Books on Ancient North and Northeast Africa

Edwards, David N. The Nubian Past. London: Routledge, 2004. Chronological synthesis of the archaeology of Nubia and the Sudan from prehistory to the 19th century. The first major work on the subject for over three decades. Draws on the results of the latest research and fieldwork and new interpretative frameworks. Eschews an Egyptocentric approach. An essential reference for the student and scholar.
O’Connor, David. Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa. Philadelphia: University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1993. Illustrated study, published to accompany an exhibition at the University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. Takes an explicitly Nubian perspective, moving away from the usual Egypto-centric view of Nubian civilization. Includes controversial ideas and interpretations at variance with received scholarly opinion.
Welsby, Derek A., and Julie R. Anderson, eds. Sudan: Ancient Treasures. London: British Museum, 2004. Extensively illustrated, up-to-date overview of the archaeology of Sudan from the Palaeolithic to the early Islamic period, published to accompany an exhibition at the British Museum, London. Catalogue entries on individual objects are supplemented by essays by over fifty leading scholars covering all aspects of Sudanese and Nubian civilization.
Snowden, Frank M., Jr. Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1970. Provides textual and archaeological evidence that race was not a consideration in the Greek or Roman worlds.
Yamauchi, Edwin M. Africa and the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004. Offers a scholarly and readable consideration of the myths about blacks in the Bible, including discussions of the curse of Ham, Moses’s Cushite wife, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the Ethiopian eunuch, and Afrocentric interpretations.
Finneran, Niall. The Archaeology of Ethiopia. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Includes all periods and is consequently a little superficial, but has a very large bibliography.
Michels, Joseph W. Changing Settlement Patterns in the Aksum-Yeha Region of Ethiopia, 700 BC–AD 850. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 64. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005. A report on an extensive, pioneering archaeological fieldwork survey that attempted to set the Aksum area into its regional settlement context.
Munro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. A detailed introduction, more historical than archaeological in orientation, with a substantial bibliography.
Phillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum, 1998. A general archaeological introduction by a leading scholar in the field. Useful illustrations, including color, and a large bibliography.
Peacock, David, and Lucy Blue, eds. The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis, Eritrea: Results of the Eritro-British Expedition, 2004–5. Oxford: Oxbow, 2007. A report on a detailed survey at Adulis, the ancient port for Aksum. An investigation long overdue and the first research at this site for some years.
Schmidt, Peter R., and Matthew C. Curtis. “Urban Precursors in the Horn: Early 1st-Millennium BC Communities in Eritrea.” Antiquity 75.290 (2001): 849–859. Describes fieldwork and excavations in the Asmara area and explains their contribution to the understanding of urban and state development in Eritrea. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Schmidt, Peter R., Matthew C. Curtis, and Zelalem Teka, eds. The Archaeology of Ancient Eritrea. Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 2008. A comprehensive study of Eritrea’s past, including the results of late-20th-century and early-21st-century archaeological investigations of urban and state developments in the region. A valuable starting point for readers.
Ruffini, Giovanni. The Bishop, the Eparch, and the King: Old Nubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim. Warsaw: Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Warsaw, 2014. Comprehensive publication with interpretive English translations of the extant Old Nubian literature.
Davies, W. V., ed. Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. London: British Museum, 1991. A collection of thirty papers by leading specialists, ranging widely in subject and time.
Edwards, David N. The Archaeology of the Meroitic State: New Perspectives on Its Social and Political Organisation. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 38. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum, 1996. An analysis of the Meroitic state in its Sudanic African context, looking beyond the traditional focus on monuments and art and contributing substantially to understanding the formation of this early, urban-centered state.
Edwards, David N. The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. A comprehensive study of Sudan’s past that includes chapters on the time of Kerma, Meroë, and later periods.
Kendall, Timothy. Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush, 2500–1500 BC: The Archaeological Discovery of an Ancient Nubian Empire. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. An introductory study of Kerma, Africa’s oldest-known city and earliest state outside of Egypt.
O’Connor, David. Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa. Philadelphia: University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 1993. A general introduction, with good illustrations.
Shinnie, P. L. Meroe: A Civilization of the Sudan. Ancient Peoples and Places 55. London: Thames and Hudson, 1967. An old but classic study of Meroitic culture, concentrating on the archaeological evidence. Of historical value as an indication of the scholarship at the time of publication and also a good starting point for undergraduate students before they read more recent material. Well illustrated.
Welsby, Derek A. The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires. London: British Museum, 1996. A detailed study of the Meroitic state and its Napatan antecedent, both important examples of early social complexity in Nubia.
Brett, Michael, and Elizabeth Fentress. The Berbers. Peoples of Africa. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996. A comprehensive study of the Berbers, including their contributions to state formation and urbanization in pre-Islamic North Africa. Draws attention to a people who developed their own alphabet but who have been largely overlooked by archaeologists. A brief history of Berber kingdoms and the transformation of Berber societies into what is now known as Arab maghrib, written by an authority on the subject of Berber history and culture. Original publication in French.
Hirschberg, Haim. A History of the Jews in North Africa: From Antiquity to the Sixteenth Century. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1974. Hirschberg engages various theories and sources pointing to the existence of vibrant Berber Jewish communities as well as the fascinating history of Babylonian Diaspora Jews in North Africa.
MacKendrick, Paul. The North African Stones Speak. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980. An overview of classical sites and archaeological remains in North Africa for the general reader. This book is an accessible introduction.
Barich, Barbara. People, Water and Grain: The Beginnings of Domestication in the Sahara and the Nile Valley. Rome: L’Erma, 1998. This text provides evidence of a thriving prehistoric community in Libya.
Banks, K. “The Appearance and Spread of Cattle-Keeping in the Saharan North Africa.” Paper presented at an international symposium held at Dymaczewo, Poland, 5–10 September 1988. In Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northeast Africa. Edited by Lech Krzyzaniak. Poznan, Poland: Poznan Archaeological Museum, 1993. Banks argues for the existence of domesticated cattle in the Sahara as early as 7500 BC. There is the suggestion that peoples of North Africa and the Sahara may have domesticated animals much earlier than expected and without influence from the Middle East.
Holl, Augustin. Saharan Rock Art. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2004. Provides a fairly comprehensive survey of theories and approaches to Saharan rock art from the prehistoric period.
Camps, Gabriel. “Beginnings of Pastoralism and Cultivation in North-west Africa and the Sahara: Origins of the Berbers.” In Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 1, From the Earliest Times to c. 500 B.C. Edited by J. Desmond Clark, 548–612. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 1982. Champs traces the evidence for early pastoralism and proposes theories for the origin of the Berbers. DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521222150
Daniels, C. M. The Garamantes of Southern Libya. Stoughton, WI: Oleander, 1970. The first protohistoric peoples of North Africa were the Garamantes of the Fezzan Oasis in modern Libya. There are extensive and largely unexplored remains in the oasis. Recent excavations have uncovered more than 50,000 tombs, and ancient historians speak of tens of thousands of inhabitants . Although the Garamantes were influenced by Egypt, settlements on the Mediterranean were mainly the result of Phoenician colonization. Daniels here examines the archaeological remains of the Garamantes civilization of the Fezzan (Libya).
Hanno. The Periplus of Hanno. Translated by William Schoff. Philadelphia: Commercial Museum, 1912. This famous account of the voyages of the Ancient Phoenician admiral beyond the Pillars of Hercules remains an important, if disputed text. It demonstrates the extraordinary extent of Phoenician seafaring and discovery and provides accounts of the foundation of several cities and colonies on the African Atlantic coast.
Buck, D. J. “The Role of States in the Eastern Maghreb, 500 BC to AD 500.” Maghreb Review 9.1–2 (1984): 1–11. Buck provides a brief introduction to the theory of states and state formation in the eastern Maghreb region of ancient Tunisia and Libya.
Raven, Susan. Rome in Africa. 3d ed. New York: Routledge, 1993. Perhaps the best scholarly survey in English, Raven’s book provides a chronological overview and touches on important theoretical and social topics as well.
Mattingly, David, and Martin Sterry. 2013. The first towns in central Sahara. Antiquity 87.336: 503–518. A study of the development of urban settlements in the Saharan oases well beyond the southern frontiers of the Roman Empire and the trading relationship that linked these people to Rome. DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00049097
Scullard, H. H. 1970. Scipio Africanus: Soldier and politician. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. This remains the only full-scale treatment of Scipio's military and political career. A readable, if not penetrating, discussion that still awaits supersession.
 Pedley, John G. New Light on Ancient Carthage. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980. An accessible account of the history of the city of Carthage and excavations conducted there.
Hurst, Henry. “Excavations at Carthage 1977–8: Fourth Interim Report.” Antiquaries Journal 59.1 (1979): 19–49. Provides details of the remarkable circular harbor in this city, constructed in the late 3rd or early 2nd century BC. Available online for purchase or by subscription. DOI: 10.1017/S0003581500065252
Hitchner, Bruce R. 1994. Image and reality: The changing face of pastoralism in the Tunisian high steppe. In Landuse in the Roman Empire. Edited by Jesper Carlsen, Peter Ørsted, and Jens E. Skydsgaard, 27–44. Rome: L’Erma Bretschneider. Argues that evidence from this region suggests that Roman rule caused an evolution from semi-nomadic pastoralism to more specialized forms of pastoral production, which included long-distance transhumance, nomadism, and large-scale sedentary animal husbandry. It complements the studies on intensive oleiculture in the region; suitable for students.
Naylor, Phillip C. North Africa: A History from Antiquity to the Present. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. A recent historical overview that reflects modern American academic interest in the region.
Mattingly, David. “The Garamantes of Fazzan: An Early Libyan State with Trans-Saharan Connections.” Paper presented at a conference held in the Department of Coins and Medals, the British Museum, 2008. In Money, Trade and Trade Routes in Pre-Islamic North Africa. Edited by Amelia Dowler and Elizabeth R. Galvin, 49–60. British Museum Research Publication 176. London: British Museum, 2011. An introduction to the earliest indigenous urbanized state in the central Sahara, supported by sophisticated irrigation methods and providing a focal point in pre-Islamic times for trade networks linking the Nile, North Africa, and the west African savanna.
Kusimba, Chapurukha M. The Rise and Fall of Swahili States. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 1999. A general study of the evidence that is especially useful because it was written by a Kenyan archaeologist and offers a different approach to the subject.
Hoyos, Dexter. 1999. A modern view of Carthage’s truceless war (241–237 BC). Electronic Antiquity 5.1. Skeptical review of Loreto 1995.
Kunze, Claudia. 2011. Carthage and Numidia 201–149 BC. In A companion to the Punic wars. Edited by Dexter Hoyos, 395–411. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. A survey of Carthaginian-Numidian relations between the Second and Third Punic Wars. DOI: 10.1002/9781444393712
van Dommelen, Peter, and Carlos Gómez Bellard. 2008. Defining the Punic world and its rural contexts. In Rural landscapes in the Punic world. Edited by Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Gómez Bellard. Oakville, CT: Equinox. Contains a lucid discussion on the academic debate over the use of the term “Punic.”
Fentress, Elizabeth, and Roald Docter. 2008. North Africa: Rural settlement and agricultural production. In Rural landscapes in the Punic world. Edited by Peter van Dommelen and Carlos Gómez Bellard, 101–128. Oakville, CT: Equinox. Study that presents the latest survey and archaeological data across Carthaginian territory in North Africa. Highlights evidence of an increase in Carthage’s agricultural exploitation of its hinterland between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE in contrast to other cities in Punic North Africa, where this process appears to start later in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. Also highlights an emphasis on commercial exploitation of agriculture, such as oil and wine production.
Greene, Joseph. 2000. The beginnings of grape cultivation and wine production in Phoenician/Punic North Africa. In The origins and ancient history of wine. Edited by Patrick McGovern, Stuart Fleming, and Solomon Katz, 311–322. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach. Study of the earliest evidence for, and further development of, wine production in Punic North Africa.
Fentress, E. “Forever Berber?” Opus 2 (1983): 161–175. Forceful response to Shaw’s discussion of her earlier book, Fentress distinguishes between epistemological models based on archaeology and anthropology. She notes that military building projects might begin with a “self serving” agenda, but the army was not alone in using these structures. She argues that Shaw’s treatment of the army as a homogenous repressive body ignores the structural division between officers and men. In her view, the picture of southern Numidian society divided between estranged blocks of free indigenous peasants on one side and soldiers on the other oversimplifies complex interactions.
Shaw, B. “Soldiers and Society: The Army in Numidia.” Opus: Rivista internazionale per la storia economica e sociale dell’antichità 2 (1983): 133–159. Cast as a review discussion of Numidia and the Roman Army: Social, Military and Economic Aspects of the Frontier Zone by Elizabeth Fentress (BAR International Series 53, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1979), Shaw argues that “as outsiders to local Numidian society and as members of a ‘total institution’” (p. 148), soldiers were removed from the concerns of indigenous Numidians. He argues that soldiers built primarily for themselves and were not recruited from the typical peasantry. In sum, “the actions of soldiers in ‘civilian’ roles” (pp. 148–149) reinforced the military’s inner solidarity rather than connecting it with the local population.
Shaw, B. D. 1982. Lamasba: An ancient irrigation community. Antiquités Africaines 18.1: 61–103. A detailed study of a 3rd-century CE decree from a town in Numidia in North Africa. The purpose of the decree was to allocate water from a spring that was used for agriculture, in particular for the cultivation of olive trees. DOI: 10.3406/antaf.1982.1085
Shaw, B. D. 1984. Water and society in the ancient Maghrib: Technology, property, and development. Antiquités Africaines 20.1: 121–173. Examines methods to capture water in more arid regions of North Africa, such as terrace agriculture, and argues that they were used before Roman rule. DOI: 10.3406/antaf.1984.1103
Millar, Fergus. 1968. Local cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic and Latin in Roman Africa. Journal of Roman Studies 58:126–134. Remains a clear and valuable starting point for thinking about linguistic interaction in Roman Africa. To be read with Wilson 2012. DOI: 10.2307/299702
Wengrow, David. The Archaeology of Early Egypt: Social Transformation in North-East Africa, 10,000 to 2650 BC. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Original and provocative study, embracing archaeological and anthropological theory to examine social developments in early Egypt. Challenges the theoretical isolation of Egyptian prehistory. Focuses on social identity and ritual. Aimed at scholars of Egyptology and other disciplines.
Tassie, Geoffrey John. Prehistoric Egypt. London: Golden House, 2014. Supra-regional study of socioeconomic change in north-east Africa from the late Palaeolithic to the end of the Neolithic. Focuses on animal and plant domestication and ceramic technology. Combines empirical data with a theoretical approach. Reliable synthesis of a century of scholarship. Comprehensive bibliography. Scholarly but accessible.
Leahy, Anthony, ed. Libya and Egypt c 1300–750 BC. London: School of Oriental and African Studies/Society for Libyan Studies, 1990. Edited volume of essays on aspects of Egypt’s relations with Libya and the Libyans. Chapters cover late Bronze Age settlement, Libyans in late New Kingdom Egypt, excavations at Herakleopolis Magna, and the Theban twenty-third dynasty. Unattractively presented with no illustrations but a useful collection of original research on a neglected topic.
Darnell, John C. “The Deserts.” In The Egyptian World. Edited by Toby Wilkinson, 29–48. London: Routledge, 2007. Article summarizing the exploitation and cultural significance of the eastern and western deserts of Egypt from prehistory to the Late period, with special reference to cultic activity and religious architecture. A rare overview of the subject, particularly useful for students.
Friedman, Renée, ed. Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert. London: British Museum, 2002. Collection of eighteen essays by international experts, drawing on recent archaeological fieldwork to explore aspects of the Egyptian and Nubian deserts during the Prehistoric and Dynastic periods. Challenges the customary view of Egypt and Nubia as predominantly riverine civilizations. Aimed primarily at a scholarly readership.
Jeffreys, David. “The Nile Valley.” In The Egyptian World. Edited by Toby Wilkinson, 7–14. London: Routledge, 2007. Summary article discussing the geography and climate of the Nile Valley, and the effect of its topography and annual flooding regime on the culture and history of Egypt. A rare overview of an important topic, aimed primarily at students.
Hurst, Henry. “Excavations at Carthage 1977–8: Fourth Interim Report.” Antiquaries Journal 59.1 (1979): 19–49. Provides details of the remarkable circular harbor in this city, constructed in the late 3rd or early 2nd century BC. Available online for purchase or by subscription. DOI: 10.1017/S0003581500065252
Post Park, Douglas. “Prehistoric Timbuktu and Its Hinterland.” Antiquity 84.326 (2010): 1076–1088. Previous archaeological investigations at Timbuktu have been limited, and a late date has been suggested for its development. In contrast, this paper argues for an urban origin before AD 1000. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopians: A History. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2001. The book, by one of the leading specialists on Ethiopian history, opens with a review of Ethiopian prehistory and presents an overview of Aksumite, medieval, and postmedieval history.
Sellassie, Sergew Hable. Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Haile Selassie I University, 1972. A still readable general account of the Aksumite and Zagwé periods of Ethiopian histo
Adams, William Y. Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977. At the date of its publication, Adams’s book constituted a seminal study covering Nile valley history from the Palaeolithic to 1960, including geographical, archaeological, textual, linguistic, and ethnological data and taking a “Nubiocentric” viewpoint. It is still worthwhile reading, although the underlying “racialized” concepts of peoples and cultures are outdated.
Arkell, A. J. A History of the Sudan: From the Earliest Times to 1821. London: Athlone, 1961. This comprehensive standard history of the Sudan begins with the Stone Age and ends with the advent of the Turks in 1821. It is mainly based upon archaeological and anthropological findings. Although outdated, it is still mandatory for all those interested in early Sudanese history.
Budge, E. A. Wallis. A History of Ethiopia, Nubia and Abyssinia (According to the Hieroglyphic Inscriptions of Egypt, Nubia, and the Ethiopian Chronicles). Oosterhout, The Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1966. Although it is outdated with regard to the underlying concepts of Meroitic and Ethiopian history, this classic study is still of interest today. A one-volume reprint of a work first published as two volumes (London: Methuen, 1928). Only the first 120 pages of volume 1 cover the Sudan. The rest of the two volumes concentrates on Aksum and Ethiopian imperial history. Budge was an expert of written sources.
Shinn, David H., Thomas P. Ofcansky, and Chris Prouty. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 2004. A basic dictionary, which covers many aspects of Ethiopian history from Aksumite times to 1994. It also contains a substantial bibliography.
Ruffini, Giovanni. The Bishop, the Eparch, and the King: Old Nubian Texts from Qasr Ibrim. Warsaw: Faculty of Law and Administration of University of Warsaw, 2014. Comprehensive publication with interpretive English translations of the extant Old Nubian literature.
Edwards, David N. Gabati: A Meroitic, Post-Meroitic, and Medieval Cemetery in Central Sudan. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1998. An example of advanced archaeological techniques that make possible much-improved analysis of extinct Sudanese cultures
Török, László. Meroe City, an Ancient African Capital: John Garstang’s Excavations in the Sudan. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1997. Makes available some of the findings of John Garstang’s excavation.
Trigger, Bruce G. History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Department of Anthropology, 1965. Pioneering modern archaeological study of portions of Nubia soon to be flooded by the Aswan High Dam.
Bruce, James. Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile. 2d ed. Edinburgh: Ballantyne, 1805. Stimulating encounter between the Scottish Enlightenment and precolonial Africa. The second edition contains invaluable notes not present in the first. Bruce traversed the Sinnar sultanate near the beginning of the civil wars that were soon to destroy the kingdom. He was the last traveler to experience a still viable if troubled government.
Burckhardt, John Lewis. Travels in Nubia. London: Murray, 1819. Burckhardt described well the middle-class urban culture that arose during the age of decline and fall.
Adams, William Y. Nubia: Corridor to Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977. Pioneering archaeologically grounded synthesis of the history of early Sudanese kingdoms.
Burstein, Stanley M. Graeco-Africana: Studies in the History of Greek Relations with Egypt and Nubia. New Rochelle, NY: A. D. Caratzas, 1995. Aspects of Sudanese foreign relations during the Hellenistic period, based largely on hitherto-neglected Greek texts.
Edwards, David N. The Archaeology of the Meroitic State: New Perspectives on Its Social and Political Organization. Oxford: Tempus Reparatum, 1996. An original reading of social history based upon recent archaeological discoveries and new theoretical insights.
Edwards, David N. The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan. London: Routledge, 2004. Revisits Adams’s terrain in the light of new evidence and original theoretical perspectives.
Kendall, Timothy. Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush, 2500–1500 BC. Washington, DC: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1997. An art historian’s appreciation of the ancient Sudan.
Kryźaniak, Lech, Karla Kroeper, and Michał Kobusiewicz, eds. Cultural Markers in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa and Recent Research. Poznań, Poland: Poznań Archaeological Museum, 2003. These studies offer a background and a prelude to the rise of the ancient northeast African kingdoms, with an emphasis on the Sudan.
Török, László. The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1997. A stimulating reading of the intellectual and religious significance of the material culture of the period.
Welsby, Derek A. The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires. London: British Museum, 1996. A synthesis of the history of the northern Sudanese kingdom from the fall of the twenty-fifth Nubian dynasty of Egypt to the dawn of the Middle Ages.
Bedri, Yusuf, ed. and trans. The Memoirs of Babikr Bedri. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1969–1971. Autobiography of the eminent pioneer in Sudanese female education.
Churchill, Winston. The River War. London: Longmans, 1899. The campaign to bring down the Mahdist State, from a contemporary British perspective.
Burstein, Stanley, ed. Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum. Updated ed. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener, 2008. The author has compiled and edited with commentary the most significant Greek and Roman sources concerning Kush and Axum. Burstein begins with a brief survey of the two kingdoms of Kush and Axum. With introductions and notes, he then presents the ancient literary and epigraphical testimony for this region.
Shinn, David H., Thomas P. Ofcansky, and Chris Prouty. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 2004. A basic dictionary, which covers many aspects of Ethiopian history from Aksumite times to 1994. It also contains a substantial bibliography.
Edwards, David N. The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan. New York: Routledge, 2004a. This volume presents a new synthesis of the archaeology of Nubia and Sudan from earliest times to the postmedieval period. The book provides an up-to-date review based on the results of recent research.
Finneran, Niall. The archaeology of Ethiopia. New York: Routledge, 2007. This book is a comprehensive and readable study of the archaeology of Ethiopia from the late Stone Age to the 20th century. It includes an informative discussion of the Aksumite Empire and the emergence of Christianity in the Middle Ages.
Munro-Hay, Stuart Christopher. Excavations at Aksum: An Account of Research at the Ancient Ethiopian Capital Directed 1972–4 by the Late Dr. Neville Chittick. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989. This book documents the first major archaeological work in Aksum since the Deutsche Aksum Expedition (see Littmann 1913). Published after the death of excavator Neville Chittick, it presents a comprehensive account of the findings, with photographs, drawings, plans and tables. Introductory chapters include overviews over the history of the Aksumite kingdom and previous excavations.
Phillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum Press, 1998. Although the core of this book is about Aksum, pre- and post-Aksumite periods are also studied. The author stresses the Africanness of the pre-Aksumite phase. The author considers the legacy of Aksum in Christian arts and architecture of medieval Ethiopia.
Trigger, Bruce G. History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven, CT: Department of Anthropology, Yale University, 1965. Trigger’s readable, although outdated, summary of Nubian settlement and history represented the state-of-the-art of Nubian studies prior to the Aswan Salvage Campaign of the early 1960s. Trigger introduced a new chronological sequence for Nubian culture that he termed Early and Middle Nubian Sequence, New Kingdom and Late Nubian Sequence. The main body of the text consists of the systematic description of the history and settlement of Nubia for each of these periods. The bibliography lists approximately eight hundred sources pertaining to Nubian history and prehistory through 1963.
Ali Hakem, Ahmed M. Meroitic Architecture: A Background of an African Civilization. Khartoum, Sudan: Khartoum University Press, 1988. The book starts with topography of Meroe and Napata, followed by general remarks on Meroitic settlements and royal palaces. Different types of temples are discussed in the second part, followed by a study of tombs.
Kendall, Timothy. “The Origin of the Napatan State: El Kurru and the Evidence for Royal Ancestors.” Meroitica 15 (1999): 3–117. Studies the origins of the Napatan states in what is often called the “dark centuries” after the Egyptian New Kingdom occupation of Nubia. The chronology of the cemetery of El-Kurru plays a decisive role in the reconstruction of early Napatan history.
Morkot, Robert G. The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers. London: Rubicon, 2000. The book presents a comprehensive and readable study of the kingdom of Kush, its conquest of Egypt, and its foreign relations.
Shinnie, P. L. Meroe, a Civilization of the Sudan. London and New York: Thames and Hudson, 1967. Although a bit outdated, this book still is the classic study of Meroe addressing a wider public, stressing Meroe’s importance and significance for African history independent of any relationship with Old Egypt.
Török, László. The Royal Crowns of Kush: A Study in Middle Nile Valley Regalia and Iconography in the 1st Millennia B.C. and A.D. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1987. A study of the different types of headdress and their changes over time. The author concludes that there is a close relationship between late-Meroitic and post-Meroitic crowns.
Török, László. The Kingdom of Kush: Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1997. A comprehensive survey of the textual, archaeological, and art historical evidence for the Kingdom of Kush. Török starts with the emergence of Kush after the pharaonic domination in the 11th century BCE, and the rule of the kings of Kush in Egypt (c. 760–656 BCE). He continues by discussing the political history of the kingdom in the Napatan (7th–3rd centuries BCE) and Meroitic periods (3rd century BCE–4th century CE).
Welsby, Derek A. The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires. Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener, 1998. The material the author presents is primarily archaeological but also contains evidence from classical sources. Major topics covered are architecture, the arts, writing, economy, religion, and funeral rituals. Additionally, Kush’s relations with its Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, and Roman contemporaries are described. The book is extensively illustrated with photographs.
Williams, Bruce. “A Chronology of Meroitic Occupation below the Fourth Cataract.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 22 (1985): 149–195. The author presents a relative chronology of the two Meroitic cemeteries at Ballana and Qustul based on ceramic grave goods and compares it to the chronology of cemeteries and settlements to the north of the fourth cataract. DOI: 10.2307/40000399
Abdalla, Abdelgadir M. “Meroitic Social Stratification.” In Meroitistische Forschungen 1980: Akten der 4. Internationalen Tagung für Meroitistische Forschungen vom 24. bis 29. November 1980 in Berlin. Edited by Fritz Hintze, 23–84. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1984. The author outlines the social stratification of Meroitic society on the basis of grave goods, accommodation, jewelry, and titles. Ten genealogical trees are reconstructed.
Lohwasser, Angelika. “Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 38 (2001b): 61–76. A short English presentation of the concept of “queenship,” useful for those not able to read the lengthy German study Lohwasser 2001a. DOI: 10.2307/40000552
Morkot, Robert. “Kingship and Kinship in the Empire of Kush.” In Studien zum antiken Sudan (Akten der 7. Internationalen Tagung für meroitische Forschungen, 14–19 September 1992 in Gosen/bei Berlin). Edited by S. Wenig, 179–229. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1999. The paper discusses the genealogy and succession of the 25th Dynasty kings and the evidence for their reign lengths. It considers these issues within the broader context of ancient Nubian and Kushite states.
Török, László. Economic Offices and Officials in Meroitic Nubia. A Study in Territorial Administration of the Late Meroitic Kingdom. Budapest: ELTE, 1979. The study is an important contribution to the understanding of the administration of the Meroitic kingdom.
Connah, Graham. African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa, an Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Chapter 4 deals with Ethiopia’s Aksumite period. It is a good summary that, together with the other chapters of the book, helps to place Ethiopia in the context of African history.
Kobishchanov, Yuri M. Axum. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1979. Originally published in Russian, this book presents Axumite civilization from a Marxist viewpoint. It is one of the few general histories of Aksum and still worth reading.
Munro-Hay, Stuart C. H. Aksum, an African Civilization of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the Aksumite kingdom discussing its history, chronology, and culture. An extensive bibliography helps those who want to go deeper and study the many unsolved problems of Aksumite history. Unfortunately, the bibliography is missing from the online edition.
Munro-Hay, Stuart C. H. “State Development and Urbanism in Northern Ethiopia.” In The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. Edited by T. Shaw, P. Sinclair, B. Andah, and A. Okpoko, 609–621. London: Routledge, 1993. The author looks at early state formation in Ethiopia in a northeastern African context.
Marcus, Harold G. A History of Ethiopia. Rev. ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. Chapter 1 of this of general history of Ethiopia deals with the period prior to the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty in 1270; chapters 2 and 3 discuss its rise and decline from 1270 to 1796.
Negash, Tekeste. The Zagwe Period Re-interpreted: Post-Aksumite Ethiopian Urban Culture. A short and readable introduction to the Zagwe period of Ethiopian history, which is by far the least studied. It is often wrongly marked as a “dark period,” but the author argues for a long and prosperous period of political stability under the Zagwe rulers.
Pankhurst, Richard K. P. An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia from Early Times to 1800. London: Lalibela House, 1961. A good reference work that begins with an introduction to Ethiopian history, followed by a survey of social and economic life between 1300 and 1800.
Pankhurst, Richard K. P. State and Land in Ethiopian History. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Nairobi, Kenya: Haile Selassie I University, Institute of Ethiopian Studies and Faculty of Law, with Oxford University Press, 1966. A study of Ethiopian land tenure from Aksumite times to the early 20th century. The main focus lies on the medieval period, with discussions of the different types of land, taxation, landlord-tenant-relations, and many more topics.
Phillipson, David W. Ancient Churches of Ethiopia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. This study includes historical, archaeological, and art historical evidence to provide a comprehensive account of Ethiopian Christian civilization and its churches from the Aksumite period to the 13th century.
Ullendorf, Edward. Ethiopia and the Bible. London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1968. The book offers an interesting survey of the Hebraic impact on Ethiopian Christianity. Different aspects, such as Bible translations and the story of the queen of Sheba, are discussed.
Bowersock, Glen W. Throne of Adulis: Red Sea Wars on the Eve of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. With its political capital at Axum (present-day Ethiopia) and its commercial capital at Adulis (present-day Eritrea), the Adulite-Aksumite Kingdom was for the seven centuries of the Christian era a potent regional force with far-reaching alliances. This book revives the discussion about its military operations in Yemen when the Arab-Jewish ruler of Himyar massacred Christians at Najran in 523 CE.
Schmidt, P., M. C. Curtis, and Zelalem Teka. The Archaeology of Ancient Eritrea. Trenton, NJ: Africa World, 2007. An anthology of research conducted after independence by scholars from Eritrea, Europe, and the United States whose focus ranges from the earliest human settlement to the rise of urban centers and the cultural complexity that has characterized the region.
Connah, Graham. African Civilizations: An Archaeological Perspective. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Examines the development of social complexity, concentrating upon urbanism and state formation in seven main areas of Africa: Nubia, Ethiopia, the West African savanna, the West African forest, the East African coast and islands, the Zimbabwe Plateau, and parts of Central Africa.
Mitchell, Peter. African Connections: An Archaeological Perspective on Africa and the Wider World. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira, 2005. Looks at Africa’s long and complex relationship with the rest of the world. Although covering a broad time period, it is valuable for placing Africa within a wider context.
Phillipson, David W. African Archaeology. 3d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. A concise, readable, and well-illustrated summary of the archaeological evidence available at the time of publication, it discusses iron-using peoples region by region and also deals with related issues and arguments. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511800313
Shaw, Thurstan, Paul Sinclair, Bassey Andah, and Alex Okpoko, eds. The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, 1993. Substantial edited volume covering the prehistory of Africa to the recent historical past, and discussing food production, technology, and increasing social complexity. Chapters 16, 17, 21–32, and 37–44 are of particular relevance.
Stahl, Ann Brower, ed. African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. The twenty-three contributing authors to this volume are all acknowledged specialists in their own areas, and their various chapters provide the most up-to-date introduction to current research and debates in African archaeology. Chapters 10–18 are most relevant to the Iron Age.
Arkell, Anthony. “The Valley of the Nile.” In The Dawn of African History. 2d ed. Edited by Roland Oliver, 7–12. London: Oxford University Press, 1968. The site of Meroe in Sudan produced evidence for substantial iron production from perhaps the mid-1st millennium BCE. Arkell presents the idea that ironworking spread south from Meroe, a theory that has not yet been supported or discounted.
Killick, David. “Cairo to Cape: The Spread of Metallurgy through Eastern and Southern Africa.” Journal of World Prehistory 22.4 (2009): 399–414. Looks at the evidence for the beginnings of metallurgy in Egypt and Nubia, the Great Lakes region, and Southern Africa, as well as the mechanisms by which technology may have spread south. DOI: 10.1007/s10963-009-9025-3
McIntosh, Susan Keech, and Roderick McIntosh. “From Stone to Metal: New Perspectives on the Later Prehistory of West Africa.” Journal of World Prehistory 2 (1988): 89–133. Examines the available evidence for the spread of iron technology across the continent. Suggests that contacts with North Africa led to the introduction of copper and ironworking techniques to Akjoujt, Mauritania, but argues that introduction was followed by indigenous development. DOI: 10.1007/BF00975123
Edwards, David N. The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of the Sudan. London: Routledge, 2004. A well-written and comprehensive synthesis of the archaeology of Nubia and Sudan. Chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 are most relevant.
Rehren, Thilo. “Meroe, Iron and Africa.” Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft 12 (2001): 102–109. Discussion of the iron industry at Meroe, suggesting the potential annual output of iron objects.
Finneran, Niall. The Archaeology of Ethiopia. London: Routledge, 2007. The archaeology not just of Ethiopia but of the entire Horn of Africa. Chapters 5 and 6 are the most relevant.
Mapunda, Bertram B. B. “Patching Up Evidence for Ironworking in the Horn.” African Archaeological Review 14 (1997): 107–124. Evaluation of the evidence for the origins of ironworking in the Horn of Africa. Mapunda suggests that rather than arguing for an external origin or local invention, a third hypothesis may be more useful, in which ideas and people moved freely around the region. DOI: 10.1007/BF02968369
Munro-Hay, S. C. Excavations at Aksum: An Account of Research at the Ancient Ethiopian Capital Directed in 1972–74 by the Late Dr. Neville Chittick. Memoirs of the British Institute in Eastern Africa 10. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 1989. A report of Chittick’s excavations, unpublished when he died, by a member of his team.
Phillipson, David W. Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia, 1993–7. 2 vols. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa, 2000. A two-volume account of five seasons’ fieldwork at Aksum, providing a detailed picture of life in the Aksumite state.
Chami, Felix A. “A Review of Swahili Archaeology.” African Archaeological Review 15.3 (1998): 199–218. Useful review of the available archaeological evidence for settlement on the coast from the Early Iron Age to the Later Iron Age, concentrating on the Swahili coastal communities. DOI: 10.1023/A:1021612012892
Horton, Mark, and John Middleton. The Swahili: The Social Landscape of a Mercantile Society. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000. There are many publications on the Swahili. This volume gives a good overview of the subject, using archaeological and documentary evidence to look at Swahili history, anthropology, language, and culture.
Kusimba, Chapurukha M., and Sibel B. Kusimba. East African Archaeology: Foragers, Potters, Smiths, and Traders. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. A collection of papers, most by East African scholars, that discuss various relevant aspects of East African prehistory.
Middleton, John. The World of the Swahili: An African Mercantile Civilization. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. A dynamic ethnography showing how a middleman culture developed along the length of the East African coast as Swahili towns became polyglot, multiethnic frontiers mediating between African and immigrant peoples, economies, and cultures.
Spear, Thomas. “Early Swahili History Reconsidered.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 33.2 (2000): 257–290. An updated revision of Nurse and Spear 1985 that takes account of subsequent work to refine and summarize the authors’ argument regarding the local origins of the Swahili. Available online by subscription. DOI: 10.2307/220649
Austin, Ralph. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. This brief text is good example of the recent trend toward placing even regional African histories in the broader contest of world history.
Gilbert, Erik, and Jonathan T. Reynolds. Africa in World History: From Prehistory to the Present. 3d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012. When first published in 2004, this text was the first comprehensive African history survey to engage the area studies construction of Africa by placing the continent in a comparative and connected world historical framework.
Iliffe, John. Africans: The History of a Continent. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Originally published in 1995, but updated with a new edition in 2007, this textbook is built around the theme of the human (African) colonization of what the author characterizes as an environmentally challenging African continent. Iliffe’s work is a good example of the growing influence of environmental context on African history. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511800375
Oliver, Roland, and J. D. Fage. A Short History of Africa. 6th ed. London: Penguin, 1990. First published in 1962, this work is the first attempt at a comprehensive African history textbook. A total of six editions were released. This text is a good example of early Africanist representations of Africa and Africans.
Henze, Paul B. Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia. London: Hurst, 2000. A sweeping overview of Ethiopian history from the origins of humankind to the beginning of the 21st century, this account reflects Henze’s extensive travels in Ethiopia and his service at the US Embassy in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Pankhurst, Richard. The Ethiopians. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998. Singling out key topical issues in Ethiopian history, the book begins with prehistory and moves to the position of Ethiopia in biblical times. It covers the major dynasties and the roles of religion, culture, and the economy in Ethiopian history.
Brooks, Miguel F., ed. A Modern Translation of the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings). Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea, 1995. Translated from ancient Ethiopian Ge’ez, the Kebra Nagast asserts that the kings of Ethiopia were descended from Menelik (son of Solomon by the Queen of Sheba) and were of divine origin, and their words and deeds were those of gods.
Johanson, Donald, and Maitland Edey. Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981. This is the story of the discovery of the 3.2- to 3.5-million-year-old partial skeleton in the Afar Region of Ethiopia in 1974. Named Lucy, it is the oldest, most complete, and best-preserved skeleton of any erect-walking human ancestor.
Johanson, Donald, and Blake Edgar. From Lucy to Language. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. A well-illustrated oversize volume, the book documents the timeline globally between bipedalism and human language. Some of the book is based on Johanson’s field work in Ethiopia.
Kalb, Jon. Adventures in the Bone Trade: The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression. New York: Copernicus, 2001. The author is a geologist and paleontologist who studied Ethiopia’s Afar Depression for thirty years. While the focus of the book is on competition over the discovery of the origins of humankind, it also deals with geology and politics.
Finneran, Niall. The Archaeology of Ethiopia. London: Routledge, 2007. Covering a wide span of time from Lucy through Aksum, the book discusses medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Ethiopia. This includes Lalibela, Islamic influences, medieval Ethiopian monasticism, and heritage management.
Munro-Hay, Stuart. Aksum: An African Civilisation of Late Antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991. The book examines the features of the Aksum civilization, its unique architecture, artistic life, material culture, history, and religion. It reviews the problems of Aksumite studies and includes a thorough bibliography of Aksumite works.
Munro-Hay, Stuart. Ethiopia: The Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical Guide. London: I.B. Tauris, 2002. An authoritative guide to Ethiopia’s architecture, geography, peoples, art, and history, it includes Gondar, Harar, Lalibela, Aksum, Debra Damo, Yeha, and the rock churches in several regions.
Phillipson, David W. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum, Its Antecedents and Successors. London: British Museum, 1998. While the focus of this work is on the Aksumite civilization, it discusses Ethiopia before Aksum and Christian Ethiopia after Aksum. It is well illustrated with architectural drawings and photos.
Phillipson, David W. Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC–AD 1300. Woodbridge, UK: James Currey, 2012. While based on archaeological research, the book incorporates evidence from historical documentation, linguistics, and other research.
Ayele Bekerie. Ethiopic, an African Writing System: Its History and Principles. Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea, 1997. The author argues that Ge’ez or Ethiopic is one of the major contributions made by Africans to world history and cultures. Ethiopic laid the foundation for a great literary tradition in Ethiopia and contributed to our knowledge today of Christianity. The author traces the Ethiopic writing system back to 2000 BCE.
Kea, Ray A. “Expansions and Contractions: World-Historical Change and the Western Sudan World-System (1200/1000 B.C.–1200/1250 A.D.).” Journal of World-Systems Research 10.3 (2004): 723–816. A five-part overview of archaeological and historical evidence contributing to an understanding of the development and chronology of urbanization, social systems, and trade networks in sub-Saharan West Africa and their relationship to worldwide historical change. Draws some conclusions and connections that exceed the quality of the archaeological data on which they are based.
Austen, Ralph A. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History. New Oxford World History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Highly accessible and recommended work covering the evidence for and effects of trans-Saharan commerce from Antiquity through the colonial period. The chapter on “Islamicate Culture” (pp. 98–117), referring to the cultural transformations of African societies through the constant dialogue with Islam sustained by trans-Saharan trade, is unique among these general works.
Butzer, Karl W., and Carl L. Hansen. Desert and River in Nubia: Geomorphology and Prehistoric Environments at the Aswan Reservoir. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. The geomorphic landscape of southern Egypt and its evolution during the Ice Age. Results of one of the rescue operations during the construction of the Aswan High Dam.
deMenocal, Peter B. “Plio-Pleistocene African Climate.” Science 270.5233 (1995): 53–59. Sees marine records as pointing to shifts to more arid conditions in Africa approximately 2.8, 1.7, and 1.0 million years ago, suggesting that some Pleistocene speciation events may have been climatically mediated. Available online for purchase or by subscription. DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5233.53
Gasse, Françoise. “Hydrological Changes in the African Tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum.” Quaternary Science Reviews 19.1–5 (2000): 189–211. Gasse shows that the late Pleistocene and Holocene environments of both hemispheres are interrelated, with major dry spells in Africa approximately 8.4–8.0 and 4.2–4.0 thousands of years before present. Available online for purchase or by subscription. DOI: 10.1016/S0277-3791(99)00061-X
Soulié-Märsche, I., S. Bieda, R. Lafond, et al. “Charophytes as Bio-Indicators for Lake Level High Stand at ‘Trou au Natron,’ Tibesti, Chad, during the Late Pleistocene.” In Special Issue: Quaternary and Global Change: Review and Issues: Special Issue in Memory of Hugues Faure. Edited by Jean-Luc Probst, Luc Ortlieb, and Liliane Faure-Denard. Global and Planetary Change 72.4 (2010): 334–340. Evidence of a wet central Sahara 14,000 years ago. Available online for purchase or by subscription. DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.05.004
Herb, Michael, and Philippe Derchain. “The ‘Landscapes’ of Ancient Egypt: Intellectual Reactions to the Environment of the Lower Nile Valley.” In African Landscapes: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Edited by Michael Bollig and Olaf Bubenzer, 201–224. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation 4. New York: Springer, 2009.As society and culture evolved in ancient Egypt, so, too, did its habitat, in both a physical and a conceptual sense.Williams, Martin A. J., and Hugues Faure, eds. The Sahara and the Nile: Quaternary Environments and Prehistoric Occupation in Northern Africa. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Balkema, 1980. Twenty-two substantial papers by recognized authorities on the region’s climate history, landscape evolution, and prehistoric occupation.
Collins, Robert O. The Nile. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. Includes the construction of the Aswan High Dam and more recent, large-scale engineering works.
Said, Rushdi. The River Nile: Geology, Hydrology and Utilization. Oxford and New York: Pergamon, 1993.Said was a former head of the Geological Survey of Egypt.  He brings together the geology, geography, and hydrology of the river in a very readable form. Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Remains a significant and carefully documented point of departure for understanding the region’s history.
Ehret, Chris. An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 BCE to CE 400. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998. Ehret’s text is notable not only in its attention to what might be considered ancient African history but also in its global comparative context.

Important summary studies in this area include P. L. Shinnie’s Meroë: A Civilization of the Sudan and Fritz and Ursala Hintze’s Civilizations of the Old Sudan, a short, readable, and well-illustrated book. Mandour el-Mahdi’s A Short History of the Sudan presents a summary of Sudanese history from antiquity to the present
Snowden, Frank M., Jr. Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971.
Thompson, Lloyd A. “Eastern Africa and the Graeco-Roman World (to A.D. 641).” In Africa in Classical Antiquity. Edited by L. A. Thompson and J. Ferguson. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1969, 26–61. ———. Romans and Blacks. London: Routledge, 1989. Thompson, L. A., and J. Ferguson, eds. Africa in Classical Antiquity. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1969.
Schoff, W. H. The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. New York: Longmans, Green, 1912. Scullard, H. H. The Elephant in the Greek and Roman World. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.
Burstein, Stanley, ed. Ancient African Civilizations: Kush and Axum. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, 1998.
Dafa‘alla, Samia B. “Art and Industry: the Achievements of Meroë.” In Nubia: An Ancient African Civilization. Expedition 35, no. 2. Philadelphia: University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1993, 15–27.
Dixon, D. M. “A Meroitic Cemetery at Sennar (Makwar).” Kush 11 (1963): 227–34. ———. “The Origin of the Kingdom of Kush (Napata-Meroë).” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 50 (1964): 121–32.
Gervers, Michael, “Cotton and Cotton Weaving in Meroitic Nubia and Medieval Ethiopia.” In Orbis Aethiopicus: Studia in Honorem Stanislaus Chojnacki. Vol. 1. Edited by Piotr O. Schol. Albstadt: K. Schuler, 1992, 13–29.
Zabkar, L. V. Apedemak Lion God of Meroë: A Study in Egyptian-Meroitic Syncretism. Warminster, U.K.: Aris & Phillips, 1975.
Trigger, Bruce G. “The Myth of Meroë and the African Iron Age.” African Historical Studies 2 (1969): 23–50.
Tylecote, R. F. “Iron Working at Meroë, Sudan.” Bulletin of the Historical Metallurgy Group 4 (1970): 67–72.
Kraeling, Emil G. The Brooklyn Museum Aramaic Papyri: New Documents of the Fifth Century B.C. from the Jewish Colony at Elephantine. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1953.
Porten, Bezalel. Archives from Elephantine. The Life of an Ancient Jewish Military Colony. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968
Shinnie, P. L. Meroë: A Civilization of the Sudan. New York: Praeger, 1967.
———. The African Iron Age. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971. ———. “The Nilotic Sudan and Ethiopia c. 660 B.C. to c. A.D. 600.” In Cambridge History of Africa. Edited by J. Fage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978, 210–71. Smith, H. F. C. “The Transfer of the Capital of Kush from Napata to Meroë.” Kush 3 (1955): 20–25.
Gervers, Michael, “Cotton and Cotton Weaving in Meroitic Nubia and Medieval Ethiopia.” In Orbis Aethiopicus: Studia in Honorem Stanislaus Chojnacki. Vol. 1. Edited by Piotr O. Schol. Albstadt: K. Schuler, 1992, 13–29
Kitchen, K. A. The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt. 2nd ed. Warminster, U.K.: Aris and Phillips, 1986.
Monges, Miriam Ma‘at-Ka-Re. Kush the Jewel of Nubia: Reconnecting the Root System of African Civilization. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1996. Morkot, Robert G. The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers. London: Rubicon Press, 2000.
Ryder, M. L. “Skin, Hair and Cloth Remains from the Ancient Kerma Civilization of Northern Sudan.” Journal of Archaeological Science 11 (1984): 477–82. Sadr, Karim. “The Territorial Expanse of the Pan-Grave Culture.” Archéologie de Nil Moyen, no. 2 (1987): 265–91. ———. The Development of Nomadism in Ancient Northeast Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. Säve-Söderbergh, T. “The Nubian Kingdom of the Second Intermediate Period.” Kush 4 (1956): 54–61. Trigger, Bruce. “Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 9, no. 1 (1976): 1–21.

O’Connor, David B. “Ancient Egypt and Black Africa: Early Contacts.” Expedition 14 (1971): 2–9.———. “The Locations of Yam and Kush and their Historical Implications.” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 23 (1986): 26–50. ———. “The Location of Irem.” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 73 (1987): 99–136. ———. “Early States along the Nubian Nile.” In Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. Edited by W. V. Davies. London: British Museum, 1991, 92–111. ———. “Chiefs or Kings?: Rethinking Early Nubian Politics.” In Nubia: An Ancient African Civilization. Exposition 35, no. 2. Philadelphia: The University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, 1993, 4–14
Kendall, Timothy. Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush 2500–1500 B.C.: The Archaeological Discovery of an Ancient Nubian Empire. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, 1996.
Bonnet, Charles, et al. “Kerma: An African Kingdom of the Second and Third Millennia B.C.” Archaeology 36 (1983): 38–45.
Badawy, Alexander. “Askut: A Middle Kingdom Fortress in Nubia.” Archaeology 18 (1965): 124–31.
Morkot, R. “Nubia in the New Kingdom: The Limits of Egyptian Control.” In Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. Edited by W. V. Davies. London: British Museum, 1991.
Trigger, Bruce G. Nubia under the Pharaohs. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1976.
Butzer, Karl W., and Carl L. Hansen. Desert and River in Nubia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968. Caneva, I., et al. El Geili, The History of a Middle Nile Environment 7000 BC–AD 1500. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, no. 29. Oxford: B.A.R., 1988.
Clark, Grahame. Aspects of Prehistory. New York: Praeger, 1970
Clark, J. Desmond. The Prehistory of Africa. New York: Praeger, 1970. ———. “Shabona: An Early Khartoum Settlement on the White Nile.” In Late Prehistory of the Nile Basin and Sahara. Edited by L. Krzyzaniak and M. Kobusiewiz. Poznan, Poland: Poznam Academy of Sciences, 1989, 387–410.
Hassan, Fekri. “Prehistoric Settlements along the Main Nile.” In The Sahara and the Nile. Edited by M. A. J. Williams and H. Faure. Rotterdam: Balkhema, 1980, 421–50. ———. “Chronology of the Khartoum ‘Mesolthic’ and ‘Neolithic’ and Related Sites in the Sudan: Statistical Analysis and Comparisons with Egypt.” African Archaeological Review 4 (1986): 83–102.
Heinzelin, J. de, and Paepe, R. “The Geological History of the Nile Valley in Sudanese Nubia. Preliminary Results.” In Contribution to the Prehistory of Nubia. Edited by Fred Wendorf. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1964.
Krzyzaniak, Lech. “The Neolithic Habitation at Kadero (Central Sudan).” In Origin and Early Development of Food-Producing Cultures in North Eastern Africa. Edited by L. Krzyzaniak and M. Kobusiewicz. Poznan, Poland: Poznan Academy of Sciences, 1984, 309–16
McBurney, C. B. M. The Stone Age of Northern Africa. Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1960.
Sadr, Karim. The Development of Nomadism in Ancient Northeast Africa. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. ———. “Preliminary Results of CERDO’s Research in the Nubian Desert.” Nyame Akuma, no. 41 (June 1994): 66–68. ———. “Nubian Desert Archaeology: A Preliminary View.” Archéologie du Nil Moyen, no. 7 (1995): 203–35.
Wendorf, Fred, ed. Contributions to the Prehistory of Nubia. 2 vols. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1965, 1968.
Adams, William Yewdale. “Archaeological Survey of Sudanese Nubia: Introduction.” Kush 9 (1961): 7–11.
Bacon, Edward, ed. Vanished Civilizations. London: Thames and Hudson, 1963.
Celenko, Theodore, ed. Egypt in Africa. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1996.
Davies, W. V., ed. Egypt and Africa: Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. London: British Museum Press, 1991.
Fairservis, Walter, A., Jr. The Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile. New York: New American Library, 1962.
Haynes, Joyce Louise. Nubia: Ancient Kingdoms of Africa. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1992.
Hoefer, Hans, et al. The Nile. Boston: APA Publications, 1996.
Jones, A. R. M., and Elizabeth Monroe. A History of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955. Kamil, Jill. Aswan and Abu Simbel. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1993. ———. Upper Egypt and Nubia. Cairo: Longman, 1996.
Mahdi, Mandour el-. A Short History of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press, 1965. Mann, Kenny. African Kingdoms of the Past: Egypt, Kush Aksum. Parsippany, N.J.: Dillon Press, 1997.
Monges, Miriam Ma‘at Ka Re. Kush: The Jewel of Nubia. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1997. Moorehead, Alan. The White Nile. 2nd ed. New York: Harper, 1971. ———. The Blue Nile. New York: Harper, 1972.
Snowden, Frank M. Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983. ———. “Images and Attitudes: Ancient Views of Nubia and the Nubians.” In Nubia: An Ancient African Civilization. Expedition 35, no. 2. Philadelp
Shinnie, Margaret. Ancient African Kingdoms. London: Edward Arnold, 1965.
Taylor, J. H. Egypt and Nubia. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Trigger, Bruce G. History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, no. 69. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965.
Ullendorff, Edward. The Ethiopians. London: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Wenig, Stefan. Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan. Vols. 1 and 2. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1978. Wildung, Dietrich, ed. Sudan Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile. Translated by Peter Der Manuelian. New York: Flammarion, 1997. Williams, Bruce Beyer. “Forebears of Menes in Nubia: Myth or Reality?” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 46 (1987): 15–26. ———. Nubia, Its Glory and Its People: Ancient Artifacts from Nubian Dynasties of Africa, 3500 B.C. to 1200 A.D. Exhibition, February 1–28, 1987. Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Oak Woods Cemetery, 1987. ———.“The Lost Pharaohs of Nubia.” Journal of African Civilization, no. 10 (Summer 1989): 90–104.