Meroe and Its Neighbours: a Tentative Quantitative Approach

This paper is a first attempt to adopt a quantitative approach in the study of Kushite external contacts in Meroitic times. The available data from published sites are processed by using quantitative methods. The trends in the distributuion of imported materials from the Meroitic sites provide new insights into the internal and external relations of the Meroitic state. In particular, some comparisons are made with the trends in the quantitative distribution of imports recorded at Aksum and some remarks on the relations between Meroe and Aksum are suggested.