Institute of Archaeology, UCL
Undergraduate Option ARCL 3050
half unit option for undergraduates
Issues in the Archaeology of
Nubia
Course Handbook 2013
-08
Meetings: Mondays, 11am-1 pm, Room 412, Term I
Coordinator: Dorian Q Fuller,
d.fuller@ucl.ac.uk, phone: 7679-4771. Room 311.
Additional Instructor: Brigitte Balanda
Email:Brigitte@talktalk.net
Office hours: Mon. 2-4, Room 311
:
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Images from the Oriental Institute, Univ. Chicago website: www-oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/NUB/Nubia.html
Brief description
This course will familiarize students with the broad sweep of the archaeology of the middle Nile and
adjacent regions from the pre-agricultural early Holocene to the Christianisation of Nubia in the sixth
century AD. The course will focus on issues surrounding major cultural transitions, and current
scholarly controversies regarding the nature of Nubian societies during various periods, including the
beginnings of food production and the potential role of climatic change, the relationships between
Nubian polities and ancient Egypt during the Egyptian Old, Middle and New Kingdoms, the rise of
state-level societies in Nubia, first at Kerma in the third/second millennium BC and later at Napata and
Meroe in the first millennium BC, and the collapse of complex polities both at Kerma and Meroe.
Issues surrounding the organization of the Meroitic kingdom and Lower Nubia and the emergence postMeroitic successor states will be dealt with.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of this course is acquaint students with Nubia as a region of archaeological study, which may
be particularly pertinent to students with interests in African archaeology or Egyptology.
Students should then be able to:

name major archaeological sites in the middle Nile valley and relate them to the culturalhistorical periodisation of Nubia.

appraise available archaeological data relating to the emergence of social complexity in Nubia
during one period of another.

compare the relations between Nubian societies and Egypt during different periods.

Review issues surrounding the rise and fall and the Meroitic Kingdom.
Format : 10, 2hr classes; some including time for open discussion. An additional practical session to
handle Nubian archaeological material at the Petrie Museum will be arranged.
Workload and reading matter
Students should do assigned reading prior to the course meetings in order to participate in discussion. It
is expected that this will require 4-5 hours per week (total approx. 140 hours). Additional readings
under recommended readings are also encouraged. Readings listed under Further Reading may be
useful in the preparation of the written essay. Additional references on topics of particular interest can
be obtained from the instructors.
Attendance
Students are encouraged to attend all course meetings, repeated failure to do so may result in
penalisation. The Institute has a minimum attendance rate of 70%. You will not be penalised under this
rule for absences due to illness, or other adverse circumstances, provided that they are supported by
medical certificates or other appropriate documentation.
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Schedule: 11-1, Monday, Room 412. TERM I ONLY
Instructors: DF= Dorian Fuller, BB= Brigitte Balanda
Sept.30 (1) Introduction: Geographical background, including
palaeoecology, history of archaeological research, and Nubian-Egyptian
frontier with a focus on the Egyptian New Kingdom presence. DF & BB
Oct.7 (2) The post-New Kingdom dark age and Neo-Kushites (The rise
of Napata: the issue of inter-societal transfers between Egypt and Nubia).
BB
Oct.14 (3) Napatan to Early Meroitic Kingdom: state organization,
economy and ecology. DF
Oct.21(4) Meroitic culture: art, architecture and ritual practices. BB
Oct.28 (5) Guided visit to the Nubian gallery at the British Museum. BB
ESSAY 1 DUE: Friday Nov.1
Reading Week (Nov.4-8) NO CLASS
Nov.11 (6) The Late Meroitic period, the Post-Meroitic Transition, and
Christianization. DF
Nov.18 (7) Back to beginnings: Early Pottery, Sedentism, Food
Production, and the divergence of Nubia and Egypt . DF
Nov.25 (8) Late Neolithic complexity: The A-Group chiefs and their
aftermath. DF
Dec.2 (9) Early Egyptian Colonialism : Yam, Kerma, Fortresses and the
C-Group. BB
Dec.9 (10) The Kerma ascendancy: Classic Kerma, Pan-Graves and New
Kingdom reconquest BB
ESSAY 2 DUE: Thursday December 12.
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Assessment is by two essays (details of questions and deadlines, below).
Guidance on preparing coursework can be found on the Institute Website:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/content.htm
Referencing (Bibliography): The Institute has adopted standard procedures for citation, which are
found on the website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/referencing.htm
UCL has strict policies against collusion, falsification and plagiarism. Please familiarize yourself with
these on-line: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/cfp.htm
Suggestions for how the essay should appear can be found on-line under “presentation”:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/presentation.htm
Essays should be handed in at Institute reception, following the procedures indicated on-line,
Submission: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/submission.htm
The criteria for assessment used in this course are those agreed by the Board of Examiners in
Archaeology, and are included in the Undergraduate Handbook (available on the Institute web-site:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/handbook/common/marking.htm
Coursework
If students are unclear about the nature of an assignment, they should discuss this with
the Course Co-ordinator.
Students are not permitted to re-write and re-submit essays in order to try to improve their
marks. However, students may be permitted, in advance of the deadline for a given
assignment, to submit for comment a brief outline of the assignment. The Course instructor is
willing to discuss an outline of the student's approach to the assignment, provided this is
planned suitably in advance of the submission date.
Word-length
Strict new regulations with regard to word-length were introduced UCL-wide with effect from
2013:
3.1.7 Penalties for Over-length Coursework
For submitted coursework, where a maximum length has been specified, the following procedure will
apply:
i) The length of coursework will normally be specified in terms of a word count
ii) Assessed work should not exceed the prescribed length.
iii) For work that exceeds the specified maximum length by less than10% the mark will be reduced by
ten percentage marks; but the penalised mark will not be reduced below the pass mark, assuming the
work merited a pass.
iv) For work that exceeds the specified maximum length by 10% or more, a mark of zero will be
recorded.
vii) In the case of coursework that is submitted late and is also overlength, the lateness penalty will
have precedence.
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The following should not be included in the word-count: title page, contents pages, lists of figure and
tables, abstract, preface, acknowledgements, bibliography, captions and contents of tables and figures,
appendices, and wording of citations.
Submission procedures (coversheets and Turnitin, including Class ID and password)
Students are required to submit hard copy of all coursework to the course co-ordinators pigeon hole
via the Red Essay Box at Reception by the appropriate deadline. The coursework must be stapled to a
completed coversheet (available from the web, from outside Room 411A or from the library)
Students should put their Candidate Number on all coursework. This is a 5 digit alphanumeric code
and can be found on Portico: it is different from the Student Number/ ID. Please also put the
Candidate Number and course code on each page of the work.
It is also essential that students put their Candidate Number at the start of the title line on Turnitin,
followed by the short title of the coursework.. – eg YBPR6 Funerary practices
Please note the stringent UCL-wide penalties for late submission given below . Late submission
will be penalized in accordance with these regulations unless permission has been granted and an
Extension Request Form (ERF) completed.
Date-stamping will be via ‘Turnitin’ (see below), so in addition to submitting
hard copy, students must also submit their work to Turnitin by the midnight on
the day of the deadline.
Students who encounter technical problems submitting their work to Turnitin should email the nature
of the problem to ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk in advance of the deadline in order that the Turnitin Advisers
can notify the Course Co-ordinator that it may be appropriate to waive the late submission penalty.
If there is any other unexpected crisis on the submission day, students should telephone or (preferably)
e-mail the Course Co-ordinator, and follow this up with a completed ERF
Please see the Coursework Guidelines on the IoA website (or your Degree Handbook) for further
details of penalties.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook/submission
Hard copy will no longer be date-stamped.
The Turnitin 'Class ID' is 594875 and the 'Class Enrolment Password' is IoA1314
Further information is given on the IoA website.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook/turnitin
Turnitin advisers will be available to help you via email: ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk if needed.
UCL-WIDE PENALTIES FOR LATE SUBMISSION OF COURSEWORK
UCL regulation 3.1.6 Late Submission of Coursework
Where coursework is not submitted by a published deadline, the following penalties will apply:
i) A penalty of 5 percentage marks should be applied to coursework
submitted the calendar day after the deadline (calendar day 1).
ii) A penalty of 15 percentage marks should be applied to coursework submitted on calendar day 2 after
the deadline through to calendar day 7.
iii) A mark of zero should be recorded for coursework submitted on calendar day 8 after the deadline
through to the end of the second week of third term. Nevertheless, the assessment will be considered to
be complete provided the coursework contains material than can be assessed.
iv) Coursework submitted after the end of the second week of third term will not be marked and the
assessment will be incomplete.
vii) Where there are extenuating circumstances that have been recognised by the Board of Examiners
or its representative, these penalties will not apply until the agreed extension period has been exceeded.
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viii) In the case of coursework that is submitted late and is also over length, only the lateness penalty
will apply.
Timescale for return of marked coursework to students.
You can expect to receive your marked work within four calendar weeks of the official submission
deadline. If you do not receive your work within this period, or a written explanation from the marker,
you should notify the IoA’s Academic Administrator, Judy Medrington.
Keeping copies
Please note that it is an Institute requirement that you retain a copy (this can be electronic) of all
coursework submitted. When your marked essay is returned to you, you should return it to the marker
within two weeks.
Citing of sources
Coursework should be expressed in a student’s own words giving the exact
source of any ideas, information, diagrams etc. that are taken from the work of
others. Any direct quotations from the work of others must be indicated as
such by being placed between inverted commas. Plagiarism is regarded as
a very serious irregularity which can carry very heavy penalties. It is your
responsibility to read and abide by the requirements for presentation,
referencing and avoidance of plagiarism to be found in the IoA ‘Coursework
Guidelines’ on the IoA website
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/administration/students/handbook
There are strict penalties for plagiarism. Further details are available on the
IoA website.
Essay topics and submission deadlines
Essays must be handed-in to the Reception Desk or to the Course Co-ordinator, before the end of the
day
on the submission date specified or agreed with the Course Co-ordinator.
Essay topics and submission deadlines
Essays must be handed-in to the Reception Desk or to the Course Co-ordinator, before the end of the
day on the submission date specified or agreed with the Course Co-ordinator.
The first essay is due by Friday, Nov.1st
Topics for first essay, please select one:

How did Egyptian presence in Nubia affect the course of cultural-historical developments in
Nubia? You may wish to focus on a particular period, such as the Middle Kingdom or New
Kingdom. Also, consider the nature of Egyptian conquest/ occupation in terms of colonialism
or imperialism.

What is the social significance of Egyptian, Hellenistic and Roman influences on Meroitic art
and architecture?
Select one Napatan/Meroitic artifact (or a group of objects) from a museum collection or exhibition
catalogue. After a detailed description of its features think which questions can be asked from the
object(s) and discuss Egyptian and/or Hellenistic and Roman influences and their social significance.
WWhat are the factors that contributed to the end of the Meroitic Kingdom and how might alternative
hypotheses explaining this end be tested?
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
What role did different ethnicities play in the dynamics of the Meroitic or Post-Meroitic
period? How might named groups, known from classical sources, be correlated (or not) with
archaeological evidence, such as ceramic assemblages, burial customs or settlement
organization.

What is the evidence for the production, distribution, use and disposal of metal artefacts
during the Napatan and Meroitic periods?

How can the study of ceramics from the Napatan, Meroitic and/or Post-Meroitic period
contribute to our understanding of local versus regional traditions and cultural change?

How does the iconography of deities in the Meroitic period compare with that of Egyptian
counterparts, and what might this indicate about cultic practices in the Sudan?

What are the similarities and differences in royal/elite symbolism of the Late Meroitic Period
and the Post-Meroitic period?

What changes and continuities can be identified in Nubia for the earliest period of Christianity
in the region?
The second essay should be submitted to the course instructor no later than Thursday, Dec.12th.
Topics for second essay, select from among the following:

What is the evidence for social complexity and hierarchy in early Nubia? Select a period (e.g.
Neolithic, A-Group, C-Group, Early to Classic Kerma) and discuss the evidence for social
complexity in the context of one or two archaeological sites. To what extent do categories
such as chiefdom or state have relevance for interpreting this data.

Critically assess the Egyptian written sources relating to Nubia from the Old and/or Middle
Kingdom and how these might be related to our current archaeological understanding of
Nubia.

How can settlement patterns, artefactual evidence and other sources of information contribute
to our understanding of the changing economy of Nubia in prehistory?

What information about social organisation and cultural traditions of prehistoric Nubia/Sudan
can be learned from the study of cemeteries and grave assemblages?

Who were the Medjay and how can they be identified archaeologically in Nubia and Egypt?
Other topics may also be chosen for this essay, but students should first clear them with the course
coordinator.
.
COMMUNICATION
The primary channel of communication within the Institute of Archaeology is e-mail. If you wish to be
contacted on your personal or work e-mail address, please arrange for e-mail sent to your UCL address
to be forwarded to your other address, since staff and other students will expect to be able to reach you
through your College e-mail - which they can find on the UCL web-site. Students must consult their email regularly, as well as the student pigeon-holes in the Basement Common Room for written
communications. Please also ensure that the Institute has an up-to-date telephone number for you, in
case you need to be contacted.
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ATTENDANCE
It is a College regulation that attendance at lectures, seminars and practicals be monitored, and a
register will be taken. A 70% minimum attendance at all scheduled sessions is required (excluding
absences due to illness or other adverse circumstances, provided that these are supported by medical
certificates or other documentation, as appropriate). Attendance is reported to College and thence (if
relevant) to the student's Local Education Authority. Students should also be aware that potential
employers seeking references often ask about attendance and other indications of reliability.
FEEDBACK
In trying to make this course as effective as possible, we welcome feedback from students during the
course of the year. At the end of each course all students are asked to give their views on the course in
an anonymous questionnaire, which will be circulated at one of the last sessions of the course. These
questionnaires are taken seriously and help the Course Co-ordinator to develop the course. The
summarised responses are considered by the Institute's Staff-Student Consultative Committee,
Teaching Committee, and by the Faculty Teaching Committee.
If students are concerned about any aspect of this course we hope they will feel able to talk to the
Course Co-ordinator, but if they feel this is not appropriate, they should consult their Personal Tutor,
Year Tutor, the Academic Administrator (Judy Medrington), or the Chair of Teaching Committee.
LIBRARIES AND OTHER RESOURCES
In addition to the Library of the Institute of Archaeology, other libraries in UCL with holdings of
particular relevance to this degree are: the Science library, especially the Anthropology collection.
Libraries outside of UCL which have holdings which may also be relevant to this degree are: The
British Library and the Library of the British Museum, Dept. of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.
Relevant collections of material can be found on display at the Petrie
Museum, and in the Egypt & Sudan Gallery in the British Museum.
Students are recommended to visit these collections
Web Resources on Nubia are numerous, and of varying usefulness.
You might try these:
Sudan Archaeological Research Society [which has a cheap student membership, for a
nice glossy journal; there is an annual symposium in May at the British Museum and
a lecture in Sept]: http://www.sudarchrs.org.uk/index.htm
or
Dave Edwards' Sudanarchaeology:
http://www.spicey.demon.co.uk/Nubianpage/SUDANARC.htm
or
http://Kerma2Meroe.googlepages.com/ which is being made by DQF
Core Text
Edwards, David N. 2004 The Nubian Past. An Archaeology of the Sudan.
Routledge, London ISBN 0-415-36988-6 [EGYPTOLOGY E 120 EDW]
Other Basic Texts
Adams, William Y. 1977 [or 1984]. Nubia - Corridor to Africa. Penguin Books Ltd (London) The most
extensive basic symopsis of Nubian culture history from Paleolithic to Present. [EGYPTOLOGY B 60
ADA] (out of print)
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Edwards, David N. 1996. The archaeology of the Meroitic state : new perspectives on its social and
political organization..BAR IS 640 Oxford : Tempus Reparatum [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60
EDW]
Morkot, Robert George. 2000. The black Pharaohs : Egypt's Nubian rulers. London : Rubicon.
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 MOR]
Redford, Donald B. 2004. From Slave to Pharaoh. The Black Experience of Ancient Egypt. John
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
Smith, Stuart Tyson. 1995. Askut in Nubia : the economics and ideology of Egyptian imperialism in the
second millenium B.C. London : Kegan Paul International [EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SMI]
Smith, Stuart Tyson. 2003. Wretched Kush : ethnic identities and boudaries in Egypt's Nubian
empire. London: Routledge [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 SMI]
Török, L. 1988. Late Antique Nubia: History and Archaeology of the Southern Nieghbor of Egypt in
the 4th-6th Centuries A.D. Antaeus 16. Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences (Budapest)
Török, László. 1997. The kingdom of Kush : handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic civilization. Leiden:
Brill [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 TOR]
Trigger, Bruce (1976) Nubia under the pharaohs. London: Thames and Hudson [INST ARCH DCA
100 TRI] (out of print)
Welsby, Derek A. 1996. The kingdom of Kush : the Napatan and Meroitic empires. London: British
Museum Press [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 WEL]
Welsby, Derek A. (ed.) 1999. Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of the
8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies, British Museum Occasional Paper 131.
[EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 WEL]
Welsby, Derek A. 2002. The medieval kingdoms of Nubia : Pagans, Christians and Muslims on the
Middle Nile. The British Museum Press (London). [Egyptology B 60 WEL]
General Reading list (Major books)
Adams, William Y.1976. Meroitic North and South, Meroitica 2. Akademie-Verlag (Berlin)
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 ADA]
Adams, William Y. 1977 [or 1984]. Nubia - Corridor to Africa. Penguin Books Ltd (London) The most
extensive basic symopsis of Nubian culture history from Paleolithic to Present. [EGYPTOLOGY B 60
ADA]
Adams, W. Y. 2000. Meinarti I. The Late Meroitic, Ballana and Transitional Occupation. Sudan
ARchaeologicxal Research Society, London. [ordered]
Bonnet, C (ed.) 1992. Études Nubiennes. Conférence du Genève. Genève:
Davies, W. Vivian (ed.) 1991. Egypt and Africa: Nubia from prehistory to Islam London: British
Museum Press [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 DAV]
Edwards, David N. 1989. Archaeology and settlement in Upper Nubia in the 1st Millennium A.D.
Oxford: B.A.R. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 EDW]
Edwards, David N. 1996. The archaeology of the Meroitic state : new perspectives on its social and
political organization.. Oxford : Tempus Reparatum [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 EDW]
9
Ehret, Christopher and Merrick Posnansky (eds.) 1982. The Archaeological and Linguistic
Reconstruction of African History. University of California Press (Berkeley) INST ARCH DC 100
HER
Emery, Walter B. and Laurence P. Kirwan 1935. The Excavations and Survey Between Wadi es-Sebua
and Adindan, 2 vols. Government Press (Cairo) [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 13 EME]
Emery, Walter B. and Laurence P. Kirwan 1938. The royal tombs of Ballana and Qustul. Cairon:
Government Press [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 13 EME]
Fontes Historiae Nubiorum.Textual sources for the history of the Middle Nile Region between the
eighth century BC and the sixth century AD. Volumes I-III. (T. Eide, T. Hagg, R. H. Pierce and L.
Török) 1994-1998. Bergen: Department of Greek, Latin and Egyptology. [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 FON]
Gardberg, C. J. 1970. Late Nubian sites : churches and settlements.. Stockholm : Scandinavian
University Books [EGYPTOLOGY E 56 SCA]
Garberg, C. J. and Torgny Save-Soderbergh 1970. Late Nubian Sites, the Scadinavian Joint Expedition
to Nubia vol. 7. Scadinavian University Books (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm) [EGYPTOLOGY E 56
SCA]
Hägg, Tomas (ed.) 1987 Nubian culture, past and present : main papers presented at the Sixth
International Conference for Nubian Studies in Uppsala, 11-16 August, 1986. Stockholm : Kungl.
Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien : Almqvist & Wiksell (distributor) [EGYPTOLOGY E
120 HAG]
Hintze, Fritz (ed.) 1984 Internationale Tagung für Meroitistische Forschungen (4th : 1980 : Berlin).
Meroitistische Forschungen 1980 : Akten der 4. Internationalen Tagung für Meroitistische Forschungen
vom 24. bis 29. Novenber 1980 in Berlin. Berlin : Akademie-Verlag . [EGYPTOLOGY A 6 MER]
Krause, Martin (ed.) 1986.Nubische Studien :Tagungsakten der 5. Internationalen Konferenz der
International Society for Nubian Studies, Heidelberg, 22.-25. September 1982 . [DC 100 KRA]
Morkot, Robert George. 2000. The black Pharaohs : Egypt's Nubian rulers. London : Rubicon.
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 MOR]
Nordstrom, H-A. 1972. Neolithic A-group sites. [EGYPTOLOGY E 56 SCA]
O’Connor, David (1993) Ancient Nubia. Egypt’s Rival in Africa. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Museum. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 OCO]
Plumley, J. M. 1982 (ed.) Nubian Studies, proceedings of the symposium for Nubian studies,
Cambridge 1978. Aris & Phillips Ltd (Warminster, England) [requested for library]
Rose, Pamela 1996. Qasr Ibrim. The Hinterland Survey. London: Egyptian Exploration Society
[EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 42 [62]]
Säve-Söderbergh, Torgny (ed.) 1989. Middle Nubian sites. Partille : Åstrom [EGYPTOLOGY E 56
SAV]
Säve-Söderbergh, Torgny and Lana Troy 1991. New Kingdom Pharaonic sites : the finds and the sites.
Uppsala : Alsmqvist & Wiksell [EGYPTOLOGY E 56 SCA]
Simpson, William K. 1963. Heka-Nefer and the Dynastic Material from Toshka and Arminna.
Publications of the Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt Number 1. The Peabody Museum of
Natural History of Yale University (New Haven) [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 SIM]
10
Smith, Stuart Tyson. 1995. Askut in Nubia : the economics and ideology of Egyptian imperialism in the
second millenium B.C. London : Kegan Paul International [EGYPTOLOGY B 20 SMI]
Török, L. 1988. Late Antique Nubia: History and Archaeology of the Southern Nieghbor of Egypt in
the 4th-6th Centuries A.D. Antaeus 16. Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences (Budapest)
Török, László. 1997. The kingdom of Kush : handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic civilization. Leiden:
Brill [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 TOR]
Trigger, Bruce (1965) History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. Yale University Publications in
Anthropology 69. New Haven, CT. [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 TRI]
Trigger, Bruce G. (1967) The late Nubian settlement at Arminna West New Haven : Peabody Museum
of Natural History of Yale University [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 TRI]
Trigger, Bruce G. (1970) The Meroitic funerary inscriptions from Arminna West. New Haven : Peabody
Museum of Natural History of Yale University [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 TRI]
Trigger, Bruce (1976) Nubia under the pharaohs. London: Thames and Hudson [INST ARCH DCA
100 TRI]
Weeks, Kent R. 1967. The Classic Christian Townsite at Arminna West. Publications of the
Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt Number 3. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 WEE]
Welsby, Derek A. (ed.) 1999. Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of the
8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies, British Museum Occasional Paper 131.
[EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 WEL]
Williams, B. B. 1983. OINE 5. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 5: CGroup, Pan Grave, and Kerma Remains at Adindan Cemeteries T, K, U, and J. [EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 120 CHI]
Williams, B. B. 1986. OINE 3. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 1: The
A-Group Royal Cemetery at Qustul, Cemetery L. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 CHI]
Williams, B. B. 1990. OINE 7. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 7:
Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan Remains at Qustul Cemeteries W and V [EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 120 CHI]
Williams, B. B. 1991a. OINE 8. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 8:
Meroitic Remains from Qustul Cemetery Q, Ballana Cemetery B, and a Ballana Settlement. Two
volumes (Text, Plates).
Williams, B. B. 1991b OINE 9. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 9:
Noubadian X-Group Remains from Royal Complexes in Cemeteries Q and 219 and Private Cemeteries
Q, R, V, W, B, J, and M at Qustul and Ballana.
Williams, B. B. 1992. OINE 6. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 6: New
Kingdom Remains from Cemeteries R, V, S, and W at Qustul and Cemetery K at Adindan.
Woolley, Leonard, Sir. And David MacIver 1911. Karanòg : the town Philadelphia, Pa. : University
Museum [EGYPTOLOGY E 120 PEN]
Woolley, Leonard, Sir and David MacIver 1910. Karanòg : the Romano-Nubian cemetery / by C.
Leonard Woolley and D. Randall-Maciver. Philadelphia : University Museum [EGYPTOLOGY E 120
PEN]
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Articles drawn from the following journals in the Institute of Archaeology Library:
Archaeological Review from Cambridge
Archéologie du Nil moyen
Cambridge Archaeological Review
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
Journal of Near Eastern Studies [UCL Main library, Classics periodicals]
Kush
Orientalia
Sudan and Nubia
Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Relevant collections of material can be found on display at the Petrie Museum,
and in the Sudan Gallery in the British Museum.
12
Schedule 11am,-1pm, Monday, Room 412. TERM I ONLY
Sept.30 (1) Introduction: Geographical background, including palaeoecology, history of
archaeological research, and Nubian-Egyptian frontier with a focus on the Egyptian
New Kingdom presence
Oct.7 (2) The post-New Kingdom dark age and Neo-Kushites (The rise of Napata: the
issue of inter-societal transfers between Egypt and Nubia)
Oct.14 (3) Napatan to Early Meroitic Kingdom: state organization, economy and
ecology
Oct.21(4) Meroitic culture: art, architecture and ritual practices
Oct.28 (5) Guided visit to the Nubian materials at the British Museum,
Reading Week (Nov.4-8) NO CLASS
ESSAY 1 DUE: Friday Nov.1
Nov.11 (6) The Late Meroitic period, the Post-Meroitic Transition, and Christianization.
Nov.18 (7) Back to beginnings: Early Pottery, Sedentism, Food Production, and the
divergence of Nubia and Egypt
Nov.25 (8) Late Neolithic complexity: The A-Group chiefs and their aftermath.
Dec.2 (9) Early Egyptian Colonialism : Yam, Kerma, Fortresses and the C-Group.
Dec.9 (10)The Kerma ascendancy: Classic Kerma, Pan-Graves and New Kingdom
reconquest
ESSAY 2 DUE: Thursday December 12.
Detailed breakdown of lectures and readings. Books from main bibliography (above) cited by
Author and date. Because this is a new course a number of readings have been added to the teaching
collection and were still being processed at the time of producing this syllabus, and thus teaching
collection numbers were unavailable. The coordinator will make every effort to circulate these number
to students when the become available, but they should also be found in the library catalogue. Should
they still not be available please see Dorian Fuller.
1. Geographical background and history of archaeological research, and
palaeoecology
This lecture will introduce the study area, and then jump into the cultural history of Nubia at
the height of Egyptian Imperialism. Providing a broad geographical overview, and a brief summary of
the history of archaeological research in the region, and changing paradigms, including problematic
racial/ racist assumptions of earlier generations. It will also raise the question as who we mean when
we say ‘Nubians’ at different periods in the past and the different perspectives that create different
definitions of ‘Nubia’ within the modern world. This lecture will provide a background to the question
of whether Nubia should be seen as a corridor, linking the Mediterranean/Egypt with sub-Saharan
13
Africa or a cul-de-sac, a question which much of the rest of the course will address for different periods
of the past.
Also we will examine the evidence for and the significance of past environmental change since the Last
Glacial Maximum (18,000 bp), especially the oscillating wet and dry periods of the early to middle
Holocene (10,000-4000 BC). We will examine how climatic changes would have affected the flora,
fauna and available resource within different regions, including the desert, the wadi systems and the
Nile valley. This lecture will introduce some of the issues surrounding how human groups adapted to
the changing environmental context, which will be taken up further in subsequent lectures.
Readings on the history of research:
*Edwards, D. N. The Nubian Past. Chapter 1
or
Morkot 2000. The Black Pharaohs. Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 8-36 [a history of exploration, historical and
archaeological research]
On New Kingdom imperialism in Nubia:
Morkot 2000. The Black Pharaohs. Chapter 6 “Gold is as Dust”, pp. 69-90
or
Edwards The Nubian Past. pp. 101-109
Primers On Palaeoecology:
Close, A. E. 1996. Holocene Environments in Africa, in Oxford Companion to Archaeology (B. Fagan
ed., 1996), pp. 309-310. [INST ARCH AG FAG reference]
or
Edwards, D. N. The Nubian Past Chapter 2
further readings:
Adams, W. Y. 1994. The Invention of Nubia, in Hommage a Jean Leclant, Vol. 2. Nubie, Soudan,
Ethiopie (C. Berger, G. Clerc and N. Grimal eds.), Institut Francais d’Archeologie Orientale (Paris) :
pp. 17-22. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS A 6 LEC]
Adams, W. Y. 2007. A century of archaeological salvage, 1907-2007. Sudan & Nubia 11: 48-56
Trigger, Bruce G. 1969. The Personality of the Sudan, in Eastern African History (McCall, D. F., N. R.
Bennett and J. Butler eds.). New York: Praeger. Pp. 74-106
Adams, W. Y. 1977. Chap. 1-2, ‘The Nubian Corridor’ and ‘The People of the Corridor’: pp. 13-64
Van Wyk Smith, Malvern 2009. The First Ethiopians. WITS Univetrsity Press, Johannesburg.
On palaeoclimates
Hassan, F. A. 1997. Holocene Palaeoclimates of Africa, African Archaeological Review 14(4): 213-230
[Teaching collection]
Fuller, D. Q. 1998. Palaeoecology of the Wadi Muqaddam: a preliminary report on the significance of
the plant and animal remains, Sudan and Nubia 2: 52-60
Neumann, K. 1989. Holocene vegetation from the Eastern Sahara: charcoal from prehistoric sites, The
African Archaeological Review 7: 97-116
[or, alternatively, read: Neumann, K. 1993. Holocene vegetation from the Eastern Sahara: charcoal
from prehistoric sites, in Environmental Change and Human Culture in the Nile Basin and Northern
Africa Until the Second Millennium B.C. (L. Krzyzaniak, M. Kobusiewicz, and J. Alexander eds.), pp.
153-169. Poznan: Poznan Archaeological Museum. INST ARCH DC 100 KRZ]
Further reading on the New Kingdom
14
Trigger, B. 1996. Toshka and Arminna in the New Kingdom, in Studies in Honor of William Kelly
Simpson. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts: Pp. 801-810 [Teaching collection]
Davies, W. V. 1998. New Fieldwork at Kurgus: The Pharaonic Inscriptions, Sudan and Nubia 2: 26-30
Buzon, M. R. 2006. Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia, Current Anthropology
47(4): 683-695
Spencer, Neal 2010. Nubian architecture in an Egyptian town? Building E12.11 at Amara West. Sudan
& Nubia 14: 15-24
Spencer, Neal et al. 2012. Re-assessing the abandonment of Amara West: the impact of a changing
Nile? Sudan & Nubia 16:37-43
2. The post-New Kingdom dark age and Neo-Kushites (The rise of
Napata the issue of inter-societal transfers between Egypt and Nubia)
In this lecture we will consider the end of Egyptian imperialism in Nubia during the 20th dynasty,
controversies surrounding depopulation and cultural continuities. The Egyptian expansion into Nubia
left indelible marks on the local societies, and we will ponder the issue of "Egpyptianisation" and
questions of identity. After the withdrawal of Egypt at the end of the New Kingdom, Nubia seems to
descent in a "Dark Age". Can we shed light on this period by examining known and more recent
evidence from different angles? A particular focus will be on debates surrounding evidence for the rise
of powerful Kingdom in the Middle Nile at Napata (Gebel Barkal and nearby sites like el Kurru). This
new power conquered Egypt and was accepted by the priests of Amun as the rightful pharaohs known
as Dynasty 25. The origins of this dynasty, however, remain enigmatic. Although the burial customs of
the ruling elite as well as the temples to the state god Amun were inspired by Egyptian models we will
find that beneath the layer of "Egptianness" non-Egyptian traits are discernible. This lecture will look at
the archaeological signature of this new phase in Nubian culture-history, a field of research which has
been pursued only in the last 25 years and slowly indigenous contributions to the kingdoms of the
Middle Nile are fully recognised
Readings:
Edwards 2004, The Nubian Past. pp. 112-140
Morkot 2000, Chaps. 10-12, pp. 129-178
Torok, L. 1999. On the foundations of Kingship Ideology in the Empire of Kush, in Studien zum
antiken Sudan (S. Wenig ed.), Meroitica 15. Weisbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag: pp. 273-287. [Teaching
collection; EGYPTOLOGY B 60 WEN]
Fattovich, R. 1995. The Origins of the Kingdom of Kush: Views from the African Hinterland,
Archeologie du Nil Moyen 7: 69-78 [Teaching Collection]
Smith, S. T. 2007. Death at Tombos: pyramids, Iron and the rise of the Napatan dynasty. Sudan &
Nubia 11: 2-14
(alternative: Smith, S.T. 2008. Tombos and the Transition from the New Kingdom to the Naptan Period
in Upper Nubia, in Between the Cataracts, Proceedings of the 11th Conference for Nubian Studies,
Warsaw Uiversity, 27 August-2 September 2006, Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, Warsaw
University; pp. 95-115, [EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 GOD])
Some alternatives:
Redford 2004. From Slave to Pharaoh, pp. 39-57
O’Connor 1993, Chaps. 5-6,pp. 59-84
15
Torok, 1997, pp. 82-130
Adams, W.Y. 1964 “Post-Pharaonic Nubia in the Light of Archaeology. I”, JEA 50:102-120
Adams, W.Y. 1981 “Ecology and Economy in the Empire of Kush”, ZÄS 108:1-11 (see also Török
1984)
Binder, M. 2011 "The 10th-9th century BC – New Evidence from the Cemetery C of Amara West",
Sudan & Nubia 15:39-53
Dunham, D. 1950 El-Kurru, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush I, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 DUN]
Dunham, D. 1955 Nuri, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush II, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
[EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 DUN]
Griffith, F.Ll. 1922-1926 “Oxford Excavations in Nubia” LAAA 9-13
Heidorn, L. 1994 “Historical Implications of the Pottery from the Earliest Tombs at el-Kurru”, JARCE
31:115-131
Kendall, T. 1999 “The Origin of the Napatan State; El-Kurru and the Evidence for the Royal
Ancestors”, S.Wenig (ed.) Studien zum Antiken Sudan, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz; pp. 3-117
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 WEN]
Kendall, T. 2004 “The Monument of Taharqa on Gebel Barkal” in S.Wenig (ed.) Neueste
Feldforschungen im Sudan und in Eritrea; Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden; pp.1-45 [EGYPTOLOGY E 120
WEN]
Leahy, A. 1995 “Kushite Monuments at Abydos”, in Chr.Eyre (ed.) The Unbroken Reed, Studies in the
Culture and Heritage of Ancient Egypt in honour of A.F. Shore, London, Egypt Exploration Society;
pp. 171-192 [EGYPTOLOGY A 6 SHO]
Lohwasser, Angelika 2010. The Kushite Cemetery of Sanam. A Non-royal burial ground of the Nubian
Capital, c. 800-600 BC. London: Golden House Publications. [EGYPTOLOGY E 120 LOH]
Morkot, R.G. 2003 “On the Priestly Origin of the Napatan Kings: The Adaptation, Demise and
Resurrection of Ideas in Writing Nubian History” in D.O’Connor and A.Reid (eds.) Ancient Egypt in
Africa, London, UCL Press; pp. 151-167 [EGYPTOLOGY B 20 OCO]
Reisner, G.A. 1917 “Excavations at Napata, the Capital of Ethiopia”,
BMFA XV/89:25-34 (available
on-line http://www.gizapyramids.org/code/emuseum.asp?newpage=bmfaall)
Reisner, G.A. 1918 “Known and Unknown Kings of Ethiopia”, BMFA XVI/97:67-82
Reisner, G.A. 1921 “The Royal Family of Ethiopia“, BMFA XIX:21-38
Smith, S.T. 2006-2007 “A New Napatan Cemetery at Tombos”, CRIPEL 26:347-352
Thill, F. 2006-2007 “Les reoccupations ‘(pré)napatéens’ dans le cimetière éegyptien 8B5/SAC5 de
Saï”, CRIPEL 26:353-369
Török, L. 1984 “Economy and Empire in Kush: A Review of the Written Evidence”, Zeitschrift für
Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 108:45-69 (critique of Adams 1981)
Török, L. 1999 “The Long Chronology of the El-Kurru Cemetery” in S.Wenig (ed.) Studien zum
16
antiken Sudan/Meroitica 15:149-159
Török, L. 1999 “On the foundations of Kingship Ideology in the Empire of Kush”, S.Wenig (ed.)
Studien zum Antiken Sudan, Meroitica 15, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz; pp. 273-287
Török, L. 2002 The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art, Brill, Leiden
Vincentelli, I. 2006 Hillat El-Arab. The Joint Sudanese-Italian Expedition in the Napatan Region,
Sudan., SARS Publication Number 15. BAR International Series 1570, Oxford
Welsby, D.A. 1996 The Kingdom of Kush: the Napatan and Meroitic Empires, London, British
Museum Press
Welsby, D.A. and Anderson, J.R. (eds) 2004 Sudan. Ancient Treasures, London, British Museum Press;
(especially chapter 7 “The Kingdom of Kush: Napatan and Meroitic Periods”; pp. 132-173)
Williams, B.B. 1990 Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan Remains at Qustul Cemeteries W and V, OINE
7, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Identity and acculturation
Buzon, M.R. 2006 “Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia”, Current Anthropology
47/4:683-695
Schneider, T. 2006 “Akkulturation – Identität – Elitekultur”, in R.Gundlach and A.Klug (eds.) Der
ägyptische Hof des Neuen Reiches. Seine Gesellschaft und Kultur im Spannungsfeld zwischen Innenund Außenpolitik, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz; pp.201-216 [EGYPTOLOGY B 20 GUN]
Lohwasser, A. 2006 “Fremde Heimat. Selektive Akkulturation in Kusch” in E.Czerny, I.Hein,
H.Hunger, D.Melman, A.Schwab (eds.) Timelines. Studies in Honour of Manfred Bietak; Leuven,
Peters; vol.III:133-138 [ARCH DBA 100 Qto CZE]
Smith, S.T. 2003 Wretched Kush. Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt’s Nubian Empire, London,
Routledge (especially chapters 1-3)
Trigger, B. 1978 “Nubian, Negro, Black, Nilotic?” in Africa in Antiquity: The Arts of Ancient Nubia
and the Sudan, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Williams, B.B. 2007 “The adoption and rejection of Egyptian Symbolic Culture in Nubia”, CRIPEL
26:399-410
General
Adams, W.Y. 1977 Nubia – Corridor to Africa, London, Penguin Books
Darnell, J.C. 2006 The Inscription of Queen Katimala at Semna. Textual Evidence for the Origins of the
Naptan State, Yale Egyptological Series 7, New Haven [EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 DAR]
Eide, T. Hägg, T. Pierce, R.H. and Török, L. 1994-1998 Fontes Historiae Nubiorum. Textual Sources
for the History of the Middle Nile Region between the eighth century B.C. and the sixth century A.D., 3
vols., Bergen, Department of Greek, Latin and Egyptology [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 FON]
McCall, J.C. 1995 “Rethinking Ancestors in Africa”, Africa: Journal of the International African
Institute 65/2:256-270
Rowlands, M.J. 2003 “The Unity of Africa”, D.O’Connor and A.Reid (eds.) Ancient Egypt in Africa,
London, UCL Press; pp. 39-54
17
Williams, B.B. 1991 “A Prospectus for exploring the historical essence of ancient Nubia”, W.V. Davies
(ed.) Egypt and Africa, British Museum Press, London; pp. 74-91 [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 DAV]
3. Napatan to Early Meroitic Kingdom: state organization, economy and ecology
In this lecture we will look at the Napatan Kingdom, i.e. the first 4 centureis of the Kushite kingdom
after after its rulers (as Egyptian Dynasaty 25) were expelled from Egypt by the Assyrians. What were
Napata-Egypt Relations. Was there a Persian occupation in Lower Nubia? Was Lower Nubia
depopulated in the first millennium BC? What is the significance of the shift in royal burial ground
from Napata to Meroe. we will look different perspectives on how the Kushite (Meroitic) state was
organized. We will examine how archaeological and textual evidence are used to support different
models for state organization (such as the segmentary state), the importance of agricultural produce and
long-distance trade.
Readings:
Edwards, D. N. 2004. The Nubian Past. Pp. 112-181
Welsby 1996, Chapters 2-3, pp. 19-71, Chap. 7, Pp. 153-176
Adams 1977, Chap. 11 “The Southward Course of Empire”, Pp. 294-332
Further readings:
Heidorn, Lisa 1991. The Saite and Persian Period Forts at Dorginarti, in Egypt and Africa (W. V.
Davies ed.). London: British Museum Press: Pp. 205-219 [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 DAV]
Török, Laszlo 1997, pp. 342-424
Williams, B. B. 1990. Twenty-fifth dynasty and Napatan remains at Qustul : cemeteries W and V. OINE
7. Chicago: Oriental Institute.) [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 CHI]
Adams, William Y. 1981. Ecology and Economy in the Empire of Kush, Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische
Sprache und Alterumskunde 108: 1-11 [Teaching Collection; INST ARCH PERS]
Török, Laszlo 1984. Economy and Empire in Kush: A Review of the Written Evidence, Zeitschrift fur
Aegyptische Sprache und Alterumskunde 111: 45-69 [Teaching Collection; INST ARCH PERS]
Török, Laszlo 1992. Ambulatory Kingship and Settlement History: A Study on the Contribution of
Archaeology to History, in Études Nubiennes. Conférence du Genève. I. Communications Principales
(ed. C. Bonnet), pp. 111-126. Genève:
Torok, L. 1997, P. 488-499
Trigger, Bruce 1969. The Myth of Meroe and the African Iron Age, African Historical Studies 2(1): 2350
Edwards, David N. 1998a. Meroe and the Sudanic Kingdoms, Journal of African History 39: 175-193
[ANTHROPOLOGY PERS; Teaching coll.]
[alternative readings by Edwards: Edwards, David N. 1996[ for 1994]. Power and the state in the
Middle Nile: An example for the study of state development in Sudanic Africa, Archaeological Review
from Cambridge (for 1994) 13(1): 5-20 [INST ARCH PERS]
Edwards, David N. 1996. The Archaeology of the Meroitic State. New perspectives on its social and
political organisation. BAR International Series 640. Oxford: Tempus Repartum. Pp.
[EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 EDW]
18
On Meroitic language:
Rilly, Claude 2010. Le meroitique et sa famille linguistique. Peeters, Paris. [French]
Rilly, Claude 2008. The linguistic position of Meroitic. New perspectives for understanding the texts.
Sudan and Nubia 12: 2-12
4. Meroitic culture: art, architecture and ritual practices
In this lecture we will survey some of the cultural manifestations of the Kushite
(Napatan to Meroitic kingdom) and consider their Egyptianoid and non-Egyptian
characteristics.
It is recommended that you read at least one item of each of the following groups; *)
marking lecturer's top choice.
In the second part of the seminar, students are invited to briefly (2-5 minutes)
introduce the group to their favourite Napatan/Meroitic object in a museum collection
or exhibition catalogue (ideally please e-mail choice of object including an image a
week ahead to brigitte.balanda@ucl.ac.uk), stating the reason for their choice, and
highlight the object's main features and/or Egyptianising traits, which will then be
discussed in the group. This is planned as preparation for the essay question
pertaining to this session.
Architecture:
Anderson, J. et al.2012. Meroitic Building Techniques: a few observations from Dangeil. Sudan &
Nubia 16:72-79
Hinkel, F.W. 1981, 1982. Pyramide oder Pyramidenstumpf? Ein Beitrag zu Fragen der Planung,
konstruktiven Baudurchführung und Architektur der Pyramiden von Meroe. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische
Sprache 108:105-124; 109:27-61; 127-147
Hinkel, F.W. 1984. Die meroitischen Pyramiden: Formen, Kriterien und Bauweisen, in Meroitistische
Forschungen 1980, Meroitica 7. Akademieverlag, Berlin. pp 310-331 [EGYPTOLOGY A 6 MER]
Hinkel, F.W. 1986. Reconstruction Work at the Royal Cemetery at Meroe, in M.Krause (ed.) Nubische
Studien. Tagungsakten der 5. Internationalen Konferenz der International Society for Nubian Studies,
von Zabern, Main; pp. 99-108 [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 KRA]
Hinkel, F.W. 1991. The Process of Planning in Meroitic Architecture, in W.V.Davies (ed.) Egypt and
Africa. Nubia from Prehistory to Islam, British Museum Press, London; pp. 220-225 [EGYPTOLOGY
Qto. B 60 DAV]
*) Hinkel, F.W. 2000. The Royal Pyramids of Meroe. Architecture, Construction and Reconstruction of
a Sacred Landscape. Sudan & Nubia 4:11-26
Sievertsen, U. 2002. Civil Architecture in the Empire of Kush and the Royal City of Meroe.
Archéologie du Nil Moyen 9:163-181
*) Welsby, D. 1996. Chapter Five. Architecture, in The Kingdom of Kush. The Napatan and Meroitic
Empires, British Museum Press, London; pp.99-136 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 WEL]
19
Art, Writing and Language:
Hallof, J. 2011. A Meroitic offering table from Maharraka – Found, recorded, lost or not? Sudan &
Nubia 15:105-107
*) Kendall, T. 1989 Ethnoarchaeology in Meroitic Studies, in S.Donadoni and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia
Meroitica 1984: proceedings of the fifth international conference for Meroitic Studies, Akademie
Verlag, Berlin; pp. 625-745 (read sections on "Ethnoarchaeology of ancient works of art",
"ethnography, ancient art and the generation of archaeological hypotheses") [EGYPTOLOGY B
60 DON]
Rilly, C. 2008. The Linguistic Position of Meroitic. New Perspectives for Understanding the Texts.
Sudan & Nubia 12:2-12
Smith, W. S. and W.K. Simpson. 1981. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt. revised edition. The
Pelican History of Art; pp. 395-426 [EGYPTOLOGY K 5 SMI]
Török, L. 1988. Meroitic art – informations and illusions, in S.Donadoni and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia
Meroitica 1984: proceedings of the fifth international conference for Meroitic Studies, Meroitica 10,
Akademie Verlag, Berlin; pp. 535-548 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 DON]
*) Welsby, D. 1996. Chapter Eight. The Arts and the Art of Writing. in The Kingdom of Kush. The
Napatan and Meroitic Empires, British Museum Press, London; pp.177-195 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60
WEL]
You might find the following exhibition catalogues (and essays therein) and on-line resources useful:
O'Connor, D. 1993 Ancient Nubia. Egypt's Rival in Africa, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
[EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 OCO]
Welsby, D. and J.Anderson (eds.) Sudan. Ancient Treasures, British Museum Press, London
[EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 WEL]
Wenig, S. 1978 Africa in Antiquity. The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan, Vol. II, The Brooklyn
Museum, New York [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 AFR]
Wildung, D. 1996 Sudan. Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, Flammarion [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60
WIL])
British Museum: http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:
http://www.mfa.org/collections/ancient-world
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
http://petriecat.museums.ucl.ac.uk/
Religion:
Abdelgadir M. Abdalla. 1989 Napatan-Meroitic continuity: Kush and Kushiteness/Meroiticness. in
S.Donadoni and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia Meroitica 1984: proceedings of the fifth international
conference for Meroitic Studies, Meroitica 10, Akademie Verlag, Berlin; pp. 875-883 [EGYPTOLOGY
B 60 DON]
Ahmed M.Ali Hakem, 1989 "Napatan" – "Meroitic" continuity. Reflections on basic conceptions on
Meroitic culture. in S.Donadoni and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia Meroitica 1984: proceedings of the fifth
international conference for Meroitic Studies, Meroitica 10, Akademie Verlag, Berlin; pp. 885-894
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 DON]
20
Anderson, J. and Salah Mohamed Ahmed 2006. Bread Moulds and 'Throne Halls': Recent Discoveries
in the Amun Temple Precinct at Dangeil, Sudan & Nubia 10:95-101
Anderson, J.R., A.C. D’Andrea, A. Logan and Salah Mohamed Ahmed 2007. Bread Moulds from the
Amun Temple at Dangeil, Nile State – an Addendum, Sudan & Nubia 11, 89-93
*) Francigny, V. 2012 Preparing for the afterlife in the provinces of Meroe. Sudan & Nubia 16:52-59
Kormyschewa, E. 1990 Local Gods of Egypt in Cush and Problems of Egyptian Settlers, in
E.Endesfelder and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia in honorem Fritz Hintze, Meroitica 12. Akademie Verlag,
Berlin, pp. 195-223 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 APE]
Manzo, A. 2006 Apedemak and Dionysos. Further remarks on the 'cult of the grape' in Kush. Sudan &
Nubia 10:82-91
*) Millet, N.B. 1984. Meroitic Religion. in Meroitistische Forschungen 1980, Meroitica 7.
Akademieverlag, Berlin. pp 111-121 [EGYPTOLOGY A 6 MER; Teaching collection ADD]
Pomerantseva, N. 2006 Concept of Meroitic BA statues and Heads of the II – III Centuries. in I.Caneva
and A.Roccati (eds) Acta Nubica. Proceedings of the X International Conference of Nubian Studies,
Rome 9-14 September 2002, Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca della Stato, Libreria dello Stato 2006;
pp.219-221 [EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 CAN]
*) Priese, K.H. 1996. Die Götterwelt von Meroe. in D. Wildung (ed.) Sudan. Antike Königreiche am
Nil, pp.267-300 (English version of this catalogue Sudan. Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, Flammarion.
available in [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 WIL])
*) Welsby, D. 1996. Chapter Four. Religion and Funerary Ritual. in The Kingdom of Kush. The
Napatan and Meroitic Empires, British Museum Press, London; pp.72-98 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60
WEL]
Wildung, D. 2004. Kushite Religion: Aspects of the Berlin excavations at Naga in D.Welsby and
J.Anderson (eds.) Sudan. Ancient Treasures, British Museum Press, London; pp. 174-185
[EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 WEL]
Yellin, J. 1990. The Decorated Pyramid Chapels of Meroe and Meroitic Funerary Religion, in D.Apelt,
E.Endesfelder and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia in honorem Fritz Hintze, Meroitica 12. Akademie Verlag,
Berlin, pp. 361-374 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 APE; Teaching collection ADD]
Zabkar, L. 1975. Apedemak Lion God of Meroe. A study in Egyptian-Meroitic Syncretism. Warminster,
Aris and Phillips Ltd [EGYPTOLOGY R 5 ZAB]
(Some useful thoughts about how "syncretism" can work in situations of culture contact are shown in
Bastide, R. 1960, 1978 Problems of Religious Syncretism, in The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a
Sociology of the Interpenetration of Civilizations, The Johns Hopkins University Press, London; pp.
260-84 [ANTRHOPOLOGY WG 30 BAS]; reprinted in A.M.Leopold and J.S.Jensen Syncretism in
Religion. A Reader, Equinox, London; pp. 113-139 [ANTHROPOLOGY D 100 LEO])
Selected Late Napatan/Meroitic Sites: (main focus on more recent fieldwork)
Baud, M. 2008. The Meroitic royal city of Muweis: first steps into an urban settlement of riverine
Upper Nubia. Sudan & Nubia 12:52-63
Dunham, D. 1957 The Royal Tombs at Meroe and Barkal, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush IV, Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston [EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 DUN]
Dunham D. 1963. The West and South Cemeteries at Meroe, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush V,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston [EGYPTOLOGY Qto E 120 DUN]
21
Edwards, D.N. 1999. Musawwarat es Sufra. 3. A Meroitic pottery workshop at Mussawrat es Sufra:
preliminary report on the excavations 1997 in courtyard 224 of the Great Enclosure (with contributions
by S.Wenig, H.-U. Onasch and L.Smith), Harrassowtz, Wiesbaden [EGYPTOLOGY Qto. E 120 EDW]
Grzymski, K. 2004. "Meroe" in Welsby, D. and J.Anderson (eds.) Sudan. Ancient Treasures, British
Museum Press, London; pp. 165-173 [EGYPTOLOGY Qto B 60 WEL]
Grymski, K. 2005. Meroe, the Capital of Kush: Old Problems and New Discovieries, Sudan & Nubia
10:82-91
Kroeper, K. 2011. Rediscovery of the Kushite site – Naga, 16 years of excavation (1995-2010).
Surprises and Innovations. Sudan & Nubia 15:90-104
Rilly, C. 2010. Excavations at Sedeinga. A New Start. Sudan & Nubia 14:62-18
Rilly, C. and Francigny, V. 2012. Excavations of the French Archaeological Mission in Sedeinga, 2011
Season. Sudan & Nubia 16:60-71
Wenig, S. 2001. Musawwarat es Sufra: Interpreting the Great Enclosure, Sudan & Nubia 5:71-87
5. Guided visit to the Nubian materials at the British Museum. Further details to
be circulated.
No specific readings are required for this session.
6. The Late Meroitic period and the Post-Meroitic transition
The issues of repopulation of Lower Nubia, subsistence of the region and its political organization and
integration with the Central Sudan will be considered. Scholarly debates have focused on contrasts
between Meroitic North and South. We will then examine the controversies surrounding the end of the
Meroitic Kingdom. We will examine the evidence for cultural change in Lower Nubia and the Central
Sudan and look at the ways in which different scholars have understood this evidence for change and
its possible relationship with the fragmentary textual record. We will also introduce the archaeological
culture traditionally called the X-Group and the evidence for a new state in Lower Nubia centered on
Qustul and Ballana with their royal tumuli burials. We will also discuss the attempt to identify
archaeological evidence with the Nobatae (Nubian-speakers) and Blemmyes (Beja-speakers) identified
as ethnic groups in classical sources. There is not time in this course to cover Christian/ Medieval
Nubia except to flag its presence, but see the further readings below.
Readings:
Adams, W. Y. 1982. The Coming of Nubian Speakers to the Nile Valley in Ehret, Christopher and
Merrick Posnansky (eds.) 1982. The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History.
University of California Press (Berkeley) INST ARCH DC 100 HER
Lenoble, P. and N. D. M. Sharif 1992. Barbarians at the gates? The royal mounds at El Hobagi and the
end of Meroe, Antiquity 626-635 [can download through college networks from http://antiquity.ac.uk/]
Edwards, D. N. The Nubian Past. Pp. 182-255
Fuller, Dorian Q. 1997. The Confluence of History and Archaeology in Lower Nubia: Scales of
Continuity and Change, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 14(1): 105-128 [Teaching collection
2629, 2927; downloable from: http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/downloads.htm#nubia]
Fuller, D. 2003 "Pharaonic or Sudanic? Models for Meroitic Society and Change" in David O'Connor
and Andrew Reid (eds.) Ancient Egypt and Africa (Encounters with Ancient Egypt series, edited by
22
Peter Ucko). UCL Press, London: Pp. 169-184 [EGYPTOLOGY B 20 OCO; Issue Desk IOA OCO;
downloable from: http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrndfu/downloads.htm#nubia]
Welsby, Derek A. 2002. The medieval kingdoms of Nubia : Pagans, Christians and Muslims on the
Middle Nile. The British Museum Press (London). [Egyptology B 60 WEL] pp. 14-67
*It is recommended that you read a translation and commentary on the textual evidence for the
conquest of Meroe by Ezana (or Aezaneas) ruler of Axum (modern Ethiopia). This text is
translated (with minor variations) in numerous sources, so read at least one of the following:
Burstein, S. M. 1995. Graeco-Africana. Studies in the History of Greek Relations with Egypt
and Nubia. New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas. Pp. 207-214. [EGYPTOLOGY B 20
BUR]
Burstein, S. M. 1998. Ancient African civilizations :Kush and Axum. Princeton : M. Wiener
Publishers: Pp. 97-100 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 BUR]
Shinnie, P. L. 1967. Meroe. Civilization of the Sudan. London: Thames and Hudson, Pp. 52-57
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 SHI]
Shinnie, P. L. 1955. The Fall of Meroe, Kush 3: 82-5 [INST ARCH PERS]
Kirwan, L. P. 1960. The Decline and Fall of Meroe, Kush 8: 163-173 [INST ARCH PERS]
Torok 1988, Pp. 33-37
Further readings
Trigger, Bruce 1965, “Meroitic Nubia”, “The Ballana Phase”, “The Origins of the Ballana Culture”,
“Population Movements in the Ballana Phase”, The Kingdom of Nobatia”, Pp. 127-143
[EGYPTOLOGY B 60 TRI 1 week loan, 2 copies]
Adams 1977, Chap. 12, Pp. 333-356 [also see Adams 2000, Meinarti, pp. 64-67]
[Alternative reading: Adams 1976, Meroitic North and South]
[Alternative reading: O’Connor 1993, Chap. 7, pp. 86-107]
Williams 1991b, OINE 9, Chap. 4 “Conclusion”, Pp. 157-162
Williams, 1991a, OINE 8, Chap. 5. “Conclusion”, Pp. 171-175 [essential], recommended: Chap. 1, Pp.
1-25
Millet, Nicholas B. 1981. Social and political organization in Meroe, Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische
Sprache und Alterumskunde 108: 124-141 [INST ARCH PERS]
Garberg, C. J. and Torgny Save-Soderbergh 1970. Late Nubian Sites, the Scadinavian Joint Expedition
to Nubia vol. 7. Scadinavian University Books (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm) [EGYPTOLOGY E 56
SCA]
Török, Laszlo 1979. Economic offices and officials in Meroitic Nubia, Studia Aegyptiaca 5.
Török, Laszlo 1980. To the history of the Dodekaschoenos between 250 B.C. and 298 A.D., Zeitschrift
fur Aegyptische Sprache und Alterumskunde 107: 76-86
Welsby
Haycock, B. 1967. The Later Phases of the Meroitic Civilization, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 53:
107-120
Adams, W. Y. 1964. Post-Pharaonic Nubia in Light of Archaeology. I, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
50: 102-120 [section III, PP. 115-120] [INST ARCH PERS]
23
Welsby, D. 1996, Kingdom of Kush, Chap. 9, pp. 196-205
Torok, L. 1988, Late Antique Nubia, pp. 22-46
Torok, L. 1999. The End of Meroe, in Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology.
Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies (D. A. Welsby ed.), pp. 203-217.
British Museum Occasional Paper 131. London: British Museum: pp. 133-156 [EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS B 60 WEL]
Lenoble, Patrice 1999. The Division of the Meroitic Empire and the end of the pyramid building in the
4th century AD: an introduction to further excavations of imperial mounds in the Sudan, in Recent
Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for
Meroitic Studies (D. A. Welsby ed.), British Museum Occasional Paper 131. London: British Museum:
Pp. 157-197 [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 WEL]
Edwards 1996, Chap. 7, pp. 88-93
Fuller, Dorian Q. 1999. A Parochial perspective on the end of Meroe: Changes in cemetery and
settlement at Arminna West, in Recent Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of
the 8th International Conference for Meroitic Studies (D. A. Welsby ed.), pp. 203-217. British Museum
Occasional Paper 131. London: British Museum.
[can download from publications list on Dorian Fuller’s staff page]
Edwards, D. N. 1998. The 1998 Excavations in the Trench 10/14 area [Qasr Ibrim], Sudan and Nubia
2: 65-73
24
Further reading on Post-Meroitic & Christian Nubia:
Adams, W. Y. 1965 Post-Pharaonic Nubia in Light of Archaeology. II, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
51: 160-178 [INST ARCH PERS]
Trigger, B. G. 1969. The Royal Tombs at Qustul and Ballana and their Meroitic Antecedents, Journal
of Egyptian Archaeology 55: 117-128 [INST ARCH PERS]
Kirwan, Lawrence P. 1982. The X-Group Problem, in Meroitic Studies, Meroitica 6. Akademie-verlag:
Berlin. Pp. 191-204 [Teaching collection ADD]
[alternative readings: Kirwan 1981. Axum, Meroe and the Ballana Civilization,in Studies in ancient
Egypt, the Aegean and the Sudan : essays in honor of Dows Dunham on the occasion of his 90th
birthday, June 1, 1980. (edited by William Kelly Simpson and Whitney M. Davis).Boston : Museum
of Fine Arts, Dept. of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art,. Pp. 115-119 [EGYPTOLOGY A 6 SIM]
Trigger 1970. Cultural Ecology of Christian Nubia, Kunst und Geschichte : pp.347-79 [Teaching
collection ADD]
Edwards, D. N. 2001. The Christianisation of Nubia- some archaeological pointers, Sudan and Nubia 5
[IoA Periodicals]
Torok, Lazslo 1989. Notes on the Kingdom of the Blemmyes, in Studia in Honorem L. Foti. Studia
Aegyptiaca XII. 397-412 [INST ARCH PERS (Studia Aegyptiaca)]
Williams 1991b, OINE 9, Chap. 1, Pp. 1-35
Trigger, Bruce 1989. Review of Torok 1988, in Orientalia 58: 542-546
Lenoble, Patrice 1999. The Division of the Meroitic Empire and the end of the pyramid building in the
4th century AD: an introduction to further excavations of imperial mounds in the Sudan, in Recent
Research in Kushite History and Archaeology. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference for
Meroitic Studies (D. A. Welsby ed.), British Museum Occasional Paper 131. London: British Museum:
Pp. 157-197 [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS B 60 WEL]
Rowley-Conwy, P. 1989. Nubia AD 0-550 and the “Islamic” agricultural revolution: preliminary
botanical evidence from Qasr Ibrim, Egyptian Nubia. Archeologie du Nil Moyen 3: 131-138 [IoA
Periodicals]
Adams, W. Y. (1977), Chaps 14-15, pp. 433-507
Oliver, R. and B. M. Fagan (1975). Africa in the Iron Age, c. 500 B.C. to A.D. 1400. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Chap. 11 ‘Muslim Egypt and Christian Nubia’ pp. 119-131 (INST ARCH
DCI 100 OLI)
el-Tayeb, Mahmoud 2010. The Post-Meroitic from Kirwan to the Present. Sudan & Nubia 14: 2-14
Adams, W. Y. 1998. Toward a comparative study of Christian Nubian burial practice, Archeologie du
Nil Moyen 8: 13-53
25
7. Back to beginnings: Early Pottery. Sedentism, Food Production, and the
divergence of Nubia and Egypt
From this lecture on we return to the prehistoric foundations of Nubia. This lecture will look at the
evidence for the emergence of ceramics in the Holocene against the background of the stone ages in the
northern Sudan. The early ceramics of the northern/central Sudan will be considered in a wider Saharan
context, and its potential relationship to changing plant food use and controversies over the emergence
of pastoralism in the Eastern Sahara. We will then consider beginnings of food production in the
Central Sudan in a wider African/Saharan context. Current controversies surrounding the origins of
Sorghum and African millet cultivation will be briefly reviewed. The problematic relationship between
this ‘Neolithic’ the earlier Early Khartoum tradition will be explored as well as the changes in
settlement and social organization that occur in this phase.
Readings:
Edwards, D. N. The Nubian Past Pp. 38-59
Peters, Joris 1996. New light on Mesolithic resource scheduling and site inhabitation in Central Sudan,
in Interregional Contacts in the Later Prehistory of Northeastern Africa (L. Krzyzaniak , et al. eds.).
Poznan: pp. 381-394 [Teaching collection; INST ARCH DC 100 KRZ]
Close, Angela 1995. Few and Far Between: Early Ceramics in North Africa, in The Emergence of
Pottery. Technology and Innovation in Ancient Societies (W. K. Barnett and J. W. Hoopes eds.).
Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press: pp. 23-38. [Teaching Collection; INST ARCH BC
100 BAR]
Haaland, R. 1992. Fish, pots and grain: Early and Middle Holocene adaptations in the central Sudan,
African Archaeological Review 10: 43-64 [Teaching Collection 305; and PERS]
Marks, Anthoney E. ‘Late Prehistory in the Central Sudan: Background for the Significance of
Shaqadud’ (Ch. 1 [recommended]) and ‘The Place of Shaqadud in the Late Prehistory of the Central
Nile Valley’ (Ch. 11 [essential]) in The Late Prehistory of the Eastern Sahel. The Mesolithic and
Neolithic of Shaqadud, Sudan (A. E. Marks and A. Mohammed-Ali eds.). Dallas: Southern Methodist
University Press: pp. 7-2, 237-260 [INST ARCH DCF MAR; Ch. 11 also in Teaching collection]
Garcea, E. A. A. 2006. Semi-permanent foragers in semi-arid environments of North Africa World
Archaeology 38:2, 197 — 219
Reccomended:
Edwards, David N. 2006. Mid Holocene game drives in Nubian landscapes? Archaeology of Early
Northeastern Africa, Studies in African Archaeology 9. Poznan Archaeological Museum. Pp 49-64
Reimer, H. 2004. Holocene game drives in the Great Sand Sea of Egypt? Stone structures and their
archaeological evidence. Sahara 15: 31-42
Garcea, E. A. A. 2003. Cultural convergences of northern Europe and North Africa during the Early
Holocene? In Mesolithic on the Move: Papers Presented at the Sixth International Conference on
the Mesolithic in Europe, Stockholm 2000 (eds L. Larsson, H. Kindgren, K. Knutsson, D. Loeffler
and A. Aokerlund). Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 108–14.
Keding, Brigitte 1998. The Yellow Nile: new data on settlement and environment in the Sudanese
Eastern Sahara, Sudan and Nubia 2: 2-12 [Teaching Collection; INST ARCH PERS]
26
Jesse, F. 2003. Early ceramics in the Sahara and the Nile valley, in Cultural markers in the Later
Prehistory of Northeastern Africa and Recent Research Studies in African Archaeology 8 (L. Kryzaniak
and M. Kobusiewicz eds.) Poznan: Poznan Archaeological Museum [NST ARCH DC 100 KRZ]
Honegger, M. 2004. Settlement and cemeteries of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic at el-Barga
(Kerma region), Sudan and Nubia 8: 27-32
Khabir, A. M. 1987. New radiocarbon dates from Sarurab 2 and the age of the Early Khartoum
Tradition, Current Anthropology 28: 377-389
Alexander, John A. 1984. The end of the moving frontier in the Neolithic of North-Eastern Africa, in
Origin and Early Development of Food-producing Culture in North-Eastern Africa (L. Krzyzaniak and
M. Kobusiewicz eds.), pp. 58-63. Poznan: Polish Academy of Sciences [INST ARCH DC 100 KRZ, 1
copy at issue desk]
Mohammed-Ali, Abbas S. 1982. The Neolithic Period in the Sudan c. 6000-2500 B.C. Oxford: BAR
International Series 139: Section “Animal Domestication”, pp. 29-35. [Teaching Collection; INST
ARCH DCF MOH—other sections, such as Chaps. 4, 7, 8,-- are good further readings for those
interested].
Caneva, Isabella and Achilles Gautier 1994. The Desert and the Nile: Sixth Millennium Pastoral
Adaptations at Wadi el Kenger ()Khartoum), Archeologie du Nil Moyen 6: 65-92 [Teaching collection;
INST ARCH PERS]
Recommended/Further reading:
For a broader macro-regional sense of the period,
MacDonald, K. 1999. Archaeology, language and the peopling of West Africa : a consideration of the
evidence, in Archaeology and Language II (R. Blench and M. Spriggs eds.). London: Routledge.
[Teaching Collection INST ARCH 768]
Sereno, P. C., E. A. A. Garcea, et al. 2008. Lakeside cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 years of Holocene
Population and Environmental Change. PLoS ONE 3 (8): e2995 [online: www.plosone.org ]
Boivin, N. L. and D. Q Fuller 2009.Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds: Exploring Coastal Subsistence,
Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Ancient Arabian Peninsula.
Journal of World Prehistory 22: 113-180
For further discussion of plant domestication,
Fuller, D. Q. 2007. Contrasting patterns in crop domestication and domestication rates: recent
archaeobotanical insights from the Old World. Annals of Botany 100: 903-924
Stemler, Ann B. 1990. A Scanning Electron Microscopic Analysis of Plant Impressions in Pottery from
Sites of Kadero, El Zakiab, Um Direiwa and El Kadada, Archeologie du Nil Moyen 4: 87-106.
[Teaching collection; INST ARCH PERS]
Haaland, R. 1995. Sedentism, Cultivation, and Plant Domestication in the Holocene Middle Nile
Region, Journal of Field Archaeology 22: 157-174 [Teaching Collection 1076; and PERS]
Zeder, M 2006. Central questions in Domestication of Plants and Animals. Evolutionary Anthropology
15: 105-117
For some case studies of important (later) Neolithic sites,
Krzyzaniak, Lech 1991. Early Farming in the Middle Nile Basin: recent discoveries at Kadero (Central
Sudan), Antiquity65: 515-532 [Teaching Collection 332; INST ARCH PERS]
27
Reinold, J. 2001, Kadruka and the Neolithic in the Northern Dongola Reach Sudan and Nubia 5: 2-10
[INST ARCH PERS]
Salvatori, S. and D. Usai 2002. The second excavation season at R12, a Late Nubian cemetery in the
Northern Dongola Reach, Sudan and Nubia 6: 2-7
Salvatori, S. and D. Usai 2004. Cemetery R12 and a possible periodisation of the Nubian Neolithic,
Sudan and Nubia 8: 33-37
8. Late Neolithic complexity: the A-Group chiefs and their aftermath
This lecture will briefly examine the evidence for emergent social differentiation in middle
and upper Nubia (reading by Reinold) before focusing on controversies surrounding A-Group
social complexity and its relationship with pre-/Early Dynastic Egypt. Controversy of of the
identification of large, rich tumuli burials at Qustul as the “ first Pharaohs”.
Readings:
Trigger, Bruce 1976. pp. 32-46
Williams, B. 1986. pp. 9-19, 138-185. [[EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 120 CHI; final chapter in
Teaching collection]
[This longer treatise by Williams is strongly recommended, but a more synoptic version of the argument exists:
Williams, Bruce 1980. “The Lost Pharaohs of Nubia” in Archaeology, vol.33:12-21; INST ARCH PERS;
Teaching Collection]
O’Connor. 1993. Chap. 2, “Chiefs and Kings in Early Nubia”, pp. 10-23
Edwards, D. N. The Nubian Past Pp. 59-74
Wengrow, David 2006. The Archaeology of Early Egypt. Cambridge University Press. Chap. 7 (pp.
135-150)
Reccomended Further reading:
Adams, William Y. 1985. “Doubts about the ‘Lost Pharaohs’” in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol.44: pp.185192 [INST ARCH PERS; Main Library Periodicals]
Williams, Bruce 1987. “Forebears of Menes in Nubia: Myth or Reality” in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol.45:
pp.15-26 [INST ARCH PERS; Main Library Periodicals]
Smith, H. S. 1991. “The Development of the ‘A-Group” Culture in Northern Lower Nubia” in W. V. Davies (ed.)
Egypt and Africa. British Museum Press (London)
Smith, H. S. 1994. The Princes of Seyala in Lower Nubia in the Predynastic and Protodynastic Periods, in
Hommages a Jean Leclant, Vol. 2 Nubie, Soudan, Ethiopie, (C. Berger, G. Clerc and N. Grimal eds.), Institut
Francais d’Archeologie Orientale (Paris): Pp. 361-376 {INST ARCH EGYPT. QUARTOS A 6 LEC]
Smith, H. S. 1966. The Nubian B-Group, Kush 14: 69-124 [INST ARCH PERS]
Nordstrom, H. A. 1972. Neolithic and A-Group Sites. The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Nubia 3.
Stockholm.
Williams, Bruce 1989. Neolithic, A-group, and Post-A-Group Remains from Cemeteries W,V, S, Q, T and a Cave
East of Cemetery K, Oriental Institue Nubian Expedition Volume 4.
Williams, Bruce 1988. Decorated Pottery and Art of Naqada III- A Documentary Essay, Münchner Ägyptologische
Studien, 45. Deutscher Kunstverlag München (Berlin)
Hassan, Fekri 1988. “The Predynastic of Egypt” in Journal of World Prehistory, vol. 2: pp.135-185
28
9. Early Egyptian Colonialism. Yam, Kerma, Fortresses and the C-Group
This lecture will introduce the cultural sequences of the Middle Nubian horizon,
including the C-Group and Kerma Phases and consider the Nubian sites of Egyptian
colonialism. The autobiographical texts of Harkhuf and other Egyptian officials
describing their expeditions to the lands south of Egypt are important sources to
understand the signature in the archaeological record of the populations between the
first and third cataracts. By following the trails of Egyptian travelers we will meet the
people identified as the C-Group, Kerma people and Pan-Grave population (see
session 10), and we will explore the extent to which texts and archaeology can
complement each other. Different models for the nature of power and complexity in
Nubia will be discussed.
readings:
essential readings
Edwards, D. N. 2004 The Nubian Past pp 75-99
Smith 1995 Askut in Nubia, Chaps. 1-3, pp. 1-80
Trigger 1976, Chaps. 4, pp. 49-64; also Chaps 5 & 6 recommended
Further recommended/ alternative readings:
Commentaries on Smith’s Askut in Nubia by Trigger, Kemp, Postgate and Sinopoli (1996) in
Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7(1): 123-137
Bonnet, Charles 1991. “Upper Nubia from 3000 to 1000 BC” in W.V. Davies (ed.) Egypt and Africa.
British Museum: pp.112-117 [Teaching collection 442]
Redford, D. 2004. From Slave to Pharaoh. The Black Experience of Ancient Egypt. Pp. 24-37
O’Connor, David 1991. “Early States along the Nubian Nile” in W.V. Davies (ed.) Egypt and Africa.
British Museum Press: pp.145-165 [Teaching collection 443]
Trigger, Bruce G. 1985. “Land and Trade as Patterns in Sudanese History” in Liverani, M., A. Palmieri,
and R. Peroni (eds.) Studi di Paletnologia in Onore di Salvatore M. Puglisi. (Rome): pp.465-475
Morkot, R. 2000 Chapters IV and V in The Black Pharaohs, Egypt's Nubian Rulers, London, Rubicon
Press; pp.37-68 [EGYPTOLOGY B 60 MOR]
recommended (for broader African perspective)
MacDonald, K. C. 1998. Before the Empire in Ghana: pastoralism and the origins of cultural
complexity in the Sahel, in Transformations in Africa. Essays on Africa’s Later Past (G. Connah ed.).
Leicester University Press: Pp. 71-103. [INST ARCH DC 200 CON, 1 week loan]
Further background reading on cultural complexity:
29
*McIntosh, Susan K. 1999. Pathways to complexity: an African perspective, in Beyond Chiefdoms.
Pathways to complexity in Africa (S. K. McIntosh ed.), pp. 1-30. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press [INST ARCH DC 100 MCI]
Entries for “states”, “social inequality”, “social organization” in Oxford Companion to Archaeology (B.
Fagan ed., 1996). [INST ARCH AG FAG reference]
Wenke, Robert 1990. Patterns in Prehistory, Third Edition [or other edition]. Oxford University Press:
Chap. 7 [et seq.] [ INST ARCH BC 100 WEN]
Earle, Timothy K. 1987. “Chiefdoms in Archaelogical and Ethnohistorical Perspective” in Annual
Review of Anthropology, vol. 16:279-308 [ANTHROPOLOGY PERS; can be downloaded from
http://uk.jstor.org/journals/00846570.html]
Johnson, A. and T. Earle 1987. The evolution of human societies. Stanford University Press [ISSUE
DESK IOA JOH 4; Science: ANTHROPOLOGY D 6 JOH]
Earle, Tim 1997. How Chiefs Come to Power. Cambridge University Press
Guyer, J.I. 1995 "Wealth in People, Wealth in Things: Introduction", The Journal of African History
36/1:83-90
Guyer, J.I. and Berlinga, S.E. 1995 "Wealth in Peple as Wealth in Knowledge: Accumulation and
Composition in Equatorial Africa", The Journal of African History 36/1:91-120
Kleppe, E.J. 1989 "Divine kingdoms in northern Africa: material manifestations of social institutions"
in I.Hodder (ed.) The Meaning of Things, London, Routledge; pp/ 195-201
Kopytoff, I. 1989 The African Frontier, Indiana Univesity Press
Old Kingdom autobiographies, the journeys of Harkhuf and the location of Yam
Breasted, J.H. 1906 Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. 1, University of Chicago Press,
Chicago (older translations of the autobiographies of Harkhuf and Pepinakht;
pp. 150-164, and Sabni, son of Mehu p.164-169; available on-line on ABZU)
Darnell, J.C. 1986 "Irem and the Ghost of Kerma", GM 94:17-23
Dixon, D.M. 1958 "The Land of Yam", JEA 44:40-55
Goedicke, H. 1981 “Harkhuf’s Travels”, JNES 40/1:1-10 (a rather nutty interpretation of Yam)
Lichtheim, M. 1973 Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. I (Weni and Harkhuf p. 18-27)
Lichtheim, M. 1988 Ancient Egyptian Autobiographies Chiefly of the Middle Kingdom. A Study and an
Anthology, Freiburg, Universitätsverlag / Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Pepinakht called
Heqaib, and his son Sabni p.15-18)
Kendall, T. 1981 "Ethnoarchaeology in Meroitic Studies” in S.Donadoni and S.Wenig (eds.) Studia
Meroitica 1984, Berlin, Akademie Verlag; (Only read section "Harkhuf revisited") pp. 679-716
O'Connor, D. 1986 "The Location of Yam and Kush and Their Historical Implications", JARCE 23:2750
also useful, but dealing with later period and the land of ‘Punt’
Phillips, J. 1997. "Punt and Axum: Egypt and the Horn of Africa", Journal of African History 38 (3)
30
for an alternative view of where Punt was (Yemen rather than Eritrea) see:
Meeks, D. (2003). Locating Punt. In D. O’COnnor & S. Quirke (Eds.), Mysterious lands (pp. 53–80).
London: UCL Press.
And discussion in
Boivin, Nicole and Dorian Q. Fuller (2009) Shell Middens, Ships and Seeds: Exploring Coastal
Subsistence, Maritime Trade and the Dispersal of Domesticates in and Around the Ancient Arabian
Peninsula. Journal of World Prehistory 22(2): 113-18
C-Group
Bakr, M. 1965 “The Relationship between the C-Group, Kerma, Napatan and Meroitic Cultures”, Kush
13:261-264
Bietak, M. 1968 Studien zur Chronologie der Nubischen C-Gruppe, Ősterreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Wien
Bietak, Manfred 1979. “Ceramics of the C-Group Culture” in Africa in Antiquity - The Arts of Ancient
Nubia and the Sudan, Meroitica 5. Akademie-Verlag (Berlin): pp.107-128
Bietak, M. 1986 “The C-Group and the Pan-Grave Culture in Nubia”, T.Hägg (ed.) Nubian Culture,
Past and Present. Main Papers Presented at the Sixth International Conference for Nubian Studies in
Uppsala, 11-16 August 1986, Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell International; pp. 113-128
Friedman, R. 2001 “Nubians at Hierakonpolis. Excavations in the Nubian Cemeteries”, Sudan and
Nubia 5:29-38
Friedman, R. 2007 "The C-Group Cemetery at Locality HK27C", Sudan and Nubia 11:57-63
Raue, D. 2002 “Nubians on Elephantine Island”, Sudan and Nubia 6:20-24
Wegner, J. 1995. Regional control in Middle Kingdom Lower Nubia: the function and history of the
site of Areika, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 32: 127-160
Fortresses
Emery, W.B. 1965 Egypt in Nubia, London, Hutchinson
Smither, P.C. 1945 "The Semnah Despatches", JEA 31:3-10
Welsby, D. 2004 "Hidden Treasures of Lake Nubia", Sudan and Nubia 8:103-104
Additional sources
Säve-Söderbergh, Torgny (ed.)1989. Middle Nubian sites. Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese
Nubia ;v.4. Partille : Åstrom. [EGYPTOLOGY QUARTOS E 56 SAV]. Read general introduction and
introduction to ceramics chapter.
Honegger, M. 2004. The Pre-Kerma: a cultural group from Upper Nubia prior to the Kerma
civilization, Sudan and Nubia 8: 38-46
Adams, W. Y. 1977. Chaps. 6 “The Pastoral Ideal. The Nubian C-Horizon” and 8 “The Transition to
Empire. The Nubian Kingdom of Kerma”,pp. 142-162, 195-216
31
Kendall, Tim. 1994. Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush 2500-1500 B.C. Washington, D. C.: National
Museum of African Art. Chap. 2-3, “The Discovery of Kerma and Ancient Kush” and “Kerma.
Evokution of a Civilization”, pp. 19-43
10. Kerma ascendancy: Classic Kerma, Pan-Graves and New Kingdom
reconquest
In this lecture we will examine the cultural history in Nubia during Egypt’s second intermediate period.
During this period some Egyptian population appears to have remained in the Egyptian fortresses,
while Kerma became an increasingly powerful force and C-Group societies continued to evolve. We
will concentrate on the first (archaeologically recognizable) kingdom in Kush – Kerma. Not only was
Kerma in important trading partner of Egypt, it also became its powerful political rival. We will explore
the change of the perception of this site at the third cataract of the Nile from its first excavator
G.A.Reisner in the early 20th century to the present.
We will also address the Pan-Grave culture, generally identified with the Medjay of ancient
Egyptian texts, which is known from Cemeteries in Nubia as well as Egypt and probably derived from
nomadic populations of the red seas hills. What role this population played in aiding Egypt’s reconquest of Nubia in the New Kingdom will be considered. The New Kingdom organization of Nubia
will be discussed.
readings
Edwards, D. N 2004. The Nubian Past. pp. 99-111
Hafsaas-Tsakos, H. 2009 “The Kingdom of Kush: An African Centre on the Periphery
of the Bronze Age World System”, Norwegian Archaeological Review 42/1:50-70
[IOA PERS, ON-LINE]
(alternative:
Smith, S.T. 1998 “Nubia and Egypt: Interaction, Acculturation, and Secondary State Formation from
the Third to First Millennium B.C.” in J.G. Cusick (ed.) Studies in Culture Contact, Center for
Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No.25, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; pp.
256-287 [INST ARCH BD CUS])
Trigger 1976, pp. 103-114
Smith 1995, Ch. 4-5, pp. 81-138
Recommended/alternative reading
Smith, S. T. 2003. Wretched Kush.
Kerma
Adams, W. Y. 1977. Reflections on the archaeology of Kerma, in Agypten und Kusch. Akademie
verlag: Berlin: Pp. 41-52
Ahmed, Salah ed-Din 2004 “Excavations at the Site of Doukki Gel (Kerma)”, S.Wenig (ed.) Neueste
Feldforschungen im Sudan und in Eritrea, Berlin 1999
Bonnet, C. 1983 “Kerma: An African Kingdom of the 2nd and 3rd Millennia B.C.”, Archaeology
36/6:38-45
32
Bonnet, C. 1992 “Excavations at the Nubian royal town of Kerma: 1975-91”, Antiquity 66:611-25
[Teaching Collection 943; can download through college networks from http://antiquity.ac.uk/]
Bonnet, C. 1997 “The Kingdom of Kerma” in D. Wildung (ed) Sudan. Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile,
Paris, Flammarion; pp.89-95
Bonnet, C. and D. Valbelle 2000. Edifices et rites funéraires à Kerma / Mission archéologique de
l'Université de Genève à Kerma
Bonnet, C. and D. Valbelle 2004. Le temple principal de la ville de Kerma et son quartier religieux.
[ISSUE DESK IOA BON 3]
Bonnet, C., M. Honneger and D. Valbelle 2001. Kerma. Rapport preliminaire sur les campagnes de
1999-2000 et 2000-2001, Geneva (ns) 49: 199-234
[and similar reports in previous issues of this journal]
Bourriau, J. 1981 “Nubians in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period: An Interpretation based on
the Egyptian Ceramic Evidence” in D.Arnold (ed). Studien zur altägyptischen Keramik, Sonderschrift
des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 9, Mainz; pp. 25-41
Bourriau, J. 1991 “Relations between Egypt and Kerma during the Middle and New Kingdoms”,
W.V.Davies (ed.) Egypt and Africa, British Museum Press; pp. 129-144
Darnell, J.C. 1986 “Irem and the Ghost of Kerma”, GM 94:17-23
Davies, W.V. 2003 “Sobeknakht of Elkab and the Coming of Kush”, EA 23:3-6
Davies, W.V. 2003 “Kush in Egypt. A New Historical Inscription”, Sudan and Nubia 7:52-54
Honegger, M. 2004 “The Pre-Kerma: a cultural group from Upper Nubia prior to the Kerma
civilization”, Sudan and Nubia 8:38-46
Kendall, T. 1994 Kerma and the Kingdom of Kush 2500-1500 B.C., Washington D.C., National
Museum of African Art
Lacovara, P. 1986 “The funerary chapels at Kerma”, CRIPEL 8:49-60
Lacovara, P. 1987 “The Internal Chronology of Kerma”, Beiträge zur Sudanforschung 2:75-106
O’Connor, D. 1984 “Kerma and Egypt: The Significance of the Monumental Buildings Kerma I, II and
XI”, JARCE 21:65-108
O’Connor, D. 1986 “The Locations of Yam and Kush and Their Historical Implications”, JARCE
23:27-50
Reisner, G.A. 1923 Excavations at Kerma,vols. I-III, Peabody Museum of Harvard Univ. Cambridge
Mass.
Trigger, B.G. 1976 “Kerma: The Rise of an African Civilization”, The International Journal of African
Historical Studies 9/1:1-21
Williams, B. B. 1983. OINE 5. Excavations Between Abu Simbel and the Sudan Frontier, Part 5: CGroup, Pan Grave, and Kerma Remains at Adindan Cemeteries T, K, U, and J. [EGYPTOLOGY
QUARTOS E 120 CHI] (particularly pp 1-24)
Pan-Grave
33
Anthes, R. 1928 Die Felseninschriften von Hatnub, Hinrichs, Leipzig
Bell, L. et al. 1984 “The Eastern Desert of Upper Egypt: Routes and Inscriptions”, JNES 43/1:27-46
Bietak, M. 1966 Ausgrabungen in Sayala – Nubien 1961-1965 Denkmäler der C-Gruppe und der PanGräber-Kultur, H.Böhlaus Nachf., Graz, Wien
Brunton, G. 1937 Mostagedda and the Tasian culture, Quaritch, London
Fischer, H.G. 1961 “The Nubian Mercenaries of Gebelein during the First Intermediate Period”, Kush
9:44-81
Friedman, R. 1992 “Pebbles, Pots and Petroglyphs, Excavations at HK64”, R.Friedman and B.Adams
(eds.) The Followers of Horus, Studies Hoffmann, Oxford, Oxbow Books; pp. 99-106
Friedman, R. 2001 "Nubians at Hierakonpolis. Excavations in the Nubian Cemeteries", Sudan and
Nubia 5:29-45
Grzymski, K. 1982 “Medewi/Bedewi and MDA/Bedja”; GM 58:27-30
Posener, G. 1958 “Nehesiu et Medjaiu”, ZÄS 83:38-43
Rothe, R.D. et al. 1996 “New Hieroglyphic Evidence for Pharaonic Activity in the Eastern Desert of
Egypt”, JARCE 33:77-104
Sadr, K. 1987 “The territorial expanse of the Pan-Grave Culture”, Archéologie du Nil Moyen 2:265-91
Smither, P.C. 1945 “The Semnah Despatches”, JEA 31:3-10
General
Adams, W.Y. 1984 “The First Colonial Empire: Egypt in Nubia 3200 – 1200 B.C.” Comparative
Studies in Society and History 26/1:36-71
Bradley, R.J. 1992 Nomads in the archaeological record, Meroitica 13, Berlin, Akademie Verlag
Dunham, D. 1947 “Outline of the Ancient History of the Sudan”, Sudan Notes and Records 28:1-10
Geus, F. 2006 “Territorial behaviour and territorial areas in the Middle Nile Valley from Later
Prehistory to the end of the New Kingdom”; I.Caneva and A.Roccati (eds.) Acta Nubica 2006.
Proceedings of the Xth International Conference of Nubian Studies, Rome 9-14 September 2002, Roma
Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato; pp. 343-353
Grzymski, K. 2004 "Landscape Archaeology of Nuba and Central Sudan", African Archaeological
Review 21/1:7-30
Kemp, B.J. 1983 “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period c. 2686-1552 BC”,
B.G. Trigger, B.J.Kemp, D. O’Connor, A.B.Lloyd Ancient Egypt, A social History, Cambridge
University Press; pp. 71-182
Lacovara, P. 1997 “Egypt and Nubia during the Second Intermediate Period” in E.Oren (ed.) The
Hyksos: new historical and archaeological perspectives, Philadelphia, University Museum of
Pennsylviania; pp. 69-83
Meurer, G. 1996 Nubier in Ägypten bis zum Beginn des Neuen Reiches, Achet Verlag, Berlin
O’Connor, D. 1993 Ancient Nubia, Egypt’s Rival in Africa, The University Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
34
Smith, H. and Giddy, L. 1985 “Nubia and Dahkla Oasis in the Late Third Millennium B.C.: The
present balance of textual and archaeological evidence” in Melanges Vercoutter Éditions Recherche sur
les Civilisations, Paris; pp 317-330
Trigger, B. 1976 Nubia under the Pharaohs, Thames & Hudson, London
Trigger, B. 1985 “Land and Trade as Patterns in Sudanese History” in M.Liverani, A.Palmeri, R.Perioni
(eds.) Studi di Paletnologia in Onore di Salvatore M Puglisi, Rome; pp 465-475
Trigger, B. 1994 “Paradigms in Sudan Archaeology”, The International Journal of African Historical
Studies 27/2:323-345
Török, L. 2009 Between two worlds: the frontier region between ancient Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC –
500 AD, Leiden, Brill
Welsby, D.A. and Welsby-Sjöström, I. 2006-2007 “The Dongola Reach and the Fourth Cataract:
continuity and change during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC”, CRIPEL 26:379-398
Williams, B.B. 1999 “Kushite Origins and the Cultures of Northeastern Africa” in S.Wenig (ed.) Akten
der 7. Internationalen Tagung für meroitische Forschungen vom 14. bis 19. September 1992 in Gosen
bei Berlin, Meroitica 15, Berlin, Harrassowitz; pp. 372-392
Zibelius, K. 1972 Afrikanische Orts- und Völkernamen in hieroglyphischen und hieratischen Texten,
Dr.L.Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden
Zibelius-Chen, K. 1988 Die ägyptische Expansion nach Nubien, Dr.L.Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden
Useful exhibition catalogues and web-sites
Kerma website: www.kerma.ch
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: www.mfa.org/collections (on-line catalogue)
Welsby, D.A. and Anderson, J.R. (eds) 2004 Sudan. Ancient Treasures, London,
British Museum Press; chapters 3-5
Wenig, S. 1978 Africa in Antiquity. The Arts of Ancient Nubia and the Sudan,
Brooklyn Museum
35