Book contents
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- The Trans-saharan Archaeology Series
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Oasis Origins in the Sahara: A Region-by-Region Survey
- Part III Neighbours and Comparanda
- 9 Early States and Urban Forms in the Middle Nile
- 10 Mediterranean Urbanisation in North Africa
- 11 Numidian State Formation in the Tunisian High Tell
- 12 The Origins of Urbanisation and Structured Political Power in Morocco
- 13 Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara
- 14 Long-Distance Exchange and Urban Trajectories in the First Millennium AD
- 15 First Millennia BC/AD Fortified Settlements at Lake Chad
- 16 At the Dawn of Sijilmasa
- 17 The Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Market Towns of West Africa
- 18 Urbanisation, Inequality and Political Authority in the Sahara
- Part IV Concluding Discussion
- Index
- References
15 - First Millennia BC/AD Fortified Settlements at Lake Chad
Implications for the Origins of Urbanisation and State Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa
from Part III - Neighbours and Comparanda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2020
Book contents
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- The Trans-saharan Archaeology Series
- Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Oasis Origins in the Sahara: A Region-by-Region Survey
- Part III Neighbours and Comparanda
- 9 Early States and Urban Forms in the Middle Nile
- 10 Mediterranean Urbanisation in North Africa
- 11 Numidian State Formation in the Tunisian High Tell
- 12 The Origins of Urbanisation and Structured Political Power in Morocco
- 13 Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara
- 14 Long-Distance Exchange and Urban Trajectories in the First Millennium AD
- 15 First Millennia BC/AD Fortified Settlements at Lake Chad
- 16 At the Dawn of Sijilmasa
- 17 The Early Islamic Trans-Saharan Market Towns of West Africa
- 18 Urbanisation, Inequality and Political Authority in the Sahara
- Part IV Concluding Discussion
- Index
- References
Summary
Between 2004 and 2009, a programme of ground-based geophysical surveying revealed a number of large ancient fortified settlements at the south-western margins of Lake Chad. Dating to the first millennia BC/AD, these archaeological sites are amongst the oldest evidence for communal-level protection in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the one hand, settlement defences and dense populations, estimated in the low thousands, clearly indicate that security must have been a major concern for people living in the area at that time. On the other, these sites raise a series of questions that are fundamental for understanding the emergence of urban centres and state-level societies in the Lake Chad area and in Sub-Saharan Africa. This chapter introduces the archaeological evidence pertaining to those settlements and discusses their implications for the current debate on the origins of urbanisation and state formation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
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