, it was believed that Carthage was the wealthiest
city in the Mediterranean world. However, it must be said that both the trade itself
and the alleged wealth have left remarkably few traces for the archaeologist, m u c h
less, for example, than in the case of major Greek and Etruscan cities of the same era.
Undoubtedly one major reason in the case of Carthage is that the bulk of her trade
was in items which left no trace, primarily metals in unworked state - the primary
object of Phoenician exploration in thefirstplace - textiles, slaves and, increasingly as
her fertile lands were worked, foodstuffs.
The profits from the trade with backward peoples, from w h o m gold, silver, tin and
presumably iron were obtained in exchange for cheap manufacturers, are indicated by
the vast mercenary armies she could raise in the fourth and third centuries and the
minting of gold coinage far in excess of that of other advanced cities.
The active leadership of the state in major trading enterprises is indicated in our
sources, particularly those concerned with West Africa. According to Herodotus
(fifth century), the Egyptian King Necho (c. - 6 1 0 to - 5 9 4 ) sent Phoenician mariners
to sail d o w n the Red Sea and thence to circumnavigate Africa. They are said to have
taken two years on the journey, having twice halted to sow and reap a crop of wheat.
Herodotus believed that the voyage had been successful and it is not impossible, but it
had no repercussions at the time; if it took place, the vast size of the continent thus
revealed must have removed any ideas of a route from the Red Sea to the Mediterra-
nean. T h e Carthaginians w h o , again according to Herodotus, believed that Africa
could be circumnavigated, must have k n o w n of the venture, and of another of the
earlyfifthcentury.
A Persian prince procured a ship in Egypt on orders to attempt the circum-
navigation in the opposite direction; he appears to have sailed d o w n the Moroccan
The Carthaginian period 251

coast a good distance beyond Cape Spartel but w a s forced to return. Herodotus also
gives an account of Carthaginian trade on the Moroccan coast. This is the earliest
description w e have of the classic method of d u m b barter. The gold trade is normally
associated with a much-discussed Greek text which claims to be a translation of the
report of a voyage d o w n the Moroccan coast by one H a n n o , identified as the leader of
the Magonid family in the middle of thefifthcentury and the statesman responsible
for Carthaginian expansion elsewhere in Africa.
The most southerly settlement mentioned in the report is called Cerne, generally
identified with Hern Island at the mouth of the Rio de O r o :

'At Cerne, the Phoenicians [i.e. Carthaginians] anchor their gauloi, as their merchant ships
are called, and pitch tents on the island. After unloading their goods they take them to the
mainland in small boats; there live Ethiopians with w h o m they trade. In exchange for their
goods they acquire the skins of deer, lions and leopards, elephant hides and tusks . . . the
Phoenicians bring perfume, Egyptian stones [Pfaience] and Athenian pottery and jars.'

There is no mention of gold; Cerne appears as an anchorage rather than a settlement.

If gold was the objective, it is remarkable that all knowledge of the trade
disappeared with the fall of Carthage even though some settlements on the Moroccan
coast survived. T h e Greek historian Polybius sailed beyond Cerne after - 1 4 6 , but
discovered nothing worth while, and in the first century of the Christian era the
R o m a n writer Pliny wrote of the report of H a n n o : 'many Greeks and R o m a n s on the
basis of it tell of m a n y fabulous things and of m a n y foundations of cities of which in
fact neither m e m o r y nor trace remain'. Oddly enough, Mogador began to be visited
again by sailors from the R o m a n client-state of Mauretania (see below), but it seems
thatfishrather than gold was the purpose.

T h e Atlantic
A report of another voyage led by Hanno's contemporary, Himilco, was k n o w n in
antiquity, but only scattered references survive. Himilco explored the Atlantic coast of
Spain and France, and certainly reached as far as Brittany. T h e object was probably to
increase direct control of the trade in tin obtained from various sources close to the
Atlantic coasts. A number of ancient writers were interested in the trade, no doubt
because the Carthaginians allowed so little information to emerge. In fact the
Carthaginian period was the last stage in the trade in tin along this coast which went
back to prehistoric times, with south-west Britain as one of its most important
sources. However, there is no evidence that any Phoenician ever reached Britain; no
Phoenician object has ever been found there (nor, for that matter, in Brittany). If tin
from Britain was obtained it was probably through the intermediary activity of peoples
in Brittany. T h e likelihood is that most tin from British sources was transported
across Gaul to the R h ô n e Valley and the Mediterranean, and that the Carthaginians
got most of theirs from northern Spain. In any case, the most valuable mineral
produced in Spain was silver; w e k n o w that in the third century the production
reached impressive levels and it was undoubtedly of far greater importance than tin.
252 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Mediterranean trade
As stated, Carthage exercised a monopoly of trade within her empire, either sinking
any intruding vessel or arranging commercial treaties with possible competitors like
the Etruscan cities and R o m e . Normally foreign traders were not allowed to trade
west of Carthage; this meant that goods they brought to that city were then moved
and traded in Carthaginian vessels. It was by these ways that products from Etruria,
Campania, Egypt and various Greek cities reached a large number of North African
sites. T h e manufactures of Carthage are not easy to identify archaeologically because
they lack individual style and merit. It was only in the fourth century that Carthage
began to issue her o w n coins as her trade with advanced powers increased, and as the
changed economic scene made it necessary also to pay mercenaries in coin.

Sanaran trade
The question of Carthaginian contacts with Saharan peoples, and people living even
farther south, is obscure. If communications or contacts existed, they must have been
based on Leptis M a g n a and Sabratha, since it is in this region that there are the fewest
natural obstacles. Carthaginian concern to keep Greeks from the area has been cited as
evidence that trade of some substance with the interior existed, since suitable
agricultural land for settlement is scarce. Unfortunately, up to the present such trade
as existed has left no archaeological trace whatever, and in literature only carbuncles
are mentioned as an article of desert commerce. Slaves were perhaps traded - the
Garamantes are said to have pursued Ethiopians (i.e. negro peoples) in four-horse
chariots; ivory and skins are suggested, though these were readily available in the
Maghrib; and gold from the Sudan is still more problematical, though not impossible.
Recent archaeological evidence from Djerma indicates that the earliest population
growth is from thefifthor fourth century and that over succeeding centuries a
considerable sedentary population based on agriculture grew up. This m a y be due to
cultural influences extending from the Carthaginian sites on the coast. After the
destruction of Carthage, the R o m a n s penetrated both to Djerma and Ghadimes and
occasionally farther south, and there are some archaeological traces of imports from
the Mediterranean world into the interior, but on a modest scale. The lack of camels
in North Africa at this time explains the difficulty and irregularity of trans-Saharan
travel.

The city of Carthage

Although Carthage had the reputation of possessing enormous wealth, there is no
trace of this in the archaeology, even allowing for the complete destruction of the city
by the R o m a n s . This is not to say that there were no important buildings as in other
ancient cities of similar size. Carthage had an elaborate double artificial harbour, the
outer for the use of merchant ships - h o w m a n y could see it at one time is not k n o w n
- and the inner which had quays and sheds for 220 warships, together with a control
building sufficiently high to give a view over intervening buildings out to sea. T h e
city walls were of exceptional dimensions and held out against every attack till the
final R o m a n assault. A n inner citadel, with a circumference of about t w o miles,
The Carthaginian period 253
enclosed the hill k n o w n as the Byrsa, no doubt the oldest part of the city. Between
the harbour and the Byrsa was an open public space equivalent to a Greek agora, but it
does not seem that it ever had the regular planned or monumental aspect which came
to characterize Greek cities. T h e city seems to have developed unplanned, with
narrow winding streets, and w e hear of buildings up to six storeys in height, as at
Tyre itself and at Motya in Sicily. A s for temples, although these are said to have been
numerous, they are unlikely to have been substantial till the later stages of
Carthaginian history w h e n Greek cultural influence became pronounced, since most
of the evidence goes to show that the Carthaginians were essentially conservative in
religious matters and long remained faithful to the concept of simple enclosures
without monumental buildings.

Carthaginian political institutions

The only aspect of Carthage to receive praise from the Greeks and R o m a n s was its
political constitution which seemed to ensure the stability so highly cherished in
antiquity. Hereditary kingship prevailed in the Phoenician cities till Hellenistic times,
and all our sources likewise refer to kingship at Carthage; for example, Hamilcar,
defeated at Himera, and H a n n o , the leader of the African expansion, are described as
kings. It is probable that in calling them kings the classical authors were thinking as
m u c h of their sacral and judicial as of their political and military powers. T h e position
was in principle elective, not hereditary, but several generations of the Magonid
family held the position. During the sixth andfifthcenturies they appear also to have
been the military leaders of the state w h e n occasion demanded. During the fifth
century a process began whereby the power of the kings was diminished. This appears
to be associated with the rise to power of the sujets, the only Carthaginian political
term transcribed for us by R o m a n writers. T h e w o r d combines the meaning of judge
and governor and, since in the third century t w o (perhaps more) were elected
annually, it was easy to compare them with R o m a n consuls; and the term sujet
remained in use in North Africa in areas of Carthaginian culture for at least a century
after the R o m a n conquest, to denote the chief magistrate of a town. T h e reduction in
the power of the kings was similar to developments in Greek cities and in R o m e . At
the same time the power of a wealthy aristocracy increased. In addition to their exclu-
sive membership of a council of state like the R o m a n senate, the aristocracy estab-
lished a court of 100 members apparently with the. specific function of controlling all
organs of government. Although the citizen body had some say in the election of
kings, sujets and other officials, it is certain that Carthaginian politics were always
dominated by the rich - Aristotle considered the part played by wealth at Carthage to
be a bad feature. Both birth and wealth were essential for election.

Carthaginian religion
While their political institutions were praised, Carthaginian religious life was severely
criticized by classical authors, above all because of the persistence of h u m a n sacrifice.
T h e intensity of religious beliefs w a s likewise commented on. Naturally the cults at
Carthage have similarities with those of Phoenicia from which they were derived. T h e
254 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

supreme male deity of the Phoenician world was k n o w n in Africa as Baal H a m m o n ,

the meaning of the epithet H a m m o n apparently being 'fiery' and expressive of his
solar aspect. H e was identified in R o m a n times with Saturn. In thefifthcentury he
was outstripped, at any rate in popular worship, by a goddess named Tanit. The name
is apparently Libyan and the growth of her cult is associated with the acquisition of
territory in Africa, because it had pronounced fertility aspects, owing m u c h to the
Greek goddesses Hera and Demeter. Crude representations of a female figure with
arms raised occur on hundreds of stelae from Carthage and elsewhere. These t w o
deities overshadowed the rest, though w e k n o w also of Astarte, Eshmoun (identified
with Aesculapius the divine healer) and Melkart, the particular protector of the
mother city, Tyre. T h e institution of h u m a n sacrifice is proved archaeologically by
discoveries not only at Carthage and Hadrumetum but also at Cirta, in Libyan
territory but m u c h influenced by Carthaginian culture, and at a number of settlements
outside Africa. T h e discoveries are of sacred enclosures containing urns with the
calcined bones of children, often marked by stelae referring to a sacrificial offering
generally to Baal H a m m o n , but often to Tanit as well. According to our sources
(which have doubtful features) the sacrifices were always of males, were annual, and
an obligation on the leading families. T h e practice certainly declined, but an incident
in - 310 shows that it could be revived in moments of crisis w h e n its neglect was held
responsible for divine displeasure. There is no doubt that the emphasis of Carthaginian
religious ideas was on the necessity of appeasing the capricious power of the gods. In
spite of their contacts with Egypt, the Carthaginians appear to have attached little
importance to the idea of life after death, in this respect being like the early Hebrews.
Inhumation was the general rule and the grave-goods were moderate; many tombs
contained small grotesque masks of terracotta which are assumed to have an
apotropaic significance.

Conflicts with the Sicilian Greeks

The period of expansion in Africa and peace elsewhere which had lasted since the
disaster at Himera ended in - 410. The city of Segesta, a native Sicilian community but
allied to Carthage, had been in part responsible for bringing the Athenians into Sicily
and was n o w subject to a major punitive attack by the Greek city of Selinus. It
appealed to Carthage. T h e appeal was accepted, presumably because, if Segesta were
defeated, Greek control would reduce the Phoenician settlements to a mere toe-hold
on the west of the island. In addition, the Carthaginian leader, Hannibal, turned the
expedition into a war to avenge the defeat at Himera in which his grandfather had
perished. In - 409 a mercenary army of perhaps 50,000 laid siege to Selinus and took it
by storm after nine days; shortly afterwards Himera was also taken and razed to the
ground, with the massacre of all the inhabitants w h o had not previously fled.
Hannibal then returned and disbanded the army, which indicated that there was no
thought of extending the territory of Carthage, though it is clear that from this date
the Phoenicians here, and in other territory in Sicily which they dominated, created in
effect a Carthaginian province. However, in - 4 0 6 Carthage was tempted to try for
thefirstand only time to conquer the entire island, after attacks on her territory by
The Carthaginian period 255

some Syracusans. This left Carthage with a larger territory than she had had before,
and more tribute. Furthermore it broke the isolation in which she had been living
during most of thefifthcentury, and from this date w e find that imports and trade in
general with the Greek world revived, in spite of the frequent periods of war.
Africa itself was naturally secure from destruction, except that w e hear of a revolt
in - 3 6 8 to - 3 6 7 which was easily suppressed. Sometime in the -340s, a certain
Hanno tried to stage a coup d'état by calling on the slave population, African
subjects and Mauretanian peoples to join him, but it does not appear that this was a
serious threat. Very different was the situation from - 3 1 0 to - 3 0 7 w h e n Carthage
was engaged in yet another war with Syracuse, n o w ruled by Agathocles. W h e n his
city was under siege, the Greek tried a desperate venture; eluding the Carthaginian
fleet, he landed 14,000 m e n on C a p B o n , burned his ships and made for Carthage.
Except at Carthage itself there were no strong points or garrisons, and a vast amount
of damage was done within Carthaginian territory in the three years before Agatho-
cles was forced to leave Africa.

The first war with Rome

These conflicts were, however, on a minor scale compared with the revolutionary
changes in the east during the same period, w h e n Alexander the Great created an
empire stretching as far as India. But Carthage was soon herself to be engaged in a
struggle of at least as great a world-historical importance, namely, with R o m e . A
treaty existed between them as early as - 508 w h e n R o m e was just one of many Italian
communities of moderate size. Another treaty was signed in - 3 4 8 , again regulating
trade between the two powers, and, though R o m e was by n o w m u c h stronger, the
treaty was very favourable to Carthage, simply because R o m e ' s trading interests were
negligible. In the next decades R o m e broke through with dramatic rapidity to
become the dominating power throughout Italy. T h e gap between the areas in which
the two powers were interested closed even further w h e n in - 2 9 3 Carthage's old
enemy Agathocles led a campaign in southern Italy. A few years later, King Pyrrhus
of Epirus was invited into Italy to try to liberate the Greek cities of southern Italy, led
by Tarentum, from R o m a n domination. Although he was unsuccessful, he was
approached by the Sicilian Greeks to be their protector against Carthage. T o try to
prevent this, Carthage sent an impressive fleet to R o m e to encourage R o m e to
continue the war with Pyrrhus. She was successful, but Pyrrhus came to Sicily in any
case and had some modest but not decisive successes before he returned to Greece in
-276.
Thus Carthage and R o m e up to this date had no conflict of interests, yet a decade
later were involved in a conflict which produced the heaviest losses on both sides of
any k n o w n war up to that time. Though the result was of geopolitical significance,
there is little doubt that the cause of the war was relatively trivial and that neither side
had deep-seated aims. In - 2 6 4 R o m e accepted the submission of Messana (Messina)
which had previously been an ally of Carthage against Syracuse. R o m a n politicians at
the time were brimming with self-confidence; it appears to have been expected that
Carthage would not react, and that there was booty to be obtained from the Greek
256 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

cities of Sicily. Some also played on R o m a n fears that Carthage, if she held Messana,
could dominate Italy, though in fact she had never had any interest whatever in doing
so. Carthage determined to resist R o m a n intervention because it would mean a
complete change in the balance of power which had existed in the island for a century
and a half, and also no doubt because she felt that R o m a n policy was dangerously
adventurist. T h e ensuing war (the first Punic war) lasted till - 2 4 2 w h e n the
Carthaginianfleetwas defeated off the Aegates Islands. This meant that Sicily could
no longer be supplied, and a peace of exhaustion followed, in which Carthage gave up
Sicily and agreed to a substantial indemnity.

Hannibal and the second war with Rome

The economic difficulties caused by the war made it difficult to pay the mercenaries,
half of w h o m were Libyans. A revolt took place in Africa characterized by ferocious
atrocities on both sides. Some 20,000 mercenaries were involved, one of the most
effective leaders being a Libyan named Matho. Carthage itself was at risk and the
rebels for a time controlled Utica, Hippo Acra and Tunis; they were well enough
organized to issue their o w n coins with the legend 'Libyon' (meaning 'of the
Libyans) in Greek. The intensity of the struggle, which ended in - 237, testified to the
harshness of Carthaginian treatment of the Libyans. At the same time the R o m a n s
high-handedly seized Sardinia while Carthage was in no position to resist. In - 2 2 0
R o m e became anxious about the Carthaginian recovery and engaged in a manoeuvre
designed to prevent the consolidation or extension of Carthaginian control in Spain.
Hannibal (and his government) rejected R o m e ' s threats and decided, in the light of
the adventurist R o m a n policies in - 264 and - 237, that war was inevitable. In - 218
Hannibal crossed the Ebro on his w a y to the Alps and the road into Italy. T h e
strategy was based on the assumption that R o m e could only befinallydefeated in
Italy itself, and in any case it was necessary to forestall a R o m a n invasion of Africa,
which could easily be mounted since R o m e n o w controlled the sea. This war (the
second Punic war) lasted till - 202, again with tremendous losses on the R o m a n side.
Hannibal's military genius welded together a superb fighting force, largely of
Spaniards, but also with Gallic and African contingents. Notable victories were w o n
at Lake Trasimene ( - 217) and Cannae ( - 216), R o m e ' s greatest single defeat. While in
Italy the defensive policy of Fabius Maximus was pursued, never allowing Hannibal
again to exercise his genius in thefield,Spain was w o n for R o m e by the young Scipio
Africanus in - 2 0 6 . R o m e then prepared for an attack on Africa.
In this they were assisted by the situation in Numidia. The native peoples had n o w
been exposed to Carthaginian civilization for several centuries. M u c h larger political
units had evolved than before, and repeated service in Carthage's wars had increased
their strength and sophistication. Syphax, chief of the largest Numidian ethnic group,
the Masaesyli, whose territory extended from the Ampsaga (Oued el Kebir) in the east
to the Mulucha (Moulouya) in the west, had defected from Carthage in - 213, but had
rejoined her in - 208 w h e n he married a daughter of a leading Carthaginian. C o n -
versely Gaia, the chief of the Massyli, sandwiched between the Masaesyli and
Carthaginian territory, had been loyal to Carthage during the period of Syphax's
 The Carthaginian period 257

defection, and his son Masinissa rendered good service in Spain. W h e n R o m e was
victorious, Masinissa decided to back what must have seemed to be the winning side
and made his peace with Scipio. O n returning to Africa he could not establish himself
, as head of his ethnic group, but gathered a private force and after t w o years of epic
adventures was waiting to fight for Scipio w h e n he landed. H e played a major part in
initial successes in - 2 0 3 before Hannibal was finally recalled from Italy. T h e final
battle took place at Z a m a (Sab Biar) in - 202 w h e n Hannibal suffered defeat. Masinissa,
w h o had meanwhile driven Syphax out of his territory, provided 4,000 cavalry, con-
tributing decisively to the R o m a n victory. Under the peace terms, Carthage gave up
her fleet and had her territory in Africa limited by a line roughly from Thabraca to
Thaenae; but she was also to return to Masinissa any land his ancestors ever held, a
fruitful cause of disputes, and was forbidden to make war outside Africa, or even
within it, without R o m e ' s permission.

Masinissa and the Kingdom of Numidia

Carthage survived anotherfiftyyears, but this period of the history of the Maghrib is
primarily that of a rapid advance in the economy and society of most of the peoples
close to the Mediterranean. It was a historical paradox that the chief figure in this,
which involved a more rapid spread of Carthaginian civilization than ever before,
should have been Carthage's great enemy Masinissa. His personality was such that
later, instead of merely being regarded as a useful deserter by the R o m a n s after - 2 0 6 ,
he established close ties of friendship with a number of the most influential R o m a n
politicians. H e was rewarded after Z a m a with the eastern, more fertile, parts of
Syphax's territory, and thus ruled from Cirta (Constantine) a territory which
extended from somewhere west of that city to the new Carthaginian boundary. Trade
in other products was limited and the only coins issued were of bronze and copper.
Masinissa's capital, Cirta, would appear to have grown into a real city. T h e
archaeology is not well k n o w n , but its urban aspect will have been almost entirely
Carthaginian; more Punic stelae have been found there than in any other African site
except Carthage itself, and there can be no doubt that the language of Carthage
became increasingly used in Numidia and Mauretania.

The destruction of Carthage

Over a period of fifty years, Masinissa sought to exert increasing pressure on
Carthaginian territory and probably hoped that in the end Carthage itself would fall
to him with R o m a n assent. A tfirstR o m e had no interest in further weakening
Carthage, which was also naturally a dependant, and d o w n to - 1 7 0 his gains in
territory were small. From - 1 6 7 , however, R o m e pursued increasingly ruthless
policies, not only in Africa, and favoured Masinissa. Although it was true that
Carthage had shown a remarkable recovery from the second Punic war, any idea that
she could ever again be a threat to R o m e was irrational. T h e Carthaginians were
given the choice of abandoning their city and moving into the interior, or facing war
and its consequences. W h e n they chose the latter alternative, a R o m a n army was sent
258 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

to Africa in - 1 4 9 . In spite of overwhelming superiority, Carthage held out till - 1 4 6 .

Some Libyans still supported her, and Masinissa himself resented the R o m a n action
which deprived him of his cherished hope, but had to acquiesce. Most of the
old-established Phoenician and Carthaginian settlements, such as Utica,
Hadrumetum, Thapsus and others, went over to the R o m a n s and avoided inevitable
destruction. Carthage itself was razed to the ground and the site ceremonially cursed,
a symbolic action by R o m e testifying to the fear and hatred which she had accumu-
lated over a century for the power which most sternly resisted her domination over
the Mediterranean world.

Post-Carthaginian successor states

Numidia
It was more than another century before R o m e properly supplanted Carthage as the
dominant political and cultural power in the Maghrib. For various reasons (see
Chapter 20) R o m e only took over a small part of north-eastern Tunisia after the
destruction of Carthage and even this was largely neglected. In the rest of North
Africa she recognized a series of client kingdoms which were generally left to their
o w n devices. Within these kingdoms the cultural influence of Carthage continued and
even increased as the older coastal settlements continued toflourishand many refugees
from the last years of Carthage's struggle fled there. The Phoenician language in its
later form k n o w n as Neo-Punic spread ever more widely. In Numidia, Masinissa died
in - 1 4 8 at the age of about 90 and was succeeded by Micipsa ( - 1 4 8 to - 1 1 8 ) . During
his reign, trade between Numidia and R o m e and Italy increased and w e hear of
numerous Italian traders at Cirta. O n his death the kingdom was jointly ruled by two
of his brothers together with Jugurtha, a grandson of Masinissa, w h o had the support
of the R o m a n statesman Scipio Aemilianus, just as Masinissa had had that of an earlier
Scipio. Jugurtha was a m a n of great vigour and sought to establish himself as sole
ruler. The R o m a n s attempted a formal division of the kingdom, but, w h e n Jugurtha
captured Cirta from one of his rivals and killed the Italian residents, R o m e declared
war. Jugurtha sustained a formidable resistance, causing some military humiliation to
R o m e until he was betrayed to the R o m a n s by Bocchus, ruler of Mauretania. R o m e
then established as king another member of Masinissa's dynasty named Gauda, w h o
was followed by his son, Hiempsal. Hiempsal is k n o w n to have written a book about
Africa in the Punic language, and presumably continued the civilizing work of his
dynasty. Hiempsal's son, Juba ( - 6 0 to - 4 6 ) , w h o had been publicly insulted as a
young m a n by Julius Caesar, joined the Pompeian cause in - 49 and rendered it a great
deal of assistance in Africa, to the extent that he was said to have been promised the
R o m a n province in Africa if the Pompeians w o n . H e committed suicide after Caesar's
victory at Thapsus, which was followed by the establishment of direct R o m a n rule
over Numidia.

Mauretania
The Mauretanian kingdom is generally considered to have developed more slowly
 The Roman
and post-Roman period
in North Africa

P A R T I: The Roman period

The Roman occupation and the resistance of the indigenous population
After the destruction of Carthage in - 1 4 6 and the reduction of her territory to the
status of a R o m a n province, the fate of North Africa lay in the hands of R o m e and
the indigenous kingdoms. It would have been desirable to devote a special chapter to
the study of the latter, from the advent of the Numidian kingdoms up to the end of
the reign of the last King of Mauretania in + 4 0 . Thereafter, the whole of North
Africa became R o m a n and remained so until the Vandal invasion.
The distinctive nature of the African wars emerges, more particularly, from the
accounts of the phase of conquest. During the last quarter of the first century before
the Christian era, a long series of triumphs celebrated by R o m a n generals over the
Maurusiani, Musulamii, Gaetulians and Garamantes afford indisputable evidence that the
indigenous populations were never completely subjugated, despite the R o m a n victories.
The best-known of these wars is that of the Numidian Tacfarinas, which lasted for
eight years under the reign of Tiberius, and extended to all the southern confines of
North Africa, from Tripolitania as far as Mauretania. T h e demands attributed by
Tacitus to Tacfarinas give a clearer idea of the deep-seated causes of the resistance of
the indigenous inhabitants. T h e Numidian leader took up arms to force the all-
powerful emperor to recognize his people's right to land, for the R o m a n conquest
had been immediately followed by the sequestration of all the fertile land. T h e fields
of the sedentary Numidians were laid waste; the areas traditionally roamed by the
nomads were steadily reduced and limited; veterans and other R o m a n and Italian
colonists established themselves everywhere, starting with the richest parts of the
country; tax-collecting companies and members of the R o m a n aristocracy, senators
and knights, carved out huge estates for themselves. While their country was being
exploited in this w a y , all the autochthonous nomads, and all the sedentary inhabitants
w h o did not live in the few cities spared by the succession of wars and expropriation
measures, were either reduced to abject poverty or driven into the steppes and the
desert. Their only hope, therefore, lay in armed resistance, and their principal war aim
was to recover their land.
Military operations continued throughout thefirstt w o centuries of the Christian
era, and the R o m a n thrust towards the south-west stirred up the kalñlas which
261
262 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

assembled and dispersed in the area stretching from the valley of the Moulouya to
Djabal A m o u r and the Ouarsenis. Having easily established themselves in the coastal
strip and in the north-east, the R o m a n s advanced by stages in the southern part of
what is modern Tunisia, as well as in the High Plateaux and the Sanaran Atlas. Under
the Julio-Claudian emperors, the frontier of the conquered territory stretched from
Cirta in the west to Tacape in the south, and included Ammaedara, which was the
headquarters of the Legio III Augusta, Thelepte and Capsa. Under the Flavian
emperors, the legion established itself at Theveste and the boundary was pushed
forward as far as Sitifis; the Nementcha region was incorporated under Trajan and the
colony of Timgad was founded in + 1 0 0 . Finally, in + 1 2 8 , the legion set up a
permanent garrison at Lambaesis and roads were driven through the Aures M o u n -
tains, which were defended against the Rabilas by a camp at Gemellae. Between the
R o m a n provinces and the desert regions lying to the south into which the kabllas had
been driven, a frontier zone was created - the limes; this was gradually advanced in a
south-westerly direction and consisted of a network, from 50 to 100 kilometres deep,
of trenches and roads defended by a string of military posts and small forts. The aerial
archaeological research work done by J. Baradez has revealed, a m o n g other things, the
segments of a fossatum, bordered by an earth-bank or a wall and guarded at irregular
intervals by square or rectangular towers.
However, R o m e was powerless to root out the resistance of the Berbers, and never
succeeded in keeping the nomads of the south and west permanently in check. Despite
the efforts of Trajan and Hadrian, and notwithstanding the firm policy pursued by
Septimius Severus on the borders of Tripolitania, the crisis of the third century put an
untimely end to this enterprise. T h e desert, the mobility of the camel-mounted
nomads and the ease with which communications could be kept open from west to
east along the Saharan Atlas range, assured the indomitable Berbers of great freedom
of movement. In this respect, the kabllas which finally succeeded in wearing d o w n
the domination of R o m e found their reservoir of manpower in Mauretania Tingitana
and, later on, in the vast stretches of desert in the hinterland of Tripolitania. U p to
the first quarter of the third century the centre and south of the country were
defended from local raiders by the Legio III Augusta, whose theoretical strength of
5,000 to 6,000 m e n was reinforced as necessary by large numbers of auxiliaries. It has
been calculated that the m a x i m u m number of soldiers m a y have amounted to between
25,000 and 30,000 in the second century. This is not by any means a high figure,
although it is necessary to take account of the veterans still liable for service w h o
settled on the land cleared for cultivation along the limes; in time of need, troops were
also transferred from the legions stationed in the other provinces of the empire.

Administrative organisation and military problems

O n 13 January - 27, Octavian, on w h o m the title of Augustus was conferred three
days later, divided the provinces of the empire, in accordance with the approved
principle, between himself and the senate. Africa, which had long since been
conquered and pacified and was bound to the senatorial class by m a n y traditions of an
economic as well as a political nature, fell among the provinces to be administered by
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 263

the senate. T h e provincia Africa, to which the epithet proconsulates was applied,
combined the two provinces successively established by R o m e in North Africa: one
had consisted of the Punic territory conquered in - 1 4 6 , and was k n o w n as Africa
Vetus, and the other had been created by Caesar after his African campaign against the
Pompeians and their ally, King Juba I of Numidia, and was called Africa Nova. In
addition to these territories there were the four Cirtean colonies which Caesar had
assigned to the Italian adventurer P . Sittius.
As in republican times, the R o m a n senate continued during the imperial period to
delegate a governor in Africa. H e was one of the t w o senior ex-consuls present in
R o m e at the time of drawing lots for the provinces; he therefore bore the title of
proconsul and, unless his term of office was prolonged as an exceptional measure, he
held his appointment in Carthage for only one year. In addition to his judicial
prerogatives, by virtue of which he was the supreme judge of the province both in
civil and in criminal cases, he was invested with administrative and financial powers;
he directed the execution of major public works and sanctioned expenditure; he
exercised supreme control over the department responsible for keeping R o m e supplied
with African corn, and over the operation of the fiscal system the proceeds of which
were earmarked for the aerarium Satumi, the treasury of the senate. H e was assisted by
pro-praetor legates, one of w h o m resided in Carthage itself, and the other at
Hippone, and by a quaestor, w h o was in charge of the financial administration.
Furthermore, as already mentioned, he was provided with a small contingent of
troops, about 1,600 strong, for the maintenance of law and order.
The emperor could intervene in the affairs of the senatorial province either directly or,
as was most often the case, through a resident equestrian procurator, w h o was an imperial
official responsible for the management of the vast imperial domains and for the col-
lection of certain indirect taxes, sich as the vicésima hereditatium, which supplied the
military treasury controlled by the emperor. The procurator also had a measure of judi-
cial power, limited in principle to the settlement of tax disputes. From the year + 135
he was assisted by a procurator Patrimonii, for the administration of the domains, and a
procurator M l Publicorum Africae, for the administration of thefiscalrevenues.
Meanwhile, proconsular Africa, unlike the majority of senatorial provinces, could
not be deprived of troops. While the north-eastern part, which corresponded to the
old province of Africa Vetus, was very quiet, this was not the case in the southern
regions, where the R o m a n authorities needed a military garrison to guard and
gradually to extend the supposedly pacified zone. These troops, consisting mainly of
the Legio III Augusta, were commanded by an imperial legate subordinate to the
proconsul, w h o was therefore in the position of being able to assert the military
authority of the republican governors responsible to the senate. However, this
situation could not last indefinitely without arousing the emperor's distrust. It was
not long before Caligula decided, in pursuance of a general policy of restricting the
powers of the civil governors and reducing the authority and autonomy of the senate,
to make an important politico-military change in the organization of proconsular
Africa: the military c o m m a n d was taken out of the hands of the civil government,
and this resulted- in the creation, de facto if not de jure, of a military territory of
Numidia under the authority of the legate in c o m m a n d of the Legio III Augusta. A s
264 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

early as + 3 9 , the status of the official entrusted with this special c o m m a n d must have
stood halfway between that of the legates w h o were governors of provinces and that
of the legates w h o were deputies of the general of the legions.
Septimus Severas eventually regularized the position by raising the military
territory to the dignity of a province: this was the province of Numidia, probably
created in + 1 9 8 to + 1 9 9 . It was administered by the legate of the legion, w h o was
also called the praeses and was directly nominated and transferred by the emperor, and
its western frontier still followed the left bank of the Ampsaga (Oued-el-
Kébir), passed to the west of Cuicul and Zarai, cut across the Hodna plain and
dipped southwards in the direction of Laghwät.
Between the Ampsaga and the Atlantic there lay the Kingdom of Mauretania
which had been bequeathed by King Bocchus the Younger to the R o m a n empire as
far back as - 3 3 . Octavian, the future Augustus, accepted the legacy and availed
himself of the opportunity to plant eleven colonies of veterans in the country, but
in - 2 5 he gave up the kingdom to Juba II, w h o was succeeded by his son Ptolemy
in + 2 3 . In + 4 0 , Caligula, judging that the time for direct administration had arrived,
caused Ptolemy to be assassinated. Finally, Claudius decided, at the end of + 4 2 , to
organize the t w o provinces of Mauretania: Caesariensis to the east and Tingitana
to the west, separated by the Mulucha (Moulouya). Like Numidia, both Mauretanian
provinces came directly under the authority of the emperor.
The remodelling of the military system in North Africa became a necessity w h e n
the African legion, the III Augusta, was disbanded under Gordian III. The c o m m a n d
was finally entrusted to the Count of Africa, w h o had the troops of all the African
provinces under his authority. This army of the fourth century was very different
from that of the earlier empire; the attacks by the Moorish kabilas made it essential to
build up a mobile army, a striking force always ready to take swift action in zones of
insecurity. It was composed of legionary infantry units and cavalry detachments
recruited mainly from the Romanized peasants living in the vicinity of the camps.
However, military service gradually became a hereditary andfiscalobligation, and this
inevitably impaired the value of the contingents. In addition to this mobile army,
regarded as crack troops, there were the limitanei, peasant-soldiers w h o were allotted
plots of land situated along the limes. They were exempted from the payment of taxes
and were required, in return, to guard the frontier and repulse any raiding kabilas.
Like those in the east, the limitanei of Mauretania Tingitana were organized in tradi-
tional units - wings, cohorts - but all other African provinces were divided, instead,
into geographical sectors, each taking its orders from a Praepositus limitis. Archaeological
evidence of various kinds, found particularly in the eastern sector of the limes, shows
that the limitanei were grouped around fortified farms and lived off the land,
frequently introducing irrigation by canals. They thus contributed to the development
of agriculture and h u m a n settlement on the confines of the Sahara and made the limes
more a zone of trade and cultural contacts than a line of separation between the
R o m a n provinces and the independent part of the country which had remained
Berber.
Concurrently with the military reforms, there was a radical revision of the
territorial organization of the provinces. It is n o w established, however, that the
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 265

reorganization was carried out gradually, having regard to the needs and conditions
prevailing in each province. In order to strengthen the imperial authority, while at the
same time curtailing the authority of the proconsul whose power often played into the
hands of usurpers, and to increase the revenue from taxes to finance defence measures
against the threatened onslaughts on the frontiers, proconsular Africa was split into
three autonomous provinces: in the north, Zeugitana, or the proconsular province in
the proper sense of the term, extended southwards as far as a line running between
Ammaedara and Pupput, near H a m m a m e t ; westwards, it included Calama, Thubur-
sian Numidarum and Theveste. However, the proconsul in Carthage was still an
important official. H e was a clarissimus w h o , after his term of office, often reached
the top of the consular hierarchy and ranked a m o n g the illustres. These proconsuls of
the fourth century were not infrequently of African extraction. They were always
assisted by two legates, w h o generally had family connections with them and resided
one at Carthage and the other at Hippone.
The province of Byzacium was an offshoot of the proconsular province. It stretched
from the Ammaedara-Pupput line as far as, the gates of Tacape. Westwards, it
included the regions of Mactar, Sufetula, Thelepte and Capsa. However, in the south,
the guard posts of the limes did not come under the authority of the governor of the
province of Byzacium, which, like the proconsular province, was without troops; the
posts situated near the Shott al-Djarîd were therefore the responsibility of Numidia,
while those in the south-west were under the authority of Tripolitania. The governor
of Byzacium, w h o resided at Hadrumet, was atfirstof the rank of a knight and held
the title of praeses; but possibly during the reign of Constantine and, in any case,
after + 3 4 0 , he acceded to consular status.
In the south-east, the n e w province of Tripolitania comprised two different zones:
a coastal strip stretching from Tacape to the Altars of the Philaeni, which came under
the proconsul and very probably the legation at Carthage; in the interior, the limes
region of Tripolitania was placed, until the third century, under the authority of the
commander of the Legio III Augusta, governor of the province of Numidia. This
region included the Djeffara and the Matmatas, and extended as far as the northern tip
of the Shott al-Djand.
T h e province of Numidia had a narrow outlet to the sea between the Edough
Mountains on the east and the mouth of the Ampsaga on the west, but towards the
south its territory widened out and stretched from the eastern end of the Shott
al-Hodna to the gates of Theveste. It was divided atfirstinto two zones, one
comprising the quiet region of the towns of the old Cirtean confederation around the
capital city, Cirta, and the other consisting of the turbulent mountainous region in
the south with Lambaesis as the principal settlement, but was reunified as early
as + 3 1 4 . However, it continued to be ruled by a governor of the rank of knight
exercising both the civil and the military powers, and holding the title of praeses, up
to + 3 1 6 . In that year, the civil government was entrusted to senators bearing the
n e w title of consularis provinciae, and then given the rank of clarissimi; the grea
majority belonged to the R o m a n aristocracy, on account of the landed interests which
linked the latter to this rich province. Cirta became the only capital and took the
name of Constantine, in honour of the emperor.
266 Ancient Civilizationsof Africa

i
# ' ií»»*«i* V I « ' *

iI!
'•"••'V^Kw i'

I
IIMHI
I

19.1 Mosaic from Sousse: Virgil writing the Aeneid(Photo, Bardo Museum,
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 267

19.2 Mosaic from Chebba: the triumph of Neptune (Photo, Bardo Museum, Tunis)
268 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

The problem of the administrative reorganization of the provinces of Mauretania in

the fourth century is dominated by a question of prime importance: were the interior
of Tingitana and all the western part of Caesariensis evacuated by Diocletian just
before his accession? In the light of recent research, it appears to be very doubtful
whether the region lying to the west of Mauretania Caesariensis was relinquished. O n
the other hand, it is agreed that Diocletian evacuated all the territories south of the
O u e d Loukkos in Mauretania Tingitana in + 2 8 5 . R o m e seems, however, to have
maintained purely maritime relations with the coastal towns, which would explain
h o w places like Sala could continue, under Constantine, to live within the R o m a n
orbit. Furthermore, Diocletian detached the eastern part of Mauretania Caesariensis to
make a n e w province: this was Mauretania Sitifensis, with Sitifis, the modern
Sétif, as its capital. Lastly, Mauretania Tingitana was separated for administra-
tive purposes from the rest of Africa and was attached to the diocese constituted by
the Spanish provinces.

Colonization and municipal organization

Like Greek civilization, R o m a n civilization was essentially an urban phenomenon.
The degree to which a province was civilized and Romanized was therefore deter-
mined by the closeness of the towns. In the African provinces, and particularly Africa
Proconsularis, urban life was highly developed; at least 500 cities have been counted in
North Africa as a whole.
In the republican period, no cities had yet been admitted to a share of R o m a n
citizenship; there were only seven cities of Phoenician origin, enjoying a measure of
autonomy which was not invulnerable to political vicissitudes: these were the cities
which had sided with R o m e during the last Punic war. Their traditional institutions
were formally recognized and they were also exempted from the land tax, the
Stipendium. Meanwhile, R o m a n rule tolerated, but did not legally protect, the
institutions of the other African cities, which continued to apply the Phoenician
administrative system and to be headed by sujfetes and councils of notables, while
paying the Stipendium. Colonists cannot, therefore, have lived only in Carthage; later
on, at all events, they must have been scattered in a number of small towns. It was
also necessary, no doubt, to expropriate the previous landowners and m o v e them
elsewhere. The fate of R o m e ' s first attempt at colonization in Africa is well k n o w n :
for political motives rooted in the hatred felt by the R o m a n aristocracy for
G . Gracchus, the reformer and leader of the popular part, and also for economic rea-
sons arising out of the fact that the settlers were humble and impecunious folk and
rarely of peasant stock, the venture failed; so it was that this colonization project
merely served, in the last analysis, as a pretext for overthrowing the popular party and
permitting wealthy m e n , senators and knights, to carve vast estates out of the African
territories conquered by the republic.
In reviving the plans of his adoptive father Julius Caesar, Augustus Octavius
initiated a n e w epoch in the history of Africa, a n e w political pattern, and a
far-reaching administrative, military and religious programme. According to the list
supplied by Pliny, whose sources still give rise to m u c h controversy, there were soon
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 269

six R o m a n colonies, fifteen oppida civium romanorum, one oppidum latinum, one
oppidum immune and thirty oppida libera.
The emperors w h o succeeded Augustus continued to apply his policy; under
Marcus Aurelius there were more than thirty-five colonies distributed throughout the
African provinces. A s a general rule, the immigrants were veterans w h o had served in
legions disbanded as a result of the reorganization of the army; there were also Italians
w h o had been evicted or ruined by the agricultural crisis in the peninsula. T h e
number of the latter was not so large, however, as to turn the African provinces into
resettlement areas. But the rational implantation of these colonies took well into
account defensive and economic considerations.

Economic life
T h e population
W e have no contemporary estimate, however approximate, of the size of the
population in R o m a n times. It was necessary, of course, to organize a census
periodically for fiscal purposes, but the returns have not come d o w n to us. In this
field, therefore, w e are reduced all too often to barely adequate methods of arriving at
possible figures: the application of a mean density coefficient in computing the total
number of inhabitants, and, especially, the use of the topographical argument, in
combination with various considerations, in attempting to assess, in particular, the
number of town-dwellers.
M o r e recently, A . Lézine has presented a point of view regarding the urban
population which is at variance with that of G . Charles-Picard; arguing, like the
latter, that living conditions and density of population in the Tunisian Sahel were very
similar during the Middle Ages to those existing in ancient times, he has attempted to
calculate the size of the population of Sousse towards the end of the tenth century,
and that of the population of Carthage between + 1 5 0 and +238. H e has finally
arrived at the number of 1,300,000 town-dwellers. If w e were to accept this
conclusion, while retaining the figure of 4 million proposed by C . Courtois for the
total population, the figure for country-dwellers would appear more reasonable.
However, a fresh approach to these demographic problems has been suggested by
recent research work; instead of relying only on the data yielded by the census of
ancient times, the density of population, the relative numbers of domus and insulae,
and. the number of recipients of doles of corn, w e n o w also take into account the
number of tombs per generation and the summae honorariae paid by newly appointed
magistrates at a rate varying according to their rank and the size of the town.

Agriculture
It is c o m m o n knowledge that agriculture was the mainstay of the economy of ancient
times; in Africa during the R o m a n period, the land was the principal and most highly
prized source of wealth and social consideration. It is also a platitude to say that Africa
270 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

was the granary of R o m e . This expression has sometimes been used to imply that it
once enjoyed proverbial abundance contrasting with the poverty of modern times, so
as to bring in an ill-informed verdict relating to the degeneration of the population,
totally disregarding the complex problems which have created the conditions of
underdevelopment. Here w e are really obliged to repeat a truth which cannot have
been overlooked by historians: in point of fact, Africa was the granary of R o m e
because, being a vanquished country, it was forced to keep the conqueror supplied
with corn by way of tribute. Under Augustus, for instance, 200,000 R o m a n s received
a free ration of 44 litres of corn per month, totalling about a million bushels. In any
event the theory of Africa's remarkable prosperity and exceptionally high yields of
corn in R o m a n times has been demolished by the geographer J. Despois.
At first, the R o m a n conquest brought in its wake a decline in agriculture, as in
the African economy as a whole. T h e Carthaginian chora was laid waste and its
arboriculture was abandoned, for Italy was then in control of the wine and oil market
and saw to it that there was no competition in these lucrative branches of husbandry.
Corn-growing was the only one to be carried on, and in the reign of Augustus it
started to expand for a political reason which was to prevail up to the end of the
R o m a n rule, namely, the need to ensure food supplies for the R o m a n plebs. After
R o m e had pushed the frontiers farther to the west and south and had embarked upon
the policy of confining the kabllas to circumscribed areas, while pursuing an active
land development policy, particularly through the extension of the great hydraulic
projects, there was a sharp rise in the figures for corn production. By the time that
Nero was on the throne Africa, w e k n o w , was already keeping the capital of the
empire supplied with corn for eight months of the year: it has thus been calculated
that the African contribution was 18 million bushels, or 1,260,000 quintals. During
the period of great prosperity in Africa, from the middle of the second century
until +238, the position improved, owing, in particular, to the cultivation of the
virgin lands of Numidia and also those of the Mauretanian provinces, but Africa had
to meet n e w fiscal exactions, as w h e n the military annona was converted, under
Septimius Severus, into a regular pecuniary charge. From the second century
onwards, however, large investments in public buildings are a sign of prosperity
among the upper classes and, in particular, a m o n g the urban middle class. The truth is
that, in this period, the imperial government allowed the provinces more freedom of
action in developing their economy, whereas Italy was suffering from a crisis which
had already become a problem under the Claudian emperors and was still unsolved.
From the very beginnings of the occupation, the mark of R o m a n colonization was
a chequer-work of agrarian units - the centuriation; the soil of Africa was divided
into squares measuring 710 metres across, which formed a perfectly symmetrical
chess-board pattern. Having become the property of the R o m a n people by right of
conquest, these lands were classified in several categories under complicated property
laws which were constantly changing. Except in Mauretania, where no restrictions
were placed on rights of way, ethnic property steadily lost ground to the ever-
expanding area occupied by colonists. A huge operation designed to contain the
kaíñlas within certain areas was unremittingly pursued under the early empire, and
was even stepped up in the Severan period w h e n the limes was pushed forward in
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 271

19.4 Tripoli (the ancient town

ofOea, Libya) triumphal arch of
Marcus Aurelius (P. Salama)
272 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Tripolitania, Numidia and Mauretania, involving violent expropriation action against

the kahtlas, w h o were driven into the desert. However, indigenous landowners living
in the cities, whose property was not expropriated for the benefit of R o m a n or Latin
settlers, generally kept their estates on condition that they paid the Stipendium from
which very few of the indigenous cities were exempt. Another real property category
was composed of lands distributed to the R o m a n citizens - veterans, R o m a n or
Italian immigrants of small means - w h o settled in the colonies, the oppida civium
romanoTUtn, the pagi. In course of time, however, the legal status of the lands of the
indigenous cities and that of the properties of the R o m a n cities became
indistinguishable as municipal constitutions developed a tendency to integrate the
autochthonous communities.
The status and organization of the great imperial domains are k n o w n to us, thanks
to four major inscriptions and other evidence yielded by the rich store of African
epigraphs. They have handed d o w n to us texts of prime importance, such as the Lex
Manciana and the Lex Hadriana which are not 'laws' within the meaning of R o m a n
public law, but working regulations. In the opinion of many writers, they applied to
the whole of the ager publiais existing throughout the empire. In any event, w e only
have detailed knowledge of the management methods applying to the imperial
domains. These were leased to contractors k n o w n as conductores, w h o employed
managers (villici) to run them. T h e villicus developed the resources of part of the
domain himself; he probably used slaves and farm labourers, as well as the compulsory
services demanded of the colonists. These colonists were freemen w h o farmed the
greater part of the domain as sub-tenants of the conductores. T h e main purpose of
the Lex Manciana and the Lex Hadriana was to determine the rights and duties of the
conductores and their villici, on the one hand, and those of the farmers (coloni), on
the other hand; the principle was that, in return for the delivery of one-third of their
annual crops and a specified number of days of labour on the land which was under
the direct management of the villicus, the farmers enjoyed, on their respective plots of
land, the right of use, which they could bequeath to their heirs and even sell, on
condition that the new holder of the right left the farming cycle undisturbed for t w o
consecutive years. T h e management of the domains was supervised by a strictly
graded body of imperial officials.

Industry and trade

It has generally been noticed that epigraphs andfigurescarved on monuments yield
m u c h less information in Africa than in other western provinces about the life of
craftsmen and hired w o r k m e n . However, while metal-working seems to have been
less prevalent in the African provinces, w e must not be tempted to indulge in
generalizations; it could be pointed out, for example, that the epigraphical material
contains very few references to builders and architects, although their works cover
innumerable archaeological sites in Africa. In any event, the technological stagnation
of the R o m a n period was not conducive to any large-scale development of the
industries of antiquity. In these circumstances, the leading industries were concerned
with the processing of agricultural products, and particularly the manufacturing of
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 273

olive-oil; the ruins of olive-presses, which are found in such profusion in the area
stretching from Sefetula to Thelepte and Tebessa, testify to the importance of oil in
the economy of ancient times, not only as the staple fat for h u m a n consumption, but
also as the sole fuel for lamps and an essential toilet requisite.
T h e pottery industry, which was associated to a variable degree with the olive-oil
industry, met the demand for lamps and containers, in addition to producing domestic
utensils. In Punic times, the local industry concentrated on turning out everyday
articles, and the more delicate specimens of the potter's art were imported at first
from Greece and Etruria and later from southern Italy.
Africa thus succeeded in breaking free from its economic dependence, and its
foreign trade regained some of the importance of Punic times. Port facilities were
extended to keep pace with the development of the exportable resources of the
hinterland and to handle the quantities of grain and oil to be shipped to Italy; the
main dealings were with Ostia, the harbour which was R o m e ' s outlet to the sea. O n
the site of Ostia have been found, a m o n g the schöbe (offices) of the shipping
corporations, no fewer than nine buildings which belonged to the African corpora-
tions of Mauretania Caesariensis, Musluvium, Hippo Diarrhytus, Carthage, Curubis,
Missus, G u m m i , Sullectum and Sabratha. These domini navium or navicularii, w h o
formed corporations, were collectively responsible for the transport of commodities to
Italy; they were granted special privileges as early as the reign of Claudius, and they
were organized, up to the time of Septimius Severus, according to the principle of free
association.
Texts surviving from ancient times, as well as archaeological and epigraphical finds,
have a great deal to tell us about Africa's internal trade. W e k n o w from such sources
that nundinae (fairs) were held in rural centres on different days of the week, like the
present-day souks. In villages, macella (provision-markets) were established on a site
consisting of a square surrounded by porticoes on to which there opened the booths of
the various merchants. A number of such sites have been excavated, notably at Leptis,
where kiosks were equipped with standard instruments for measuring length and
capacity which were inspected by the municipal aediles. Other deals and transactions
were concluded on the forum or in the shops and covered markets of the towns
(occupied by bankers and money-changers, tavern-keepers, cloth-merchants, and so
on). T h e roads which were originally designed to serve the purposes of conquest and
colonization soon had a stimulating effect on trade because, of course, they facilitated
the transport of goods. Under Augustus and his successors, t w o roads of strategic
importance linked Carthage with the south-west, via the valley of the Miliana, and
with the south-east via the coast. T h e third side of the triangle was constituted by the
Ammaedara-Tacape strategic highway, which was the first route attested by mile-
stones. Under the Flavians and the first Antonines, the road system was greatly
extended, in particular by the construction of the Carthage-Theveste highway;
around the former military centres of Theveste and Lambaesis, a network of roads
encircled the Aures and Nementcha Mountains and stretched northwards towards
Hippo-Regius.
M u c h research has been done on the various technical questions relating to R o m a n
roads: lay-out,-structure, bridges and viaducts, auxiliary buildings for the use of
274 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

travellers. T h e R o m a n rulers were very conscious of the strategic and colonizing

importance of the highways, their administrative role, and also their economic role; in
this connection, special attention has been devoted, for example, to the route of the
marble trade between Simitthu and Thabraca, and a study has been made of the sites
of the horrea and mansiones (barns and warehouses) situated at crossroads and at various
points along the roads for the storage of the grain and oil delivered to the tax-
collectors.

T h e relations between the African provinces and the peoples of the Sahara
It has long been k n o w n that the R o m a n s had three great Saharan fortresses on the
confines of the desert, in the south of Tripolitania: they were those of B u Ndjem,
Gheria al-Gherbia and Ghadâmes, which was called Cidamus in ancient times.
They were situated on the borderline between the desert and a zone under R o m a n
control inhabited by sedentary peasants w h o lived in fortified farms and were mainly
engaged in the cultivation of olive-trees in the drainage basins of the wadis. In this
region, an original type of civilization developed, bearing the mark of strong local
traditions on to which Punic influences had been grafted. T h e indigenous traditions
and the Punic imprint, illustrated, in particular, by the numerous inscriptions in local
alphabets, and by the survival of the Punic language up to the eve of the Arab invasion,
proved adaptable, however, to the n e w w a y of life introduced by the R o m a n s . T h e
fortresses commanded the main routes linking the coast with the Fezzân, the land of the
Garamantes. As far back as - 1 9 , Cornelius Balbus had attacked these Garamantes and,
according to Pliny, had subdued several of their towns and fortresses, including
Garama and Cidamus. Later, possibly in the reign of Domitian, an expedition led by
Julius Maternus set out from Leptis M a g n a and reached Garama. Accompanied by the
King of the Garamantes and his army, the expedition then travelled as far as the
country of the Ethiopians and the region of Agisymba where, w e are told, rhinocer-
oses were to be seen. This shows that the R o m a n s were primarily interested in the
Fezzan in so far as this permanent caravan base enabled them to approach the fringe of
trans-Saharan Africa. T h e caravan trade brought black slaves, ostrich feathers, wild
beasts, emaralds and carbuncles from the Sahara. In exchange, the R o m a n provinces
supplied wine, metal objects, pottery, textiles and glassware, as has been shown by
the excavations carried out, in particular, at the necropolises of the Fezzân.

The rise of Romano-Berbers and problems of African society

Under Augustus and his successors, the population of the African provinces was
composed of three groups distinguished from each other by the laws that governed
them, as well as by their languages and customs: R o m a n or Italian immigrants;
Carthaginians and settled Libyans w h o had incorporated Punic institutions and
practices into their o w n traditions, the latter being in the majority; nomadic Libyans
w h o were severely restricted to certain areas or were banished entirely from the
regions containing the usable land they had been forced to surrender.
It has often been said, quite correctly, that the African provinces were not regarded
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 275

19.5 Timgad, ancient city of Thamagudi, Algeria: avenue and arch of Trajan (P. Salama)
19.6 Lebda, ancient city ofLeptis Magna, Libya: Roman amphitheatre (P. Salama)
276 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

as resettlement areas: in the reign of Hadrian, colonies of veterans ceased to be

founded in proconsular Africa, and those in Numidia were henceforth established for
the benefit of soldiers recruited in African towns. A s w e have seen above, the status of
the latter rose steadily until it had become completely Romanized: virtually all
indigenous town-dwellers had been integrated, and particularly the most
wealthy - w h o sought by this means to escape from the socio-economic and juridical
inferiority imposed upon them as a result of the R o m a n conquest - by the time that
the constitutio Antonina was promulgated in + 212. This granted R o m a n citizenship to
all the free inhabitants of the empire w h o had not yet acquired it, except for the
deditkii. Septimius Severus had already followed the example of the Antonines in
elevating an immense number of communities to the rank of municipium or even
cobnia; non-citizens came to be in the minority, so that the existence of inferior
juridicalrightsbecame less and less defensible by comparison with the need to simplify
the administrative andfiscalsystems, and with the trends in favour of political, legal,
ethical and religious universalism.
Thus, ethnic distinctions tended to disappear only in the cities, which, however,
were very numerous, especially in proconsular Africa. Social distinctions took their
place in urban communities. T h e t w o highest social classes, the senators and knights,
enjoyed a status defined by the property qualification and reflected in insignia and
titles. Although the property qualification was necessary, it was not sufficient in
itself, whereas the principle of heredity was always applied; unless the emperor
conferred the rank of senator or knight as a special favour, it was acquired solely by
right of birth. T h efirstsenator of African stock came from Cirta; he lived in the reign
of Vespasian. A century later, around the year + 1 7 0 , the number of African senators
had risen to about a hundred, forming the second largest group, after the group
composed of m e n of Italian stock. Similarly thefirstAfrican knight k n o w n to history,
w h o came from Musti, was given the gold ring by Tiberius, and by Hadrian's time
there were several thousand knights in proconsular Africa and Numidia. W e see that
the rise of the Romano-Berbers was a prominent feature öf the Antonine-Severan
period, w h e n Africans were playing an important role in R o m e and the empire.
The main social force which had made it possible, under the early empire, and in
the interests of the emperors themselves, to infuse fresh blood into the aristocratic
orders, ensuring that the order of knighthood, in particular, maintained the high
standard of professional competence and personal qualities required for the perfor-
mance of its dual function, was undoubtedly the urban middle class, which might be
called the municipal bourgeoisie.
The decurión middle class constituted the very backbone of Romanized communi-
ties in Africa. Under the early empire, it recruited its members almost entirely from a
certain stratum of the land tenure structure: the decurión lived in town on the income
derived from his property, but he did not o w n a latifundium, nor was he a peasant,
and, even if he felt attached to his land, he preferred a bourgeois style of living. H e
might be very rich: to make a name for himself in the city and earn the gratitude of
his fellow-townsmen, he had to be lavish with gifts, which he distributed on a scale
dictated by his vanity as m u c h as by his generosity. H e organized municipal games,
gave doles of food and m o n e y to the poor, or erected and maintained public buildings.
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Ajrica 277

19.7 Haidra, Tunisia: sixth century Byzantine fortress, general view (P. Salama)
19.8 Haidra, Tunisia: Byzantinefortress, detail(P. Salama)
278 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

T h e cities were all determined to have their forum, complete with statues on their
pedestals, their senate-house, their basilica for the courts of justice, baths, libraries,
magnificent and costly edifices for the municipal games as well as a multitude of
temples in honour of official or traditional gods.
Even though the theory of the decline of the towns in the fourth century n o w has
to be revised, since there is epigraphical evidence of relatively intense building activity
and archaeology has revealed sumptuously decorated dwellings even during the third
century. T h e social pattern of urban life was very different under the late empire from
that prevailing under the early empire. Agriculture was still the main source of the
income of the best people in the towns, but the decurions, representing the middle
class which had hitherto governed through the city councils, were supplanted by an
oligarchy of great landowners, the municipal primates or principales, w h o had m?de
their fortune by exporting the corn and oil of their estates and had thus gained
admission to the imperial nobility. These m e n of substance, w h o enjoyed the support
of the imperial government, acceded to the highest positions in municipal and
provincial government; they reconstructed public buildings destroyed in the third
century or restored those falling apart with age, and embellished their cities, knowing
that such activities opened the w a y to a career. T h e emperors adapted their urban
policy to these social changes; the essential aim was to encourage the growth of
towns, not only because it was one of the principal factors on which the empire's
taxation system was based, but primarily because towns formed a solid rampart
against the menace of the alleged barbarians.
In rural areas, it was still unusual, during the fourth -century, for great African
landowners to live permanently on their estates in isolation from the rest of the
world; they continued to take some interest in the embellishment of the cities and in
municipal life. But at the end of the century thefirstsigns appeared of a trend towards
a seigneurial type of agriculture; the dotninus, w h o had become progressively more
independent on his lands, appropriated more and more of the prerogatives of the
defaulting state, policing his o w n domain and even exercising the power of justice
within its boundaries. W i t h the introduction of the taxation system of the iugatio-
capitatio, it was in the interests both of the imperial treasury and of the large landed
proprietors that there should be no change, on a given property, in the productive
units of labour and land. Lay and ecclesiastical landlords were thus able, with the aid
on the imperial administration, to debar the coloni from attempting to improve their
lot, and succeeded in trying them to the land.

Religious life and the advent of Christianity

R o m a n domination had practically no inhibiting effect upon the worship of the
traditional deities venerated by the indigenous population. T h e old Berber cults often
continued, in humble rural sanctuaries, to be observed in their ancestral forms, but in
some cases they were absorbed into the cults of the Graeco-Roman deities. For
instance, the cult of the god of fertility and health-giving waters was sometimes
masked by that of Neptune, Aesculapius or Serapis. In the regions which had
belonged to the Numidian kingdoms, where Punic influence was profound and
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 279

durable, a pantheon of native gods was even adumbrated. But the majority of the
population of the African provinces practised the cults of Saturn and the Graeco-
R o m a n equivalents of the old gods of Carthage; the religion of this African Saturn
was merely a continuation of that of Baal H a m m o n , just as Juno-Caelestis, the chief
deity of R o m a n Carthage, was none other than Tanit, the great goddess of Punic
Carthage.
As regards the empire's official cults, it was not long before they were honoured in
the cities; loyalty to R o m e had to be expressed, in particular, through the observance
of religious practices, which was an integral part of R o m a n civilization. In each city
the cult of the Capitoline triad, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, that of Mars, father and
protector of the R o m a n people, of Venus, Ceres, Apollo, Mercury, Hercules and
Bacchus, were other official forms of the empire's religion and of Graeco-Roman
spiritual life. Temples and statues, altars and sacrifices were everywhere to be found in
honour of these deities.
The deities of the eastern regions of the empire, readily accepted in R o m e , were
also honoured in Africa where they were introduced by officials, soldiers and
merchants, w h o spread the'cult of Isis, Mithras or Cybele, these being sometimes
identified with local gods, as, for example, Isis with Demeter or Cybele with
Caelestis.
It is remarkable that Latin should have w o n recognition as the language of African
Christianity from the outset, while the R o m a n church was still using Greek.
According to Tertullian, w h o lived at the end of the second and the beginning of the
third century, there were large numbers of Christians in Africa at that time,
belonging to all classes and all occupations. It was possible to hold a synod of
seventy-one bishops at Carthage around the year +220; ninety bishops attended
another synod convened about +240. This shows that small Christian communities
were scattered in many African cities, constituting what the empire no doubt
regarded as a serious danger. It was true that by rejecting the imperial ideology and
particularly by refusing to participate in the cult of the emperor, the Christians were
resolutely adopting the stance of an opposition movement. In spite of its broad-
minded outlook and its usually tolerant attitude towards n e w cults, R o m e could not
compromise with a sect which aimed to create an ever-widening network of groups
pursuing a different ideal outside the framework of the official institutions. Harsh
penalties were, therefore, inflicted upon the Christians.
There is no room in this brief account for a review of the history of African
Christianity, which was at its zenith in the period between the peace w o n by the
church in the fourth century and the establishment of the Arabs in North Africa. A
special study might be devoted to this complex question, which involves more
especially a survey of the Donatist schism and, of course, of Christian literature from
Tertullian to Saint Augustine, whose personality and work were the last brilliant
product of the R o m a n way of life in Africa.

African culture
After being long neglected by writers of R o m a n history, the art of the provinces and
280 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

outlying cultures has n o w become the centre of attention. This is due to a clearer
understanding of the limits of Romanization and the different forms it took in its
contacts with indigenous societies. Furthermore, there is no denying the truth that
the art of a given province cannot be dissociated from its economic, social and
religious life.
In this connection, it became necessary, in order to study and appreciate the art
developed in the African provinces under R o m a n rule, to take account of the
enduring Libyco-Punic substratum which, moreover, continued to follow its o w n
pattern of life and evolution for centuries.
Phoenician and Punic culture, mixed with Egyptian and Oriental elements, and
impregnated with Hellenistic influences after the fourth century before the Christian
era, was adopted and adapted by the native population before, but mainly after, the
destruction of Carthage. Lastly, the Italo-Roman contributions, being more signifi-
cant and more directly imposed, inevitably generated hybrid varieties which are often
difficult to define. It has become customary, however, to distinguish between t w o
cultures in Africa, one being official and R o m a n , and the other popular, indigenous
and provincial. But there are monuments, of course, in which the t w o trends meet
and contaminate each other, so that they lose their separate identities.
African architectural works generally reproduced types of public monuments which
were prevalent throughout the R o m a n world, and accordingly derived their inspira-
tion from an essentially R o m a n technique and ideal. Nor were ornamental sculptures
and the great statues of gods, emperors and prominent m e n very different in style
from their counterparts in Italy or in other provinces. However, architectural or
sculptural creations linked with the religious or funeral traditions of the population, as
well as certain special construction or decoration techniques, bear the stamp of local
characteristics. This is evident in the temples raised to deities w h o retained their native
individuality despite their apparent identification with R o m a n gods, in certain
monumental sepulchres, in a special wall-building technique k n o w n as 'opus africum',
in domestic architecture and, lastly, in the votive stelae still imbued with pre-Roman
influences.
The countless mosaics brought to light since the beginning of this century also
display local tendencies and characteristics. Here w e can only refer the reader to the
specialized periodicals and to La Civilization de l'Afrique Romaine by G . Charles-
Picard, w h o brings his chapter on the 'African baroque' to a close with the following
words: ' T o say the very least, therefore, Africa fully repaid her debt to R o m e , and
showed that she was capable of reaping benefits from her borrowings in a spirit which
is neither that of Greece nor that of the Hellenized Levant.'

PART II: From Rome to Islam

W h e n R o m a n domination ended in North Africa, after holding sway for four
centuries in some regions, and for up to five in others, the internal situation presented
a complex picture. Regional risings, religious conflicts, social unrest, all led to a
worsening climate, but the soundness of administrative experience and the prestige of
Latin culture gave this imported civilization a good m a n y chances of survival.
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 281

Split into vanquished or independent zones according to the vicissitudes of foreign

conquest or local resistance, post-Roman and pre-Islamic North Africa experienced
one of the most distinctive periods in its history.

The regions under foreign occupation

Over a period of close on three centuries, t w o foreign invaders in turn took over the
tutelage of R o m e without ever succeeding in entirely reconstituting its frontiers.
T h e Vandal episode
Nothing could have been more unexpected in North Africa than these conquerors of
Germanic origin. N o domination was less in keeping with the actual circumstances of
the country. Outstripping the other Germanic peoples w h o , like them, had swarmed
over western Europe in +406, the Vandals settledfirstof all in the south of the
Iberian peninsula which has seemingly perpetuated their name (Vandalusia =
Andalusia).
They crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, 80,000 strong, under the leadership of
their king Gaiseric (or Genseric) in +429. Their advance made lightning progress.
In + 430 they were already besieging the town of Hippone and the R o m a n s acknowl-
edged their possession of the Constantine region in +435. Three years later they took
Carthage and, after a brief withdrawal in + 442, commenced three large-scale opera-
tions in +455 - the final annexation of all the eastern zone of R o m a n Africa, the
conquest of most of the major islands in the western Mediterranean and an audacious
expedition to sack R o m e itself. T h e eastern empire, hoping to oust these intruders,
suffered a naval disaster in + 468 and acknowledged the fait accompli - a treaty
in + 4 7 4finallyestablished good relations between Byzantium and the Vandals, w h o
represented a major maritime power in the western Mediterranean.
The term 'vandalism', synonymous with the spirit of destruction, was coined only
at the end of the eighteenth century, and today, in the light of m u c h archaeological
evidence, it seems clear that, in their poor management of the territory, the Vandals
sinned more through omission than intention.
It seems that during this period neither agriculture nor trade experienced any
obvious decline. External relations seem to have been prosperous and the whole group
of Vandal possessions was termed the 'grain empire'. Symbolizing the wealth of the
well-to-do classes, fine jewellery, Germanic in style, has been found at various times
in Hippone, Carthage, Thuburbo Maius and Mactar.
O n the political and religious sides the picture is darker. O n the southern and
western flanks of their North African domain, the Vandals experienced such assaults
from the 'Moors', the general term for the North African rebels, that it is virtually
impossible to fix a definite frontier to their zone of control. It was no doubt a
fluctuating one and probably at no time extended westwards beyond the region of
Djemila-Cuicul.
In religion there was a constant climate of crisis. T h e Vandals were Christian, but
professed the Arian creed, a heresy that was intolerable to the traditional Catholic
clergy. This led to the virtually systematic repression of the clergy by a central
282 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

authority which was little inclined to put up with resistance on questions of dogma.
Anti-Catholic fury reached its climax following a pseudo-council held in Carthage
in +484.
This situation of moral and social crisis brought about a process of collapse,
hastened, in fact, by the excesses or incompetence of Gaiseric's successors. In + 5 3 0
the supplanting by Gelimer of King Hilderic, ally of Justinian, emperor of the eastern
empire, sparked off the Byzantine conquest.

T h e Byzantine episode
The court at Constantinople, regarding itself as the legitimate successor of the R o m a n
empire, resolved to expel the n e w Germanic states in the west from the territories
they had usurped. It was in North Africa that this operation proved least ineffective.
In + 533, on Justinian's orders, an expeditionary force commanded by Belisarius
wiped out Vandal authority in three months and the Vandals as such disappeared from
history. T h efirstByzantine measure, the famous edict of + 5 3 4 , which reorganized
the country's administrative structures, set the pattern that was to be followed: a
policy of both a military and legal kind, too closely based on that of the R o m a n s .
There was failure to realize that, after a hundred years and more of slackened
discipline, the rural masses would no longer accept the rigidity of administrative
conservatism; and what in fact the century and a half of Byzantine occupation in
North Africa produced were some undeniable achievements in the field of building
against a backcloth of perpetual insecurity.
O n e need only study a m a p showing the Byzantine strongholds in North Africa to
understand that the strategy of fortresses barring the invasion routes, occupying all
the crossing-points and defending the country to its very heart, was evidence of a
perpetual state of alert, necessary because the enemy loomed everywhere. T h e old
offensive spirit was accordingly replaced by defensive tactics, evincing an anxious state
of mind.
The R o m a n towns continued to decline and their populations dwindled, in the
shelter of the powerful fortresses which constituted their citadels, as at Tebessa,
Haidra or Timgad. T h e old provinces, sometimes reconstituted artificially, received
governors w h o were under the authority of a praetorian prefect established in
Carthage; but this was quite separate from the military power. At the end of the sixth
century a supreme head, the exarch or patrician, concentrated virtually all power in
his hands.
Domestic policy, stemming from R o m a n methods, naturally sought to restore the
tax revenue of old. T h e annona, the annual tax payable in wheat, was accordingly
reintroduced. Following confiscation of the royal domains of the Vandals, private
estates were given back to their former owners, the search extending, if necessary, to
the third generation of their descendants. O n e can imagine the number of legal and
material disputes this operation gave rise to. In every domain, taxation was regarded
as a crushing burden. Economic life was, however, relatively prosperous. Maintenance
of the monetary economy for all transactions, and the handing over of external trade
to official agents, gave Carthage and its hinterland a reputation of great wealth in the
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 283

Mediterranean world, all the more so since the t w o sides of the straits of Sicily were
under Byzantine authority. It is to be doubted whether the North African rural
population benefited to any great extent from this general situation.
As regards religious affairs the n e w masters re-established the traditional cult, i.e.
Orthodox Catholicism, and proscribed Arianism. A fresh revival of Donatism, which
had formerly been rife in R o m a n Africa, was severely repressed; it was, quite rightly,
regarded as a phenomenon of social strife. Byzantium even indulged in a dogmatic
crisis, that of monotheletism, a futile discussion on the divine and h u m a n natures of
Christ, and at the time of the M o h a m m e d a n conquest the North African clergy was
torn apart by this question.
From this time on, the widespread administrative or military insubordination,
abuse of power and corruption in high places, in the face of the constant Berber
threat, portended sooner or later inevitable collapse. It took some fifty years,
from + 6 4 7 to + 6 9 8 , for a n e w and unexpected visitor, the Arab conqueror, to wipe
out the Byzantine rule for ever.

The independent regions

If w e bear in mind that R o m a n Africa of the later empire had already experienced a
number of political and social transformations, w e can realize the extent to which the
arrival of the Vandals served as a liberating channel for these old tendencies. 'Eternal
Africa' regained its rights and the foreign presence, near or far, was no longer
regarded as a burden. It would be a delusion, then, to differentiate, in psychological
terms, between the regions governed by Berber princes and nominally owing alle-
giance to Vandal or Byzantine sovereignty and those regions which were completely
independent. T h e former, situated on the periphery of the zones under foreign
occupation, were decentralized to such a point that they were constantly breaking
away from the central authority. T h e Byzantine rulers in fact approved the grant of
official investiture to Iavdas in the Aures, to Guenfan, Antalas and Coutzina in the
high Tunisian steppes and to Carcazan in Tripolitania; all these 'vassals' freely
administered the territories settled on them, and there was virtually no question of
their ever being taken back from them.
As regards the zones which were quite free from external interference, some of them
remote from Vandal or Byzantine strongholds, in the former Mauretania Caesariensis
and Mauretania Tingitana, they enjoyed absolute independence from + 429 onwards
and their rulers did not interfere in their neighbours' affairs unless it was to gain
some personal advantage.
Here w e again come up against one of the main constants in the history of the
Maghrib of classical times - the tendency towards territorial division and rivalry the
m o m e n t a centralizing force has disappeared. Political division is then governed by
geographical considerations.
Very little, unfortunately, is k n o w n of the structure of this post-Roman indepen-
dent North Africa. S o m e kingdoms were formed there by large socio-political federa-
tions, only revealed to us by rare literary allusions or chance archaeological findings.
There w a s , for instance, at the beginning of the sixth century, in the Altaya and
284 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Tlemcen region, the government of Masuna, 'king of the Moors and the R o m a n s ' ; a
little later, in the Aures, the reign of a certain Masties, 'dux for sixty-seven years,
imperator for forty years', w h o never repudiated his faith 'either towards the R o m a n s
or the Moors'. Vartaia, another local ruler, pays his tribute; he is perhaps ruler of the
zone of Hodna. There is no doubt that the town of Tiâret, a former citadel of the
R o m a n limes, admirably situated at the junction of the nomad and settled worlds, was
also, as far back as the fifth century, the capital of a dynasty whose power is still
symbolized by the Djedars of Frenda, great tombs of impressive majesty. The power-
ful Garmul, King of Mauretania, w h o destroyed a Byzantine army in + 571 ought also
perhaps to be considered in this connection. Lastly, during the sixth and seventh
centuries, an indigenous principality existed in distant Tingitana in the northern part
of what is n o w Morocco, whose vitality is attested by the inscriptions at Volubilis and
the Mausoleum of Souk el-Gour.
In most cases, the socio-political organization reveals a structure that is neither
sketchy nor anarchical. Original institutions combined Berber traditions and the
R o m a n administrative model. 'Moors' and ' R o m a n s ' were associated, a formula
which certainly implies collaboration between the peasant element, non-Romanized,
and the city-dwellers, with several centuries of Latin influence behind them. There
was, then, no kind of challenge to an administrative and cultural heritage which was
foreign in origin, and which at times was a source of some pride. The historical m a p
for these regions shows the survival of small urban centres such as Tiäret, Altaya,
Tlemcen and Volubilis, still Christian in character, where the use of Latin was still
current practice until the seventh century.
Behind the tumultuous events of this time, which fanned violence over a long
period until ultimately a balance was reached, w e can imagine an economic and social
background which led to the gradual impoverishment of the people in general. In
statistics which w e have, for example, for the number of dioceses in the year + 484 in
Mauretania Caesariensis w e still find the names of most of the towns of classical
R o m a n Africa. Even supposing that m a n y of these had already been reduced to village
status, they none the less existed. The fact that churches were still being built, often
adorned withfinemosaics as at El A s n a m , points to creative activity, necessarily based
on remaining sources of wealth. N o doubt benefit was still being reaped from the
m o m e n t u m of the previous epoch. Archeology, however, reveals virtually nothing
comparable in the sixth and seventh centuries. T h e abandonment of the towns thus
continued at the same time as the new society, of a basically rural type - one that was
to be found everywhere in the Early Middle Ages - became consolidated.
W h a t monumental remains did thisfinalperiod bequeath to us? The districts close
to the Mauretanian littoral, where the Byzantines were ensconced, were readily open
to influences. For example, fine bronze candelabra dating from the sixth century were
found in the ruins of Mouzaiaville to the south of Tipasa. T h e very site of
Ténès was made famous by the discovery of one of the most remarkable
treasures of gold and silverware in the ancient world, including more especially the
official regalia of imperial dignitaries. Their existence in this remote place is still a
mystery. It is the author's belief that all these jewels were stolen and are perhaps
related to the sack of R o m e which was perpetrated, the texts tell us, in +455 by
The Roman and post-Roman period in North Africa 285

Vandal troops with Moorish contingents.

But once w e m o v e away from the coastal areas and the districts under foreign
occupation, building activity ceases at the end of the fifth century. There are,
however, t w o important exceptions to this rule, represented by the famous colossus-
type tombs in which the art of building recovered its pristine excellence without
necessarily being affected by any foreign influence. Thus in Morocco, the Mausoleum
of Souk el-Gour, which can be dated to the seventh century, and, in Algeria, the
Djedars of Frenda, extending chronologically from the fifth to the seventh(?)
centuries, display an architectural vigour that would be inexplicable if the local
context had been one of utter destitution. It is hardly surprising that thefirstMuslim
kingdoms in the central and western Maghrib, that of Rustumids of Tiâret, and then
of the Idrîsids of Walili (Volubilis), should have taken root precisely in these places.
A n d so the ancient period came to an end in these regions, a hybrid episode in
which the action of social and political transformations gradually eroded Latin
influence, revealing that unquenchable spirit of independence and immense stead-
fastness of purpose which is the constant hallmark of the history of North Africa.
 The Sahara
in classical antiquity

The traditional notion of 'classical antiquity' m a y appear a priori incompatible with

the study of Saharan problems. These have a very particular classification. T o take
only one example: in Mediterranean archaeology, classical antiquity covers a period of
roughly a thousand years, from thefifthcentury before the Christian era to the fifth
century of the Christian era, but in the proto-history of the Sahara it would cover the
end of the 'caballine' period and part of the 'Libyco-Berber', neither of these periods,
moreover, being exactly datable. A n y absolute chronology would therefore seem to be
ruled out in this case.
Nevertheless, during that same millennium, the Saharan universe was the scene of
highly important events which were connected in large part with the history of the
Graeco-Roman world. So I have no hesitation in using classical chronological criteria,
which are valid for the whole of the k n o w n world.
H o w is the question of the Sahara of antiquity approached by the historian? First,
Graeco-Latin textual sources must be examined: while the information collected is not
always reliable, and m a y induce error, it is in principle of value. T h e next step is to
bring modern methods of scholarship to bear so as to correct the raw data little by little
and shed light on the problem as a whole. That done, the Sahara of 'antiquity' will no
longer be judged only from the outside. It will reveal its o w n personality.

Contemporary textual sources and their over-interpretation

W e k n o w the analytical methods of the ancient geographers and historians. Unable to
visit inaccessible regions themselves, they gathered second-hand information which
had a goodly share of error and fable. T h e Greeks, and later on the R o m a n s , spoke
only of Inner Libya, a very vague geographical expression signifying what lay beyond
the North African territories, or Inner Ethiopia, a zone still farther south which
derived its name from the dark skins of its inhabitants. Descriptions of these regions,
which frightened contemporaries by their sheer mysteriousness, are therefore full of
fabulous details in which m e n and animals often take on the aspect of ludicrous or
terrifying monsters.
However, even if they could not always steer away from legends, serious authors
did record valuable information and with time w e find the quality of their work
286
 The Sahara in classical antiquity 287

improves, in proportion, doubtless, as the progress of Graeco-Roman colonization in

Africa made people aware of the realities.
As early as the middle of the fifth century before the Christian era, Herodotus
obtained first-rate information as to the existence and the customs of Saharan
' populations. In his writings w e find the Garamantes hunting Troglodytes in four-
horse chariots (IV, 183). W e find the Nasamonians (IV, 172-5) pushing beyond the
wilderness of sand to discover, in a country of m e n with black skins, a great river full
of crocodiles, like the Nile. W e further learn (IV, 43) of the extraordinary exploit of
Phoenician sailors w h o managed to circumnavigate the entire African continent, east
to west, for Pharaoh in about - 6 0 0 , and then of the Persians' failure to do the same
thing, but in the opposite direction, after venturing into the Atlantic (IV, 43).
Finally, w e see the Carthaginians exchanging their trade goods for precious gold dust
on the W e s t African coast (IV, 196).
At this point in our sources comes a celebrated document which can be dated from
thefirsthalf of the fourth century before the Christian era, the Periplus of H a n n o , a
narrative of the voyage of a Carthaginian charged with exploring and colonizing that
same coast (Geographici Graeci Minores, I). Full of picturesque scenery, savages,
crocodiles and hippopotamuses, this short recital nevertheless gives t w o important
landmarks: the island of Cerne, k n o w n from another source as a depot for ivory and
skins of wild beasts (Scylax Periplus, fourth century before the Christian era,
para. 112), and a great volcano called 'the Chariot of the G o d s ' , the final stage of
Hanno's voyage along the African coast. T h e existence of these t w o points w a s to be
confirmed in the second century before the Christian era by the voyage of the Greek
historian Polybius, though his narrative is only k n o w at second hand, through
another text (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, V , 9-10).
A most valuable text of Pliny the Elder's (Natural History, V , 5) tells of a raid in - 1 9
by the proconsul of Africa, Cornelius Balbus, against the unruly K i n g d o m of the
Garamantes of the Fezzân. Along with a few toponyms that are perfectly identifiable,
like Rhapsa (Gafsa), Cidamus (Ghadimes) or Garama (Djerma), the list of R o m a n
victories contains m a n y others that are ambiguous and Tecali the sound of modern
Saharan place names. This w a s taken as sufficient proof that the R o m a n s reached the
Niger.
T h e writer Marinus of Tyre (late first century of the Christian era) and his
commentator, the celebrated geographer Claudius Ptolemy, whose African documen-
tation goes back to the years + 1 1 0 to + 1 2 0 , report that the Governor Septimius
Flacchus, 'campaigning from a base in Libya, covered the distance from the country of
the Garamantes to the Ethiopians in a three-months' journey southwards; while on
the other hand Julius Maternus, coming from Leptis M a g n a and journeying from
Garama on in the company of the King of the Garamantes, w h o w a s marching
against the Ethiopians, reached Agisymba, an Ethiopian land where rhinoceros
abound, after four months' unbroken travel southwards' (Ptolemy, Geography, I, 8,
4). This story took on the more importance in that Ptolemy backed up his seemingly
vast knowledge of African geography with a mathematical system, longitudes and
latitudes authenticating the places mentioned. His m a p of the interior w a s furbished
out with the aid of phonetic similarities, and his w o r k produced such an impression
288 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

that once again people believed they had proof that the R o m a n s were fully acquainted
with the tropical regions of Africa, especially Niger and Chad.
Today this over-generous, exaggerated view no longer holds. Modern methods of
analysis oblige us to rethink the history of the Sahara.

The approach of present-day scholarship

T h e n e w textual criticism
Modern historians have clearly seen that three major works were in question: the
Scylax Periplus of H a n n o , the episode of Cornelius Balbus and Ptolemy's Geography.
For several years the veracity of the Scylax Periplus has been under quasi-decisive
attack. First, it has been established that ancient ships venturing beyond Cape Juby,
but exposed on the return voyage to the full force of strong trade winds, would never
have been able to get back to their base. This has therefore limited the geographical
range of Hanno's voyage to the Atlantic coast of Morocco, where recent
archaeological work has identified the ancient island of Cerne with the island of
Essaouira-Mogador. W h a t is more, a subtle method of philological comparisons goes
to show that the tale of the Scylax Periplus is simply an unskilled plagiarism from a
passage in Herodotus, hence an out-and-out forgery.
Second victim: Pliny's story of the raid by Cornelius Balbus. Analysis of m a n u -
scripts makes it possible to refute systematically any toponymie identification with
regions of the central and southern Sahara. T h e R o m a n victory therefore covered only
the south of the Maghrib and the Fezzân. Moreover, a proconsul, whose office only
lasted for one year, could scarcely have gone any farther.
Finally, Ptolemy's Geography, an imposing work, turns out to • be singularly
restricted territorially. Its longitudes and latitudes, calculated according to the norms
of antiquity, like its mountains, rivers, cities and peoples, bring us to the southern
confines of the Maghrib; and its Niger, for example, is no longer anything but a
waterway in southern Algeria. T h e Fezzân, then, would have been the most
southerly zone k n o w n to the R o m a n s , the problem of Agisymba, on the borders of
terrae incognitae, remaining open.'
N o w that w e are freed of textual constraints which were sometimes burdensome,
w e can try to see what the Sahara of antiquity itself has to show us.
W h a t were its ecological, anthropological, sociological frameworks? W h a t
archaeological remains has it revealed to us?

T h e ecological problem
Palaeoclimatically, the Sahara is k n o w n to have reached the final phase of its
desiccation in the era w e are considering. But w e have to qualify. Patches of resistance
still preserved enough humidity for the life there to be far more intense than it is in
our time. The Ahaggar, the Fezzân, the Tibesti and the northern Sahara still had a
fairly high level of habitability. This m a y explain the survival of a wild fauna which
has n o w disappeared: crocodiles in the wadis and guettas (permanent water-holes),
The Sahara in classical antiquity 289
felines in hill country. But it is doubtful that large herbivores like the elephant or the
rhinoceros could have gone on living this side of the Tibesti or even of the Kuar
country, the northern fringe of the great tropical savannahs of Chad, where,
naturally, they were plentiful.
Domestic animals held out along with m e n in the refuge-zones of habitation.
There were modern bovine breeds and flocks of goats and sheep. But it is odd to find
the donkey, beast of all w o r k of the Saharan oases, virtually unrepresented in rock
pictures.

T h e anthropological problem
For a long time it was supposed that the presence of a white population in the Sahara
was a recent phenomenon only, a regular conquest, a result of the R o m a n s ' driving
the steppe Berbers out of Maghrib territory.
Here too, the situation is becoming clearer in the light of recent w o r k both in the
Fezzân and in Saharan Algeria. It is n o w considered that during the proto-historical
period - of which antiquity was merely the final stage - the central and northern
Sahara was peopled mainly by white elements. N o w , it seems that the origin of this
physical type is no longer to be looked for towards the Maghrib but rather towards
the north-east of the African continent. W e m a y k n o w more about this w h e n definite
conclusions are obtained by the technique for studying blood-groups. O n the other
hand, it is probable that the population of the southern Sahara, to the extent that it
was inhabited on any considerable scale, consisted only of black-skinned people from
the tropical savannah.

Civilization
In the absence of absolutely reliable chronology, it seems a priori difficult to assess the
progress of Saharan civilization in antiquity, especially since it is not certain that the
different zones of this vast territory developed along the same lines. A good means of
studying the problem is to start from the cultural situation of the Sahara at the end of
the Neolithic period and, on this basis, to follow the line of development in various
fields.

Language and writing

T h e mother-language, which was pluridialectal and which for practical convenience is
called 'Berber', belongs to the Hamitic-Semitic c o m m o n trunk, but branched off
from it long ago. Its ancient form, 'Libyan', is attested in all Mediterranean African
territories and in the Canary Islands, through written examples. There is no doubt
that this language w a s introduced into the Sahara from the north or the north-east
with the immigration of white populations. N o date can be put to the event, but
Saharan writing, called 'Tifinagh', deriving from the Libyan alphabet of the Maghrib,
is a fairly late phenomenon. In the northern territories there seems to be no
unimpeachable evidence of Libyan writing before the third or second century before
the Christian era and it is accepted that the Berbers came to write their language
d o w n under Carthaginian influence. T h e w o r d 'Tifinagh' - 'Tifinar' in French
290 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

transliteration - is itself based on the root F N R which in all Semitic languages

designates the Phoenician people.
In the Sahara, Tifinagh writing gradually moved away from its Libyan ancestral
form, 'Old Tifinagh' still being fairly close to it. W e must therefore be par-
ticularly cautious irTthe dating of rock drawings called 'Libyco-Berber' with written
characters on them. Very serious mistakes can be made. Moreover, the Berber
language and alphabet m a y also have been used by negroid populations.

Socio-political organization
'Tribal' organization, inherent at that stage of evolution, was the basic political rule,
but it gave rise to incessant wars - reported with exactitude in Herodotus and
Ptolemy.
For t w o regions, however, w e have more solid data: the Ahaggar and the Fezzân
zone.
In the Ahaggar, in the second half of the fourth century of the Christian era, the
socio-political pyramid culminated in a w o m a n . W h e n her tomb was discovered,
intact, at Abalessa, the association was immediately made with the local legend of a
Queen Tin Hinan w h o had come from Moroccan Tafilâlet in distant times and was
the ancestress of the Tuareg people. In the Berber world there were several examples
of supreme authority being attributed to a holy w o m a n ; in any case the attitude
towards w o m e n in Tuareg society is a liberal one. T h e funerary equipment of this
'princess' - seven gold bracelets, eight silver bracelets, several other precious jewels -
can be approximately dated by the impression of a R o m a n coin of the emperor
Constantine going back to between + 3 1 3 and +324. As for the wooden bed on
which the body was resting, w h e n submitted to the radio-carbon test it revealed the
date + 4 7 0 ( ± 130). A s w e shall see, this dignitary's wealth can only be explained by
her privileged position both in the social hierarchy and in trans-Saharan trade. T h e
great region called the Kingdom of the Garamantes - mentioned by Herodotus as
early as thefifthcentury before the Christian era - opposed the R o m a n advance on
the southern borders of the Maghrib. Defeated by Cornelius Balbus in - 1 9 and then,
finally, by the legate Valerius Festus in + 69 the Garamantes seem to have become a
sort of client-state of the empire. Archaeological research at and around Garama has
revealed nearly ten centuries of a civilization which was partly founded on foreign
relations, from the last Punic era to the coming of the Arabs.
Thus in the Ahaggar and the Fezzân, but also throughout the northern Sahara, in
Tassili-n'-Ajjer during its last period and perhaps even in the Adrâr des Ifoghas,
supreme political power in antiquity was indisputably in the hands of an aristocracy of
a white or near-white race.
In the absence of documents, it is impossible to say whether the position was the
same on the edges of the Sahara bordering the Niger-Chad savannahs. It is very likely
that white influence had not penetrated to those parts.
As regards religion, there is no doubt that the whole of the central and southern
Sahara followed traditional religion. Only the people of the northern Sahara, in direct
contact with the Mediterranean world, m a y have been converted to Christianity in
late antiquity. O n e classical author asserts categorically that the Garamantes and the
The Sahara in classical antiquity 291

Macuritae were converted at the end of the sixth century, but archaeological research
has so far not confirmed this.

Saharan art of antiquity

In the great edifice of Abalessa which is preserved in the Ahaggar, w e find disposed
around the tomb of Tin Hinan an ambulatory which is peculiarly African in
architecture. At Tin A l k o u m , at the south-eastern opening of the Tassili-n'-Ajjer, a
series of circular tombs of traditional Saharan workmanship can be dated through
R o m a n funerary equipment of the fourth century, as can similar monuments at the
nearby necropolis of Ghat.
In the north-west Sahara, in the necropolis of Djorf Torba near Bechar - unfortu-
nately ravaged by tourists - there were even to be found inside the edifices, curious
figurative ex-votos: flat slabs, either carved or painted, some with Libyan inscriptions
or drawings of horses or h u m a n figures, in a style similar to that of late antiquity in
the Maghrib, and as yet devoid of Islamic elements.
But for the most impressive Saharan art w e must above all look at the rock
drawings. According to the traditional classification of the prehistorians, their
antiquity corresponds to the penultimate stage of rock art, the Libyco-Berber period
which follows the caballine era and precedes the Arabo-Berber. While this sequence is
correct in itself, it lacks precise chronological bases, and dating of the Libyco-Berber as
between - 200 and + 700 is still precarious. T h e presence of Old Tifinagh characters is
perhaps the least uncertain criterion, though this type of writing carrieTover into the
Muslim era. Since the horse and the wheeled vehicle were still coexisting, it is very
hard to differentiate them chronologically. Are the war chariots at the flying gallop of
the Fezzin and Tassili in an Egyptianized tradition which might g o back to the
fourteenth century before the Christian era or in a Graeco-Cyrenaican tradition
acquired, at earliest, towards the sixth? Drawings of camels cover almost all Saharan
regions, but their age, too, is hard to estimate. It is to be feared that very few of them
fall within our historical frame of reference. Libyco-Berber works, residua of the
admirable Neolithic works on whose traditions they drew, prove h o w vigorous
pictorial art was in the Sahara at the m o m e n t w h e n it was dying out in the lands to
the north.

Economic life. Internal communications and foreign relations:

a camel revolution?
F r o m time immemorial economic life in the Sahara has been linked with the problem
of communications. For classical antiquity, therefore, the enrichment of certain
regions like the Fezzân is related to their sphere of influence, presupposing the
existence of a fair amount of trading. Since internal trafficking, w e k n o w , was already
limited, the cause of this prosperity must be sought in their relations with the outside
world. This n e w situation w a s a fundamental contrast to that of the humid Sahara of
prehistoric times.
In m y opinion, the capture of wild animals was the principal source of profit for
the territory. O f course at that time North Africa, too, still teemed with lions and
292 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
20. H The tomb of Queen
Tin Hinan atAbalessa, main
entrance (P. Salama, Bardo
Museum, Algiers)

20.2 < The tomb of Queen

Tin Hinan atAbalessa:
flagstones usedfor covering the
ditch trench (P. Salama)

20.3 • Skeleton of Queen

Tin Hinan (P. Salama, Bardo
Museum, Algiers)
The Sahara in classical antiquity 293

tigers, antelopes and ostriches; but such was the scale of R o m a n demand that the hunt
had to be extended to the interior of Africa. W e have eloquent statistics on this
subject. A t the inauguration of the Flavian amphitheatre in R o m e at the end of the
first century, 9,000 wild animals were fought; for his triumph in + 1 0 6 the Emperor
Trajan exhibited 11,000. Most of these wild animals were 'Libycae' or 'Africanae' -
that is, were exported from North Africa. In this inventory elephants and rhino-
ceroses came from the southernmost parts of the Sahara or even from Chad and Bahr
al-Ghazâl. In any event ivory must have had a place in trans-Saharan trade, the North
African elephant having almost entirely disappeared by the second century of the
Christian era. It will not be forgotten, however, that Nubia supplied R o m e with a
quota of wild animals.
I find it hard to believe that there was a trade with Europe in black slaves. T h e
Western R o m a n world was not looking for black slaves. It has often been made out
that convoys of gold dust from Mali and the Gulf of Guinea supplied the European
market, prefiguring the trade situation of the Middle Ages. This opinion is mere
hypothesis.
These few trade relations, which are not yet well understood, cast doubt on the use
of Saharan itineraries. Here again one must be prudent. T h e only elements w e have to
go on in attempting to reconstruct the communications network are certain points like
Ghadämes or Phazania where natural arteries have their outlet, the territorial dispersal
of R o m a n objects in the Sahara, andfinallycomparison with caravan routes before or
after the period w e are considering. Only the last t w o elements present a difficulty.
It seems that, generally speaking, Saharan lines of communication for foreign trade
were mostly oriented towards the north and the north-east, with the Garamantes and
their satellites siphoning traffic towards the Fezzin zone. F r o m there well-attested
itineraries led towards the great Syrtic ports (Sabratha, Oea and Leptis M a g n a ) , which
were cities of great wealth as early as the Punic era. From Garama one could also join
up with the valley of the Nile, either by a northern route through the oases of Zuila,
Zella, Awdjïla and Sïwa, all of them points already k n o w n to writers of antiquity; or
by a more southerly route where Kifra served as a crossroads. In these eastern regions
of the Sahara, inevitably, w e come back to the old problem of Neolithic and
proto-historical communications for which Tibesti provided a staging-post. But it
seems that relations declined first with Hellenistic, then with R o m a n Egypt, trade
being increasingly diverted to the Mediterranean coast.
It is probably in the eastern Sahara, too, that w e should seek the link which
brought iron into the black world, in so far as this did not occur independently. T h e
problem of the transition from the Stone A g e to the Metal A g e in the Saharan and
Niger regions is of immense importance. Here again, geographical uniformity is
lacking.
The question of the iron industry is different. T h e problem of h o w iron metallurgy
made its appearance in the black world is extremely controversial, some maintaining
that it was a specifically African invention, others that it was brought there by foreign
intervention. T h e upholders of the second theory are themselves divided into t w o
camps: some assume a Mediterranean influence, across the central Sahara; whilst
others trace the origin of this technique to the land of Kush and assume that it
294 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

followed the natural route linking the Niger to the Nile Valley via Kordofan and
DIrfur. B e this as it m a y , carbon-14 datings indicate that iron metallurgy existed in
the area of Chad and northern Nigeria in the second andfirstcentury before the
Christian era. The possibility of its having evolved locally is not to be rejected out of
hand; but, if such was not the case, it was probably transmitted by the Meroitic
civilization, so that the central Sanaran routes were not involved.
Study of the means of transport can also help us better to locate the Saharan routes
and check certain hypotheses. W e k n o w that the great desert was conquered by the
horse before it was conquered by the camel. Here, as in other places, the 'caballine'
period had as itsfirstconsequence the use of wheeled vehicles. W e do not k n o w w h e n
wagons and chariots disappeared, but, according to Herodotus, the Garamantes were
still using them. Archaeology confirms his testimony. The most diversified drawings
of wheeled vehicles abound in the Sahara. Systematic inventories have even made it
possible to give a cartographic reconstruction of trans-Saharan w a g o n routes. It
should be added that any Saharan itinerary used by horses, whether in harness or no,
required either a system of watering-places, which w e k n o w the Garamantes had, or
else the transport of a large store of provisions.
As for the camel - more exactly, the one-humped dromedary originating in the
Near East - it appears in Saharan Africa only belatedly. This event has been discussed
ad infimtum. O n the continent itself, in fact, the camel was a late arrival. It is not
found in Egypt until the Persian and Hellenistic periods (fifth and fourth centuries
before the Christian era) and it is a likely supposition that it spread to the Sahara from
the lower Nile Valley. The event seems very hard to date. All w e have to go on are
Libyco-Berber Saharan rock drawings which are of little use for accurate chronology
and a large number of inscriptions and sculptures from R o m a n North Africa, all
apparently subsequent to the second century of the Christian era.
Let m e note in passing the symbolic presence of camels on the well-known R o m a n
coins called 'spintrian', which were probably struck for the use of courtesans, the
ancients believing that these ruminants had lascivious instincts which were quite
exceptional!
I a m inclined to agree with those historians w h o attach quite exceptional impor-
tance to the increasing use of camels in the Sahara. Camels meant increased mobility
for individuals and for groups, an advantage which had been recognized for a long
time in Arabia. It is even thought that changing the method of harnessing, especially
by altering the position of the saddle, made it possible to train 'meharis', camels for
racing and for use in battle.

R o m e ' s 'Sahara policy'

Because of the lack of documents, w e do not k n o w whether Punic Carthage was
m u c h alarmed at the presence of powerful kabllas on her southern frontiers. Excava-
tions at Garama prove that, at least during the second andfirstcenturies before the
Christian era, the ports of the Syrtic coast, which then belonged to the Kingdom of
Numidia, had trade relations with the Fezzin, relations on which their wealth was
largely dependent.
The Sahara in classical antiquity 295

R o m a n history is better k n o w n . T h e main lines of Latin policy can be briefly

summarized as follows: occupation of the agricultural lands of the Maghrib required
strategic cover to the south. In these regions the Saharan nomads were a nuisance.
Their seasonal migrations into the colonized territory, unavoidable because essential
to survival, had their uses in that they made the products of the steppe and the desert
available to the settlers, but there w a s always the risk of their creating conflict with
the settled kabtias. Even the distant Garamantes seemed dangerous, inasmuch as they
could at any m o m e n t reinforce the aggressive potential of the nomads. T h e mere fact
of their power was a challenge.
So, as w e have seen, w e are not entirely without knowledge of the Sahara of
antiquity, even though the information w e have is incomplete. Several points are
certain. T h e desiccation of the climate did not kill the desert. H u m a n activity went
on. Languages and writing were consolidated there. T h e increasing use of camels
eased problems of transport and communication. T h e region played its o w n part in
the history of the great Mediterranean states. Did the same perhaps hold true of
tropical Africa? It is in this context of continued development that the medieval
renaissance undoubtedly had its roots.
 Introduction
to the later prehistory
ofsub-Saharan Africa

Information obtained from archaeology

O n e of the main achievements of recent research in sub-Saharan African archaeology is
the realization that peoples at different stages of technological development were
living contemporaneously in different parts of Africa. There was no single end to the
Stone A g e , agricultural practices were adopted at different times and m a n y of the
communities with w h o m w e will be concerned in the next few chapters were still
living by hunting and food-gathering and using a Stone A g e technology right up to
the end of thefirstmillennium of the Christian era. It is impossible to assign an exact
closing date for the period under discussion in an area for which w e have no fixed
historical dates. Dates w e have, but they are largely obtained from radio-carbon
determination (carbon-14). Rather thanfixa definite date for the close of the period,
the chapters on sub-Saharan Africa deal largely with what is commonly k n o w n as the
'Neolithic' and Early Iron A g e period. T h e period thus defined ends in most areas
around - 1 0 0 0 .
The 'Neolithic' in sub-Saharan Africa is a term which has been used in various
inconsistent ways in the past either to denote an agricultural economy and/or to
distinguish tool assemblages which include polished or ground stone cutting tools,
pottery and, in m a n y instances, querns or grindstones. Early farming communities
were not necessarily characterized by the same tool assemblages. Recent research in
m a n y parts of Africa has demonstrated the time-trangressive nature of tools like the
ground-stone axe which made itsfirstappearance in parts of Africa amongst hunter
and food-gatherer tool-kits of more than 7,000 to 8,000 years ago, whilst similar tools
were probably still used in parts of the Zaire Basin (Uelian) less than a thousand years
ago. Pottery seems similarly to have been used by hunter-gatherers in contact with
their agricultural neighbours long before its users became farmers themselves.
Grindstonesfirstappeared regularly on the Late Stone A g e sites in several parts of
Africa and are an indication of the more intensive use of plant remains. B y the Early
Iron A g e w e mean the period during which there w a s a persistent use of an iron
technology as opposed to the occasional use of iron tools. B y and large the Early Iron
A g e in sub-Saharan Africa was characterized by the presence of small, relatively
dispersed settlements and not by the development of states, whichfirstarose in the
Late Iron A g e .
296
Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa 2

Unfortunately our knowledge of the physical nature of the inhabitants of sub-

Saharan Africa is very limited. In W e s t Africa there were certainly peoples w h o
possessed some physical features similar to the present-day inhabitants of the area as
early as the tenth millennium before the Christian era (Iwo-Eluru in Nigeria) and have
been termed 'proto-Negroes'. In southern Africa the ancestors of the present-day
Khoisan hunter-food-gatherers and herders of Namibia and Botswana (San and Khoi
Khoi) were larger than their descendants and occupied areas as far north as Zambia for
certain, and possibly even as far as the Semliki River in eastern Zaire. Excellent
evidence for this came from the G w i s h o sites in Zambia at which the tool-kit and the
inferred diet clearly indicate that the groups involved were ancestral San. Biogenetic
studies by Singer and Weiner have indicated that the San and the Negro are closer to
one another than they are to any outside group, which suggests that they are the
lineal descendants of the original Stone A g e inhabitants of Africa. They have also
indicated the biological homogeneity of the African populations stretching from W e s t
Africa right through to South Africa. Only in the remote areas, e.g. the Zaire forest
h o m e of the pygmies or the Kalahari environment of the San, were the populations
significantly different and there the difference must be explained by genetic isolation.
In areas like the Sahelian belt and on 'the fringes of north-east Africa and in
Madagascar there is a mixture between largely Negro populations and populations
which developed independently of those to the south such as the Malayo-Polynesians
in the case of Madagascar, and peoples akin to those of the Mediterranean periphery
and south-west Asia in north-eastern Africa and the Sahara.

The contribution of linguistics

Crucial to an understanding of the Early Iron A g e in sub-Saharan Africa is an
appreciation of the linguistic background. T w o principal sets of events concern us in
the period under review:first,the fragmentation of the Congo-Kordofanian language
family, to use Greenberg's term, and secondly the dispersion of the Bantu-speaking
peoples, w h o n o w comprise more than 90 per cent of the peoples south of a line
drawn from the Bight of Biafra to the East African coast around Malindi. W e k n o w
very little about thefirstset of events. All that can be said about them is that the
Kordofanian languages are old, relatively numerous, often spoken by very small, in
some cases minuscule, groups of people, with each language distinct from its
neighbours and with the whole comprised within the modern province of Kordofän
in the Republic of Sudan and principally concentrated around the N u b a Mountains.
The Kordofanian languages have diverged widely from the Niger-Congo languages
and are isolated from the linguistic groups around them. Nothing useful can be said
about the time-scale involved in the separation of the Kordofanian from the Niger-
Congo dialects of the proto-Congo-Kordofanian family except that it probably
predates - 1 0 0 0 0 to - 8 0 0 0 .
The fragmentation of the Niger-Congo languages m a y be related to the gradual
expansion of peoples south from the Sahel with the growing desiccation of the Sahara.
Painter has put a time-scale of around - 6000 to - 3000 on the fragmentation, but there
298 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

are other views. Armstrong has suggested that the languages of southern Nigeria are
as much as 10,000 years old which implies a m u c h earlier movement to the south.
Both views could of course be right, with some of the Niger-Congo language
speakers having broken away from the main group and later having become isolated in
a forest environment. These are perhaps the linguistic counterparts of the Iwo-Eluru
proto-Negro inhabitants. Other Niger-Congo speakers spread later from the Sahel,
once an agricultural w a y of life was established. A problem about this interpretation is
that the earliest food-producers in the Sahel appear to have been pastoralists rather
than arable agriculturalists. T h e suggestion made by Sutton in chapter 23 m a y be a
solution to the problem since there is evidence of Sahelian pastoralists being associated
with harpoons and other items identified as diagnostic of the aquatic culture. T h e
linguistic divergence within the Niger-Congo family would, however, appear to be
related to the geographical separation of different, largely agricultural groups, a
separation far enough back in time for the individual components of the Niger-Congo
family to have become linguistically very distinct.
W h e n w e turn to the Bantu languages, w e are faced with a different situation.
There are more than 2,000 Bantu languages in eastern, southern and central Africa
which have vocabulary items and a structural framework in c o m m o n and are thus
related, a relationship which was recognized as early as 1862 by Bleek, w h o coined the
name Bantu for them because of their c o m m o n use of the word 'Bantu' for people.
The divergence between the different Bantu languages is nowhere near as great as that
between the different West African languages and most estimates put the divergence
back to around 2,000 to 3,000 years. There are, however, various linguistic theories
about h o w the Bantu separated from the West African languages, of which two have
been the most often accepted. Joseph Greenberg approached the problem from the
macro-level in his study of African languages as a whole and used grammatical as well
as lexical evidence taken from some 800 languages. Using core words, he discovered
that the Bantu languages are closer to the West African languages than is, for
example, English to proto-German, which is a relationship which linguists have
always regarded as close. H e worked out that 42 per cent of the vocabulary of Bantu is
present in the nearest West African languages, compared with only 34 per cent of the
English words in proto-German. H e thus placed the source area of the Bantu
languages firmly in the Nigerian-Cameroon border area. T h e late Professor Guthrie
worked on the micro-level after years of immersion in comparative Bantu studies and
analysed some 350 Bantu languages and dialects. H e isolated the roots of cognate
words which had to have the same meaning in at least three separate languages. Using
the general sets, he worked out a C o m m o n Bantu Index which indicated the
percentage of the general words in any Bantu language. T h e isoglosses (or lines
connecting equal Bantu indices) thus constructed indicated a nuclear area where the
retention rate was over 50 per cent situated in the grasslands south of the Zaïre forest
in the Zambezi-Zaire watershed area. It was in this nuclear area that he assumed the
proto-Bantu had developed. There is thus agreement on the ultimate ancestry of the
Bantu languages in West Africa, but disagreement on the immediate centre of
dispersion. Those authorities w h o are willing to propose a chronology would place
the Bantu expansion somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 years ago and accept that
Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa 299

iron was in use by those w h o expanded, and all would agree to the rapid, some would
say explosive, expansion of the Bantu.

The role of agriculture

Agriculture implies some control over one's food supply and a relatively settled
existence, in contrast to the more constant m o v e m e n t of the hunter-gatherer. Group
size increased and more complex social, and ultimately political, structures were able
to develop. Agriculture, particularly arable agriculture and horticulture, also normally
involved a higher population density and an increase in the total population figure.
Archaeologists identify agricultural societies by both direct and indirect evidence.
Direct evidence includes the discovery of seeds or grains in a carbonized state on
archaeological sites or their retrieval using advanced archaeological recovery tech-
niques. Indirect evidence, or circumstantial evidence, involves the discovery of imple-
ments and utensils assumed to have been used for cultivation, harvesting and the
preparation of plant foods. Unfortunately the climatic conditions in m u c h of sub-
Saharan Africa militate against the discovery of very m u c h in the w a y of direct
evidence. Organic matter normally disintegrates within days of its disposal. T h e soils
on most tropical sites are on the whole aerobic and do not allow for the preservation
of pollen. W h e r e pollen is found, as in the high-altitude s w a m p s and lakes, the
location is too far removed from land suited for arable cultivation to provide evidence
for past agriculture. A further problem is that m a n y of the tools and implements for
agriculture are of an equivocal nature. A knife for peeling vegetable foods can be used
for other purposes, grindstones can be used for pulverizing ochre for paint or for
pounding and grinding non-cultivated foodstuffs, and are c o m m o n l y found in m a n y
Late Stone A g e contexts. M a n y of Africa's food crops like bananas, yams and other
roots do not produce pollen and m a n y are cultivated using w o o d e n digging sticks to
avoid damage to the tubers. Archaeologists thus have to rely on even more circum-
stantial evidence for inferring agriculture, such as the existence of large settlement
sites, the presence of what appear to be permanent houses, the use of pottery or the
existence of regular cemeteries. A s will appear obvious from Chapter 26, the hunter-
food-gatherers in Africa occasionally lived in large communities, often used pottery
and, if their fishing or other specialized hunting or food-gathering occupation was
successful, would indulge in the making of relatively permanent settlements such as
those at early Khartoum or Ishango of Late Stone A g e date. It is thus possible,
regretfully, to conclude that as yet our evidence for untangling the story of early
agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is somewhat thin and that our conclusions can only
be speculative.
U p to the end of the 1950s it was c o m m o n l y assumed that agriculture was late in
date in most of sub-Saharan Africa, in fact largely contemporaneous with the
introduction of an iron technology in all but parts of W e s t Africa, and that the idea
had dispersed from the Nile Valley ultimately to the rest of Africa. N e w evidence
from the Sahara and elsewhere is indicating, however, that the story is not so
straightforward. T h efirstquestion-marks against this orthodox view of the origins of
300 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

African agriculture were placed by Murdock, w h o postulated a source area for m u c h

of Africa's agriculture in the west of W e s t Africa around the headwaters of the Niger
and the Senegal in the Futa Jallon. T h o u g h m u c h of Murdock's hypothesis cannot
n o w be substantiated in detail, nevertheless it is apparent that yams, one form of rice
(Oryza glaberrima), sorghum, the oil palm and m a n y lesser staples were indigenous to
West Africa.
Though the origins, date and m o d e of development of most African agriculture are
somewhat controversial, it is generally agreed that, except for the possibility of some
highly localized millet-growing communities in the Rift Valley of Kenya, the
beginnings of arable agriculture, at least in most of Bantu-speaking Africa, are
contemporaneous with the first appearance of an iron technology. It is also fairly
widely agreed that m a n y of the early staples of agriculture in Bantu Africa like the
fruiting banana, the colocasias (coco yams), eleusine (finger millet) and sorghum were
introduced ultimately either from West Africa, or in the case of the bananas indirectly
from south-east Asia. The earliest cattle were pre-Iron A g e in date and are found in
East Africa as early as the beginning of thefirstmillennium before the Christian era,
and it would seem from the evidence referred to by Parkington in Chapter 26 that
sheep had diffused as far south as the Cape in South Africa by the beginning of the
first millennium of the Christian era. It m a y be that the spread of pastoralism had
something to do with the dispersal of the aquatic culture described by Sutton in
Chapter 23, as Ehret has convincingly indicated the evidence for the social influence of
the Central Sudanic languages on the Bantu languages. H e has described for instance,
h o w words for 'cow' and terms used for milking activities were borrowed by the
Bantu from their Central Sudanic neighbours, presumably along with the cattle and
milking practices. O n the basis of linguistic differentiation a m o n g the presumed
proto-Central Sudanic speakers, Ehret infers that the cattle-keepers preceded the arable
agriculturalists. H e also sees this interaction asfirsttaking place around the middle of
thefirstmillennium before the Christian era. H e has indicated that the proto-Bantu
words for 'hoe' and 'sorghum' were derived from the Central Sudanic languages, and
w e must therefore envisage a social interaction between Nilo-Saharan peoples and the
ancestors of the Bantu, and a diffusion southwards of hoe agriculture and sorghum
cultivation particularly into the Bantu world. T h o u g h some expansion of population
m a y have taken place as a result of these developments by thefirstmillennium before
the Christian era, the archaeological evidence described in later chapters clearly
indicates that the main expansion of agricultural peoples took place in the first
millennium of the Christian era in most of Bantu Africa.

Iron
A n important question in any discussion of the early expansion of agricultural people
into the southern half of Africa is that of the origin of the diffusion of iron working.
T o clear scrub and bush, forest fringe and woodland, a slashing tool is the easiest
implement to use. Stone A g e m a n did not have such tools and in sub-Saharan Africa
there was no Bronze Age. T h e earliest evidence for the use of copper comes from
Mauretania, and the copper workings date from a period between the ninth and fifth
Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa

centuries before the Christian era, which is only a little earlier that the earliest proven
iron workings in W e s t Africa at Taruga on the Jos plateau of Nigeria which date
from thefifthor fourth century before the Christian era.
Considerable speculation has arisen over the question of the origins of early African
iron working. There are several acceptable schools of thought, but none can as yet be
proved correct. T h e older school opted for a spread of iron working from the Nile
Valley, particularly Meroe, termed by Sayce the 'Birmingham of Africa'. There is,
however, no firm evidence of a direct diffusion of iron working from the Nile Valley
either westwards or southwards. Iron in Ethiopia, dating from the fifth century,
probably came from south Arabia; alternatively it could have c o m e from the Ptolemaic
ports on the R e d Sea, such as Adulis, with which these centres were in contact.
T h e discovery of the early dates for Nigerian iron working focused the attention of
scholars on the possibilities of a North African source. T h e Phoenicians spread iron
technology from the Levant to parts of the North African coast in the early part of the
first millennium before the Christian era. Connah has postulated that as iron working
is late, around + 5 0 0 , at Daima, near Lake Chad, which is situated on the likely
corridor route from the Nile Valley, iron must have c o m e from the north. Other
relatively early dates for iron working c o m e from Ghana, Hani ( + 8 0 ) and Senegal. It
is just as possible, of course, to suggest that iron working could have c o m e from
North Africa via Mauretania in the trail of the copper workers and spread along the
Sudanic belt westwards and southwards, though in that case the dates should be
earlier in Senegal and Mauretania than in Nigeria. It is, of course, possible to suggest
multiple lines of influence bringing iron working to tropical Africa with a line to
Mauretania from the Maghrib, another across the Sahara to Nigeria and a third one
across the R e d Sea to Ethiopia, as well as others via the east coast from the R e d Sea
area, India or south-east Asia to East Africa.
T h e suggestion has recently been m a d e that iron working m a y have developed
indigenously in Africa. A strong proponent of this view is C . A . Diop, w h o is
supported by W a i A n d a h in Chapter 24 of the main edition. It is further suggested
that as m a n y of the early sites for iron technology in W e s t Africa, such as those asso-
ciated with the N o k culture, or in Burkina Faso, are associated with stone tools, then
the possibility must remain open that iron working took place in predominantly Late
Stone A g e contexts.
T h e apparently recent kilns which are n o w being investigated in the C o n g o have
unfortunately added nothing n e w to our knowledge and will probably never yield any
traces of thefirstperiod of their use. But, having been found and dated, they might
give some indication of the route followed by the iron trade between Shaba and the
sea and m a k e it possible to establish some dates for this late development.
Far too few dates have so far been obtained for Early Iron A g e sites as a whole to be
certain even about the dates of the introduction of iron working into the various parts
of tropical Africa. In the early 1960s, for instance, it w a s thought that iron
working began in East Africa around 1000, and n o w the date has been pushed back
by at least 750 years; the same is true of Ghana, where, until the discovery of the Hani
furnace dating to the second century of the Christian era, the normally quoted date
was around + 9 0 0 . Nevertheless, certain conclusions can be drawn. First, there is not
302 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Guthrie's':
proto-"-"
Bant-

IB' Bantu source area after Greenberg

Northern boundary of Bantu

A Possible agricultural areas

•'//•'/¿{•¡•y Iron-working areas before 4 0 0

/• Forest

YAMS Original source of cultivated plants

\ Desert and sahel

21.1 Hypotheses concerning the origin of the Bantu and the beginning of iron working
(from M. Posnansky)
Introduction to the later prehistory of suh-Saharan Africa 3

a great deal of evidence to suggest direct spread from the Nile Valley to W e s t Africa,
so that the idea of dispersion from Meroe had the least evidence to support it.
Secondly, there is no positive evidence of kiln or pit-fired pottery in W e s t Africa in
the period before the Christian era and the ethnographic evidence for an indigenous
development for iron working has not been extensively presented and refers at best to
situations in the second millennium of the Christian era, so that w e must reluctantly
keep an open mind about the origins of iron working. T h e sparse evidence which does
exist indicates earlier dates for West Africa than are available for East or Central
Africa, which further suggests a spread from W e s t Africa southwards and eastwards.
Iron working spread remarkably rapidly, since the earliest dates in South Africa are
around + 4 0 0 , i.e. a few centuries later than most of those for West Africa.
This rapid spread of iron working - some would call it explosive - thus matches
the evidence from linguistics. T h e archaeological evidence from East or Central
Africa, which further suggests a spread from W e s t Africa of thefirstmillennium of
Christian era, shows definite similarities of shape and decoration over a wide area of
tropical Africa, which can only be explained by postulating a c o m m o n origin for the
various wares (Soper, 1971, for East Africa, and Huffman, 1970, for southern Africa).
After the initial similarities, strong regional diversity developed. This trend is well
observed in Zambia where perhaps a more intensive study of Iron A g e pottery has
been made than elsewhere in tropical Africa. T h e conclusion of Ehret, w h o on the
basis of linguistic evidence thinks in terms of 'loose collections of independent but
mutually interacting communities' coexisting with unassimilated hunter-gatherers, is
also very acceptable on archaeological grounds. A s these Bantu communities became
adapted to specific environments, so their interactions with more distant communities
grew less and their languages and material cultures diverged.

Exchanges between the different regions of the continent

A further feature of the history of tropical Africa at this period which needs to be
stressed is the continuing and intensifying influence of North Africa on the Sudanic
belt.
T h e Sahara, as has been seen in the earlier chapters, was neither a barrier nor a no
man's land, but an area with a detailed history of its o w n , m u c h of which still needs
to be unravelled. B y its very nature as a desert, its population was sparse and nomadic,
and in the period under review the majority of its population probably consisted of
pastoralists w h o m o v e d from the desert to the highlands, like the Hoggar, the Tassili,
the Tibesti, and from the Sahelian belt northwards and southwards with the passage
of the seasons. It is very difficult either to quantify the actual contact that existed or to
describe its effects, though in recent years archaeological w o r k in the Sudanic belt is
clearly indicating that contact there w a s both indirect, such as that provided by the
effects of nomadism, and direct, such as m a y have g r o w n up through trade contacts
and mineral exploitation. O u r information at present consists of classical literary
sources, rock paintings and engravings in the Sahara and archaeological evidence.
Before dealing with the literary evidence for contact across the Sahara, it is
necessary to mention the t w o direct sea contacts reported to have been made from the
304 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
4
i
s
s
"8
*
Introduction to the later prehistory of sub-Saharan Africa 3
Mediterranean to W e s t Africa. T h efirstis the voyage of nearly three years said to
have been made by Phoenician sailors in the service of Necho. Circumstantial evidence
against the voyage is very strong. T h e second voyage is said to have been made by the
Carthaginian, H a n n o . M a u n y (1960) has indicated that the same circumstantial
evidence that adduced against Necho's reign would apply equally well to Hanno's
voyage. If the voyages were made, they certainly had no impact on W e s t Africa. N o
undoubted or well-authenticated and dated Carthaginian, Phoenician or Egyptian
artefacts have been found along the W e s t African coast. T h e Carthaginians certainly
obtained gold along the Atlantic coast of Morocco as the account of the ' d u m b barter'
trading in Herodotus implies, but it is doubtful whether classical sailors reached
further south than the Senegal River.
M u c h more evidence of contact in pre-Islamic times comes from the rock art and
archaeological evidence. R o c k art indicates that regular lines of communications were
open to the Sudanic belt as early as - 500. T h e drawings are mainly of chariots or carts,
some horse-drawn and some bullock-drawn. Lhote (1953) has noted that there are
no chariots in Air or the Tibesti except near the Fezzân. Most of the pictures of
bullocks are found near the western route. W e should perhaps not draw too m a n y
conclusions from the chariots. Daniels has suggested that they 'indicate the widely
spread usage of a c o m m o n type of vehicle rather that any complex system of Saharan
roadways'. W h e r e datable, as in the case of those associated with late Neolithic
villages, they belong to the period - 1 1 0 0 to - 400. W e have to assume from the rock
art that the routes across the Sahara were negotiable by horse, bullock and almost
certainly by the versatile donkey. T h e eastern route has a strong concentration in the
Tassili, and Lhote has indicated possible termini on the Tripolitanian coast in such
centres as Leptis, O e a and Sabratha.
Earlier in this chapter w e considered the evidence for copper working in Mauretania.
T h e archaeological evidence would indicate that the western route was of greater
direct importance than the eastern across the Tassili. T h e exploitation of the copper
m a y have provided the incentive for a contemporaneous working of gold to the south.
From the finds in the Senegal tumuli there is abundant evidence of Maghribian influ-
ence and one must infer that trade contacts slowly increased from their beginnings in
thefirstor second millennium before the Christian era. It is even possible that camels
were used in the trade on this western route before the arrival of the Arabs in the late
eighth century of the Christian era: after all, camels were k n o w n in North Africa
from at least thefirstcentury before the Christian era (Caesar mentioned their capture
in - 4 6 ) and they were quite c o m m o n by the fourth century.
 The East African coast
and its role
in maritime trade

O n e of the outstanding characteristics of the East African coast has been its relative
accessibility, not only from the interior but also from the sea. Accessibility from the
interior has been a vital factor in population movements into the coastal belt, and
helps to explain its ethnic and cultural complexity. T h e sea, on the other hand, has
been a means of contact with the outside world. O n e of the main features of the
history of the East African coast over the last 2,000 years has therefore been not
isolation but the interpénétration of two cultural streams to produce a n e w amalgam,
the coastal Swahili civilization. T h e vehicle of that process has been trade, which
facilitated the assimilation of the East African coast into the international economic
system with its attendant consequences.
A dearth of historical sources, however, makes it difficult to reconstruct the history
of the East African coast before the seventh century of the Christian era. All the
available sources, both documentary and numismatic, are the products of international
trade, and w e have little material on the history of the coast before the establishment
of international contacts. The earliest Graeco-Roman documentary sources make only
indirect (though often valuable) references to the east coast of Africa. Strabo ( - 29
to + 1 9 ) , w h o witnessed the period of R o m a n expansion under Augustus, not only
gives contemporary and sometimes eye-witness accounts of the R e d Sea region and
Indian Ocean trade, but also incorporates fragments of earlier geographies n o w lost.
Pliny ( + 23 to + 79) describes the R o m a n empire at its height, and is most valuable
for his descriptions of trade and navigation in the Indian Ocean, and of the luxurious
and decadent style of imperial R o m e . T h e most important source for the Indian
Ocean during this period, and thefirstdirect, though meagre, account of the East
African coast, is the Periplus Maris Erythraei, written apparently by an u n k n o w n Greek
commercial agent based in Egypt. The Periplus is basically an eye-witness account.
A considerable increase in knowledge of the Indian Ocean in general and of East
Africa in particular is noticeable in Ptolemy's Geography, written about +156. Ptolemy
is fairly specific in acknowledging his indebtedness for the East African material to
Marinus of Tyre, w h o was definitely his contemporary. The last documentary source
for the period is the Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, written during
the first half of the sixth century of the Christian era. It is most useful for its
information on Ethiopia and on the ascendancy of the Persians in the Indian Ocean,
but it displays ignorance about the coast of East Africa south of Cape Guardafui.
306
The East African coast and its role in maritime trade 30

Unfortunately w e still lack firm archaeological evidence about the East African
coast during this period to confirm and complement the available documentary
sources. W h a t w e do have is a number of coin collections which have come to light
on the coast over the last three-quarters of a century. It should be pointed out,
however, that none of these collections was found at a k n o w n or excavated archaeo-
logical site, and that the circumstances under which they were found have unfortu-
nately been poorly recorded. At best w e can say that numismatic evidence does not
conflict with the available documentary sources, and that it is valuable as a pointer to
the rhythm of international trade along the East African coast.
The earliest find consisted of six coins discovered at Kimoni, north of Tanga, 'in a
m o u n d "under" trees about 200 years old', apparently buried for a long time. T h e
find covered a span between the third and the twelfth centuries of the Christian era.
Therefore it could not have been deposited as a hoard before the latter date, but
whether the earlier coins were brought to East Africa in pre-Islamic times remains
uncertain. The second find consisted of a single gold piece of Ptolemy Soter ( - 116 to
- 1 0 8 ) and m a y have come from somewhere along the coast.
A number of collections of u n k n o w n provenance came to light in the Zanzibar
M u s e u m in 1955. T h e first, in an envelope marked Otesiphon (capital of the
Parthian and Sassanid empires near Baghdad), consisted of five Persian coins ranging
from the first to the third centuries of the Christian era. According to Freeman-
Grenville, w h e n he examined them they still had the 'especial type of dirt' typical of
Zanzibar sticking to them, and he was in no doubt that they had been found
somewhere in Zanzibar. The other t w o groups of coins also had this dirt sticking to
them and were probably found in Zanzibar or Pemba. They covered a wider range,
from the second century before the Christian era to the fourteenth century of the
Christian era, which suggests that they were not hoards but collections of chance
finds.
The remaining t w o finds pose similar problems of interpretation. H a y w o o d
claimed to have found a large collection of coins and a vessel shaped like a Greek
amphora at Bur G a o (Port Dunford) in 1913. T h e vessel got broken during a storm
and he unfortunately threw away the pieces. T h e collection seems to fall into t w o
distinct portions. T h efirst,which seems to form the core of the collection, consists of
seventy-five coins of Ptolemaic Egypt, Imperial R o m e and Byzantium, covering the
period from the third century before the Christian era to thefirsthalf of the fourth
century of the Christian era. T h e second portion consists of thirteen coins of
M a m e l u k and Ottoman Egypt, ranging from the thirteenth century of the Christian
era onwards. Wheeler suggests that 'the significance of the discovery is not necessarily
vitiated' by the addition of the later Egyptian coins. These could have been added to
the collection in the long interval before they passed into the hands of the
numismatist. T h e core of the collection could thus have been deposited some time
after thefirsthalf of the fourth century.
T h e other collection is reputed to have been dug up at Dimbani in southern
Zanzibar by an old farmer, Idi Usi, n o w dead; and it passed into the hands of an
amateur collector. T h e coins have been only tentatively identified. The core appears to
consist of twenty-nine R o m a n coins and one Parthian coin of thefirstto the fourth
308 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

centuries of the Christian era. T h e collection also includes a late twelfth-century

Chinese coin and some later Islamic, European and even colonial African coins of the
period d o w n to the late nineteenth century. It m a y be suggested that, as in the case of
the H a y w o o d collection, the later coins were perhaps added to the core at a later
stage.

The continental factor

The earliest evidence about the population of the East African coast comes from the
Periplus, which describes the inhabitants of the coast as 'very great in stature'. Oliver
suggests that they were Kushites, comparable to the Late Stone A g e agriculturists
w h o inhabited the Kenya highlands from about - 1 0 0 0 , w h o according to the available
archaeological evidence were m e n of 'tall stature'. The fact that iron objects figure
a m o n g the imports suggests that the coastal peoples did not yet k n o w h o w to work
iron. There are several Kushitic-speaking pockets close to the coast and within the
above-mentioned corridors, such as the Sanye people near the Tana and the M b u g u in
Usumbara, w h o m a y be remnants of this early coastal population.
Archaeological evidence indicates a rapid infiltration of iron-using, probably Bantu-
speaking people, into the coastal hinterland during the early centuries of the Christian
era. They m a y well have moved up the coastal belt from the south and occupied the
south Pare and Kwale areas behind M o m b a s a . Sunsequently they appear to have
moved up the coast as far as Barawa, and up the Pangani corridor to the north Pare
and Kilimanjaro region by the middle of thefirstmillennium of the Christian era. In
their expansion they probably assimilated the pre-existing population of the coastal
belt.
From the available evidence it is difficult to obtain an adequate picture of the coastal
economy and society before international commercial links were established. T h e
people m a y have been agriculturalists, like the Late Stone A g e Kushites of the inter-
ior. From the Periplus it is clear that fishing played an important role in the economy,
and the document gives a very accurate description of fish-trapping using 'wicker
baskets', a method still c o m m o n along the coast. But the population appears to
have been essentially coast-bound. They had dug-out canoes and small 'sewed boats',
but not apparently deep-sea dhows. Unfortunately w e have no evidence about socio-
political organization in this period, for, though the Periplus mentions chiefs at each
of the market-towns, international trade m a y have been a crucial factor in the rise
of the chiefs and also of the market-towns. It thus appears that the population of the
East African coast before the establishment of international commercial links was at a
rather low level of technological, and probably also of socio-political, development.
Hence, w h e n international trading links were established, the initiative lay with the
mariners from the northern rim of the Indian Ocean, with all the consequences that
followed from that situation.

The oceanic factor

If accessibility from the land has made the East African coast historically an integral
part of Africa, accessibility from the sea has subjected it to a long history of
The East African coast and its role in maritime trade 3

commercial contact, cultural influence and population movements from the lands
across the Indian Ocean. T h e history of the western Indian Ocean until the seventh
century is therefore to a considerable extent the history of interaction along t w o
distinct lines, between East Africa and the Middle East, and between the latter and
India; and also of the intermediary role played by the Middle East between the Indian
Ocean and the Mediterranean.
Such interaction was made possible by the development of a suitable marine
technology and the harnessing of the winds and currents of the Indian Ocean. T h e
most important geographical characteristic of the Indian Ocean is the seasonal reversal
of the monsoon winds. It is clear that by the beginning of the Christian era Indian
Ocean mariners were already acquainted with the use of these winds. They had also
overcome the technical problem of building a large enough vessel in an area without
iron by resorting to 'sewing' planks together with vegetable fibres.
The spatial extent of reliable monsoons and the level of commercial organization in
East Africa help to define the normal radius of action of the monsoon dhows. W i t h a
rather simple commercial organization involving a more direct exchange between
foreign vessels and the market-towns, which appears to have been the case before the
seventh century, the northern dhows are unlikely to have gone m u c h farther south
than Zanzibar.

Development of trade in the western Indian Ocean

The earliest historical evidence about the western Indian Ocean suggests that,
contrary to c o m m o n assertion in textbooks, there was no commercial intercourse,
direct or otherwise, between East Africa and India before the seventh century of the
Christian era. Even trade between India and the Middle East until the time of the
Periplus appears to have been confined to a few luxuries. It seems likely that apart from
gold and some other precious goods India was largely self-sufficient, especially in the
staple 'forest' products that East Africa could have supplied. Indeed, India appears to
have been an active exporter of ivory at this time, which probably delayed the
exploitation of African ivory resources,
That exploitation appears to have been stimulated by the intense rivalry a m o n g
Greek successor states after the death of Alexander. The firm control exercised by the
Seleucids over the land-routes to India induced the Ptolemies of Egypt to seek ivory
from elsewhere. The immediate need was to secure elephants. They therefore turned
to the African coast of the R e d Sea, establishing a series of elephant-hunting posts as
far as the mouth of the R e d Sea. T h e effect of the Ptolemies' policy was thus a
tremendous expansion of the ivory trade.
The loss of Syria under Ptolemy V ( - 2 0 4 to - 1 8 1 ) , and the growing demand in
Italy for Arabian and Indian commodities at a time w h e n the immediate hinterland of
the R e d Sea coast was apparently being depleted of ivory, forced Egypt to turn to the
southern sea-route in order to maintain some commercial contact with India. B y the
end of the second century before the Christian era, Eudoxus took advantage of a
shipwrecked Indian pilot to make the first direct voyage to India. Indian trade
310 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

continued to grow sufficiently in importance for officers to be appointed 'in charge of

the Red and Indian Seas' between - 1 1 0 and - 5 1 . Egyptian trade with India at that
time was therefore largely indirect, through the south-west Arabian entrepôts.
South-west Arabia thus occupied a crucial middleman's position and appropriated its
share of commercial profit which became proverbial.
The south-west Arabians also appear to have controlled the other branch of trade
which led d o w n the East African coast. It has already been suggested that one of the
driving forces for Ptolemaic commercial expansion d o w n the R e d Sea was the
increasing demand for Oriental luxuries, including ivory. It is therefore possible that
the Arabs extended their commercial activities to the East African coast at this time to
supply that demand for ivory. Exactly h o w early and h o w far d o w n the coast these
trading connections extended in the pre-Roman period is difficult to determine in the
absence of archaeological evidence. T o date, only one Ptolemaic gold coin of the late
second century before the Christian era has allegedly been found in the vicinity of
Dar es-Salaam, while the twenty-two Ptolemaic coins in the H a y w o o d collection
could not have been deposited before the fourth century of the Christian era at the
earliest.

Expansion of trade under the Romans

The establishment of the R o m a n empire under Augustus resulted in a tremendous
increase in the demand for Oriental commodities in the Mediterranean. As Pliny
complained: ' B y the lowest reckoning India, China and the [Arabian] peninsula take
from our empire 100 million sesterces every year - that is the sum which our luxuries
and our w o m e n cost us.' The expansion of the market under Augustus brought about
a more aggressive policy in the R e d Sea designed to break the Arab monopoly over
the Oriental trade. The R o m a n s sought to establish a direct sea-route to India, and to
control the southern end of the 'incense route' with an expedition in - 2 4 under
Gallus.
Despite the R o m a n entry into the Indian Ocean trade, however, the Periplus itself
gives a picture of a very lively trade still in the hands of the Indians and Arabs. T h e
Indians traded actively in the Persian Gulf and the R e d Sea, but apparently not south
of Cape Guardafui. While the Arabs shared the Indian trade with the Indians and
increasingly the R o m a n s , they seem to have enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the trade
with the East African coast, a fact which is corroborated by R o m a n ignorance of
the African coast south of Cape Guardafui before the Periplus. Moreover, though the
latter document is undoubtedly an eye-witness account of the East African coast, the
fact that only four paragraphs are devoted to it suggests that the region still lay
beyond the normal range of Graeco-Roman activities.

Assimilation of the East African coast into the Roman economic system
Whatever the level of Arab commercial activity along the East African coast in the
pre-Roman period, it is almost certain that it received a fresh stimulus as a result of
the economic unification and increased opulence of the R o m a n empire. T h e demand
The East African coast and its role in maritime trade 3

for ivory grew enormously as the R o m a n s began to use it not only for statues and
combs but also for chairs, tables, bird-cages and carriages; there was even an ivory
stable for the imperial horse. B y thefirstcentury of the Christian era, ivory could be
obtained only from far into the interior in the Upper Nile region, coming d o w n to
Adulis. Consequently the supply of ivory from the East African coast, though it was
considered to be of a lower quality than that of Adulis, assumed a greater importance.
It served to integrate the region even further into the international system of trade
centred on the Mediterranean through the south-west Arabian state of Himyar. T h e
assimilation of the East African coast into the international system was therefore not
only at the level of commerce, but also involved political domination and social
penetration. The latter m a y thus have begun the process of creating a class of coastal
sea-going and trading people of mixed parentage, w h o acted as local agents for the
international system of trade.
Azania, as the R o m a n s called the east coast of Africa south of Ras Hafun, was
probably not economically unified. It consisted rather of a series of market-towns each
with its o w n chief, each dependent on its o w n narrow hinterland for export
commodities and each visited directly by the monsoon dhows. T h e Periplus mentions a
number of places such as Sarapion, probably a few miles north of Merca, Nikon,
probably Bur G a o (Port Dunford), and the Pyralean Islands, which have been
identified with the L a m u archipelago. South of the L a m u archipelago there is indeed a
change in the character of the coastline, as the Periplus so accurately described. T w o
days' sail beyond lay the island of Menouthias, 'about 300 stadia [about 55 kilometres]
from the mainland, low and wooded'. Pemba is the first major island that the
northern mariners would encounter, and probably the only one that could have been
reached in t w o days from L a m u . Moreover Pemba is in fact 50 kilometres from the
mainland, as against 36 kilometres in the case of Zanzibar.
The only market-town along the coast south of Ras Hafun mentioned in the
Periplus was Rhapta, which was probably located between Pangani and Dar es-
Salaam. Rhapta was apparently governed by a local chief but under the overall
suzerainty of the south-west Arabian state.
The Periplus, however, gives the impression that that suzerainty consisted of little
more than a monopoly of external trade exercised by Arab captains and agents of
M u z a . T h e most important economic function of the port was the export of 'a great
quantity of ivory', rhinoceros horns, high-quality tortoiseshell and a little coconut-oil.
These were exchanged primarily for iron goods, particularly 'lances made at M u z a
especially for this trade', hatchets, daggers and awls, various kinds of glass and 'a little
wine and wheat, not for trade, but to serve for getting the goodwill of the savages'.
That trade was growing rapidly in the early centuries of the Christian era is
indicated by Ptolemy during thefirsthalf of the second century. Along the Somali
coast a n e w emporium had arisen called Essina, and Sarapion and Nikon (Toniki) are
n o w described as 'port' and 'emporium' respectively. But the most spectacular
development had occurred at Rhapta, which is n o w described as a 'metropolis' (in
Ptolemaic usage implying the capital of a state), and there is no longer any reference to
Arab suzerainty.
Thus by the middle of the second century a large part of the East African coast and
312 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
at least part of the Pangani corridor had been drawn into the international system of
trade. T h e m o m e n t u m which had pushed the commercial frontier into East African
waters began to weaken as the R o m a n empire entered its long period of decline in the
third century. A shift occurred in international trade from spices, precious stones and
ivory to cotton and industrial products. Direct trade m a y have ceased altogether, as
the marked gap in numismatic evidence suggests, but there was a brief revival at the
end of the third and the beginning of the fourth centuries with the political
reconsolidation of the empire. Existing numismatic evidence for East Africa is
unsatisfactory, though it seems to show a similar fluctuation. T h e H a y w o o d col-
lection included six Imperial R o m a n coins dated to the mid-second century of the
Christian era, followed by a gap until the end of the third and the fourth centuries
which is represented by seventy-nine coins. In the Dimbani collection there seems to
be only one coin of thefirstcentury, while the rest of the identified R o m a n coins
seem to belong to the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era.

The realignment of East Africa's external relations

The disintegration of the system of international trade probably had a similarly
catastrophic effect on another state which had become dependent on it: Himyar in
south-west Arabia. T h e decline in the R o m a n demand for the frankincense it
produced, and for other Oriental luxuries for which it was the middleman, undoubt-
edly affected its well-being, and laid it open to invasions from Ethiopia and later
Persia. O n the sea it m a y have lost m u c h of its middleman's role partly to the
Ethiopians, whose port of Adulis emerged as a centre for the export of upper Nile
ivory to the Mediterranean.
The Ethiopians, however, do not appear to have been able to step fully into the
shoes of the Arabs as carriers of trade in the western Indian Ocean. Farther east, Persia
was emerging as a significant maritime power. T h e c o m m a n d of the western Indian
Ocean by the Persians in the sixth and seventh centuries, especially in view of the
decline of the Arabs and the inability of the Ethiopians to replace them, strongly
suggests that they had a dominant commercial influence over the East African coast.
N o archaeological evidence from the pre-Islamic period has so far been unearthed
along the coast, except for the five Parthian and Sassanid coins of the first three
centuries of the Christian era which m a y have been dug up somewhere in Zanzibar.
The Persians m a y also have begun to play an important role as an intermediary
between East Africa and India. T h e collapse of the R o m a n empire had deprived East
Africa of its major ivory market at a time w h e n India was still largely self-sufficient.
But already by the beginning of the sixth century Indian demand for ivory for the
manufacture of bridal ornaments seems to have begun to outstrip local supply. That
demand was securely based on the regular ritual destruction of these ornaments upon
the termination of the Hindu marriage by the death of either of the partners. B y the
tenth century India and China were the most important markets for East African
ivory.
 East Africa
before the seventh century

It is easier to acquire knowledge of the situation of the peoples and societies in East
Africa after + 1 0 0 than during the earlier periods. A great deal of research is n o w
being done on these latter periods and the findings are leading to a constant revision of
all or parts of the previous conclusions.
Study of the 2,000 years from - 1 0 0 0 to +1000 is difficult. It calls for sophisticated
methods and a vast amount of information which archaeology has so far been largely
unable to furnish.
The study which follows is therfore conjectural, hypothetical and even provocative
on more than one point, in order to stimulate reflection and research.
The approach to the early history of East Africa is therefore a cultural one
essentially, an attempt to reconstruct the w a y or ways of life, as far as the combined
archaeological, anthropological and linguistic evidence will allow. Reference is fre-
quently made to language groups. Linguistic definitions and classifications of peoples
are commonly the most clear and convenient for anthropologists and historians.
Those used in this chapter are clarified in the accompanying chart. They follow in
general the scheme originally laid d o w n in Zamani (edited by Ogot and Keiran,
1968), which was based on Greenberg's classification of African languages.

The southern savannah hunting tradition

Throughout the savannahs and light woodlands which cover most of Africa to the
east and south of the great equatorial forest belt, the main population for many
thousands of years before the Iron A g e consisted of hunter-gatherers using bows and
arrows and advanced stone-working techniques. These peoples were generally of a
physical type which is represented n o w by the so-called San and Khoi Khoi inhabiting
the Kalahari and its margins. Their language would have been of the Khoisan family.
Nowadays these languages are confined to the Khoi and San of southern and
south-western Africa, and in East Africa to t w o small separate groups living in
north-central Tanzania - the Sandawe and Hadza.
The Hadza remain hunters and gatherers, few in number, fairly mobile and expert
in finding and winning the wild food resources of their territory. T h e Sandawe, on
the other hand, have for some time been growing crops and keeping goats and cattle.
Interesting, again, is the observation that this very territory of the Hadza and
313
314 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
I! •i S
?„
<=

i
5 •
ti !
||
¿ z
I
nm
o
3
1
|
8
.1
J
I
] i s 3 a o_d hr« ^«"^
n i t f O l V f l O Î N H 3 1 S 3 M
East Africa before the seventh century 315

Sandawe and that which lies between them contains, unlike the rest of eastern Africa,
numerous examples of hunter rock art, painted on the inner walls of natural shelters
which were used from time to time during the Late Stone A g e as temporary camps
and family bases. These paintings have a social and often religious significance which
is as yet poorly understood; but they also provide valuable indications of hunting
methods, diet and daily life.
This extensive savannah hunter-gatherer w a y of life had a cultural sophistication
and economic viability of its o w n . If it was the gathering side which produced the
bulk of the food consumed, the more difficult and respected task of winning meat was
essential for a balanced diet and for satisfying the appetite. All this depended on a
degree of mobility, with seasonal camps but no permanent settlements, as the groups
followed the game or exploited the vegetable resources of a territory, and this would
have restrained population growth and perhaps inhibited change.
The greater part of the vast region once occupied by the hunter-gatherers became
afterwards the domain of Bantu cultivators. In a number of these Bantu regions
stories are told of chance encounters with small, strange folk w h o once lived and
hunted in the bush and forest. These stories are not historically precise, yet they very
likely reflect a core of vague m e m o r y handed d o w n from the period a thousand years
ago and more w h e n the Bantu were colonizing this expanse of south-central Africa
and gradually confining and assimilating the sparser Sandawe population with its very
different w a y of life. A contrasting w a y in which this old hunting tradition m a y be
reflected in later agricultural times is the prominence accorded to hunting feats and
skills in Bantu legend.
But not the whole of East Africa became part of the Bantu world. A s will be
explained below, northern Uganda, m u c h of Kenya and parts of north-central
Tanzania have long been occupied by a range of distinct populations, with Kushitic,
Nilotic and other languages, some of w h o m became established there during the Iron
Age, others earlier. Here, as further south, there is clear ethnographic and
archaeological evidence of the existence in both recent and ancient times of numerous
hunter-gatherer communities.
These northerly regions of East Africa m a y well have constituted during m u c h of
the Late Stone Age afluctuatingfrontierzone, partly determined by climatic changes,
between the cultures of San-type populations of the southern savannahs and others of
north-eastern and middle África. O f these regions m u c h remains to be learned.
However, at least t w o other distinct cultural traditions and broad ethnic entities, also
lacking either agriculture or livestock, are identifiable within or bordering East Africa
in recent millennia. They are the subjects of the following t w o sections.

The collecting and trapping tradition of the equatorial forest

In the rain-forest of the C o n g o Basin, and especially its easterly edges bordering on
R w a n d a and south-western Uganda, there live p y g m y Negroes. Their range and
numbers are smaller than in earlier times because of the gradual expansion of settled
agricultural peoples, Bantu mainly, w h o have cleared m u c h of the forest and reduced
the natural food resources on which the pygmies used to live. M a n y of the latter have
316 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

been assimilated, but others survive as independent bands, though maintaining

relations with the neighbouring Bantu and speaking the latter's languages.
Although this forest life of the pygmies was, like that of the San, based econom-
ically on the hunting and collecting of wild animals and vegetables, it demanded a
very different type of ecological adjustment and technological specialization. T o
include both pygmies and San under the same 'hunter-gatherer' label is to overlook
their distinct ways of living and thinking, as alien to each other as either is to that of
Bantu cultivators. T h e p y g m y w a y of life, like that of the San, must represent an
ancient cultural and economic tradition attached to a special environment, in this case
the dense forest whose nature helps explain the distinctive physical features and short
stature of these people.
However, historical evidence of any sort bearing on the pygmies and their former
geographical extent is extremely scant, although in the C o n g o Basin some very
tentative attempts have been made at correlating certain Late and Middle Stone A g e
remains (the Lupembo-Tshitolian complex). T h e distribution and dating of this
complex does at least indicate an important forest and woodland tradition, ancient in
origin and persisting into quite recent times. Its later phases are not well represented
eastward of R w a n d a ; so, should it be the work of pygmies, it would not support a
view of their extension into East Africa during the Late Stone A g e , even at times
w h e n rainfall was higher and forests greater. There are, it is true, allusions to the
former presence of pygmies in scattered parts of East Africa in random historical and
anthropological writings. S o m e of these appear to be based on ethnographic miscon-
ceptions, others on folklore or vague oral-traditional evidence mentioning small
hunter-gatherer peoples in the past. In so far as these accounts relate to specific peoples
and relatively precise periods of time, they probably refer in most cases to San-type
hunters of the savannah tradition or in the northerly portion of East Africa to separate
groups, so-called Dorobo and other backwoodsmen.

The aquatic tradition of middle Africa

The question of the aquatic tradition, which has been neglected for so long, is taken
up in the previous volume of this history. It will suffice here, therefore, to consider
the firlal development of this interesting w a y of life.
By - 5000 the climate of East Africa had turned markedly drier and the lakes had
fallen far below their previous high levels, being fed by fewer and smaller rivers.
Thus the geographical continuity and, in places, the economic basis of the aquatic w a y
of life was undermined. T h e days of its cultural dominance were over. However,
around - 3 0 0 0 , conditions turned more humid again for a while and lake levels
correspondingly rose (but not as high as in the seventh millennium). In the eastern
Rift Valley in Kenya a modified aquatic culture was resuscitated at this time, perhaps
through n e w migrations or contacts with the middle and upper Nile. Remains of this
late aquatic phase, with unusual pottery styles and shallow stone bowls, have been
found above Lakes Rudolf and Nakuru, dating generally, it seems, around - 3 0 0 0 .
Despite the apparent absence of harpoons from sites of this period, these people
certainly fished. But very likely the diet was less predominantly aquatic than in the
East Africa before the seventh century 317

main phase of between three thousand andfivethousand years earlier. B y - 2000, with
the dry trend re-established, the viability of an aquatic culture wasfinallyundermined
in m u c h of the eastern Rift Valley.
It appears that the population of this later aquatic phase was also basically negroid.
Direct clues as to its language are lacking. But the most reasonable argument is that it
belonged to one branch or other of the Chari-Nile family (the eastern division of
Nilo-Saharan).
O n e would expect the great aquatic civilization, both its main phase between - 8 0 0 0
and - 5000 and its later revival around - 3000, to be represented along the rivers and
swamps of the upper Nile Basin and in particular along the old shorelines of East
Africa's biggest lake, Victoria Nyanza. Oddly, signs of this seem to be lacking for the
millennia in question. However, by thefirstmillennium before the Christian era, there
were people w h o camped on islands and in rock-shelters and open stations, by the lake
itself and by rivers in the region, whose diet included fish and molluscs, but also the
flesh of bush game and perhaps of cattle and sheep. Whether some of these people
cultivated at all is very uncertain; but there is some interesting evidence of forest clear-
ance around Lake Victoria at this time, which is indicative at least of some n e w and
relatively intensive form of land use. T h e pottery of these people, k n o w n as Kansyore
ware, bears some striking affinities to the m u c h older dotted wavy-line ware of the
early aquatic tradition. A s far as is k n o w n , these wares had been superseded long
before in the Nile Valley; and it is unlikely therefore that the Kansyore types were
simply introduced to Lake Victoria as late as thefirstor second millennium before the
Christian era. M o r e likely, the aquatic tradition stretches back several millennia here
as elsewhere, but all that has been recognized of it so far is its most recent and
run-down phase immediately before the Iron A g e .
While there are no direct clues to the language-group to which these Lake Victoria
people of thefirstmillennium before the Christian era belonged, it is possible that it
was Central Sudanic (a division of Chari-Nile). This region and that to the south was
from the beginning of the Iron A g e populated by Bantu; and, according to one
linguistic school of thought, these Bantu in their process of settlement assimilated an
older and smaller population of Central Sudanic speakers from w h o m they learned
about sheep and cattle and h o w to keep them. Having no words of their o w n for
these things, the Bantu borrowed them from the earlier inhabitants of these regions
whose o w n languages have become extinct. South of Lake Victoria no reasonable
archaeological support for this hypothesis has yet been found; but around the lake
itself a case can be made for identifying the sites with Kansyore ware with the Central
Sudanic language-group, especially if the association in some places with the remains
of sheep and cattle in the first millennium be correct. M a y b e an isolated and very
declined aquatic tradition was at this time reinvigorated by contact on its eastern side
with a n e w pastoral tradition which established itself in the Kenya highlands.

The Kushitic pastoral tradition

As the drier climatic regime became firmly established by the second millennium, not
only did the lakes retreat to approximately their present levels (and the fish become
318 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

extinct in some cases), but the forests receded also, leaving in their place, most
notably in the eastern Rift and across the adjacent plateaux, fine upland pastures. A n d ,
though around Lake Victoria and by several other lakes andriversone could still fish
and maintain some of the elements of the old aquatic life, this tradition had n o w lost
its great geographical continuity and the cultural assurance which formerly went with
it. The n e w prestige in m u c h of the middle African belt, and especially its eastern end,
was cattle-keeping, and to continue to live by and off the water was commonly seen
as backward and intellectually stagnant. It was not only an archaic w a y of life: it was,
in the view of the more successful pastoral groups, uncouth and unclean. T h e first
pastoralists in East Africa identified themselves not only by their Kushitic speech and
their insistence on circumcision, but also by a taboo against fish.
For a long time n o w cattle, in those parts of East Africa with grass of sufficient
quality and quantity and free from tsetse and endemic diseases, have been an object of
prestige and an indication of wealth. But it is important to understand that this cattle
ideology is based on hard economic sense. Cattle provide meat and, more important,
milk; and, even a m o n g people w h o rely on their fields for most of their food,
livestock are an important source of protein and also a safeguard against famines
periodically caused by drought or pests. Moreover, one should not overlook the
important role of goats and sheep, which commonly provide the main sources of meat
to communities concentrating on cattle-keeping and on agriculture alike.
The economy was not exclusively pastoral. Antelopes and other game were
hunted, especially perhaps by some of the poorer communities. It is not yet k n o w n
for certain whether types of sorghum or millet or other foods were cultivated by these
people, but the likelihood is strong. T o begin with, the amount of pottery at some of
the sites suggests that part at .least of the population was more settled than would have
been the case in a purely pastoral community, while the grinding equipment also hints
at the cultivation, preparation and consumption of grain. However, these big, flat
grindstones and the accompanying pestles could have been used for crushing wild
vegetables or even non-food items. For instance, some of those left in graves are
stained with red ochre with which the corpses had been adorned. But this observation
need not rule out a utilitarian purpose in everyday life. A more persuasive argument
for assuming some cultivation is that, without the ability to turn to alternative
sources of food in times of severe crisis following prolonged droughts or cattle
epidemics, it is unlikely that such societies could have survived long; and hunting and
gathering would have sufficed as a temporary stopgap and main source of food for
only very small and dispersed groups. Nevertheless, a cultural accent on cattle-keeping
and a predominant economic reliance on livestock is illustrated by the geographical
distribution of these people, virtually confining themselves to those regions with fine
extensive grasslands. T h e crater highlands in northern Tanzania, containing the green
bowl of Ngorongoro with its cemeteries of this period, were the essential southern
limit of this long pastoral zone. A people more committed to combining their
stock-raising with agriculture would have spread out farther into fertile districts on
their eastern and western sides and could have continued farther southwards.
The pottery styles and certain other features of the material culture of these early
pastoralists of the highlands and Rift Valley of Kenya and northern Tanzania betray
East Africa before the seventh century 319

influences from the middle Nile region. But the reflection is a pale one, the influences
probably indirect. They do not necessarily mean that the cattle and their herders
originated in that region. Rather, they m a y result from contact with and assimilation
of the late aquatic population with its o w n more ancient Nile connections which was
previously established by the Rift Valley lakes. A n illustration of this is the continuity
of the strange stone bowls in this region through some t w o thousand years, from late
aquatic times to early pastoral ones.
Difficult though it is to generalize on physical types, one gets the clear impression
that the populations to the west of this line are very typically negroid and that those
in the highlands and plains to the east are rather less so. Language studies point to
influences from Ethiopia to the East African highlands, keeping all the time a little to
the east of the cultural divide. Ethiopia is the ancient h o m e of the Kushitic language-
family; and most of the present Bantu and Nilotic languages of Kenya and of
north-eastern and north-central Tanzania reveal evidence of borrowing from Kushitic
tongues. In a few places, notably at the southern end of this zone, such southern
Kushitic languages actually persist, though of course highly diverged from the old
Kushitic forms. A m o n g the important cultural-historical messages which the word-
borrowings provide is the contribution to cattle-keeping m a d e by the early Kushitic
populations in East Africa.
T h e Kushitic cultural element in East African history is reflected in other ways, and
up to a point in the non-chiefly social and political institutions, based on age-
organization, of the peoples of the plains and highlands of Kenya and parts of
northern Tanzania. But this observation is a very general one, and not all aspects of
these systems need be traceable to the original Kushitic settlement. O f more specif-
ically Kushitic origin must be the custom of circumcision in initiation, whose
distribution coincides remarkably closely with that of substantial word-borrowings
from Kushitic and the aversion to fish in the same broad region.
W e gain then a picture of a pastoral Kushitic-speaking people, tall and relatively
light-skinned, expanding southwards and making themselves masters of the rich
grasslands, the plains and more especially the plateaux, of Kenya and northern
Tanzania about three thousand years ago. All this m a y sound just like a restatement of
the n o w rejected Hamitic myth. T h e point is that, while the more illogical and
romantic aspects of the various and vaguely stated Hamitic hypotheses do derive from
prejudiced European scholarship and grostesque attitudes towards Africa and black
peoples, the factual bases of these views were not entirely fictitious. S o m e of the
observations were acute and certain of the historical interpretations very judicious.
T h e error of the Hamitic school lay in its presuppositions and its obsession with
origins of peoples and ideas. Failing to appreciate the local scene, it emphasized a
particular set of external influences, that is, the Kushitic element and the pastoral
prestige, rather than seeing this as but one of m a n y parts of the East African historical
and cultural experience - an experience in which the old savannah hunting tradition,
the aquatic one established during the wet millennia, and more recently the Bantu
with their attachment to iron and agriculture have been equally important
elements.
320 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

The Bantu agricultural and iron-using tradition

While pastoralism and the associated fish taboo provided the cultural and ethnic
hallmark of the Kushites in one zone of East Africa during the first millennium, that
of the early Bantu during the following millennium was the working and use of iron.
M u c h more important than this question of origin is the evident fact that the early
Bantu depended on iron and were identified as the people w h o possessed its secrets.
Probably the earlier peoples of East Africa were unfamiliar with it. For tools and
weapons they had taken suitable stones and worked them by ancient techniques. For
instance, the eastern Rift Valley in the Kushitic zone is blessed with sources of an
unusually fine stone called obsidian (opaque volcanic glass), from which excellent
blades of different sizes were readily producible for all sorts of purposes, including
spearheads and probably circumcision-knives. T h e contemporaneous but distinct
communities living around Lake Victoria, a m o n g w h o m the aquatic tradition per-
sisted in part, were less fortunate than those in the Rift Valley in the stones available
to them, but succeeded none the less in manufacturing complex tool-kits from quartz,
chert and other stones with good flaking properties, as also did the savannah hunters
in the regions southward. T o all such varied peoples, thefirstcontact with strangers
practising an iron technology must have been a shattering intellectual experience.
The main expansion of the Bantu was vast and fast, not a series of gradual stages as
some have argued. But it was a matter neither of purposeless nomadic wandering, nor
of organized military conquest. It was a remarkable process of colonization - in the
true sense of the word - the opening up of essentially empty lands. This Bantu
expansion did not engulf the whole of the area considered here. About one-third of
East Africa has remained non-Bantu on account of the resilience and adaptability of
some of the earlier populations, especially in the long zone of the eastern Rift with its
old Kushitic populations, augmented during the Iron A g e by the arrival of certain
Nilotic divisions. (See the linguistic m a p and the preceding and succeeding sections.)
This interpretation of Bantu expansion and settlement in East Africa (and in
countries to the south and west) at the beginning of the Iron A g e is based on a
combination of linguistic and archaeological evidence, as well as general ethnographic
considerations. T h e obvious point about the numerous Bantu languages, especially
those outside the C o n g o forest, is their close c o m m o n relationship which points to a
quite recent separation and differentiation, of the order of some one or t w o thousand
years. Another thing which emerges from a comparative study of Bantu languages is
an acquaintance with iron and the skills of working it from early times. This is one
reason for associating the early Iron A g e archaeological sites, dating from the early
and middle parts of the first millennium of the Christian era, in m a n y districts of
eastern and south-central Africa with the Bantu colonization. But a more compelling
reason for confidently identifying these sites as those of the early Bantu is simply that
their distribution agrees so nicely with that of present Bantu peoples. There are no
sensible grounds for theorizing that a quite different population covered this same
broad region, only to disappear completely no more than a thousand years ago.
The most frequent and diagnostic objects found on these early Bantu sites are not
iron tools and weapons (for these were usually too valuable to be discarded and, even
East Africa before the seventh century 321
¿5
1
•I
1
»0
322 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
if they had been, would normally have corroded completely), but the broken pieces of
earthenware pots. From the very beginning these pottery wares were by no means
identical region by region throughout the enormous span of Bantu settlement. N e w
types are being recognized continually by archaeologists. Perhaps the best k n o w n are
the dimple-based (or Urewa) wares found around Lake Victoria and further west,
extending to the northern end of Lake Tanganyika and the woodlands south of the
forest in Zaïre. Besides the dimples on the bases of some of these vessels, many have
elaborately shaped rims and remarkable decoration in scrolls and other patterns. T o
the south and east of the dimple-based zone, the early Iron A g e wares fall into two
main groupings. In north-eastern Tanzania and south-eastern Kenya, that is beyond
the great Kushitic bulge, Kwale ware, as it is called, occurs from the highland edges
d o w n to the coastal plain. At the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, and in the
countries farther south, a whole plethora of regional wares has been identified. (These
include those in Zambia previously k n o w n as 'channelled').

The Nilotes: adaptation and variation

Beside the Bantu, another language group - or rather series of distantly related
language groups - occupied m u c h of East Africa during the Iron A g e . These were the
Nilotes. While their physical features differ in certain general respects from those of
the Bantu, the Nilotes are very pronouncedly negroid. It is true, nevertheless, that
those Nilotic-speakers w h o have moved furthest eastward and southward into the old
Kushitic zone of Kenya and northern Tanzania have assimilated some of the previous
Ethiopoid population. This helps to account for the original negroid features of the
present Itunga, Maasai, Kalenjin and Tatoga groupings. These are the people w h o
were in the past classified as 'Nilo-Hamites'. Their partly Kushitic ancestry is further
shown - but in a variety of ways a m o n g these different groups - in their cultural
heritage. This has involved considerable word-borrowing from Kushitic tongues.
But basically their languages remain Nilotic.
The divisions within the Nilotic languages - between the Highland, River-Lake
and Plains Nilotes - are deep and ancient (considerably more so than those in Bantu,
for instance). A n d , while a date for the break-up of 'parent Nilotic' cannot be
accurately estimated, it could not have been less than two thousand years ago. This
would have occurred somewhere in the southern Sudan, possibly towards the
Ethiopian border. From this general region representatives of each of the three
divisions have moved into northerly, and even central parts of East Africa during the
last t w o thousand years. However, the extensions of Plains Nilotes (notably the
Itunga group in eastern Uganda and north-western Kenya, and the Masai in Kenya
and northern Tanzania) and the River-Lake Nilotes (the L w o o of Uganda and the
Kenya lake-shore) belong to the present millennium and are therefore the concern of
later volumes of this History. In this volume our main concern is limited to the
Highland division of Nilotic, represented nowadays by the Kalenjin of the western
Kenya highlands and the Tatoga scattered over various grasslands in northern
Tanzania.
The early Highland Nilotes are not yet k n o w n archaeologically; but their present
East Africa before the seventh century 323

distribution and internal linguistic comparison show that they must have established
themselves in Kenya quite a thousand years ago. It is possible that their emergence as a
group with an identity, culture and language of their o w n had begun with the
coming of iron to the upper Nile Basin and the Ethiopian borderlands. In these
regions and in the Kushitic zone, it is likely that the knowledge of iron and the skills
of working it derived from a northerly source. This would have been independent of
its adoption by the early Bantu, w h o were probably responsible for the expansion of
iron-working in western and southern parts of East Africa.
The majority of the Nilotes remained in the Nile Basin, mainly in the southern
Sudan. Here they were not directly influenced by Kushitic ways, and they usefully
combined stock-keeping, grain cultivation and fishing. However, the Plains division
eventually split into three principal branches, and it is instructive to observe their
range of cultural and environmental adaptations from north-west to south-east.
A m o n g the Bari-Lotuko cluster in the southern Sudan and the borders of northern
Uganda, a fairly typical Nilotic life has been maintained. In the rather dry hills and
plains which cross from northern Uganda into Kenya, herded by the Itunga grouping
(Karamojong, Turkana, Teso, etc.), fishing is infrequent, though this m a y be
attributable to the scarcity of opportunities as m u c h as to a cultural prohibition.
Beyond the Itunga, the third branch of the Plains Nilotes, the Maasai, has extended
across a very large part of the highlands and plateau grasslands of Kenya and northern
Tanzania. Here in recent centuries they have assimilated and been strongly influenced
by the earlier settled Highland Nilotes and, directly or indirectly, by the southern
Kushitic. They have adopted not only the fish taboo, but also circumcision. In these
fine pastures, in fact, the central Masai sections succeeded recently in pursuing the
pastoral ethic to its ultimate extreme.
These are by no means all the examples that could be cited of Nilotic expansion and
assimilation often of a seemingly haphazard sort - assimilation of other Nilotic
divisions and sudivisions as well as of non-Nilotes, and processes of expansion
frequently demanding both ecological and cultural adaptations. In the southern Sudan
a ad in northern and eastern Uganda the interactions which have taken place during
the present millennium, and probably the preceding one too, between certain
branches of the Plains and River-Lake Nilotes have been quite as complex as those just
noted between Nilotes and Kushites and between older Nilotes and newer Nilotes in
the Kenya and northern Tanzania highlands.

The East African 'megalithic' problem

In older literature on eastern Africa and its history there was considerable discussion of
advanced civilizations in antiquity. These were posited in the interlacustrine region
and more particularly in the highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania (the old
Kushitic zone, interestingly), a m o n g others. Such historical views were based on a
mixture of ethnographic traits, unscientifically collected 'oral traditions' and
archaeological observations, the last consisting of the remains of supposed 'engineer-
ing' works and the ruins of buildings and terraces of dry stone (that is 'megalithic').
Unfortunately, m u c h of the primary evidence was inaccurately recorded or, even
324 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

where accurate, was illogically interpreted or correlated with quite irrelevant materials
to please fanciful historical outlooks which were fashionable at the time, notably the
notorious Hamitic ideas. This tendency was all too eagerly taken up by secondary
writers w h o uncritically accepted, and in some cases irresponsibly exaggerated, the
supposed primary evidence. Equally illogical was the presumption so often made that
various types of archaeological features, whether genuine or bogus, whether with or
without stonework, distributed over a wide region, should be attributable to a single
people or culture at a particular period of the past. Such a presumption underlay
Huntingford's theory of an Azanian civilization in Kenya and northern Tanzania,
which he attributed to Hamites, and equally Murdock's hypothesis of megalithic
Kushites having once inhabited the same general region. (Murdock, by the way, was
specifically opposed to the Hamitic prejudices of earlier writers.)
The word megalithic is thus a loaded one which serves no cultural or historical
purpose in East Africa. It is worth, nevertheless, briefly noting and commenting on
those features which have been cited as evidence of ancient megalithic cultures. N o t all
are in fact stone constructions. M a n y , if not most, of the cairns (or stone mounds),
which represent graves, frequently encountered in the pastures of Kenya and northern
Tanzania date from the end of the Late Stone A g e between t w o and three thousand
years ago and are probably the w o r k of Kushitic-speaking peoples. But some m a y be
more recent. It is possible, but by no means certain, that some of the rock-cut wells
which occur in the drier pastures of southern Masailand in Tanzania, and also of
eastern and northern Kenya, m a y date back to the same period w h e n cattle were
introduced. So, perhaps, m a y some of the so-called ancient roads in the highlands,
which are in fact nothing more than cattle-tracks accidentally eroded by the continual
passing of herds across ridges and d o w n slopes to water over periods of time. M a n y of
these are still being enlarged, and n e w ones started. Less likely to extend back so far
are the practices of irrigated agriculture pursued on and below several of the Rift
escarpments and mountain passes of northern Tanzania and Kenya. O n the other
hand, it can be demonstrated that these are at least a few centuries old in places. M u c h
more rare and m u c h less important for historical argument, despite what has been
written, are hillside agricultural terraces. Only in very peculiar or marginal situations
were these constructed. S o m e accounts even speak of monoliths and stone phalli in the
East African interior: it is highly doubtful whether any such things ever stood there!
There is, however, a little more to the East African megalithic issue than this. O n e
also reads of stone houses and enclosures and pit-dwellings. T h o u g h here again there
have been some inaccurate description and misinterpretation, there are some bases of
archaeological fact to be faced. The features in question consist of types of dry-stone
walling and revetting and lie in t w o separate areas. Culturally, too, these t w o
complexes were quite separate from each other, interesting though it is that they were
roughly contemporary, each dating essentially to the middle centuries of the present
millennium (incidentally, well outside the period properly covered in this volume).
The first of these complexes comprises the so-called Sirikwa Holes, which are
extremely numerous over the whole of the western highlands of Kenya. The second
complex lies similarly on the western side of the great Rift Valley, but some distance
to the south beyond the Tanzania border.
 West Africa
before the seventh century

Critical appraisal of the available archaeological and other relevant data does not
support the popular belief that outside cultural influence was mainly responsible for
the origins, development and overall character of the Neolithic and 'Iron A g e '
societies of West Africa. In particular, it is w r o n g to claim that ideas and peoples from
outside, usually from the north across the Sahara, stimulated or generated most major
developments pertaining to early food production or the earliest working of iron and
copper. T h e data suggest rather that complex regional, sub-regional and local factors
were variably important and that West African Neolithic and Iron A g e sites,
explicable to a greater or lesser extent within systems of sites, integrated as m u c h as
possible with the major ecological constraints at w o r k .

The origins of agriculture and animal husbandry

Plant succession and soil studies of prehistoric sites (hitherto grossly neglected) have a
major role to play in understanding h o w and w h e n the change from hunting and
gathering occurred in W e s t Africa - especially as 'direct' evidence is often lacking.
Domestication in this context means the process of withdrawing animals from
natural selection processes; directing their reproduction; making them serve m a n (by
their w o r k and/or their products); and modifying their characteristics by selective
breeding, while losing some old character traits. Plant cultivation here refers to the
deliberate planting of tubers or seeds and the protection of fruit trees, vines, etc., with
a view to obtaining for h u m a n use an appreciable quantity of these tubers, seeds and
fruits.
Ecological studies indicate, first, that animal domestication is feasible in the
semi-arid tropical and subtropical savannah areas because the soil p H is fairly high
( ± 7.0), and consequently the macro-elements (nitrogen and phosphorus) are rela-
tively readily assimilable and pastures have a relatively high protein content. Secondly,
and in contrast, such studies indicate that domesticated animals are not an important
feature of food production in the humid tropical regions partly because the soil p H
and the assimilability of the macro-elements nitrogen, phosphorus and calcium are
generally low; hence the pasturage is high in cellulose and crude fibre, and has a high
heat increment value. Heat production and dissipation by the animals are thus real
problems for livestock in the humid tropics. T o maintain thermal equilibrium in such
325
326 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
regions, cattle are usually small, giving them a large surface area per unit weight and
facilitating heat dissipation. W h e r e some domesticated animals were in fact kept, the
problem of high temperatures appears to have been overcome by the selection of small
livestock which could adapt to tropical conditions.
Thirdly, ecological studies show that the annual plants cultivated in most of West
Africa, in complete contrast to those of the Middle East, were and still are adapted to
growth in a season of high temperature and high humidity. Except in the cool and
relatively dry highlands, Middle Eastern cereals fail completely because of their
inability to withstand pathogens that flourish at high temperatures.
Palaeontological, botanical, ecological, ethnographic and archaeological data, all
combined, suggest that at the general level the food-producing complexes first
adopted were farming (crop cultivation), pastoralism, and mixed farming (i.e. a
combination of animal rearing and plant cultivation). A t the specific level, these
food-producing complexes varied according to the kinds of crops cultivated, the
animals kept and the ways in which these were harvested or reared and the settlement
and social systems adopted.
Indeed, archaeological and ethnographic data suggest the existence in West Africa
of (i) early cattle herding in the northern and eastern Sahara; (ii) early seed-crop
complexes, possibly practising permanentfieldsystems, on the slopes and scraps of the
central Saharan highlands; (iii) seed-cropping complexes in parts of the Sahel and
northern savannah regions, with influences impinging on these from both north and
south (in this connection, it appears that the inland delta of the Niger, the edge of the
Futa Jallon hills in the upper basin of the Senegal, Niger and Gambia rivers, and the
Sudanic environments in general, m a y have been nuclear areas for crops like rice
(Otyza gkberrima), millets (Digitaria), guinea corn and bulrush millets); (iv) mixed
fanning and cattle herding in the central and eastern Sahel regions and parts of the
northern savannah regions, where the desiccation of the Sahara m a y have played an
important role; and (v) root and tree complexes in the forest fringe regions to the far
south.
These early 'Neolithic' complexes were characterized by distinctly different artefact
complexes, as well as (largely inferred) different settlement and social patterns and
land-use methods. In some areas, however (e.g. Tiemassas, Senegal and
Paratoumbian, Mauretania), t w o or more traditions met and overlapped.
Early cattle-herding Neolithic complexes of the north
Remains of domestic shorthorn cattle have been found at U a n Muhuggiag, south-
west Libya, and Adrar Bous, Air, and the dates obtained suggest domestication of
cattle from - 5 5 9 0 ( + 200) in the former area and - 3 8 3 0 to - 3 7 9 0 in the latter. At
U a n Muhuggiag the remains of sheep were also found. T h e short-horned type of
cattle does not, however, appear to have existed in the Nile Valley before the
Eleventh Dynasty (-2600), although there is evidence for the long-horned type at
K o m O m b o in Egypt during the Pleistocene.
Cultural evidence suggests that in Libya there m a y have been an early instance of
transition from hunting and gathering to pastoralism, which extended as far to the
south-east as Adrar Bous (Tenereen, - 4000 to - 2500) and as far to the south-west as
West Africa before the seventh century 327

Tishït (Khimiya phase, post - 1 5 0 0 ) . In these areas the pastoralists appear to have been
direct descendants of earlier inhabitants and the n e w w a y of life probably replaced or
was combined with a seed-cropping Neolithic. If so, it means either that the concept
of cattle domestication was transferred to these areas, or that they were on the
outskirts of a large nuclear zone of cattle domestication. Radio-carbon dates from sites
reporting domesticated Bos indicate possible expansion of cattle from the Saharan
heartlands into the southern Sahara and Sahel zones of West Africa, and some form of
relationship with the desiccation of the desert region.
Early seed-cropping Neolithic complexes
The central Saharan highlands
Such evidence as exists suggests that seed-cropping, but not any other form of cultivation,
probably occurred m u c h earlier here than anywhere to the south. T h e earliest evidence
for this early form of Neolithic comes mainly from rock-shelter sites at A m e k n i and
Meniet in the Hoggar. At A m e k n i in contexts dated to - 6 1 0 0 and - 4 8 5 0 , C a m p s
recovered t w o pollen grains which are considered, because of their size and shape, to
represent a domesticated variety of Pennisetum. From Meniet, Pons and Quezel
identified t w o pollen grains belonging to a level dated to about - 3600 which m a y be a
cultivated cereal.
Other less conclusive evidence for seed-crop cultivation in this area comes from the
rock shelter at Sefar in the Tassili, radio-carbon dated to about - 3100. Paintings in this
shelter appear to depict cultivation, while linguistic evidence suggests a considerable
antiquity for sorghum cultivation in the central Sahara. Apart from occupying rock
shelters, the prehistoric people of this region also occupied relatively large permanent
villages or settlements on hillsides and the edges of escarpments overlooking lakes or
wadis. They made polished and flaked axes, grinders and querns, dimple stones,
rubbers, pottery and m a n y kinds of flake tools.
The southern Sahara, the Sahel and parts of the savannah regions of West Africa
The Neolithic in these parts of W e s t Africa has often been regarded as the result of
northern influences; and there m a y well be some justification for this view, since some
of the Late Stone A g e products in this area show affinities with the post-Palaeolithic
complexes of the Hoggar or of the eastern Sahara and the Maghrib. But the main
archaeological traditions characteristic of the Early Neolithic (Late Stone Age) in this
area show distinctive traits, especially in pottery, tools and settlement size and
pattern. Most settlements at that time were located on escarpments or onflatland
near lakes or wadis. Three main traditions m a y be discerned, probably reflecting
differences in economic and social patterns:
(i) At the northern fringe of this region are industries, such as those of the
Tenereen and Bel-air (Senegal), which are based on blades, and include a variety
of geometrical microliths and/or projectiles, few or no polished or ground
stone items; settlement areas are relatively small.
(ii) In the central areas, such as Borku, Ehnedi, Tilemsi, Ntereso and Daima,
industries are found which lack geometrical microliths, but have a variety of
328 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
1
i
I
West Africa before the seventh century 329

projectiles, fish-hooks and harpoons, and some polished and ground stone
items. Settlement areas here are relatively large.
(iii) T h e third group of industries to the south, represented principally by N o k and
Kintampo, is virtually devoid of blades, geometrical microliths and projectiles,
but is rich in polished and ground stone tools. This group is characterized by
relatively larger and apparently more permanent settlements.

The Tilemsi Valley complexes

Evidence from the Karkarichinkat sites shows that, during at least the later part of the
most recent wet phase of the Sahara ( - 2 0 0 0 to - 1 3 0 0 ) , this area was inhabited by
pastoral peoples with a w a y of life not very dissimilar from that of some present-day
semi-nomadic pastoralists such as the Nuer of the Sudan and the Fulbe of West
Africa. T h e Karkarichinkat South sites resemblefishingand herding camps, as witness
the abundance of bivalve shells, fishbones and Bos remains with few or no stone
artefacts except fish-hooks. In contrast the abundance of pottery, clay figurines of
animals and stone artefacts (especially a great variety of projectiles) at Karkarichinkat
North all suggests a shift away from standing water and a greater involvement in
herding, hunting and possibly some plant cultivation.
T h e cultural groups w h o lived in northern Tilemsi, around Asselar, had an
industry similar to the Tenereen of the Sahara region (Tixier, +1962) and at least as
old (skeletal material has been dated to - 4 4 0 0 ) . Both groups contain grindstones,
polished axes and scrapers; geometrical microliths are rarer in the lower Tilemsi, and
their projectiles and pottery are different. At Asselar and Karkarichinkat it would
seem that besides herding cattle the people also hunted wild animals. Studies by
C a m p s in the A d m e r Erg south of Tassili-n-Ajjer suggest that pastoralists with
industries similar to the Tenereen existed as far north as this as well as occupying the
Tassili-n-Ajjer and bordering plains from at least the fourth millennium before the
Christian era.

The Dhar Tisjñt region

Research in this part of southern Mauretania has revealed an eight-phase, well-dated,
Late Stone A g e sequence containing subsistence data which shed some light on the
problem of early food production in this area in particular and in the region of the
Senegal/Niger headwaters generally.
A plausible explanation for the development trend reported at Tishjt, because it
fits the archaeological data m u c h better, would be as follows - special rearing and
propagation of Cenchrus biflorus in the Khimiya phase ( - 1 5 0 0 ) , then the intensification
and expansion of this practice of incipient production and propagation of plants to
include several other plants during the dry Naghez phase ( - 1 1 0 0 ) .

The region south of Lake Chad

This region k n o w n as the Firki, comprises black clay plains which stretch away from
the southern margins of Lake Chad and are thought to have been formed from lagoon
deposits on the edge of a formerly larger lake. T h e zone is comparatively fertile and
well watered. T h e soil is very retentive of moisture once it has absorbed it; and this
330 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

retentiveness is n o w artificially increased by the construction of low banks round the

fields. Seasonal inundation rendered this area attractive for settlement by both farmers
and herders, while seasonal extremes considerably restricted habitable sites and the
constant use of such areas in the past resulted in the accretion of occupation mounds
and tells.
Excavation of some of these mounds in northern Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad has
so far revealed successive occupations over periods of time k n o w n in some cases to
approach and exceed 2,000 years. Lebeuf, working principally in Chad, is convinced
that the mounds are connected with the Sao of oral traditions. Even if this term has
m u c h cultural or ethnic value, this writer shares Connah's reluctance to use oral
tradition to identify peoples some of w h o m lived 2,500 years ago.
The Daima evidence suggests that by the early sixth century before the Christian
era there were Late Stone A g e herdsmen living in this area, keeping cattle and sheep
or goats, using polished stone axes, the material for which had to be carried many
kilometres into this completely stoneless region, and making tools and weapons of
polished bone. These earliest occupants of the site probably built only in grass and
w o o d , and lacked metals of any kind.
Findings from sitesÄlike R o p and Dutsen Kongba strongly suggest that a fully
stone-using Neolithic level also immediately preceded the famous N o k Iron A g e
culture (i.e. before - 2 5 0 0 ) of the Jos Plateau. T h e N o k people m a y well have traded
polished and ground stone tools to peoples occupying the stoneless regions to the
north, and perhaps abo the pottery, which at Daima is best represented by afineware
with burnished red surfaces often decorated with toothed c o m b or roulette patterns.

The Kintampo-Ntereso complexes, Central Ghana

Archaeological evidence indicating the existence of a negroid group practising food
production at least as early as - 1 3 0 0 to - 1 4 0 0 has so far been found in four main areas
of Ghana: east of the Banda hills, the high ground around Kintampo, riverine sites
scattered among the open woodlands of the inner Volta Basin, and the Accra plains to
the far south.
These groups of sites can n o w be distinguished from one another more by
environmental setting than by evidence of material culture. Burnt daub is fairly
c o m m o n at the Kintampo site and points to more or less fixed abodes. T h e
widespread distribution of polished axes and 'rasps' (also called 'terracotta cigars')
into areas where suitable rocks are absent points to the practice of some kind of
inter-regional trade. Evidence at three of the Kintampo sites also shows that the
Kintampo complex was preceded by another with a distinctly different pottery
tradition, stone tools and animal remains, reflecting intensive hunting and gathering
and/or incipient cultivation.

T h e forest fringe areas

A distinctly local industrial complex, different in character from the Late Stone A g e
industries, directly succeeded the latter in the forest fringe areas of W e s t Africa, as
well as in the open grassland regions of north-central Burkina Faso. T h e same
West Africa before the seventh century 331

industry overlaps with a more northern Neolithic complex in parts of Senegal, Mali
and Mauretania (Vaufrey's Paratoumbien).
The early food-producing peoples of the forest region (the so-called Guinea
Neolithic) occupied rock shelters and caves as well as open-air sites. Examples of
shelters are Yengema, Kamabai and Yagala all in Sierra Leone; Kakimbon, Blande and
M o n k e y Caves in Guinea; Bosumpra in Ghana; and I w o Eleru and U k p a in Nigeria.
From I w o Eleru also comes evidence suggesting that the predecessors as well as the
Neolithic peoples were negroid. T h e best-known open sites include the valley and
hill-slope sites of R i m in north-central Burkina Faso, and the Senegal coastal sites of
Rarenno, Tiemassas and Cap Manuel.
Significantly, the archaeological evidence from the Mali-Mauretania-Senegal nexus
seems to lend support to Portères's thesis that the red-skinned African rices (Oryza
glaberrima and Oryza stapfilt) could have been first domesticated by an indigenous wet
cultivation method at least 3,500 years old in the extensive flood plains of the upper
Niger between Segu and Timbuktu in Mali, an area where the Niger divides into
several streams and lakes (the inland Niger Delta); and from there such cultivation
m a y have spread d o w n the Gambia and •Casamance rivers to the coastal peoples of
Senegambia. It is worth noting also that the botanical evidence clearly rules out the
idea of rice cultivation having resulted from the introduction of knowledge of cereal
cultivation. Portères has pointed out that, whereas the ancestral form of wheat
(emmer) gave edible seeds so that cultivation could have developed from grain
collection, this was not possible for African rice, since its ancestral forms did not yield
a collectable crop.
All in all, then, the data suggest that the central Saharan and adjoining Sahel
highland areas were the centre for the earliest and an independent cultivation of some
grain crops, especially Pennisetum and sorghum, whilst the forest fringe areas of
Nigeria saw the earliest indigenous cultivation of certain root (yams, coco-yams) and
tree (oil palm) crops. O n the other hand the forest fringe area to the extreme west was
the nuclear area for rice cultivation. Dealing specifically with sorghum, Portères
noted that, of the three regions which possessed basic wild stocks of sorghum (West
Africa, Ethiopia and East Africa), West Africa was of special significance because
unlike East Africa (and Asia) its current types are unique instead of being crosses
between the three primary forms.
While radio-carbon data indicate that the 'Neolithic' of the central Saharan area
(c. - 7000) was the earliest of all the primary farming Neolithics, it also shows that the
transition to food production in the forest fringe areas was m u c h earlier than the same
event in the Sudanic and Sahel zones to the north. At I w o Eleru this change dates to
just after - 4 0 0 0 (-3620) and continued until - 1 5 0 0 . At U k p a rock shelter near
Afikpo (5° 5 4 ' N , 7° 56'E; Shaw, +1969) the Neolithic pottery and hoe-containing
level dates to - 2 9 3 5 ( ±140) continuing to - 9 5 .
The Guinea Neolithic occurs slightly later in Sierra Leone to the east and in
Burkina Faso to the north. At Yengema cave, thermoluminescent dating of pottery
representing 'more or less the beginning and the end of the ceramic Neolithic' indi-
cates a period from - 2500 to - 1 5 0 0 . At Kamabai the Neolithic levels span a period
from - 2 5 0 0 to + 3 4 0 ( ± 100). In the north central region of Burkina Faso (Rim), the
332 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

same type of industry has been dated to between - 1 6 5 0 and +1000.

But the distinctive character of the Guinea Neolithic of the forest fringe areas, and
its dating in relation to the early food-producing cultural complexes in the savannah
and Sahel zones, suggest not only that the change to food production occurred earlier
in the forest areas but that it was independent of northern influences.
T o say that the West African 'early Neolithic' complexes had distinctly local
features, m a n y of which reflect independently evolved economic and social adaptation
measures for uniquely local ecologies, is not to say that each was an isolated enclave.
The scanty skeletal evidence available suggests that the populations of most of these
areas were negroid.
In the Sahara, Neolithic m a n seems to have been a mixture of the Mediterranean
and Negro races w h o settled in the Tassili area in Neolithic times. In moving
southward, these people probably gave rise to several of the dark-skinned groups w h o
inhabit what is n o w savannah.
That the early Neolithic negroid peoples of West Africa were not living in isolated
cultural enclaves is also illustrated by similarities in pottery features (e.g. rockering
technique and comb-shaped decoration). If the dating is correct, then it is likely that
these pottery features probably spread from the central Sahara to parts of the Sahel and
savannah. O n the other hand, roulette decoration was a more specifically southern
feature, while the dotted wavy-line and wavy-line decorations typical of the Nilotic
regions were completely absent in the south, but were just present in some eastern
and central Sanaran complexes.
It n o w appears that there were at least four primary areas of Neolithic development,
two of which were in the far north of West Africa. Particularly in the open plains of
the northern region, the pastoral form of transhumance was established very early. In
lacustrine areas and the valleys and surrounding hill slopes, seed-cropping and in some
cases mixed farming were prominent. O n the other hand, the lowlands and forest
fringe areas of the south were primary centres for root and tree crop cultivation.
T w o main nuclear areas have been identified in West Africa, one to the north in
the Sahel/Sudanic transitional zone, the other to the south on the fringes of the forest
area. Both were thus located in regions with contrasting seasons, one season being
unfavourable to growth (heat, drought or cold). Plants in such habitats store up
reserves to enable them to resume vigorous n e w life w h e n the 'favourable' weather
returns. These reserves were in the form of roots and tubers in the south and seeds in
the northern Sudanic zone.
In the forest and savannah areas with little or no seasonal climatic variation on the
other hand, plants grew at a slow and regular pace. They did not need to struggle for
survival, or to accumulate reserves - a feature which by example probably encour-
aged domestication ventures in both nuclear areas. T h e central savannah zone,
sandwiched between the t w o nuclear areas, appears to have been a meeting-point for
influences from both of them.
In all three main cultural regions, however, the transition from food gathering to
food growing modified man's attitude towards his natural environment and his
human group in several ways. From being a gatherer, he became a producer and
'storer', and subsequently (through long-distance trade) exchanged some of the
West Africa before the seventh century 333

resources which his neighbours lacked for commodities which his o w n group needed.
The economic change also encouraged the development of handicraft activities and
n e w technologies (ceramics, metal working, etc.) as well as active and complex
trading networks, in addition to more profound social changes. But these social
changes varied in kind and degree according to the type of agricultural base that was
established.

The early Iron Age

Iron A g e developments do not seem to have differed markedly from Neolithic trends,
except that the earliest instances of transition to the Metal/Iron A g e in West Africa
occurred at both ends of the Sahel/savannah zone rather than in the forest regions to
the south. In this respect, as with early food production, all the cultural and
chronological evidence strongly suggests that there was m u c h that was indigenous in
this venture into metal working.
As set out in detail elsewhere, the evidence about the Early Iron A g e in West
Africa m a y be typologically and to some extent chronologically and stratigraphically
divided into assemblages containing: (i) pottery, iron and ground stone tools;
(ii) pottery, iron and/or other metals, sometimes in conjunction with special (pot)
burial practices; and (iii) pottery alone.
Sites where traces of iron working are mixed with a more or less flourishing stone
industry are usually the oldest types of Iron A g e assemblage, and probably reflect the
transition from the Stone to the Iron A g e . Sites belonging to such transitional
industries have been identified in several parts of West Africa, as well as elsewhere
(e.g. in the Great Lakes region of East Africa). Such industries generally contain iron
slag, knife blades, fragments of arrow and spearheads, hooks and bracelets, h a m m e r -
stones, a variety of axe/adze forms, stone discs (rings), querns and rubbing stones.
There are distinct regional trends: for example, terracotta figurines seem to be
particularly characteristic of northern Nigeria.
Regional variation is also evident in pottery from the Early Iron A g e . For example,
Bailloud's sequence from Ennedi of t w o related styles, Telimorou and Chigeou,
which span the Late Neolithic/Early Iron A g e transition, appear to be related to
Coppens' céramique cannelée from Chad and Courtin's Taimanga style from
Borku. Telimorou is associated with the earliest open village sites, and has been
tentatively dated to thefirstmillennium before the Christian era. Both Bailloud and
Courtain point out the resemblance o'f these pottery styles to that of the C-group in
Nubia, though the dating of the latter seems likely to be considerably earlier (starting
about - 2 0 0 0 ) in Nubia. Examples of stone tools still in use included grinders and
dimple stones as well as polished and flaked axes. Even within the same period, and
w h e n circumscribed by the same artistic tradition, some N o k sites contained unique
features suggesting regional variation. For instance, polished axes were entirely absent
from Taruga and there are differences in domestic pottery between Samun Dukiya,
Taruga and Katsina Ala.
Not only was N o k culture firmly established well over 2,500 years ago, but its
influence appears to have been far-reaching. For instance, some of the stylistic features
334 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

of N o k culture are paralleled in the clay figurines at Daima, where iron working
started about thefifthor sixth century of the Christian era.
Connah suggests that around the eighth century the original people at Daima were
replaced by others w h o were fully iron-using and predominantly cereal-cultivating
people with rather wider contacts than their predecessors. But the tradition of burial
by crouched inhumation was continued, as was the making of clay figurines. A t no
stage did they bury their dead inside the enormous pottery jars usually referred to as
So pots, although this type of pottery is present in the upper part of the m o u n d .
M a n y important ancient village m o u n d sites, some up to half a kilometre long,
were found on artificial or natural hillocks on the banks of rivers in the lower Chari
Valley in the Chad Republic, within a radius of 100 kilometres from Fort L a m y .
These yielded some of the same finds as at N o k and Daima, including fine terracotta
figurines, both h u m a n and animal, stone ornaments, copper and bronze weapons, and
many thousands of potsherds. H u g e funerary pots were also used here and the villages
were surrounded by defensive walls.

Southern Nigeria
Willet observes that 'so m a n y features of the N o k culture, particularly of its art, are
found in later cultures elsewhere in West Africa, that it is difficult not to believe that
the N o k culture as w e k n o w it represents the ancestral stock from which m u c h of the
sculptural tradition of W e s t Africa derives'. True or not, there are certainly many
similarities between N o k and Ife art which are unlikely to be coincidental. A s at N o k ,
a naturalistic sculpture tradition dates back to at least + 9 6 0 ( ± 130), and an elaborate
bead-work was present at Ife and Benin and to a lesser extent at other ancient Yoruba
towns.
The I g b o - U k w u excavations clearly indicate that iron working in south-eastern
Nigeria is at least as early as the ninth century of the Christian era, but there is
nothing to suggest that it could not have been earlier. Because iron smithing was a
highly skilled occupation, it remained exclusive to certain communities and lineages.
The most famous of the Igbo smiths are those from A w k a , east of Onitsha, w h o
apparentlyfirstobtained iron (ore?) from the Igbo smelters of Udi, east of A w k a , and
only m u c h later received supplies of European iron. Other foci of metal working
among the Igbo were the Abiriba iron smelters, a m o n g the Cross River (eastern)
Igbo; the iron and brass smiths located near the Okigwe-Arochuku ridge, and the
Nkwerre smiths in the southern part of this region.
O n e excavation in the A w k a area yielded fifteen iron gongs and an iron sword
similar to those still made by the A w k a smiths, as well as a large number of cast
bronze bells and other objects dated to +1495 ( ± 95) which cannot be so readily
attributed to A w k a smiths.
It is not clear what the time/cultural relationship is between Ife and Igbo-Ukwu,
although Willett thinks it possible that Ife m a y be m u c h earlier than is at present
supposed and m a y even be m u c h nearer N o k than present evidence (c. thirteenth to
fourteenth centuries of the Christian era) suggests. If the Ife beads are indeed the same
as the 'akori' beads of the Guinea coast, as both Frobenius and ethnographic evidence
West Africa before the seventh century 335

from southern Nigeria suggest, then it is conceivable that the I g b o - U k w u glass beads
were manufactured at Ife. If so, it would mean that Ife culture dates at least as far back
as the I g b o - U k w u finds (ninth century of the Christian era). In this connection it m a y
also be significant that a discontinuity of tradition at Ife in the stone sculpture, glass
industry and clay figurines is largely paralleled at Daima, and that the cultural
discontinuity at Daima dates from between the sixth and ninth centuries of the
Christian era.

T h e Iron A g e in the extreme west

The Iron A g e in the extreme western section is even less well k n o w n than that of
N o k and neighbouring areas. For instance, such information as exists for Mauretania
relates not to an Iron A g e but to a 'copper age'. In the middle Niger region, and
particularly in Senegambia, only a partial chronological sequence has so far been
obtained.
Excavations by N . Lambert at Akdjudjt indicate that copper smelting in the
western Sahara dates as far back as - bl(flö~- 400; this m a y also have been the date of
the trans-Saharan trade in copper. Estimates at one of the sites suggest that 40 tons of
copper were extracted from it, and it is possible that some of this output was exported
from the western Sahara to the Sudan.
The vast number of copper objects from sites and m u s e u m collections and also
those mentioned in written sources suggest that the use of this metal, scarce though
it was, was widespread in West Africa for a very long time - although it was not as
important as w o o d , iron or clay. Copper and its alloys, w h e n imported, came in a
number of forms which changed little over the centuries, such as bars, manillas, rings,
wires, bells and basins.
African peoples made a distinction between red copper, that is, copper in its pure
form, bronze and yellow copper or brass. Unfortunately such precision is lacking in
m u c h of the literature. Spectrographic analysis needs to be carried out to establish the
actual metal content of an object and the preferences of the earliest users of copper and
its alloy (bronze).

The middle Niger region

Artificial earth mounds, either settlement sites or graves (tumuli), are k n o w n from
three main areas in this region. They are:
(i) the Niger-Bani confluence in the Bani Valley;
(ii) north and north-east of Marina and Segu; and
(iii) far to the east of the bend, in Burkina Faso.
A large, thick-walled ware decorated chiefly with a twisted-string roulette was
consistently present in all three areas, and often served as a burial pot. In places burial
pots occur in twos and threes, with accompanying domestic equipment. In Burkina
Faso (Rim), the main associated tools were iron, polished and ground stone tools and
domestic pottery.. Bronze and copper objects were also present in the Niger bend area.
Also present in the Marina and Segu areas, but not at Bani or R i m (Burkina Faso) far
336 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

to the east, is a distinctive slipware having polymorphic forms; fine, thin-walled

dishes and bowls, some of which were carinated, pedestalled or flat-based; footed
cups; and jugs and conical jars.
In Segu and Timbuktu some of these 'Iron A g e ' people were mainly farmers
cultivating millet and rice, while others were mainly fishermen using nets with
terracotta weights instead of bone harpoons. There were impressive pre-Islamic
monuments, with artistically dressed stones, and some of the finds cover several acres,
indicating major settlements. But very few, if any, of these sites have been investi-
gated and then only superficially, although m a n y were extensively looted by the
French.
At Kouga excavations of a tumulus yielded a date of - 950 ( ± 120) at a relatively late
level containing a traditional white-on-red painted ware. Surface sherds bore impres-
sions of millet, wheat and perhaps maize. Both at this site and at several others in this
part of West Africa the indications are that there was an earlier Iron A g e level mostly
characterized by impressed or undecorated sherds, bone and stone tools, and bracelets.
A related cultural tradition in Burkina Faso yielded even earlier dates in the fifth/sixth
century of the Christian era.

T h e Senegambia region
Burial tumuli have been discovered in parts of this region, especially at R a o at the
mouth of the River Senegal and in northern Senegal along the river. Again, although
most of these are yet to be investigated closely, superficial study indicates that burials
were made in wooden chambers covered by mounds at least four metres high, and
that they contained iron tools, copper bracelets, beads, gold, jewellery and several
simply shaped pots, bowls, beakers and jars, unpainted but closely decorated with
elaborate designs, executed by scoring and pricking, and without c o m b impressions.
Recent excavations date these burials to + 750, which is later than the period which
concerns us in this chapter.
A study of several shell middens on the coast in Lower Casamance in an area 22 by
6 kilometres has revealed a cultural sequence extending from - 2 0 0 to +1600 over-
lapping with early modern Dyula material culture. Sapir believes that the earliest
phase so far k n o w n ( - 1 2 0 0 to +200), found only in the Loudia and Quolof sites,
represents a late rather than an early Neolithic phase. Cultural contacts and/or
influences are indicated by he pottery of this period, which shares decorative
techniques such as wavy-line incision with Neolithic pottery widely distributed from
Cap Vert to southern Algeria and even Central Africa.
Inland archaeological data of this period reflect sparse settlements in small encamp-
ments on low sandy ridges, probably covered by grass and shrubs and surrounded by
forest. Shellfish gathering was not practised, and, as the only animal bones reported
are a few unidentifiable m a m m a l remains, the means of subsistence is not clear.
The complete absence of mollusc remains or fish-bones and the presence of sherd
rather than shell-tempered pottery are considered by the original investigator as
indications that these 'early inhabitants' of the coast were not in fact adapted to
coastal life. Aubreville considers that thick forest once covered the whole area
West Africa before the seventh century 337

surrounding the Cussouye Plateau until it was ravaged by fire and converted into
open paddy fields. If correct, this m a y mean that these Period I inhabitants were
already farmers, perhaps of mountain or dry rice.
During the subsequent occupations (Periods II to IV, i.e. after +300), the rich
fauna of the mangrove channels and creeks was exploited, and agriculture m a y also
have been practised, although a systematic search for the remains of rice or other
plants has yet to be carried out.
O n our present view, this sequence seems too recent to shed m u c h light on the
origins of wet rice agriculture in the area. It m a y be useful, however, to note here
that, according to Portères, Senegambia was a secondary centre of Oryza glaberrima
propagation, the primary centre being somewhere near the middle Niger.
The lower Casamance sites appear to represent an advanced stage of wet rice
cultivation. At this time the use of iron tools makes it possible to reclaim mangrove
swamps and to ridge heavy alluvial clay soils for paddyfields.W e m a y in fact do well
to look for thefirstcentres of Oryza glaberrima cultivation in the looser soils of
drained inland valleys where it would have been possible to cultivate dry land or
mountain rice by broadcasting or punch-hole planting after clearing the trees by
girdling with stone implements.
It has been suggested by scholars such as Arkell that the West African iron-
working traditions were derived from Egypt or Nubia, whilst others, such as M a u n y ,
favour Carthage. In fact copper and bronze were later worked in m u c h the same w a y
as iron, whereas in Egypt and Nubia copper and iron were worked by very different
methods. Available dating evidence gives no more support to either variant of the
diffusion theory of iron working than does directly retrieved cultural evidence. It
appears, for instance, that the Garamantes of Libya and the Meroitic people began
using chariots, and probably iron tools, at about the same time ( - 500) as iron working
started in the N o k region of northern Nigeria. Indeed, dates from some sites suggest
that iron working m a y even have occurred in the N o k region as early as - 1 0 0 0 .
The diffusion theory for iron working in West Africa does not give proper
consideration to the m a n y problems connected with the process: h o w , w h e n and in
what places (not necessarily in one place) steps were taken to change rock or earthy
material into n e w , tough, durable metals which would be more effective than stone
for weapons and also have "a wide variety of other uses. In this respect Diop and
Trigger have correctly noted that 'the early dates for Iron A g e sites in West Africa
and in Southern Africa should serve to remind us that the possibility should be kept
open that iron working m a y have developed independently at one or more points
south of the Sahara'.

Prehistoric trade and the earliest states of West Africa

Goods recovered from Fezzin tombs indicate that R o m a n items were being imported
between thefirstand fourth centuries of the Christian era. It seems that, after
replacing the Carthaginians on the Tripolitanian coast in the late second century
before the Christian era, the R o m a n s in their turn imported ivory and slaves from the
338 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Sudan, with the Garamantes acting as intermediaries. After the decline of R o m a n rule
trade declined, but later revived with the Byzantine reconquest after + 533 and before
the Arabs overran the Fezzân. Recent archaeological research thus clearly shows that
an important element of long-distance trade in prehistoric times was carried on with
the peoples of the Sahara and North Africa. But this by no means justifies claims such
as those made by Posnansky that 'to discover the origins of long-distance trade in
West Africa our search has to begin in the sands of the Sahara'. However well-
intentioned such a claim m a y be, the emphasis is wrong and the far-reaching implica-
tions false. For one thing, it ignores the fact that an internal system of long-distance
trade existed in West Africa which m u c h preceded (and indeed made possible) the
development of trans-Saharan trade.
In the view of this author, existing evidence points to the existence from Early Iron
A g e times of a complex and extensive network of long-distance trade, thriving on
local complementary craft industries, especially (e.g. in fish and salt) between coastal
peoples and inland farming peoples on the one hand, and also between the latter
peoples to the south and more pastoralist societies to the north on the other.
Important local products traded included iron and stone (for tools and weapons),
leather, salt, grain, dried fish, cloth, pottery, w o o d w o r k , kola nuts and stone and iron
personal ornaments.
The patterns of internal trade and crafts (industry) developed within West Africa
shaped and sustained trade routes between the West African and the Sanaran worlds.
Such internal trade also fostered the growth of larger villages and towns in the Late
Neolithic and Iron A g e times. Archaeological information which is n o w
accumulating, even for the forest areas of West Africa, continues to indicate that the
subsequent emergence of the Asante, Benin and Yoruba states, as well as the Igbo-
U k w u culture, depended essentially on a highly successful exploitation of their
environment by earlier iron-using (and in some cases non-iron-using) peoples.
 Central Africa

T w o problems fundamental to the history of Africa are the diffusion of metallurgy

and the amazing spread of the Bantu languages.
For a long time there has been a.distinct tendency to link the t w o questions and
explain them in terms of one another. T h e diffusion of metallurgy is seen as a
consequence of the spread of the Bantu-speaking peoples, and, conversely, this
expansion is supposed to have been facilitated by the possession of iron tools which
made it possible to tackle the equatorial forest.
Language specialists were the first to put forward the theory that the Bantu
languages originated on the plateaux of Nigeria and Cameroon. Archaeologists
followed suit and tried to make the findings in their respective fields fit in with that
hypothesis. But the areas covered by these sciences do not exactly coincide, and it is a
pity that the word 'Bantu', a linguistic term, should have come to be used for the
ethnological concept of the Bantu peoples and their societies, and thence for the
archaeological concept of a Bantu Iron A g e .

Geographical background
T h e region dealt with in this chapter is Central Africa, i.e. the republic of Zaïre and
the neighbouring countries of Gabon, C o n g o , the Central African Republic,
R w a n d a , Burundi and northern Zambia.
It forms a huge basin with an average altitude of 400 metres. Around this vast
inner plain the ground rises in steps to become mountains or high plateaux. T h e
regions near the Equator have abundant rainfall all the year round. T o both north and
south are belts with t w o rainy seasons that merge into one; from about latitudes 5°
or 6° there is one rainy season. M e a n annual temperatures are fairly high, the range
widening with distance from the Equator.
The central basin is covered by dense equatorial forest bordered with savannah. In
areas with a defined dry season, grass predominates, but there are often strips of forest
along the rivers.

Late Stone Age

Late Stone A g e societies of hunter-gatherers used increasingly specialized tools. A
distinction is generally made between t w o opposing traditions, that of the Tshitolian
339
340 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

:.../ -'CENTRAL •••:

AFRICAN REPUBLIC -:

1 Batalimo 7 Ishango 12 Katoto

2 Buru 8 Kalambo 13 Kinshasa
3 Chondwe 9 Kalomo 14 Libreville 36:..,!
4 Dambwa 10 Kalundu 15 Matadi ZAMBIA
5 Gwisho 11 Kapwirimbwe 16 Ndjole
6 Ingombe llede 17 Sanga

25.1 Central Africa showing places mentioned in the text (from F. VanNoten)
Central Africa 341

industrial complex and that of the complex of microlithic industries, of which the
Nachikufan and the Wilton are the best-known examples.
The Tshitolian stands out fairly clearly from the other Late Stone A g e industries of
Central Africa. Geographically it belongs to the southern and, above all, the south-
east areas of the Zaire Basin. T h e Tshitolian seems to continue the tradition of the
Lupembian complex, from which it is separated mainly by a tendency to reduce the
size of instruments and by the appearance of n e w forms: leaf-shaped and tanged flaked
arrowheads, geometric microliths (segments, trapeziums). S o m e polished tools are
also found towards the end of the Tshitolian. Chronologically, the Tshitolian appears
to have stretched roughly from - 1 2 0 0 0 to - 4000, perhaps to - 2000 or even, locally,
to the beginning of the Christian era.
The Nachikufan is an essentially microlithic industry which seems to have been
established in the north of Zambia over 16,000 years ago. It had three successive
stages. The oldest produced microlithic tools in association with a large number of
pierced stones and grinding equipment. T h e second stage, which began about - 8 0 0 0 ,
is characterized by the presence of polished tools. The last stage of this industry,
beginning about.-2000, is marked by a great abundance of small segments, pottery
and a few articles made of iron - these last probably the result of trade. T h e
Nachikufan tradition appears to have lasted d o w n to the nineteenth century.
Theie is evidence of the Wilton, a purely microlithic industry, in southern Zambia
and a large part of South Africa. Polished tools also appeared towards the end of its
development.
Houses seem to have consisted of huts of branches and grass similar to those of the
San of the Kalahari Desert. T h e dead were buried on the spot, with no goods in their
graves. The bodies lay in various positions.
Neither agriculture nor animal husbandry was practised. Excavations have shown
that the food was comparable to that of present-day peoples and consisted basically of
a large variety of vegetable products, gathered from wild plants, supplemented by
hunting and fishing. T h e inhabitants of Gwisho lived off quite a large area, and
hunted animals both of the plain and of the forest.
There are a large number of microlithic industries in Central Africa which have
been inadequately described and cannot be classed with those listed above. Probably
some of them are merely local variants, adapted to special materials or activities.
There is little evidence to justify a distinction between the Late Stone A g e and the
Neolithic. However, the technological features traditionally attributed to the N e o -
lithic do predominate in certain regions, for example Uele, Ubangi, and, to a lesser
extent, Lower Zaire. This led the early archaeologists of Central Africa to distinguish
a Uelian, a Ubangian and a Leopoldian Neolithic. But these so-called industries are
practically u n k n o w n except for their polished tools collected on the surface of the
ground or acquired by purchase.
As regards Ubangian, there is n o w an excavated site at Batalimo, south of Bangui,
in the Central African Republic. This site has produced h e w n hatchets or adzes, an
axe with a partly polished cutting edge, an abundant non-microlithic industry, and
richly decorated pottery: tall wide-necked jars and flat-bottomed pots, and bowls.
Thermoluminescent dating places the pottery around + 3 8 0 ( ± 220). This date m a y
342 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

S
• / '••••. * * - - N B o u n d a r y of
....•.-•••' ; equatorial forest

Xy-.- •-'CENTRAL S .
AFRICAN REPUBLIC';-.,

I
V • x
- - »

o/ REPUBLIC ííy/.
/^ZfRWANDA
OF
r
L^ <-'""gÄi\R,Ej.^T

K ^ l Neolithic-Gabon, Congo, Lower Zaire

[ = 1 Neolithic- Ubangian
LTLTIUelian 3 Chondwe
Early iron age 4 Kapwirimbwe
5 Kalundu
1 Urewe 6 Dambwa
2 Kalambo © Bouar megaliths

25.2 Central Africa showing areas of'Neolithic'and 'Early Iron Age' occupation (from
F. Van Noten)
Central Africa 343

seem too recent to some, but in the absence of other evidence it cannot be rejected.
In Lower Zaire, from Matadi to Kinshasa, axes with more or less polished edges
are found, sometimes in association with flat-bottomed pottery. During a recent trial
excavation in a cave of this region a polished axe was found in association with this
pottery and with w o o d ash, and a sampling of it, radio-carbon dated, gave a calibrated
age of - 390 to - 1 6 0 . Trial excavation of another cave about six miles away also yielded
a polished axe in association with this same pottery.
In Gabon the stratigraphy of various sites, such as that of Njole, 120 miles east of
Libreville, has revealed a Neolithic level containing axes with polished edges, pottery
and fragments of quartz.

Early Iron Age

There were contacts between the peoples of the Stone A g e that was drawing to an
end and the first workers in metals. That fact is generally established. But w e do not
k n o w if this technological change brought about far-reaching changes in the societies
concerned.
The Early Iron A g e is customarily associated with dimple-based pottery. This
pottery, described for the first time in +1948, is n o w k n o w n as U r e w e . It is attested
in parts of Kenya, in Uganda and in the lake region. S o m e examples found at Kasai
also seem to belong to this vast area of distribution. Most dates for these ceramic types
fall between + 2 5 0 and + 4 0 0 . But in at least one site at Katuruka, in Buhaya,
Tanzania, considerably earlier dates have been obtained. Unfortunately it is still hard
to assess the implications of this discovery.
U r e w e ware presents a very homogeneous appearance, and it has often been
suggested that the various examples had a c o m m o n origin and that the differences
they present are local variants rather than different chronological stages. It is true that
they are never found stratigraphically superimposed on one another.
From the very beginning, iron working seems to have been associated with certain
cultural traits such as pottery making and the building of daub villages. It is also
generally agreed that agriculture and animal husbandry were practised at the same
period.
The presence of U r e w e pottery is well attested in the lake region (Kenya, Uganda,
R w a n d a , Burundi, Tanzania) and also in Zaire, in the region of Kivu. For a long time
Zambian pottery of the Early Iron A g e (channel-decorated ware) was grouped with
dimple-based pottery. But in fact it seems it can be broken d o w n into several regional
types.
S o m e vestiges of structures for habitation or storage have been preserved. A series
of eight pits with straight parallel edges, something over a metre in diameter and
nearly t w o metres in average depth, contained pots and potsherds, fragments of
moulds, objects made of iron, and iron slag. Four of the pits were surrounded by a
circular trench, possibly the remains of a superstructure.
There is only indirect evidence that there were agricultural activities. N o r is there
any sure trace of animal husbandry.
344 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

M a n y pieces of iron slag, especially one great block of dross from the base of a
furnace, and several fragments of pipes show that iron-smelting was practised, if not
in the living sites, at least in their neighbourhood.
A m o n g the iron objects unearthed from the pits m a y be mentioned many spear-
and knife-tips, arrow-tips, bracelets or anklets, rings for fingers or toes. Bracelets or
anklets and other ornaments were also made of copper.
The use of stone continued, as is evidenced by m a n y mill-stones and pestles,
stampers, hammers (including a smith's hammer), an anvil, and many crude artefacts
which were used for scratching, cutting or rubbing. White clay and red ochre were
used as pigments.
The lip of pottery in most cases is rounded and flaring, thickened at the rim. All
the bases are rounded, except on t w o pots which have a dimple pressed in by the
fingers. Decoration, which was applied before firing, is most often seen on or above
the shoulder. The patterns consist of bands of parallel horizontal grooves broken by
herring-bones and spirals. A network of slanting and criss-cross incisions of rows of
triangular impressions and punctuations occasionally form the pattern of false relief
covering the neck and shoulder.
Examples of pottery similar to that at Kalambo Falls have been found in eleven sites
in the northern province of Zambia, distributed over an area of more than 97,000
square kilometres.
In the absence of extensive excavations and absolute datings, the few data w e have
are very conjectural. Four pots, two of them dimple-based, found near Tshikapa, seem
to belong to the U r e w e type; on the other hand m a n y jars and shards found in a cave
near Mbuji-Mayi rather closely recall the pottery of the Kalambo Falls industry.
Further study of the Kalambo pottery reveals the existence of m a n y groups, some
of them quite widely diffused. N o n e of these groups is related to U r e w e ware. Since
excavation has not been extensive, w e cannot attempt a chronology of this pottery or
of the objects in metal.
In the Bouar region of the Central African Republic there are several barrows of
various sizes with squared stones on top sometimes three metres high. Sometimes there
are rows of vaults, and it seems that these cairns were intended for burial places. N o
bones have been found, however, though articles made of iron have been discovered.
Six radio-carbon datings are available. T w o belong to the sixth and fifth millennia
before the Christian era and the other four range from the seventh century before the
Christian era to thefirstcentury of the Christian era. T h efirstdate seems to be that
of the building of the barrows, the second that at which they came into use again in
the Iron Age.
The cemeteries of Sanga and Katoto are in the Upper Zaïre valley, in the U p e m b a
tombs, and are the best-known Early Iron A g e sites in the republic of Zaïre.
Situated on the edge of Lake Kisale, near Kinkondja, the Sanga burial ground,
discovered some time ago, was systematically excavated in 1957 and 1958. N e w
excavations were undertaken in 1974. A total of 175 graves have been opened, but it
is clear that a large part of the cemetery has still to be explored.
After the excavations of 1958 three groups of pottery were distinguished and it
looked as if a chronology could be worked out for them. T h e Kisalian group (the
Central Africa 345

most abundant) seemed the oldest, followed by the Mulongo group (from the name
of a place north-east of Sanga), andfinallyby red slipware.
The 1958 excavations revealed that these three groups were at least in part
contemporary with one another. In the absence of internal chronology, two radio-
carbon darings enable us to estimate the age of the cemetery: + 710 ( ± 120) and + 880
( ± 200).
The older date was obtained from a grave in which the position of the body was
quite unusual and the single pot, though Kisalian, untypical. The other date comes
from a grave without goods characteristic of any of the three cultures. Therefore w e
do not k n o w exactly what is dated.
Moreover, the vagueness of these dates detracts considerably from their value. All
w e can safely say is that, to within a couple of hundred years, some of the graves at
Sanga go back to between the seventh and ninth centuries of the Christian era.
The excavations give us an idea of the burial ground itself, and, through that, a
glimpse of ancient Sanga society. Burialritesseem to have been rather complex. Most
of the graves are pointed towards the north or north-east - the ones containing
Mulongo or red slipware towards the south. T h e dead person usually lay decuhitus
dorsal and was accompanied with objects presumably intended to make things easier
for him in the other world. T h e pottery shows no signs of wear and the strong
resemblance among certain vessels in a given tomb seem to indicate that it was made
for exclusively funerary purposes. The jars were probablyfilledwith food and drink.
The corpse was adorned with jewellery of copper, iron and ivory. It seems as if
premature infants, too, were buried. In some cases the dead person has a bundle of
little crosses in his hand. There is a clear tendency for the size of the jars to be in
proportion to the age of the dead person.
The general picture one gets of Sanga is of a civilization where the people attach
more importance to hunting and fishing than to agriculture. However, hoes and
bedstones have been found in the graves, as have remains of goats and fowls.
As the bones have not been analysed, the only anthropological datum w e possess is
an odontological study of some of the h u m a n remains. This study shows in particular
the frequency of mutilated teeth. W e do not k n o w the whole extent of the burial
ground, which would have given some idea of the size of the population.
The Sanga civilization, then, seems to have been a brilliant phenomenon, but, so
far as our present knowledge goes, an isolated one. Probably the discoveries as a whole
cover a longer period than that suggested by the t w o radio-carbon datings.
N e w excavations were undertaken in 1974. T h e main purpose was to learn just
h o w long the burial ground had been in use and establish its internal chronology, to
delimit its area, and to try to find the habitat site. Thirty n e w graves were explored;
they will probably enable us to complete the chronology and form some idea of the
size of the burial ground. But because of the expansion of the modern village the
habitat site could not be found.
However, at Katongo, six miles from Sanga, excavations seem to have revealed a
habitat level at the foot of a hill less than half a mile from a cemetery; excavations also
revealed the existence of pottery groups recognized at Sanga.
The grave-goods are just as rich as at Sanga, and here too suggest a prosperous
346 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

society with a high level of technical development. The presence of numerous hoes
and millstones indicates that agriculture was important, but hunting and fishing must
have been practised too.
The presence of glass beads and ornaments made of shells from both the Atlantic
and the Indian Ocean indicates fairly far-flung trading activities.
Katoto pottery is original, like that at Sanga, and seems somewhat less stereotyped.
S o m e decorative motifs are reminiscent of U r e w e ware, but as none of the latter has
been found in the Shaba area it cannot be said that Katoto pottery is a development of
the U r e w e type, rather than a simple case of convergence. As a matter of fact most of
these c o m m o n motifs, such as the spiral, strapwork, herring-bone and concentric
circles, are very widespread. The pits are later than the graves, and sometimes disturb
them. O n e of them has been given a radio-carbon dating: +1190 ( ± 60).
The burial ground at Katoto completes the picture suggested by the excavations at
Sanga. But it seems astonishing that t w o such large settlements, quite close to each
other and apparently contemporary, should have had so little to do with each other.
Despite the abundance of grave-goods, w e do not k n o w very m u c h about the
people buried in these necropolises. W e do not k n o w w h o they were, where they
came from or what they died of, and w e have but scant means of imagining h o w they
lived. The size of the t w o burial grounds suggests that towards the end of the first
millennium of the Christian era, the banks of the upper Lualaba were the site of large
concentrations of people, which gave rise to brilliant civilizations. The excavations
n o w under way at several new sites should teach us more about those civilizations.

Origin of the Bantu

As w e have said, the word 'Bantu' designates in the first place a group of languages.
But it has gradually acquired an ethnographical, and even an anthropological,
connotation. In fact it was linguistic classification that served as a basis for researchers
in other disciplines.
In the absence of written evidence, archaeology does not enable us to establish
direct correlations between existing evidence of the Iron Age and the linguistic notion
of Bantu.
M a n y attempts have been made to link the success of 'Bantu' groups to the
knowledge of working in iron. But one observes, comparing metallurgical terms in
the Bantu languages, that there is great diversity in the basic vocabulary of forging.
However, certain reconstructions suggest the use of iron at proto-Bantu level, for
instance the expressions for forging, h a m m e r and bellows. W e r e these words in the
language before the division, or did they enter it as borrowings at some u n k n o w n
stage in the ramification process? It is not impossible that those words which are
widely attested result from a shift in meaning from proto-Bantu to the present-day
languages. Thus the word for 'forge' would be only a special application of the word
for 'beat'. Finally, other metallurgical terms seem to have the same origin in both
Bantu and non-Bantu languages, which seems to indicate that in both instances it is a
matter of borrowings.
W h e n one thinks of h o w important the ability to work metals was in traditional
Central Africa 347

African societies, it is difficult to see w h y , if the 'Bantu' worked in iron before their
expansion, w efindno obvious linguistic traces of it.
Finally, very little research in physical anthropology has been done on the 'Bantu'.
A n article by J. Hiernaux ( +1968) is alone in supplying a few facts. Hiernaux shows
the biological resemblances between Bantu-speaking peoples. So little work has been
done in this area of h u m a n palaeontology that it is very difficult to distinguish a
complete present-day 'Bantu' skeleton from one belonging to some other African, or
even European, group. W h a t can be said, then, of the damaged or fragmentary
skeletons which are often all that archaeology affords?
The only h u m a n fossil remains that have been properly studied come from Ishango,
in Virunga Park in Zaïre. Unfortunately the age of these remains cannot be accurately
determined, and it has not been possible to ascribe them to a definite physical type.

Nature of societies in the Early Iron Age

Little is k n o w n about the kind of life people lived at the beginning of the Iron Age.
Such evidence as there is varies with the extent of the research that has been carried
out: the sites in Zambia and the burial grounds at Sanga and Katoto, in Shaba,
provide the most concrete data.
Remains of habitats are rare in Central Africa. T h e only ones k n o w n are at G o m b e ,
Kalambo Falls and perhaps Katongo. T h e only proof of agricultural activity at the
beginning of the Iron A g e consists of iron hoes practically identical in form with
modern ones. Holes dug in the ground have been regarded as store pits, and small
daub constructions as granaries. T h e fact that there are numerous remains of mill-
stones is less convincing, as societies which lived by hunting and food-gathering also
had grinding implements.
Excavations have yielded arrowheads and spearheads, and the remains of what must
have been hunting dogs. Snares and nets were probably also used. T h e importance of
fishing is shown by the hooks found in the graves at Sanga and Katoto. T h e trefoil
braziers of Sanga are very m u c h like those used in their canoes by boatmen in the
equatorial part of Zaïre.
A distinction needs to be made between t w o kinds of trade, regional trade, mostly
in metals, pottery, basketwork, dried fish and salt, and long-distance trade, the latter
dealing in shells - cowries and conuses (cone-shells) - glass beads, and metals like
copper. In Zaire, at Sanga and at Katoto, all the shells and beads came from the east
coast, with the exception of a conus at Katoto from the Atlantic, a distance of some
1400 kilometres as the crowflies.Little copper crosses, used as a sort of coin, have
been found quite a long w a y from copper-producing areas.
Brick furnaces for iron smelting have been found in association with dimple-based
ware in Kivu, R w a n d a , Burundi and Buhaya in north-west Tanzania. It should be
noted that in the only description of iron smelting in R w a n d a , given by Bourgeois
(1957), a circle of baked bricks is used in the building of a furnace rather similar to
the remains found by Hiernaux and Maquet.
Pottery remains are not decisive evidence of the Iron A g e since, as w e have seen,
pottery is also found in the context of the Late Stone A g e and the Neolithic. It is
348 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

generally impossible to distinguish Iron A g e pottery as such from that of the earlier
periods.
Jars were made by patting and pulling the clay into strips or cords which were
often arranged in a coil. T h e variety of shapes and decoration is so great that w e show
here only a few of the most characteristic.
As far as archaeology enables us to judge, societies of the Early Iron A g e were not
essentially different from those of today and must have presented the same sort of
diversity. T h e agricultural techniques then practised were not favourable to the
establishment of large settlements, and involved a certain mobility.
The burial grounds at Sanga and Katoto are exceptional in that they are the result
either of very long occupation, or of a large concentration of people on the banks of
the Lualaba. T h e richness of the goods in some graves, especially at Katoto, m a y be a
sign of social inequalities.
The abundance and workmanship of objects of iron, copper, stone, w o o d , bone
and clay reflect not only the skill of the craftsmen but also, probably, some degree of
specialization.
All the graves discovered give evidence of elaborate burial practices. The dead wore
many ornaments - bracelets, rings, necklaces, pendants, strings of beads and shells.
Cowries, conuses and beads of glass or stone m a y have served, a m o n g other things, as
coin in the same manner as the small crosses. Lastly, the most ancient dated w o o d
sculpture of Central Africa comes from Angola and has been dated + 750.

Conclusion
I have several times stressed the danger of using the provisional findings of one science
to back the conclusions of another. Hasty correlation too often leads to general
theories which within the rigorous framework of their proper discipline would be
difficult to maintain. Nevertheless, any attempt at describing the nature of Early Iron
A g e societies, or the origin of the Bantu-speaking peoples, involves collating
archaeological and non-archaeological data.
The anthropological-archaeological-linguistic explanation which linked the spread
of the Bantu languages to the diffusion of working in iron chimed very well with the
idea of evolution from beginnings in the Fertile Crescent, while denying that Africa
could have arrived at discoveries independently.
Recent developments have caused these theories to be reconsidered. Linguisticians
call in question the methods and results of glottochronology. N e w datings throw
fresh light on the origin of metallurgy in Central Africa. Vestiges of iron workings at
the Katuruka site have been dated as belonging to about - 5 0 0 or - 4 0 0 .
In the present state of our ignorance, and taking the n e w evidence into account, it
is clear that the problems connected with the diffusion of iron and the origin of the
Bantu languages are more complex than was thought, and cannot be reduced to an
over-simple explanation beset by contradictions.
It therefore seems pointless to go on constructing n e w hypotheses for migrations
and for the origin of metallurgy each time that an excavation results in n e w datings.
W e can nevertheless attempt to relate certain relevant facts. In regard to the origin of
Central Africa 349

'Vi
25.3 Objects found at Sanga: a) Vessel with anthropomorphic decoration; viewfrom above
andfrom side: b) Ivory bracelet; c) Copper necklace; d) Iron whistle; e) Terracotta counter;
f) Stone pendant; g) Ivory pendant; h) Fragment of ivory half necklace; i),j), k), Types ofpottery
(Tervuren Museum: f. Hiemaux, E. De Longrée and f. De Buyst, 1971)
350 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

iron working, the s e w dates proposed for Katuruka seem to imply a connection with
the almost contemporaneous dates put forward for Meroe. It is therefore possible to
conceive of metal working having spread southwards from Meroe, but the spread
would appear to have taken place very quickly. O n e cannot consequently at present
rule out another origin which could even be local.
As the reader will have observed, our information about the Early Iron A g e in
Central Africa is of unequal value and very fragmentary; early research led to the
construction of theories that n o w totter beneath the accumulated weight of new data.
M u c h work - more extensive, more systematic and better co-ordinated - must be
done before w e can arrive at a convincing explanation of the events of this crucial
period in the history of Central Africa.
 Southern Africa:
hunters and food-gatherers

Recent research has shown that iron-using peoples had moved south of the
Limpopo by at latest the fourth orfifthcentury of the Christian era. Although much
detail remains unpublished, it seems clear that the Iron A g e inhabitants of the
Transvaal and Swaziland were agriculturalists and herdsmen, and manufactured
pottery similar to that k n o w n 'from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi at about the same
time. It is not k n o w n whether the apparently rapid diffusion of Iron A g e peoples
continued farther south at the same pace, but the earliest dates for iron-working in
Natal are somewhat later, around - 1 0 5 0 . N o r is it yet possible to say at what time the
iron-using groups reached the most southerly extent of their distribution, around the
Fish River in the eastern district of the Cape. Despite these uncertainties, which will
no doubt be the focus of m u c h further work, it is k n o w n that the Iron A g e
populations disrupted and displaced indigenous groups of hunter-gatherers w h o were
largely ignorant of metal-working, stock-breeding and plant domestication. Only in
areas unsuitable for occupation by mixed farmers, such as the rugged Drakensberg
escarpment, were hunters able to survive the expansion of the Early Iron Age. Even
these retreats were ineffective against the deprivations of today.
A second, and in m a n y ways more destructive, population expansion began from
the Cape in the middle of the sixteenth century. T h e indigenous people either
migrated, drifted into the growing colony as servants or succumbed to diseases
introduced by the colonists. Indigenous peoples were initially lumped together under
the term 'Ottentoo' or 'Hottentot', but gradually the distinction between herdsmen
(Khoi Khoi, m a n y of whose ethnic names were k n o w n ) and hunters (San, or bos-
jesmen, also k n o w n as Sonqua Khoi Khoi) was recognized and used. These groups
were obviously closely related since they spoke similar languages, shared a good deal
of subsistence technology and material culture, and were physically not unlike one

Note by the International Scientific Committee:

T h e International Scientific Committee would have preferred this chapter, like all the others, to have been
presented within the chronological framework strictly laid d o w n for V o l u m e II. It therefore requested the volume
editor to put this point to the author. T h e latter did not consider it possible to make any radical alteration to his text.
The Committee is therefore publishing it in the form agreed after discussion with the author. It nevertheless
maintains serious reservations regarding the method used, particularly in paragraph one, and regarding the resulting
confusion for the reader, w h o is presented at one and the same time with information on the Palaeolithic and the
contemporary periods.

351
352 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

another. Since in these respects they were clearly distinct from the other indigenous
population group, the iron-using farmers farther to the north and east, they were
generally identified as a separate element and would n o w be k n o w n as Khoi Khoi
herdsmen and San hunters, often fused to produce the term 'Khoisan'.
It seems impossible in this case to keep within the chronological limits strictly laid
d o w n for this volume, but the author has attempted to describe the lasting and
relatively stable aspects of a w a y of life, leaving it to the authors of the other volumes
concerned with these regions to draw attention to the changes which have occurred
over the centuries in the life of these groups as a result of contact with the outside
world, and to the part they themselves have played in the general history of southern
Africa. In this w a y the risk of overlapping will be minimized.

The Khoisan
This chapter will describe what is k n o w n of the w a y of life of hunters and herdsmen
trapped between Iron A g e farmers and European colonists in the southern parts of
southern Africa. Since the colonists were literate and the Iron A g e farmers were not,
the documentation on traditional San and Khoi Khoi life and Khoisan relations with
other groups is heavily biased towards the western Cape. In some ways this bias has
been compounded by the rich archaeology of the Cape mountain belt as compared
with many other parts of southern Africa. But the descriptions offered, though often
relating to the south and west, should illuminate Khoi Khoi and San life-styles
throughout the region, though m u c h detail of local conditions will, of course, be
missing.
For various reasons there is a good deal of evidence as to h o w the Khoisan groups
lived. Because they survived until fairly recently, there is m u c h archaeological evidence
in the form of artefactual remains and plant and animal food residues. Because they
came into contact with literate societies, there is a body of historical documentation
on their indigenous ways of life. In addition, at least some of the indigenous groups
left their o w n documents in the form of rock paintings and engravings, which are a
valuable source of social, economic, technological and probably religious information.
A n important fact is that the environment in m a n y parts of southern Africa has not
changed radically since the time w h e n it wasfirstoccupied by hunters and herdsmen.
After 250 years of agricultural activity, it is still possible to document and monitor the
spatial and seasonal factors in the environment which must have, to some extent,
determined the nature of prehistoric settlement.
Since neither the Khoi Khoi herdsmen nor the San hunters used metals for their
cutting, scraping or chopping tools, they fall within the scope of Stone A g e studies,
and have been viewed in the past very largely in terms of the stone artefacts they
produced.

San hunter-gatherers
Recent ethnographic studies of hunter-gatherers have shown the very considerable
importance of the gathered or collected component of the diet of groups in this
Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 353

economic category. It is clear from the accounts of the K u n g and the G / w i of the
Kalahari that the foods collected by the w o m e n tide the group over from day to day,
though m e n and children also gather such veldkos. The importance of gathered foods,
m u c h but not all of which m a y be vegetable, is that they are predictable in their
location and m a y be relied upon on a daily basis. High-protein meat, hunted or snared
by m e n , is also of importance but being less predictable is not part of the daily staple
food. The implication is not that hunters should be renamed gatherers, but that the
balance between the food resources available to hunting and gathering groups needs to
be recognized. Such groups keep themselves alive on collected foods, but benefit
periodically from successes in the hunt.
Most of the historic accounts of the animal part of the prehistoric diet mention
'game' generally and the implication is that a wide range of species was taken. This is
confirmed by the faunal lists from large excavations such as those at Die Kelders and
Nelson Bay Cave, where the range extends from shrews to elephants and even whales.
But the fauna from these sites show a strong bias towards smaller animals such as
tortoises, dassies, dune mole rats and small territorial herbivores such as the steenbok,
the grysbok and the duiker. T h e bones of carnivores are rare, perhaps reflecting
occasional kills to obtain pelts; the larger herbivores such as hartebeest, eland and
buffalo are m u c h rarer than the smaller animals, and only occasional traces of elephant,
hippo or rhino have been recovered. Whilst the proportions in part reflect a tendency
for the prehistoric groups to bring back smaller animals to their h o m e base and to
butcher larger game where hunted, there is no doubt that ground game and the
smaller herbivores were the prime targets or most frequent victims in the hunt.
T h e diet of San groups is well documented, both historically and archaeologically,
although the distribution of excavations is very uneven and some areas are virtually
unexplored or lacking in well-preserved deposits. In general terms, the day-to-day
staples were collectable items, including roots, other plant foods, honey, and insects
such as locusts, grasshoppers, termites and caterpillars. These were supplemented by
small animals such as tortoises, dassies and dune mole rats, by the smaller herbivores,
and less frequently by larger animals. T h e groups along the coast caught fish, rock
lobsters, seals and sea-birds, and gathered quantities of shellfish, notably limpets and
mussels.
The technology by which these resources were exploited is reflected in the
assemblages of stone, bone, w o o d and fibre from caves and shelters throughout
southern Africa, and in the descriptions of early travellers in the region. There are
m a n y rock paintings depicting w o m e n with weighted digging-sticks (see Fig. 26.1)
w h o often seem to be carrying leather bags, no doubt to transport the foodstuffs
h o m e . Leatherwork is fairly commonly found in the dry environments of the rock
shelters and caves of the Cape.
Almost all commentators on San hunting refer to the b o w and poisoned arrows as
being the principal weapon. T h o u g h complete implements are rarely met in excava-
tions, there are examples of all components of this equipment from caves in the western
and eastern Cape. Possible b o w fragments, reed mainshafts, notched reed lengths,
polished bone points and linkshafts, knotted sinew and painted aloe fragments,
represent the discarded or lost remnants of San hunting equipment. M a n y animals,
354 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

26.1 Rock painting: women with

digging sticks weighted with
perforated stones Q.E. Parkington)

26.2 Rock painting: a large

group of figures, most of them
recognizable as male, depicted in
what might be a dancing scene
(J.E. Parkington)
Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 355

however, were not shot with the b o w but caught in snares made of vegetable twine
and set out in the veld. Other hunting techniques have been mentioned in historical
accounts, but have not yet been supported by archaeological evidence. For example, a
number of travellers in the eighteenth century described large pits dug close to
river-banks with pointed stakes set upright within them. These were usually inter-
preted as designed to trap larger game such as elephant, rhino, hippo and buffalo, and
have a wide geographical distribution extending south from the Orange River and
east as far as the Gamtoos.
Obviously a number of fishing techniques were used by hunter-gatherers and most
of them are documented archaeologically. Perhaps the most spectacular are the
funnel-shaped reed-basket traps of the lower Orange River described by both
Lichtenstein and Barrow and ascribed by them to bosjesmen, almost certainly San.'
These traps were placed in the streams and were described as having been made from
'osiers, twigs of trees, and reeds' in a pointed or funnel-shaped design, no doubt
similar to that still used in the Kafue and Limpopo rivers. T h o u g h no traces of these
have been excavated, a number of rock paintings from Lesotho and east Griqualand
undoubtedly depict sets of these traps connected by reed or wooden fences and
catching large numbers of freshwater fish.
All in arl, San technology seems to have included a wide range of hunting and
gathering techniques, using implements made from materials such as stone, bone,
w o o d , fibre, reed, leather, shell, ivory, sinew and leaf and often including composite
tools in which raw materials were combined. Stone seems to have formed only the tip
or cutting or scraping edge of more complex tools, and stone artefacts were clearly as
often as not mounted in mastic on wooden or bone handles. For these artefacts,
fine-grained homogeneous rocks such as chalcedony, agate, silcrete or indurated shale
were preferred, whilst the more brittle quartz was also used and quartzite pebbles and
boulders were turned into upper and lower grindstones for grinding pigments or
foodstuffs. It is interesting that few of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
travellers specifically mention or describe the manufacture of stone artefacts, perhaps
indicating the gradual replacement of at least some stone artefacts by bone, wooden or
metal versions. T h e implications of this picture of wide raw material usage are
obvious to those w h o wish to classify and distinguish between groups on the basis of
stone assemblage comparisons alone.
Archaeological research is increasingly directed at the conditions which governed
the settlement of San groups. T h e result is that it is becoming possible to describe the
patterns of need of hunter-gatherers in ecological terms which were not familiar to
early travellers. Nevertheless, historical records and information from rock paintings
can obviously add to the evidence n o w emerging from large-scale excavation and
detailed analyses of animal bones and plant remains.
Compared with the hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari and farther afield, it is likely
that San groups would have been small and highly mobile units. The only exceptions
to this are, for example, the groups of 150 and 500 people described by Barrow and a
camp offiftyhuts reported by Thunberg, both in the late eighteenth century, w h e n
hunters were gathering in unusually large numbers to defend themselves against
European raids. T h e size of groups represented in rock paintings seems to confirm
356 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

that the most frequent social unit was under twenty people, though larger groupings
are found. There is good evidence, in the form of a high correlation between w o m e n
and digging-sticks and between m e n and bows in rock art, that there was a fairly
strict division of labour amongst the San groups.
It has been shown repeatedly that hunter-gatherer groups tend to m o v e in units of
variable size in order to increase the efficiency of their use of resources: fission into
small family groups w h e n resources are spread thinly, and fusion into larger gath-
erings w h e n the type of subsistence requires the use of considerable manpower, or
w h e n resources are highly concentrated and thus capable of supporting large gath-
erings. This pattern also serves to maintain the kinship w e b between neighbouring
groups w h o use the occasional large gathering to pass on news, exchange items,
technological innovations and perhaps w o m e n , through w h o m the w e b of kinship
obligations is traced. In times of catastrophe, these obligations are a lifeline allowing
one group to survive by temporarily using another's resources. Moreover, personal
difficulties can be solved by one or other party leaving a group and either temporarily
or permanently joining another in which there are relatives. T h o u g h the recognition
of these features remains a goal of archaeological research, the most explicit informa-
tion about them, at present, comes from historical records and, perhaps questionably,
from rock art.
O n e study of the size of groups depicted in the rock art of the western Cape
resulted in a mean group size of about fourteen persons, a figure very similar to that
recorded in the diaries of the late eighteenth-century commandos. However, there are
examples of rock paintings which illustrate up to thirty or forty m e n in a single scene,
which must mean a gathering of around a hundred persons or more (see 26.2).
The storage of foodstuffs from times of plenty to times of scarcity is not
characteristic of recent Kalahari groups, w h o seem to have regarded the environment
as a natural larder which always provided some combination of foods and which
required little supplementing. It seems that, by carefully planning an annual beat
around the available resources and conserving the more c o m m o n foods for difficult
times, the need to store food was minimized. Food was usually collected and
consumed the same day, or over a few days in the case of unusual bounties such as
large game. The situation farther south seems to have been similar, since evidence of
storage pits is rare in the archaeological record and the early travellers never described
storage as an important aspect of San subsistence. Kolb, w h o had access to the
information of m a n y observers of Khoi Khoi and San life at the end of the seventeenth
century, noted that 'though the fields abound with wholesome and very nourishing
fruits and roots which they might lay up in plenty against a rainy day, yet it is the
custom of the w o m e n to . . . gather only such a quantity . . . as will serve their
families for the day'. Other early authorities mention the storing of dried grass-
hoppers, the pounded roots of the canna plant and dried apricots, items which were
probably not as economically important as the roots, tubers and corms. In the
southern Cape there is evidence, as yet unpublished, of large numbers of storage pits
associated with San cave sites. A s yet unconfirmed reports suggest that the seeds
recovered from these pits m a y have been collected for their oil content rather than as
food.
Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 357

From the evidence that has been presented, it seems clear that San groups were
highly organized, small, mobile groups with an intimate knowledge of the resources
available to them and of h o w these resources varied through time and space. T h e
subsistence base, the range of hunting, fishing and gathering techniques and the
settlement patterns employed are becoming increasingly better documented, using
data from a variety of sources.

Khoi Khoi pastoralists

The picture of hunting and gathering within defined environmental contexts is, of
course, seriously incomplete w h e n dealing with the immediate precolonial period, say,
since - 2 0 0 0 . At every site marked on 26.3, with the exception of Bonteberg and
Gordons Bay (where they have not been actively sought), there are the remains of
domestic stock in a Late Stone A g e context. Since there are no indigenous sheep,
goats or cattle, and since these assemblages predate contact with European or negro
herdsmen, it must be assumed that this records the appearance of herded stock from
another source. T h e earliest radio-carbon dates associated with domestic animals and
the potsherds at sites from Angola to the eastern Cape are summarized in 26.4.
Also included is the rather sparse information on these items from inland areas and,
for reference, the earliest dates presently available for the penetration of iron-using,
Bantu-speaking mixed farmers into southern Africa. Although the apparent pattern
m a y change with further research, it seems worth while risking some interpretations
in terms of the origin and speech of Khoi Khoi herdsmen.
The most obvious point is that potsherds appear for the first time in sites from
Angola to the southern Cape during the period - 2000 to - 1 6 0 0 . A s more shards are
found, dating will become more accurate, and it m a y be that radio-carbon dating will
ultimately point to the same dates for the appearance of patterns throughout the
whole region. Only four dates before - 2 0 0 0 have been reported, and there are reasons
for supposing that all of these are either seriously contaminated or pre-pottery.
A second and no less important observation is that, wherever a search for traces of
domestic animals has been specifically made, they appear as early in the archaeological
record as do potsherds. This m a y not be true in every site, but, w h e n dates from
neighbouring sites are combined to form local sequences, then they appear concur-
rently. Although this approach m a y seem unjustified, it can be defended as ironing
out problems raised simply by sampling phenomena. The implication is that potsherds
and domestic stock diffused quickly, at the same time and through the same area. T h e
word 'diffused' seems inescapable since, whereas pottery could be independently
invented, domestic animals obviously could not. Moreover the pottery shows no signs
of being crude or early inefficient attempts at a technological innovation.
Although research continues into the spread of iron and domestic animals into
southern Africa along an easterly route, present evidence suggests the fourth or fifth
century of the Christian era for their introduction south of the Limpopo. Thus the set
of Late Stone A g e dates associated with both pottery and domestic stock predates that
of the Iron A g e farther north and east by fully t w o to three hundred years, an interval
surely not accountable to radio-carbon dating.
358 Ancient Civilizations of Africa
-I
o
1
I
1-1°
13
•M
Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 359

APPEARANCE OF POTTERY AND DOMESTIC STOCK

IN THE LATER STONE AGE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA

SOUTH OF > =
LIMPOPO m z
ORANGE RIVER
SOUTH WEST

PENINSULA

SOUTHERN
AGULHAS

EASTERN
ANGOLA

SCHEME
NAMBIA

CAPE

CAPE
CAPE
CAPE
CAPE
YEARS
BP
AD
• - 1700 -

500 - a f 1450 -

- 1200 -

1000 - - 950 -

• •
- 700 -

1500 - - 450 -
• •

- 200 -
* BC
O • •
2000 - a 50 -
O
- 300 -

2500 - O - 550 -
O
a - 800 -

3000 - D - 1050 -

Current
Earliest
• Earliest good association of C 14 date and pottery

O Dubious association of C 14 date and pottery

or dates felt to be immediately pre-pottery

• Earliest good association of C 14 date and domestic stock

O Latest undoubted pre-pottery L S A

2 6 . 4 The earliest dates available for the appearance of pottery and domestic stock in later
Stone Age contexts in Southern Africa (f. E. Parkington)
360 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

The implication of this contextual, distributional and chronological pattern seems

to be that herding peoples with pottery spread rapidly into the southern Cape along a
westerly coastal route around - 2000. N o doubt groups of hunters were integrated
into the pastoralist societies and there must have been some important readjustments
in demographic and economic patterns, though these remain largely undocumented.
It seems inescapable that these intruders were the Khoi Khoi pastoralists.
It is, of course, of considerable interest to speculate on the origins, causes and
circumstances of this intrusion, but with so few data such speculation must be very
imprecise. Research in Zambia and Zimbabwe has tended to be rigidly divided into
Iron A g e and Stone A g e , with the result that surface levels in cave, shelter or open
sites containing pottery have often been written off as Stone A g e with Iron A g e
contamination. The fact is that in these areas there m a y well have been populations of
a technically Stone A g e character, but whose economy included the herding of some
domestic stock, and w h o manufactured pottery recognizably different from local
iron-using agriculturists. In Zimbabwe the so-called Bambata pottery is fairly gener-
ally recognized as distinct from Iron A g e pottery and was often recovered with
'Wilton', that is Late Stone A g e , artefacts. Whether this reflects a pre-Iron A g e
spread of pastoralists or not remains contentious, but corroboration for the idea m a y
be sought in the distribution of paintings of fat-tailed sheep from Zimbabwe,
generally believed to be of Stone A g e associations. These were the sheep herded by
Khoi Khoi pastoralists at the Cape in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries of the Christian era.
Should the distribution of Stone A g e sheep-herding peoples be extended through
Zimbabwe and Zambia, the possibility arises of some origin in East Africa where
cultural, linguistic and even biological antecedents have been postulated. T h e exist-
ence of herding peoples w h o make pottery with lugs, the survival of 'click languages'
in the Hatsa and Sandawe, and the claimed 'Hamitic' features of 'Hottentot'
populations have all at one time or another been quoted as evidence of a north-eastern
origin for the herding, non-iron-using populations of southern Africa. Whilst these
connections m a y be dubious or in some cases rejected, the continuity of traits such as
ceramics, sheep-herding, sheep and cattle types, non-iron technology, ground stone
artefacts and possibly language, if proven, would argue strongly for an ultimate East
African origin for Khoi Khoi pastoralists. This in turn would suggest that the
disruptions which caused the movements of Bantu-speakers in a predominantly
eastern wave southwards m a y also have prompted a western move, perhaps towards
the Cape. T h e absence of 'Hottentot' or 'Cape Coastal' pottery from the Transvaal,
Swaziland, Natal, the Orange Free State or the Transkei m a y merely reflect the facts
that agriculture is a more feasible pursuit in these better-watered, summer-rainfall
areas and that highly mobile herding peoples without crops were more capable of
spreading through the dry landscapes of Namibia and the northern Cape and thence to
the pastures of the western and southern Cape.
It is conceivable that sheep were brought along the western route but that cattle
were obtained by Khoi Khoi pastoralists from the east, from Bantu-speaking popula-
tions by then resident in the Transkei region. Support for this m a y come from the
abundance of presumed Late Stone A g e paintings of fat-tailed sheep in the western
Southern Africa: hunters and food-gatherers 361

Cape and the absence of similar paintings of cattle, although cattle were painted in the
areas n o w settled by Bantu-speakers. Furthermore the presence of cattle-bones as early
as sheep-bones in Late Stone A g e excavations in the southern Cape is not yet firmly
documented.
Thus there are grounds for speculating that sheep-herding peoples, related to
stone-using hunters and distinct physically from Bantu-speakers, having received stock
and pottery from neighbours in East Africa, migrated west and then south in search of
pasture, to arrive finally at the Cape soon after - 2 0 0 0 . Such populations m a y have
incorporated, fought with or simply learned to live with locally existing hunters and
subsequently met with and interacted with Bantu-speakers in what is today the
Transkei. The sparse distribution of pottery, ground stone artefacts and animal bones
along the route just described m a y mean nothing more than that they were highly
mobile, leaving debris so thinly dispersed as to be archaeologically practically invisible.
There is no evidence that the Cape Khoi Khoi were habitual metalworkers before
the arrival of European settlers, but the N a m a q u a were quite obviously able to w o r k
copper into beads and discs in the seventeenth century.
Relations between San, Khoi Khoi and other groups such as immigrant colonists or
iron-using agriculturalists were probably as varied as those between San and Khoi
Khoi. In the west both San and Khoi Khoi were driven from their lands and
exterminated or assimilated into colonial society. A number of rock paintings from
the western Cape depict the covered wagons, mounted horsemen and weapons of
the trekking farmers. In the east the conflict between Iron A g e farmers and hunters is
largely undocumented, but again rock paintings depict cattle thefts in which small
b o w m e n steal from larger figures with spears and shields. T h e later stages of this
interaction are recorded w h e n literate colonists moved into Natal and on the slopes of
the Drakensberg Mountains. Khoi Khoi herdsmen, perhaps having more in c o m m o n
with Bantu-speaking mixed farmers than did the San, seem to have established more
harmonious relations with, for example, Xhosa and Tswana groups. The description
of the Gonaqua by Le Vaillant suggests a history of close ties between them and near-
by Xhosa, including considerable intermarriage. It is probably quite wrong to
imagine clear economic, linguistic, physical or cultural distinctions between the
various prehistoric peoples of southern Africa. Even more unlikely, perhaps, is the
possibility that any such distinctions would have coincided exactly.
 The beginnings
of the Iron Age
in southern Africa

The cultural episode in southern Africa k n o w n to historians as the Early Iron A g e saw
the introduction into the area of a w a y of life which contrasted sharply with those
which had gone before, and one which established the character of subsequent
historical developments throughout the region. Early in the first millennium of the
Christian era a substantial population movement brought to southern Africa a negroid
fanning people whose economy, settlement-type, perhaps even their physical appear-
ance and their language, were in marked contrast with those of the earlier inhabitants,
and w h o introduced the knowledge of the arts of metallurgy and pottery which were,
in this area, previously u n k n o w n . It is with the nature, origin and development of
these Early Iron A g e societies that this chapter is concerned.
Archaeologists n o w recognize a broad cultural similarity a m o n g the communities
w h o introduced Iron A g e material culture into southern Africa. The remains of these
communities are attributed to a c o m m o n southern African Early Iron A g e industrial
complex which is distinguished from other, later, Iron A g e industries, both by its
chronological integrity and by the clear designation of its associated pottery to a
c o m m o n tradition. The distribution of this Early Iron A g e industrial complex extends
far beyond the southern African region here discussed. Numerous regional subdivi-
sions within the complex m a y be recognized primarily on the basis of ceramic stylistic
variation, and in m a n y areas these groupings m a y be confirmed by further unrelated
cultural traits.
The Early Iron A g e ceramic tradition appears to have been introduced throughout
its area of distribution during the first few centuries of the Christian era and to have
survived in most areas until its displacement by distinct and more heterogeneous Late
Iron A g e traditions, most frequently around the beginning of the present millennium.
This terminal date varies in some areas, the Early Iron A g e being displaced by the
eighth century in certain regions, while in others there m a y be demonstrated a
considerable degree of typological continuity between the Early Iron A g e and the
modern traditional ceramic industries. For convenience, in the context of the present
multi-volume work, I have taken it upon myself to discuss the Early Iron A g e cultures
up to the time of their displacement or until the eleventh century of the Christian era,
whichever is the earlier in each region. I have thus left the later survivals of the Early
Iron A g e cultures for discussion elsewhere in the context of their Late Iron A g e
contemporaries.
362
The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 363

fitombo Fill! £ « C

,Lumbule Hi
Phopo Hill*
rA .Lutngws R.
• /Kam«™'
, Lubini Roan Anteióp« Chóñdwe f 1.

Kapwirimbwe ^

27.1 Southern Africa: sites (from D. W. PhilUpson)

364 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

It is clear that the Early Iron A g e represents but one sector of h u m a n activity in
southern Africa during thefirstmillennium of the Christian era. In m a n y areas 'Late
Stone A g e ' folk continued to practise their traditional w a y of life throughout this
period; while some of their counterparts farther to the south, beyond the south-
ernmost penetration of the Early Iron A g e , appear to have adopted certain n e w
cultural traits which are best seen as derived from contact, both direct and indirect,
with Early Iron A g e settlers. These 'Late Stone A g e ' and related populations are
discussed by J. E . Parkington in Chapter 26 of the present volume.
Reconstruction of the Early Iron A g e in southern Africa must be basedfirstand
foremost on archaeological evidence. Unlike events of the later periods of the Iron
A g e , those of this time - which corresponds broadly with thefirstmillennium of the
Christian era - lie effectively beyond the range of oral tradition. A s has been shown in
an earlier chapter, attempts have been made to base historical reconstructions of the
pre-literate Early Iron A g e societies of this region on purely linguistic evidence. In
the present state of our knowledge, however, it seems preferable generally to admit
the conclusions of historical linguistics as secondary evidence for comparison with
a sequence which hasfirstbeen established on the basis of archaeology.

Regional survey of archaeological evidence

Southern Zambia, Angola, M a l a w i
A regional survey of the Zambian Early Iron A g e has recently been undertaken by the
present writer; and a number of distinct groups have been recognized primarily on
the basis of the typology of the associated pottery. Here, w e are only concerned with
the evidence from the southern part of the country. T w o closely related groups m a y
be discerned in the Copperbelt region and on the Lusaka plateau. The C h o n d w e group
of the Copperbelt is characterized by pottery vessels with thickened or undifferential
rims, the most frequent decorative motifs being lines of alternately facing triangular
impressions forming a chevron design in false relief and also chardate areas of
comb-stamping delineated by broad grooves. T h e score of village sites which have so
far yielded pottery of this type are distributed alongside rivers and streams, generally
close to the tree-lines of the dambos which fringe the upper reaches of the Kafue
head-water tributaries. Radio-carbon dates for the C h o n d w e group sites of Kangonga
and C h o n d w e cover the sixth to the eleventh centuries of the Christian era, but study
of pottery typology suggests that certain other sites m a y be earlier. Iron and copper
working is evident throughout the time range of the k n o w n sites. However,
exploitation of the area's copper deposits appears to have been on a small scale in Early
Iron A g e times, although it attracted widespread trade contacts.
T o the south, centred on the Lusaka plateau, are the Early Iron A g e sites attributed
to the Kapwirimbwe group, the pottery of which is distinguished from that of the
C h o n d w e group by the greater degree and frequency of rim-thickening and by the
extreme rarity of all comb-stamped decoration, the place of which is taken by a variety
of incised designs. At the village of Kapwirimbwe, 13 kilometres east of Lusaka, the
apparently brief occupation has been securely dated from around thefifthcentury of
The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 365
the Christian era. There were extensive remains of collapsed daga structures, m a n y of
which appear to have been iron-smelting furnaces.
In western Zambia few Early Iron A g e sites have so far been discovered. At Sioma
Mission on the upper Zambezi, a settlement is dated from the middle centuries of the
first millennium; another, beside the Lubusi river west of K a m o a , belongs to the last
quarter of that millennium. These sites have yielded pottery which, although un-
doubtedly belonging to the Early Iron A g e , is markedly distinct from that of the
groups recognized farther to the east.
At this point it is convenient to note that Iron A g e sites dating from the first
millennium of the Christian era are n o w k n o w n from more southerly areas of Angola,
as at Feti la Choya where the earliest Iron A g e occupation is dated from the seventh or
eighth century. T h e relationship of this site to the Early Iron A g e industrial complex
cannot be determined since no details of the associated artefacts, beyond the bare fact
that iron and pottery were present, have so far been made available. In the extreme
north of Namibia, the site of Kapako has yielded pottery, described in a preliminary
and provisional account as akin to that from Kapwirimbwe, associated with a
radio-carbon date in the latefirstmillennium.
South of the Kafue, in the fertile plateau regions of the Southern Province of
Zambia, several sites of large Early Iron A g e villages have n o w been discovered.
Individual sites were apparently settled for a m u c h longer time than was general
elsewhere; the earliest such occupations apparently took place around the fourth
century. This Early Iron A g e settlement seems to have been denser than in most other
populations whose counterparts elsewhere long survived the arrival of agriculture and
metallurgy.
The Zambezi Valley area around Livingstone is probably the best-explored region
of southern Africa from the point of view of Iron A g e archaeology. T h e Early Iron
Age D a m b w a group of this area shares features both with the Kalundu group and
with the Gokomere sites in Zimbabwe. It has been suggested that, after an initial and
little-known phase best illustrated by the small assemblage of shards from the Situmpa
site near Machili, the mainflorescenceof the D a m b w a group m a y have been derived
from a secondary centre of dispersal of Iron A g e culture situated south of the
Zambezi. Copper does not occur in the region and must have been brought in by
trade, the two nearest k n o w n sources being in the Kafue H o o k region of Zambia and
around Wankie in Zimbabwe. Copper artefacts found on D a m b w a group sites include
bangles and trade-bars.
In the Eastern Province of Zambia the Early Iron A g e population appears to have
been established by the third century of the Christian era, but to have been sparse; the
majority of the Christian inhabitants of this area probably retained their 'Late Stone
Age' way of life well into the present millennium, until long after the inception of the
Late Iron Age. The pottery of these K a m n a m a group sites of eastern Zambia is clearly
closely related to that from contemporary settlements in adjacent regions of Malawi,
where an outline Iron A g e archaeological sequence is n o w available for the greater
part of the country lying to the west of the lake.
In northern Malawi, a site on the South Rukuru river beside Phopo Hill has
yielded evidence for prolonged Early Iron A g e occupation dated to between the
366 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

27.2 Southern Africa: location of Early Iron Age and related sites mentioned in the text
(fromD.W.Phillipson)
The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 367

second and fifth centuries of the Christian era. Potsherds, wild-animal bones and
evidence of iron-smelting were recovered, together with shell disc beads. N o glass
beads were found. T h e pottery is clearly akin to that from K a m n a m a ; and the general
affinities of this material to the Early Iron A g e wares of East Africa, especially that
from Kwale inland from M o m b a s a , are clear. Comparable material from Lumbule Hill
near Livingstonia is dated to about the middle of the first millennium. In northern
Malawi the M w a v a r a m b o site appears to represent the local form of the Early Iron
A g e , showing some affinities with the M a l a m b o group of northern Zambia.
M w a v a r a m b o is dated from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. In southern
Malawi, the finds from the numerous sites attributed to the N k o p e group indicate
comparable settlements of the period from the fourth to the eleventh centuries.
T h e Early Iron A g e ceramics from Malawi and adjacent regions of Zambia form a
clear typological link between the contemporary wares of East Africa and those
of Zimbabwe, but they are markedly distinct from those of the C h o n d w e ,
Kapwirimbwe and Kalundu groups in the trans-Luangwan regions to the west.
Unfortunately, no data are available on Early Iron A g e sites, if any do indeed occur, in
the country to the east of Lake Malawi.

Africa south of the Zambezi

In Zimbabwe the same general picture of regionally differentiated Early Iron A g e
industries belonging to a c o m m o n industrial complex is continued. W e have already
referred to the industries of t w o northern regions of the country, which are closely
related to Zambian groups. Over most of the rest of Zimbabwe the Early Iron A g e
cultures show considerable basic similarity. There is general acceptance for a tripartite
division of the associated pottery. Ziwa ware appears centered on the eastern high-
lands around Inyanga and extending both westwards towards Salisbury and south-
wards along the Mozambique border areas towards the L o w Veld: Zhizo ware
(formerly k n o w n as Leopard's Kopje I) is found in the south-west around Bulawayo.
Gokomere ware is widely distributed in the south-central area. T h e typology shows
that the three groups are intimately related; indeed recent w o r k has shown that in
several areas there is considerable typological overlap between the groups and suggests
that they m a y not always be so sharply defined as are some of the Zambian Early Iron
A g e groups.
A clear picture of Zimbabwean Early Iron A g e settlement is obtained at Mabveni in
the Chibi district, where remains of three polc-znd-daga structures have been investi-
gated; one of these was interpreted as a storage bin which was originally raised above
the ground on stones. Traces of dry-stone walling could not be linked unequivocally
with the Early Iron A g e settlement, but are architecturally distinct from structures of
more recent date. T h e pottery was characterized by necked vessels with diagonal
comb-stamped decoration on the thickened rim-band, and a variety of open bowls.
Clay figurines of sheep and humans were also recovered, as were beads made of iron,
copper and shell. Contact with coastal trade is demonstrated by the presence of marine
shells and glass beads. Sheep were the only domestic animals represented. T h e site is
dated from some period within the first two-thirds of the first millennium.
368 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Confirmatory evidence for m u c h of the above comes from a rock shelter at Gokomere
Mission north of Fort Victoria, where the animal bones included a horn-core of the
domestic goat. T h e Early Iron A g e settlement at Gokomere is dated from between the
fifth and seventh centuries. T h e earliest Iron A g e occupation of the 'Acropolis' at
Great Zimbabwe is a further example of the Gokomere Early Iron A g e industry, the
end of which is dated between the third andfifthcenturies.
Significant economic development is indicated in this area during the later centuries
of the Early Iron A g e . It is only in its later forms that Ziwa ware is found associated
with imported glass beads. Comparable pottery is also found on sites with simple
terraces and stone walling, as well as in gold and copper mines, indicating that its
makers were involved in the more comprehensive exploitation of their territory's
natural resources than had been their predecessors, and also that they were in contact
with the trade network of the Indian Ocean.
It is at this time, too, that domestic cattle arefirstattested in the archaeological
record of Zimbabwe. Remains of these animals are markedly absent from sites of the
earliest phase of Iron A g e settlement south of the Zambezi, where the only domestic
species represented are sheep and goats. Cattle arefirstrecorded on sites dated to the
eighth century. They do not, however, become frequent before the inception of the
Late Iron Age.
Centred on Bulawayo, the sites yielding Zhizo-type pottery have m u c h in c o m m o n
with the Early Iron A g e industries farther east. It n o w appears that this pottery does
not represent the initial Early Iron A g e occupation of the area; this is probably seen in
such sites as Mandau and Mandiliyangwa in the Matopo Hills, where the sherds have
close typological connections both with the early Gokomere wares and with the
earliest Iron A g e pottery of the D a m b w a group in the Victoria Falls region. It seems
probable that in m u c h of south-western Zimbabwe the Early Iron A g e population
remained sparse until the development of the Zhizo industry late in the first millen-
nium. Rock-art studies indicate the substantial survival of Late Stone A g e peoples
throughout this time, especially in the Matopo Hills.
Excavations at Zhizo Hill in the Matopos have yielded fragments of pole-and-daga
structures and collections of stones which are interpreted as the supports for grain
storage bins, together with pottery decorated primarily with comb-stamped motifs;
this material is dated between the ninth and twelfth centuries.
T h e spread of the Early Iron A g e industrial complex south of the Limpopo during
the first millennium is n o w indicated, but the evidence is sparse and incomplete.
Pottery similar to that from Malapati has been discovered at Matakoma in the
Soutspansberg of the northern Transvaal; no absolute dates for the site are available,
but the similarity with the dated Malapati assemblage makes a date in the second half
of thefirstmillennium appear probable. Near Tzaneen in the north-eastern Transvaal,
pottery of Early Iron A g e type has been dated from the third or fourth century,
indicating that the spread of this complex south of the Limpopo did not long postdate
its introduction into Zimbabwe.
Even farther to the south, several occurrences of Iron A g e artefacts have been dated
from thefirstmillennium, but their attribution to the Early Iron A g e industrial
complex remains uncertain. At Castle Peak, N g w e n y a , in western Swaziland, an Iron
The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 36
Age presence is securely dated from the fourth or fifth century. T h e excavators'
preliminary note indicates that the pottery, which was found associated with stone
mining tools, occasional iron objects and artefacts of 'Late Stone Age' type, m a y be
attributable to the Early Iron Age.

Archaeological synthesis
Despite the uneven distribution and quality of archaeological research into the Early
Iron A g e , which will have become apparent from the foregoing summary, several
broad overall trends m a y be discerned. Within the area under review, study of the
pottery typology permits the recognition of two major divisions within the Early Iron
Age. O n e , best k n o w n in central and southern Zambia where it is represented by the
C h o n d w e , Kapwirimbwe and Kalundu groups, extends for a considerable but
u n k n o w n distance to the west. T h e other occupies Malawi, eastern Zambia and the
area of k n o w n Early Iron Age settlement south of the Zambezi. The D a m b w a group
in the Victoria Falls area of the Zambezi valley shares features in c o m m o n with both
divisions. This classification is confirmed to a certain extent by the study of selected
economic aspects of the Early Iron A g e , as attempted below.

Food-producing e c o n o m y
Detailed evidence for the food-producing economy of the Early Iron Age societies has
only rarely been recovered. T h e presence of relatively large, semi-permanent villages
is, of course, suggestive of an economy based to a substantial extent on food
production, while the discovery of occasional iron hoes and large numbers of
grindstones is indicative of some forra of agriculture. M o r e specific evidence for the
identity of the cultigens and domesticates involved has, however, only been forth-
coming from comparatively few sites.
Bones of domestic cattle, however, come from early contexts only at the southern
Zambian sites of Kapwirimbwe, Kalundu and Kumadzulo. South of the Zambezi
cattle do not appear to occur before the eighth century, as at Coronation Park,
Makuru and Malapati. That sheep were introduced into Zimbabwe before cattle may
also be inferred from the study of the rock paintings of that country, where fat-tailed
sheep are frequently represented, but cattle never. Recent evidence from
Broederstroom, however, suggests that cattle m a y have occurred earlier in the
Transvaal, where they probably came from the west.

Mining and metallurgy

Only three metals were worked on any substantial scale during the southern African
Iron Age: these, in decreasing order of importance, were iron, copper and gold.
Iron ore in one form or another is extremely widespread throughout the region;
where richer ores were not available, ferricrete or bog iron appears to have been
smelted, despite their low yield. Iron-working seems to have been introduced
throughout the region contemporaneously with the arrival of the other diagnostic
traits which constitute Iron A g e culture as here defined. There is no evidence that iron
370 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

was generally mined other than by the excavation of shallow pits; often the ore was
simply collected from the surface. Details of the iron-smelting furnaces of the
southern African Early Iron A g e are not k n o w n , but it is interesting to note that
smelting appears frequently to have been conducted within the confines of the
villages, as if the taboos, which in later periods ensured that smelting operations were
carried out away from all contact with w o m e n , did not at that time apply. T h e
objects made of iron were generally of domestic utilitarian purpose: knives, arrows
and spearheads and the like. There was probably little long-distance trade in iron or
iron objects.
Copper deposits have a far more restricted distribution than do those of iron.
Copper artefacts are, however, widely distributed on Early Iron A g e sites, although
they are not so c o m m o n as they are on those of later periods. It cannot be
demonstrated that copper-working technology was practised in all areas at such an
early date in the Early Iron A g e as were the corresponding techniques for iron; in the
Lusaka region, for example, copper appears not to have been k n o w n until a late phase
of the Early Iron A g e . Copper was clearly regarded as a relative luxury and its use was
largely restricted to the manufacture of small items of personal adornment such as
beads and bangles of thin, twisted strip. T h e metal was traded in the form of bars, of
which the best example from an Early Iron A g e context is that from Kumadzulo. N o
copper-smelting furnaces of the Early Iron A g e have been investigated.
Iron A g e gold-mining in southern Africa appears to have been restricted largely to
Zimbabwe and immediately adjacent regions. Small-scale prehistoric workings in
Zambia, South Africa and elsewhere have been reported, but no detailed investigations
have been conducted. In contrast, well over a thousand prehistoric gold-mines have
been recorded in Zimbabwe and closely bordering regions of Botswana and the
Transvaal. Most of the ancient workings have been destroyed by further mining
within the past eighty years and only in very few cases are detailed descriptions
available. Dating the prehistoric exploitation of the Zimbabwean gold deposits is
correspondingly difficult. T h e earliest radio-carbon dates for ancient mines in this
region are from the Aboyne and Geelong mines, both around the twelfth century.
Although substantial quantities of gold objects have been recovered from
Zimbabwean Iron A g e sites, the great majority of these were removed by treasure-
seekers during the early years of the European occupation; in hardly any cases,
therefore, are data available concerning the provenance and archaeological associations
of such discoveries. T h e few finds of gold which have been made in controlled
archaeological excavations have all come from Late Iron A g e contexts.

Architecture
Only a few sites have yielded information permitting the reconstruction of architec-
tural plans and structural details attributable to the Early Iron A g e in this region; and
there must remain some doubt as to the extent to which these sites are characteristic
of the architecture of southern Africa as a whole during this period. Kumandzulo
produced evidence of the plans of eleven houses of pole-and-áaga construction. These
were sub-rectangular in outline with substantial corner posts; the m a x i m u m wall-
The beginnings of the Iron Age in southern Africa 371

length was only 2.3 metres. N o comparable evidence has been recovered from other
Early Iron A g e sites in southern Africa, but fragmentary traces from a number of
other sites such as D a m b w a and Chitope suggest that the general method of
construction illustrated at Kumandzulo was frequently used, although the sub-
rectangular shape of the Kumadzulo houses cannot be paralleled elsewhere.
Building in stone was widespread in the Iron Age in regions south of the Zambezi,
but the practice seems not to have spread into Zambia except on a very small scale
during the closing centuries of the Late Iron Age.

Conclusion
Such, in outline, is the present state of our knowledge concerning the Early Iron A g e
in southern Africa. Elucidation of the events of this cultural episode is here regarded as
primarily an archaeological exercise. Historical linguistic investigations can clearly also
make a major contribution to Early Iron A g e studies; these have been discussed in an
earlier chapter.
Within the southern African region here discussed, t w o major divisions of the
Early Iron A g e m a y be recognized in the archaeological record. They m a y best be
regarded as primary divisions of the c o m m o n Early Iron A g e industrial complex, but
they m a y be readily distinguished from each other by the typology of the associated
pottery. O n e division displays a distribution extending southwards between the
Luangwa Valley and Lake Malawi to Zimbabwe and the northern Transvaal; its
people were herders of sheep and goats, but appear initially to have lacked cattle. T h e
second division is best k n o w n from central and southern Zambia, but there are
indications that it also extended over an enormous area farther to the west. In this
region cattle were k n o w n in Early Iron Age times and it was probably from these folk
that cattle were passed to the early Khoisan pastoralists of the most southerly regions
of the continent, to which the Early Iron A g e industrial complex itself did not
penetrate.
The very uneven distribution of archaeological research prevents a more detailed
view of the broader subdivisions of the Early Iron Age. In particular, the whole of
Mozambique is a complete blank on the distribution maps, so events throughout the
area between the Indian Ocean and Lake Malawi remain entirely u n k n o w n . Most of
Angola and m u c h of South Africa have so far been very inadequately investigated.
W h e n these deficiencies have been remedied, it is probable that very major revisions
will be required to the synthesis here proposed.
It has been shown that the culture introduced to southern Africa by the Early Iron
Age people was responsible for establishing m a n y of the main trends in the subsequent
culture-history of the region until quite recent times. O f particular interest to the
historian in this context is the extent to which the regionally differentiated character-
istics of later times m a y be traced back to the Early Iron A g e . T h e stone-building
tradition of Zimbabwe and the Transvaal, the gold-mining of Zimbabwe and the
copper-working of the Copperbelt area, for example, are all seen to have their
inception in the context of the Early Iron A g e in their respective regions, although
372 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

they did not reach their full florescence until later times. Continuity between the
Early and Late Iron Ages in m a n y areas was thus presumably more marked than has
often been assumed; but it is only w h e n more intensive research has been conducted,
particularly in those areas which remain virtually unexplored by archaeologists, that
the full contribution of the Early Iron A g e to southern African history m a y be
evaluated.
 Madagascar

Cultural investigations
The population of Madagascar has been the subject of m a n y studies, yet, despite
several often valid hypotheses, its origins are still veiled in mystery. Most authors agree
that, while the neighbouring African continent has made ethnic contributions to
Madagascar, the Malayo-Polynesian elements, which are just as obvious, especially in
the central highlands, should also be stressed. T h e double ethnic origin of the
Malagasy would explain the physical differences among the inhabitants of the island,
w h o all speak an Indonesian language. Although this language is divided into three
dialects, its linguistic unity is unquestionable.
Linguistics
The Dutchman de H o u t m a n was the first scholar to suggest that Malagasy belongs to
the Malayo-Polynesian linguistic group.
Van der T u u k later established scientifically the relationship between Malagasy and
the Indonesian languages. Dahl pointed out that Malagasy had been influenced by
Bantu, not only in its vocabulary, but also in its phonology. This fact is of prime
importance for the discussion of African-Indonesian interactions, which will be
described later. Hébert has shown in several of his works that there is often a bipar-
tition among the Indonesian terms in Malagasy that demonstrates the heter-
ogeneity of its south-east Asian origins. D e z has made an analysis of the
vocabulary of Indonesian origin that allows us to infer what type of civilization was
brought to Madagascar by the emigrants. A n d lastly glottochronology has confirmed
the deeply Indonesian nature of the basic vocabulary (94 per cent) and provides an idea
of the length of time that separates Malagasy from the proto-language. But, although
the main elements of the basic Malagasy linguistic corpus belong to the Indonesian
subgroup, w e should not forget that other elements, Indian, Arabic and African, have
also been incorporated into the language. The contacts implied by these elements help
us to understand the contacts and admixtures of the Indonesian diaspora westwards.
Physical anthropology
Research in thisfieldhas confirmed that the Malagasy belong both to the mongoloid
and to the negroid stock. Rakoto-Ratsimamanga has come to important conclusions
373
374 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

<Cap Est

Ile Ste Mane

SIHANAKA
Ambatomanoina«
VAZIMBA
Ankatso*
MERINA

300
km

28.1 Madagascar: places mentioned in the text (from P. Vérin)

Madagascar 375

on the distribution and nature of the pigmentation most frequently found a m o n g the
inhabitants of the central highlands. H e distinguishes four morphological types
a m o n g which the population is divided in the following proportions:
Indonesian-mongoloid type 37%
Negro-Oceanic type 52%
Negro-African type 2%
European type 9%
O n e might question whether such a large proportion of the negroid element is really
of Oceanic origin.
Haematological research carried out by Pigache shows very clearly that the
Malagasy negroids are of African and not Melanesian origin.

Ethnology
It was H . Deschamps w h o first attempted to distinguish between the Indonesian and
the African contributions to Malagasy civilization. Certain African cultural features
are found, such as elements of the cattle complex, the snake-cult addressed to dead
kings in the west and in Betsileo, and some features of the socio-political organization
found in the coastal regions.
Malagasy civilization owes m u c h to the east, including most house forms, rice
culture on irrigated terraces, some aspects of ancestor-worship and a whole tech-
nological complex, including the double-valved bellows, the outrigger canoe, the
underground oven containing porous volcanic rock, and less well k n o w n objects, such
as the rotating b o w drill and the mounted file for opening coconuts that have been
studied on the west coast of Madagascar and that are found as far away as Western
Polynesia, identical in form.
O n e can conclude that the ancestors of the Malagasy are both Indonesian and
African in origin, and that the predominantly Indonesian nature of the language need
not minimize the role played by Africa in the settlement of Madagascar. That great
neighbouring continent contributed physically to the majority of the population and
also gave Madagascar m a n y features of its culture and its socio-political organization.
Such a hybrid situation is not to be found in the C o m o r o Islands or on the coast of
Africa where Indonesian influxes are also supposed to have occurred.
T h e different theories as to the origins of the Malagasy in fact hover between t w o
extremes, Africa and Indonesia, though it is true that some authors such as Raza-
fintsalama (who maintained, on the basis of several thousand suspect etymo-
logical derivations, that the great island had been colonized by Buddhist monks) hold
completely deviant points of view. A . Grandidier attributed an exaggerated impor-
tance to Asia, believing that apart from the recent M a k u a arrivals all the ancestors of
the Malagasy came from south-east Asia, including the negroids that he calls - for
this purpose - Melanesians. G . Ferrand accepted this view which is in defiance of
the geographical evidence, though less unreasonably, and stressed the more African
aspects of the origins of the Malagasy. H e distinguished the following historical
phases:
376 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

a possible pre-Bantu-speaking period;

a Bantu-speaking period dating to before the Christian era;
a pre-Merina Indonesian period from the second to the fourth century with emigration
from Sumatra during which the newcomers established their supremacy over the Bantu-
speaking peoples;
arrival of the Arabs from the seventh to the eleventh centuries;
a n e w wave of Sumatrans in the tenth century, among w h o m w e find Ramini, the
ancestor of the Zafindraminia, and Rakuba, the ancestor of the Hova;
lastly, the Persians and, in about 1500, the Zafikasinambo.
The first settlements in Madagascar
Before going more deeply into the Indonesian and African origins of the Malagasy
people, w e should evaluate the theories that attempt to credit Madagascar with very
ancient migrations from the Mediterranean region.
Phoenicians, H e b r e w s or people of the Periplus?
In dealing with countries beyond the fringes of the ancient world the Phoenicians,
Egyptians, Sabaeans, Greeks and Hebrews are often credited with clearly exaggerated
contributions to the history of those countries. For instance Bent (1893) attributed
the founding of Zimbabwe to the Phoenicians, and C . Poirier identified the region of
Sofala with the countries of Punt and Ophir.
According to some authors ancient voyagers even reached Madagascar. F. de M a h y
thought he had found Phoenician remains at Majunga, but Ferrand and I are unable to
confirm his hypothesis. A . Grandidier in his account states that the Greeks, and of
course the Arabs, visited Madagascar. According to him, 'ever since ancient times this
island was k n o w n to the Greeks and the Arabs, by the names of Menuthias, Djafouna
and Chezbezar which they gave it, and the accurate but very short description which
they have left us of it, did not catch the attention of European geographers, w h o only
learned of its existence through the Portuguese in 1500'.
In fact the only Greek name, 'Menuthias', which occurs in Ptolemy and the
Periplus, is more likely to denote the island of Pemba, or perhaps Zanzibar or Mafia. A
certain F. D u Mesgnil took it into his head to write a work with the title, Madagascar,
Homer and the Mycenaean civilization, which gives a clear picture of the speculations
that the work contains.
The legends of Jewish migrations are more difficult to dismiss. Father Joseph
Briant, in his slim volume The Hebrew in Madagascar, is convinced that there were,
not one, but two Jewish migrations to Madagascar. H e supports his arguments with
several hundred comparisons between Malagasy and Hebrew words.
Such researches into the Jewish origins of certain of the Malagasy go back to
Flacourt, w h o believed that thefirstforeigners to come to the east coast of
Madagascar were 'the Zaffe-Hibrahim, or those of the lineage of Abraham, the
inhabitants of the Isle of the Blessed Mary and the neighbouring lands', and in his
foreword to the History of the Great Isle of Madagascar Flacourt justifies his hypothesis
by the existence of biblical names, the practice of circumcision and the fact that
working on Saturday is forbidden.
Madagascar 377

G . Ferrand denies the possibility of these Jewish migrations. H e believes that the
few Semitic names on the island can be attributed to the Malagasy w h o were
converted to Islam, and as for the fact that working on Saturday is forbidden,
Saturday is simply zfady (taboo) day, a c o m m o n occurrence in Malagasy custom; on
the east coast fady still occurs on Tuesdays, Thursdays or Saturdays according to the
region. Moreover it seems that in the seventeenth century the existence of circumci-
sion a m o n g several exotic peoples led Christian French authors to try to find a Jewish
origin for them.
A different theory as to the origins of the pre-Islamic Malagasy has recently been
put forward by Poirier, w h o sees a duality in the Muslim contributions to
Madagascar. While his predecessors felt that the attenuated Muslim practices that
survive in Madagascar suggested a Jewish origin, Poirier considers that they are a
primitive form of religion that came to Madagascar from Arabia. However,
archaeological data from East Africa and Madagascar give no support to this theory.
The massive Arab infiltrations that fertilized Swahili culture commenced in the eighth
century.
T h e first Indonesian immigrants
Although it would be rash to attempt to put a definite date to the migration of the
first Indonesians, for reasons that w e shall go into later, w e can conjecture that their
departure took place from the fifth century of the Christian era. They m a y have
continued moving until the twelfth century, as Deschamps thinks. T h e name
Palaeo-Indonesians is given to thefirstmigrants w h o made contact with the Africans
and w h o probably also made alliances with them. T h e later arrivals, k n o w n as
Neo-Indonesians, were the ancestors of the Merina. This last wave has preserved its
original biological identity better, possibly because it followed a more direct route,
but it is probable that because of its smaller numbers it adopted the language of
Palaeo-Indonesians w h o arrived earlier in Madagascar.
If some stone artefacts were found, they would enable us to k n o w more about the
earliest phase of Malagasy history, but up to n o w none has been found, and I a m of
the view that thefirstMalagasy to live on the island were acquainted with metal. W e .
k n o w that on the African coast the Stone A g e was superseded by the Iron A g e
between the first and fourth centuries of the Christian era. T h e Bronze A g e in
Indonesia was far earlier, and, what is more important, very different civilizations
coexisted there; there were even a few isolated groups in Indonesia that continued to
use stone tools after the tenth century. Whether or not stone objects exist in
Madagascar is a matter of controversy.
As far as means of transport are concerned, it has often been asked whether the
Indonesians of thefirstmillennium of the Christian era had ships capable of covering
such long distances. In the east Indian Ocean, as Deschamps has shown, there were
ships that could be taken on the high seas; the earliest picture of such a ship appears in
the sculpture of the Borobudur temple (Java, eighth century) depicting a ship with an
outrigger, two masts and sails.
Having recognized the Indonesian contribution to the settlement of Madagascar, it
remains to discover the routes that they m a y have taken. M a n y authors have pointed
378 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

out the existencefirstlyof the great south equatorial route which, in theory, might
lead (rom Java to Madagascar; this south equatorial current is strong between the
southern coasts of Java and the neighbouring region of the A m b e r Cape from August
to September. Sibrée has pointed out that the pumice stones which came from
the Krakatoa explosion travelled along such a route that brought them eventually to
the coast of Madagascar.
Although not absolutely untenable, the idea of a direct route from the Indian
Archipelago to Madagascar remains unlikely for reasons Donque explains perfectly:
although a priori a direct route between Java and Madagascar meets with no
insurmountable obstacles during the southern winter, w h e n tropical cyclones are
absent from the region, yet w e should note the existence of factors that might
invalidate such a hypothesis, for the direct journey covers a distance of nearly 4,000
miles over a marine desert without a single port of call. W e should, therefore, rather
envisage a route that called in at southern India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Deschamps
alludes to references made to pirate incursions in these regions in the first half of the
first millennium of the Christian era.
The journey from southern India to Madagascar does not pose any great problem.
The route along the southern coasts of West Africa had been k n o w n since the period
of the Periplus, and the abundance of Chinese coinage found later at Sirlf testifies to
the importance of trade between the Far East and the Middle East by sea. From the
Middle East travellers went d o w n the African coast, as they had done in the days of
Rhapta's prosperity, and it is probable that the discovery of the C o m o r o Islands was
an intermediary step to that of Madagascar.
The Indonesians w h o stayed on the African coast m a y , as Deschamps believed (as
also did Kent, in a different but quite as hypothetical a form), have formed a nucleus
for the settlement of Madagascar. T h e impact of the Indonesians on the African coast
has been exaggerated, for the 'Malaysian complex' of plants imported into Africa
from south-east Asia is not necessarily linked to Indonesia: according to the Periplus
sugar-cane, and probably the coconut-palm, arrived independently.
The fact that the outrigger canoe is found throughout the Indian Ocean is certainly
an indication of the extent of Indonesian influence, as Hornell realized. Deschamps
believes that it shows the route taken by the migrants to Madagascar, a plausible idea
which is, however, still under discussion, for the close links between Swahili and
Malagasy culture m a y have encouraged such loans.
T h e end of Indonesian migration to the west
It is possible that it was the increased influence of Islam from the beginning of the
second millennium that put a stop to the voyages of the Indonesians.
The Indonesian voyages to the coast of Africa ceased quite early, but this does not
mean that relations were broken off between the Far East and the western Indian
Ocean. O n the contrary, there are indications of the expansion of Indian Ocean trade
that was probably largely in the hands of the Muslims w h o became more and more
familiar with the trade-routes. Ibn Majid's chart gives precise latitudes for the towns
on the African coast and for the Indonesian territories and entrepôts across the ocean,
which could, in those times, be crossed in thirty to forty days.
Madagascar 379

28.2 Chinese pottery, Vohemar civilisation (Art and Archaeology Museum, ¡

28.3 AntalaotsetombofAntsoheribory(P. Vérin)
380 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

It is not inconceivable that, though the Indonesians had stopped frequenting the
coast of Africa, they continued to sail straight to Madagascar, perhaps from the
southern regions of India. T h e Neo-Indonesians m a y also have followed this route.
The African and Swahili immigration
This discussion of the various hypotheses as to the Indonesian origins of the Malagasy
should not allow us to forget that an important - and possibly major - contribution
to the settlement of Madagascar was from Africa. Deschamps has put forward t w o
hypotheses to explain this Afro-Asian symbiosis, firstly that there was ethnic and
cultural mixing on the east coast of Africa itself, and secondly that the Indonesians
m a y have raided the neighbouring coast from Madagascar. Kent also sees the
symbiosis in terms of strong Indonesian influence in Africa and a subsequent coloniza-
tion of Madagascar. However, at present w e have no archaeological information
whatsoever from the southern coastal sites of Africa (Tanzania-Mozambique), and I
personally refuse to consider such theories except as mere hypotheses. It is quite
possible that the Afro-Indonesian symbiosis m a y have begun in the C o m o r o Islands or
in north Madagascar.
T h e often-repeated idea, that Madagascar was originally inhabited by pygmies,
defies all geological and navigational evidence since Madagascar has been an isolated
island since the Tertiary era and the pygmies are no sailors and did not share in the
expansion of the Swahili maritime civilization. Moreover, such ethnic groups as the
Mikea, w h o were once thought to have been the last of the p y g m y inhabitants, are
not particularly small.
In m y opinion the Malagasy of African origin are Bantu-speaking people; it is
probable that they started arriving in the island at the latest from the ninth century
on, as did the Indonesians, but it is unlikely that the African migration continued
until the d a w n of recent historical times (sixteenth century). It would appear that
most of the Africans arrived at the same time and in the same w a y as the Muslims or
the non-Muslim Swahili.
Though the Malagasy vocabulary is predominantly Indonesian, w e should not
forget the Bantu contribution. Similarly the Creole spoken in the Antilles consisting
of 95 per cent French with some African elements should be noted. T h e Bantu
contribution to Malagasy is on two levels, principally that of vocabulary, but also that
of word structure. T h e fact that Bantu words occur in all the dialects of Madagascar
shows that the African settlement of the country was not particularly belated; their
influence is found in the very roots of Malagasy civilization. T h e Malagasy language
bears traces of a very pronounced Bantu influence. This influence is so great, and of
such a character, that it is inexplicable unless a Bantu substratum is assumed.
Moreover, although it is at present impossible to unravel the succession of cultural
contributions, m a n y authors have been conscious of the heterogeneous character of
the settlement of north and west Madagascar. Mellis, throughout his book on the
north-west, stresses the contrast between the people of the sea-coast (antandrano) and
the people of the interior (oio boka antety); this contrast is reflected in some of their
funerary rites.
The movements of the coast-dwelling Bantu-speakers from the ninth century
Madagascar

28.4 Statue ofAntsary: Antanosy art near Fort-Dauphin (P. Vérin)

382 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

account for the African contribution to the settlement of Madagascar, but w e still
have to explain w h y the Indonesian language became the lingua franca. Some of the
Bantu-speakers must have come into contact with the Indonesians, and it is possible
that between different Africans speaking different languages or dialects Indonesian
may have been a language of convenience. However, Madagascar must have continued
to be a linguistic and ethnic chequerboard for quite a while, at least on the coast
around Baly and Maintirano (Mariano's Bambala), on the Tsiribihina (according to
Drury), and among certain Vazimba groups in the interior (according to Birkeli and
Hébert). T h e ancient Vazimba led a rather primitive life economically. They
lived as fishermen on the coasts, but in the interior they probably depended to a great
extent on a crude use of the natural resources at their disposal. Gathering berries,
hunting and collecting honey were probably sufficient for their needs. According to
Drury, the Vazimba of the Tsiribihina were river fishermen, and excavations have
shown great heaps of shells from shellfish eaten by these berry-gathering peoples near
Ankazoaka and Ankatso.
The symbiosis between the Indonesians and Africans started at the very beginning
of the settlement of Madagascar. B y the tenth century a few of the coastal Bantu-
speakers must have converted to Islam. I find striking the fact that the Muslims of
Madagascar share with all the peoples of the west and north-west coasts the same
myth as to their origins, the myth of M o j o m b y , or 'the lost island'. Elsewhere I have
recounted the myth in literary form as it was told to m e by the Antalaotse of Boina
Bay. According to m y informants, Selimany Sebany and Tonga, the ancestors of the
Kajemby and the Antalaotse once lived together on an island between the African
coast and the Comoros. They lived by trade and practised the Muslim religion. But
when impiety and discord appeared on the island, Allah decided to punish them: the
island sank beneath a raging sea and only a few righteous m e n escaped. Some say that
they were miraculously saved, others say that G o d sent a whale to carry them away.
Kajemby and Antalaotse were descended from these righteous m e n . It seems likely,
therefore, that the Muslims did not superimpose their culture on Madagascar, but
rather played a catalytic role among the Africans w h o had migrated there.
 The societies of Africa
south ofthe Sahara
in the Early Iron Age

In the last few chapters w e have looked at the archaeology of different regions of
sub-Saharan Africa in the closing millenium before the Christian era and during the
first millenium of the Christian era. T h e purpose of this chapter is to try to assess
some of the major trends which seem to have been developing in the history of Africa
during the period under review. The changes which took place in all areas were of a
fundamental nature. T h e economy was transformed from one which was largely
parasitic on the landscape to one which was in control of its means of food production
from both plants and animals. T h e technology was equally transformed from a simple
one based largely on stone and w o o d to a far more complex one based on various
metals as well as stone. During the period the foundations had been laid for the
African societies w e k n o w today - the boundaries between different linguistic groups
were to alter slightly, the population was to expand radically, and social and political
groupings were to become more complex as states emerged, but by and large m a n y of
the fundamental demographic and economic aspects of sub-Saharan Africa had been
established by the last quarter of the first millennium of the Christian era.
O n e of the problems in trying to delineate the emergent trends lies in the
unevenness of the archaeological coverage. Vast areas still remain archaeologically
unexplored, particularly in some of the largest countries such as Angola, M o z a m -
bique, Zaire, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Benin, the Ivory Coast,
Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Sierra Leone and Madagascar. Even where significant
research has been undertaken it is highly localized, as in Senegal or Chad. It is impor-
tant to note that, whereas organizations concerned with antiquities date from the
nineteenth century for parts of North Africa (e.g. Egypt, 1858), many sub-Saharan
countries have only initiated research with independence and the establishment of
national museums and universities. Nevertheless, the establishment of radio-carbon
chronology has revolutionized our knowledge of the Early Iron A g e and allows some
broad generalizations to be made about the time-scale involved in the various economic
developments.

383
384 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Mineral exploration
Copper
Copper wasfirstmined in Mauretania probably by the first quarter of the first
millennium before the Christian era. T h e form of the copper artefacts found in the
area suggests that the stimulus for the mining came from contact with Morocco. Very
little is k n o w n of the form that the original mines took, though it is believed that
they were relatively shallow undertakings. The Mauretanian mines were the only ones
that w e k n o w for certain were operational before +1000. Other sources of copper
occur in Mali and Niger in the Nioro and Takedda areas, and were certainly being
exploited by the second millennium of the Christian era, but w h e n they were first
discovered or worked is u n k n o w n .
There is evidence from Arab writers and also classical sources to suggest that copper
was an element in trans-Saharan trade as early as the first millennium of the Christian
era, coming south, perhaps, in return for the gold going to the north. T h e finding
of ingots at Macden Idjafen in the western Sahara is evidence of the importance of
the trade at a slightly later period (eleventh or twelfth century of the Christian era).
O f vital importance for an appreciation of the scale of the trade is the material (rom
I g b o - U k w u in eastern Nigeria. If it is really of the ninth century, as claimed by
the excavator Thurstan Shaw, and also by W a i - A n d a h in Chapter 24 of the main
edition, it clearly indicates that the trade must have been on a large scale by the eighth
or ninth centuries of the Christian era in order to account for the large number of
cuprous objects and for the implied even larger numbers which still await discovery in
similar sites.
A n important copper source worked at this time was that in the Shaba region of
Zaïre, where the excavations at Sanga and Katoto have revealed an abundance of
copper objects. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that in the tripartite cultural division
suggested by the excavator, Nenquin, the earliest phase, the Kisalian, is represented
by twenty-seven graves, of which only t w o contained copper ingots. This suggests
that during the Kisalian period, dating from the seventh to the ninth centuries of the
Christian era, copper, though being exploited and made into ornaments, was not
really abundant. T h e copper belt in northern Zambia was also exploited at this time
with a date for copper-mining of + 4 0 0 ± 90 being reported from Kansanshi. Copper
items, however, were more numerous in southern than in northern Zambia at this
time. T h e first and far from numerous copper items in southern Zambia were
probably obtained from the Sinoia area of Zimbabwe and sources in eastern Zambia.
So far w e k n o w nothing about the exploitation methods in either of these areas.
Elsewhere in Africa copper was a very scarce resource: it has not been found on sites in
eastern Africa until a m u c h later date.

Salt
Salt is a mineral that was in great demand particularly with the beginning of an
agricultural m o d e of life. Hunters and food-gatherers probably obtained a large
amount of their salt intake from the animals they hunted and from fresh plant food.
The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age 3

Salt only becomes an essential additive where fresh foods are unobtainable in very dry
areas, where body perspiration is also normally excessive. It becomes extremely
desirable, however, amongst societies with relatively restricted diets, as was the case
with arable agriculturalists. W e have no idea w h e n the salt resources of the Sahara at
Taghâzâ and A w l H were first extracted. That they were an element in the trade of the
Sahara by the first millennium of the Christian era is evident from Arabic texts of the
last quarter of the millennium. It is probable that some of the salt extraction is as old
as the copper-mining and the development of the Tishjt settlements in Mauretania,
both areas where a sedentary life would have imposed the need for salt supplies. W e
k n o w quite a lot about mining activities in the medieval period, which will be
discussed in later volumes, but nothing about them at this time. It is probable that at
this period the mining operations were of a fairly simple kind. Salt would have been
available as a surface deposit in various parts of the Sahara as a result of the desiccation
process after - 2 5 0 0 . Perhaps m a n noted which dried-up lakes, s w a m p or pond beds
attracted wild animals. Surface salts are often quite obvious from their colour.

Iron
Iron ores were worked as early as Middle Stone A g e times in Swaziland for use as
pigments. It is clear that body pigments and iron oxide ochres for body pigments, and
later for decorating rock surfaces, were eagerly sought after from Early Stone A g e
times. A piece of haematitic colouring matter was even brought into the Olduvai
Basin by very early Stone A g e tool-users. B y Late Stone A g e times, manganese,
spéculante, and haematite were being regularly mined at localities in Zambia,
Swaziland and the northern Cape. A n excavation in some of the workings at
Doornfontein indicated regular mining operations involving galleries and chambers
from which up to 45,000 metric tons of spéculante m a y have been obtained, probably
by Khoisan-speaking groups from the ninth century of the Christian era onwards. It
is likely that the existence of such mines, and the implied knowledge of metallic ores
and their properties, helped the rapid growth of an iron technology in thefirsthalf of
thefirstmillennium of the Christian era.
Elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa w e do not have such clear indications of mining
for iron and it seems that the lateritic crust of the tropical areas was the most likely
source of iron ores. B o g iron, however, was used in the lower Casamance Valley in
Senegal and at Machili in Zambia.

Gold
Gold was almost certainly mined in West Africa during the period under review, as
well as being collected by alluvial panning. T h o u g h implied by the Arabic sources,
no actual gold-mines have been located, excavated or dated, nor has evidence for
the refining processes been recovered. These were probably similar to those well
documented for later periods. T h e main areas for which there is evidence of gold
exploitation - largely from non-contemporaneous sources - were located near the
headwaters of the Niger and Senegal rivers in present-day Guinea and Mali and are
k n o w n as B a m b u k and Bure. There is rather better evidence (discussed by
386 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

Phillipson in Chapter 27 of the main edition) for gold-mining by means of shallow

adits or stopes in north-eastern Zimbabwe, but there is no undisputed evidence that
the activity is older than the eighth or ninth century of the Christian era. T h e ores
seem to have been crushed, using pounding stones.

Stone
Stone was almost certainly quarried for various purposes, the most important of
which was to provide the raw material for ground and polished stone tools and for the
manufacture of querns. M a n y societies used fixed querns, taking their grains to a
rocky outcrop where they could also lay out foods to dry and where they could grind
grains or pound vegetable foods. But such outcrops are not available everywhere and
it is evident that rock for grindstones, both the upper and lower varieties, had to be
searched for and often moved over considerable distances. All over sub-Saharan Africa
grooves, normally 10-12 centimetres wide and up to 50 centimetres long, mark the
spots where suitable flaked stone rough-outs were ground to make axes, adzes and
chisels. It is probable that the process of quarrying, albeit on a small scale, grinding,
polishing and trading of either the rough-outs or the finished products went on
throughout the period in diminishing intensity as iron replaced stone. In some areas
ground-stone tools were, however, still in use in the second millennium of the
Christian era. Surprisingly few ground-stone tools have been found in East and
southern Africa, though they are extremely c o m m o n in West Africa.
Another relatively unexplored activity which certainly took place was the search for
suitable semi-precious stones to make into beads: cornelian and various forms of
chalcedony, such as agates and jaspers, as well as crystalline quartzes or rock crystal,
were the most c o m m o n . Beads of these materials are found all over sub-Saharan
Africa - often in graves such as those at the Njoro river cave site in Kenya, dated to
the tenth century before the Christian era, and also on habitation sites. At Lantana in
Niger a mine for red stone (jasper) which is still traded to Nigeria for bead-making is
believed to be very old, but it is impossible to date its origin. Rarely abundant, stone
beads nevertheless indicate a deliberate search for well-known rock types. Such beads
were, of course, made as long ago as Stone A g e times, and were to continue being
made right throughout the Iron A g e until gradually replaced by the cheaper, more
easily made and eventually more accessible glass trade-beads.

Trade
Some form of exchange has gone on between communities probably from relatively
early Stone A g e times. T h e exchange of bright or useful stones and honey for
meat, and occasionally even womenfolk, probably marked the gatherings of foraging
peoples, if models based on the study of modern hunters and food-gatherers are any
guide. Such exchanges, which were of both a ritual and economic significance, would
have become regular as societies entered into an agricultural existence, though even in
Late Stone A g e times specialized fishermen, seafood collectors or hunters must have
led relatively settled lives and thus required for their tools stones and other materials
which were not locally available. It is possible that certain bone implements, such as
The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age

harpoons, which required more than average expertise, m a y have been traded. But it
is fair to conclude that agriculture, implying a sedentary or a seasonal or periodically
shifting existence, would have involved an increase in trade. M u c h of this trade was
probably on a relatively restricted scale and local in scope, but would have included
such commodities as salt, certain types of stone and later iron tools, beads, shells,
possibly plants for medicinal or ritual use, meat for arable communities and grains and
root crops for pastoral groups, specialized utensils or substances like poisons for
fishing or hunting, dried fish and all sorts of objects with a scarcity value such as
strange seeds, animal claws, teeth, curious stones, bones, etc., which might have had
a magical significance and which even today are the stock-in-trade of certain stalls in
West African markets. Except for the polished stone tools, quern stones and salt
which have been referred to in the previous section, nothing is k n o w n about this
trade.
W i t h the advent of metals, however, trade took on a different character. Copper
and gold are more localized than stones and were in demand by communities both to
the north of the Sahara and to the east around the Indian Ocean. There is no reason to
suppose that the trade was on a very big scale at this date even across the Sahara, but
the networks had been established. W e also have little evidence of markets or
distribution centres in sub-Saharan Africa, though Arabic references to the old Ghana
capital suggest that they probably existed before the acceleration of the trade brought
about by the Arab conquest of North Africa.
Glass beads have come from several sites in Zambia, Shaba (Zaïre) and Zimbabwe
from contexts in the last half of the first millennium and they were certainly imports.

Emerging themes in sub-Saharan African history

In the last quarter of the first millennium of the Christian era
It is n o w necessary to see whether, from the mass of descriptive data presented in the
last eight chapters, any conclusions can be drawn about the state of African society at
the end of the Early Iron A g e . T h e period witnessed the transformation of the
economy of sub-Saharan Africa from one of hunting and gathering to one mainly
dependent on agriculture. Population certainly grew and settled life, villages and
larger social units were the outcome. It is difficult to ascertain the social structures
involved, but it is likely that over most of Africa w e are dealing with relatively small
villages consisting of one or more lineage groups with wider affinities based on clan
relationships. Population densities must have been small in most areas: probably only a
handful to the square kilometre. Following the initial rapid movement consequent
upon the advent of iron, allowing clearance of the more wooded areas of Africa,
communities had settled d o w n . W e have evidence of their isolation in the divergence
of different members of the same language families and in the increasingly varied
pottery forms and decorations which were developing in most areas around + 6 0 0
to +1000. Demographic estimates, based both on the historical evidence available in
North Africa and on extrapolation from ethnographic data and colonial census figures,
indicate a population of well under 10 million for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa
388 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

before +1000. If indications from oral traditions of change from matrilineal to

patrilineal societies in the past five hundred years, particularly in East Africa, are any
guide, w e are dealing very m u c h with matrilineal societies over most of the areas of
tropical Africa.
Curiously it is more difficult to discover details about the religious beliefs of this
time than about those of the preceding hunter-gatherers of the Late Stone A g e . T h e
latter provided m a n y clues in their rock art. The earliest agriculturists possibly painted
the rocks and m a y have been responsible for the stylized art of m u c h of East and
Central Africa, particularly of the area around Lake Victoria and of Zambia. T h o u g h
w e have some idea w h e n this art tradition was finishing, w e have no idea w h e n it
originated. T h e practice of burial is in itself often an expression of religious belief and
the goods that were buried with the dead would in m a n y cases indicate a sense of
the need for such items in the after-life. This is not, of course, the only pos-
sible explanation. T h e size of the grave, the splendour of the grave-goods and the
munificence of the accompanying ceremony can also serve to demonstrate the status,
whether political,ritual,economic or social, of the family of the bereaved. T h e scale
of the funeral activities would also help to establish the genealogy of the chief
mourners. It should be remembered, however, and w e have excellent twentieth-
century parallels for the practice, that non-religious societies often build very striking
mausoleums. The existence of impressive burial mounds or funerary monuments need
not necessarily imply a belief in a given god or group of gods; but it certainly indicates
confidence in the future on the part of society, and represents a political gesture of
continuity by a ruling or elite group.
It is apparent that in the period under review states of some kind were emerging.
The t w o key areas were the Sudanic belt and the area of Central Africa around the
headwaters of the Lualaba. In the Sudanic belt there were possibly three nuclear areas,
around Ghana in southern Mauretania and Senegal, in the inland Niger Delta above
Segu and around Lake Chad. All were areas where long-distance trade was beginning
to be important and where agriculture probably developed earlier than in areas farther
to the south. T h e oral traditions and rituals of the ruling group would provide the
state religions, which would thus help to ensure and rationalize the mystique of its
authority. T h e head of the elite group, if he were not so in reality, would become the
supposed unilineal descendant or reincarnation of the original conqueror, with definite
divine characteristics. T h e divinity of the ruler in such a model is not original, but
is acquired, often slowly, mostly deliberately but often probably incidentally, as a
defence mechanism to preserve the distinctive integrity of the chief.
Turning from hypothesis to fact, the only area in which w e can convincingly assert
that a kingdom existed in the period under review was at the western edge of the
Sudan, where the K i n g d o m of Ghana was certainly in existence by + 700 and could
have been emerging for up to a thousand years. T h e reasons for its growth must have
been its control of valuable mineral resources (copper, iron and gold, in the probable
order of their exploitation); its control of the salt trade; and possibly its location in an
area of primary development of an agricultural m o d e of life, as represented by the
Tishit sequence. A detailed account of the state will be found in the next volume;
but it is probably no coincidence that the growth of Ancient Ghana, the building of
The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age 38

the Senegambian megaliths and the rich burial mounds of Senegal were contem-
poraneous developments. They were probably related parts of the same pattern of
economic growth.
A s w e have seen in the preceding chapters, there is no uniform ending to the period
under review as there is for North Africa; nevertheless the arrival of the Arabs in
North Africa was ultimately to affect either directly or indirectly m u c h of West and
East Africa. W e have seen that by + 800 most of Africa was firmly in the Iron A g e .
The forest margin was being slowly eroded by the advance of agriculture, both in
West Africa and in southern Central Africa. Population was increasing. T h e first
phase of the agricultural revolution had involved the rapid expansion of small groups
of arable cultivators, w h o probably obtained a great deal of their protein by using the
age-old, well-tried methods of their Stone A g e hunting and gathering ancestors.
M u c h of their hunting equipment was the same as their predecessors': nets, bone and
horn fish-hooks and wooden spears and arrows, perhaps still barbed at times with
microliths or the sharpened ends of antelope horns or similar natural substances. In a
few cases it was supplemented by more efficient, though costly, iron arrowheads and
more quickly made fish-hooks. M u c h of their mythology and religion must also have
been derived from their foraging forebears, but as life became more settled they
developed n e w beliefs based on the mysteries of agriculture and metal-working. S o m e
of these beliefs had probably been passed on by the people w h o transmitted the n e w
mysteries. The Iron A g e farmers were more creative, moulding pots, carving drums,
making baskets, smelting iron, forging tools. Their religion was becoming centred on
creative deities, and their systems of belief were aimed at ensuring salvation from the
vicissitudes of a Nature to which the agriculturalist is more vulnerable. Their ritual
and music were probably more elaborate, their material culture was more varied and
their sense of tradition and social continuity was more firmly established. Fundamen-
tal changes had taken place in society which ultimately affected all the succeeding
periods of African history.
 Conclusion

In this volume an attempt has been made to show, as far as possible, the main trends
in the early history of Africa! the major changes that occurred, the fundamental
contacts between its various regions, and the state of African societies and groups
during the period under review.
The volume outlines a general framework for research, and the main lines along
which studies should be directed. However, it already seems possible to reach some
conclusions and to recognize some hypotheses, although it should be clearly and
strongly emphasized that a great deal remains to be done and that long, in-depth
studies are needed.
The chapters on Ancient Egypt demonstrate that before the third millennium
before the Christian era, Egypt had achieved a high intellectual, social and material
standard, compared with most other parts of the world. T h e Ancient Egyptian
civilization, besides being old, original and rich in initiative, lasted for almost three
thousand years. It resulted not only from favourable environmental factors, but also
from the efforts to control those factors and put them to beneficial use. There is no
doubt that the natural elements played an important and remarkable role in the
development of the Ancient Egyptian civilization. But, on the other hand, this role
was supplemented and became effective only through the Egyptians' struggle to tame
their environment, to overcome the difficulties and problems it posed, and so to
render it beneficial for their o w n prosperity.
Although Egypt was open to cultural currents coming especially from the East, this
volume shows h o w the Egyptian civilization rested to a great extent on an African
foundation and also that Egypt, which is a part of Africa, was one of the main centres
of universal civilization in ancient times and that a great deal of scientific knowledge,
art and literature emanated from that region, and influenced Greece in particular. In
the fields of mathematics (geometry, arithmetic, etc.) astronomy and the measure-
ment of time (the calendar), medicine, architecture, music and literature (narrative,
poetry, tragedy, etc.), Greece received, developed and transmitted to the West a great
part of the Egyptian legacy - from Pharaonic and Ptolemaic Egypt. Through Greece
and Phoenicia, the Ancient Egyptian civilization entered into contact not only with
Europe, but also with North Africa and even the Indian sub-continent.Wide differ-
ences of opinion exist about the peopling of Egypt, which is still a subject of serious
and deep study. It is hoped that the great progress in the methodology of physical
390
Conclusion 391

anthropology will enable definitive conclusions on this subject to be reached in the

near future.
According to records mentioned in this volume, Nubia has been closely connected
with Egypt since the earliest times as a result of various factors: physical factors,
particularly similar geographical features, especially between Nubia and the extreme
southern part of Upper Egypt; historical and political factors, which are important in
themselves and were greatly strengthened by the physical aspect; social factors, which
are reflected in culture and religion. Thus, since the beginning of the First Egyptian
Dynasty, and through the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians paid a great deal of attention
to the northern area of Nubia, which they considered as a complementary part of their
o w n country. They organized a flow of trade with the Nubians, exploited Nubian
natural resources, and w h e n any Nubian resistance was shown they sent military
missions to end it.
However, since prehistoric days Nubia had constituted a distinct geographical
and social unit. Since the d a w n of history, it had been inhabited by people whose
culture was identical with that of the northern valley of the Nile. But, starting from
about - 3200, the Egyptians began to outstrip their southern neighbours in the cultural
domain, and made vast strides towards civilization, while Nubia remained stationary
at the prehistoric level for a considerable time. In the first half of the second
millennium before the Christian era, the so-called Kerma culture, a rich and prosper-
ous civilization, flourished in Nubia. Although greatly influenced by Egyptian
culture, it possessed its o w n local characteristics. But, after the beginning of the first
millennium before the Christian era, w h e n the power of Egypt waned, a native
monarchy began to be established, with Napata as its capital, which later ruled Egypt
itself. T h efifty-yearNubian domination in Egypt during the seventh period (the first
part of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty) effected a union of Egypt and Nubia. The glory of
this great African power was outstanding, as shown by classical writers.
After the transfer of the capital to Meroe, Nubia experienced a period of progress
and prosperity and resumed contacts with its neighbours, until nearly the ninth
century. The expansion of the Meroitic monarchy to the west and south, its role in
diffusing its ideas and techniques and its transmission of Eastern and Western
influences are still under study and discussion. Also, even after the publication of this
volume, further stimulus should be given to the efforts to decipher the Meroitic
script. T h e 900 documents which exist would reveal information of many kinds. It
would also make available, side by side with the Pharaonic language, a n e w classical
language that was strictly African.
From the fourth century of the Christian era, Christianity began to spread to
Nubia, where the temples were converted into churches. T h e role of Christian Nubia
was also great, its achievements were numerous, and its influence on its neighbours
was remarkable.
Nubia, because of its geographical location, played a special and sometimes
involuntary role as an intermediary between Central Africa and the Mediterranean.
The Kingdom of Napata, the Empire of Meroe and the Christian kingdom showed
Nubia as a link between north and south. Through it, culture, techniques and
materials found their w a y through surrounding regions. It is by the stubborn pursuit
392 Ancient Civilizations of Africa

of research that w e m a y discover that the Egypto-Nubian civilization played a role in

Africa similar to that of the Graeco-Roman civilization in Europe.
Although Ethiopia was influenced at the beginning by various motives, it estab-
lished a cultural unit whose central coherence could be identified as coming from
southern Arabia. Material sources dating back to the second pre-Axumite period
indicate that a local culture existed which had assimilated foreign influences.
The Kingdom of A x u m , which lasted from the first century of the Christian era
for about one thousand years, adopted a quite distinct form, different from that of the
pre-Axumite period. The civilization of A x u m , like that of Ancient Egypt, was the
result of a cultural development, whose roots went back to prehistory. It was an
African civilization, which was produced by its people, although some Meroitic
influence can be traced in the pottery of the second pre-Axumite period.
During the second and third centuries, the Meroitic influence predominated in
Ethiopia. T h e newly discovered stele of A x u m with the Egyptian symbol of life
(Ankh), and objects connected with Hathor, Ptah and Horus, as well as scarabs,
show the influence of the Egyptian Meroitic religion on Axumite beliefs.
The Axumite kingdom was an important trade power on the routes from the
R o m a n world to India and from Arabia to North Africa, and also a great centre of
cultural dissemination. So far, only a few aspects of Axumite culture and its African
roots have been investigated and m u c h still remains to be done.
The arrival of Christianity in Ethiopia - as in Egypt and Meroe - brought great
changes in the culture and life of the people. T h e role of Christianity and its
continuity in Ethiopia, its influence inside and outside that country, are interesting
subjects which deserve in-depth study in the near future.
In view of the limitations of our historical sources, increased knowledge about the
evolution of the native Libyan culture and its reaction to the introduction of the
Phoenician civilization must wait until the archaeologists and historians have carried
out further studies.
In the present state of our knowledge w e must therefore consider that the entry of
the Maghrib into recorded history begins with the arrival of the Phoenicians on the
coast of North Africa, although Carthaginian contacts with the peoples of the Sahara
and even with people living farther south remains obscure. A t the same time, it
should be pointed out that the culture of North Africa is not indebted solely to the
Phoenicians for its early inspiration, which was mainly African.
The Phoenician period brought the Maghrib into the general history of the
Mediterranean world, since the Phoenician culture was mixed with Egyptian and
oriental elements and depended on trade relations with other Mediterranean countries.
Nevertheless, the later period of the Numidian and Mauretanian kingdoms saw the
evolution of a culture of mixed Libyan and Phoenician character.
Although w e have very scarce and incomplete knowledge about the Sahara and its
culture in antiquity, several points can be made. It is certain that the desiccation of the
climate did not kill the desert and that h u m a n activity continued there; that languages
and writing were consolidated; that with the increased use of camels, means of
transport were developed which allowed the Sahara to play an important role in
cultural exchanges between the Maghrib and tropical Africa.
Conclusion 393

W e can therefore conclude that the Sahara was neither a barrier nor a dead zone,
but an area with its o w n culture and history which still needs to be studied to discover
the continuing influence of the Maghrib on the Sudanic belt. There were always
active cultural contacts across the Sahara with sub-Saharan Africa which greatly
affected African history.1
Hitherto, it has often been customary to situate the beginning of the history of
Africa south of the Sahara at approximately the fifteenth century of the Christian era2
for t w o main reasons, namely, the dearth of written documents and the dogmatic
cleavage which historians have made mentally between that part of the continent on
the one hand and Ancient Egypt and North Africa on the other.
This volume, despite the gaps and incompleteness of the research so far undertaken,
has helped to demonstrate the possibility of a cultural unity of the entire continent in
the most widely varying fields.
The theory of the genetic kinship between Ancient Egyptian and the African
languages has been discussed. If research confirms this theory, it will prove the
deep-rooted linguistic unity of the continent. T h e similarity of royal structures, the
relationship of rites and cosmogonies (circumcision, totemism, vitalism, metem-
psychosis, etc.), the affinity of material cultures (tilling equipment is one example),
are all matters to be deeply studied in the future.
The cultural heritage left to us by the societies which lived in Egypt, Nubia,
Ethiopia and the Maghrib is of great importance. T h e monotheism imposed by the
Christians, and before them by the Jews, in these regions was strong and expressive
and no doubt facilitated the entry of Islam into Africa. These well-known facts stand
on the credit side of the Africans; on the debit side are unclear areas where a vast
amount of work remains to be done, and m a n y uncertain points to be clarified.
Likewise, completion of the third condition for the writing of Volumes I and II,
i.e. the reconstruction of the ancient African road network since proto-historical
times, and a determination of the extent of cultivated areas during the same period
from the analysis of photographs taken from satellites for that purpose, would
singularly broaden and deepen our knowledge of both the intra-continental cultural
and trade relations of the time and the degree to which the land was occupied.
M o r e extensive work on ethnonyms and toponyms should make it possible to
determine migratory currents and unsuspected ethnic relationships from one end of
the continent to the other.
I hope this volume will persuade the African countries to show more interest in,
and give more help to, the archaeology of ancient Africa.

1 See Chapter 29, ' T h e societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age'. It deals with the results
obtained in the last ten chapters of this volume concerning sub-Saharan Africa.
2 S o m e writers in both Anglophone and Francophone Africa paid a good deal of attention to sub-Saharan Africa
before the fifteenth century.
 Bibliography

The publishers wish to point out that although every effort has been made to ensure that the details in this
Bibliography are correct, some errors m a y occur as a result of the complexity and the international nature of this
work.

Abbreviations and List of Periodicals

A A American Anthropologist, Washington D . C .
AB Africana Bulletin, W a r s a w University, W a r s a w
Actas VIII Congr. Intern. Archeo. Crist. Adas del VIII Congresso Intemazionúle di Archeologia Cristiana, Barcelona,
1972
Actes Coll. Bamako I Actes iu 1er Colloque International de Bamako organisé par la Fondation SCOA pour la Recherche
Scientifique en Afrique Noire (Project Boucle du Niger), Bamako, 27 Jahuary-1 February 1975
Actes Coll. Intern. Biolog. Pop. Sahar. Actes du Colloque international de Biologie des Populations Sahariennes, Algiers,
1969
Actes Coll. Intern. Fer. Actes du Colloque International. Le Fer à travers les âges, Nancy, 3 - 6 October 1956, Annales
de l'Est, M é m , no. 16, Nancy, 1956
Actes ter Coll. Intern. Archéol. Afr. Actes du 1er Colloque International d'Archéologie Africaine, Fort L a m y , 11-16
December 1966, Etudes et documents tchadiens, M é m . N o . 1, Fort L a m y , 1969
Actes 7e Coll. Intern. Hist. Marit. Actes du 7e Colloque International d'Histoire Maritime (Lourenço Marques, 1962),
published 1964, S E V P E N , Paris
Actes Coll Nubiol Intrm. Actes du Colloque Nubiologique International au Musée National de Varsovie, W a r s a w , 1972
Actes Conf. Ann. Soc. Phil. Soudan Actes de la Conférence Annuelle de la Société Philosophique du Soudan
Actes 2e Conf. Intern. Afr. Ouest Comptes Rendus, 2nd International West African Conference, Bissau, 1947
Actes 2e Congr. Intem. Et. N. Afr. Actes du 2e Congrès International d'Etudes Nord Africaines (Congresso Inter-
nationale de Studi Nord Africani), Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée (Aix-en-Provence, 1968),
published G a p , Ophrys, 1970
Actes XIV Congr. Intern. Et. Byz. Actes du XlVe Congris International d'Etudes Byzantines, Bucharest, 1971
Acts III Cong. PPQS Acts of the Third Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Study, Lusaka, 1955
Acts IV Congr. PPQS Acts of the Fourth Pan-Africa Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Study, Leopoldville, 1959,
AMRAC40
Acts VI Congr. PPQS Acts of the Sixth Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Study, Dakar, 1967,
Chambéry, Impr. réunies
Acts VII Congr. PPQS Acts of the Seventh Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Study, Addis Ababa, 1971
AE Annales d'Ethiopie, Paris, Institut Ethiopien d'Etudes et de Recherches, Section d'Archéologie
AEPHE Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, IVe section (Section des Sciences Historiques
et Philologiques), Paris
ÄFU Ägyptologische Forschungen (ed. A . Scharff), Glückstadt, H a m b u r g , N e w York
AHS African Historical Studies, Boston University African Studies Centre (became IJAHS in 1972)
AI Africana Italiana, R o m e
394
Bibliography 395
AJA American Journal of Archaeology, journal of the Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, Mass.
ALS African Language Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London University
AMRAC Annales du Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, séries in 8°, Sciences humaines, Tervuren, Belgium
Ant. Afr. Antiquités Africaines, Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris
Antiquity Antiquity, Gloucester
A Q African Quarterly, N e w Delhi
Archaeology Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America, Boston, Mass.
ARSC Académie Royale des Sciences Coloniales; Classe des Sciences Morales et Politiques, N . S . , Brussels
AS African Studies
ASAM Annals of the South African Museum
ASR African Social Research
Aui IV. Congr. Intern. Stud. El. Atti del IV Congresso Internationale de Studi Etiopia, R o m e , 10-15 April 1972,
Academia nazionale dei Lincei, R o m e
AUEI Avhandlinger Utgitt av. Egede Instituttet, Oslo, Egede Instituttet
Azania Azania, journal of the British Institute of History and Archaeology in East Africa, Nairobi
BAA Bulletin d'Archéologie Algérienne, Algiers
BAM Bulletin de l'Académie Malgache, Tananarive
BHM Bulletin of Historical Metallurgy
BIFAN Bulletin de l'Institut Français (later re-named Fondamental) d'Afrique Noire, Dakar
BM Bulletin de Madagascar, Tananarive
BO Bihlwtheca Orientalis, Netherlands instituut voor Het Nabije Oosten, Leyden
BS Bulletin Scientifique, Ministère de la France d'Outre-Mer, Direction de l'Agriculture
BSAC Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Classique
BSFE Bulletin de la Société Française d'Egyptologie, Paris
BSPPG Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique et Protohistorique Gabonaise, Libreville
BWS 56 Burg Wartenstein Symposium no. 56 on the origin of African domesticated plants, 19-27 August 1972
CA Current Anthropology, Chicago
CEA Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, Mouton, Paris
CM Civilisation Malgache, Tananarive, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Université de
Madagascar
C Q Classical Quarterly, London
C-RAI Compte Rendu des Séances de l'Académie des Inscription et Belles Lettres, Klincksieck, Paris
C-RGLCS Compte Rendu des Séances du Croupe Linguistique d'Etudes Chamito-Sémitiques, Ecole Pratique des
Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris
CSSH Comparative Studies in Society and History, T h e Hague
CTL Current Trends in Linguistics, T h e Hague
EACR East African Geographical Review, Kampala
EHR Economic History Review, Economic History Society, Cambridge
GJ Geographical Journal, London
GNQ Ghana Notes and Queries, Legon
HAS Harvard African Studies, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Hesperis Hesperis, Institut des Hautes Etudes Marocaines, Rabat
IJAHS International Journal of African Historical Studies, N e w York (formerly AHS)
JA Journal Asiatique, Paris
JAH Journal of African History, Cambridge University Press, London, N e w York
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society, N e w Haven, C o n n .
JARCE Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Boston, Mass.
JCH Journal of Classical History, London
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, London
JGS Journal of Glass Studies, Corning, N e w York
JRAI Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London
JRS Journal of Roman Studies, Society for the Promotion of R o m a n Studies, London
JS Le Journal des Savants^ Paris
JSA Journal de la Société des Africanistes, Paris
396 Bibliography

JSAIMM Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Johannesburg
Kush Kush, Journal of the Sudan Antiquities Services, Khartoum
L A A A Liverpool Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology, Liverpool
Lammergeyer Lammergeyer, Journal of the National Parks G a m e and Fish Preservation Board, Pietermaritzburg
Lihyca Libyca, Bulletin du Service d'Antiquités of Algeria, Direction de l'Intérieur et des Beaux Arts,
Algiers
MADP Malawi Antiquities Department Publications, Z o m b a
MAGW Mitteilungen ¿er Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien
MAI Mitteilungen des deutsches Archäologischen Instituts, Harvasowitz, Wiesbaden
Man Man, New York
MEJ Middle East Journal, Washington, D C
Mim. CRAPE Mémoires du Centre de Recherches Anthropologiques, Préhistoriques et Ethnographiques, Institut
Français des Sciences Humaines en Algérie
NA Notes Africaines, Bulletin d'Information de l ' I F A N , Dakar (see B I F A N above)
OPNM Occasional Papers of the National Museums of Southern Rhodesia, Bulawayo
Optima Optima, Johannesburg
Paideuma Paideuma, Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Frankfurt a m Main
Proc. PS Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Cambridge
R A Revue Africaine, Journal des Travaux de Ut Société Historique Algérienne, Algiers
R . Arch. Revue Archéologique, Paris
REA Revue des Etudes Anciennes, Bordeaux
RFHOM Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, Paris
RH Revue Historique, Paris
ROMM Revue de l'Occident Musulman et de la Méditerranée, Aix-en-Provence
RSE Rassengna di Studi Etiopia, R o m e
RUB Revue de l'Université de Bruxelles, Brussels
SAAB South African Archaeological Bulletin, Cape T o w n
SAJS South African Journal of Science, Johannesburg
SASAE Supplément aux Annales du Service des Antiquités d'Egypte, Cairo
SLS Society for Libyan Studies
SM Sludi magrebini, Naples, Istituto Universitario Orientale
SNR Sudan Notes and Recoré, Khartoum
TJH Transafrkan Journal of History
TNR Tanganyika (Tanzania) Notes and Recoré, Dar es Salaam
Trav. 1RS Travaux de l'Institut de Recherches Sahariennes, University of Algiers, Algiers
Ufahamu Ufahamu, Journal of the African Activist Association, Los Angeles
WA World Archaeology, London
WAAN West African Archaeological Newsletter. Ibadan
WAJA West African Journal of Archaeology, Ibadan
ZAS Zeitschrift fur Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, Osnabrück, Zeller
ZMJ Zambia Museum Journal, Lusaka

Bibliography
Abel, A . (1972) 'L'Ethiopie et ses rapports avec l'Arabie préislamique jusqu'à l'émigration de ca.
615', IVth CISE
A b r a h a m , D . P . (1962) 'The early political history of the Kingdom of M w e n e Mutapa, 850-1589', Historians in
Tropical Africa (Salisbury: University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland)
A b r a h a m , D . P . (1964) 'The ethnohistory of the empire of Mutapa, problems and methods', in J. Vansina, R .
Mauny and L . V . Thomas (eds.), The Historian in Tropical Africa (London/Accra/Ibadan: Oxford University Press
for the International African Institute), pp. 104-26
A d a m s , W . Y . (1962a) 'Pottery kiln excavations', Kush, 10, pp. 62-75
A d a m t , W . Y . (1962b) ' A n introductory classification of Christian Nubian pottery', Kush, 10, pp. 245-88
A d a m s , W . Y . (1964a) 'Post-pharaonic Nubia in the light of archaeology', JEA, 50, pp. 102-20
A d a m t , W . Y . (1965b) 'Architectural evolution of the Nubian church 500-1400 A D ' , JARCE. 4 , pp. 87-139
Bibliography 397

A d a m » , W . Y . (1965c) 'Post-pharaonic Nubia in the light of archaeology ÏV.JEA, 51, pp. 160-78
A d a n u , W . Y . (1966a) 'The Nubian campaign: retrospect', Mélanges offerts à K. Michalowski (Warsaw),
pp. 13-20
A d a m s , W . Y . (1966b) 'Post-pharaonic Nubia in the light of archaeology III' JEA, 52, pp. 147-62
A d a m t , W . Y . (1967) 'Continuity and change in Nubian cultural history', S N Ä , XLVIII, pp. 11-19
A d a m s , W . Y . and Nordstrom, H . A . (1963) 'The archaeological survey on the west bank of the Nile, third
season 1961-2", Kush, 11, pp. 10-46
A d a m s , W . Y . and Verwers, C . J. (1961) 'Archaeological survey of Sudanese Nubia', Kush, 9, pp. 7-43
Addison, F . S . A . (1949) Jebel Moya (The Wellcome Excavation in the Sudan); 2 vols. (London: Oxford University
Press)
Aldred, C . (1980) Egyptian Art in the Dap of the Pharaohs (London: Thames and Hudson)
Alexander, J. (1980) 'The spread and development of iron using in Europe and Africa', in R . E . F. Leakey and
B. A . Ogot (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th Panafrican Congress of Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, pp. 327-30
Alexander, J. and Coursey, D . G . (1969) 'The origins of yam cultivation', in P. H . Ucko and G . W . Dimbleby
(eds.), The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals (London: Duckworth), pp. 123-9
A H H a k e m , A . M . (1972) 'Meroitic settlement of the Butana central Sudan', in P. H . Ucko, R . Tringham and
G . W . Dimbleby (eds.), Man, Settlement and Urhanism (London: Duckworth), pp. 639-46
Allen, J. W . T . (1949) 'Rhapta', T N R , 27, pp. 52-9
Amblard, S . (1984) Tichitt Walata - Civilisation et Industrie Lithique, Editions Recherche sur les civilisatio
Mémoire no. 35, (Paris: A D P F )
A n d a h , B . W . (1973) 'Archaeological reconnaissance of Upper-Volta', thesis (Berkeley, University of California)
A n d a h , B . W . (1979) 'Iron Age beginnings in West Africa: reflections and suggestions', WAJA, 9, pp. 125-41
Anfray, F . (1963) ' U n e campagne de fouilles à Yeha', AE, 5 (February-March 1960), pp. 171-92
Anfray, F . (1967) 'Matara', AE, 7, pp. 33-97
Anfray, F . (1968) 'Aspects de l'archéologie éthiopienne', JAH, 9, pp. 345-66
Anfray, F . (1972) 'L'archéologie d ' A x o u m en 1972', Paideuma, XVIII, p. 71, plate VI
Anfray, F . (1974) 'Deux villes axoumites: Adoulis et Matara', Atti IV Congr. Imem. Stui. Et., pp. 752-65
Anfriy, F . and Annequin, G . (1965) 'Matara. Deuxième, troisième et quatrième campagnes de fouilles', AE,
6, pp. 49-86
Anfray, F . , Caquot, A . and Nautin, P . (1970) ' U n e nouvelle inscription grecque d'Ezana, roi d ' A x o u m ' , JS,
pp. 260-73
Anquandah, J. (1982) Rediscovering Ghana's Past (London: Longman)
Applegate, J. R . (1970) 'The Berber languages', CTL, VI, pp. 586-661
Arkell, A . J. (1949) Early Khartoum. An Account of the Excavations of an Early Occupation Site carried out by the Sud
Government Antiquities Service 1944-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Arkell, A . J. (1961) A History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to 1821 (London: University of London, Athlone
Press), 2nd edn revised
Arkell, A . J. (1966) 'The iron age in the Sudan' C A , 7, 4, pp. 451-78
Armstrong, R . G . (1964), The Study of West African Languages (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press)
Atherton, J. H . (1972) 'Excavations at Kambamai and Yagala rock shelters. Sierra Leone', ÍVAJA, 2, pp. 39 ff
Aubreville, A . (1948) 'Etude sur les forêts de l'Afrique équatoriale française et du Cameroun', E S , 2 , p. 131
Aumassip, G . (1986) Le Bas-Sahara dans la Préhistoire (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique)
A u r i g e m m a , S . (1940) 'L'elefante di Leptis Magna', Al, pp. 67-86
B a d a w y , A . (1968) A History of Egyptian Architecture (The New Kingdom): From the Eighteenth Dynasty to the End of th
Twentieth Dynasty 1580-1085 BC (Berkeley, Calif. Los Angeles: University of California Press)
Bailloud, G . (1969) 'L'évolution des styles céramiques en Ennedi (République du Tchad)', Actes
1er Coll. Intern. Archéol. Afr., Fort Lamy, 1966, pp. 31-45
Balout, L . (1967) ' l ' H o m m e préhistorique et la Méditerranée occidentale', ROMM, Aix-en-
Provence, 3
Baradéz, J. (1949) Vue aérienne de l'organisation romaine dans le Sud-Algérien. Fossalum Africae (Paris: A M G )
Barraux, M . (1959) 'L'auge de Sima', BAM, n.s., XXXVII, pp. 93-9
Barrow, J. (1801-4) An Account of Travels into the Interior of Southern Africa in the Years 1797 and 1798, 2 vo
(London: T . Cadell and W . Davies)
Basset, H . (1921) 'Les influences puniques chez les berbères', RA, 62, p. 340
398 Bibliography

Batel, O . (1914) The Eastern Libyans (London: Macmillan)

B a t « , O . and D u n h a m , D . (1927) 'Excavations at G a m m a i ' , HAS, 8, pp. 1-122
Bayle des H e r m a n s , R . de (1972a) 'Aspects de la recherche préhistorique en République Centra-
fricaine', Africa-Tervuren XVIII, 3/4, pp. 90-103
Bayle de« H e r m e n i , R . de (1972b) 'La civilisation mégalithique de Bouar. Prospection et fouille 1962-6 par
P. Vidal, Recension', Africa-Tervuren, XLII, 1, pp. 78-9
Beauchêne, M . C . de (1963) 'La préhistoire du Gabon', Objets el Monjes, III, I, p. 16
Beauchene, M . C . de (1970) ' T h e Lantana mine near the Rapoa/Niger confluence of Niger', IVA A N , 12,
p. 63
Beck, P . and H u a r d , P . (1969) Tibesli, carrefour de la préhistoire saharienne (Paris: Arthaud)
Bedaux, R . and Bollamd, R . (1980) 'Tellern, reconnaissance archaéologique d'une culture de l'Ouest
africain au Moyen Age: Les textiles', Journal des Africanistes, 50, 1, pp. 9-24
Beck, G . W . V a n (1967) 'Monuments of A x u m in the light of south Arabian archaeology', JAOS, 87, pp. 113-22
Bénabou, M . (1976) La résistance africaine à la romanisation (Paris: Maspero)
Bermui, S . (1983) 'Découvertes, hypothèses, reconstitution et preuves: Le cuivre médiéval d'Azelik-
Takedda (Niger)', in M . Echard (ed.), Metallurgies africaines: nouvelles contributions, M e m . Soc. Afr., pp. 153-71
Bermus, S. and Echard, M . (1985) 'Metal-working in the Agadez region (Niger): A n ethno-archaeological
approach', in P. T . Craddock and M . J. Hughes (eds.), Furnaces and Smelting Technology in Antiquity (London:
British M u s e u m , Occasional Paper, 48) pp. 71-80
Binon, M . S . (1975) 'Copper currency in central Africa: the archaeological evidence', W A , 6, pp. 276-92
Blankoff, B . (1965) 'La préhistoire au Gabon', BSPPG, pp. 4-5
Bloch, M . and Verin, P . (1966) 'Discovery of an apparently neolithic artefact in Madagascar', Man, I, pp. 240-1
Bosnier, A . and Beaumont, P . (1972) 'Mining in southern Africa and the emergence of modern m a n ' , Optima,
22, pp. 2-12
Boubbe, J. (1959-60) 'Découvertes récentes à Sala Colonia (Chellah)' BSAC, pp. 141-5
Bourgeois, R . (1957) 'Banyarwanda et Barundi, T o m b e I - ethnographie", ARSC, X V , pp. 536-49
BoviU, E . W . (1968) The Golden Trade of the Moors 2nd edn (London: Oxford University Press)
Brabant, H . (1965) 'Contribution odontologique à l'étude des ossements trouvés dans la nécro-
pole protohistorique de Sanga, République du C o n g o ' , A M R A C , 54
Breasted, J. H . (1951) A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest 2nd edn (London: Hodder
and Stoughton)
Briggs, L . C . (1957) 'Living tribes of the Sahara and the problem of their prehistoric origin', Third Pan-African
Congress on Prehistory, Livingstone, 1955 (London: Chatto), pp. 195-9
B u d g e , E . A . T . Wallis (1928) A History of Ethiopia, Nubia and Abyssinia, according to the Hieroglyphic Inscription of
Egypt and Nubia and the Ethiopian Chronicle, 2 vols (London: Methuen)
B u d g e , E . A . T . Wallis (1966) A History of Ethiopia, vol. I (Netherlands: Cosferhout N B , Anthropological
Publications)
B y n o n , J. (1970) 'The contribution of linguistics to history in the field of Berber studies', in D . Dalby (ed.),
Language and History in Africa (London: Cass), pp. 64-77
Cabannes, R . (1964) Les Types hémoglobiniques des populations de la partie occidentale du continent africain (Magkri
Sahara, Afrique noire occidentale) (Paris: C N R S )
Callet, F . (1974) Histoire des rois de Tantaran'ny Andriana, vols. 1-3, translated by G . S. Chaput and E . Ratsimba
(Tananarive: Librairie de Madagascar)
Caminos, R . A . (1975) New Kingdom Temples of Buhen, 2 vols (London: Egypt Exploration Society)
C a m p s , G . (1954) 'L'inscription de Béja et le problème des Dii Mauri' R A , 98, pp. 233-60
C a m p s , G . (1960a) 'Les traces d'un ige du bronze en Afrique du Nord', R A , 104, pp. 31-55
C a m p s , G . (1960b) ' A u x origines de la Berbérie: Massinissa ou les débuts de l'histoire', Libyca, 8, 1
C a m p s , G . (1961) Monuments etritesfunéraires protohistoriques: aux origines de la Berbérie (Paris: A M G )
C a m p s , G . (1970) 'Recherches sur les origines des cultivateurs noirs du Sahara', ROMM, 7, pp. 39-41
C a m p s , G . , (1974) 'Le Gour, mausolée berbère du Vile siècle', American Anthropologist, VIII, pp. 191-208
C a m p s , G . (1982) 'Beginning of pastoralism and cultivation in Northwest Africa and the Sahara', The Cambridge
History of Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 584-623
C a m p s , G . Delibrias, G . and T h o m m e r e t , J. (1968) 'Chronologie absolue et succession des civilisations
préhistoriques dans le Nord de l'Afrique', Libyca, X V I , p. 16
Camps-Fabrer, H . (1953) L'Olivier et l'huile dans l'Afrique romaine (Algiers: Imprimerie officielle)
Bibliography 399

Caquot, A . and Leclant, J. (1959) 'Ethiopie et Cyrénaique? A propos d'un texte de Synesius', A E , III,
pp. 173-7
Carter, P . L . (1970) 'Late stone age exploitation patterns in southern Natal', SAAB, 25, 98, pp. 55-8
Carter, P . L . and Flight, C . (1972) ' A report on the fauna from two neolithic sites in northern Ghana with
evidence for the practice of animal husbandry during the 2nd millennium B C Matt, 7, 2, pp. 277-82
Carter, P . L . and Vogel. J. C . (1971) ' T h e dating of industrial assemblages from stratified sites in eastern
Lesotho', Man, 9, pp. 557-70
Csutiglione, L . (1970) 'Diocletianus und die Blemmyes', ZAS, 96, 2 , pp. 90-103
Caton-Thompson, G . (1929) 'The Southern Rhodesian ruins: recent archaeological investigations', Nature, 124,
pp. 619-21
Caton-Thompson, G . (1929-30) 'Recent excavations at Zimbabwe and other ruins in Rhodesia', JRAS, 29,
pp. 132-8
Chaker, S. (1973) 'Libyque: épigraphie et linguistique', Encyclopédie berbère, 9
C h a m l a , M . C . (1970) 'Les hommes épipaléolithiques de Columnata (Algérie occidentale)',
Mém. C R A P E . X V , pp. 113-14
C h a m o u x , F . (1953) Cyrène sous la monarchie Jes Ballades (Paris: de Boccard)
Chaplin, J. H . (1974) 'The prehistoric rock art of the Lake Victoria region', Azania, IX, pp. 1-50
Charles-Picard, G . (1954), Les Religions de l'Afrique antique (Paris: Pion)
Charles-Picard, G . and C . (1958) La Vie 'quotidienne à Carthage au temps d'Hannibal, Ule siècle avant Jésus-
Christ (Paris: Hachette)
Charles-Picard, G . (1959) La Civilisation de l'Afrique romaine (Paris: Pion)
Charles-Picard, G . (1968) Les Cahiers de Tunisie. Mélanges Saumagne, pp. 27-31
Chastagnol, A . and Duval, N . (1974) 'Les survivances du culte impérial dans l'Afrique du Nord à
l'époque vandale. Mélanges d'histoire ancienne offerts à W . Seston', Publications de lu Sorbonne, Etude
IX, pp. 87-118
Chictick, N . (1966) 'Six early coins from new Tanga', Azania, 1, pp. 156-7
Chirtick, N . (1969) ' A n archaeological reconnaissance of the southern Somali coast', Azania, IV, pp. 115-30
Clark, J. D . (1970) The Prehistory of Africa (London: Thames and Hudson)
Clark, J. D . (1974) 'Iron age occupation at the Kalambo Falls', in J. D . Clark (ed.), Kalamho Falb Prehbtoric Site,
vol. II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 57-70
Clark, J. D . and Fagan, B . M . (1965) 'Charcoal, sands and channel-decorated pottery from northern Rhodesia',
American Anthropobgbt, L X V I I , pp. 354-71
Clark, J. D . and Walton, J. (1962) ' A late stone age site in the Erongo mountains, south west Africa', Proc. PS,
28, pp. 1-16
C o h e n , D . and Maret, P . de (1974) 'Recherches archéologiques récentes en République du
Zaïre', Forum-Université Libre de Bruxelles, 39, pp. 33-7
C o n n a h , G . (1967) 'Excavations at Daima, N . E . Nigeria', Actes VI Congr. P P E Q , pp. 146-7
C o n n a h , G . (1981) Three Thousand Years in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
C o n n a h , G . (1987) African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and Stales in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological P
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Contenson, H . de (1960) 'Les premiers rois d ' A x o u m d'après les découvertes récentes', JA, 248,
pp. 78-96
Contenson, H . de (1961) 'Les principales étapes de l'Ethiopie antique', C E A , 2 , 5, pp. 12-23
Contenson, H . de (1963a) 'Les subdivisions de l'archéologie éthiopienne. Etat de la question', R .
Arch., pp. 189-91
Contenson, H . de (1963b) 'Les fouilles de Haoulti en 1959. Rapport préliminaire', A E , 5, pp. 41-86
Contenson, H . de (1963c) 'les fouilles à A x o u m en 1958. Rapport préliminaire', A E , 5, pp. 3-39
Contenson, H . de (1965) 'Les fouilles à Haoulti en 1959; rapport préliminaire', A E , 5, pp. 45-6
C o o k e , C . K . (1971) ' T h e rock art of Rhodesia', SAJS, special issue 2, pp. 7-10
C o o n , C . S. (1968) Yengema Cave Report (Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania)
Coppens, Y . (1969) 'Les cultures protohistoriques et historiques du Djourab', Actes 1er Coll. Inlern. Archéol. Afr.,
pp. 129-46
Cornevin, R . (1967) Histoire de l'Afrique. Vol. I: Des origines au XVIe siècle, 2nd edn (Paris: Payot)
C o s m a s Indicopleustes (1909) The Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, translated by E . O . Winstedt
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Topographie chrétienne, translated by W . Walsca (Paris: Cerf)
400 Bibliography

Conlbeaux, J. B . (1928) Histoire politique et religieuse d'Abyssinie depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à l'avènem
Je Menelik II, Vol. I (Puis: Geuthner)
Crowfoot, J. W . (1911) 'The island of Meroe', Archaeological Survey of Egypt, Mémoire 19 (London) p. 37
Crowfoot, J. W . (1927) 'Christian Nubia 1 , JEA, XIII, pp. 141-50
Cuhrick, A . L . and G . M . (1936) 'Indonesian echoes in central Tanganyika', T N R , 2, pp. 60-6
Dabi, O . C h . (1951) 'Malgache et Munjan, une comparaison linguistique', AUEI, 3
Dahle, L . (1889) 'The Swahili element in the new Malagasy English dictionary', Antananarivo, III, pp. 99-115
Dalby, D . (1970) 'Reflections on the classification of African languages', ALS, II, pp. 147-71
Dalby, D . (1967) 'The prehistorical implication of Guthrie's comparative Bantu. II. Interpretation of cultural
vocabulary', JAH, XVII, pp. 1-27
Daniels, C . M . (1968a) Garamantian Excavations: Zinchecra 1965-1967 (Tripoli: Department of Antiquities)
Daniels, C . M . (1968b) 'The Garamantes of Fezzan', in Libya in History (Beirut, Lebanon)
Daniels, C . M . (1970) The Garamantes of Southern Libya (Wisconsin: Cleander Press)
Daniels, C . M . (1972-3) 'The Garamantes of Fezzan. A n interim report of research, 1965-73', SLS, IV, pp. 35-40
Daniels, S. G . H . and Phillipson, D . W . (1969) 'The early iron age site at D a m b w a near Livingstone', in B . M .
Fagan, D . W . Phillipson and S. G . H . Daniels (eds.), Iron Age cultures in Zambia (London: Chatto and Windus),
vol. II, pp. 1-54
Dart R . A . and Beaumont, P . (1969a) 'Evidence of ore mining in southern Africa in the middle stone age', C A ,
10, pp. 127-8
Dart, R . A . and B e a u m o n t , P . (1969b) 'Rbodesian engravers, painters and pigment miners of the fifth
millennium B C ' , SAAB, 8, pp. 91-6
Datoo, B . A . (1970a) 'Misconception about the use of monsoons by dhows in East African waters', E A G R , 8,
pp. 1-10
Datoo, B . A . (1970b) 'Rhapta: the location and importance of East Africa'sfirstport', Azania, V , pp. 65-75
Datoo, B . A . and Sheriff, A . M . H . (1971) 'Pattern of ports and trade routes in different periods', in L . Berry
(ed.), Tanzania in Maps (London: University of London Press), pp. 102-5
Daviet, N . M . (1958) Picture Writing in Ancient Egypt (London: Oxford University Press for Griffith Institute)
Davies, O . (1962) 'Neolithic Culture in Ghana', Proceedings of the Fourth Panafrican Congress of Prehistory, vol. 2
(Brussels) pp. 291-302
Davies, O . (1964) The Quaternary in the Coast Lands of Guinea (Glasgow: Jackson)
Daviet, O . (1967a) West Africa before the Europeans: Archaeology and Prehistory (London: Methuen)
Davies, O . (1967b) 'Timber construction and wood carving in West Africa in the 2nd millennium B C , Man, 2 , 1,
pp. 115-18
Davies, O . (1971) 'Excavations at Blackburn', SAAB, 26, pp. 165-78
Deacon, H . J. and J. (1972) 'Archaeological evidence for demographic changes in eastern Cape during the last 2000
years'. Report at AGM of the Archaeological Association, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Derricourt, R . M . (1973) 'Archaeological survey of the Transkei and Ciskei: interim report for 1972', Fort Hare
Papers, 5, pp. 449-55
Desanjes, J. (1963) ' U n témoignage peu connu de Procope sur la Numidie vandale et byzantine', Byzantion,
XXXIII, pp. 41-69
Desanges, J. (1975) 'L'Afrique noire et le monde méditerranéen dans l'antiquité. Ethiopiens et
gréco-romains', RFHOM, 228, pp. 391-414
Desanges, J. (1976) 'L'Iconographie du noir dans l'Afrique du nord antique', in J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant and F.
Snowden (eds.), L'Image du noir dans l'art occidental Vol. I: Des pharaons à la chute de l'empire romain (Fribourg:
Menil Foundation), pp. 246-68
Desanges, J. and Lancel, S . (1962-74) 'Bibliographie analytique de l'Afrique antique', B A A , pp. 1-5
Descamps, C , D e m o u U n , D . and Abdallah, A . (1967) 'Données nouvelles sur la préhistoire du
cap Manuel (Dakar)', Acts VI Congr. PPEQ, pp. 130-2
Descamps, C . and Thilmans, G . (1972) Excavations at DeNdalane (Sine Saloum) 27 November-16 January 1972
Deschamps, H . (1960) Histoire de Madagascar (Paris: Berger-Levrault) (3rd edn, 1965)
Deschamps, H . (éd.) (1970) Histoire générale de l'Afrique noire, de Madagascar et des Archipels, Vol. I: Des origines
à 1800 (Paris: P U F ) , pp. 203-10
Devic, L . M . (1883) Le pays des Zendj d'après les écrivains arabes (Paris)
Diop, C . A . (1955) Nations Nègres et Cultures. De l'Antiquité Négro-Egyptienne aux problèmes culturels
d'Afrique Noire d'Aujourd'hui (Paris: Présence Africaine)
Bibliography 401

Diop, C . A . (1967) Antériorité des civilisations nègres: mythe ou vérité historique (Paris: Prése
Africaine)
Diop, C . A . (1968') 'Métallurgie traditionnelle et l'âge du fer en Afrique', BIFAN, B , X X X , I, pp. 10-38
Diop, C . A . (1973) 'La métallurgie du fer sous l'ancien empire égyptien', BIFAN, B, XXXV,
pp. 532-47
Diop, C . A . (1977) 'Parenté génétique de l'égyptien pharaonique et des langues africaines:
processus de sémitisation' and 'La pigmentation des anciens Egyptiens, test par la mélanine', BIFAN
Dixon, D . M . M . (1964) 'The origin of the kingdom of Rush (Napata-Meroe)',J&4, 50, pp. 121-32
Donadoni, S . (1970) 'Les fouilles a l'église de Sonqi Tino', in E . Dinkier (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens
in christlicher Zeil: Ergehnisse und Probleme auf Grund der jüngsten Ausgrabungen (Recklinghausen: Verlag, Aure
Bongers), pp. 209-18
Donation!, S . and Curto, S . (1965) 'Le pitture murali délia chiesa di sonki nel Sudan', La Nubia Cristiana, Quademo
N° 2 del Museo eglizio di Torino (Turin: Fratelli Pozzo-Salvati), pp. 123 ff
D o r n t e , J. (1957) 'Découvertes en Ethiopie et découverte de l'Ethiopie', B O , 14, pp. 64-5
D o r m e , J. (1960) 'La découverte d'Asbi-Déra', Atti del Convegno. Intern. Stud. Et., R o m e , 2 - 4 April
1959, pp. 229-48
D o m a n , S . S . (1915) 'Rhodesian ruins and native tradition', SAJS, 12, pp. 501-16
Drewet, A . J. (1954) ' T h e inscription from Dibbid in Eritrea', B O , 11, pp. 185-6
D r c w c » , A . J. (1956) 'Nouvelles inscriptions de l'Ethiqpie', B O , 13, pp. 179-82
Drewet, A . J. (1962) Inscription de l'Ethiopie Antique (Leiden: Brill)
Drcwet, A . J. a n d Schneider, R . (1967, 1970, 1972) 'Documents épigraphiques de l'Ethiopie I, II, III',
A E , VII, pp. 89-106; VIII, pp. 57-72; IX, pp. 87-102
Dronin, E . A . (1882) 'Les listes royales éthiopiennes et leur autorité historique', R A , August-
October
Drury, R . (1731) Madagascar or, Robert Drury's Journal during Fifteen Years of Captivity on that Island (London: J
Brotherton)
D n Metgnil, F . (1897) Madagascar, Homère et la civilisation mycénienne (Saint-Denis, Réunion: Dubourg)
D u n h a m , D . and Batet, O . (1950-7) Royal Cemeteries ofKush, I: El-Kumi; II: Nuri; 111: Royal Tombs at Meroe and
Barital (Cambridge: Mass.: Harvard University Press)
Duval, N . (1971- ) Recherches archéologiques i Sbeitla (Paris: de Boccard)
D u y v e n d a k , J. J. L . (1949) China's Discovery of Africa (London: Probsthain)
Ehret, C . (1967) 'Cattle-keeping and milking in eastern and southern African history: the linguistic evidence', JAH,
VIII, pp. 1-17
Ehret, C . (1971) Southern Nilotic History: Linguistic Approaches to the Study of the Past (Evanston: Northwestern
University Press)
Ehret, C . (1972) 'Bantu origins and history: critique and interpretation', TJH, II, pp. 1-19
Ehret, C . (1973) 'Patterns of Bantu and central Sudanic settlement in central and southern Africa (r.1000 B C - 5 0 0
AD)', TJH, III, pp. 1-71
Ehret, C . (1974) Ethiopians and East Africans: the Problems of Contacts (Nairobi: East African Publishing House)
Ehret, C . et al. (1972) 'Outlining southern African history: a re-evaluation A D 100-1500', Ufahamu, III, pp. 9-27
Elphick, R . H . (1972) ' T h e Cape Khoi and the first phase of South African race relations', thesis (Yale University)
E m e r y , W . B . (1965) Egypt in Nubia (London: Hutchinson)
E r m a n , A . (1927) The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, translated by A . M . Blackman (London: Methuen)
Erroux, J. (1957) 'Essai d'une classification dichotomique des blés durs cultivés en Algérie', Bulle-
tin de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Afrique du Nord, 48, pp. 239-53
Etperandieu, G . (1957) De l'art animalier dans l'Afrique antique (Algiers: Imprimerie Officielle)
Evani-Pritchard, E . E . (1968) The Nuer: Description of Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic P
(London: Oxford University Press)
Fagan, B . M . (1969) 'Early trade and raw materials in south central Africa', JAH, X , I, pp. 1-13
Fagan, B . M . and Noten, F . L . V a n (1971) 'The hunter-gatherers of Gwisho', A M R AC, 74, XXII
Fagan, B . M . , PhiUipton, D . W . and Daniek, S. G . H . (eds.) (1969) Iron Age Cultures in Zambia (London:
Chatto and Windus)
Fagg, A . (1972) 'Excavations of an occupation site in the Nok valley, Nigeria', WAJA, 2, pp. 75-9
Fairman, H . W . (1938) 'Preliminary report on the excavations at Sesebi and Amarah West, Anglo-Egyptian
Sudan, 1937-8',JEA, X X I V , pp. 151-6
402 Bibliography

Fairman, H . W . (1939) 'Preliminary report on the excavations at Amarah West, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1938-9',
JEA, X X V , pp. 139-44
Fairman, H . W . (1948) 'Preliminary report on the excavations at Amarah West, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1947-8',
JEA, X X X I V , pp. 1-11
Fattovich, R . (1972) 'Sondaggi stratigrafici. Yeha', AE, 9, pp. 65-86
Faublée, J. and M . (1964) 'Madagascar vu par les auteurs arabes avant le XIXe siècle', communication at the 8e
Congrès. Inter. Hist. Marit. and Studia, 11
Ferrand, G . (1891-1902) Les Musulmans à Madagascar et aux îles Cornons, 2 vols. (Paris: Leroux)
Ferrand, G . (1904) 'Madagascar et les îles Uaq-Uaq', JA, pp. 489-509
Ferrand, G . (1908) 'L'origine africaine des Malgaches', JA, pp. 353-500
Firth, C . M . (1910-27) The Archaeological Survey of Nubia, Report for 1907, 1908, 1910, 1911 (Cairo: National Print
Department)
Flacourt, E . (1661) Histoire Je la grande île de Madagascar (Paris: Clougier)
Flight, C . (1972) 'Kintampo and West African Neolithic civilizations', B W S , 56
F o r b « , R . J. (1954) 'Extracting, smelting and alloying', in C . Singer, E . J. Holmyard and A . R . Hall (eds.)
History of Technology, 4 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 572-99
Franchira, V . (1954) 'Ritrovamenti archeologici in Eritrea', RSE, 12, pp. 5-28
Fraser, P . M . (1972) Ptolemaic Alexandria, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
Freeman-GrenviUe, G . S . P . (1960) 'East African coin finds and their historical significance', JAH, 1, pp. 31-43
Prend, W . H . C . (1968) 'Nubia as an outpost of Byzantine cultural influence', Byzantinoslamca, 2, pp. 319-26
Frend, W . H . C . (1972) 'Coptic, Greek and Nubian at Qasr Ibrim', Byzantinoslavica, X X X I I I , pp. 224-9
Gabel, C . (1965), Stone Age Hunters of the Kafue. The Cwisho A site, (Boston, Mass.: Boston University Press)
Gadallah, F . F . (1971) 'Problems of pre-Herodotan sources in Libyan history', Libya in History (Benghazi), pt 2 ,
pp. 43-75 (Arabic edition, resume in English, pp. 78-81)
Galand, L . (1969) 'Les Berbères, la langue et les parlers', Encyclopedia Universal (Paris), pp. 171-3
Galand, L . (1974) 'Libyque et berbère', AEPHE. pp. 131-53
Garlake, P . S . (1969) 'Chiltope: an early iron age village in northern Mashonaland', Amoldia (Rhodesia), IV,
19
Garlake, P . S . (1970a) 'Iron age sites in the Urungwe district of Rhodesia', SAAB, X X V , pp. 25-44
Garlake, P . S . (1970b) 'Rhodesian ruins. A preliminary assessment of their styles and chronology', JAH, X I , 4 ,
pp. 495-513
Garlake, P . S . (1973) Great Zimbabwe (London: Thames and Hudson)
Garstang, J., Sayce, A . H . and Griffith, F . L . (1911) Mené, the City of the Ethiopians: an Account of a First
Season's Excavations on the Site ¡909-10 (Liverpool: University at Liverpool Institute of Archaeology)
Germain, G . (1948) 'Le culte du bélier en Afrique du Nord', Hesperis, X X X V , pp. 93-124
Goodchild, R . G . (1962) Cyrene and Apollonia: an Historical Cuide (Libya: Antiquities Department of Cyrenaica)
G o o d w i n , A . J. H . (1946) 'Prehistoric fishing methods in South Africa', Antiquity, 20, pp. 134-9
Gostynski, T . (1975) "La Libye antique et ses relations avec l'Egypte', BIFAN, 37, 3, pp. 473-588
Grandidier, A . (1885) Histoire de la Géographie de Madagascar (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale)
G r a d e n , B . (1978) Les cultures Kerma; essai de classification, (Lille)
Greenberg, J. H . (1955) Studies in African Linguistic Classification ( N e w Haven, C o n n . : Compass)
Greenberg, J. H . (1972) "Linguistic evidence regarding Bantu origins', JAH, XIII, 2, pp. 189-216
Griffith, F . L . Karanog. The Meroitic Inscriptions of Shablul and Karamog (Philadelphia)
Griffith, F . L . (1911-12) Meroitic Inscriptions, 2 vols (London: Archaeological Survey of Egypt)
Griffith, F . L . (1913) The Nubian Texts of the Christian Period (Berlin: Akedemie der Wissenchaften)
Griffith, F . L . (1921-8) 'Oxford excavations in Nubia', L A A A , VIII, 1; IX, 3-4; X , 3-4; X I , 3-4; XII, 3-4;
XIII, 1-4; X I V , 3-4; X V , 3-4
Griffith, F . L . (1925) 'Pakhoras-Bakharas-Faras in geography and history', JEA, X I , pp. 259-68
Grobbelaar, C . S . and G o o d w i n , A . j . H . (1952) 'Report on the skeletons and implements in association with
them from a cave near Bredasdorp, Cape Province', SAAB, 7, pp. 95-101
Grunderbeek, V a n , M . C , Roche, E . and Doutrelepont, H . (1983) Le premier âge du fer au Rwanda et au
Burundi: Archéologie et environnement (Brussels: I F A Q / C Q S )
Gsell, S. (1913-28) Histoire ancienne de l'Afrique du Nord, 8 vols (Paris: Hachette)
Gsell, S. (1926) 'La Tripolitaine et le Sahara au IHe siècle de notre ère', MAI, XLIII, pp. 149-66
Gnidi, I. (1906) The Life and Miracles of Tekle Haymanot (London) vol. II
Bibliography 403

Guthrie, M . (1962) 'Some developments in the pre-history of the Bantu languages', JAH, 111(2), pp. 273-82
Guthrie, M . (1967-71) Comparative Bantu: an Introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Pre-history of the
Languages, 4 vols (Farnborough: Greeg International)
Guthrie, M . (1970) 'Contributions from comparative Bantu studies to the prehistory of Africa', in D . Dalby (ed.),
Language and History in Africa (London: Frank Cass), pp. 20-49
Hailemarian, G . (1955) 'Objects found in the neighbourhood of A x u m ' , AE, 1, pp. 50-1
Halff, G . (1963) 'L'onomastique punique de Carthage', Karthago, XIII
Hall, M . (1981) Seulement Patterns in the Iron Age of Zululand: an Ecological Interpretation (Oxford: Brit
Archaeological Reports)
Hallo, W . W . and Simpson, W . K . (1971) The Ancient Near East: A History, (New York)
H a m y , E . T . (1969) in G . Parrinder (ed.), African Mythology, 2nd edn (London: Hamlyn)
Harden, D . B . (1963) The Phoenicians, rev. edn (London: Thames and Hudson)
Hartle, D . (1966) 'Bronze objects from the Ifeka gardens site, Ezira', W A A N , 4, p. 26
Harlan, J. R . , W e t , J. M . J. de and Stemler, A . (eds.) (1976) Origins of African Plant Domestication (The Hague:
Mouton; Paris: World Anthropology Series)
Harrii, J. R . (1966) Egyptian Art (London: Spring Books)
Havinden, M . A . (1970) 'The history of crop cultivation in West Africa: a bibliographical guide', E H R , 2nd ser.,
XXIII, 3, pp. 532-55
Haycock, B . G . (1954) 'The kingship of Rush in the Sudan', CSSH, VII, 4, pp. 461-80
Hayes, W . C . (1953-9) The Scepter of Egypt: A Background for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolit
Museum of Art, 2 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press)
Hébert, J. C . (1968a) 'Calendriers provinciaux malgaches', BM, 172, pp. 809-20
Hébert, J. C . (1968b) 'La rose des vents malgaches et les points cardinaux', CM, 2, pp. 159-205
Hébert, J. C . (1971) 'Madagascar et Malagasy, histoire d'un double nom de baptême', BM, 302-3, pp. 583-613
Hellstrom, P . and Langballe, H . (1970). The Rock Drawings, Scandinavian joint expedition to Sudanese Nubia
(Stockholm/New York)
Herzog, R . (1968) in Punt, Proceedings of the German Archaeological Institute of Cairo, 5 (Glückstadt)
Hiernaux, J. (1968a) La Diversité humaine en Afrique subsaharienne (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles,
L'Institut de sociologie)
Hiernaux, J. (1968b) 'Bantu expansion: the evidence from physical anthropology confronted with linguistic and
archaeological evidence', JAH, IX, 4 , pp. 505-15
Hiernaux, J. and Maquet, E . (1957) 'Cultures préhistoriques de l'âge des métaux au Rwanda-Urundi
et au Kivu (Congo Belge)', 1ère partie, ARSC, pp. 1126-49
Hiernaux, J. and Maquet, E . (1960) 'Cultures préhistoriques de l'âge des métaux au Rwanda-
Urundi et au Kivu (Congo Belge)', 2e partie, ARSC, X(2), pp. 5-88
Hiernaux, J., Maquet, E . and Buyst, J. D e (1973) 'Le cimetière protohistorique de Katoto (vallée de
Lualaba, Congo-Kinshasa)', Actes IV Congr. PPQS, pp. 148-58
Hintze, F . (1968) Civilizations of the Old Sudan (Leipzig)
Histoire et Tradition Orale (1975) 'L'Empire du Mali', Actes Coll. Bamako I, Fondation S C O A pour la recherche
fondamentale en Afrique noire
Hobler, P . M . and Hester, J. J. (1969) 'Prehistory and environment in the Libyan desert', South African
Archaeological Journal, 23, 92, pp. 120-30
Holl, A . (1986) 'Transition from Late Stone Age to Iron Age in the Soudano-Sahelian Zone: A case study from the
perichadian plain', presented at the World Archaeological Congress, Southampton, England
Hölscher, W . (1955) 'Libyer und Ägypter, Beiträge zur Ethnologie und Geschichte Libyscher Völkerschaften',
AFU, 5
Hornell, (1934) 'Indonesian influences on East African culture', JRAI
Huard, P . (1966) 'Introduction et diffusion du fer au Tchad' JAH, VII, pp. 377-404
Huard, P . and Leclant, J. (1972) Problèmes archéologiques entre le Nil et la Sahara (Cairo)
Huard, P . and Massip, J. M . (1967) 'Monuments du Sahara nigéro-tchadien', BIFAN, B , pp. 1-27
Huffmann, T . N . (1970) 'The early iron age and the spread of the Bantu', SAAB, X X V , pp. 3-21
Huffinann, T . N . (1971a) ' A guide to the iron age of Mashonaland', OPNM, pp. 20-44
Huffinann, T . N . (1971b) 'Excavations at Leopard's Kopje main Kraal: a preliminary report', SAAB, XXVI,
pp. 85-9
404 Bibliography

Hufimann, T . N . (1973) 'Test excavations at Makuru, Rhodesia', Amoldia, (Rhodesia) V , p. 39

Hnffinann, T . N . (1974) 'Ancient mining and Zimbabwe', JSAIMM, L X X X I V , pp. 238-42
Huffinuin, T . N . (1982) 'Archaeology and ethnohistory of the African Iron A g e ' , Ann. Rev. Anihwp., II,
pp. 133-50
JtkobieUki, S. 'Polish excavations at Old Oongola', Nubische Kunst, pp. 167 ff
Jakobielski, S . (1975a) 'Polish excavations at Old Dongola 1970-72', Actes Coll. Nubiol Intern., pp. 70-5
Jakobielski, S . (1975b) 'Old Dongola 1972-3' Etudes et Travaux, VIII, pp. 349-60
Jakobiebki, S . and Krzyianiak, L . (1967-8) 'Polish excavations at Old Dongola, third season, December
1966-February 1967', Kush, X V , pp. 143-64
Jakobieliki, S. and Ottraza, A . (1967) 'Polish excavations at Old Dongola, second season, December
1965-February 1966', Kush, X V , pp. 125-42
J a m m e , A . (1957) 'Ethiopia. Annales d'Ethiopie', B O , 14, pp. 76-80
Jenkins, G . K . and L c w U , R . B . (1963) Carthaginian Gold and Electrum Coins (London: Royal Numismatic
Society)
Jonei, A . H . M . (1968) 'Frontier defence in Byzantine Libya', Libya in History (Benghazi: University of Benghazi),
pp. 289-97
J o n « , A . H . M . (1969) ' T h e influence of Indonesia: the musicological evidence reconsidered', Azania, IV,
pp. 131-90
J o n « , N . (1933) 'Excavations at Nswatugi and Madiliyangwa', OPNM, I, 2, pp. 1-44
Julien, C . A . (1966) Histoire de l'Afrique du Nord. Tunisie, Algérie, Maroc, de la conquête arabe à 1830 2nd edn
(Paris: Payot)
Julien, C . A . (1975) Histoire de l'Afrique du NonL des origines à la conquête arabe (Paris: Payot)
Julien, G . (1908-9) Institutions Politiques et Sociales de Madagascar d'après des documents authentiques et inédits, 2 vo
(Paris)
Kadra, F . (1978) Les Djedars, monuments funéraires berbères de la région de Farenda (Algiers)
Kanawati, N . (1977) The Egyptian Administration in the Old Kingdom: Evidence on ils Economie Decline (Warminster:
Ans Phillips)
Katznelion, I. S . (1966) 'La Candace et les survivances matrilinéaires au pays de Kush', Palestinshij Sbornik,
X V , 78, pp. 35-40
K e n u e , F . (1985) 'The initial diffusion of iron to Africa', in R . Haaland and P. Shinnie (eds.), African Iron Working
(Oslo: Norwegian University Press), pp. 11-27
Kent, R . (1970) Early Kingdoms in Madagascar, 1500-1700 (New York: Holt, Reinhardt and Winston)
Klapwijk, M . (1973) ' A n Early Iron Age site near Tzaneen, North-Eastern Transvaal', SAJS, L X I X
Klapwijk, M . (1974) ' A preliminary report on pottery from the North-Eastern Transvaal, South Africa', SAAB, 29
Kieran, J. A . and Ogot, B . A . (1968) Zamani a Survey of East African History (Nairobi/London) (rev. edn 1974)
Kirk, W . (1962) 'The North-East Monsoon and some aspects of African history', JAH, III
Kolb, P . (1719) The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope: or a particular account of the several nations of the Hottentots
... with a short account of the Dutch settlements at the Cape, translated by M r Medley (1731), 2 vols. (London: Innys)
Kolendo, J. (1970) 'Epigraphie et archéologie: le praepositus camellorum dans une inscription d'Ostie', Klio,
pp. 287-98
Kolendo, J. (1970) 'L'influence de Carthage sur la civilisation matérielle de R o m e ' , Archeologia, X X I
(Warsaw)
Lambert, N . (1981) 'L'apparition du cuivre dans les civilisations préhistoriques', in C . H . Perrot, Y . Person,
J. P. Chrétien and J. Dévisse (eds.). Le Sol, la Parole et l'Ecrit, Mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny,
Société Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, pp. 214-26
Lance!, S. and Poutkier, L . (1957) 'Première campagne de fouilles à Tigisis', Mélanges de l'école française de
Rome (Rome: Institut Français), pp. 247-53
Lapeyre, G . G . and Pellegrin, A . (1942) Carthage punique (814-146 avant J. C.) (Paris: Payot)
Laut», J. (1956) 'Fouilles a Mila. U n e tour de l'ancienne Byzantine', Libyen, IV, 2, pp. 232-9
Las«», J. (1975) 'La forteresse byzantine de Thamugadi', Actes XIV Congr. Intern. Et. Byz, pp. 463-76
Lauer, J. P . (1974) Le mystère des pyramides (Paris)
L a w , R . C . (1967) 'The Garamantes and trans-Saharan enterprise in classical times', JCH, pp. 181-200
Leclant, J. (1956a) 'Egypte-Afrique, quelques remarques sur la diffusion des monuments égyptiens en
Afrique1, BSFE, 21, pp. 29-41
Leclant, J. (1956b) 'Le fer dans l'Egypte ancienne, le Soudan et l'Afrique', Actes Coll. Intern. Fer., pp. 83-91
Bibliography 405

Leclant, J. (1961) 'Découverte de monuments égyptiens ou égyptisants hors de la vallée

du Nil, 1955-50', Orientalia, 30, pp. 391-406
Leclant, J. (1964-7), ' A u sujet des objets égyptiens découverts en Ethiopie', Orienulia, 33, pp. 388-9;
34, p. 220; 35, p. 165; 36, p. 216
Leclant, J. (1965) 'Le musée des antiquités à Addis-Ababa', BSAC, 16, pp. 86-7
Leclant, J. (1970a) 'L'art chrétien d'Ethiopie. Découvertes récentes et points de vue nouveaux',
in E . Dinkier (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens in christlicher Zeit. Ergebnisse und Probleme au) Crund der jüng
Ausgrabungen (Recklinghausen: Verlag Aurel Bongers), pp. 291-302
Leclant, J. (1970b) 'La religion méroïtique', Histoire des Religions, published under the direction of
M . Brillant and R . Aigrain (Paris: Blond et Guy)
Leclant, J. (1973) 'Glass from the meroitic necropolis of Sedeinga (Sudanese Nubia)' ,JGS, X V , pp. 52-68
Leclant, J. (1976a) 'Koushites et Méroïtes. L'iconographie des souverains africains du Haut Nil antique', in
J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant and F. Snowden (eds.), L'image du noir dans l'art occidental. Vol. I: Des Pharaons à la chute
l'empire romain (Fribourg: Menil Foundation), pp. 89-132
Leclant, J. (1976b) 'L'Egypte, terre d'Afrique dans le monde gréco-romain', L'image du noir dans l'an
occidental. Vol. I (seej. Vercoutter), pp. 269-85
Leclant, J. and Miquel, A . (1959) 'Reconnaissance dans l'Agamé: Goulo-Makeda et Sabéa (Octobre
1955 et Avril 1956)', A E , III, pp. 107-30
Lee, R . B . (1968) ' W h a t hunters do for a living, Qr h o w to make out on scarce resources', in R . B . Lee and 1. D e
Vore, Man the Hunter (Chicago: Aldine Press), pp. 30-48
Lee, R . B . (1972) 'The K u n g bushmen of Botswana', in M . G . Bicchieri (ed.). Hunters and Gatherers Today ( N e w
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston)
Leglay, M . (1966) Saturne africain, histoire (Paris: de Boccard)
Leglay, M . (1967) Saturne africain, monuments, 2 vols. (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques)
Lepelley, C . (1967) 'L'Agriculture africaine au Bas-Empire", A m . Afr., 1, pp. 135-44
Lepelley, C . (1968) 'Saint Léon le Grand et l'église mauritanienne. Primauté romaine et auto-
nomie africaine au V e siècle', Mélanges Ch. Saumagne (Tunis), pp. 189-204
Leichi, L . (1945) 'Mission au Fezzan', Trav. 1RS, pp. 183-6
Levaillant, F . (1970) Voyage de Monsieur le Vaillant dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique par le Cap de Bonne Espéran
dans les années 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 et 85, 2 vols ( N e w York/London: Johnson Reprint) (English translation)
Lewis-Williami, J. D . (1983) The Rock An of Southern Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Levtzion, N . (1973) Ancient Ghana and Mali (London: Methuen)
Lizine, A . (1960) 'Sur la population des villes africaines', A m . Afr., 3, pp. 69-82
Lhote, H . (1954) 'L'Expédition de C . Balbus au Sahara en 19 av. J . C . d'après le texte de Pline', R A ,
pp. 41-83
Lhote, H . (1955) Les Touareg du Hoggar (Ahaggar) 2nd edn (Paris: Payot)
Lhote, H . (1958) The Search for the Tassili Frescoes, translated by A . H . Broderick (1959) (London: Hutchinson)
Lhote, J. (1963) 'Chars rupestres du Sahara', C-RAI, pp. 225-38
Lhote, H . (1967) 'Problèmes sahariens: l'outre, la marmite, le chameau, le délou, l'agriculture, le nègre, le
palmier', BAM, VII, pp. 57-89
Lhote, H . (1970) 'Découverte de chars de guerre en Air", N A , pp. 83-5
Lichtheim, M . Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings: (1973) Vol. 1: The Old and Middle Kingdoms; (1976)
Vol. 11: The New Kingdom; (1980) Vol. Ill: The Late Period (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press)
M a c a d a m , M . F . L . (1949, 1955) The Temples of Kawa. Vol. I: The Inscriptions; Vol. II: History and Archaeolog
of the Site (London: Oxford University Press)
Maclver, D . R . (1906) 'The Rhodesian ruins, their probable origins and significance', GJ, 4 , pp. 325-47
Mclver, D . R . (1906) Mediaeval Rhodesia (London: Frank Cass)
Maclver, D . R . and W o o U e y , C . L . (1911) Buhen (Philadelphia, Pa.: University Museum), 2 vols
Mclntosh, R . J. and S. K . (1984) 'Early Iron Age economy in the Inland Niger Delta (Mali)', in J. D . Clark and
S. A . Brandt (eds.), From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa (Berkeley,
Calif. : University of California Press)
McMaiter, D . N . (1966) 'The ocean-going d h o w trade to East Africa', E A G R , 4 , pp. 13-24
Maingnard, L . F . (1931) 'The lost tribes of the Cape', SAJS. 28, pp. 487-504
Maître, J. P . (1966) 'Etat des recherches sur le Néolithique de PAhaggar", Trav. 1RS. pp. 95-104
Maître, J. P . (1971) Contribution à la préhistoire de l'Ahaggar (Paris: A M G )
406 Bibliography
Maître, J. P . (1976) 'Contribution a la préhistoire récente de l'Ahaggar dans son contexte saharien',
BIFAN, 38, pp. 759-83
Mahjoubi, A . (n.d.) Les Cités romaines de la Tunisie (Tunis)
Mahjoabi, A . , Ennabi, A . and Salomonioa, J. W . (1970) La Nécropole de Raqqada (Tunis)
Marliac, A . (1973) 'Etat des connaissances sur le Paléolithique et le Néolithique du Cameroun-
Yaoundé', O R S T O M (Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer), roneo
Matón, R . J. (1973) 'First early iron age settlement in South Africa: Broederstroom 24-73, Brits District,
Transvaal1, SAJS, L X I X , pp. 324-5
Maton, R . J. (1974) 'Background to the Transvaal iron age discoveries at Olifantspoort and Broederstroom',
JSAIMM, L X X X X I V , 6, pp. 211-16
M a t h e w , G . (1963) 'The East African coast until the coming of the Portuguese', in R . A . Oliver and G . Mathew
(eds.), History of East Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press), vol. I
M a t h e w , G . (1975) 'The dating and significance of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea', in R . I. Rotberg and H . N .
Chittick (eds.). East Africa and the Orient (New York/London: Africana Publishing)
M a n n y , R . (1952) 'Essai sur l'histoire des métaux en Afrique occidentale', BIFAN, X I V , pp. 545-95
M a n n y , R . (1954) 'Gravures, peintures et inscriptions de l'ouest Africain', BIFAN, XI
M a u n y , R . (1956) 'Monnaies antiques trouvées en Afrique au sud du Limes romain', Libyen, pp. 249-61
M a u n y , R . (1960) Les Navigations médiévales sur les cites sahariennes antérieures à la découverte portugais
(Lisbon)
M a n n y , R . (1970) Les Siècles obscurs de l'Afrique Noire (Paris: Fayard)
Meillauonx, C . (1960) 'Essai d'interprétation du phénomène économique dans les sociétés traditionnelles d'auto-
subsistance', C E A , 4 , pp. 38-67
Mekouria, T . T . (1967) L'Eglise d'Ethiopie (Paris)
Mellaart, J. (1979) 'Egyptian and Near-Eastern chronology: a dilemma?' Antiquity, 53, pp. 6-18
Mellis, J. V . (1938) Nord et nord-ouest de Madagascar. 'VoUmena et Volafotsy' suivi d'un vocabulaire du nord-ouest
expliqué, commenté et comparé au Merina (Tananarive: Pitot de la Beaujardière)
Mendeleuohn, K . (1974) The Riddle of the Pyramids (London)
Meyerowitz, E . L . R . (1960) The Divine Kingship in Ghana and Ancient Egypt (London: Faber and Faber)
Michalowtki, K . (1962) Faros: Fouilles Polonaises (Warsaw: Polish Academy of Science)
Michalowtki, K . (1965a) 'La Nubie chrétienne', A B , 3, pp. 9-25
Michalowiki, K . (1965b) 'Polish excavations at Faras, fourth season, 1963-64', Kush, XIII, pp. 177-89
Michalowiki, K . (1966a) 'Polish excavations at Old Dongola: first season (November-December 1964)', Kush,
X I V , pp. 289-99
Michalowlki, K . (1966b) Faras, centre artistique de la Nubie chrétienne (Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor her
Nabije Oosten)
Michalowtki, K . (1967) Faras, die Kathedrale aus den Wüstensand (Einsiedeln/Zurich/Cologne: Benziger Verlag)
Michalowtki, K . (1970) 'Open problems of Nubian art and culture in the light of the discoveries at Faras', in E .
Dinkier (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens in Chrislicher Zeit. Ergebnisse und Probleme auf Grund der jüngsten
Ausgrabungen (Recklinghausen: Verlag Aurel Bongers)
Michalowtki, K . (ed.) (1975) 'Nubia, récentes recherches', Actes Coll. Nubiol. Intern.
Miller, S. F . (1969) 'Contacts between the later stone age and the early iron age in southern central Africa', Azania,
4, pp. 81-90
Miller, S. F . (1971) 'The age of Nachikufan industry in Zambia', SAAB, 26, pp. 143-6
MiUi, E . A . C . and Fihner, N . T . (1972) 'Chondwe iron age site, Ndola. Zambia', Azania, VII, pp. 129-47
M o o n e l , P . V a n (1972) 'Gli scavi olanolesi in Nubia', Actas VIH Congr. Intern. Argueo. Crist', pp. 349-95
Morel, J. P . (1968) 'Céramique a vernis noir du Maroc', A m . Afr, 2 , and 'Céramique d'Hippone',
BAA, I, 1962-5
Mori, F . (1964) 'Some aspects of the rock art of the Acacus (Fezzan, Sahara) and dating regarding it', in L . Pericot
Garcia and E . Ripoll Parello (eds.), Wartenstein Symposium on Rock Art of the Western Mediterranean and the Sahara:
Prehistoric Art of the Western Mediterranean and the Sahara. (New York: subscribers edn distributed through Current
Anthropology for the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research), pp. 247-59
Mori, F . (1972) Rock Art of the Tadrart Acacus (Graz)
Mortelmant, G . (1957) 'La préhistoire du C o n g o Belge', R U B , 2-3
M n m o n , P . J. (1967) ' A survey of the Neolithic villages of Dhar Tichitt (Mauretania) and some comments on the
grain impressions found on the Tichitt pottery'. Actes VI Congr, PPQS
Bibliography 407

Muntern, P . J. (1968) 'Recent archaeological research in the Dhar Tichitt of south central Mauretania', W A A N ,
10, pp. 6-13
M a n t ó n , P . J. (1969) 'Engravings of ox-drawn chariots', N A , 122, pp. 62-3
M u m o n , P . J. (1970) 'Corrections and additional comments concerning the Tichitt Tradition', W A A N , 12,
pp. 47-8
M o n t ó n , P . J. (1972) 'Archaeological data on the origin of cultivation in the south-western Sahara and its
implications for west Africa', B W S , 56
M u r d o c k , G . P . (1959) Africa: Its Peoples and Their Culture History (New York: M c G r a w Hill)
M u r n a n e , W . J. (1977) Ancient Egyptian Coregencies (Chicago)
Muzzolini, A . (1986) L'art rupestre préhistorique ¿es massifs centraux sahariens (Oxford: B A R )
Nenquin, J. (1959) 'Dimple-based pots from Kasai, Belgian Congo', Man, 59, 242, pp. 153-5
Nenquin, J. (1961) 'Protohistorische Metaaltechniek in Katanga', AfricaTervuren, VII, 4 , pp. 97-101
Nenquin, J. (1963) 'Excavations at Sanga, 1957. The protohistoric necropolis', A M R A C , 45
Noten, F . V a n (1968) 'The Uelian. A culture with a Neolithic aspect, Uele Basin ( N E Congo Republic)',
AMRAC, 64
Noten, F . V a n (1972a) 'Les tombes du roi Cyirima Rujugira et de la reine-mère Nyirayuhi Kanjogera', A M R A C ,
77
Noten, F . V a n (1972b) 'La plus ancienne sculpture sur bois de l'Afrique centrale', Africa-Tervuren, XVIII, 3-4,
pp. 133-5
Noten, V a n , F . (1982) The Archaeology of Central Africa (Graz: Akademische Druck-V Verlagsanstaft)
O b e n g a , T . (1973) L'Afrique dans l'antiquité - Egypte pharaonique - Afrique noire (Paris: Présence Africaine)
O ' C o n n o r , D . B . (1971) 'Ancient Egypt and Black Africa- early contacts', Expedition, 14, pp. 15-38
Odner, K . (1971) ' A preliminary report of an archaeological survey on the slopes of Kilimanjaro', Azania, V I ,
pp. 131-50
Ogot, B . A . and Kieran, J. A . (eds.) (1974) Zamani: A Survey of the East African History (Nairobi/London: East
African Publishing House/Longmans)
Oliver, R . A . and Fagan, B . M . (1975) Africa in the Iron Age, c.500 BC to A D 1400 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press)
Oliver, R . A . and M a thew, G . (eds.) (1963) Oxford History of East Africa (London: Oxford University Press)
Painter, C . (1966) 'The Guang and West African historical reconstruction', C N Q , 9, pp. 58-66
Palmer, J. A . B . (1947) 'Periplus Mari Erythraei; the Indian evidence as to its date', C Q , X L I , pp. 136-41
Pankhunt, R . K . P . (1961) An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia from early times to 1800 (Lon
Lalibela House)
Parkington, J. E . and Pöggenpoel, C . (1971) 'Excavations at D e Hangen 1968', SAAB, 26, pp. 3-36
Patenon, W . (1789) A Narrative of Four Journeys into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffraria, in the Years
1778, 1779 (London)
Perret, R . (1936) 'Recherches archéologiques et ethnographiques au Tassili des Ajjets', JSA, 6, pp. 50-1
Pflaum, H . G . (1957) ' A propos de la date de la création de la province de Numidie', Libyca, pp. 61-75
PhiUipfon, D . W . (1968a) 'The early iron age in Zambia - regional variants and some tentative conclusions', JAH,
IX, 2, pp. 191-214
Phillipton, D . W . (1968b) 'The early iron age at Kapwirimbwe, Lusaka', Azania, III, pp. 87-105
Phillipton, D . W . (1969) 'Early iron-using peoples of southern Africa', in L . Thompson (ed.), African Societies in
Southern Africa (London: Heinemann), pp. 24-49
Phillipton, D . W . (1970) 'Excavations at Twickenham Road, Lusaka', Azania, V , pp. 77-118
Phillipton, D . W . (1971) ' A n early iron age site on the Lubusiriver,Kaoma district, Zambia', ZMJ, II, pp. 51-7
Phillipton, D . W . (1972a) Prehistoric Rock Paintings and Engravings of Zambia (Livingstone, Zambia: Exhibitio
catalogue of Livingstone Museum)
Phillipton, D . W . (1972b) 'Early iron age sites on the Zambian copperbelt', Azania, VII, pp. 93-128
Phillipton, D . W . (1973) ' T h e prehistoric succession in eastern Zambia: a preliminary report', Azania, VIII,
pp. 3-24
Phillipton, D . W . (1974) 'Iron Age history and archaeology in Zambia', JAH, X V , pp. 1-25
Phillipton, D . W . (1975) 'The chronology of the iron age in Bantu Africa', JAH, X V I , pp. 321-42
Phillipton, D . W . (1977) The Later Prehistory of Eastern and Southern Africa (London: Heinemann)
Phillipton, D . W . (1985) African Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Pirenne, J. (1965) 'Arte Sabeo d'Etiopia', Encyclopedia Jell'arte arnica (Rome), vol. VI, pp. 1044-8
408 Bibliography

Pircnne, J. (1967) 'Haoulti et ses monuments. Nouvelle interprétation', AE, 7, pp. 125-33
Poirier, C . (1954) 'Terre d'Islam en mer malgache', B A M , cinquantenaire, pp. 71-115
Poirier, C . (1965) 'Données écologiques et démographiques de la mise en place des proto-
malgaches', Taloha (Tananarive), pp. 61-2
Pommerct, Y . (1965) Civilisations préhistoriques au Gabon. Vallée du Moyen Ogooné, 2 vols (Libreville:
Centre culturel (raneáis St. Exupéry), vol. II 'Notes préliminaires a propos du gisement lupembien et
néolithique de Ndjole'
Pons, A . and Quézel, P . (1957) 'Première étude palynologique de quelques paléosols sahariens',
Trav. 1RS, 16, 2, pp. 27-35
Portèret, A . (1962) 'Berceaux agricoles primaires sur le continent africain', JAH, 3, 2, pp. 195-210
Pouansky, M . (1966) 'The origin of agriculture and iron-working in southern Africa', in M . Posnansky (ed.),
Prelude to East African History (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 82-94
Potnuuky, M . (1967) 'The iron age in east Africa', in W . W . Bishop and J. D . Clark (eds.), Background to
Evolution in Africa (London/Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 629-49
P o m u u k y , M . (1969) ' Y a m s and the origins of west African agriculture', Odu, I, pp. 101-7
Potntntky, M . (1969-70) 'Discovering Ghana's past'. Annual Museum Lectures, p. 20
Posnamky, M . (1971) 'Ghana and the origins of west African Trade', A Q , X I , pp. 110-25
Poinaniky, M . (1972a) 'Archaeology, ritual and religion', in T . O . Ranger and I. Kimambo (eds.). The Historical
Study of African Religion: wilU special reference to East and Central Africa (London: Heinemann), pp. 29-44
Potnuuky, M . (1972b) 'Terminology in the early iron age of east Africa with particular reference to the
dimple-based wares of Lolui island, Uganda', Actes VI Congr. PPQS, pp. 577-9
P o m u u k y , M . (1973a) 'Aspects of early west African trade', W A , 5, pp. 149-62
Potnuuky, M . (1973b) 'Review of T . Shaw, "Igbo U k w u " ', Archaeology, 25, 4, pp. 309-11
Préaux, C . (1943) 'Les Egyptiens dans la civilisation hellénistique d'Egypte', Chronique d'Egypte, XVIII,
pp. 148-60
Préaux, C . (1950) 'La singularité -de l'Egypte dans le monde gréco-romain', Chronique d'Egypte,
X X V , pp. 110-23
Préaux, C . (1952) 'Sur la communication de l'Ethiopie avec l'Egypte hellénistique', Chronique d'Egypte,
X X V I I , pp. 257-81
Rahtz, P . A . and Flight, C . (1974) ' A quern factory near Kintampo, Ghana', WAJA, 4 , pp. 1-31
Rebufiat, R . (1969-70) 'Zella et les routes d'Egypte', Libya Antiqua (Tripoli), VI-VII, pp. 181-7
Rebufftt, R . (1970) 'Route d'Egypte et de la Libye intérieure', SM, 3, pp. 1-20
Rebufiat, R . (1972) 'Nouvelles recherches dans le sud de la Tripolitaine', C-RAI, pp. 319-39
Rebufiat, R . (1974) 'Vestiges antiques sur la cote occidentale de l'Egypte au sud de Rabat', American Anthropologist,
VIII, pp. 25-49
Rebnfiat, R . (1975) 'Trois nouvelles campagnes dans le sud de la Tripolitaine', C-RAI, pp. 495-505
Reiiner, G . A . (1910) The Archaeological Survey of Nubia. Report for 1907, 1908 (Cairo: National Printing
Department), vol. I
Reimer, G . A . (1918) 'The Barkal temples on 1916',JEA, V
Reimer, G . A . (1918-19) 'Outline of the ancient history of the Sudan', SNR, 1, pp. 3-15, 57-79, 217-37; II,
pp. 35-67
Reiiner, G . A . (1923a) Excavations at Kerma (Cambridge, Mass.: H A S ) , vols. V and VI
Reiner, G . A . (1923b) 'The meroitic Kingdom of Ethiopia: a chronological outline', JEA, 9, pp. 33-77
Reiiner, G . A . (1929) 'Excavations at Simna and Uronarti by the Harvard Boston expedition', SNR, XII,
pp. 143-61
Reisner, G . A . (1931) 'Inscribed monuments from Gebel Barkal', ZÄS, 66, p. 100
Reutch, R . (1961) History of East Africa (New York: Ungar)
Reygasse, M . (1950) Monuments funéraires préislamiques de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris: Arts et métiers
graphiques)
Reynold«, V . (1967) The Apes: the Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan and Gibbon, their History and their World (New
York: Dutton)
Riavi, S. A . (1967) 'Zanj: itsfirstknown use in Arabic literature', Azania, II, pp. 200-1
Ricci, L . (1955-8) 'Retrovamenti archeologici in Eritrea', RSE, 14, pp. 51-63
Robert!, A . D . (1974) 'Precolonial trade in Zambia', ASR, 10, p. 720
Robertihaw, P . (1984) 'The archaeology in Eastern Africa: recent development and more dates', JAH, 25,
pp. 369-93
Bibliography 409

Robineau, C . (1966) ' U n e étude d'histoire culturelle de l'île d'Anjouan', R H , 35, pp. 17-34
Robinson, E . S. G . (1956) 'The Libyan hoard', Numismatic Chronicle, L V I , p. 94
Robiiuon, K . R . (1961a) Archaeological Report in Rhodesia» Schoolboys' Exploration Society Expedition to Buffa
(Salisbury)
Robiiuon, K . R . (1961b) ' A n early iron age site (rom the Chibi district, Southern Rhodesia', SAAB, X V I ,
pp. 75-102
Robiiuon, K . R . (1963) 'Further excavations in the iron age deposits at the tunnel site, Gokomere Hill, Southern
Rhodesia', SAAB, XVIII, pp. 155-71
R o b i m o n , K . R . (1966a) 'The Sinoia caves, Lomagundi district, Rhodesia', Proceedings of the Rhodesian Science
Association, LI, pp. 131-55
Robiiuon, K . R . (1966b) 'The Leopard's Kopje culture: its position in the iron age in Southern Rhodesia', SAAB,
21, pp. 81-5
Robinson, K . R . (1966c) ' A preliminary report on the recent archaeology of Ngonde, northern Malawi', JAH,
VII, pp. 169-88
Robinton, K . R . (1966d) 'The iron age in Southern Rhodesia', SAAB, X X I , pp. 5-51
Robinson, K . R . (1970) 'The iron age in the southern lake area of Malawi', MADP, 8
R o b i m o n , K . R . (1973) 'The iron age of the upper and lower Shire Malawi', MADP, 13
Robinson, K . R . and Sandelowtky, B . (1968) 'The iron age in northern Malawi: recent work', Azania, III,
pp. 107^6
Rosenbaum, E . (1960) A Catalogue of Cyrenaican Portrait Sculpture (London: Oxford University Press)
Rotberg, R . T . and Chittick, H . N . (eds.) (1975) East Africa and the Orient (New York/London: Africana
Publishing)
R o w c , A . (1948) ' A history of ancient Cyrenaica. N e w light on Aegypto-Cyrenaean relations. T w o Ptolemaic
statues found in Tolmeita', SASAE, Cah. no. 12. Report by J. Leclant in REA, 52, 1-2, pp. 337-9
Rndner, J. (1968) 'Strandloper pottery from south and south-west Africa', A S A M , 49, pp. 441-663
Salami, P . (1954) 'L'occupation de la Mauritanie césarienne sous le Bas-Empire', Mélanges Piganiol,
pp. 1292-311
Salama, P . (1973) Un point d'eau du limes mauritanien (Maghreb et Sahara), Etudes géographiques offertes à
Despois (Paris: Société de Géographie)
Salama, P . (1976) 'Les déplacements successifs du Limes en Mauritanie césarienne. Essai de
synthèse', Akten XI Intern. Limeskong, pp. 577-95
S a m p s o n , C . G . (1974) The Stone Age Archaeology of Southern Africa (New York: Academic Press)
Säve-Söderbergh, T . (1963) 'Preliminary report of the Scandinavian joint expedition: archaeological investiga-
tions between Faras and Gemai, November 1962-March 1963', Kush, 12, pp. 19-39
Säve-Söderbergh, T . (1965) The C-Group, Nubia Abu Simbel (Stockholm: Kungl. Boktreycheriet, P. A .
Norstedt Soner)
Säve-Söderbergh, T . (1970) 'Christian Nubia, the excavations carried out by the Scandinavian joint expedition
to Sudanese Nubia', in E . Dinkier (ed.), Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens in christlicher Zeit. Ergebnisse und Probleme
Grund der jüngsten Ausgrabungen (Recklinghausen: Verlag Aurel Bongers), pp. 219-44
Sayce, A . H . (1909) ' A Greek inscription of a king of A x u m found at Mercoe', Proceedings of the Society of Biblical
Archaeology, X X X I , London
Sayce, A . H . (1911) 'Second interim report on the excavations at Meroe in Ethiopia II. The historical results',
LAAA, IV, pp. 53-65
Schapera, I. (1930) The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa: Bushmen and Hottentots (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul)
(2nd edn, 1951)
Schapera, I. (1933) The Early Cape Hottentots described in the fVritings ofOlfert Dappe, 1668, Willem Ten Rhyne (16S6
and Johannes Guliemus de Grevenbroek (1695) (Cape T o w n : Van Riebeeck Society) (2nd edn, 1951)
Schneider, R . (1965a) 'Notes épigraphiques sur les découvertes de Matara', A E , 6, pp. 89-142
Schneider, R . (1965b) 'Remarques sur les inscriptions d'Enda Cerqos', A E , 6, pp. 221-2
Schneider, R . (1974) 'Trois nouvelles inscriptions royales d ' A x o u m ' , Atti IV Congr. Intern. Stud. Et., I. pp. 87-102
Schonback, B . (1965) The Late Stone Age and the A-Croup, Nubia Abu Simbel (Stockholm: Kungl.; Boktryekeriet,
P. A . Norstedt Stoner)
Schweitzer, F . R . (1970) ' A preliminary report of excavation of a cave at Die Kelders', SAAB, 25, pp. 136-8
Schweitzer, F . R . and Scott, K . (1973) 'Early appearance of domestic sheep in subsanaran Africa', Nature, 241,
pp. 547-8
410 Bibliography

Scrgew Hable Selassie (1972) Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270 (Addis Ababa: United Printers)
Shackleton, N . J. (1973) 'Oxygen isotope analysis as a means of determining season of occupation of prehistoric
midden sites', Archaeometry, 15, 1, pp. 133-41
Shahid, I. (1971) 'The martyrs of Nagran, n e w documents', Société des Bollándoles (Brussels), pp. 242-76
S h a w , T . (1969) 'The late stone age in the Nigerian forest', Actes 1er Coll. Intern. Archéol. Afr., pp. 364-73
S h a w , T . (1970) Igbo-Ukwu: an Account of Archaeological Discoveries in Eastern Nigeria, 2 vols. (London: Faber, for the
Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan)
S h a w , T . (1971) 'Africa in prehistory; leader or laggard?',JAH, XII, I, pp. 143-53
S h a w , T . (1972) 'Early crops in Africa: a review of evidence', B W S , 56
Shinnie, P . L . (1971) ' T h e legacy to Africa', in J. R . Harris (ed.) The Legacy of Egypt (Oxford: Clarendon Press),
pp. 434-55
Slim, H . , Mahjoubi A . and Belkodja, K h (n.d.) Histoire de la Tunisie, vol. I: L'Antiquité (Tunis)
Smith, A . B . (1974) 'Preliminary report on excavations at Karkarichinkat north and south, Tilemsi valley, 1972',
WAJA, 4. pp. 33-55
Smith, H . S. (1966) 'The Nubian B-group', Kush, 14, pp. 69-124
Smith, H . S . (1976) The Fortress of Buhen: the Inscriptions (London: Egypt Exploration Society)
Smith, W . S . (1965) The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books)
Smith, W . S . C . (1981) The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, revised with additions by W . K . Simpson
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books)
Smits, L . (1967) 'Fishing scenes from Botsabelo, Lesotho', SAAB, 22, pp. 60-7
S n o w d e n , F . M . Jnr (1970) Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press)
Solheim, W . (1965) 'Indonesian culture and Malagasy origins', Taloha (Tananarive), I, pp. 33-42
Soper, R . C . (1967a) 'Kwale: an early iron age site in south eastern Kenya', Azania, II, pp. 1-17
Soper, R . C . (1967b) 'Iron age sites in north eastern Tanzania', Azania, II, pp. 19-36
Soper, R . C . (1971) ' A general review of the early iron age in the southern half of Africa', Azania, VI, pp. 5-37
Souville, G . (1958-9) 'La piche et la vie maritime au Néolithique en Afrique du Nord', BAM, II,
pp. 315-44
Spencer, J. E . (1968) 'Comments on the origins of agriculture in Africa', C A . 9, 5, 501-2
Sprnytte, J. (1968) 'Le cheval de l'Afrique ancienne'. Le Saharien, 48, pp. 32-42
Sprnytte, J. (1977) Etudes expérimentales sur l'attelage (Paris: Crepin-Leblond)
Stahl, A . B . (1985) 'Re-investigation of Kintampo, a rock shelter. Ghana: implications for the nature of culture
change', African Archaeology Review, 3, pp. 117-50
S u m m e n , R . F . H . (1958) Inyanga. Prehistoric Settlements in Southern Rhodesia (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press)
S n m m e r s , R . F . H . (1969) 'Ancient mining in Rhodesia', Mining Magazine, 3 (Salisbury)
S u m m e r s , R . F . H . , Robiason, K . R . and Whitty, A . (1961) 'Zimbabwe-excavations', OPNM, III, 23a
Sutton, J. E . G . (1966) ' T h e archaeology and early peoples of the highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania',
Azania, I, pp. 37-57
Sutton, J. E . G . (1971) ' T h e interior of east Africa', in P. L . Shinnie (ed.), The African Iron Age (Oxford:
Clarendon Press)
Sutton, J. E . G . (1973) The Archaeology of the Western Highlands of Kenya (Nairobi/London: British Institute of
Eastern Africa)
Sutton, J. E . G . (1974) ' T h e aquatic civilisation of middle Africa', JAH, X V , pp. 527-46
Sutton, J. E . G . (1985) 'Temporal and spatial variability in African iron furnaces', in R . Haaland and P. Shinnie
(eds.), African ¡ron Working (Ancient and Traditional (Oslo: Norwegian University Press), pp. 164-96
Tamrat, T . (1972) Church and State in Ethiopia 1270-1527 (Oxford: Clarendon Press)
Trigger, B . G . (1965) History and Settlements in Lower Nubia ( N e w Haven, Conn.: Yale University Publications in
Anthropology no. 69)
Trigger, B . G . (1969) ' T h e myth of Meroe and the African iron age', IJAHS, II, 1, pp. 23-50
Trigger, B . G . , K e m p , B . J., O'Connor, D . B . and Lloyd, A . B . (1983) Ancient Egypt: A Social History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Turcan, R . (1961) 'Trésors monétaires trouvés à Tipasa. La circulation du bronze en Afrique
romaine et vandale aux V e et Vie siècles ap. J . C , Libyca, pp. 201-57
Twiaielmann, F . (1958) 'Les ossements humains du site mésolithique d'Ishango', Exploration du Parc national
Bibliography 411
Albert, Mission J. de Herzelin Je Braucourl (1950), facsimile 5 (Brussels)
Tylecotte, R . F . (1970) iron working at Meroe, Sudan', BHM, 4, pp. 67-72
Unesco (1963-7) Fouilles de Nubie (Cairo)
Vaal, J. B . (1943) in Soutpansbergse Zimbabwe', SAJS, X L , pp. 303-18
Vandersleyen, C . (éd.) (1975) Das Alle Ägypten (Berlin)
V a m i n a , J. (1962) 'Long-distance trade routes in central Africa', JAH, III, 3, pp. 375-90
V a m i n a , J. (1966) Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press)
V a m i n a , J. (1984) 'Western Bantu expansion', JAH, 25, pp. 129-45
Vantini, J. (1970) The Excavations at Faras: a contribution to the History of Christian Nubia (Bologna: Nigriza)
Vercoutter, J. (1958) 'Excavations at Sai 1955-57', Kush, VI, pp. 144-69
Vercoutter, J. (1959) 'The gold of Kush. T w o gold-washing stations at Faras East', Kush, VII, pp. 120-53
Vercoutter, J. (1964) 'Excavations at Mirgissa I (October-December 1962)', Kush, XII, pp. 57-62
Vercoutter, J. (1976) L'Egypte ancienne, no. 247 (Paris: P U F )
Villien, A . (1949) 'Some aspects of the D h o w trade", MEJ, pp. 399-416
Vinnicombe, P . (1965) 'Bushmen fishing as depicted in rock paintings', Science South Africa, 212, pp. 578-81
Vita, A . di (1964) il limes romano de Tripolitania nella sua concretezza archeologica e nella sua realta storica', Libya
antiqua (Tripoli), pp. 65-98
Vogel, J. O . (1969) ' O n early evidence of agriculture in southern Zambia', C A , X , p. 524
Vogel, J. O . (1970) 'The Kalomo culture of southern Zambia: some notes towards a reassessment', ZMJ, I,
pp. 77-88
Vogel, J. O . (1972) ' O n early iron age funerary practice in southern Zambia', C A , XIII, pp. 583-8
Vogel, J. O . (1973) 'The early iron age at Sioma mission western Zambia', ZMJ, IV
Vychichl, W . (1961) 'Berber words in Nubian', Kush, 9, pp. 289-90
Wainwright, G . A . (1947) 'Early foreign trade in East Africa', Man, XLVII, pp. 143-8
Wainwright, G . A . (1951) 'The Egyptian origin of a ram-headed breastplate from Lagos', Man, LI, pp. 133-5
Wainwright, G . A . (1962) 'The Meshwesh', JEA, 48, pp. 89-99
W a U h , P . (1965) 'Masinissa', JRS. L V
W a r m i n g t o n , B . H . (1954) The North African Provinces from Diocletian to the Vandal Conquest (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press)
W a r m i n g t o n , E . H . (1963) 'Africa in ancient and medieval times', in E . A . Walker (ed.), Cambridge History of the
British Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), vol. VIII
W a r m i n g t o n , B . H . (1964) Carthage (rev. edn, 1969) (London: Robert Hale)
W e e k s , K . (ed.) (1979) Egyptology and the Social Sciences: Five Studies (Cairo)
W e i t z m a n n , K . (1970) 'Some remarks on the sources of the fresco paintings of the cathedral of Faras', in E .
Dinkier (ed.), Kunst und Ceschichle Nubiens in christlicher Zeit, Ergebnisse und Probleme auf Grund der jüngs
Ausgrabungen (Recklinghausen: Verlag Aurel Bongers), pp. 325-46
W e n d t , W . E . (1972) 'Preliminary report on an archaeological research programme in south-west Africa',
Cimbehasia B , 2, 1, pp. 1-45
W e n i g , S. (1978) Africa in Antiquity: Vol. II, The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan (The Catalogue, The Brooklyn
Museum), N e w York
Wille«, F . (1967) Ife in the History of West African Sculpture (London: Thames and Hudson)
Williams, B . (1980) 'The lost pharaohs of Nubia', Archaeology, 33, pp. 12-21
Williams, D . (1969) 'African iron and the classical world', in L . A . Thompson and J. Ferguson (cds.), Africa in
Classical Antiquity (Ibadan: Ibadan University Press), pp. 62-80
Wilson, J. A . (1951) The Burden of Egypt. An Interpretation of Ancient Egyptian Culture (Chicago: University o
Chicago Press)
Woldering, I. (1963) Egypt, the Art of Pharaohs, translated by A . E . Keep (London: Methuen)
Yoyotte, J. (1958) 'Anthroponymes d'origine libyenne dans les documents égyptiens', C - R C L C S , 8, 4
Zabkar, L . V . (1975) Apedemak, Lion Cod of Meroe: A Study in Egyptian Meroitic Syncretism (Warminster: Aris and
Phillips)
 Index

Abalessa, 290, 291, 292 Africa, sub-Saharan: agriculture, Algeria, 236, 238, 288, 289
Abba Ym'ata, 229 299-300; archaeology, 296-7; Alodia. 186,187
•Abdallah Nirki, 189,191 contact with North Africa, Altaya, 284
Abizar, 242 303-5; early iron age, 383-9; Amanishakheto, 167,168,169
Abu Hamid. 147,156 emergence of states, 388; Amani-nete-yerike, 172-3
AbuSimbel, 76,158,170 iron-working, 296,300-3; Amanitere, 168,177
Abusii, 64 languages, 297-9, 300; Amannoteyerike, 165
Abydos, 4,63; temples, 47, 76 population, 387; relations with Amara, 168,177; West, 157
Achules Tatius, 26, 38 Egypt, 12-14,90-102,142-7; Amasis, 84
Addi-Dahno, 203 religion, 388, 389 A m d e Tsion, 224
Addi Galamo, 194,195,196,197, Africa, West, 297, 300, 301, 303, Amenemhet I, 69, 71,152
198,199, 200 305; crops, 325-7, 331; early iron Amenemhet II, 71
AddiGramaten, 197,199 age, 333-7; languages, 298; Amenemhet III, 71
Adulis, 192.195, 202, 203, 204, Neolithic period, 325-33, 328; Amenhophis 1,17
205-6, 207, 209, 213, 216. 217, prehistoric trade, 337-8 Amenhotep I, 73, 84
219,311,312 Africa Minor, 237, 238, 240, 241, Amenhotep II, 73,157
Aeschylus, 26, 38 243 Amenhotep III, 73,84,115,157,
Africa: impact of environment, 2-3, Agatharchides, 125 159
9; language similarities, 28-31, A g a w . 218 Amenhotep IV, 114,157
32,40-1,54-5,57-61; Agisymba, 274, 287, 288 Amenophis, see Amenhotep
population, 2 agriculture, 79-80,178-9, 269-70, Ameny, 152
Africa, Central, 340, 342; iron age, 278, 296-7, 325-7, 331 Amhara, 228, 231, 234-5
343-50; stone age, 339-43 Ahaggar, 288, 290, 291 Ammaedra, 262, 273
Africa, East, 321; aquatic culture, Ahhotep, 84 Ammianus Marcellinus, 26, 38
316-17; coins, 307-8, 310, 312; Ahmose I (Amosis), 73, 98,156 A m m o n i u m (Siwa), 44, 91,121,
hunter-gatherers, 313,315; Ahmose, Admiral, 156 127, 240, 293
Kushitic pastoral tradition, Ahmosis Nefertari (Ahmes-Nefertari, A m o n , 45, 75, 77,83, 84, 87,98,
317-19; languages, 313,314, 315, Ahmose-Nofretari), 17, 84 102,157,161,162,163,164
317; maritime trade, 306-12; Akan, 90,102 Amosis, see Ahmose I
megalithic cultures, 323-4 Akhenaton (form. Amenhotep IV), Ampsagariver,264, 265
Africa, North: Byzantine period, 73, 74, 75, 87,157 Amratian period (Nagada I), 10-11
282-3; contact with Sudank belt, Akhot Aton, 75 A m u n temples, 183
303-5; independent regions, Al-Kab, 141 Amyrtaios, 78
283-5; R o m a n period, 261-80; Alexander the Great, 8, 63, 78,119, anchorites, 139
Vandal conquest, 281-2 121,127. 224, 235, 255 Angola. 348, 357, 365, 371
Africa, southern: iron age, 362-72, Alexandria, 107,119,120-4.126, Aniba. 95
363,366, metal-working, 369-70; 128,189,191, 226, 229, 232; animals: domestication, 325,326-7;
prehistoric settlement, 297, Library of, 4,123; Lighthouse, wild, 291. 293
351-2, 360-1; rock art, 354, 355, 121,122,123; R o m a n , 131,132, Anlamani, 164,173,174
356, 361 133-4,135,138,139 Anne ofFaras. St., 190,191
412
Index 413

AntaUotse, 382 Atlanarsa, 164 Buddhism, 222, 375

Antef, 152 Aton, 73, 75, 157 Buhen, 94,95,142,149,152,153,
anthropology, 34, 37, 38, 50-2, 56 Augustine, Saint, 279 154, 156; temple, 156,157
Antinopolis, 134 Augustus, 131,141,167, 259, 262, Bulawayo, 368
Antiochus III, 131 264, 268, 270, 273, 274 burial practices, 88-9,148,154-5,
Antoninus Pius, 134,137 Aurelian, 136 344-6, 348, 388
Antsary, 381 Avaris (Hat-Wret), 71 Burkina Faso, 34, 301, 330, 331,
Antsoheribory, 379 Awka, 334 335, 336
Anu, 17, 47 A x u m , 170,186,192,193. 203-13, Burundi, 339, 343, 347
Anza, 208 392; architecture, 207-8, 212, Bushmen, 39, 351
Apedemak. 168,182, 183 219, 221, 223; art, 210, 211; city Butana, 163,179
ApoUodorus, 21,38 of, 204-5, 207, 213; language, Byblos, 60, 82, 246
ApoUonia (Susa), see Cyrene 211-12, 231, 233^t; literature, Byzacium, 265
Apollonius of Perga, 124 234-5, political system, 215-16, Byzantium, 42-3,140,186-91, 219,
Arabia, South, 140,193-202, 209, pottery, 209, 212; religion, 232, 281,282-3
214, 215, 217, 218, 223, 225, 221-2, 224-35, trade, 213,
231-5 216-19
Arabia Felix, 98 Ay, 75 Caesar, Julius, 258, 268
Arabs, 103,140,187,189,191, Caesarea (ChercheU), 259, 271
234, 283. 285, 290, 305,310, Bab-3-Mandeb, strait of, 98, 218 Calama, 265
312, 376, 377,378, 389 baboon, 46, 57 Caligula, 263, 264
archaeology, 154-5,193-202, BahrelGhazàl,91 Callimachus, 123,128
203-13, 294, 296-7,305, 326, Baliana, 147, 170 Cambyses, 78, 111, 165
329; Alexandria, 135; lack of Bani Valley, 335 camels, 294, 305
evidence, 1-2,13-14,141-2; Bantu, 102, 302, 303, 308, 315, Cameroon, 330
radio-carbon dating, 47, 237, 327; 317, 319,320, 322, 323, 346-7, cándate (queen-mother), 174-5
Sudan, 36 360, 380,382; language, 41, 297, Cap Bon, 249, 255
Archimedes, 124 298, 300, 320, 348, 376 Cape province, 351, 352, 360, 361,
Argo, isle of, 168 Baouit art, 135 385; rock art, 353, 356
Arianism, 139, 227, 228, 232, 281, Barka (Al-Merg), 127,128,133 Cape Guardafui, 98
283 Barkal, 177,183,184 Capsa (Cafsa), 236-7
Aristippus, 128 Basa, 181 captives, 22,39, 86, 91, 92-3
Aristo, 125 Batn al-Hadjar, 144,145,148,165 CaracaUa, 134
Aristotle, 21, 38, 253 Battiad dynTsty, 127 Carthage, 243, 246-60, 263, 265,
Arsinoc (Tokra), see Tauchira BeVlja, 36, 214, 215, 216, 218, 231 269, 273, 278, 279, 281, 282,
art, 117,126,128; Axumite, Bedouins, 68, 86, 94 305; city, 252-3; destruction,
209-11; Byzantine, 190,191; Bel-air, 327 257-8; foundation, 247; religion,
North African, 280; Sanaran, 291; BenfHasan, 116,152 253-4; trade, 250-3
South Arabian, 195-9; see also Benin'. 90. 334, 338 Casamance, 336, 337, 385
rock art Berbers (Libyco-Berbers), 48, cattle-breeding, 9, 178. 318, 324,
Artaxerxes III, 78 236-45, 262, 264, 274, 276, 283, 326-7, 329
Arwe-Negus, 224 289, 290, 291 Central African Republic, 339, 341,
Asachae, 192 Berenice (Benghazi), 119,127 344
Asante, 338 Berlin Papyrus, 111 ceramics, Neolithic, 237-8; see also
Asia. 13, 71,119,162 Bible, 27, 38, 42, 43,95,137, 212, pottery
Aspelta, 164,166,174,184 225, 234, 235 Cerne island. 251, 287, 288
Asselar, 329 Bizerta, 237 Chad, 3, 36, 91, 94, 99,147, 288,
Assyria, 77, 95,162 Blemmyes, 136, 164,170,171, 185. 289, 293. 294, 330, 333, 334, 383
astronomy, 113,124 186, 241 Chalcedon, Council of, 139, 229,
Aswan, 2,115,124,125,144,150, blood-groups, 20, 37 234
154,167,186,191 Bocchoris, 77 Chalcolithic (Cuprolithic) period,
Asyelta, 175 Botswana, 297, 370 62,148,150
Asyut, 160 Brittany, 251 Champollion, Jean-Francois, 4
Aterians, 44 bronze, 62, 200, 201 Chebba, 271
Athanasius, 226, 227, 243 Bu-Ndjem, 274 Cheops (Kheops, Khufu), 17, 23,
414 Index
45, 64; boat, 106,108-9 Deiiel-Bahri, 69, 95,98 Twenty-Fifth dynasty (Ethiopian),
Cherchell, see Caesarea Demetrius of Phaleron, 123 77,161-3; writing, 10-12, 79,
China, 378,379 Denderah, 17 116
Chitope, 371 DharTishTt,329 Egypt, Ptolemaic: Alexandria, 107,
Christianity, 137-40,169-71, Dhü-Nuwäs, 232, 233 119,120-4,126,128; Hellenistic
185-91, 225-35, 279, 281, 283, Dinkas, 55 culture, 123-7; trade. 119-20.
290, 391, 392,393 Diocletian, 137-8,170,171, 268 309-10
Cidamus (Ghadames), 249, 252, Diodorus of Sicily, 26, 38,124,125, Egypt, R o m a n , 131-40
274, 287, 293 165,172,174,178 El Asnam. 284
circumcision, 21, 28, 31, 45 Diogenes Laeitius, 38 El-Derr, 76
Cirta (Constantine), 254,257, 258, Pjabal Adda, 180 El-Kurru, 161, 173, 180
262, 263, 276 Djabal Ahmar, 44 El Omari, 49
Claudius, 264, 273 Djabal Barkal, 157,162,163,164, elephants, 213, 223, 293, 309
Claudius II, 136 ~173 Ella Amida, 225-6,227
Cleopatra VII, 129,131,175 Djedars, 284, 285 Endybis, 216, 220
Colchians (Colchidians, Colchoi), Djer. 149 Ennedi, 3, 237,327, 333
21, 26, 45 Djerma, 253 Enthronement Text, 164
Comoro Islands, 375, 378,380 Djeser, 19 Erasistratus, 124-5
Congo, 301, 315, 316, 339 Djorf Torba, 291 Eratosthenes, 123-4, 128, 170
Constantine, see Cirta Djoser, see Zoser Ergamenos, 165,174,182
Constantine the Great, 138, 226, Dongola, 48,155,161,178,180, Eritrea, 192,193, 203
235,290 186,187,189 Esna, 44
Constantinople, 138,139-40. 226, Dongour, 205, 213 Esneh, 17
282 Dorieus. 248, 249 Essina, 311
copper, 62, 80,105,142,149,300, Doroba people, 316 Ethiopia, 44, 45, 94, 95,125, 301,
304, 305, 335,364, 365, 370, Drakensberg mountains, 351, 361 312,319, 392; alphabet, 204,
371,384,387 Dufufa, 154-5 211, 223; early history, 192-202,
Coptos, 119 224-5; languages, 58, 61;
Copts, 26; language, 4, 28, 41,137, migrations to, 26; see also A x u m
191 Ebers Papyrus, 111 Euhesperides, 127
Cornelius Balbus, 274, 287, 288, Egypt: Arabs, 189, 191; division of, Eusebius, 225, 226
290 136; geography, 3-4, 9; Ezana (Abraha, Aizanz), 170, 215,
Coronation Text, 164 importance of Nile, 9; Lower, 63, 216, 227, 228; coins, 211, 219;
Cosmas Indicopleustes, 217, 218, 77; Middle, 69, 75, 94,132,134; inscriptions, 178, 203, 208, 212,
221,306 racial types, 9-10; toponomy, 42; 218,220, 223, 226-7, 234
Cyrenaica, 127-30. 236, 249, 260 Upper, 63, 68, 69, 77, 91,132,
Cyrene, 127,128 133
Egypt, Pharaonic, 2,11-12, 63-78, Farafira, 91
Cyril, 139, 228, 234
82-4, 390,391,392, 393; Faras, 149, 157, 180, 185.186,189,
animals, 80, 82; architecture, 191; cathedral, 188
114-16; burial practices, 88-9, Fayyüm.44,71,77,87
Dahshur, 64,108
148,154-5; chronology, 47-8, Fezzân (Phazania), 91, 238, 274,
Daima, 301,327, 330, 334, 335
66-7; contacts with Africa, 287, 288, 289, 290, 291. 293.
Dakar. 53. 56
12-14,31,35-6, 90-102,142, 294, 305
Dakhila oasis, 91
144,147; cultural legacy, 116-17; Firki, 329-30
D a m b w a , 365, 368, 369, 371
fishing, 80, 81; industry, 80, Fon, 102
Dangeil, 180
104-5,107-9; irrigation, 9; Frenda, 284, 285
Dara,44
language, 28-31, 32, 39-41; law, Frumentius, 225-6, 227, 228
Dar-es-Salaam. 310. 311
88; military organization, 84, 86; Fundj, 36
Darfür, 34, 36, 55, 57, 58, 91,94,
147,170,181, 294 prehistory, 62-3,103-4, 326; and
Darius 1,119,165 proto-Berbers, 239-40; racial Gabaza, 217
Darius II, 78 origins, 15-27, 34-57; relations Gabes,Gulfof,248, 249
David. King. 235 with Nubia, 142,144,145, 147. Gabon, 339, 343
Debro-Dämo, 217, 229, 230 149-60; religion, 86-8,117; Gadara, 212, 214, 222
Deir ai-Medina, 95 science, 109-14; transport, 82; Gaetuli, 246
Index 415

Garama (Jerma), 274, 287, 293, 294 Hatshepsut, 72, 73,84,98,156, Ipu-wer, 69
Garamant«, 237,238, 240, 252, 157 Irhtet, 94,150
260, 261, 274, 287, 290, 293. Haz, 195 iron, 62,104,179, 200, 300-3, 320,
294, 295, 337 Hecataeus of Miletus, 125 385
Garmul, 284 Heka-Nefer, 95 Iron Age, 320, 322, 333-7, 343-50;
Gema ton, see Kawa Heliodorus, 214 southern Africa, 351, 362-72,
geography, 123-4,125 Heliopolis, 17,64, 87, 234 363,366; sub-Saharan Africa,
Gezira, 144 Heptanomis, 136 383-9
Ghadâmes, see Cidamus Heptastadion, 121 irrigation, 62, 71, 79,115,189
Ghana, 90,102, 301, 330. 331, 387, Heracleopolis, 69 Ishango, 347
388 Heraclius, 140 Isis, 27, 86,117,120,128,130,
Ghat, 291 Heri-Hor, 77,160 170, 171
Gheria el-Gherbia, 274 Herkhuf, 68 Islam, 378, 380, 382, 393
Ghudamis, 91 Hermonthis, 17 Israel, 76, 77, 95
Giza, 64,106; pyramid, 115 Herodotus, 4. 8, 21, 28,38, 45, 99, Issessi, 68
glass-making, 80,107,120 112,125,172, 239, 243, 245, Ithet-Tawi, 71
Gloger's Law, 15, 37 250, 251, 287, 288, 290, 294, 305 Itunga people, 322, 323
Gnostics, 137 Herophilus, 124 ivory, 13, 94, 213, 293, 309, 310,
Gobcdra, 192 Hersiotef, 165, 172, 178 311
Gobochela, 197,198,199 Hiempsal, 258 Iwo-Eluru, 297, 298, 331
Goh (Guerealta), 229 Hiera Sycaminos (Muharraqa), 167
Gokomere, 365,367, 368 Hierakonpolis, 17,149, 239 Java, 377, 378
gold. 62, 80,94,104,179, 370, hieroglyphic writing, 10-12,118, Jerusalem, 231, 232, 233
371, 385-6,387 167 Jews, 27-8, 95,127,133,134,139,
Gombe, 347 Himarites, 214 140, 225, 231-2, 376-7
Gonaqua, 361 Himilco, 251 Jos plateau, 330
Great Lakes, 47,147 Himyar, 218, 232, 233,311, 312 Juba, 258, 259, 263
Greeks, 4, 21, 26,38,45, 63, 77, Hippocrates, 111 Juba II, 264
286-7, 376, 390; in Alexandria, Hippone, 263, 265, 281 Jugurtha, 258, 259
133; and A x u m , 204, 215, 224, Hittites, 48, 75-6 Julianos, 185,186,187
226-7, 233-4; Egyptian Hka-Hasut, 71 Justin I, Emperor, 232
influences, 103,107, 111, 116, Hoggar, 237,303, 327 Justinian I, 4
119-30; and Phoenicia, 246, Homo sapiens, 9-10,15-16, 37, 39,
248-55 43.44-5,47, 52 Kadesh, 76, 84
Guinea, 331, 332, 385 Hor-aha, 149 Kafue, 364,365
Gwisho, 341 Horemheb, 75,157 Kajemby, 382
Hottentots, 351 Kalahari, 297, 313, 353, 355, 356
Hadrian, 133-4, 262, 274, 276 human sacrifice, 253-4 Kalambo, 344, 347
H a d m m e t u m , 249, 254, 258 Huny,64 Kaleb, 232-3
Hadza people, 313,315 Hyksos, 46, 71, 95,144.147,154, Kalenjin people, 322
Haidra, 277, 282 155,156, 240 Kamabai, 331
Halwan, 44 Kamose, 95
H a m , 38,42 Ibero-Maurusian culture, 236-7 Kangonga, 364
Hamilcai, 253 iconography, 35, 37-8.46, 52-4 Kansyore ware, 317
Hamitic theory, 319, 324 Ife, 334-5 Karanog, 168.180
Hani, 301 Igbo, Igbo-Ukwu, 334-5, 338,384 Karkarichinkat, 329
Hannibal. 131, 254, 256-7 Imhotep (I-em-htp, Imeuthes, Karnak, 173; temples, 4, 73, 75, 76,
Hanno, 249, 251, 253, 255, 287, Imouthes), 63, 111 156,162
288, 305 India, 119, 211,213, 216, 218, 219, Kasekhem. 149
Haoulti, 194,197, 200, 202 223, 309, 312, 378,380 Kaskasé, 197,199
Hapidjefa, 154 Indian Ocean, 125, 306, 377, 378; Kasr Ibrim, 167,171,179,187,
Hareri, 192 trade, 308, 309-10, 312 189; see also Primis
Harkuf, 99,150 Indonesia, 373,375-80, 382 Katongo, 344, 345, 347
Harsiotef, 165,172 Intermediate periods, 68-9, 71 Katoto, 346, 347, 348, 384
Hatsa, 360 loi, see Caesarea Katuruka, 348, 350
416 Index
Kau, 94 sub-Saharan Africa, 297-9 Matara, 194.-197,198, 200, 202,
K a w - K a w , 55, 57; language, 57 Lebanon, 13,68, 73 206, 207, 208, 209, 212, 217,
Kawa (Gematon), 157,162,163, Lebda, see Leptis Magna 231
164,167,173,177,180,183 leopard (panther), 46. 57 mathematics, 112-13,124
Kbor Roumia, 244 Lepcis, 249 Matopo Hills, 368
Kenya, 44,47, 300,308, 315. 316, Leptis Magna (Lebda), 130, 247, Matuar, 142
317, 318, 319,322, 323-4, 343, 252, 259, 273, 274,275, 287, Mauretania (form. Marousia), 246,
386 293, 305 251, 257, 258-9, 283, 284,326,
Kephren, 70 Lesotho, 355 329, 331,335, 384,385,388;
Kerma, Kingdom of, 144-5,154-6, Levallois, 44 copper, 300,301, 305; R o m a n
161, 391 Libou, 239 rule, 261, 262, 264, 268, 270
Khababash, 165 Libya, 13, 86,127-30, 236-45, 286, Mbugu, 308
Khafre (Chefren, Chephren), 64 287, 326; and Phoenician culture, Meadi-Heliopolis, 49
Khaliut, 164 259-60 Mechtael-Arbi,236
Khamois, 84 Libyans, 22, 39, 64, 68, 71, 75, 76, medicine, 111-12
Khargah (Khariyah), 44, 91 86, 91,92-3, 274 Mediterranean, 3,120; race, 16, 37
Khartoum, 36,60, 61,142, 237, Libyco-Berbers, see Berbers Medracen, 243,246
299 linguistics, 28-31, 32, 39-42, 54-5, Meidum, 64
Kheops, see Cheops 57-61; see also languages Meinarti Island, 185
KhoiKhoi.297.313,352,356, lion temples, 183-4 Melanesiens, 375
357,360-1 Lipari islands, 237 melanin, 15, 20,37
Khoisan. 297, 313,352, 371, 385 Lucian, 21, 38 Melazo, 193,197,198,199, 202,
Khor Abu Anga (Sai Island), 44 Lupembo-Tshitolian complex, 316 222
Khufu, see Cheops Luxor, 152; temple, 73, 76 Melchite doctrine, 186,187,189
Kifra, 293 Lyouel, King. 234 Memphis, 47,63, 87, 111, 121,
Kilimanjaro, 308 158,162,175
Kintampo, 329, 330 Maasai, 322,323 Menés, see Narmer
Kisalian, 385 Mabveni, 367 Menouthias, island of, 311
Kohaito, 206 Madagascar, 297, 373-82; Menthuhotep 1,17,24,69
Konosso island, 157 immigration from Africa, 380, Menthuhotep II, 69,152
Korba, 237 382; languages, 373.380.382; Menthuhotep III, 152
Kordofih (El Obeid), 58,147,170, settlement, 376-82 Merenre, 68,150
181, 294, 297 Madja, 94,145 Merimda Beni Salama, 104
Korti, 147 Magnrib, 134, 237, 243, 246, Meximde, 45.49
Kouga, 336 258-60, 283, 288, 289, 295,392, Merina, 377
Kuban, 158 393 Merneptah, 76, 239. 240
Kumadzulo, 370, 371 Makuria (Mukurra), 186,187,189 Merneptah-Siptah. 158,160
Kurgus, 156 Malagasy, see Madagascar Meroe, 57, 95,107,125.133.141,
Kush, 82,95,102,144.145,152, Malapati, 368, 369 147,163,164-5,167-70. 202,
155,156.158,160,161-71,174, Malawi, 364,365, 367. 369 214, 391; economic and social life,
175.177,181; see also Meroe; Mali. 331,384,385 177-82; language, 40, 57-61,
Napata Manetho, 4, 63,125 167; political organization, 172-7;
Kushites, 48,145,164, 224, 225, Manicheans, 137 pottery, 181; religion, 182-4;
308, 318-19, 323, 324 Mankaure (Mycerinus), 64 towns and trade, 179-81
Kustul (X-group), 147,170-1 Marcus Aurelius, 134, 269,271 Meshwesh, 239
Kwale. 308 Mlrib ( A w w a m Bar'an). 193,195, Mesolithic, 36, 39,47
Kyriakos, 189,191 197, 233 Mesopotamia, 12,103
Mariette, 37 metal-working, 62,104-5,120,
Lahun,115 MarinusofTyre, 287, 306 200-2; see also mining
Lambaesis, 262, 265, 273 Mans, 187 Mette» (Madera), 229
languages: A x u m , 211-12, 231, Mark Anthony, 131,259 Middle Kingdom, 62, 69-71, 84,
233-4; Chan-Nile, 317; Egyptian- Masaesyli, 256 94,152-4,155
Wolof, 28-31,32,39-41,54; Masinissa, 257-8, 259 migrations, 2-3,46-9, 55. 56-7
Khoisan. 313; Malagasy. 373; Masties, 283 Mikea, 380
Meroitic, 57-61; Nilotic, 322; Masuna, 283 mining, 80,105,179, 300-3, 333,
Index 417
335,337, 384-5 Africa. 325-33 Numidia. 238, 246, 256, 258;
Mirgissa, 155 Nero, 133,168, 270 R o m a n period, 263, 264, 265,
Mittani, 73 Nntoriuj, 228 270, 274,294
Moeris, Lake, 80 N e w Kingdom, 69, 73-7, 80, 82,
Mogador, 251 83, 84, 86,147
Mojomby, 382 Octavian, see Augustus
Ngorongoro, 318
monasticism, 139 Oea, 293, 305
Nicopolis, 133,134
Monophysitism, 139,186,187,189, Old Kingdom, 9,10. 53. 63-8,69,
Niger (country), 384, 386
80, 83.94,108,142,144
229, 231, 232, 234 Niger (region), 335-6,337
On, 17
Monumentum AduliUmum, 222 Niger (river). 91, 288, 294,326,
Orange Free State, 360
Moors, 264, 281, 283, 284 331
Osiris, 13, 26, 27,46, 55, 63, 84,
Morocco, 236, 243, 251, 259. 284. Niger-Congo languages, 297-8
86, 87, 90,99,128,162
285. 288, 305, 384 Nigeria, 294, 297,301,330,331,
Ostia, 273
Mozambique, 371 334-5, 384,386
Ouad ben Naga, 167-8
Mulucha (Moulouya), 256, 262, 264 Nikon, 311
Ouadji, 149
mummies. 20. 28, 37,109, 111 Nile Delta, 13,48-9, 55, 56, 62-3,
Muslims, see Arabs; Islam 69,71,76,77,79-80,91,104,
Mussawwarat «-Sufra, 168,179, 119,132,136,140,162 Pa-Ramesses, 75
180,181,182,183,184 Nileriver,65,125,178; floods, 8, Pachomius, 139
9,11, 79 Pacboras (Pakhoras), 180,185
Nachikufan complex, 341 Nile valley (Nile Corridor"), 134, Palaeolithic, 39, 44, 47
Nadjran, 232, 233 139,141,177; Egypt and Nubia, Palermo Stone, 4 , 5 , 7,64.149
Naga, 167,168 12; historical sources for, 4-7; Palestine, 13, 21, 44,68, 71, 73, 75,
Nagada, 36 importance of, 3-4; irrigation, 79; 76, 77,118,162
Nahas, 27 relations with'Africa, 12-14; Palmyra, 136.168
Namaqua, 361 settlement of, 9-10,15. 34-57, Pangani corridor, 308, 312
Namibia, 297. 360, 365 62,103-4 papyrus, 80,107, 116,120
Napata, 39, 40, 57, 91,147,161, Nilotes, 322-3 Pare, 308
162,163-4,167,168,172-84, Nine Saints, 229,234,235 Pedibast, 77
391 Nitokris, 84 Pemba, 307, 311, 376
Naqa, 176,177,182,183 Nobades. 136,171,185.186 PepiI, 68
Narmer (Menés), 11,17,48, 53, 63, Nobadia, 186,187 Pepi II, 68, 99,144,150
239; palette, 11 N o k culture, 301,329, 330, 333-4, Periplus Maris Erythrati, 192, 203-4,
Nasalsa, 164 337 213, 214,216, 217. 219, 222,
Nasamonians, 243, 287 Nubia, 13, 34,36, 38,42.47, 57, 287,306.308,309,310.311,
Nastasen, 165,172,173.174,175. 64,68. 71, 73, 76, 80, 82, 84, 376, 378
178 86,94.95,105,116,136,161, Persia. 47, 55. 78,140,165,187,
Natakamani, 168,176,177 162.163,167,172,177,180. 214, 248, 287, 312,376
Natal, 351, 360, 361 391; A-group, 148-9; B-group, Pétrie, Sir Flinders, 17, 63
Natoufuns, 44 149; C-group, 150-2, 239; Peye, see Piankhi
Naucratis, 133 Christianity, 185-91; early Pharos island, 121
Neapolis (Nabeul), 249 history, 142-7,143,146; Phazania, see Fezzäh
Necho, 250,305 geography of, 141; lack of Philadelphia, 192
Necho II, 99 evidence about, 141-2; link Philae, 167,170, 171, 186, 227
Nefertari, 84 between Africa and ancient world, Phoenicia, 21,117-18, 236, 238,
Negadah people, 16 144-7; Middle Kingdom, 152-5; 241. 246-9. 259-60, 287,301.
negroids, 147, 297, 315,317,331; N e w Kingdom, 156-8; racial 376; see also Carthage
in Egypt, 10,15-21,26-7,35, types, 10,17, 27, 45, 48, 51; Piankhi (Peye), 77,175; stele of.
37-8, 39, 40,42, 43,45, 48, relations with Egypt, 142-7, 161-2
50-4 149-60,187,191; settlement of, plants: cultivation, 325,326,327
Nehesi (Nubians). 94 48, 49; Unesco campaign, 187; Pliny, 180,192, 203, 204. 213, 251,
Nementcha, 262 writing, 12,142; X-group, 268, 274, 287, 288,306,310
Neolithic, 45,46, 47,49, 62, 170-1,185; j« also Kush Pnubs (Tabo), 163
103-4, 237-8, 296-7; climate in Nubian Corridor, 142-7 Polynesia, 373, 375
North Africa, 3 , 9 , 1 2 ; West Nun, 55 pottery: A-group, 148; Axumite,
418 Index
209, 212; Bambatu, 360; Rhapsa (Gafsa), 287 Sekhem-Khet, 64
C-group, 150-2,151; Chondwc, Rhapta, 311 Seleucids, 119, 309
364,367, 369; Kalambo, 344; Rift valley, 316-17, 318-19, 320, Semenekh-Ka-Re, 75
Kalundu, 369; Kansyore. 317; 324 Semites, 22, 27-8, 45, 52, 68, 225,
Kapwirimbwe, 364-5, 367,369; rock art, 36, 38.305, 353, 354, 231; language, 32, 54,211,212,
Katoto, 346; Kwale, 322; Urewa, 355,356,361,388 290
322, 343-4; West African iron Romans, 103,107,116,127,171, Semna, 145,152,154,157
age, 333-4; Wilton, 360; 177, 236, 306; and A x u m , 204, Senegal, 28, 55, 301, 305, 326, 331,
X-gtoup, 171; Zhiso. 367, 368; 212-13; and Carthage, 246, 336.383, 385, 388,389
Ziwa, 367, 368 249-60; in East Africa, 310-12; in Senegambia, 331, 335, 336-7
Primis (Kasr Ibrim), 167 Egypt, 131-40; and Meroe, 167, Senkamanisken, 164
Probus, 136 168; in North Africa, 261-80; Sennar, 36, 170
Protests of the Eloquent Peasant, 69 and the Sahara, 286-7, 293, Senusret I, 71,152
Psammetik, 77 294-5; in West Africa, 337-8 Senusret II, 71
Psammetik II, 164,174 Rwanda, 315, 316, 339, 343,347 Senusret III, 71,154,156,157
Ptolemais (Tolmeta), see Barca Septimus Severus, 134, 262, 264,
Ptolemy I Soter. 121,123, 124, 127 270, 273,276
Ptolemy II Philadelphia, 119,121, Saba, 193,195, 232, 233; language, Serapis, cult of, 120, 128, 130
123.131,137,192 198 Sesebi, 157
Ptolemy III Eurgetes, 119,123,127, Sabratha, 130, 249, 252, 293, 305 Sesostris 1,17
192 Sahara, 15,34,36,37,44, 45, 47, Sesostris III, 108,115,145
Ptolemy V , 167 49, 57,90-1,102, 238, 252, 274, Sethnakhr, 76
Ptolemy VI, 167 326,327,329,331,332,335, Seti I (Sethos), 20, 75, 91,157,158,
Ptolemy Apion, 127 338, 392, 393; Graeco-Roman 239
Ptolemy Philopator, 131 period, 286-95; salt, 385; trade, Seven Wonders of the World, 64,
Ptolemy, Claudius, 192, 204, 214, 384; use of chariots, 240, 294 115,121
287, 288, 290,306 Sahel, 297, 298, 326,327, 331, Shaba, 55,301,346, 347, 384
Punic culture, 274, 280 332 Shabaka, 162
Punic wars, 256 Sahure, 64, 68, 239 Shanakdakhete, 167,175
Punt, 68, 73, 82,95. 98,100-1, Sai Island. 44.156 Sheba, Queen of, 224
376 Saitic Kingdom, 77 sheep-herding, 360-1,369
pygmies, 99,144, 297, 315-16 Sakkara (Saqqara), 39,63, 64,114, Shellal, 152
pyramids, 17, 63, 64,108,113, 116 Shenout of Atripa, 139
114-16,168 salt, 384-5 Sherekarer, 177
San people, 44, 297,313, 316, Sheshonq, 77
race classification, 20, 50-2 352-3,355, 356-7,361 Shilluk, 55
Ramses 1,157 Sandawe people, 313, 315, 360 ship-building, 108-9
Ramses II, 20,25, 76, 84,91, Sanga, 344-5, 347,348, 349, 384 Sicily. 248, 250, 254-6
157-8, 239 Sangoan period, 44 Sidon, 246
Ramses III, 76, 91,160, 239-40 Sanye people, 308 Sierra Leone, 331
Ramses IV, 77, 98 Sao people, 330 saver, 80,104
Ramses XI, 77,160 Sarapion, 311 Sirikwa Holes, 324
Ramses-Siptah, 158 Sassanid, 140 Sitifis, 268
Ras Hafun, 311 Sasu, 218 Srwa, see A m m o n i u m
Red Sea, 12, 36,39,58,94,98, Satyrus, 125 slavery, 83, 218, 252, 293
109,119,133,134,140,163, Scipio Africanus, 256, 257 Smendes, 77
192,193, 212, 218, 231, 243, sculpture: Axumite, 207-8; South Smith Papyrus, 109, 111
250,306, 309, 310 Arabian, 193-9 Snefru, 64,115,142,149
Rekh-mi-Re, 96-7 Sea Peoples, 76, 86, 240 Socotra, 217
religion: A x u m , 221-2, 224-35; Sebek-Hotep, 55,152 Sofala, 376
Carthaginian, 253-4; Egyptian, Sebeknefru, 84 Soleb, 73,157,159,177
62-3,99,102,117,120,128. Sedeinga, 157 Solomon, 77
137-40; Ethiopian, 198,212; seed-cropping, 326, 327 Somalia. 98.119
Libyco-Berbers, 243, 245; R o m a n Sefar, 327 Souk-el-Gour, 284, 285
North Africa, 278-9 Segu, 325, 336 Sousse, 266
Index 419
South Africa, 300, 303, 341, 370, Tenereen, 326, 327, 329 Tumbus, 156
371 Ténès. 284 Tunisia, 236, 238, 243, 249, 258.
Spain, 247, 251 Teqorideamani, 170 262, 283
Sphinx, 25 Tera-Neter, 17,18 Turin Papyrus, 6, 7
stelae: of the Appanaging of the Tertullian, 279 Tutankhamun (form. Tut-Ankh-
Princesses, 164; of the Dream, Teye, 73, 84, 157 Aton), 75, 107, 157
162; of Excommunication, 164; of Thebaid. 136 Tyre, 246, 247, 253, 254
Victory, 161-2 Thebes, 44, 55, 69, 75, 77, 83, 87,
stone, 104,108,114, 386 95, 98,114,131,144,145, 147, Uganda, 44, 315,322, 323, 343
Stone Age, 296, 316, 324, 327-33, 160 Ukpa, 331
339-43,358,359, 385, 386; Theodora, Empress, 185,186 Ule, 102
hunter-gatherers, 352-6; see also Theodosius II, 235 Utica (Utique), 247, 249, 256, 258
Neolithic; Palaeolithic Theophrastus, 124
Strabo, 26,38,112,123,124, 125, Theveste. 262, 265, 273 Vandals, 281-2, 283
174,178, 213, 306 Thinis, 63 Vazimba, 382
Sudan, 36, 44, 77,125,148,156, Thinite kings, 79 Vespasian, 133
172, 297, 300, 323, 335, 388; Thutmose I, 73,147, 156 Victoria, Lake, 317, 318, 320, 322,
languages, 59, 60, 61; relations Thutmose II, 73,156 388
with Egypt, 94, 95,161-3 Thutmose III, 20,90,95,147,156 Volney, 26, 38
Sudds, 144 Thutmose IV, 73,157 Volubilis, 259, 284
Suez, 3,13 Tiiret, 284, 285
Sumatra, 376 Tiberius. 133, 261, 276
surgery, 109, 111 W a d ben Naqa. 180-1
Tibesti, 3, 91, 288, 289, 293, 303, W i d I A b 5 D o m , 147
Susa, 165 305
Swahili culture, 306, 377, 378, 380 WïdîHalfa.36.44,150,152
TishTt. 327, 385, 388 WïdïHamamat, 44
Swaziland, 351,360, 368, 385 Tifinagh writing, 289-90
Syene, see Aswan WidïHawad, 181
Tigre, 193,194.195,197, 215 WïdïMukaddam, 147
Syria, 13, 21, 55, 68, 73, 75, 76, Tilemsi valley, 329
118,133,139,140,162, 223 WïdïOukirri,248
Timgad, 262,275, 282 WidîTumilat,44
Syrtes Libyans, 239 Timna, 193 Walili, 285
Timosthenes, 125 Waren tribe, 199
Ta-Seti. 141,142 Tin Hinan, Queen, 290, 291, 292 Wawat. 94,150,152,156
Tai», 177 Tingitana, 262, 264, 268. 283, 284 Wazed(Wazeba),234
Tacape, 262, 265, 273 Tinis, 17 Wilton complex, 341
Tacfarinas, 261 Tore (Sanam), 163 Wolof language, 28-31, 32, 40. 41.
Taharqa, 162,173,174,175,178 totemism, 28, 31 54-5
Tangayika, Lake, 322 trade: East Africa coast, 306-12; writing: development of, 2,103,
Tanis, 77 between Egypt and Africa, 13, 118; in Egypt, 10-12,79,116,
Taniydamani, 167 14, 68; Ptolemaic Egypt, 119-20; 142; Ethiopian, 211-12, 222-3; in
Tanoutamon, 162 sub-Saharan Africa, 386-7 Meroe, 167; Tifinagh, 289-90
Tanwetamani, 173 Trajan, 133, 262,275, 293
Tanzania, 313, 315,318,319, 322, Transkei. 360, 361 Xerxes, 107,165
323-4, 343, 347 Transvaal, 351, 360, 368, 369, 370, Xhosa, 361
TarikeNeguest, 225.227 371
Tassili n'Ajjer, 290, 291,303,305, Triacontaschone, 167
327, 329 Tripoli, 271 Y a m , 68, 94,99,150
Tatoga people, 322 Tripolitania, 128,130. 237. 240, Yeha, 193.197,198, 200, 202, 225,
Tauchira, 127 261, 262, 265, 270, 274, 283 229,231
Tauosre, 84 Troglodytes, 287 Yemen, 195, 214
Tebessa, 272, 282 Tshitolian complex, 341 Yengema cave, 331
Teda, 17 Tsiribihina, 382 Yoruba, 102,334, 338
Tehenou, 239 Tswana, 361
Tell-al-Amarna, 73, 75,114,115 Tuareg, 290 Zafar (Tafar), 232, 233
Temehou, 239 Tubu, 17 Zahi, 71
420 Index

Zaire, 90, 297. 298.322, 341.343, 351,360,364-5,367,370,371, 370,371,376,384.386

344,347. 384. 387 384, 385.387,388 Zoscales, 203, 214
Zaire Basin(Uelian), 296, 341 Zanzibar, 307. 309. 311, 312, 376 Zoser (Djosar, Zozer), 17, 63, 64,
Zambesi valley, 365 Zeugitana, 265 111,114
Zambia, 297, 303, 339,341,344, Zimbabwe, 351, 360,365,367-8, Zula Bay. 215