Projektnummer

0058914

Zusammenfassung

This project explores the relationship between trading cities and imperial states in the ancient pre-colonial civilisations of Mali, West Africa. Urbanism and statehood, the most eye-catching parts of the region's past, remain badly understood. While archaeologists have attempted to explain the development of cities with little regard to statehood, the study of written historical sources has emphasised states and paid little attention to cities. The two disciplines have so far not produced a convincing account of how cities and states might have worked and developed together, a crucial...