Weapons, Ideology and Identity at Kerma (Upper Nubia, 2500–1500 BC)

This paper would like to represent a first step in the direction of a more systematic and articulated study of the weapons and their meaning at Kerma and in the ancient Upper Nubian kingdom of Kush in the late 3rd–mid-2nd millennium BC. The main types of weapons recorded at Kerma and in other Kerma sites are described, their diachronic and synchronic distribution is outlined. The problem of their origin is discussed, as well as the social meaning that weapons may have had in Upper Nubia. The importance of military ideology and of weapons in the Kerma society is suggested, as well as their role in the identity building of the kingdom of Kush. Finally, the contribution that the study of weapons can provide for getting a more complete knowledge of the relations between Kush and Egypt is dealt with too.