The Pre-Kerma Culture and the Beginning of the Kerma Kingdom

The Pre-Kerma is an Upper Nubian culture that developed between 3500 and 2500 bce. It preceded the Kerma civilization and was in part contemporaneous with the A-Group from Lower Nubia. It consisted of an agro-pastoral population that maintained contacts with Lower Nubia and produced pottery somewhat similar to that of the A-Group. It is best known from settlements dated between 3000 and 2600 bce, in particular those from Kerma and Sai Island. The settlement sites have yielded a large number of cereal storage pits, which imply that agriculture was practiced on a larger scale than during the preceding periods. At Kerma, an extensive agglomeration of more than fifty huts, animal pens, and an imposing system of fortifications suggests the social complexity of the urban Kerma civilization. The Pre-Kerma culture maintained contacts with the A-Group, while being much less involved in exchanges with the earliest Egyptian dynasties. Its existence bears witness to a certain social dynamism in Upper Nubia that helped give rise to the Kerma kingdom.