Walking the Line: Bronze and Iron Age as Terms in Middle Nile Valley Archaeology?

Abstract 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.