{"title":"The History of Medieval Nubia","authors":"G. Ruffini","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.61","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.61","url":null,"abstract":"The history of the medieval Nubian state begins as it ends, in a state of decentralization. The core of that state emerges through the unification of Nobadia in the north and Makuria in the center of the Nubian heartland, perhaps at some point in the 7th century. Makuria’s relationship with Alwa to the south is less clear, but some unification seems to have obtained there as well, in the 11th century. The Nubian state’s relationship with the wider world is variable. Nubia sometimes ignores or challenges its northern Islamic neighbors, and at other times defers to them or aggressively courts their diplomatic favor. Dotawo, the indigenous name for Nubia at least in later centuries, is still strong in the face of invasions in the 12th century, but shows signs of internal dynastic instability in later periods. Ongoing Egyptian interference in Nubian civil wars, coupled with increasing levels of Arab immigration to Nubia, destabilizes the Nubian state and returns it to its original fragmentation.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131065796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Amun Cult and Its Development in Nubia","authors":"L. Gabolde","doi":"10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190496272.013.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190496272.013.19","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the origins of the god Amun, of his name, his ram-headed form, and their connections to Nubia, which seem to have been overestimated. Amun appears to be the major deity worshipped in Nubia after the Egyptian conquest of the New Kingdom. Considered to be a national and universal god, he became the protector of Kushite kingship, spread through the religious conversion of the Kushite elite to Egyptian religious beliefs. Amun is a solarized deity figured as a man (occasionally ithyphallic) with a two-feather headdress primarily as the god of Karnak, and as a ram-headed deity as that of Jebel Barkal. He may also appear as a bull, a goose, and more questionably as a crocodile or a cobra. His main sacred cities were Napata, Pnubs, Kawa, Sanam, and Tara. He is occasionally accompanied by Mut, Khonsu, Satis, and Anukis.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131793842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nubian Texts, Nubian Lives","authors":"G. Ruffini","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.36","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.36","url":null,"abstract":"Nubian texts provide valuable insight into Nubian social and economic history. Accounts reveal economic priorities both secular and sacred. Documentary evidence hints at the nature of state centralization and the movement of goods and coins in and out of Nubia. Magic reveals Nubia’s deep-seated hopes and fears. Literature shows innovative theology and Nubia’s sense of its place in world history. Funerary inscriptions record the careers of the elite and their sense of their own place in the cosmos. But much is missing from the Nubian textual record as well, suggesting that major literary genres never indigenized in Nubia the way they did in Egypt or Ethiopia. Other genres ebb and flow over time, hinting at the economy of Nubian literacy and the processes through which it ultimately dies.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130923103","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Topography of Power in Medieval Nubia","authors":"B. Żurawski","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.38","url":null,"abstract":"The author synthesizes the intricacies of construction and evolution of the medieval Nubian power centers on the example of Old Dongola, known in the Banganarti inscriptions as Tungul, Pachoras (Faras), Soba East, Qasr Ibrim, Jebel Adda, and Ez-Zuma. All of them affected the local microcosm as a guarantor of the stability and social order in the state and as a source of faith and religious prestige. Their axiality in the religious and political sphere consisted, among other features, also in being a destination of pilgrimages, a home to the cathedral church and ruler’s palace, a seat of a bishopric, terminal to the caravan route, the location of the custom house etc. The potent relics, wonder-working icons and the tombs of the local holy men attracted pilgrims and provided the godly patronage over the city and the state. Last but not least, medieval Nubian power centers were encircled by powerful fortifications which were not a reliable source of safety but were everlasting symbols of might and wealth. A socially stratified cemetery full of extravagant tombs is also a fingerprint of a nearby power center, although the Christian religion brought in a significant standardization of grave forms and grave goods.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116620551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Death and Burial in the Kingdom of Meroe","authors":"Vincent Francigny","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.29","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents an overview of funerary customs and their antecedents in the kingdom of Meroe (300 bce–350 ce), with a focus on elite burials. In a land exposed to gradual changes after a long period of Egyptian colonization, cultural entanglement has created new religious beliefs supported by a unique architecture and statuary, in addition to new traditions regarding mortuary rituals. Copying the royal funerals, high-ranked officials are buried with rich equipment (weaponry, vessels, jewelry, coffins, shrouds) while at the surface a pyramid or a tumulus will mark the grave and become the theater of a cult for the dead fusing with the cult of Osiris. Easily accessible from settlements, the Meroitic grave appears as a new place to intercede with the gods and maintain the influence of some families over local communities.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125031688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Landscape Archaeologies in Nubia and the Middle Nile","authors":"D. Edwards","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.53","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.53","url":null,"abstract":"It is suggested that many landscape archaeology approaches have considerable potential to contribute to research in the large and environmentally varied region of the Middle Nile. Longer-term perspectives through the Holocene also require more specific engagements with major environmental as well as social transformations. A number of specific foci suggest themselves for further exploration. As in many other part of Africa exploring landscape histories in terms of their historical ecology seems likely to have much to offer. In a region with many millennia of pastoral traditions, studies of settlement may also be extended to consider landscapes of mobility and more varied understandings of space and place. The early development of larger-scale polities also invites more explicit investigation of landscapes of power and authority within the region.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122963201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Meroitic Heartland","authors":"P. Wolf, Ulrike Nowotnick","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.25","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides an overview of the heartland of the Kushite kingdom focusing on the Meroitic period between the 3rd century bce and the mid-4th century ce. An introduction defines the region’s natural borders and illustrates the environmental setting of the Meroitic heartland on the so-called Island of Meroe. In order to draw a general picture, the most important findings from archaeology, including settlements, architecture, and funeral rites, are related to the few known historical events of this period.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132923691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Archaeology of Medieval Nubian Kingdoms","authors":"Artur Obłuski","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.39","url":null,"abstract":"The following chapter approaches the archaeology of medieval Nubia from a regional perspective. First, it presents the nomenclature used for chronology, then the history of archaeological research in Nubia determined by construction of dams on the Nile. The focus of the paper are the settlement systems of two medieval Nubian kingdoms: Nobadia and Makuria. Alwa is treated lightly due to the limited data. They are discussed in a static (settlement hierarchy) and dynamic perspective (integration of settlement systems in time). Church architecture as an indicator of regionalism is also debated. Some topics integrally associated with archaeology of Nubia like historical sources (Ruffini, this volume), languages (Łajtar and Ochała, this volume), capitals of the states (Żurawski, this volume), art and pottery (Zielińska, this volume) are generally absent here but are tackled by other authors in the same volume.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117153036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Arts and Crafts of the Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia","authors":"Dobrochna Zielińska","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.40","url":null,"abstract":"After the collapse of the Meroitic Empire, three independent kingdoms arose within its former territory. Because of a lack of centralized political authority and artistic production, their early development, although based on the Meroitic inheritance, was determined by different sources of influence. From the 8th century two united northern kingdoms became a powerful state, which is also reflected in its art. Rising creativity from the 9th century onwards reflected local needs and ambitions. In the course of time, surrounded by Islamic neighbors, Nubian art on one hand remained independent in its forms of art, but on the other hand absorbed a new style and iconographic details, which is most visible in 12th-century wall painting. Most probably it reflected a changing lifestyle, inspired by the wider Middle Eastern world at that time. The late period, although characterized by much less activity and financial possibilities of individuals or communities, still shows flourishing activities of Nubian artists. Christian Nubian culture ended almost simultaneously with the Byzantine empire, leaving almost one thousand years of its unique heritage.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117352885","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human Adaptation to Environmental Change in the Northern Dongola Reach","authors":"D. Welsby","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.17","url":null,"abstract":"Survey on the east bank of the Nile by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society between 1993 and 1996 was able to chart in detail changes in human settlement patterns. These reflect the political situation and developments in the agro-economy, but most importantly, fundamental changes in the hydrology of the Nile and in the local climate. In the Kerma periods the braided Nile channel was able to support a large population probably aided by greater local rainfall. With the demise of the eastern Nile channels and increasing aridity this population density became unsustainable and by the early 1st millennium bce the region, apart from the bank of the main Nile channel, was largely abandoned.","PeriodicalId":344932,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia","volume":"457 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131825153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}