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The Kingdom of Kush, lying south of Egypt, flourished for 1000 years. During the eighth and seventh centuries BC its rulers controlled Egypt as pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty. Yet much of the history of the kingdom is obscure, with it being overshadowed by its more famous neighbour. Using both ancient classical sources and modern data from archaeological digs, this work explores the history and culture of the Kushites. It illustrates all aspects of life and shows how the kingdom interacted over the centuries with Egypt. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Almost saved by the photographs
Author Derek Welsby spares every effort to clarify Kushite history. Here's an emblematic sentence: "El Kurru should perhaps be considered as a candidate for the location of Krtn with its royal palace." Is it possible to cram more conditionals into a single sentence? The text is filled with clauses such as "of which we are largely ignorant", "we have no way of knowing", and "no indisputable evidence exists".

Admittedly, this may indeed reflect the true state of affairs of our knowledge, or lack thereof, of the Kingdom of Kush. But to me the faults in the writing extend beyond failing to clarify an ambiguous situation or hesitancy in choosing between alternative explanations. Place-names are frequently introduced without explaining whether they are ancient or modern names. The relevant geography is treated as if the reader is already an expert in the Nile's meanderings. References are brief and seldom help in evaluating a citation's specific interpretation.Succeeding paragraphs do not often link together. Sentences are often opaque, doggedly refusing to surrender their meaning ever after repeated readings.

And where the history of Kush touches on an event that may already be known to many readers - that being the Kushite intervention against Assyria in its assault on Jerusalem in 701 BC, as ambiguously recounted in the Old Testament -- Welsby fails to treat it with the rigor the episode deserves. He fails to recognize both that 1) the accounts in Kings I and II are superficially inconsistent and 2) resolving the discrepancy shows that the Kushites in fact saved the kingdom of Judah from certain destruction at a crucial moment in its history. (An absorbing and fully convincing exegesis is provided by Henry Aubin in "The Rescue of Jerusalem".)

The photographs - many in color - are extensive, stunning and provide an eloquence the writing lacks. The best that can be said of the diagrams, including a few meagerly drawn maps, is that they are no worse than the text.

Interesting book, but tried to use European fantasies
Interesting book, but tried to use European fantasies of being African, indigenous (Egyptian)or Black (the modern European term for African).However it does have some very good information. When you get pass theimperial European denial. You can find some good information in this book.Ancient Nubians and the other ancient Africans, the Kamites (their realname)called Egyptians thousands of years later by the Greeks.

A beautiful and very interesting book
This is a beautiful and captivating book.It differs completely from other books about the black Pharaohs, which are often ideological and controversial.This book provides proof, with photos from archeologicalsites.It informs us about life in the cities and in the countryside andabout ancient black religions.Kush was not Egypt, but it ruled Egypt fora period of time.The book is also affordable, which I greatlyappreciated.

A beautiful and very interesting book
This is a beautiful and captivating book.It differs completely from other books about the black Pharaohs, which are often ideological and controversial.This book provides proof, with photos from archeologicalsites.It informs us about life in the cities and in the countryside andabout ancient black religions.Kush was not Egypt, but it ruled Egypt fora period of time.The book is also affordable, which I greatlyappreciated.

Great Disappointment!Poorly organized with no focus.
I have rarely read a more disappointing book than The Kingdom of Kush by Derek Welsby.Badly organized with no continuity, I assume the publisher's editorial staff was on vacation when this one came through.The book isthe literary equivalent of the 50 yard dash for people with no sense ofdirection.Hummingbirds spend more time in one place than Mr. Welsby spentwith any one facet of his book.Unless you happen to be a scholarspecializing in the Kingdom, you will be quickly lost as the author zigsand zags through myriad arcane tidbits that are probably significant tosomeone.There is no effort to establish a context, set out a chronology,or discuss the historical significance of the topic in general terms thatan intelligent, but unschooled lay person could understand.Perhaps thetarget audience was the six other experts fluent in this field; for therest of us, the book is a useless garble of facts and pontifications.Equal criticism goes to the History Book of the Month Club who marketed thebook with no indication that you needed a PhD in the topic to follow thebook.The bio describes Mr. Welsby as an assistant keeper and fieldarchealogist.While it appears that he is indeed quite knowledgeable inthe field of Kushite history, I would recommend that he stick with his dayjob or get real editors. ... Read more

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This volume is the first of twelve scheduled to present the materials excavated under the direction of Professor Keith C. Seele in a concession that extended from the Abu Simbel temples to the Sudan frontier in two seasons, 1962-63 and 1963-64. It presents, in detail, Cemetery L at Qustul, which is a small cemetery containing unusually large and wealthy tombs of A-Group. The tombs, badly plundered and fire damaged, contained pharaonic images on A-Group objects, indicating that they belonged to rulers from the period before Egypt's First Dynasty. Many finds are unique; decorated objects give direct evidence in context for the date of famous carved stone and ivory objects from early Egypt. This lavishly illustrated volume details the elaborate A-Group painted pottery and decorated objects as well as more common finds, with individual chapters on the tombs, pottery, small objects, epigraphy, and a discussion of the special importance of Cemetery L in early Nubia with its possible role in the development of pharaonic Egypt. ... Read more

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In 1961/62 and 1963/64, the Oriental Nubian Expedition excavated cemeteries, the ancient fortress, and the late Christian town of Serra East in northern Sudan. This volume, the first in a series of reports, looks at the ancient burials and outlying structures. In the New Kingdom, Serra East was the site of an important center, one closely connected to the family of rulers of Teh-Khet. Just east of the fortress, the expedition excavated great tombs that probably belonged to forebears of princes Amenehmet and Djehutyhetep on the high desert and smaller chamber tombs cut into the side of a small wadi that would have belonged to members of the court. These cemeteries not only illuminate a great provincial household of the early New Kingdom, the great tombs mark an epoch in the history of architecture. Although the substructures were large chamber-complexes of Egyptian type, the earlier tombs had large low tumuli paved with bricks and surrounded by rubble and slab rings. The latest of the group was a brick pyramid. The great tombs of Serra thus illustrate a direct transition from tumulus to pyramid that anticipated the adoption of the pyramid by Kushite pharaohs many centuries afterward. ... Read more

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(Egypt Exploration Society, Texts from Excavations 12, 1991) ... Read more

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The two visits that James H Breasted made to Egyptian Nubia and the Sudan produced an archive of nearly 1,100 photographs, many of which are published here. ... Read more

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This volume, the second to publish the results of Seele's two seasons of excavations in Nubia, presents Neolithic, A-Group, and Post-A-Group remains from Qustul, Ballana, and Adindan. Neolithic remains were only found in a cave behind the village of Adindan and consist of sherds, some implements, a human skull, and fragments of decorated ostrich eggshell. The cave is comparable to caves found deep in Sudan and represents a northern extension of the cultures well known in the area of the second cataract. Also included in this volume are A-Group remains from cemeteries other than Cemetery L and Post-A-Group remains from two burials, dated between the end of A-Group and the beginning of C-Group, that can be compared with others in the region to identify a limited occupation in a period where none has been thought to exist in recent years. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 367 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Based on the scholarship in the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Africa, this work presents Africa, from Egypt to Cape Town and from prehistoric times to the present day. This set spans many disciplines, covering animals, foods, holidays and festivals, tribal groups, ecology, music and art, trade and economy, geography, religion, folklore, and fossil and skeletal discoveries. ... Read more

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A number of burials excavated by the Oriental Institute Nubian Expedition revealed pottery, objects, and burial customs that are dated to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty and Napatan periods (ca. 750-200 b.c.), a poorly known phase in Lower Nubia. The rulers of this great age of Kush left monuments in the region, but almost nothing could be found of the ordinary people. The burials are compared with others published from the region to reconstruct a substantial period of settlement in Lower Nubia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

disproves the modern day scholarship about Egypt
The book documents the salvage project that was taken by Professor Bruce Willams at the Chicago Oreinetal insitute of many nubian cultural sites in Northern Sudan and southern Egypt. Mr. Willams made quite a shocking discovery at Qustal,he found an insence burner that show the earilest representation of a per aa or a pharoah. The western academic were unware of this finding. A lot of people don't know about these findings excpet the archeologist and egyptaintologist themselves. The book puts to rest myths about the white egyptains. I suggest all fans of Mary Leftowitz pick up this,because it is a real work of scholarship by a white man. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Detailed and accurate description of the lands he visited
Burkhardt remains one of the foremost sources of detailed and usually accurate factual information on the places and customs of the lands he visited. For those interested in first-hand accounts, this book covers his letters and notes on his travels in parts of North Africa, Syria, Arabia, Upper Egypt and Nubia in the 1800's. It does not focus on Nubia in particular, despite the title. Furthermore, Burkhardt did not speak the Nubian language, although he was proficient in Arabic, so his insights into Nubian culture cannot be said to have been entirely accurate as they were based on what his local translators (who were hostile to Nubians) communicated.

The modern reader may disagree with his accounts of looting of Egyptian and Nubian artifacts by European quasi-archaeologists, but one should bear in mind the historical context and the fact that many of those artifacts would have surely been lost forever to humanity had they remained in their original countries at the time, and the valuable contributions that France and England have made to the study of Ancient Egyptian and Nubian history.

The beginning of the kindle book, which is rather confusing as there is no table of contents, consists entirely of letters to and from the association for which he worked, his expenses, and much political reporting and intelligence, and he does not actually go into any detail on Nubia itself until about the 2nd half of the book.

The print edition is unavailable as far as I know, and the Burkhardt book on Egypt which I am fortunate to have found in an antique shop in Cairo, is extremely difficult to read as the script is miniscule, so the Kindle edition is a blessing!

Unfortunately, there are quite a number of irritating typo's and the kindle edition does not contain any of the maps or illustrations of the hard copy, but if you can make your way through it (disregarding the captions to the missing maps etc.), the book provides valuable insight into a watershed period of middle eastern history when few reliable eye-witness reports were made. ... Read more

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The noted British writer and traveller J. A. St John journeyed through Egypt and Nubia in 1832. Proficient in Arabic and travelling mainly on foot, he gathered material for this account of the manners, customs, and everyday life of the Arab people then under the rule of the Pasha, Muhammad Ali. Beginning in the slave markets of cosmopolitan Alexandria, St. John proceeds south for a thousand miles to the Second Cataract of the Nile. Appreciative of the antiquities and of a landscape that offered many opportunities for hunting, his main interest was in the people and their pursuits, and he is tireless in following them. Architecture and interiors, food and festivals, bath houses and bazaars are all described. But it is the people themselves that fascinate him -- their character, beliefs, sense of humor, hopes and fears that he describes so acutely. St John consider Arab society as a whole, peasants as well as princes, the Bedouin, and the townspeople who have to deal with taxation and government restrictions. He gives unusually full accounts of the women he encounters, a rarity at the time. This is no Orientalist fantasy, but a portrait of a living oriental culture described in all its complexity.

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An accomplished archaeologist presents the rich history and culture of the black African people who were at times ruled by Egypt and at other times occupied the Egyptian throne. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the nubians
it is great to read a book on how the ancient egyptians learned the techinques of their culture form the nubians despite the egyptians and the nubians were both a black african peoples ... Read more

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This book draws together the records from the excavations in the area of the Meroitic temple complex at Qasr Ibrim that took place mainly in the 1970s. This is the only major temple complex in Lower Nubia excavated in modern times. It provides an account of the excavations, as well as studies of the temple's painted decoration, the numerous graffiti on its walls and floors, and its fixtures and fittings, including several monumental Meroitic stelae. It highlights the role of the temple as a point of contact between Roman Egypt and the Meroitic Sudanese state. ... Read more

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The modern village of Hillat el-Arab is located some 3km south of the Jebel Barkal, at the foot of which lies the sacred area of ancient Napata, the capital of the independent state of Kush in the Sudan (8-7th century BC). The village, on the west bank of the Nile, stretches towards the desert and takes its name, othe hill of the nomadso, from a large house once used as a caravanserai. The necropolis of Hillat el-Arab was discovered by chance in 1988. The sudden and unexpected appearance of a chasm inside one of the village houses, and the timely arrival of a team of archaeologists revealed the existence of a large tomb dug into the rock. The excavation of a second tomb nearby, containing a wealth of ceramic material, suggested that this might be a necropolis. The two tombs were dated to the beginning of that obscure period of Nubian history coinciding with the end of Egyptian colonization and the foundation of the independent Kingdom of Kush with its capital at Napata. This volume details the excavations at the Hillat el-Arab necropolis. Its highly interesting finds are considered as a major contribution towards a better understanding of the origins of the Kushite State. ... Read more

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The congresses organised every four years under the auspices of the International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS) are the main forum for scholars of Egyptian Christian life and culture through the ages. The proceedings of the seventh congress, which was held in Leiden in 2000, comprise ninety-nine papers, reflecting the growth and diversification of Coptic studies worldwide. They include valuable and sometimes groundbreaking essays in topics of, for example, Coptic language, literature, monasticism and archaeology. A particularly noteworthy and important feature of the present proceedings are the state-of-the-art reviews of current trends and achievements in the main fields of the discipline, written by invited experts and accompanied by extensive bibliographies. These review articles cover aspects of Coptic studies as diverse as papyrology, gnosticism, liturgy, Copto-Arabic and art history. They turn these two volumes into real reference books, indispensable for every scholar of early Church history, late antiquity and Near Eastern Christianity. ... Read more

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This handbook presents a comprehensive survey of the textual archaeological and art historical evidence for this Middle Nile Region - Kingdom of Kush. Basing itself upon the evidence and scholarly literature, this work discusses the emergence of the native state of Kush (after the Pharaonic domination in the 11th century BC), the rule of the Kings of Kush in Egpyt (c. 760-656 BC) and the intellectual foundations and political history of the Kingdom in the Napatan (7th and 3rd centuries BC) and Meroitic (3rd century BC - 4th century) periods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Don't be thrown off by the first comment
Well, you're not much of a scholar of this subject if you haven't heard of Laszlo Torok.He doesn't need scholarly backing, he IS scholarly backing.

Question.
I would most likely want to buy this book if it had some scholarly backing.It looks to have some rather exciting information within it, but since I find no scholar reviewing it, I am held back for the present time. As a scholar myself dealing with Ancient Nubia/Kush, I find this subjectrelative to my interests. ... Read more

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This volume presents the results of a survey, carried out between 1986 and 1992 in the territory immediately adjacent to the fortress of Qasr Ibrim. The survey demonstrates the presence of a Meroitic population in the area of Ibrim from at least the early 1st century BC. The volume is illustrated with maps, and plans, photographs and line drawings of the many structures and artefacts located during the course of the survey. Penelope Wilson discusses the inscriptions and symbols incised in the roadway to Qasr Ibrim, together with other inscribed artefacts. ... Read more