Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Collapse and Regeneration of the Meroitic State between the Fifth Cataract and Khartoum

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

Under the guidance of Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith, Mohamed Faroug Abdelrahman Ali will investigate the collapse and regeneration of the Meroitic state through archaeological research in Sudan. The Meroitic state was one of the earliest in Africa, flourishing between approximately 300 BC to AD 350 in the Middle Nile region of Sudan, at one time controlling the entire region from the Egyptian border to Khartoum. There has been considerable debate as to whether the collapse of central authority at Meroe was due to disruptions caused by tribal movements into the area, an invasion by the Ethiopian Axumite kingdom, or internal factionalism that caused the kingdom to split apart, resulting in different outcomes when new kingdoms emerged in the post-Meroitic period. Previous discussions have focused on historical texts and the capital at Meroe, but lack support from archaeological data in the rural areas where very limited or no excavation and survey have been conducted. This research project will reevaluate these models through concentration of fieldwork in these little known rural areas on the west bank and the east hinterland targeting Meroitic and post-Meroitic period settlements, fortresses and cemeteries. These results will be integrated with existing archaeological data in the core Meroe region to reassess the causes behind the decline and the regeneration of the Meroitic state. This research contributes to larger anthropological and archaeological research questions regarding the collapse of archaic states. Studies of the collapse of states have resulted in a number of themes, starting with resource depletion, competition over new resources, stress from catastrophes and an insufficient response to social, economic and political challenges, along with competition with other societies and the effects of intruders. Collapse is never total or complete and regeneration results in the reappearance of social complexity (states, cities, etc.) after a period of decentralization. Non-elite resilience in rural areas plays a significant role in the reconstruction of complex societies. This archaeological investigation will assist in the study of changes in social identity of rural areas in the ancient African Meroitic state and how locals developed autonomy, and regenerated one or multiple post-Meroitic polities in the middle of the 4th century AD. This study has broader impacts through its application of archaeological and anthropological approaches to Sudanese archaeological research, a discipline that has traditionally lacked a theoretical perspective. In particular, the project can have important influence on the conduct of Sudanese archaeology by introducing anthropological methods and theories to native Sudanese archaeologists Undergraduate and graduate students from UCSB will be involved in the analysis of materials brought back to UCSB for study, promoting a better understanding of archaic states in sub-Sahara Africa. Additionally, the proposed dams and expansion of agriculture in the study area at the 5th and 6th cataracts of the Nile will have a serious impact on archaeological sites in the region, lending the project some urgency.