Antiquity· 2026Q1
Crafting power in Kush: faience production and state control in the Napatan region
- 0citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Excavations at the Sanam Temple in Napata, Kushite capital, uncovered a mid-seventh-century BCE faience workshop, indicating state control over luxury goods production and access.
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Key points
- A faience production workshop was discovered at the Sanam Temple in Napata, dating to the mid-seventh century BCE.
- The workshop contained three firing pits, mudbrick basins, faience objects, beads, shells, and wasters.
- The findings suggest insights into manufacturing techniques and restricted access to faience goods.
- The evidence points to aspects of state control within the Napatan region of the Kushite Empire.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Sanam Temple lies in the heart of Napata, the capital of the Kushite Empire in the first millennium BCE. Excavations at the temple (2018–2020) have revealed the remains of a mid-seventh-century BCE faience-production workshop, comprising three firing pits, two mudbrick basins and various faience objects, numerous beads, small shells and wasters found in compacted ashy layers. Here, the authors argue that this evidence provides insight not only into manufacturing techniques and restricted access to goods, but also into aspects of state control in Napatan Nubia, expanding our understanding of the Kushite state in Iron Age north-east Africa.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Antiquity, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Archeology (Arts and Humanities)
ArcheologyArts and Humanities