ABSTRACT
The two centuries or so after the collapse of the centralized Meroitic state during the fourth century AD are confusing and obscure, with various peoples - the Noba, the Nobatae, the Blemmyes – playing a little understood role in the development of the history and culture of the Nile valley. The rich graves of the Ballana period, probably of chiefs of the Nobatae, imply some centralized power and they may be those of rulers, of whom Silko, who defeated the Blemmyes in the mid-fifth century, was perhaps one. The considerable archaeological activity in Lower Nubia resulting from the Aswan dam salvage campaign of the 1960s has provided much information on the material culture of the time, though rather less on historical details. South of the second cataract we are much less well informed, though excavations at Old Dongola and at Soba, which will be described later, have provided some information.
