First Recorded Monarch
Ancient Egypt is the first major civilization in Africa for which records are abundant. It was not, however, Africa’s first kingdom. A March 1, 1979, New York Times front-page article, written by journalist Boyce Rensberger, reported: “Evidence of the oldest recognizable monarchy in human history, preceding the rise of the earliest Egyptian kings by several generations, has been discovered in artifacts from ancient Nubia.”
The artifacts, including hundreds of fragments of pottery, jewelry, stone vessels and ceremonial objects such as incense burners, were initially recovered from the Qustul cemetery by Keith C. Seele, a professor at the University of Chicago.
Bruce Williams, a research associate at the University of Chicago, said it was the picture on a stone incense burner that indicated it was the tomb of a king. Williams added that “the majestic figure on the incense burner is the earliest known representation of a king in the Nile Valley. His name is unknown, but he is believed to have lived approximately three generations before the time of Scorpion, the earliest-known Egyptian ruler …”
