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Fuzzy Boundaries or Hard Borders? Cultural Groupings in Second Millennium bc Nubia from the View of Linguistic Evidence

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Abstract

The region of Sudan and Nubia has always been witness to a complicated nexus of linguistic groupings, frequently exhibiting episodes of linguistic shifts, migration, and extinction. From Nilo-Saharan languages like Meroitic, to Afroasiatic languages like Beja, the region of the Second Millennium bce Middle Nile was certainly not homogenous ethno-linguistically. Linguistic enigmas provide further confusion, like the unknown languages of Lower Nubia that correlate to A- and C-Group material horizons. This paper describes the limits of the evidence in organizing linguistic groupings of ancient Nubia and critiques the issue as to whether these linguistic blocs correlate to geographic boundaries of specific material cultures. Does homogeneity in the archaeological record demonstrate similar homogeneity in linguistic identity? How do we expect nomadic pastoralists, seasonal movements, and migrations to affect this linguistic map? With a focus on pragmatic arguments and the use of later linguistic evidence, this paper reflects on the peopling of the Middle Nile region.
Published with license by Koninklijke Brill 󰎛󰃊󰎛󰂹󰆼󰆻󰂺󰆼󰆼󰇁󰆾󰃈󰆽󰇁󰇁󰇂󰆻󰇂󰇀󰇀󰄀󰆻󰆿󰆻󰆽󰆻󰆻󰆼󰆾
󰅺󰂶󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰎛󰃊󰎛󰂹󰆽󰇁󰇁󰇂󰄀󰆻󰇂󰇀󰇀(online)
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the 󰆗󰂺󰆓󰂺
Fuzzy Boundaries or Hard Borders? Cultural
Groupings in Second Millennium bc Nubia from
the View of Linguistic Evidence
Julien Cooper
󰂶
󰂶󰂶󰂶 Macquarie
󰂶󰂶
julien.cooper@mq.edu.au
󰆕󰆖󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰃊󰆕󰆗󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆗󰃊
󰆖󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆘
Abstract
 
 󰂶      󰂶 󰂶
󰂺󰄀 󰂶 
󰂶          
󰄀󰂺    󰂶 
      󰄀 󰄀
󰂺           

  󰂺
in the archaeological record demonstrate similar homogeneity in linguistic identity?
󰂶󰂶
this linguistic map? With a focus on pragmatic arguments and the use of later linguistic
󰂶󰂺
Keywords
󰄍󰄍󰄀󰄍󰄍
󰂹
󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽
1 Sources for Identifying Languages in the Middle Nile
󰂶
any models that attempt to trace the ancient languages of the region are all
󰆔󰃎󰂶
       󰂶  󰆕󰃎  
 󰄖󰄘  󰂶       
      󰂺   󰂶
the linguist can also ‘look backwards’ or retroject the contemporary linguistic

󰄀󰂶
in doing so can make educated guesses or hypotheses about where certain
󰂺󰄖
󰄘󰄖󰄘 
multiple languages and their possible geographic origins or migrations from the
postulated ‘homeland’ (Urheimat) (󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰂹󰆗󰆚󰄍󰆗󰆜󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂹󰆕󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺
        󰂶  
󰂶
         󰂺 
      󰂶

󰄀󰂺

󰂺
󰃍󰃎

    󰂺     
           
󰂶󰂶
words can also demonstrate the broad linguistic phylum to which these names
󰂺
󰂶
       󰃍 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰂹󰆛󰆚󰂷  󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰂹󰆘󰆛󰄍󰆙󰆜󰃎󰂶

󰂺
󰂶󰂶
󰂶  
dynasties along with their parentage and place of origin (󰂺󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆖󰂷
󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆓󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆚󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆓󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆕󰆙󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆙󰃎󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆾
󰄀󰂶
 󰂶    
󰂺
2 Mapping Languages in the Second Millennium bce
      Middle
  󰂶 
      󰃍Breyer
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆔󰆚󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆕󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂷󰄀󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆜󰂷󰄀
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰃎󰂺󰇟
󰂶󰄀󰂺󰂶
 󰃍󰂺󰆔󰃎󰂶  
       󰂺 󰄀
 󰂶        
󰃍󰂺󰆕󰃎󰄍󰄖󰄘
󰃍󰂶 󰂶 󰃎      󰂶 
   󰂺 
󰂺
 󰄖󰂶󰄘       󰂶 
      󰂶      
󰂺󰇠
    󰄖󰄘      
󰄍
󰃍󰂺󰆖󰆓󰆓󰄍󰆗󰆓󰆓󰃎󰂺
󰄖󰄘󰃍
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆛󰄍󰆜󰃎󰂺         󰄖󰂶󰄘
     
󰄖󰄘
󰂶󰄖󰄘
󰂺󰄖󰄘
  󰄖󰂺󰄘  󰂶󰄖󰄘 󰃍 C) does not
󰄖󰄘
󰆔     󰄖󰄘󰂶
󰂶
by 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆔󰆜󰆜󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆛󰂹󰂺󰆔󰆔󰆗󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆘󰂶󰆔󰆚󰆘 󰃍
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰂹󰆘󰆚󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆛󰆛󰎣󰂺󰆛󰆖󰃎󰂺
󰆕 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆿

󰂶󰂶󰄀󰂶󰂶󰂺󰄖󰄘
from the Biblical usage of ‘Cush’ (󰃎󰂶󰂶󰄀
󰄖󰂺󰄘󰄖󰄘
   Nubische Grammatik mit einer Einleitung über die Völker und
󰆼 󰂺
󰅺󰂺
󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰇀
Sprachen Afrika’s (󰆔󰆛󰆛󰆓󰂹󰂶󰃎󰂺󰇡󰂶
󰄖󰄘󰄖󰄘

󰄖󰃍󰃎󰄘     󰄀
󰂺
     
  󰂶        󰄖󰄘  
󰆽 󰄀󰂶󰄖󰄘
󰂺󰂶
󰂶󰂶
󰂺󰂺
󰆖 󰄘   󰄖 󰄘         
󰂺
󰃍󰄖󰄘󰃎󰂶󰃍󰄖󰄘󰃎󰂶󰂶󰃍󰄖󰄘󰃎󰂶󰃍󰄖󰄘󰃎󰂶󰂺
󰄘󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰇁
󰄀󰂶󰄀
 󰄀 󰃍 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆗󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆘󰂷  󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺󰇢    
󰃍󰂺󰆚󰆘󰆓󰄍󰆕󰆚󰆓󰃎󰂺 
󰂶   
󰄍󰄖󰄘
󰂺
        󰂺  󰂶
along with the addition of other ‘Meroitic’ personal names present in the
󰆖󰆔󰆗󰂶
󰂺
󰄖󰄀󰄘󰄀   
󰂶󰂶
󰂺
 󰂶 
󰂺
󰂶
󰄖󰄘
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆜󰆔󰄍
󰆜󰆕󰂶 󰆔󰆗󰆙󰎣󰂺 󰆔󰆜󰆕󰂷 󰄀 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆗󰂷 󰄀 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰂷  󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆗󰆔󰄍󰆗󰆘󰃎󰂺
   󰂶 
󰂺
󰄀󰄀󰂶
󰂺

󰂶         󰃈󰃈 
󰃈󰃈  󰂺󰇣 This language could be a Cushitic
󰂶     󰂶     
 󰂺        

󰂺󰂶
󰂶
󰄀󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂹󰆕󰆕󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆕󰆕󰃎󰂺
󰂶󰂶
 󰂶        󰂺 
            
󰄍  
󰆘 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰂹󰆕󰆓󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆙󰂺 󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰂹󰆘󰄍󰆖󰆗    
󰂺
󰆗 󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰂹󰆙󰆛
󰂺󰄖󰄀󰂶󰄘󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆖󰆗󰄍󰆖󰆚󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰇂
󰄖󰂶󰄘 󰄖󰄘  󰄖󰂶󰄘   
󰂺󰇤

             
󰂺󰂶

󰂺󰇥
          
      󰂺     
  󰂶         
      󰂺 󰂶  
   󰂶  
 
󰂺
󰂺
󰂶  
󰄀
󰂶󰂶
󰂶
󰂺󰇦
󰄖󰄘󰄖󰄘󰂶󰄀󰂶
󰂶           
󰂺
󰂺
󰂶

 󰂺        󰄀
󰂶    󰂶 󰂶    
󰆙   󰂶 
 󰂺󰆕󰆖
   󰂶
 󰂺󰂺󰆕󰆚󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆛󰂺󰂶 󰂺󰆖󰆖󰂶󰂺
󰆗󰆕󰂶󰂺󰆗󰆖󰂶 󰂺󰆗󰆘 󰂶󰆔󰆜󰆓󰆚󰂹󰆚󰆜󰆚󰄍󰆚󰆜󰆛 Cooper
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂹󰆙󰆚󰆘󰄍󰆙󰆚󰆙󰂺
󰆚  󰂺󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆜󰂹󰆕󰆚󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆚󰆗
     󰃍󰂺󰂺󰃎󰂺   󰄀
󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆓󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆓󰆙󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆓󰂺
󰆛 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰂹󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆕󰂺󰂶󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆛󰂹󰆔󰆓󰂶󰆚󰆕󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆘󰂷
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰇃
󰂶󰂶󰂺󰇧
 󰂶  

 󰂺󰂶
󰂶 󰃍 󰃎󰂶 
     󰃖󰃖 ‘to
󰂺󰄘󰇟󰇞󰃍󰂺kehan ‘to
󰄘󰃎           

󰂺󰃖󰃖󰂶󰂶
󰂶󰂶
󰄖󰄘
󰄖󰄘󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆔󰃎󰂺
󰄖󰄘
󰄖󰄘󰂶󰄖󰄘󰂶󰄖󰄘󰂶󰄖󰂶󰄘etc󰂺
2.1 Names for Peoples and Polities in Nubia in the Second Millennium
bce
          󰂶
 there is a
󰂺
         󰃈
 󰂺   
󰂶
󰂷󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂺
 󰂶 
        
           
by one ruler (󰃎󰂺󰇟󰇟󰂶 
󰂶    
󰆜  
󰂺󰂶
󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂺

󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓 󰂶 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰂺  
           
󰂺
󰆔󰆓 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂶󰂶󰄀󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰂹󰆕󰆔󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰆔󰆔 󰂶󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆙󰄍󰆕󰆓󰂷󰄀
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆕󰆙󰆛󰄍󰆕󰆚󰆓󰂷󰄘󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂹󰆛󰎣󰂺󰆘󰆙󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰂹󰆖󰆘󰄍󰆙󰆓󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆔󰆔󰄍
󰆔󰆖󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂹󰆗󰆗󰆘󰄍󰆗󰆗󰆙󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰇄
󰂺󰂶
󰂶󰄖󰂶󰄘 and later regularized as  and 󰂣󰂤
󰂺󰇟󰇠        󰂶   
   󰃍󰂿󰃎 󰂶
after all it was used much later in the indigenous Meroitic script for the name
󰂶Qes (󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂹󰆔󰆔󰆘󰂷 󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆖󰆙󰃎󰂺
         
󰂶󰃍󰃎󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆕󰃎󰂶

󰄍
in the form of the large Kerma classique 󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰃎󰂺
 󰂶      
󰂺󰄖󰂶󰄘󰄖󰂶󰄘
and ‘Bowmen’ unlikely concord to any realities on the ground and were used
         
(󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆖󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆖󰆚󰂶󰆔󰆗󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆘󰆓󰃎󰂺󰄖󰄘
󰂶
󰂺󰂶󰂶

󰄍󰂺

󰄀  󰄀󰂶 
  󰄖󰄘        
‘Medjay’ (󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆚󰆔󰄍󰆚󰆕󰂶󰆔󰆙󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆙󰆗󰃎󰂺
󰂶󰄖󰄘󰄖󰄘
󰂶
󰂺
󰂶󰇟󰇡 but rather it did not suit the purpose of
󰄍
󰂺󰂶
󰂶

󰂺

󰂺
󰆔󰆕 󰂶󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆙󰂹󰂺󰆙󰆜󰂺
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆔󰆓󰆙Obsomer
󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰂹󰆕󰆚󰆗󰄍󰆕󰆚󰆙󰂺
󰆔󰆖 󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛
󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰆻
       
     󰄀      
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆗󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆘󰃎󰂶
          
󰂺󰂶
󰂺
all󰂶

󰂺
   󰄀       
󰂺 
          
󰂶    󰄀    󰄖󰄘 󰂺 
󰂶 in

󰂺
        
    󰄘  󰄘 󰄀 
󰂺
 󰄘 
󰂶           
󰂺󰂶
󰂺
       󰄀  󰄍  

󰂺󰇟󰇢 󰂶 󰂶  󰄖 󰃍md.t) of
Kush’ after or before which as yet untranslatable utterances are recited (Thissen
󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆔󰂹󰆖󰆚󰆔󰂶 󰆖󰆚󰆙󰃎󰂺         
󰂶
the ‘speech of Nsk󰄘󰂺    󰂶  
󰂺
󰂶
the Beja language (󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆔󰆔󰆚󰆔󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆔󰃎󰂶
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆗󰆘󰃎󰂶
󰂺
󰄖󰄘
󰂶󰄖
󰄀󰄘󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂹󰂶󰆔󰆖󰆘󰃎󰂺
󰆔󰆗 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰆼

the Ramesseum and the temple of Ramesses 󰂶
likewise accompanied by what must be a few words of foreign speech in the
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂹󰆖󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺󰇟󰇣 While
󰂶
󰂶
󰂺󰂶
        󰂺   

󰂐󰃖󰂐󰄖󰂶󰄘
   󰄖󰂶󰄘 󰄖󰂶󰄘 󰄖󰂶󰄘  󰄖󰂶󰄘   
interpreters belonged to each of these places – although it is not certain that
in each case these ‘interpreters’ were necessarily concerned with linguistic
󰃍 󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆙󰂹󰆘󰆖󰂶󰆘󰆘󰂶󰆙󰆔󰂶󰆛󰆚󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰂹󰆚󰆗󰄍󰆚󰆙󰂷Alù in press)󰂺
󰂶
󰂶
󰃖 ‘(that
󰃎󰂺󰄘󰇟󰇤
2.2 Linguistic Frontiers and Boundaries in the Middle Nile
     󰂶     
        󰂺  

   󰂺  
󰄀
modern societies and just how ‘marked’ cultural and linguistic boundaries
󰂺󰄀󰂶
    󰂺     
   󰂺     
           
󰂶󰂶 󰂺󰂶   
󰄀󰂺
  󰂶   
󰂶
󰄍
󰆔󰆘  󰂶 󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆓󰂹󰆕󰆔󰆖󰂷 󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆖󰂹󰆕󰆓󰆔󰂺󰆘󰄍󰆚󰂺
󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆘󰆓󰃍󰃎󰂺
󰆔󰆙 󰂶
see 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆙󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰆽
󰄖󰄘 󰂺  
  󰄀󰂶󰄀󰂶 󰂶  
    󰂶  󰄖   󰂶󰄘  󰄀
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂷de
󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺󰄀
          
󰂺󰆔󰆛󰆓󰆓󰂺
      󰂶    
󰄀󰃍
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺   󰄀 󰂶   
           
󰂶
󰃍󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰃎󰂺󰂶
        
󰂺󰄖󰄘     
     󰂺  
      
󰂺
  󰄀     
           
󰂶  󰂶 󰂶  󰂺󰇟󰇥 The Kushite realm
  󰂶
    
King Trh󰂶
󰄖󰂶󰂺󰄘󰇟󰇦  
󰃈    󰄀
  󰂶   
of dialogue and bilingualism between foreign speakers and scribes trained in
󰂺
󰂺
󰂶
󰂶  
      󰂺    
󰂶󰂶󰂶
          
󰆔󰆚 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚 and 󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆗󰆕󰄍󰆗󰆖󰂺
󰄖󰄘󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰂺
󰆔󰆛   󰂶   󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆔󰆜󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆛   󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂺    
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰆾
󰂺󰇟󰇧 Often languages spread not only along ecological
 󰄖󰄘   󰄍 
         
󰂺
󰄍

󰄖󰄘󰂺
󰂺󰂶
󰂶

󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰂷Cooper
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂹󰆔󰆘󰆕󰄍󰆔󰆘󰆘󰃎󰂺        
       󰂶      
󰂶
󰂺
  󰄖󰂶󰄘          

󰂺󰄀  
󰂶󰄖
󰄘󰄖󰂺󰄘
󰂺
         
          
󰂶
     󰂺󰇠󰇞 This


󰂺
  󰄖󰄘   󰄀󰂶
     󰂶     
󰂶
󰄀󰂺
  󰄀 󰄀
󰂺
󰆔󰆜              󰂶 
󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂺
󰆕󰆓       
󰄖󰂶󰄘   󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆛󰆙󰂺 󰂶       
  󰂶󰄖󰄘󰂶󰄘󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰂹
󰆚󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆚󰆛󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂺󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰆿
󰄀    
󰄀󰂺󰇠󰇟󰄀󰃍󰂺󰄖
 󰄘󰃎      󰂶      
           󰂶
󰂶󰂶    󰂶 
󰂺󰄖󰄘󰂶
󰄀

󰂺
The third linguistic boundary that can be inferred from our sources is the long

󰂺
󰂶󰄖󰄀󰄘
󰄀󰂺󰄀
󰂶
 
      
󰄍󰄀
  󰃍   󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆜󰃎󰂺       

󰂺󰇠󰇠
󰂶󰃖 and
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆗󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆘󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂹󰆜󰆔󰂶󰆔󰆕󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆕󰆖󰂶󰆔󰆗󰆙󰃎󰂺
         
         
       󰂶    
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆘󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆕󰃎󰂺
  󰂶   
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂶
so there has always been a strong interface between the desert pastoralists and
󰂺
󰆕󰆔 󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆛    󰂺 
󰄘    󰄀󰂶 
󰄖󰄀󰂺󰄘󰄀󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓 who while finding
󰄖󰄀󰄘󰄖󰄘󰂺
󰆕󰆕 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆘󰆕󰂺
󰂶 from Beja tak󰂶󰄀
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆕󰆜󰆔󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰇀
3 Languages, Archaeological Horizons, and Migrations in Middle
Nubia
 󰂶    
󰂺
genetically related languages across large regions almost certainly indicates
󰂶󰂶󰄖󰂺󰄘
󰂶
󰄀

󰂶
󰂶󰂶󰂺󰂶

󰂺󰂶
󰄖󰄘󰂶
󰄀󰂶
󰂶
󰂶󰂺󰂶
         
  󰃍   󰃎 󰂺   󰂶

and migrants shifting to the host language (󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂹󰆔󰆘󰆙󰃎󰂺
󰂶
󰄖󰄘󰂶
󰂶󰂺󰂶
󰄀
elements and aspects of both󰂺
The older school of historical linguistics and archaeology that posits masses
   
       󰂺
󰄖󰄘󰄖󰄘
󰂺
      󰄖󰄀󰄘 
   󰂺󰇠󰇡       
󰂶
󰄖󰄘
󰆕󰆖    󰂶   󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰂺         
󰄖󰄘󰂺
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰇁
  󰂺

       󰂺   󰂶
 dominant paradigm
for cultural change when many other factors are also at play such as cultural
󰂶 󰄀 󰂶    
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰃎󰂺
󰄀
󰄍
archaeologists would more or less draw circles on maps around a common
     󰂺
this is a method of identifying sets of material culture unquestionably with an
󰄀 󰂹 󰄙  
    󰂶󰄛󰄀
‘pots equal people’ model (󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆔󰂹󰆖󰃎󰂺
󰂶    
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆗󰂷
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺
󰂶
 󰄀         
horizon both󰂶
󰄀
󰄀󰂺
Much of this discomfort relates to a package of associations that come
along with the term ‘migration’ which has quintessentially in the past entailed
󰄖󰄘󰄖󰂶󰄘
sweeping across the landscape and wholesale interrupting and replacing
󰂺
 󰄖󰄘  󰄀󰂺 󰄀   
    󰂶    
 󰄀󰂶
󰃍Urheimat)
     󰄖󰄘
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰃎󰂺
󰄍
          
     󰂶   
󰂶   󰂶    󰂺

󰂶󰄖󰄘

cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰇂
󰂶
󰂹󰄙󰃍󰃎
󰃍󰃎󰃍󰃎󰄛󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰃎󰂺
   
󰄍󰃍󰃎󰄖󰄘
󰂺
󰂺󰄖󰄘
󰂶           
󰂶

󰂺  󰄖󰂶󰄘 󰄖󰂶󰄘 󰄖󰄘

   󰂺     󰄖 󰄘 󰂶  

󰂶
󰂶 󰂶
polarized interpretations of migration in history (󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂹󰆕󰆔󰃎󰂹
     󰂺     
     󰂶   
󰄖󰄘 
󰄀      
         
󰄀󰂺󰂶
these same historical sources has been undermined by a reaction against
migration which started with the archaeologists’ ferocious rejection of
󰂺󰄀
󰂷󰂺
󰂶


󰂹󰂺
How such historical migrations would manifest on the archaeological record is
󰂺󰂶󰂶
 󰂶    
      󰄍        󰂺
󰂶󰂶
     󰂶 󰂶 󰃈  
󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶
󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰇃
󰂶󰄘
󰂺
   󰂶     
󰂺
     󰃍󰃎  󰄖󰄘    
 󰂺
    󰂶


󰂶
discount ancestral communities speaking this tongue much later in history
 󰂺  󰂶
           
󰂶         󰃍󰄀
 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰂹󰆔󰆔󰆗󰂶 󰆔󰆚󰆓󰂶 󰆔󰆚󰆗󰂶 󰆕󰆛󰆕󰂷 󰄀   󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆔󰂹󰆕󰆓󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆙󰃎󰂺󰇠󰇢 The
 󰂶 󰄀󰄀   
󰄖󰄀󰄘󰂶󰇠󰇣 
󰂺󰄀
󰃍󰃎
󰂺󰂶 at least some

 there are no traces of this language – but also no
󰂺    

󰂺
󰄀     
        󰄖  󰂺󰄘 
  
   󰂶󰂶
󰂺󰄀
󰂶󰂶 󰃍
󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰂷  󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺󰇠󰇤 The general thrust of the migration was the
       
  󰂶 
 󰂶󰂶 󰂶
󰆕󰆗 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆜󰂹󰆔󰆖󰆙󰂺
󰆕󰆘 󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰂹󰆔󰆚󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆚󰆕󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂹󰆗󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂷󰄀󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆔󰂹󰆕󰆓󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆙󰂺
󰆕󰆙 󰂶
󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆜󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆼󰇄
󰂺
󰂺
󰂶󰂶
󰆔󰆔󰆓󰆓 ( 󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺

           󰄀
󰂶󰂶󰂺󰂶󰄀k-languages
         󰂺󰇠󰇥 These
󰄀
󰂺
 󰂺󰂶
󰂶󰂶

terminus ante quem󰂺󰆔󰆛󰆓󰆓󰂺
would link this migration to the emergence of the term ‘Kush’ at the beginning
  󰃍󰃎   Kerma
ancien󰃍󰂺󰆕󰆘󰆓󰆓󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆘󰆓) and 󰃍󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆘󰆓󰄍󰆔󰆚󰆘󰆓󰃎󰂺󰇠󰇦 This model
󰂶󰂶
perhaps after this migration were also speaking another tongue which might
󰂺
󰂶
󰄖󰂶󰄘
󰂺󰇠󰇧󰂶
 
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰂹󰆙󰆚󰆘󰃎󰂶󰇡󰇞 meaning that this migration had
󰆕󰆚 󰄖󰄘
󰂶  n-  
this pronoun with the consonant n󰂶  󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂹󰆗󰆗󰂺 󰄀 
       󰂶  
󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰂹󰆛󰆗󰆚󰄍󰆛󰆗󰆜󰂺
󰆕󰆛 󰄀󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰂹󰆖󰆔󰄍󰆖󰆖󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂹󰆛󰎣󰂺󰆘󰆙󰂷Rilly
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆙󰂹󰆔󰆘󰆙󰄍󰆔󰆘󰆚󰂺
󰆕󰆜        󰄀  
was championed by  󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆗 and 󰄀 󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆜󰂹󰆜󰆘󰄍󰆜󰆜󰂶    
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂷󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰂹󰆔󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰆖󰆓       󰂶        
 󰂶  󰄘󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆚󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆜󰂺
󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰂹󰆖󰆖󰄖󰆗󰆗󰄘
       
   󰂺      
󰂶
󰃈󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰆻
            
    󰂺        
migrations are primarily linguistic in nature – it does not necessarily follow
󰄀
󰂺
󰂶  󰄀
     󰃍 󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰂷  󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰃎󰂺  
󰄖󰂶󰄘
    󰂶
        󰄀 󰂺  
   
    󰄀 󰂺󰇡󰇟
󰂶󰄀 󰂶 
󰂶
󰂺󰇡󰇠 Although the isolated
󰄀

󰂺

          󰂺 
          
󰄀
󰂺󰂺
󰄀
󰂶󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂷󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆛󰃎󰂺
󰄖󰄘
          󰄖󰄘
󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺
󰂶
󰆖󰆔 󰆗󰂶󰃍󰂶
󰂶    󰃎        󰂶 
󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆘󰂹󰆕󰂺      of
󰂶󰄀
󰆖 with the earliest
 󰂶󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆛 and 
󰂺󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆙󰂹󰆘󰆙󰆓󰂺󰃈
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰂹󰆖󰆓󰆓󰂺
󰆖󰆕     󰃍 󰃈  󰃎 
󰆜 󰂶󰄖󰄘
 󰂶 󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆘󰂹󰆚󰆕󰂺
󰂶󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰂹󰆙󰆙󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰆼
󰂶            
assist with building projects (󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰂹󰆗󰃎󰂺
󰄀󰄀
󰂺󰂶
󰂺
Conclusion
󰂶
󰄍
󰂶󰂺󰂶

󰂺󰂶
󰄖󰄘

󰂶          
󰂺
󰂺
󰃍󰃎  󰂺
   
󰄀󰂺         󰃍
󰃎󰂶󰂶
󰂺󰇡󰇡
       
󰂺󰄖󰄘󰄖󰄘
 󰂶   
reasonable suggestion based on pragmatics and what we know of regions like
󰂺
 do

languages (󰂺󰆖󰃎󰂺󰂶
󰂶 󰂶
󰂺󰂶
polities of 󰃖 and 󰂶
Beja or other similar languages – although it seems problematic to link this

󰆖󰆖  󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆛󰂺    󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆚 󰂶    󰂶 
󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰆽
󰂺󰂶󰄀󰂶
󰂶
󰂺
󰂶󰂺
󰂶󰂶
    󰄀     󰄀
󰂺
References
 󰂶  󰂶  󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆖󰃎󰂺    
󰂺 Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 󰆕󰆜󰂶
󰂺󰆜󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆖󰆖󰂺
󰂶 󰃍 󰃎󰂺󰂶  󰂹  󰂺
󰂺󰂺
󰄀󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰃎󰂺    
     󰂺
Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika󰆙󰂶󰂺󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆖󰆗󰂺
󰆾 󰂶
󰄖󰄘󰂶󰂺󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰆾
󰄀󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆜󰃎󰂺 Nubier und Kuschiten im Niltal: Sprach- und Kul-
turkontakt im ‘no-man’s land󰂺 󰂺 󰂶 󰂶
󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆗󰃎󰂺      󰄀
󰂺Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆖󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆔󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆙󰃎󰂺
󰂏      󰂺  󰂶
󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺󰂹 󰂶
 󰄘 󰄀󰄀
󰂺󰄀
󰂶󰈽󰂹󰃈󰃈󰂺󰂺󰃈󰃈󰃈󰃈󰆔󰆓󰆚󰆕󰆗󰆔󰆗󰈾󰃍󰆔
󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆔󰃎󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺󰄀󰂹󰄀
󰂺󰆘󰆔󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆔󰆜󰄍󰆖󰆖󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆜󰃎󰂺󰂹
  󰂹󰂺 󰂺󰂶󰂶L’Homme et
l’Animal dans le Bassin du Lac Tchad󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆜󰄍󰆛󰆓󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆗󰃎󰂺-
ogie󰂶       󰆗󰆕󰂶
󰂹󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺 󰄀  󰄀 
󰂺󰄀󰂹󰆖󰂺󰄍󰆕󰂺󰂺󰂺󰂺
󰆗󰆔󰂶󰂺󰆜󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰂶 󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺 Einführung in die Meroitistik󰂺   
󰆛󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰃎󰂺     󰂏   󰂌
Meroitischen und Altnubischen󰂺󰆕󰆜󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂹󰄀
󰂺󰆗󰆔󰂶󰂺󰆘󰆖󰆜󰄍󰆘󰆙󰆚󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺     󰂺 Journal of the American
󰆗󰆛󰂶󰂺󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆔󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺         󰂺
󰂏󰆗󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆜󰆚󰄍󰆕󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺         
         󰂺 󰂹 
󰂶󰂶󰂏
International Conference for Nubian Studies, Neuchâtel, 1st–6th September 2014󰂶󰄀
󰆕󰆚󰆖󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆙󰆙󰆜󰄍󰆙󰆛󰆓󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰆿
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺󰄙󰄛󰂹 
󰂺󰆕󰆛󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆗󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆙󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹󰂺󰄀
󰄀󰂶󰂺󰂶󰂺󰂶󰂶 󰂶
󰂹󰂶 󰈽󰂹󰃈󰃈󰂺󰃈󰃈󰃈󰆕󰆛󰆕󰈾󰃍  󰆔 
󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆔󰃎󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂏󰂌
󰂌
󰂶󰆖󰆜󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆔󰃎󰂺        󰂹 
󰂺󰆕󰆜󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆖󰄍󰆖󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰂶󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺
󰄀 󰂶  󰆖󰆕󰆘󰆕   󰆖󰆔󰆓󰆓󰃈󰆖󰆕󰆓󰆓󰂶  󰃍
󰃎󰂺󰆖󰆗󰃍󰆖󰃎󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆙󰆖󰄍󰆖󰆚󰆙󰂺
󰂶 󰂺  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰃎󰂺      󰃈󰂺 British
󰆔󰆓󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆜󰄍󰆙󰆖󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺󰂺Sudan & Nubia
󰆔󰆛󰂶󰂺󰆕󰄍󰆔󰆜󰂺
󰂶 󰂺  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺     󰂹    󰂺 󰂹
󰂺󰂶󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂏-
ence, pharaonic control and indigenous traditions󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆙󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆓󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰂹 
󰄀  󰂺 󰂹 󰂺 󰂺  󰂺 󰂶 󰂶 
  󰂏    󰃮  󰂶 
   󰆕󰆗󰂶 󰂹 󰂶
󰂺󰆔󰆛󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆕󰆓󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰃎󰄀󰂹
󰂺󰆕󰆗󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆓󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆕󰆙󰂺
󰂶 󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆜󰃎󰂺󰂏󰃖󰂌
Middle Kingdom Studies󰆜󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰂶󰂶󰂹 󰄀
        󰂶    
󰂺󰆖󰆓󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆔󰆖󰄍󰆖󰆗󰆖󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰃎󰂺󰂶
󰄍󰆙󰂶󰂹󰂺󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺 󰂹   
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂶󰂺
󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂌-
historica󰆕󰆔󰂶󰂹󰄀󰄀󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆗󰆛󰄍󰆔󰆗󰆜󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰇀
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺
󰂺Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika󰆔󰆛󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆚󰄍󰆙󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰃎󰂺
󰂺Language and Linguistics Compass󰆕󰃍󰆘󰃎󰂶󰂺󰆛󰆗󰆓󰄍󰆛󰆘󰆛󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰂌󰅪󰅲󰅯󰅬󰃣󰅯󰅲󰂏 
pharaonic sites󰂶      󰆕󰆖󰂶 󰂹
󰂺
󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶 󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆙󰃎󰂺
󰂏
    󰅫󰂏󰃖
󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰄀󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆗󰃎󰂺󰄘󰂺󰄍󰄍󰃖󰂹󰄀
󰃍󰄀󰃎󰄀
󰂺󰆖󰆕󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆘󰆔󰄍󰆖󰆙󰆕󰂺
󰄀󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰃎󰂺     󰂏
󰃖
󰂐󰂶󰆕󰆔󰆔󰂶󰂶󰂶
󰂹󰂺
󰂶 󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆛󰃎󰂺   󰂹
󰄀󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂶
      󰂶 󰂹  
󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆕󰆛󰄍󰆔󰆗󰆗󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺    󰂺 Mitteilungen des
Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo󰂶󰂺󰆙󰆛󰂶󰆗󰆖󰄍󰆘󰆗󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆙󰃎󰂺   󰂺  
󰆖󰃍󰆕󰃈󰆖󰃎󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆛󰆗󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆕󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆛󰃎󰂺   󰂏   󰂶  
󰄘󰆖󰂶󰄀󰄘󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰃎󰂺Saï 1, La Nécropole Kerma󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺      󰂺 󰂹 󰂺 󰂺  
󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂏󰅪󰅫-
tional Conference for Nubian Studies󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆜󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆓󰆔󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂏󰂶
󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆜󰃎󰂺
 󰂺 󰂹     󰂶 󰂶   󰅪󰅲󰅱󰅭󰂏
        󰂌  󰅪󰅲󰅱󰅭󰂶
󰂶 󰆔󰆓󰂶 󰂹
󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆙󰆜󰄍󰆕󰆜󰆛󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰇁
󰂶 󰂶  󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺     
󰃍󰃎   󰃍󰃎󰂺 󰂹 󰂺 󰂶
󰂺   󰂺 󰂶 󰂶        
Africa󰂶󰂹󰄀󰄀󰂶󰂺󰆗󰆕󰄍󰆗󰆖󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆚󰃎󰂺󰂏
Present󰂶󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂌
 󰂺      󰆛󰆙󰆙󰂶 󰂹
󰂺
󰂶  󰂺 󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆖󰃎󰂺 Ramesside inscriptions, historical and biographical, V󰂶
󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆜󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹󰂺
󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂐󰂐󰂌
󰂶󰆔󰆖󰂶󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆚󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆚󰆛󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆓󰃎󰂺   󰄘  󰂺  󰃮 󰆗󰆔󰂶
󰂺󰆔󰆓󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆕󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆔󰃎󰂺Die Herkunft der Germanen. Zur Methode der Siedlungsarchäol-
ogie󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰃎󰂺󰂶
󰆙󰆚󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆕󰃎󰂺󰂹
󰂺󰆗󰆓󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆓󰄍󰆕󰆗󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆛󰆛󰆓󰃎Nubische Grammatik: mit einer Einleitung über die Völker
und Sprachen Afrika’s󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂹󰄘󰃍
󰆗󰆚󰆕󰆙󰆚󰃎󰂺󰆔󰆔󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆛󰆘󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰃎󰂺󰂺-
tische Sprache und Altertumskunde󰆔󰆖󰆖󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆘󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆙󰆖󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺 Ethnic identities in the land of the pharaohs: past and present
  󰂶  󰂹     
󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺  󰄀  󰂺 󰂹 󰂺 󰂶
󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂏-
󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆘󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆛󰆛󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆙󰃎󰂺󰂹󰄘󰄀
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰄀󰂶󰂶󰃖󰂏
à Claude Bocquet󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆔󰆜󰄍󰆖󰆗󰆗󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺󰈺󰂺-
tumskunde󰆘󰆘󰂶󰂺󰆚󰆜󰄍󰆛󰆔󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰇂
󰂶󰄀󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺󰃍󰄀󰃎  󰂹
          󰂺
󰆕󰆚󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆛󰆔󰄍󰆗󰆓󰆔󰂺
󰄘󰂶 󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆙󰃎󰂺󰄀
󰂺󰆕󰆖󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆚󰄍󰆘󰆓󰂺
󰄘󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆚󰃎󰂺    󰂺     󰆚󰆖󰂶
󰂺󰆜󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆖󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰃎󰂺Sésostris Ier: étude chronologique et historique du règne󰂶󰄀
󰄘󰆘󰂶󰂹󰄘󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺 󰄘   󰂹     
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰄀󰂺󰂶󰂶Pharaons noirs: sur la Piste des Quarante Jours󰂶
󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆘󰆖󰄍󰆚󰆘󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆙󰃎󰂺      󰃍󰃎󰂺 Mitteilungen des
Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo󰆖󰆕󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆖󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆛󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺󰂹
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂶󰂺
󰂺󰂶 󰂶󰂏󰂶
󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆚󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰂶 󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰃮  󰂏   
󰃮󰂶󰂹
󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆚󰃎󰂺󰄘󰂶Bibliothèque d’étude󰆔󰆓󰆔󰂶󰂹
󰂺
󰂶   󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺    󰄀  
󰂹󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂶The Idea of Writing:
󰂶󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆔󰆚󰄍󰆖󰆕󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺󰅭󰂐󰃣󰅫󰂐󰂐󰂶󰄀
󰂶󰂶󰆗󰆓󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆘󰃎󰂺󰂺Journal of Eritrean Studies 4󰂶
󰂺󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹
󰂺 󰂶 󰂶     󰂏 󰃖󰂶  
󰄘󰄘󰆕󰆙󰂶󰂹󰂶
󰂺󰆖󰆓󰆖󰄍󰆖󰆔󰆕󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺    󰂺 󰂹 󰂺   󰂺 󰂶 󰂶
󰃖󰂏󰅱󰃖
󰂌󰂌󰅫󰅫󰃣󰅫󰅮󰂌󰅫󰅩󰅩󰅪󰂶󰄀󰆕󰆕󰂶󰂹
󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆚󰄍󰆕󰆔󰆘󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆛󰃎󰂺  󰂹     
 󰃍󰃎󰂺 󰂹󰂺  󰂺 󰂶󰂶 󰂏
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰇃
󰅪󰅪󰂌󰂌󰅫󰅰
– 2 September 2006: Part one: Main papers󰂶
Supplement Series 2.1󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆔󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆕󰆘󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique󰂶󰄀
󰆔󰆗󰂷󰄘󰆗󰆘󰆗󰂶󰂹
󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺󰂺
󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂏󰅪󰅫
Conference for Nubian Studies󰂶󰆔󰂶
󰂶󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆔󰆙󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆛󰆛󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆙󰃎󰂺           
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂶󰂶
󰂏󰂶
󰆗󰆚󰂶󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆘󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆙󰆖󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆜󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂶󰂶Handbook of ancient
Nubia󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆕󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆘󰆔󰂺
󰂶󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺󰂺
󰂹󰂺
󰄀󰂶   󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆔󰃎󰂺    󰂏 
󰂶󰆕󰂶󰆘󰂶
󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆛󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆖󰃎󰂺
󰂺󰆕󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆛󰄍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆖󰃎󰂶󰆗󰆕󰂶󰄀
󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰃎󰂺󰄍󰄍󰂹󰄀
      
󰂺󰂹 󰂺  󰂺 󰂶 󰂺󰂶  
󰂏󰃖-
󰂐󰅫󰅰󰂐󰃖󰅫󰅲󰂐󰅫󰅩󰅩󰅫
󰃖󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆔󰄍󰆕󰆔󰆙󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆖󰃎󰂺     󰂶  
󰆔󰆙󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆛󰆕󰃎󰂺󰂹󰂶󰂶󰃮-
󰅪󰅲󰅰󰅲󰂏󰂶󰂺󰆕󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆜󰆜󰄍󰆖󰆔󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺󰅪󰅱󰂐 [󰂶󰆙󰆕󰆘󰄍󰆜󰆖󰆙󰃖󰂶󰆖󰂺󰄀
tischen Altertums 󰃍󰆜󰄍󰆔󰆕󰃕󰈺󰆖󰃖󰃎󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆕󰆙󰃎󰂺󰂌
󰂏 󰂶
 󰆔󰆜󰆕󰆙󰃍󰆘󰃎󰂶
󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆽󰇄
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆘󰃎󰂺󰂺󰆖󰆔󰂶
󰂺󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆓󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆚󰃎󰂺   󰂹
󰄀󰄀󰂺Journal of Language Relationship󰆔󰆘󰂶󰂺󰆛󰆚󰄍󰆔󰆔󰆖󰂺
󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆗󰆓󰃎󰂺Medinet Habu 󰂹 󰂶
󰆘󰆔󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆔󰃎󰂺󰂺󰂹󰂺
󰂺󰂶󰂺󰂶󰃖󰂏-
󰂌󰂏󰂶
Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere Sondernummer, 󰂹   󰂶
󰂺󰆖󰆙󰆜󰄍󰆖󰆚󰆙󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆜󰃎󰂺󰂏󰂶
󰆕󰆜󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂶 󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺 󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰂺  󰂺 󰂺 󰂶 󰂶 󰂏
of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies󰂶 󰂶 󰂶 󰂶
󰂺󰆙󰆙󰆖󰄍󰆙󰆙󰆚󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆛󰃎󰂺     󰂹 󰂶  
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰂺󰂶󰂺󰂶󰂺󰂶󰂶Across the Mediterranean – Along
󰂏󰂌
󰅰󰅮󰂶󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂺󰆗󰆗󰆘󰄍󰆗󰆘󰆖󰂺
󰂶 󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆕󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰄀󰂺 󰂹 󰂺 󰂺󰂺󰂶 󰂶
 󰂶 󰂹󰂶󰂺
󰆖󰆓󰆓󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆜󰆘󰃎󰂺󰂺Journal of Afri-
󰆖󰆙󰃍󰆕󰃎󰂶󰂺󰆔󰆚󰆖󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆘󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆘󰃎󰂺    󰂶 󰂶 󰂹
󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆘󰄍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆛󰃎󰂺La prospection archéologique de la Vallée du Nil, au sud de la
󰂣󰂤󰂺󰂹󰂺
 󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆓󰃎󰂺 󰂶   󰂿 󰄀
      󰂺 󰂹󰂺  
󰂺󰂶󰂶󰂞󰂶
  󰂶 󰄀 󰂶 
󰆗󰆓󰆙󰂶󰂹󰂶󰂺󰆘󰆕󰄍󰆚󰆚󰂺
󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆖󰃎󰂺󰂺
Journal of Near Eastern Studies󰆚󰆕󰃍󰆔󰃎󰂶󰂺󰆔󰄍󰆔󰆓󰂺
󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆘󰃎󰂺       -
󰅪󰅯󰅫󰅪󰅯󰅰󰂶󰆕󰂶󰆔󰆜󰂶
󰂹󰂺
fuzzy boundaries or hard borders?
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
󰆾󰆻
󰂶  󰃍󰆔󰆜󰆚󰆕󰃎󰂺  󰃖  
 󰂌       󰂌  
󰂣󰂤󰅪󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰄀󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆚󰃎󰂺     󰂺  
󰆖󰆙󰂶󰂺󰆖󰆜󰆔󰄍󰆗󰆓󰆘󰂺
󰄀󰂶  󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆔󰃎󰂺 󰃯󰃱    
󰂏󰂌󰂌    
die napatanische und meroitische Zeit󰂶 󰂹   
󰆕󰆘󰂶󰂹󰂺
󰄀󰂶󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆗󰃎󰂺󰂺-
tia󰆕󰆕󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆙󰆚󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆜󰂺
󰂶󰂺󰃍󰆕󰆓󰆔󰆕󰃎󰂺󰆕󰆓󰆓󰆙󰂹
󰂺󰂹󰂺󰄀󰂺󰂶󰂶Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the
 󰂏󰂌󰅫󰅩󰅩󰅯󰂶󰂹
󰄀󰄀󰂶󰂺󰆕󰆛󰆚󰄍󰆖󰆓󰆔󰂺
cooper
󰂹󰇀󰃍󰆽󰆻󰆽󰇀󰃎󰆼󰄍󰆾󰆻
... Manzo also introduces the concept of a Middle Nubian 'macro-horizon' that encompasses cultures of the Eastern Desert, Atbai, and Red Sea Coast along with those known from the Nile Valley. Julien Cooper's contribution (Cooper 2025b) traces Nubian populations or groups in the Middle Nile Valley from a linguistic perspective, highlighting the importance of considering language as a cultural commodity for cultures that did not have a system of writing. The absence of written texts from the Nubian de souza and schröder ...
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This introductory paper sets the broader context for the contributions to this special issue of Old World , which constitutes an outcome of the (De)Constructing Nubia online workshop that critically reviewed current understandings of the so-called Middle Nubian cultures (i.e. the C-Group, Pan-Grave and Kerma cultures). The paper begins with an historiographical overview of the current state of the art before highlighting recent work that has taken steps to break free from the constraints of the old culture-historical paradigms that have persisted for over a century. The intention is not to solve the problem of the Middle Nubian cultural divisions, but rather to encourage more nuanced ways of approaching the archaeological record that may eventually lead to new methods of analysis and interpretation that highlight the cultural diversity and complexity of the ancient Nile Valley.
... We often apply culture-history to this data, even though we know that pots do not equal people. Moreover, if we look at language as the common element, research shows that people categorized as 'Nubian' likely spoke multiple languages (Cooper 2025). 5. We do not know about their sense of territorial homeland. ...
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Egyptologists have long asked what ethnic group something belongs to or what ethnicity someone in the past belonged to. This paper argues that seeking ethnicity in the past is not helpful for understanding the complexities and nuances of ancient social interactions and history. Instead, this paper advocates for scholars to seek the answer to more specific questions about ancient peoples. By seeking specific questions about nuanced aspects of identity, we can understand the complexities of ancient peoples, their choices, and their interactions. This paper demonstrates the problems that arise when we only seek the answer to questions about ancient ethnicity. It acts as a guide to scholars willing to advance towards nuance in their questioning by looking at examples from art, archaeology, and texts.
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This paper explores the justifiability, usefulness and appropriateness of employing the terms ‘Bronze Age’ and ‘Iron Age’ in the context of Middle Nile valley archaeology. It argues that the reluctance to use these terms is linked to the disciplinary isolation of Egyptian archaeology and the singularization of ancient Egypt, and by extension the Middle Nile valley, in the disciplinary discourse of the past two hundred years. It further argues that while we cannot step out of this history, a critical debate, and emerging from this an emancipatory use of the terminology, is the best way forward. Based on a case study from Mograt Island, the paper suggests that using macro level ‘epochal’ terms such as ‘Bronze Age’ and ‘Iron Age’ actually supports the engagement with micro level dynamics, local variability, agency and multidimensional interactions, as it allows to break up the illusory unity and reach of intermediate level entities such as ‘Kerma culture’ which have come to dominate archaeological interpretations in the past sixty years when enquiries were focussed on this level and the key sites which were taken to represent it.
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This book provides a comprehensive overview of current research in African languages, drawing on insights from anthropological linguistics, typology, historical and comparative linguistics, and sociolinguistics. Africa is believed to host at least one-third of the world’s languages, usually classified into four phyla—Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan—which are then subdivided into further families and subgroupings. This volume explores all aspects of research in the field, beginning with chapters that cover the major domains of grammar and comparative approaches. Later parts provide overviews of the phyla and subfamilies, alongside grammatical sketches of eighteen representative African languages of diverse genetic affiliation. The volume additionally explores multiple other topics relating to African languages and linguistics, with a particular focus on extralinguistic issues: language, cognition, and culture, including color terminology and conversation analysis; language and society, including language contact and endangerment; language and history; and language and orature.