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Assembling a household in the Middle Nile Valley (Old Dongola, Sudan) in the 16th–17th centuries

Author
Deptuła, Agata
Wyżgoł, Maciej
Publication date
2023
Abstract (EN)

Old Dongola, with a history reaching back to the 5th century AD, was originally the capital of Makuria, one of the three medieval Nubian kingdoms. After the collapse of Makuria, its capital city saw migratory movements and political changes that resulted in the emergence of new power relations. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the city was the seat of a local ruler subordinate to the Funj Sultanate. New communities that emerged in this setting inhabited the city until the colonial era. This paper examines the ways in which Funj-period households, as fundamental social units in Old Dongola, were mutually constitutive with houses, engaging with their spatiality and materiality through social practices. The authors investigate domestic labour, which was an essential factor in the negotiation of social differences and identities within the household. Differences in building techniques are analysed to compare various ways in which dwellers engaged with houses and to assess their implications for social differentiation within the city.

Keywords EN
Sudan
household
division of labour
gender identity
Funj Sultanate
domestic resources
PBN discipline
archaeology
Journal
Journal of Social Archaeology
Volume
23
Issue
2
Pages from-to
149–172
ISSN
1469-6053
Date release in open access
2023-05-04
Open access license
Attribution-NonCommercial