The Archaeology of Sudan and Nubia - Earl J. Heinrich Nubia/_Private/Archaeology of Sudan... ·...

ANRV323-AN36-13 ARI 12 September 2007 15:28

The Archaeology of Sudanand NubiaDavid N. EdwardsSchool of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester,Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]

Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2007. 36:211–28

First published online as a Review in Advance onJune 6, 2007

The Annual Review of Anthropology is online atanthro.annualreviews.org

This article’s doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.36.081406.094305

Copyright c© 2007 by Annual Reviews.All rights reserved

0084-6570/07/1021-0211$20.00

Key Words

sub-Saharan Africa, Nubian, regional interaction

AbstractThis review explores recent research within the territory of the mod-ern Sudan and Nubia. One special interest of this region’s history andarchaeology lies in its role as a zone of interaction between diversecultural traditions linking sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, the Mediter-ranean world, and beyond. The exceptionally early development oflarge-scale polities in the Middle Nile also offers remarkable oppor-tunities for exploring the archaeology of the development of politicalpower as well as for exploring research topics of a wide significance,both within and beyond African archaeology, such as the develop-ment of agriculture, urbanism, and metallurgy. The unique oppor-tunities offered by the Nile corridor for trans-Saharan contacts havealso ensured that the region’s archaeology provides an extraordinaryscope for exploring the interplay and interaction of indigenous andexternal cultural traditions, often very obviously manifested in thematerial worlds of the region: from their encounters with PharaonicEgypt to the incorporation of Nubian kingdoms into medievalChristendom and the creation of new Arab and Muslim identitiesin the postmedieval world.

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INTRODUCTIONThe archaeology of the modern Sudan, con-cerned with a large part of eastern SudanicAfrica and its Sahelian/Saharan margins, hasvast potential, ranging as it does from the mar-gins of Egypt to Equatorial Central Africa,and from the Red Sea world to the ChadBasin (Figure 1). Although archaeology in

Figure 1Sudan andneighboringcountries.

the region started at a relatively early date,largely as an extension of Egyptological re-search on Egypt’s Nubian frontier, its rela-tionship with research under way elsewherein sub-Saharan Africa has often been un-certain, and its potential to engage with is-sues of more general anthropological inter-est has not always been well-represented. One

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dominant research concern has remained withthe more monumental remains and arts ofits early civilizations, emphasizing the influ-ences of Pharaonic (and later) Egypt in theMiddle Nile. A limited range of largely ex-ternal (primarily Egyptian and Arabic) docu-mentary sources has also played a major rolein framing the history of the region. A colonialambivalence toward non-Arabized (African)parts of the country, notably South Sudan, hasalso left large areas as the preserve of ethno-graphic investigation rather than archaeology(Crawford 1948, Edwards 2003, Wengrow2003).

Limited resources have also been thinlyspread across a vast and varied region, leav-ing some areas relatively well-researched,whereas others are still largely unknown ar-chaeologically. Other circumstances have alsoserved to create particular research foci, mostobviously with a series of twentieth-centurysalvage archaeology programs in the Nubiannorth, where ∼500 km of the Nile valley wasflooded by the reservoir behind the Aswandams (Adams 1977). Such reactive work hascontinued in response to dam constructionon the Fourth Cataract (Paner 1998, Welsby2003), as well as in areas under threat fromexpanding agriculture (Welsby 2002a) and in-frastructure projects (Mallinson et al. 1996).These salvage efforts may be set against morefocused research programs, for example theBOS (Besiedlungsgeschichte der Ost-Sahara)and ACACIA (Arid Climate, Adaptation andCultural Innovation in Africa) programs ex-ploring large tracts of the Egyptian andSudanese Sahara ( Jennerstrasse 8 2002; Jesse2003, 2006; Keding 1996; Lange 2006).

Over time, cultural and political devel-opments within the region were also veryuneven, in keeping with mosaic qualities ofthe social, political, and technological land-scapes encountered in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa (Stahl 2004). Some regions(notably, parts of riverine central-northernSudan/Nubia) were, from an early date, thefoci of a series of kingdoms (Kerma, Napata,Meroe), the earliest in sub-Saharan Africa

(Figure 2). The hills and margins of JebelMarra in Darfur became another such po-litical focus from the medieval period, relat-ing to regions both to the east and to thewest, toward Lake Chad. Other areas, such asthe poorly watered plains of Kordofan, wereperipheries to such regions, rarely develop-ing their own centers of power (Stiansen &Kevane 1998), whereas parts of eastern Sudanlooked also to the Red Sea. The often harshenvironment of the clay plains of the UpperNile likely presented special problems for sur-vival ( Johnson 1991). However, evidence fordirect links with the civilizations and culturesof the Ethiopian Highlands (Phillipson 1998)has remained elusive. In addition, environ-mental change, especially the greater aridityduring the later Holocene, often transformedlandscapes and affected human possibilities.

Spanning such a vast and varied region,much current research remains focused onthe (still necessary) construction and elabo-ration of cultural-historical sequences, build-ing on and refining frameworks defined innorthern Nubia a century ago (Reisner 1910),with a strong emphasis on central riverine ar-eas. More synthetic and thematic research,typically concerned with the development ofagriculture, settlement landscapes and urban-ism, metallurgy, and social complexity, re-mains more limited, despite the considerablescope for such investigations. An exception-ally long history of long-distance contacts,along the Nile corridor across the Saharandivide, also invites investigations of the var-ied cultural interactions and encounters theseproduced, if no longer as the one-sided en-counters envisaged by George Reisner (1910)a century ago, who saw the history of Nubiaas “hardly more than an account of its use orneglect by Egypt” (p. 348). This review exam-ines recent research in this region in relationto these themes.

EARLY HOLOCENE ORIGINS

The major climatic changes of the earlyHolocene (∼8500 bc) saw the desert margins

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Figure 2Urban and othercenters of Nubiaand the MiddleNile.

shift significantly northward within arelatively few centuries (Kuper & Kropelin2006); the increasingly favorable environ-mental conditions allowed a recolonization ofnorthern Africa, which had been largely un-inhabited desert for many millennia. Acrossthe varied landscapes of Sudanic/SahelianAfrica, new populations of pottery-usinghunter-fisher-gatherers appeared, comingfrom the south. In the parts of the Sudanexplored by archaeologists, investigators

have found the distinctive Wavy Line pottery(first identified at Khartoum in 1944) ofthese early Holocene populations (Figure 3).Their sites are found in central riverineareas close to the confluence of the Nilesand around the mouth of the Atbara, alongthe Wadi Howar, and the northern DongolaReach, as well as along the Blue and WhiteNiles south of Khartoum (Arkell 1949,Caneva 1983, Fernandez 2003, Haaland1995).

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Figure 3Incised Wavy Lineand Impressed WavyLine (Dotted WavyLine) pottery fromcentral Sudan (afterArkell 1949 andCaneva 1991).

Similar decorated pottery is found acrossmuch of Sudanic and Saharan Africa (Sutton1977) and is some of the oldest pottery inthe world, with radiocarbon dates as early as∼8000 bc; obviously there may be still ear-lier examples yet to be found (Close 1995).Within this widespread tradition, the exis-tence of some significant, even if still poorlyunderstood, regional diversity is becoming in-creasingly apparent. Styles of Incised WavyLine pottery, although known from as far westas modern northern Chad, are most abun-dant in the Nile valley in the Khartoum re-gion. Such pottery may be distinguished fromthe more widely distributed Impressed WavyLine (Dotted Wavy Line) pottery, regionalvariants of which are found across Saharan/Sahelian Africa ( Jesse 2004). Better definitionof the relationship of the Sudanese material tothese wider traditions, and their chronology,would now seem a priority for future workand will demand coordinating research at anunusually large scale.

The often extensive and dense spreads ofmaterial found at early Holocene sites in cen-tral Sudan seem to relate to quite settled andlong-lived occupations that relied on variedstrategies of hunting, fishing, and gathering(Arkell 1949, Caneva 1983, Fernandez 2003,Haaland 1995). Evidence of grinding stonesalso suggests the use of edible riparian roots

and tubers, as documented in epi-Palaeolithicsites in Egypt (Hillman 1989), as well as thewild grains of the savannahs (Barich 1998;Harlan 1989). Spear fishing is also a promi-nent feature of many riverine occupation sites,although no direct evidence of boats, as foundin the Lake Chad region (Breunig 1996), hasyet been found. Such sites have a particu-lar value for research into many key debatesabout shifts between foraging and food pro-duction and trajectories into and out of seden-tism (Barker 2006).

THE NEOLITHIC—THEBEGINNING OF HERDINGAND FARMING

As elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, a largelypastoral primary Neolithic (Marshall &Hildebrand 2002) was followed much laterby the appearance of domesticated crops,while researchers assume that wild plant foodscontinued to be widely used (Harlan 1989;Neumann 2003, 2005). In northerly areas, thesixth millennium bc saw increasingly dry con-ditions, providing an environmental impetusto Saharan populations to seek more favor-able and well-watered environments towardthe south as well as in the Nile valley (Kuper& Kropelin 2006). The same period alsosaw the first appearance of domestic livestock


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in northeast Africa. Although some debatecontinues to surround an independent EarlyHolocene domestication of cattle in north-east Africa (Gifford-Gonzales 2005, Wendorf& Schild 1998), there is reliable evidence fordomesticated cattle in the plains west of theEgyptian Nile only by ∼6000 bc (Marshall2000). Domesticated sheep and goats, orig-inating in the Levant, also entered the re-gion, probably along more than one route,becoming increasingly widespread during thesixth millennium (Close 2002, Gautier 2001,Vermeersch et al. 1994). Domestic livestockwas present in riverine northern and cen-tral Sudan by ∼5000 bc, spreading southwardto reach northern Kenya in ∼3000 bc. Re-searchers are also beginning to explore possi-ble linkages between such shifts and Africanlinguistic data (Ehret 2001).

The impact of the arrival of livestock anda shift toward food production in the regionwas both slow and uneven; hunter-gathererpopulations persisted in many regions forcenturies and, in some places, for millen-nia. Moving beyond questions of origin, re-search considers the social processes involvedin the spread of herding, still a major issuefor sub-Saharan Africa (Barker 2006, Gifford-Gonzales 2005, Smith 1992). How the de-velopment of pastoralism may or may not belinked with the development and cultivationof domesticated crops also requires closer at-tention. The impact of the southward dif-fusion of barley and wheat (key elements ofthe Egyptian Neolithic) into limited northernriverine areas a millennium later (Geus 2004)also needs to be considered. Later develop-ments suggest that the exploitation of perhapsboth wild and later domestic plants may haveestablished an agricultural base in the norththat was not found elsewhere in the MiddleNile until significantly later. The domesti-cation of indigenous Sudanic crops occurredmuch later. Current evidence suggests that in-digenous Sudanic crops such as sorghum maynot have been domesticated until as late asthe first millennium bc (Fuller 2004, Haaland1999).

With changing environmental conditionsand the addition of livestock herding, newpatterns of landscape occupation appeared,with significant regional variability in theadoption of pastoralism and its implications.Work in the northwestern plains of the Sudanhas been particularly successful in tracingthe development of regional cultural tradi-tions ( Jennerstrasse 8 2002, Keding 1996,Lange 2006) increasingly distinct from thosein the riverine environments of the Nile valley.In the Khartoum region evidence suggeststhat livestock herding led to greater mo-bility, at least on a seasonal basis (Caneva1991, Haaland 1981), bringing a more dis-persed settlement pattern than was seen withthe Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherer occu-pation. The potential social impact of theshift to herding is also beginning to be con-sidered. Looking beyond purely economicinterpretations of variability in the charac-ter of sites, particularly in relation to thepresence of domestic fauna (Fernandez 2003,Marks & Mohammed-Ali 1991), scholars arenow considering the potential special roles ofsome sites as possible foci for collective activ-ities (Arioti & Oxby 1997, Haaland 1987). Anorthern focus for Neolithic settlement layin the region of Dongola and Kerma withboth settlements and cemeteries spread alonga number of Nile palaeochannels, but withrelatively little Neolithic settlement in morenortherly areas of Nubia. Current work in-creasingly suggests that Neolithic populationsin this region developed along rather differentlines than did populations in central Sudan.This notion is supported by the discovery ofthe first structural remains of Neolithic set-tlements, clustered wooden roundhouses andanimal enclosures (Honegger 2001) within aquite densely settled landscape. The large size(with up to 1000 burials) and longevity (inuse for several centuries) of some cemeteries(Reinold 2001, 2002) also introduced new fociinto the inhabited landscapes of the region.

Sudan’s rich and often well-preservedNeolithic archaeology increasingly suggeststhe possibility for interesting comparative

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studies with contemporary developments inthe Egyptian Lower Nile, especially withregard to mortuary archaeology (Wengrow2006, pp. 69–70). Indeed considerable cul-tural similarities existed among the riverineNeolithic populations from central Sudan asfar north as (Badarian) Middle Egypt duringthe fifth millennium bc. This cultural unifor-mity markedly disappeared during the earlyfourth millennium bc when increasing ce-real cultivation, sedentism, and water trans-port during the early Naqada period began totransform life in the Egyptian Nile valley.

Much evidence also demonstrates the ex-tension of long-distance material exchangesin the Middle Nile during the Neolithic pe-riod. Ideas as well as artifacts were moving,most obviously evident in the diffusion of pol-ished stone technologies, not only polishedstone axes and mace heads but also beads, asin southwest Asia (Wright & Garrard 2003).Although hard stone tools are prominent ele-ments of mortuary assemblages, little attempthas yet been made to systematically iden-tify their sources and to explore the socialand material conditions of their production,exchange, and use. During the fourth mil-lennium bc, exchanges along the Nile withthe developing polities in Upper Egypt alsobecame increasingly evident, with Egyptianimports appearing in late Neolithic sites innorthern Nubia (Lower Nubia). The firstcopper tools were being traded into northernNubia by the later fourth millennium bc.

The changing nature of encounters be-tween Egypt and Nubia is very striking.During the fourth millennium bc, Egyptianimports were increasingly penetrating south-ward into Lower Nubia. By the late fourthmillennium they were commonly found as farsouth as the Second Cataract, sometimes ingreat abundance. A distinctive combinationof indigenous and imported Egyptian mate-rial has indeed long defined the late Neolithicof Lower Nubia as a discrete regional culture,the A-Group (Gatto 1997, Nordstrom 1972,Smith 1991, Williams 1986). The great wealthof Egyptian material apparent in some of the

latest A-Group burials has suggested the ex-istence of regional elites linked with contem-porary Egyptian kings of the late Predynas-tic period. The basis of such exchanges stillremains uncertain. Egyptian access to goldcoming from the eastern deserts is possible,although it may well be that the local eliteswere acting as gatekeeper intermediaries intothe undoubtedly more densely populated andproductive regions lying further to the south.Egyptian military campaigns in Lower Nu-bia at the beginning of the third millenniumbc, however, were almost certainly responsi-ble for the disappearance of the A-Group pop-ulation north of the Second Cataract.

KERMA AND KUSH

The archaeology of the third and second mil-lennia bc remains dominated by the devel-opment of the first larger-scale polities inthe Middle Nile, centered on the Kerma-Dongola region and their relations withEgypt. By ∼2500 bc a settlement and reli-gious site at Kerma began to develop into apolitical center that, over the next 1000 years,came to dominate ∼1000 km of the Nile val-ley and its hinterlands (Bonnet 1990, Gratien1978, Reisner 1923). Indigenous populationsalso reestablished themselves in Lower Nubia(known there as the C-Group), constitutingthe northernmost of what were initially a se-ries of small kingdoms/chiefdoms, which wererecorded in contemporary Egyptian records.The kingdom of Kush, as the Egyptians knewit, centered on Kerma, was able by the sec-ond millennium bc to pose a significant threatto Pharaonic Egypt. The threat was removedonly by the conquest of Kerma by the NewKingdom pharaohs of Egypt around 1450 bc.As in Egypt, the appearance of such politiesmay have played an important role in the de-velopment of more specialized pastoralist so-cieties, most evident on their eastern margins(Sadr 1991).

The material manifestations of theKushites are identified in a relatively ho-mogeneous cultural tradition now known to


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extend as far up the Nile as the Abu Hamedregion, although as yet not into central Sudanwhere little occupation of this period has yetbeen recognized north of the Gezira region.Such evidence as is available further southsuggests the development of more mobilepastoral ways of life, leaving relatively slightmaterial traces (Fernandez 2003). In contrast,Kushite/Kerma settlement in northern Sudanhas left a rich burial and settlement record, fo-cused on the remarkable settlement of ancientKerma and its associated necropolis. The set-tlement, occupied for at least 1000 years andultimately covering an area of ∼20 hectares,became the first urban community of theSudan. Centered on a great religious complex(Bonnet 2004) it remains as yet the only suchsettlement so far discovered in the MiddleNile. Its religious core suggests one functionit may have had, but its relationship withthe wider settlement landscape still remainspoorly understood. Kerma’s uniqueness isfurther suggested by the vast scale of its ceme-tery, with more than 20,000 graves spanninga millennium. The most impressive burials,vast tumuli 70–80 m across, contained hugematerial wealth; wealth in livestock was rep-resented in hundreds, and sometimes thou-sands, of cattle skulls deposited around thegraves, along with fine pottery, metal work,exotic Egyptian imports, and ultimately largenumbers of human sacrifices (Bonnet 2000,Reisner 1923). If these are indeed the tombsof the Kushite kings and sacrificed subjects,we should perhaps be seeking more explicitlinkages between religious power and thedevelopment of Kushite kingship at Kerma.

The strong emphasis on livestock in mor-tuary practice seems likely to relate to a strongpastoral component in subsistence, as well asa symbolic importance, although we still havelittle excavated data from settlement sites. Sta-ble isotope studies provide some general con-firmation of a shift away from tropical C4plants over time (Iacumin et al. 1998), prob-ably to be linked to a growing dietary rolefor wheat and barley, which are both temper-ate (C3) crops. On the basis of current evi-

dence, such an agricultural base appears lim-ited to Kerma sites of northern riverine Su-dan during later prehistory. Much of the pre-historic rock art of northern Sudan is alsodated to this period. This art, in which cat-tle and game figure prominently (Figure 4),is a particularly prominent feature of the rockylandscapes of northern Nubia (Edwards 2006,Kleinitz 2004). Large corpora of rock draw-ings have been recorded (Hellstrom 1970,Otto & Buschendorf-Otto 1993), althoughlittle analysis of this rich resource has yet beenundertaken.

The materiality of Kushite-Egyptian con-tacts and encounters, accessible throughabundant and often extremely rich archaeo-logical assemblages, has barely begun to beexplored. The Kushites were active tradingpartners with Egypt, and there is considerablescope for exploring the ebb and flow of Egyp-tian artifacts entering the Kushite domain andpassing between different value systems. Suchdifferences are visible in other domains, asbetween Kushite and Egyptian responses tothe landscape apparent in their rock drawingsand inscriptions (Edwards 2006). The ebb andflow of military conflict were also significantfeatures of this relationship, with the Egyp-tian kings of the Middle Kingdom (∼2050–1750 bc) conquering Lower Nubia, establish-ing a fortified military frontier south of theSecond Cataract. If their massive fortresseshave attracted much attention (e.g., Dunham1967, Dunham & Janssen 1960, Emery et al.1979), the history and archaeology of thenorthern Kushite populations (the C-Group)again provide a remarkable opportunity tostudy early “colonial” interactions in thoseareas of Nubia conquered by the PharaonicEgyptian state (Adams 1984, Smith 1995).During later periods of weak Egyptian royalpower, the kings of Kerma were in turn ableto re-enter Lower Nubia, at times raiding intoEgypt itself ∼1575–1550 bc (Davies 2003).Revived Egyptian royal and military powerduring the New Kingdom (1550–1070 bc)finally saw the Egyptian kings reoccupyingLower Nubia and pushing south to destroy

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Kerma itself. The kings established a colo-nial administration in areas north of the ThirdCataract, while exerting a more uncertaincontrol further south; the extraction of goldwas a prime imperative behind their pres-ence. With a substantial body of archaeo-logical material available, the nature and im-pact of the Egyptian colonial presence is nowbeginning to be explored, with an increas-ingly sophisticated theoretical base (Morkot1991; Save-Soderbergh 1991; Smith 1995,2003).

NAPATA AND MEROE

The nature of political and social changes fol-lowing the end of Egyptian rule in Nubia re-mains obscure: Very little is known of the ar-chaeology of the late second and early firstmillennia bc. However, by the eighth cen-tury bc, a new Kushite kingdom had appearedin the Dongola Reach, centered on the Na-pata region (Vincentelli 2006). In the ab-sence of texts, its political origins remain un-known but should be sought in a revival ofthe power of local elites as Egyptian influenceon their southern borders weakened. Long-established narratives, which, in varied guises,have sought to find external Egyptian originsfor the kingdom, look increasingly uncon-vincing (Morkot 2003) and historically unnec-essary in a region with long-established tradi-tions of kingship.

The history of this revived Kushite king-dom (Torok 1997a; Welsby 1996) has tradi-tionally been divided into two main periods,the Napatan and Meroitic. A Kushite con-quest of Egypt during the mid-eighth cen-tury bc and their subsequent century-longrule there, as the XXVth Dynasty (Morkot2000), ensured some historical record of akingdom whose origins remain largely invis-ible in the archaeological record. The Na-patan/Kushite kings adapted many Egyptiancultural practices, contemporary and ancient,which became important parts in creating adistinctive new Kushite culture. Most obvi-ous among the practices was pyramid burial

(Figure 5), which they transferred to theirSudanese homelands. The Egyptian recordsalso provide a sketchy political/dynastic his-tory of this period. Until recently, most ar-chaeological work has focused on monumen-tal remains (temples, palaces, and tombs) fromthis period both in Egypt and the Sudan(Dunham 1950, 1955, 1970; Macadam 1949;Torok 1997b); relatively little is known as yetabout wider social or economic conditions orindeed the wider settlement landscapes of theperiod.

Around 300 bc a shift in the royal cemeter-ies from the Napata region to Meroe definesa new and distinct Meroitic period, althoughother archaeological or historical informationabout the Kushite state during this potentiallyimportant period of change is very limited.The full extent of the kingdom and how it mayhave fluctuated over time remains unclear, butsettlement sites are known from riverine ar-eas from the Blue Nile south of Khartoum tonorthern Nubia as well as within the WesternButana. As such, the kingdom’s reach wasprobably more extensive than any state in theregion before the nineteenth century ad evenif, as is common in Sudanic Africa, centralizedpolitical authority may have been quite fragileand unevenly spread (Edwards 1996, 1998).This move to the south probably relates todynastic/political changes, although culturalchanges during the later Meroitic period arealso evident. These changes are seen in theinfluence of external contacts, in cultural andmaterial links with Ptolemaic and then RomanEgypt, and in indigenous cultural traditionsrooted in Sudanic Africa. Egyptian cults, somepossibly established in the region since thesecond millennium bc, coexisted with those ofindigenous deities (Zabkar 1975), both usingEgyptian styles of monumental architecture(Dunham 1970, Torok 2002).

The complex and varied nature of Meroiticmaterial culture and forms of practice is alsobecoming better understood. Mortuary prac-tice was quite variable with some distinctivepractices, often with strong links to Egyp-tian cults, restricted to the royal and elite


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milieu. These coexisted with much morewidespread practices, which were grounded inlongstanding Sudanic traditions. Wheelmadeceramic industries drew on Hellenistic mod-els and replicated indigenous handmade formsas well. The symbolic repertoires in its dec-orative arts also related both to those of theSudanic world (e.g., elephant, giraffe, ostrich,sorghum, and cattle) and to those ultimatelyderived from the Egyptian, Hellenistic, andRoman worlds. Both were used in the con-struction of what may be considered an eliteimperial culture (Edwards 2004a, Ch. 6).Royal control of external trading links seemslikely to have been a significant source ofpolitical power.

Research has traditionally focused onlarger monumental sites, notably the pyra-mid cemeteries (Dunham 1957, 1963), tem-ples, and the royal capital at Meroe (Garstanget al. 1911, Shinnie & Anderson 2004, Shinnie& Bradley 1980, Torok 1997b), with little ex-cavation beyond such sites. Despite consid-erable work at Meroe, many questions re-main about the character of the settlementthere, not the least of which regard its urbancharacter. The identification of several otherlarge settlements in the region, and some lim-ited excavations (Wolf 2002), does suggest thedevelopment of densely settled urban cen-ters, at least in the Meroe region, althoughstill very little is known about their func-tions or about the wider character of regionalsettlement. In the only well-studied part ofthe Meroitic kingdom, its northern marginsin Lower/Middle Nubia, settlement seemslikely to have been very atypical with regardto the maintenance of communication alongthe Nile route across the Sahara to Egypt(Edwards 1996).

The Kushite period also saw technolog-ical innovation, with evidence of significantironworking at Meroe by the middle of thefirst millennium bc. Its control may have beena significant source of royal power. How-ever, early suggestions that ironworking tra-ditions elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa mighthave derived from Meroe now seem unlikely

(Rehren 2001), and indeed its spread intomany areas of the Sudan may have been slow.This period also saw the earliest written in-digenous language in the Sudan (Rilly 2007),when the indigenous Meroitic language (al-most certainly a North Eastern Sudanic lan-guage) began to be written in its own uniquescript, in the third century bc.

THE END OF MEROE AND THECREATION OF THE NUBIANKINGDOMS

Explaining the disappearance of the Meroitickingdom as a political unit some time around300–350 ad remains problematic. Sugges-tions that (Nubian) barbarian invasions de-stroyed Meroe (echoing more traditional andfamiliar narratives of the fall of Rome) or thatEthiopian/Axumite kings might have con-quered Meroe have little evidence to sup-port them. Instead, how political collapse mayor may not be related to observed culturalchanges in the late and post-Meroitic cen-turies is an area of increasing debate (Edwards2004a, Ch. 7; Lenoble & Sharif 1992).

Meroe and other urban settlements de-clined and disappeared as centers of popula-tion. None seems to have survived into themedieval period. The temples and palacesand the royal cemetery at Meroe also wentout of use and were abandoned. The useof Meroitic writing also ended by the fifthcentury. Although historical records are lack-ing, the archaeological evidence suggests thatwith the disappearance of a central authorityand the unifying imperial culture it generated,new and more diverse regional cultures devel-oped. It now seems increasingly likely that thenew cultural forms once thought to be indica-tive of the barbarian conquerors of Meroe,e.g., in burial practice and ceramic culture,may be grounded in preexisting cultural tra-ditions within the Meroitic kingdom (Lenoble1997). In spatial terms, the new regional cul-tural forms in turn somewhat correspond withan emerging series of smaller political units,consolidated into three regional powers by

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the sixth century ad: Nobadia/Noubadia inLower Nubia, Makuria in the Dongola Reach,and Alodia in central Sudan, with Makurialater absorbing Nobadia. The Nobadians, onthe Romano-Egyptian frontier, retained closecontacts with late Roman Egypt during thisperiod, most visible in large quantities of im-ported objects buried in the spectacular royaland elite burials at Ballana and Qustul (Emery1938, Farid 1963).

This new political order was soon closelylinked with Christianity, with “official” (ifdoubtless incomplete) accounts surviving theconversion of all three kingdoms during thesixth century (Adams 1977, Kirwan 1987).Christianity’s arrival also encouraged newlinks with the north and remains the definingcultural development of the medieval periodwithin riverine Nubia, bringing it within therealm of eastern Christendom. New settle-ment landscapes also emerged with the spreadof new crops and cropping regimes basedaround waterwheel irrigation. This technol-ogy was introduced in late Roman Egypt andestablished the basis for forms of irrigatedfarming for communities in northern Nubia,which survived into modern times. Pastoralopportunities were also transformed with thespread of camel pastoralism through morearid areas, probably closely linked with newArab populations entering the region over ex-tended periods.

External contacts took on a new dimen-sion with the introduction of the institutionsof the Church, most obviously representedby its churches and monasteries (Figure 6).Focused studies on the architecture, mon-uments, and associated arts (notably wallpaintings), as familiar elsewhere in theChristian world, still tend to dominate thisfield of research (e.g., Jakobielski & Scholz2001, Welsby 2002b). How Christianityshaped and transformed medieval Nubiansocieties, however, is an issue still littleaddressed (Edwards 2001, 2004, Ch. 8), andthe distinctiveness of much medieval Nubianmaterial culture (for ceramics see Adams1986) also suggests the need to consider

more carefully indigenous Nubian receptionof and responses to Christianity. Greek wasalready in use as an official language, at leastin the north, and Coptic, which was linked tothe Alexandrian patriarchate, also came to bequite widely used in the Church. Some timein the early medieval period, varieties of NileNubian languages also became the primarycommunal languages of central riverineSudan, with a written vernacular (Browne2002) developed by the late eighth century;people also began to call themselves Nubians.

New settlement landscapes emerged inthe medieval period. New regional centersemerged with the kingdom of Makuria cen-tered on Old Dongola ( Jakobielski & Scholz2001), and the southernmost kingdom ofAlodia at Soba, a sprawling town a little up-stream of modern Khartoum on the Blue Nile(Welsby 1998, Welsby & Daniels 1991). Al-though the northern Nubian kingdoms werebound largely to the Nile banks, Alodia had itshinterland in the Sudanic belt and the Geziraregion, with medieval settlements identifiablealong the Blue Nile, at least as far south asSinnar. The dynamics of medieval settlementremain little explored, although excavated set-tlements commonly display complex histo-ries, similarly apparent in studies of Nubianchurches (Adams 1965, Gartkiewicz 1982).With very little indigenous historical docu-mentation, what are doubtless complex so-cial and political histories can often be sup-plemented by little more than king lists andlargely external (Arabic) accounts (Spaulding1995, Vantini 1975) of changing relationswith the caliphate and their Egyptian neigh-bors. Material evidence of contacts with theIslamic world may be gauged in archaeolog-ical finds of imported materials. These rangefrom utilitarian pottery, mainly into LowerNubia (Adams 1986), to more exotic materi-als such as fine cloth, glass, and glazed potterycoming from Egypt, Syria, and beyond.

As well as the Nubian kingdoms of theriverine Sudan, other kingdoms were devel-oping in the later medieval period in Darfur,as they were elsewhere in Sudanic Africa


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(O’Fahey & Spaulding 1974). However, ar-chaeological research has as yet been able toadd little to historical narratives from thisregion. Nonetheless, some claims of mate-rial evidence for links between the Nubiankingdoms and those of Darfur now seem un-founded (McGregor 2001). The history ofthe eastern Sudan was rather different dur-ing this period. Along the Red Sea coast,several important ports developed, operat-ing within Islamic trading networks linkingEgypt and the Near East with Arabia and theIndian Ocean. The Nubian kings may havecontrolled some parts of the east, but mostseem to have remained in the hands of thenomadic Beja. Trading ports developed atsites such as Suakin, ar-Rih/Badi, and Aydhab,some also serving as hubs for Muslim pil-grims heading for Jeddah, the port of the HolyPlaces. Although little archaeology has as yetbeen done on such sites, Islamic tombstonesthat commemorate the presence of Arabianmerchant families on the Red Sea coast andindeed the early incorporation of this area intothe Islamic world have been found (Kawatoko1993a,b).

THE END OF THE MEDIEVALKINGDOMS ANDPOSTMEDIEVAL SUDAN

Relatively little is known of the later historyof the medieval Nubian kingdoms, and thearchaeology of the late medieval period re-mains elusive in most areas. Arab historicalaccounts suggest that dynastic struggles, dur-ing which the first Muslim king of Dongolawas installed in the early fourteenth century(Figure 7), may have weakened their politicalstructures (Welsby 2002b). There are no his-torical records of whether the Black Death,which devastated both Egypt and Ethiopia(Benedictow 2004, Borsch 2005), penetratedthe Middle Nile, although a contraction ofsettlement in riverine Nubia is apparent dur-ing the later medieval period. Increasing ev-idence for groups claiming Arab and Islamicidentities marks the ongoing development of

new dominant communal identities, whichhave characterized most of northern Sudan inmodern times.

Traditional approaches have tended tocharacterize the study of the postmedievalperiod in the region as an Islamic archaeol-ogy in succession to a Christian medieval ar-chaeology (Adams 1987, Soghayroun Elzein2004). The material world of the postmedievalFunj state centered on Sinnar (Adams 1977;Crawford 1951) in central Sudan has yetto be significantly researched. In the west,little may be added to what the historicalrecords can tell us of the Sultanate of Dar-fur (O’Fahey 1980), known to be engaged intrade with Egypt (Walz 1978, 1979) but stilllittle explored archaeologically (Haser 2000,McGregor 2001, Musa 2004). Following theconquest of the region by Muhammed Aliin 1820, the 60-year period of the Turkiyya(also known as the Egyptian, Turco-Egyptian,or Ottoman period) was centrally impor-tant to the development of the modernSudanese state, through the process of ge-ographical expansion, which established itsmodern form, and its impact on Sudaneseidentities.

Understanding the spread of Islam andthe new Arab identities that have become soclosely interwoven with it may be one priorityfor future work. A recognition that the impactof such forces remains uneven, with a limitedimpact on large parts of the Sudan even today,is also important. This further suggests theneed for regional and local archaeologies thatmay capture something of the diversity of thecountry’s historical experiences, not the leastof which are those concerned with internalconflict and resistance to the shifting power ofthe central riverine state(s) before and duringthe Colonial period (Edwards 2004b). Suchdebates, of course, have particular resonanceat the present time, when issues of Sudaneseidentities and their entanglements with reli-gion have been so hotly debated and indeedfought over in a series of civil wars in south-ern Sudan ( Johnson 2003) and currently inDarfur.

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CONCLUSION

This necessarily superficial review has at-tempted to discuss some key topics and re-search themes, which are now becoming pos-sible to address in this vast and varied region.Over a long time period, the spatial scales ofanalysis vary widely, from the potentially pan-Sudanic traditions of early Holocene hunter-fisher-gatherers to highly specific niches oc-cupied by Nubian riverine farmers of recentmillennia. The importance of recognizingwider linkages is also increasingly apparent.The abundance and wealth of the Neolithicarchaeology of the Middle Nile, which is onlynow emerging, invites profitable compara-tive studies with the Egyptian Lower Nileand has considerable potential to contributeto larger debates concerning the origins offood production in sub-Saharan Africa, aswell as the Egyptian Nile valley and its socialimplications.

The exceptionally early development oflarge-scale polities in the Middle Nile alsooffers remarkable opportunities for exploringthe growth of political power and its archae-

ological manifestations. Examining the roleof royal capitals and urban centers in the longhistory of kingdoms in the Middle Nile alsohas obvious potential for comparative studiesof their still poorly understood functionalroles, for example as centers of power (polit-ical and religious), consumption, and trade.Our knowledge of some four millennia inwhich such urban centers have been so scarcealso provides a useful point of departure fortheir study, as markedly unusual elements ofsettlement landscapes. The unique oppor-tunities which the Nile corridor offered fortrans-Saharan contacts also ensure the specialinterest of this region as a zone of interactionbetween diverse cultural traditions in sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, the Mediterraneanworld, and elsewhere, across millennia. Mov-ing beyond more traditional assumptions ofcultural domination and the emulation ofhigher civilizations—as earlier generationsmay have assumed—the region offers ex-traordinary scope for exploring the interplayand interaction of varied Sudanic and externalcultural traditions, which have produced anexceptionally rich and varied archaeology.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The author is not aware of any biases that might be perceived as affecting the objectivity ofthis review.

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mountains (Egypt). Sahara 6:31–40Vincentelli I. 2006. Hillat El-Arab. The Joint Sudanese-Italian Expedition in the Napatan Region,

Sudan. London: SARS


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Walz T. 1978. Trade between Egypt and Bilad es-Sudan 1700–1820. Cairo: BIFAOWalz T. 1979. Trading into the Sudan in the Sixteenth Century. Ann. Islamolog. 15:211–33Welsby D. 1996. The Kingdom of Kush. London: Br. Mus. PressWelsby D. 1998. Soba II. London: Br. Mus. PressWelsby D. 2002a. Life on the Desert Edge. London: SARSWelsby D. 2002b. The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia. London: Br. Mus. PressWelsby D. 2003. Survey above the Fourth Nile Cataract. London: SARSWelsby D, Daniels CM. 1991. Soba: Archaeological Research at a Medieval Capital on the Blue Nile.

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ancient Egyptian civilization reconsidered. See O’Connor & Reid 2003, pp. 121–35Wengrow D. 2006. The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. PressWilliams BB. 1986. The A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul: Cemetery L. Chicago: Orient. Inst.

Univ. ChicagoWolf P. 2002. Die ausgrabungen in Hamadab bei Meroe. Antike Sudan 13:92–111Wright K, Garrard A. 2003. Social identities and the expansion of stone bead-making in Ne-

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www.annualreviews.org ● The Archaeology of Sudan and Nubia C-1

Figure 5

Meroitic royal pyramids of the first century BC at Jebel Barkal, North Sudan (photo D. Edwards).

Figure 4

Rock drawings probably dating to the fourth-third millennia BC in the Third Cataract region (photo D.Edwards).

HI-RES-AN36-13-Edw.qxd 8/13/07 19:29 Page C-1

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C-2 Edwards

Figure 6

A ninth-century church with granite columns excavated at Old Dongola (photo D. Edwards).

Figure 7

The royal throne or audience hall at Old Dongola, built in the ninth century and converted into amosque in AD 1307 (AH 707) (photo D. Edwards).

HI-RES-AN36-13-Edw.qxd 8/13/07 19:29 Page C-2

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AR323-FM ARI 24 August 2007 20:38

Annual Review ofAnthropology

Volume 36, 2007Contents

Prefatory Chapter

Overview: Sixty Years in AnthropologyFredrik Barth � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �1

Archaeology

The Archaeology of Religious RitualLars Fogelin � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 55

Çatalhöyük in the Context of the Middle Eastern NeolithicIan Hodder � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �105

The Archaeology of Sudan and NubiaDavid N. Edwards � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �211

A Bicycle Made for Two? The Integration of Scientific Techniques intoArchaeological InterpretationA. Mark Pollard and Peter Bray � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �245

Biological Anthropology

Evolutionary MedicineWenda R. Trevathan � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �139

Genomic Comparisons of Humans and ChimpanzeesAjit Varki and David L. Nelson � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �191

Geometric MorphometricsDennis E. Slice � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �261

Genetic Basis of Physical FitnessHugh Montgomery and Latif Safari � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �391

Linguistics and Communicative Practices

SociophoneticsJennifer Hay and Katie Drager � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 89

vii

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AR323-FM ARI 24 August 2007 20:38

Comparative Studies in Conversation AnalysisJack Sidnell � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �229

Semiotic AnthropologyElizabeth Mertz � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �337

Sociocultural Anthropology

Queer Studies in the House of AnthropologyTom Boellstorff � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17

Gender and TechnologyFrancesca Bray � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 37

The Anthropology of Organized Labor in the United StatesE. Paul Durrenberger � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 73

Embattled Ranchers, Endangered Species, and Urban Sprawl:The Political Ecology of the New American WestThomas E. Sheridan � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �121

Anthropology and MilitarismHugh Gusterson � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �155

The Ecologically Noble Savage DebateRaymond Hames � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �177

The Genetic Reinscription of RaceNadia Abu El-Haj � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �283

Community Forestry in Theory and Practice: Where Are We Now?Susan Charnley and Melissa R. Poe � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �301

Legacies of Derrida: AnthropologyRosalind C. Morris � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �355

Indexes

Cumulative Index of Contributing Authors, Volumes 28–36 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �407

Cumulative Index of Chapter Titles, Volumes 28–36 � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � �410

Errata

An online log of corrections to Annual Review of Anthropology articles may be foundat http://anthro.annualreviews.org/errata.shtml

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The Archaeology of Sudan and Nubia - Earl J. Heinrich Nubia/_Private/Archaeology of Sudan... ·...

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