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9 - Early States and Urban Forms in the Middle Nile

from Part III - Neighbours and Comparanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

By
David N. Edwards
Edited by
Martin Sterry  and
David J. Mattingly
Martin Sterry
Affiliation:
University of Durham
David J. Mattingly
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
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Summary

Studies of the political organisation of the Meroitic state (c.350 BC–AD 300) have often underlined the importance of an explicit recognition of its Sudanic context, and place within longer-term traditions of Sudanic political developments. Its study may also benefit from a more explicit engagement with African political anthropology, along with a greater concern with political practices, as more recently envisaged by Smith. In turn, it may also be argued that many features of early Sudanic polities of the Middle Nile (for example, Kerma) differ in some fundamental ways from their northern neighbours of the Egyptian Lower Nile, or indeed the Mediterranean. Meroe shares a number of distinctive characteristics of more recent Sudanic kingdoms; some are emphasised in this chapter. A number of challenges to rulership are readily identifiable in the Sahelian-Sudanic landscapes of the Middle Nile, and many of these may be familiar to those working in other contexts across the continent.

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Chapter
Information
Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond , pp. 359 - 395
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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