The invisible superpower. Review of the geopolitical status of Kushite (Twenty-fifth Dynasty) Egypt at the height of its power and a historiographic analysis of the regime’s legacy

Peake, Lewis

doi:10.31338/uw.9788323533429.pp.465-476

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Consequently, many scholars are inclined to see suggestions of Arabian or Indian elements (personnel, stylistic or artefactual: Arkell 1951; Hofmann 1975) in the Shendi Reach as effects of Egyptianised Hellenism only (Wenig 1978; Zabka 1975). Arguments in favour of Meroitic outreach into the ancient world beyond the African continent include earlier Kushite horse-trainers (occupational specialists) in ancient Assyria (Heidorn 1997), and Meroitic emissaries at Rome (Shinnie 1967) and Constantinople (Peake 2010). Given that Kushites also travelled to the heart of the Persian Empire, and that the Roman Empire engaged in trade with southern Arabia and India, it seems implausible that the Meroitic state had no cultural contact with southern Arabia and India.…”

Section: The Socio-political Nature Of the Meroitic Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan

Brass

2015

J World Prehist

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The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivory and ostrich feathers. Trade routes criss-crossed the desert and extended down the Nile river to Greco-Roman Egypt, as well as through Red Sea ports to several Middle Eastern destinations including Egypt. Using the southern and southeastern reaches of the Meroitic state as a case study, I argue that to conceptualise the frontier peripheries of early states as borders is to misunderstand their internal dynamics (movements of people, fluid social networks and regional exchange systems). Each region had its own distinctive form of power relations. Examining how communities in these frontier zones were constituted, inscribed their identities in the landscape and facilitated trade in relation to the core of the Meroitic state in the Shendi Reach draws attention to the fluidity and continual renegotiation of state-pastoral relations.

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Section: The Socio-political Nature Of the Meroitic Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan

Brass

2015

J World Prehist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

The invisible superpower. Review of the geopolitical status of Kushite (Twenty-fifth Dynasty) Egypt at the height of its power and a historiographic analysis of the regime’s legacy

Cited by 1 publication

References 19 publications

Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan

Interactions and Pastoralism Along the Southern and Southeastern Frontiers of the Meroitic State, Sudan

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