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New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia

Ancient Nubia played key political, social, and economic roles in the ancient world, yet knowledge of Nubian societies remains regrettably narrow, with Nubia often disregarded as derivative of Egypt. This volume provides a timely corrective to this outlook, centering Nubian history and archaeology and presenting research from new, anti-racist perspectives. In addition to demonstrating Nubiology’s potential impact on Egyptological, classical, and biblical scholarship, this volume offers a new window into African achievements and dominance in the ancient world.
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4342-5
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Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Aug 9,2024
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 345
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4342-5
$114.95
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Knowledge of the societies of ancient Nubia is regrettably narrow due to a variety of reasons. Ancient Egyptian royal propaganda expressed prejudices that held Nubia as “wretched Kush,” subsidiary to Egypt’s political power and cultural flourishing. Egyptologists tend to interpret ancient Nubian political and social achievements as derivative of Egypt as a result of this ancient bias and due to modern views of “Egyptian exceptionalism.” Finally, there is a structural absence of Kush from general spheres of knowledge transmission: university departments, academic and public libraries, and the wider discourse about the ancient world, render Nubia all but invisible. Located at the nexus of the Nile Valley and savannah corridors, ancient Nubian peoples traded east African goods to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East. The powerful Kushite empire attained political hegemony over Egypt in its 25th Dynasty (ca. 760–656 BCE), which saw the Kushite pharaohs engaging in international displays of power in the Levant, bringing them into direct conflict with the Assyrian empire. Commentary on these clashes is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, while the Christian New Testament speaks of the conversion of a treasurer of the “Candace of the Aethiopians”. This volume seeks to present current research that centers Nubian history and archaeology and imparts this information from new, anti-racist perspectives.  By publishing these studies in Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East series, we aim to bring research on Nubia to a wider scholarly audience, with the goals of broadening Nubiology’s impact on Egyptological, classical, and biblical scholarship, while challenging scholarly biases and disseminating knowledge of this ancient culture. By lifting up and centering the contributions of ancient Nubia, we expand our understanding of African achievements and influences on the ancient world.

Knowledge of the societies of ancient Nubia is regrettably narrow due to a variety of reasons. Ancient Egyptian royal propaganda expressed prejudices that held Nubia as “wretched Kush,” subsidiary to Egypt’s political power and cultural flourishing. Egyptologists tend to interpret ancient Nubian political and social achievements as derivative of Egypt as a result of this ancient bias and due to modern views of “Egyptian exceptionalism.” Finally, there is a structural absence of Kush from general spheres of knowledge transmission: university departments, academic and public libraries, and the wider discourse about the ancient world, render Nubia all but invisible. Located at the nexus of the Nile Valley and savannah corridors, ancient Nubian peoples traded east African goods to Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East. The powerful Kushite empire attained political hegemony over Egypt in its 25th Dynasty (ca. 760–656 BCE), which saw the Kushite pharaohs engaging in international displays of power in the Levant, bringing them into direct conflict with the Assyrian empire. Commentary on these clashes is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, while the Christian New Testament speaks of the conversion of a treasurer of the “Candace of the Aethiopians”. This volume seeks to present current research that centers Nubian history and archaeology and imparts this information from new, anti-racist perspectives.  By publishing these studies in Gorgias Studies in the Ancient Near East series, we aim to bring research on Nubia to a wider scholarly audience, with the goals of broadening Nubiology’s impact on Egyptological, classical, and biblical scholarship, while challenging scholarly biases and disseminating knowledge of this ancient culture. By lifting up and centering the contributions of ancient Nubia, we expand our understanding of African achievements and influences on the ancient world.

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ContributorBiography

SolangeAshby

Solange Ashby is an Assistant Professor of Egyptology and Nubian Studies in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California Los Angeles.

Aaron J.Brody

Aaron Brody is Robert and Kathryn Riddell Professor of Bible and Archaeology at Pacific School of Religion and Director of the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology.

Contributors ........................................................................... vii
Foreword ................................................................................. ix
Aaron J. Brody
Introduction ........................................................................... xiii
Vanessa Davies
The First Empire of Kush: Delegitimizing the Colonial Trope of
the Black Pharaohs ............................................................ 1
Salim Faraji
Exhibiting ‘New Perspectives’: Creating a Virtual and Collaborative
Exhibition on Ancient Nubia ................................ 17
Melissa S. Cradic, Jess Johnson, Brooke E. Norton, and
Samuel D. Pfister
Teaching Ancient Nubia: Integrating Kush in K-12 Curriculum .... 33
Sydney A. Pickens
Beyond Cultural Entanglements: Experiencing the New Kingdom
Colonization of Nubia ‘from Below’ ......................... 53
Rennan Lemos
Nubia as a Place of Refuge: Nile Valley Resistance against
Foreign Invasion .............................................................. 95
Solange Ashby and Talawa Adodo
Blurring Boundaries: Towards a more integrative view of
Nubian–Egyptian interactions ........................................ 117
Aaron de Souza
On the relationship between Meroitic and Nigerian aegides .....147
Sandro Capo Chichi
Monsters in the Bed: Furniture, Composite Creatures, and
Kerma International Relations ....................................... 177
Carl Walsh
Kushites in the Hebrew Bible: Theological and Historical
Perspectives .................................................................. 219
Kevin Burrell
Kings of the Two Lands: the importance of audience for royal
monuments of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Egypt and Nubia .....265
Kathryn Howley
Animals in the Kerma Afterlife: Animal Burials and Ritual at
Abu Fatima Cemetery .................................................... 289
Shayla Monroe

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