The Glory that Was Meroë

1668 BCE: Freed from Egyptian domination, two Nubian kingdoms unify into one state, known to the Egyptians as Kush, with its capitol at Kerma. Currently Egypt is in decline and is ruled by foreign invaders: the Hyksos.

1700-1400 BCE: Minoan culture reaches its apex.

Circa 1570 BCE: Ahmose I founds the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt by expelling the Hyksos. Later he begins a series of invasions into Kush returning it to a vassal state. History before this point corresponds to our history.

Circa 1300 BCE: Smiths in the Southern reaches of Lower Nubia discover how to smelt Ethiopian ore into iron. Kush, breaking from Egyptian tradition, begins to favor iron weapons and tools over bronze ones.

1300-1000 BCE: Kingdoms and cultures around the eastern Mediterranean fall into decline following economic failures, waves of invaders and the rise of iron age technology.

1070 BCE: The New Kingdom of Egypt falls into decline.

732 BCE: Iron shod troops from Kush, under the leadership of King Piye, invade Egypt. Piye, seeing himself as a reformer of Egyptian culture, founds the Twenty-fifth, or Ethiopian, Dynasty. Piye rules land that stretches from upper reaches of Ethiopia in the South to the Mediterranean in the North.

677 BCE: Iron armed Assyrians, under Esarhaddon, attempt to invade Egypt. They are repulsed by Taharqa, Pharaoh of Greater Egypt.

674 BCE: The Assyrians attempt to invade Egypt again. They are routed at the Battle of Sile by Taharqa. Assyria never advances past the Sinai again.

Circa 670 BCE Assurbanipal, the Assyrian king, dies. Assyria, largely depending on the success of iron weapons to fill the power vacuum of the Middle East, rapidly falls into decline.

664 BCE Tanwetamani, nephew of Taharqa, conquers most of Jordan, Judea and Palestine.  This Greater Egyptian Empire, known to history as Meroë,in the decades that follow, alternates between war and trade with the ascendant Chaldeans.

604 BCE: Nebuchadrezzar, upon the death of his father, ascends the Chaldean throne. He begins a series of military campaigns on the Merotic frontier. In an attempt to destabilize the border, he finances revolts in Israel.

598 BCE: The armies of Meroë sack Jeruselem to quell revolts there. This is recorded in the Old Testament as the Merotic Captivity. Many thousands of Hebrews forced to flee to Babylon and the Chaldeans.

562 BCE: Nebuchadrezzar dies. The Chaldean state rapidly declines under the three ineffectual kings. The Persian Empire rise to fill the vacuum.

538 BCE: Under Cyrus the Great, the Persians succeed in taking much of the territory seized by Meroë in 664.

530 BCE Cyrus attempts to invade Egypt. He fails. Subsequent attempts by his successors also fail to rest Egypt from Meroe.

510 BCE: Deprived of Judea, Meroë begins extensive trading relations with Greek citystates.

500 BCE: During this time, iron technology rapidly spreads throughout Africa carried by Bantu farmers and traders from
Meroë. Iron is in wide use in West and South Africa.

The nation of Axum, which is located in Ethopia, begins to expand with intensive road building and naval trading expeditions.
Axumite traders open extensive trading with India and the Arabian peninsula.

In the centuries that follow, a period of artistic, scientific and cultural flowering occurs in the borders of Meroë. By the time the Phoenician trading states rose to fill the vacuum in the Mediterranean left by the fall of Meroë,many peoples in the basin are heavily Egyptianized. The city of Carthage rises to prominence on a series of wars with Merotic colonies in the Mediterranean basin. The Etruscans become a minor vassal in this Phoenician empire and thus Rome never rises. Without the vast network of roads that would have been built by Roman engineers, Europe remains culturally, economically and politically divided. Writing, based mostly on Phoenician cuniform, slowly begins to filter northward. With the exception of some historical sagas written in Runic, most of European history during this period is orally based.

Circa 300 CE: The nation of Ghana rises in Mali river valley.

Need to scan and OCR the Ghana timeline in here.

1310 CE:

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