Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-rkxrd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T23:28:29.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Edges of bronze and expressions of masculinity: the emergence of a warrior class at Kerma in Sudan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Henriette Hafsaas-Tsakos
Henriette Hafsaas-Tsakos*
Affiliation:
*Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen, PO Box 7805, Bergen N-5020, Norway (Email: Henriette.Hafsas@ahkr.uib.no)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The author revisits the celebrated cemetery of the Bronze Age Kerma culture by the third cataract of the Nile and re-examines its monumental tumuli. The presence of daggers and drinking vessels in secondary burials are associated with skeletal remains that can be attributed to fighting men, encouraging their interpretation as members of a warrior elite. Here, on the southern periphery of the Bronze Age world, is an echo of the aggressive aristocracy of Bronze Age Europe.

Keywords

SudanKermaBronze Agewarrior gravesdaggersdrinking vesselsmirrorsrazors
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 335 , March 2013 , pp. 79 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bonnet, C. 1983. Kerma: an African kingdom of the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC. Archaeology 36: 38–45.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 1984. Les fouilles archéologiques de Kerma (Soudan). Genava 32: 3–20.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 1988. Les fouilles archéologiques de Kerma (Soudan). Genava 36: 5–20.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 1992. Excavations at the Nubian royal town of Kerma 1975-91. Antiquity 66: 611–25.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 1995. Kerma: rapport préliminaire sur les campagnes de 1993-1994 et de 1994-1995. Genava 43: 33–52.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 1997. Kerma: rapport préliminaire sur les campagnes de 1995-1996 et de 1996-1997. Genava 45: 97–112.Google Scholar
Bonnet, C. 2004. The Kerma culture, in. Welsby, D.A. & Anderson, J.R. (ed.) Sudan: ancient treasures: 70–77. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Breasted, J.H. 1962a [1906]. Ancient records of Egypt. Volume 1. New York: Russell & Russell.Google Scholar
Breasted, J.H. 1962b [1906]. Ancient records of Egypt. Volume 2. New York: Russell & Russell.Google Scholar
Davies, V. 2003. Kush in Egypt: a new historical inscription. Sudan & Nubia 7: 52–54.Google Scholar
Dunham, D. 1982. Excavations at Kerma, part VI. Boston (MA): Museum of Fine Arts.Google Scholar
Edwards, D.N. 2004. The Nubian past: an archaeology of the Sudan. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gratien, B. 1978. Les cultures Kerma: essai de classification. Lille: Publications de l'Université de Lille III.Google Scholar
Haaland, R. 2009. Ancient Nubia: a culinary cross-road between Africa and the Near East, in Hafsaas-Tsakos, H. & Tsakos, A. (ed.) Connecting south and north: Sudan studies from Bergen in honour of Mahmoud Salih: 41-58. Bergen: University of Bergen.Google Scholar
Hafsaas, H. 2006. Cattle pastoralists in a multicultural setting: the C-Group people in Lower Nubia 2500-1500 BCE. Bergen: University of Bergen & Ramallah: Birzeit University in the West Bank.Google Scholar
Hafsaas, H. 2006-2007. Pots and people in an anthropological perspective: the C-Group people of Lower Nubia as a case study. Cahiers de Recherches de l'Iinstitut de Papyrologie et d'Egyptologie de Lille 26: 163–71.Google Scholar
Hafsaas-Tsakos, H. 2009. The Kingdom of Kush: an African centre on the periphery of the Bronze Age world system. Norwegian Archaeological Review 42: 50–70.Google Scholar
Hafsaas-Tsakos, H. 2010. Between Kush and Egypt: the C-Group people of Lower Nubia during the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period, in Godlewski, W. & Łajtar, A. (ed.) Between the Cataracts (Proceedings of the 11th Conference for Nubian Studies, Warsaw University, 27 August-2 September 2006) 2/2: 389–96. Warsaw: Warsaw University Press.Google Scholar
Harding, A. 1999. Warfare: a defining characteristic of Bronze Age Europe?, in Carman, J. & Harding, A. (ed.) Ancient warfare: archaeological perspectives: 157–73. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Honegger, M. & Bonnet, C.. 2009. Restoration and preservation. Kerma 1: 24–25.Google Scholar
Judd, M. 2002. Ancient injury recidivism: an example from the Kerma period of ancient Nubia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 12: 89–106.Google Scholar
Judd, M. 2004. Trauma in the city of Kerma: ancient versus modern injury patterns. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 14: 34–51.Google Scholar
Judd, M. 2006. Continuity of interpersonal violence between Nubian communities. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 131: 324–33.Google Scholar
Judd, M. & Irish, J.. 2009. Dying to serve: the mass burials at Kerma. Antiquity 83: 709–22.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 1999. The emergence of warrior aristocracies in later European prehistory and their long-term history, in Carman, J. & Harding, A. (ed.) Ancient warfare: archaeological perspectives: 175–89. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. & Larsson, T.B.. 2005. The rise of Bronze Age society: travels, transmissions and transformations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Randall-Maciver, D. & Woolley, C.L.. 1911. Buhen. Text (Eckley B. Coxe Junior Expedition to Nubia 7). Philadelphia (PA): University Museum of Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Reisner, G. A. 1923a. Excavations at Kerma, I-III. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reisner, G. A. 1923b. Excavations at Kerma, IV-V. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Riefenstahl, L. 1973. The last of the Nuba. London: Harvill.Google Scholar
Schulz, R. 2008. H.U.N.E. 2008: MOG034 und MOG064-Zwei mehrperiodische urgeschichtliche Fundstellen auf dem Plateau von Karmel (Insel Mograt). Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin 19: 43–49.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1994. Core, periphery and margin: perspectives on the Bronze Age, in Mathers, C. & Stoddart, S. (ed.) Development and decline in the Mediterranean Bronze Age: 335–45. Sheffield: J.R. Collis.Google Scholar
Sherratt, A. 1997. Cups that cheered: the introduction of alcohol to prehistoric Europe, in Sherratt, A. (ed.) Economy and society in prehistoric Europe: 376–402. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Treherne, P. 1995. The warrior's beauty: the masculine body and self-identity in Bronze Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 3: 105–44.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G. 1976. Kerma: the rise of an African civilization. International Journal of African Historical Studies 9: 1–21.Google Scholar
Vandkilde, H. 2006. Warriors and warrior institutions in Copper Age Europe, in Otto, T., Thrane, H. & Vandkilde, H. (ed.) Warfare and society: archaeological and social anthropological perspectives: 393–422. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Vila, A. 1970. Le cimetière Kerma, in Vercoutter, J. (ed.) Mirgissa. Volume 1: 223–305. Paris: Ministère des affaires étrangères & CNRS.Google Scholar
Vila, A. 1987. Le cimetière Kermä?que d'Ukma Ouest. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar