It's hardcore history.

Attendum.

So I've been looking for someone to talk with me about the ancient kingdom of Kouche for years.

The good news is I finally found the perfect person to do that, and I'm having them on the show

today. The bad news is this person has actually written a brand new book that encompasses the

entire history of Africa, basically, from the beginning to recent times, from top to bottom,

side to side. And I'm going to monopolize the conversation to talk about this one

region and this one era. So I apologize for all the stuff you're not going to get today that's in the

book that we could have touched upon. But I've been trying for years to get somebody on this show

to talk about this little pet issue of mine. So I'm afraid not only do I monopolize the conversation on the subject, but I dive right

into it and don't give any background.

So let me do a little of that real quickly so that we know what we're discussing.

The kingdom of Kush is a kingdom that's located, well it starts in ancient egyptian times it's a

contemporary it's really the next door neighbor of the ancient egyptians back to prehistoric times

their relationship is as close as close can be you can see um carvings of the troops of some of these pharaohs from the old kingdom

that are buried with them and you know old kingdom pharaohs you're talking 2300 200 bCE

2,200 bc e really old stuff old kingdom right but in their tombs, you can see Kushite soldiers in their armies

already and already famous for the weapon that they are known for. This is the land. The Kushites,

where they're from, is often called the land of the bow. And in the old kingdom pharaoh tombs, there they are,

armed with their bows. Thousands of years later, Herodotus describing the great king of Persia's

army and trying to emphasize the exoticness and the far-flung nature of his empire and all the

troops that he could call upon.

...