Ancient Middle Niger
Urbanism and the Self-organizing Landscape

Survey of the emergence of the ancient urban civilization of Middle Niger.

Roderick J. McIntosh (Author)

9780521012430, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 September 2005

278 pages, 44 b/w illus. 17 maps 2 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.45 kg

"...an impressive, path-breaking explanation of the origin of urban settlements on the Middle Niger River, climaxed by a fascinating final chapter in which the author offers a comparative overview of the archaeology of urban landscapes in Mesopotamia, the Nile valley, and northern China."
-David C. Conrad, Emeritus, SUNY Oswego, American Historical Review

The cities of West Africa's Middle Niger, only recently brought to the world's attention, make us rethink the 'whys' and the 'wheres' of ancient urbanism. The cities of the Middle Niger present the archaeologist with something of a novelty; a non-nucleated, clustered city-plan with no centralized, state-focused power. Ancient Middle Niger explores the emergence of these cities in the first millennium B.C. and the evolution of their hinterlands from the perspective of the self-organized landscape. Cities appeared in a series of profound transforms to the human-land relations and this book illustrates how each transform was a leap in complexity. The book ends with an examination of certain critical moments in the emergence of other urban landscapes in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and in northern China, through a Middle Niger lens. Highly-illustrated throughout, this work is a key text for all students of African archaeology and of comparative pre-industrial urbanism.

1. Discovery
2. Transformed landscapes
3. Accommodation
4. Excavation
5. Surveying the hinterland
6. Comparative urban landscapes.

Subject Areas: Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], Regional studies [GTB]