Ancient Africa

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

1. Geography and Origins of Nubia: The A-Group and C-Group. Nubia's Nile valley nurtured the Bronze Age A-Group and C-Group cultures, distinct from Egypt.
2. The Kingdom of Kerma. Kerma flourished around 2500-1500 BCE as sub-Saharan Africa's first great urban civilization.
3. Egyptian Rule and the Rise of Napata. Egypt ruled Nubia for four centuries before a power vacuum after 1070 BCE gave rise to Napata.
4. The Kushite Twenty-Fifth Dynasty: Piye, Shabaka, and Taharqa. Kushite kings from Napata ruled Egypt as its Twenty-Fifth Dynasty from roughly 728 to 656 BCE.
5. Meroe: Kingdom, Economy, and the Meroitic Script. Kush's capital shifted from Napata to Meroe by the fourth century BCE, a hub of iron and trade.
6. Religion, Pyramids, the Candaces, and the Fall of Kush. Kush's pyramid-building religion crowned warrior queens, the candaces, before its fall by 350 CE.
7. The Kingdom of Aksum: Origins, State, and Trade. Aksum rose in the Ethiopian highlands, its Red Sea trade through Adulis eventually eclipsing Kush.
8. Coinage, Ezana's Conversion, and the Obelisks of Aksum. Under King Ezana, Aksum minted Christian coinage and became a pioneering Christian state around 330-340 CE.