Empires of the Nile

This volume brings together three archaeological histories of the Nile south of Egypt. Welsby treats the kingdom of Kush and the Napatan and Meroitic empires, then the medieval Nubian kingdoms in which pagan, Christian, and later Muslim communities occupied the Middle Nile. Phillipson treats ancient Ethiopia, especially Aksum, its predecessors, and its successors, using monuments, coinage, and excavation. Together the books cover states along the river from Upper Egypt through the Sudan into the Ethiopian highlands. The work is a survey of African kingdoms too often left at the edge of Egyptian history, based on archaeology more than on later legend.

Bound in black cloth with gilt pictorial front board, and gilt titles and decoration to spine. Pale gold endleaves printed in black with maps by Piggott. Dark gold slipcase.