eprintid: 10205304
rev_number: 12
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/20/53/04
datestamp: 2025-02-27 11:11:13
lastmod: 2025-02-27 16:24:39
status_changed: 2025-02-27 11:11:13
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Naeser, Claudia
title: Walking the Line: Bronze and Iron Age as Terms in Middle Nile Valley Archaeology?
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B03
divisions: C03
divisions: F31
divisions: K74
keywords: Bronze Age; Three Age system; chronology; Middle Nile valley; Kush; Mograt
note: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license
abstract: This paper explores the justifiability, usefulness and appropriateness of employing the terms ‘Bronze Age’ and ‘Iron Age’ in the context of Middle Nile valley archaeology. It argues that the reluctance to use these terms is linked to the disciplinary isolation of Egyptian archaeology and the singularization of ancient Egypt, and by extension the Middle Nile valley, in the disciplinary discourse of the past two hundred years. It further argues that while we cannot step out of this history, a critical debate, and emerging from this an emancipatory use of the terminology, is the best way forward. Based on a case study from Mograt Island, the paper suggests that using macro level ‘epochal’ terms such as ‘Bronze Age’ and ‘Iron Age’ actually supports the engagement with micro level dynamics, local variability, agency and multidimensional interactions, as it allows to break up the illusory unity and reach of intermediate level entities such as ‘Kerma culture’ which have come to dominate archaeological interpretations in the past sixty years when enquiries were focussed on this level and the key sites which were taken to represent it.
date: 2025-02
date_type: published
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1163/26670755-04020005
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2364579
doi: 10.1163/26670755-04020005
lyricists_name: Naeser, Claudia
lyricists_id: CNASE02
actors_name: Naeser, Claudia
actors_id: CNASE02
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia
volume: 5
number: 1
citation:        Naeser, Claudia;      (2025)    Walking the Line: Bronze and Iron Age as Terms in Middle Nile Valley Archaeology?                   Old World: Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia , 5  (1)      10.1163/26670755-04020005 <https://doi.org/10.1163/26670755-04020005>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10205304/2/Naeser_ow-article-p1_009.pdf