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No single body of primary sources in the literary heritage of West Africa has attracted as much attention and attained as much celebrity as the fabled manuscripts of Timbuktu.
a week ago

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More from African History Extra

Online resources for African history: links to African collections held at 33 Western Museums

Up to 90% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s material cultural legacy is kept outside of the continent, according to a French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr and French historian Bénédicte Savoy.

4 days ago 8 votes
Africans in ancient Greece and Cyprus

Africans were already present on the European mainland by the time Herodotus —the so called father of history— wrote his monumental work, The Histories.

2 weeks ago 17 votes
The Knights of ancient Nubia: horsemen and charioteers from the kingdom of Kush (ca. 1600BC-400CE)

Among the groups of foreigners present in the Assyrian capital of Nimrud in 732 BC, was a community of horse experts from the kingdom of Kush led by an official who supplied horses to the armies of Tiglath-Pileser III.

3 weeks ago 15 votes
Chronicles of Africa's most powerful Women sovereigns: Amanirenas, Njinga and Eleni.

Less than six years following their victory over the armies of Queen Cleopatra in Egypt in 31 BC, the Romans marched their forces south to conquer the kingdom of Kush, which was also ruled by a Queen, known to her subjects as Amanirenas and to the Romans as the ‘Candace’.

a month ago 16 votes

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The Ghosts of Gaelic

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12 hours ago 2 votes
How to Evade Taxes in Ancient Rome: A 1,900-Year-Old Papyrus Reveals an Ancient Tax Evasion Scheme

It was surely not a coincidence that the New York Times published its story on the trial of a certain Gadalias and Saulos this past Monday, April 14th. The defendants, as their names suggest, did not live in modernity: the papyrus documenting their legal troubles dates to the reign of Hadrian, around 130 AD.  These men […]

11 hours ago 1 votes
The Curse Of Atreus and the House of Atreides in Greek Mythology

In Greek mythology, the kings of Mycenae and Sparta, Agamemnon and Menelaus, are both members of the House of Atreus. These Atreides, or sons of Atreus, were heroes of the Trojan War but also afflicted by a hereditary curse that saw each generation succumb to murder, cannibalism, and adultery.   While the family’s doom […]

yesterday 2 votes
Efficiency Is Sacred

We all see some things as sacred.

yesterday 2 votes
Lascaux Cave Paintings: Secrets of Prehistoric Art

Amid the Second World War, four young boys unearthed a Paleolithic masterpiece when they stumbled upon a cave in southwest France. The boys were entranced by the vivid hues of red, yellow, and black that formed vast scenes of animals appearing to move across the cave walls. Experts have studied the paintings and engravings […]

yesterday 2 votes