Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

This ground-breaking volume pushes back conventional dating of the earliest sedentarisation, urbanisation and state formation in the Sahara.

Martin Sterry (Edited by), David J. Mattingly (Edited by)

9781108494441, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 March 2020

764 pages, 77 b/w illus. 63 colour illus. 10 tables
25.3 x 18 x 4.3 cm, 1.61 kg

The themes of sedentarisation, urbanisation and state formation are fundamental ones in the archaeology of many diverse parts of the world but have been little explored in relation to early societies of the Saharan zone. Moreover, the possibility has rarely been considered that the precocious civilisations bordering this vast desert were interconnected by long-range contacts and knowledge networks. The orthodox opinion of many of the key oasis zones within the Sahara is that they were not created before the early medieval period and the Islamic conquest of Mediterranean North Africa. Major claims of this volume are that the ultimate origins of oasis settlements in many parts of the Sahara were considerably earlier, that by the first millennium AD some of these oasis settlements were of a size and complexity to merit the categorisation 'towns' and that a few exceptional examples were focal centres within proto-states or early state-level societies.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction to the themes of sedentarisation, urbanisation and state formation in the ancient Sahara and beyond David J. Mattingly and Martin Sterry
Part II. Oasis Origins in the Sahara: A Region-By-Region Survey: 2. Garamantian oasis settlements in Fazzan David J. Mattingly, Stefania Merlo, Lucia Mori and Martin Sterry
3. Pre-Islamic oasis settlements in the eastern Sahara David J. Mattingly, Martin Sterry, Louise Rayne and Muftah Al-Haddad
4. The urbanisation of Egypt's western desert under Roman rule Anna Lucille Boozer
5. Pre-Islamic oasis settlements in the northern Sahara David J. Mattingly, Martin Sterry, Muftah Al-Haddad and Pol Trousset
6. Pre-Islamic oasis settlements in the north-western Sahara Martin Sterry, David J. Mattingly and Youssef Bokbot
7. Pre-Islamic oasis settlements in the southern Sahara Martin Sterry and David J. Mattingly
8. Discussion: sedentarisation and urbanisation in the Sahara Martin Sterry and David J. Mattingly
Part III. Neighbours and Comparanda: 9. Early states and urban forms in the middle Nile David N. Edwards
10. Mediterranean urbanisation in North Africa: Greek, Punic and Roman models Andrew I. Wilson
11. Numidian state formation in the Tunisian High Tell Joan Sanmartí, Nabil Kallala, Maria Carme Belarte, Joan Ramon, Francisco José Cantero, Dani López, Marta Portillo and Sílvia Valenzuela
12. The origins of urbanisation and structured political power in Morocco: indigenous phenomenon or foreign colonisation? Youssef Bokbot
13. Architecture and settlement growth on the southern edge of the Sahara: timing and possible implications for interactions with the north Kevin C. Macdonald
14. Long-distance exchange and urban trajectories in the first millennium AD: case studies from the middle Niger and middle Senegal River valleys Susan Keech Mcintosh
15. First millennia BC/AD fortified settlements at Lake Chad: implications for the origins of urbanisation and state formation in sub-Saharan Africa Carlos Magnavita
16. At the dawn of Sijilmasa: new historical focus on the process of emergence of a Saharan state and a caravan city Chloé Capel
17. The early Islamic trans-Saharan market towns of West Africa Sam Nixon
18. Urbanisation, inequality and political authority in the Sahara Judith Scheele
Part IV. Concluding Discussion: 19. State-formation in the Sahara and beyond David J. Mattingly and Martin Sterry.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Archaeology [HD], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], African history [HBJH], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]