At the dawn of the Late Bronze Age ‘globalization’, the (re)-circulation of Egyptian artefacts in Nubia and the Northern Levant in the MB II–mid MB III (c. 1710–1550 BC)

Abstract

The article analyses the circulation of late Middle Kingdom (mid MB I–MB I/II) Egyptian artefacts in the Northern Levant and Upper Nubia in the MB II–mid MB III (c. 1710–1550 BC). Three case studies have been selected: the royal tombs of Byblos, the tomb of the Goats at Ebla, and the Egyptian Cemetery at Kerma. Although the two regions were politically disconnected, their populations appropriated, reused, and occasionally reinterpreted Egyptian artefacts in a similar manner. These artifacts, although found in Second Intermediate Period contexts, generally dated to the mid MB I-MB I/II (late Middle Kingdom). It is suggested that the collapse of Egyptian central power at the end of the Middle Kingdom could have led to the recirculation of older Egyptian objects. The recirculation suggests that the ‘globalisation’, noted in archaeology and text during the Late Bronze Age (1500-1200 BC) in fact started in the first half of the Second millennium BC.

The ‘Bronze Age’ Concept and Nubia during the Second Millennium bce: Does One Size Fit All?

“…In most cases, the 'Bronze Age' concept is used as a heuristic tool to connect Nubian chronologies with other regions, for example in Miniaci's recent work on recirculation of Egyptian artefacts through the Nile Valley and the Levant (Miniaci 2019;Miniaci 2020). In other cases, the term 'Bronze Age' has been used as a means to more directly connect ancient Nubia with the wider Bronze Age world, often without justification or consideration of its appropriateness.…”