Ancient Kush was one of the earliest complex societies in Africa, yet it is not normally considered in comparative archaeologies of states and empires. This paper makes the case for considering Kush as a culturally distinctive trajectory to political authority, social inequality, and economic complexity. It also considers reasons for its omission from comparative studies, which include a past focus on primary states, a lack of fit with existing archaeological classifications of ancient societies, the overshadowing effect of ancient Egypt to the north, and lingering institutional prejudice. Recent research on early Kush – the Kerma period in archaeological terms – has recovered increasingly detailed evidence from its major urban center at Kerma, but has also begun to gather regional data on the expansion and internal structure of early Kush. Among its many distinctive features, the most significant for understanding the unusual features of its trajectory may be the role of cattle herding and likely associated mobility of population.

Throughout history, a large portion of the world's population has lived under imperial rule. Although scholars do not always agree on when and where the roots of imperialism lie, most would agree that imperial configurations have affected human history so profoundly that the legacy of ancient empires continues to structure the modern world in many ways. Empires are best described as heterogeneous and dynamic patchworks of imperial configurations in which imperial power was the outcome of the complex interaction between evolving colonial structures and various types of agents in highly contingent relationships. The goal of this volume is to harness the work of the "next generation" of empire scholars in order to foster new theoretical and methodological perspectives that are of relevance within and beyond archaeology and to foreground empires as a cross-cultural category. This book demonstrates how archaeological research can contribute to our conceptualization of empires across disciplinary boundaries.

Numerous research projects have studied the Nubian cultures of Sudan and Egypt over the last thirty years, leading to significant new insights. The contributions to this handbook illuminate our current understanding of the cultural history of this fascinating region, including its interconnections to the natural world.

From the ancient Nile Valley to the savannas of medieval West Africa, the highlands of Ethiopia and on to the forests, lakes and grasslands to the south, African civilizations have given rise to some of the worlds most impressive kingdoms. Yet Africas history is often little known beyond the devastation wrought by the slave trade and European colonial rule. In this groundbreaking new book, nine leading historians of Africa take a fresh look at these great kingdoms and empires over five thousand years of recorded history. How was kingship forged in Africa and how did it operate? Was dynastic power maintained by consent or by coercion? Did kings and queens display and project that power for all to see, or did they hide it away, as beneath the fringed crowns that concealed the faces of sacred Yoruba rulers? In what ways have African peoples themselves recorded, celebrated and critiqued the deeds of their kings? Great Kingdoms of Africa explores some of the most important questions in the continents deep past. As elsewhere in the world, absolute monarchy in Africa has been on the wane in the modern era. Yet kingship continues to thrive within many present-day African nations, preserving deep-rooted ideas about culture, identity and sacred power. Presenting exciting developments in the understanding of how states and societies have interacted with each other across time, this book shows how powerful and sophisticated kingdoms have shaped the course of African history and continue to do so in the present day.

THIS ISSUE CONTAINS INVESTIGATING DOMESTIC ECONOMY AT THE BEGINNING OF THE LATE CHALCOLITHIC IN EASTERN ANATOLIA: THE CASE OF ARSLANTEPE PERIOD VIII Cristiano Vignola, Francesca Balossi Restelli, Alessia Masi, Laura Sadori, Giovanni Siracusano KURA ARAXES CULTURE AREAS AND THE LATE 4TH AND EARLY 3RD MILLENNIA BC POTTERY FROM VELI SEVIN’S SURVEYS IN MALATYA AND ELAZIg, TURKEY Mitchell S. Rothman CULTURAL ENTANGLEMENT AT THE DAWN OF THE EGYPTIAN HISTORY: A VIEW FROM THE NILE FIRST CATARACT REGION Maria Carmela Gatto PASTORAL STATES: TOWARD A COMPARATIVE ARCHAEOLOGY OF EARLY KUSH Geoff Emberling A CLAY DOOR-LOCK SEALING FROM THE MIDDLE BRONZE AGE III TEMPLE AT TEL HAROR, ISRAEL Baruch Brandl, Eliezer D. Oren, Pirhiya Nahshoni CASE BASTIONE: A PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT IN THE EREI UPLANDS (CENTRAL SICILY) Enrico Giannitrapani, Filippo Iannì, Salvatore Chilardi, Lorna Anguilano OLD OR NEW WAVES IN CAPO GRAZIANO DECORATIVE STYLES? Sara T. Levi, Maria Clara Martinelli, Paola Vertuani, John Ll.Williams

The cultures of Nubia built the earliest cities, states, and empires of inner Africa, but they remain relatively poorly known outside their modern descendants and the community of archaeologists, historians, and art historians researching them. The earliest archaeological work in Nubia was motivated by the region's role as neighbor, trade partner, and enemy of ancient Egypt. Increasingly, however, ancient Nile-based Nubian cultures are recognized in their own right as the earliest complex societies in inner Africa. As agro-pastoral cultures, Nubian settlement, economy, political organization, and religious ideologies were often organized differently from those of the urban, bureaucratic, and predominantly agricultural states of Egypt and the ancient Near East. Nubian societies are thus of great interest in comparative study, and are also recognized for their broader impact on the histories of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia brings together chapters by an international group of scholars on a wide variety of topics that relate to the history and archaeology of the region. After important introductory chapters on the history of research in Nubia and on its climate and physical environment, the largest part of the volume focuses on the sequence of cultures that lead almost to the present day. Several cross-cutting themes are woven through these chapters, including essays on desert cultures and on Nubians in Egypt. Eleven final chapters synthesize subjects across all historical phases, including gender and the body, economy and trade, landscape archaeology, iron working, and stone quarrying.