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.

Acknowledgements      

List of illustrations         

Abbreviations       

Bibliographical abbreviations

Symbols and other abbreviations    

1. Introduction     

1.1 Aims and questions

1.2 Previous research   

1.3 Material and method         

1.4 Theory  

1.5 Historical background      

2. The evidence: the individual level and the biographic perspective      

2.1 Identified Africans  

2.1.1 People with certain or likely African names         

2.1.2 People identified as Africans via ethnonyms       

2.1.3 People identified as Africans via family relations          

2.1.4 People identified as Africans via institutional affiliations       

2.2 Possible Africans    

2.2.1 People with possibly African names

2.2.2 People with hybrid or adopted African names    

2.3 Anonymous Africans         

2.3.1 Anonymous royal Africans       

2.3.2 Anonymous non-royal Africans         

3. The evidence: the collective level and the demographic perspective 

3.1 Demographics and the African group: identities and properties         

3.1.1 The ethnic composition of the African group       

3.1.2 The sex/gender composition of the African group         

3.1.3 The age composition of the African group

3.1.4 The class composition of the African group         

3.2 Demographics and the African group: settings and circumstances  

3.2.1 The temporal distribution of the African group   

3.2.2 The spatial distribution of the African group        

3.2.3 The backgrounds to the presence of the African group

4. Conclusion       

4.1 Assimilation and integration: New Kingdom Egypt in Western Asia    

4.2 Direct contacts between Egypt and Mesopotamia

4.3 Africans in Akkadian texts from the Late Bronze Age: a contextualization  

5. Bibliography    

6. Illustrations      

7. Appendices and indices     

7.1 Appendices   

7.1.1 Identified Africans          

7.1.2 Possible Africans 

7.1.3 Anonymous Africans     

7.1.4 People with certain/possible Egyptian names in Hittite, Hurrian, and Ugaritic texts        

7.2 Indices 

7.2.1 Deities         

7.2.2 People          

7.2.3 Toponyms and ethnonyms      

7.2.4 Texts and images 

7.2.5 Egyptian words