Ethnographic analogy

Ethnographic analogy remains an important research tool because identifying the actual evidence of land use in archaeological record is a very difficult task considering the geomorphology of the Middle Nile Valley. Ancient fields, palm groves and animal pastures have never been successfuly identified by means of archaeological fieldwork and/or remote sensing. We only have the material remains such as the qaduz vessels, various agricultural tools and implements, as well as plant remains and animal bones, although in the Letti area we have found at least one emplacement of a medieval saqyia. Several Old Nubian texts from Qasr Ibrim specifically refer to the land deeds and sales of land and frequently mention the saqiyas (Brown 1991). Otherwise we have little knowledge about the land use in the period under consideration. Future archaeological investigations must clearly find a way to address these problems, perhaps by means of remote sensing, searching the archives (see e.g. Grzymski and Anderson 2001:5-6) and studying the early travellers reports.

Another interesting area of investigation would be the industrial landscape. In terms of technological studies only the Nubian pottery production and Meroitic iron making were adequately studied. An even more important issue, however, is not the technology per se, but how factors other than agricultural production, affected the rise and fall of certain sites and regions. The site catchment analysis is hardly adequate as an explanatory tool for the non-agricultural situation in the non-market economy of an early agrarian society. Despite the seeming corellation between the site distribution patterns and the soil one should seriously consider the possibility of non-agricultural origins of settlements and political centres in Nubia.