MARTIN BERNAL (1937-2013) was a British scholar of modern Chinese political history and a Professor of Government and Near Eastern Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. His celebrated Black Athena trilogy is a controversial series which argues that Ancient Greek civilization and language are Eastern and Egyptian in origin.

\Preface and Acknowledgements
Transcription and Phonetics
Chronological Tables
Introduction
Intrinsic reasons for preferring the Revised Ancient Model to the Aryan one
Some theoretical considerations
A summary of the argument
Chapter I Crete before the palaces, 7000–2100 bc
The ‘diffusionist’ and ‘isolationist’ debate
Crete before the 21st century bc
Cretan religion in the Early Bronze Age
Conclusion
Chapter II Egypt’s influence on Boiotia and the
peloponnese in the 3rd millennium, I
The cultic, mythical and legendary evidence
Semel and Alkmn
Athena and Athens in Boiotia: The cults of Athena
Itnia and Athena Alalkomena
Nit, the controller of water
The battles between Nit and Seth, Athena and Poseidon
Poseidon / Seth
Nit / Athena and Nephthys / Erinys
Herakles
Conclusion
Chapter III Egypt’s influence on Boiotia and the
peloponnese in the 3rd millennium, II
The archaeological evidence
Spartan archaeology: the tomb of Alkmn
The tomb of Amphion and Zthos
The draining of the Kopais
Granaries
Irrigation and settlement in the Argolid
Drainage and irrigation in Arkadia
Parallels between Boiotian and Arkadian place names
Social and political structures in Early Helladic Greece
Other archaeological traces of Old Kingdom Egypt in
the Aegean
The end of Early Bronze Age ‘high’ civilization
Conclusion
Chapter IV The Old Palace Period in Crete and the
Egyptian Middle Kingdom, 2100 to 1730 bc
Early Minoan III – the Prepalatial Period
Lead and spirals
The Cretan palaces
Crètan writing systems
Cultic symbols in Early Palatial Crete
Possible Anatolian origins of the bull cult
Thunder and sex: Min, Pan and Bwäzä
Min and Minos
The case against Egyptian influence
Mont and Rhadamanthys
The survival of the bull cult — Cretan conservatism
Conclusion
Chapter V Sesstris, I
The archaeological and documentary evidence for the
Greek accounts of his conquest
The discovery of the Mit Rahina inscription
The significance of the inscription as evidence for an
Egyptian empire in Asia during the Middle Kingdom
Senwosre and Sesstris
The real and the fantastic in the Sesstris stories
Middle Kingdom Egypt’s military capability
The background
Archaeological evidence for the campaigns
Was Sesstris the destroyer?
Sesstris in Thrace and Scythia?
Sesstris in Colchis?
The evidence for Sesstris’ ‘conquests’ from the Mit Rahina inscription
Conclusion
Chapter VI Sesstris, II
The cultic, mythical and legendary evidence
The Egyptian tradition
The traditions of the Levant and Anatolia
Thrace and Scythia
Colchis: an Egyptian colony?
Mesopotamia and Iran
The Greek legends of Memnn and his conquests of Anatolia
The case for an Egyptian conquest of Troy c. 1900 bc
Sesstris / Senwosre and Amenem’s conquests:
a summary of the evidence
Chapter VII The Thera eruption: from the Aegean to China
The controversy over dating
The eruption re-dated
The implications of the re-dating
Thera and Kalliste
Volcanic allusions in the Exodus story
Membliaros and the pall of darkness
The myth of Atlantis
The Hekla eruption in Iceland
China: the historiographical impact
The world-wide impact of the Thera eruption
Conclusion
Chapter VIII The Hyksos
The chronology of the 13th Dynasty: chaos in Egypt
The chronology of the 15th Dynasty: the beginnings of Hyksos rule
The Hyksos capital at Tell el Daba’a
The...