The Nubian Past

This cutting-edge synthesis of the archaeology of Nubia and Sudan from prehistory to the nineteenth century AD is the first major work on this area for over three decades. Drawing on results of the latest research and developing new interpretive frameworks, the area which has produced the most spectacular archaeology in sub-Saharan Africa is examined here by an author with extensive experience in this field. The geographical range of the book extends through the Nubian north, the Middle Nile Basin, and includes what has become the modern Sudan. Using period-based chapters, the region's long-term history is traced and a potential for a more broadly framed and inclusive 'historical archaeology' of Sudan's more recent past is explored. This text breaks new ground in its move beyond the Egyptocentric and more traditional culture-histories of Nubia, often isolated in Africanist research, and it relocates the early civilizations and their archaeology within their Sudanic Africa context.

This is a captivating study of the area's history, and will inform and enthral all students and researchers of Archaeology and Egyptology.

Autorentext

David N. Edwards is a Visiting Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, Leicester University, with extensive research experience in Sudan and Nubia since 1985. He has worked extensively as a field archaeologist in Britain as well as Libya, Egypt and Jordan.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Nubia, Sudan and Sudanic Africa 2. Hunters, Fishers and Gatherers (c.10,000-5,000BC) 3. Developing Complexity and Expanding Worlds of Herders and Farmers (c.5000-2000BC) 4. Kush and Egypt's Imperial Ventures (c.2000BC-1000BC) 5. The Kushite Revival: the XXVth dynasty and Napata (c.1000BC-350BC)
   
   6. Meroitic Kush (c.350BC-AD300) 7. Post-Meroitic Transitions (c.300-500AD) 8. Medieval Nubia (c.500-1500AD)
   7. Post-Medieval Sudan and Islam (c.1500-1900AD) 10. Conclusions: Towards an archaeology of the Sudan