Rise of the Nomad Kings—Pastoral Polities in the Horn of Africa (a.d. 650–1000)

Abstract

The archaeology of nomadic societies in northeastern Africa is understudied in comparison with sedentary populations. This is particularly the case in the Horn of Africa. The image of nomadic groups is still quite static, as if they had changed little over the millennia. Recent archaeological research in Somaliland and Djibouti is helping to change this narrative. In this article, we focus on the emergence of nomadic polities that occurred during the last centuries of the 1st millennium a.d. This took place in an eventful context of political, economic, and cultural transformations throughout the Mediterranean, northeastern Africa, and the Middle East. We argue that political entrepreneurs among the nomadic societies of the Horn filled the gap left by state decline and used the opportunity to build their own polities, as happened in different regions of Eurasia, while taking control of trade routes. Our arguments are based on new data from surveys and excavation carried out in funerary sites in Djibouti between 2021 and 2024.