On the dusty banks of the Nile River in central Sudan, archaeologists digging in the “city of the dead” at Sedeinga recently found a huge trove of inscriptions in Meroitic, the earliest written language of Sub-Saharan Africa. Examples of Meroitic are relatively rare, so the find represents a great new opportunity for linguistic study. A handful of archaeological sites and the written language are all that remains of the Kingdom of Kush, located in what is now Sudan.
According to archaeologist David Edwards, writing in The Journal of African History and Annual Review of Anthropology, Kush is often overlooked due to the many Egyptian influences on its culture, up to and including pyramids.
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