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REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT
The histories, cultures, and archaeologies of ancient Nubia remain a source of much scholarly debate, and centring our research on the people of the ancient Nile Valley is especially important at this time of political turmoil in modern-day Sudan. Based on a series of Zoom lectures led by Aaron J Brody during the COVID-19 pandemic, this rich compendium of essays aims to challenge our modern understanding of what it meant, and means, to be ‘Nubian’.
The authors acknowledge that the history of Nubia is often ‘regrettably unknown’, not only to the general public and academic scholarship, but also often to Egyptologists. Arguing that this is due to a deliberate attempt by some to omit Nubian histories from the study of the ancient world, the authors introduce their current research, which actively recentres ancient Nubia, and ancient Sudan, in these wider discourses.
The essays balance historical discussions on themes ranging from animal burials, ancient foreign relations, monumental architecture, and ritual with more practical, reflective studies, such as how to display ancient Nubia in museums. The common thread is a commitment to finding fresh approaches to researching and interpreting Nubian history and culture, and particularly how these debates sit alongside, and are embedded within, contemporary socio-political issues around the world. We are encouraged to look beyond ‘cultural entanglements’ and perceived geographical and cultural boundaries to consider the evidence for ancient Nubia from across the spectrum of wealth and status.
In his paper examining the ancient colonisation of Nubia by Egypt during the New Kingdom, Rennan Lemos invites the reader to consider that, if we use material culture as a basis for our understanding of ‘cultural entanglements’, for example where Egyptian-style objects were included in a burial, all those buried in non-elite cemeteries with no burial goods pose a complex problem. How can we know how, and if, those individuals were impacted on an everyday basis by the ancient Egyptian colonisers if we have no objects to tell those stories?
While all of the papers are welcome contributions, this narrative feels crucial and pushes our thinking in welcome new directions.
Illustrated with a series of grey- scale images and line drawings, and accompanied by comprehensive bibliographies throughout, this volume will be of vital importance to all those with an interest in the rich cultural heritage of Nubia and Sudan. The volume will also stand as a call to action, for all those with a wider interest in Egypt but who have not yet explored the history of ancient Nubia and Sudan, to understand better what life was really like along the ancient Nile Valley at a time when the distinction between ‘Egypt’ and ‘Nubia’ was not as clear-cut as some might consider them to be today.
New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia ed. Solange Ashby and Aaron J Brody
Gorgias Press, 2024
ISBN 978-146324342-5
Hardback, £70
