From Egypt to the Levant and Beyond

African Individuals and Groupsain Cuneiform Texts from the Late Bronze Age

by Mattias Karlsson

Book cover: From Egypt to the Levant and Beyond

Extent: 184 pages

Publisher: Zaphon

Subjects: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Near East

Series: Ägypten und Altes Testament

Series volume number: 133

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(June 2025)

ISBN: 9783963273100

6.65 x 9.41 inches

Price: $88.00

In stock

PDF (Published)

(December 2025)

ISBN: 9783963273117

Price: $88.00

This study examines the evidence, both from individual-biographic and collective-demographic viewpoints and perspectives, after having identified Africans on the basis of etymology/onomastics, ethnonyms, family ties, and institutional affiliations.


A great number of African (Egyptian, Kushite, Libyan) individuals and groups are mentioned in cuneiform texts from the Late Bronze Age of the Ancient Near East (c. 1600-1150 BCE), notably in archives from the cities of Akhetaton, Hattusa, and Ugarit. This study examines the evidence, both from individual-biographic and collective-demographic viewpoints and perspectives, after having identified Africans on the basis of etymology/onomastics, ethnonyms, family ties, and institutional affiliations. Also topics such as integration/assimilation and direct contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia are focused on, and the evidence from the Late Bronze Age is contextualized by means of comparisons with the corresponding evidence from the first millennium BCE and Neo-Assyrian and Neo/Late-Babylonian times.

  • By (author) Matthas Karlsson