African History

The first kingdom for which there is documentary evidence is that of Aksum (Axum), a kingdom which probably emerged in the 2d cent. A.D., thus making Ethiopia the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the most ancient in the world.

It was not until c.3000 B.C. that the Sahara transformed into its present arid state. The camel was introduced probably in the 1st cent. A.D. and facilitated occupation by nomads.

Ancient state of NE Africa. At the height of its political power Nubia extended, from north to south, from the First Cataract of the Nile (near Aswan, Egypt) to Khartoum, in Sudan.

Considering the great importance of the Nile to Egypt, it is not surprising that in ancient times it was deified, and it has always been regarded with the utmost reverence. Each year the Nile floods its banks and the height of the flood has been recorded annually since at least 3600 BC.

The earliest monuments in the city itself date from the 11th dynasty (c. 21st century BC), when the rulers of Thebes united Egypt and made Thebes the capital of Upper Egypt.

Eighteenth Dynasty king of Egypt who came to the throne aged nine and reigned from 1334 bc to 1325 bc. The outstandingly preserved treasures of his tomb were discovered in 1922.

King of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty, Akhenaten reigned from approximately 1360 to 1343bce. Akhenaten is notable for having briefly replaced the entire Egyptian pantheon with a single deity, the Aten, the physical manifestation of the sun.

(flourished 14th century BC) Queen of Egypt and wife of Akhenaton (r. 1353-36 BC).

Name of several kings of ancient Egypt of the XIX and XX dynasties (13th-12th C. BC).

D. 229 or 228 B.C., Carthaginian general. Father of Hannibal.

69 B.C.–30 B.C., queen of Egypt, one of the great romantic heroines of all time.

Carthaginian general, one of the great military leaders of antiquity.

185?–254?, Christian philosopher and scholar.

(Claudius Ptolemaeus), fl. 2d cent. A.D., celebrated Greco-Egyptian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer.

The greatest of the Latin Fathers of the Church, born in Tagaste, Numidia (modern Algeria).

Extinct language of ancient Egypt. Developed during four periods: (1) Old Egyptian (3d millennium B.C.); (2) Middle Egyptian (2134 - 1354 B.C.) (3) Late Egyptian (to 12th cent. B.C.); and (4) demotic (8th cent. B.C. - 5th cent. A.D.).

Egyptian hieroglyphics appear in several stages: the first dynasty (3110–2884 B.C.), when they were already perfected; the Old Kingdom; the Middle Kingdom, when they were beginning to go out of use; the New Empire, when they were no longer well understood by the scribes; and the late hieroglyphics (from 500 B.C.), when the use of them was a tour de force.

Inscribed stone slab, now in the British Museum, that provided an important key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Extinct language of Ethiopia belonging to the North Ethiopic group of the South Semitic (or Ethiopic) languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages.