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Pyramids and Elephants: The Kingdom of Kush

Module description

The Kingdom of Kush lay in the Nile Valley south of Egypt and the savannah of north Sudan. In this module you will explore Kush as supplier of gold, slaves, ivory, and other exotic commodities to Egypt and the Mediterranean World from the Bronze Age to end of the Roman Empire. The emphasis is on the period from 1000 BCE to around 500 AD/CE, during which the Kushite kingdom expanded to dominate Egypt, and its succeeding phase – kingdom of Meroe – which had strong cultural and economic interactions with the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Although Kush was on the periphery of the ‘Classical’ worlds of Greece and Rome, its archaeology and cultural production reveals a complex blending of indigenous, Egyptian and ‘Classical’ influences.

Module aims - intentions of the module

To introduce the archaeological and historical sources and enable students to understand how a range of attitudes has led to different interpretations of the same material in different ways over the past 200 years.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Acquire a sound knowledge of the historical and cultural development of the Middle Nile to Fifth Century AD.
• 2. Demonstrate a critical awareness of the range of approaches that have been used to understand the archaeology and history of the region

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Demonstrate originality in the interpretation of a range of visual and textual materials
• 4. Understand a range of cultural issues

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Make observations and draw interpretations from a body of material.
• 6. Demonstrate critical awareness

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The geography and environment of the northern Sudan
• Cultures of the Nile Valley and adjacent regions south of Egypt
• Interpreting race and culture in north Africa
• The history and archaeology of northern Sudan from c.5000 BC to c.AD 500
• Interactions of Kush with Pharaonic, Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Edwards, David N., The Nubian Past: an Archaeology of the Sudan . Routledge 20014
• Morkot, Robert, 2000, The Black Pharaohs: Egypt's Nubian Rulers . London : Rubicon.
• O'Connor, David, 1993, Ancient Nubia, Egypt's Rival in Africa. University Museum of archaeology and anthropology .
• Welsby, Derek A., 1996, The Kingdom of Kush: the Napatan and Meroitic empires . London: British Museum Press.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11715 

Key words search

Kush, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Ptolemaic Dynasty