In 701 B.C. the Assyrian empire was in its ascendancy. It had already vanquished the kingdom of Israel to the north including the capital at Samaria. It then prepared an assault on Judah and its capital at Jerusalem.
But in one of those significant events that changes the course of world history, Assyria was repelled. Jerusalem was saved until 586 B.C. when the Babylonians sacked the city, forcing its leadership class into exile.
Henry Aubin, in a major feat of scholarship, determines that Jerusalem was aided by a Kushite army from Africa which had marched northeast from the Nile valley. While the Bible attributes the Assyrian retreat to an angel and secular commentators cite pestilence, Aubin, in a meticulously documented work, demonstrates that an alliance with the African nation of Kush bolstered Jerusalem’s defences.
Kush, also known as Nubia, was located in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. A monarchy that existed for more than 1000 years, from 900 B.C. to A.D. 350, Kushites held sway over Egypt from 712 B.C. to about 660 B.C. Of Egypt’s 31 dynasties, this, the 25th Dynasty, is the only one that all scholars agree, was black.
The commander of the Kushite expeditionary force was Taharqa (or as the Bible calls him Tirhakah). This Kushite prince, who had his own interests in halting Assyrian expansion, likely caught the aggressors by surprise as they prepared their siege of Jerusalem.
Aubin offers a thrilling military history and a stirring political analysis of the ancient world. He also sees the event as influential over the centuries.
The Kushite rescue of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah enabled the fragile, war-ravaged state to endure, to nurse itself back to economic and demographic health, and allowed the Hebrew religion, Yahwism, to evolve within the next several centuries into Judaism. Thus emerged the monotheistic trunk supporting Christianity and Islam.
Discovering the Ancient Pacific
Mystery Islands
Discovering the Ancient Pacific
REVIEWS FOR TOM KOPPEL’S LOST WORLD and EBB AND FLOW“Koppel knows how to tell a story.”
Globe and Mail
“Koppel treats the reader to eyewitness descriptions of scientists crawling through nearly inaccessible caves high in the hills of Alaska and British Columbia, dredging for artifacts in the seabed, camping out in bear country, and fighting a constant battle with the treacherous weather and currents of the North Pacific… Few of the scientists here are household names, but Koppel renders them as distinct individuals and conveys a picture of what their day-to-day is like.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Despite the formidable complexity of the science of tides, Koppel packages his explanations approachably. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to understand him, yet everyone – even scientists – will find this book absorbing… a fascinating mix of science, history and memoir, which is completely entertaining.”
Galveston Daily News, Texas
“In Lost World, journalist Tom Koppel gives us not merely good reporting on field archaeology in action, but a blow-by-blow account of a major scholarly battle in full spate. When it comes to landing knockout punches, Mike Tyson has nothing on Koppel’s account of archaeologists dealing near-fatal blows over dating methods.”
Christian Science Monitor
“Koppel shines at setting the scene and conveying the enthusiasm of costal-migration theories while sitting on a ship’s deck or exploring a dank west-coast cave. He lets the archaeologists, geologists and oceanographers tell their own stories in their own words.”
Canadian Geographic
“Ballard’s rise from its humble beginnings in a makeshift lab in Arizona in the 1970s to its pivotal position today — DaimlerChrysler and Ford both hold stakes in it — makes compelling reading. Koppel explains the technology in a way that the average reader can understand.”
The New York Times
