the saqiya problem

A good example would be the saqiya problem. It is universally agreed that the introduction of saqiya had tremendous impact on the agriculture of Nubia. Clearly, the expansion of arable land and the resulting increase of food production must have had a dramatic impact on the economic and social life. However, if the saqyia was introduced only at the very end of the Meroitic period as has been recently suggested by Edwards (1996:80-81), then we have a problem of perception versus reality. The Post-Meroitic period is usually considered to have been a period of social, cultural and economic decline, yet the spread of the saqiya would be expected to result in the increased prosperity.

Perhaps our perception is incorrect and it was indeed during the Post-Meroitic rather than Meroitc period that a truly prosperous agrarian (and pastoral?) society developed culminating later on in the Classic Christian period? Yet, intuitively, and despite the presence of rich royal burials in Ballana and Qustul, and the obtrusive remains of the millions of tumuli in Central Sudan (Lenoble 1992:90-91) we tend to see the Meroitic civilization as representing the peak of cultural and economic development in ancient Nubia. Indeed, Trigger stated so explicitly by suggesting the highest population numbers in Lower Nubia during that period (60,000 inhabitants in the Ptolemaic/Roman/Meroitic Nubia vs. 44,000 during the Post-Meroitic and 50, 000 during the Christian Period, Trigger 1965:160).