ABSTRACT
Ancient Egyptian civilization arose out of several small kingdoms, which were unified by the first pharaoh in about 3100 BC. The Old Kingdom (from 2575 to 2134 BC) saw despotic rulers and the building of pyramids as royal burial places. The Middle Kingdom (from 2040 to 1640 BC) saw the rise of powerful pharaohs who reunified the state. The New Kingdom (from 1530 to 1075 BC) was Egypt’s period of greatest prosperity and power. Upstream, Nubia was long an Egyptian colony, until its rulers conquered Egypt and became pharaohs for a while. Conquered by the Assyrians, the Nubian kings fled upstream and founded Meroe, a major center of trade and ironworking. They competed with Aksum in the Ethiopian highlands, which traded with the Indian Ocean. After AD 800, powerful states, wealthy with gold and ivory, arose in West Africa, among them Mali, which supplied gold to medieval Europe. The stone towns of the East African coast were part of the Indian Ocean monsoon trade. They acquired gold and ivory from Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, and other indigenous African states in southern Africa.
