News > September 18, 2008

By Katie Phillips | Staff writer

Stanley Burstein, a professor emeritus at California State University, delivered a lecture on Sept. 15 in Pugh Auditorium titled “Kush, Axum, and the Ancient Indian Ocean Trade.”

The event was the first of the Borderlands in World History lecture series hosted by university.

The guest lecturer earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from UCLA, and he was a professor of history at California State University from 1968 until 2004.

His concentrations on the subject of ancient history include Hellenistic cultures, Greek history and historiography.

Many of Burstein’s articles and reviews regarding Greek history and Greek relations with Egypt and Nubia have been published in academic journals, magazines and newspapers.

He has also received six grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Burstein was president of the Association of Ancient History and of the California Classical Association-Southern Section. Burstein’s ninth book, Ancient African Kingdoms: Kush and Axum, was the topic for his lecture.

Burstein discussed the Ancient Indian Ocean Trade and its relevance with ancient cultures including East Asia, India, the eastern coast of Africa and the numerous cultures on the Mediterranean Sea.

He calls this ocean trade almost an “ancient phenomenon,” in that it spans the greater known ancient world and connects these civilizations with ease.

He noted that one could go from the Mediterranean, through the Red Sea and over to China – something traders and merchants never had full knowledge and access to prior to the establishment of the Ocean Trade.

Burstein emphasized the importance of India, “being the key connector between the ancient Far East and Western civilizations in the Mediterranean.”

Kush and Axum, two key civilizations during the high point of the Ancient Indian Ocean Trade, supplied African goods to the Mediterranean.

These goods included gold, ivory, ebony, animal skins and even slaves. Geography allowed the creation of these trading states in the Nile valley.

Ultimately, Burstein says, Kush and Axum grew rich from trade with Egypt.

Trade was sometimes conducted by merchants and private traders, but most trade was between state and state.

The kingdoms of Kush and Axum declined due to impoverished states and conquests, eventually being forgotten in the world of trade.

Burstein’s lecture was informative regarding the ancient civilizations of Kush and Axum and their trade relationships that the Ancient Indian Ocean Trade.

Relevant articles written by Burstein include “Outpost of Hellenism: The Emergence of Heraclea on the Black Sea,” “The Reign of Cleopatra” and “Ancient Greece: A Brief History.”