A small head of a Kushite king who ruled Egypt, made of Egyptian blue
Head of a Kushite King, ca. 721–664 BCE
Marked Kerma

SubjectIn outline · lessons being written

Kerma, Napata and Meroë: the kingdoms of Kush

South of Egypt, along the Nile in what is now Sudan, the kingdoms of Kush lasted nearly three thousand years. For about a century its kings ruled Egypt as pharaohs, and at Meroë they built more pyramids than Egypt did.

Place
Kerma · Napata and Jebel Barkal · MeroëAfrica
Laid out as
A civilisationA society seen from the inside: its rulers, places, work, beliefs and daily life, laid out like the rooms of a house.
Lessons
6 planned, none written yet

The lessons we plan

Titles may change as they are written

  1. IKerma, the first kingdom
  2. IIRivals and subjects of Egypt
  3. IIIThe black pharaohs
  4. IVMeroë and its iron
  5. VThe Meroitic script
  6. VIThe candaces, ruling queens

Still to come

The people and objects these lessons will cover

People

  • Piye
  • Taharqa
  • Amanirenas
  • Charles Bonnet

Objects

  • Pyramids of Meroë
  • The head of Taharqa
  • Meroitic inscriptions

Where it sits

All of human history, era by era

Early human ancestryOur species and the Old Stone AgeFarming and the New Stone AgeFirst cities and the Bronze AgeThe Iron Age and growing statesThe classical worldAfter the empiresMedieval networks and empiresOceans crossedRevolutions and the first factoriesIndustry, empire and world warThe world since 1945

2500 BC to AD 350. Each era is drawn the same width, so the earliest are squeezed: era II alone is over 300,000 years.

Nearby in time and place

This page is an outline. The summary above is a starting point; each lesson, when it is written, will give its sources, its pictures and where historians disagree. Spotted a mistake?