Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama, USA.
Center for Bioarchaeological Research, School of Human Evolution & Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA.
Am J Biol Anthropol. 2023 Oct;182(2):279-299. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24827. Epub 2023 Aug 4.
The Kingdom of Kush in today's northern Sudan and southern Egypt (ancient Nubia) is often depicted as a secondary state relative to ancient Egypt. More recent investigations have set aside Egyptocentric and western, colonialist perspectives of state development focused on control of land and agricultural surplus, examining Kushites through the lens of African-based models of mobile pastoralism in which power and authority were achieved through control of herds and alliance-building. Here, analyses of radiogenic strontium isotopes in human dental enamel are used to investigate diachronic shifts in mobility patterns linked to pastoralism and state development during the Kerma period (ca. 2500-1100 BCE).
From five cemetery sites around al Qinifab, Sudan, upstream of the capital at Kerma, we analyzed the strontium isotope ratios of 50 teeth from 27 individuals dating from the Early through Late Kerma phases.
Individuals from the Early and Middle Kerma phases demonstrated considerable Sr/ Sr ratio variability (mean = 0.70835 ± 0.00109), with 50% falling outside the locally bioavailable strontium range. Conversely, most Classic (0.70756 ± 0.00043) and Late Kerma (0.70755 ± 0.00036) individuals exhibited ratios consistent with the local region.
These changes indicate a potential transformation in subsistence strategies and social organization as early communities engaged in a more mobile lifestyle than later groups, suggesting a greater degree of pastoralism followed by declining mobility with Kushite state coalescence and a shift to agropastoralism. Because Sr/ Sr ratios from enamel reflect childhood geographic residence, these findings indicate that mobility likely involved extended family groups, and not just transhumant adults.
今天苏丹北部和埃及南部（古努比亚）的库施王国通常被描绘为相对于古埃及的次要国家。最近的研究搁置了以埃及为中心和以西方、殖民主义为中心的国家发展观点，这些观点侧重于对土地和农业剩余的控制，通过基于非洲的流动畜牧业模式来考察库施人，在这种模式中，权力和权威是通过对牧群的控制和建立联盟来实现的。在这里，我们分析了人类牙釉质中的放射性锶同位素，以研究与畜牧业和国家发展有关的流动性模式的历时变化，这些变化发生在凯尔马时期（约公元前 2500-1100 年）。
我们分析了来自苏丹阿尔钦法布（al Qinifab）周围的五个墓地的 50 颗牙齿的锶同位素比值，这些牙齿来自 27 个人，他们的年代从早期凯尔马阶段到晚期凯尔马阶段。
早期和中期凯尔马阶段的个体显示出相当大的 Sr/ Sr 比值变化（平均值为 0.70835 ± 0.00109），有 50%的个体落在当地生物可用锶范围之外。相反，大多数经典（0.70756 ± 0.00043）和晚期凯尔马（0.70755 ± 0.00036）个体的比值与当地区域一致。
这些变化表明，随着早期社区从事更具流动性的生活方式，而不是后来的群体，他们的生计策略和社会组织可能发生了转变，这表明随着库施国家的融合和从游牧畜牧业向农牧混合经济的转变，畜牧业的程度有所下降。由于牙釉质中的 Sr/ Sr 比值反映了童年时期的地理居住地，这些发现表明，流动性可能涉及到大家庭群体，而不仅仅是游牧成年人。
