Wretched Kush:
Ethnic Identities and Boundaries
in Egypt's Nubian Empire
by Stuart Tyson Smith
This book investigates the complex nature of
ethnicity on the ancient Egyptian-Nubian frontier,
showing how imperial constructions of an ethnic
culture contrast with patterns of mutual influence,
with particular consideration of the subtle ways
in which subjugated peoples, especially women,
influence the dominant culture of the colonizer.
Askut in Nubia investigates the economic and
political factors contributing to a change in
Egyptian imperial policy from a system of equilibrium
stressing separation during the Middle Kingdom
(c. 1900-1650 BC), to a new policy of acculturation
in the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC). New evidence
from Askut shows how the Egyptian colonial communities
were not abandoned but instead survived the conquest
of the former colony by the king of Kush (c. 1650
BC), staying on after the Egyptian re-conquest
in 1550 BC to form an ideal conduit for implementing
the new policy of cultural assimilation.
Valley of the Kings, the 3200-year old burial
ground of ancient Egyptian rulers and nobility,
has attracted robbers, visitors, enthusiasts,
and scientists.
This book aimed at young readers focuses on those
who discovered the ancient tombs, hidden mummies,
and wonderful treasures, from the earliest antiquarians,
more interested in acquiring objects than documenting
what they found, to the latest archaeologists,
whose painstaking work is revealing new insights
into the world’s most famous burial ground.
Anthropology and
Egyptology
State and Empire
in the Middle and New Kingdoms
This study analyses Egyptian imperialism in Nubia
using an economically oriented theoretical model
combining Egyptological and Anthropological perspectives,
using new information from the UCLA excavations
at the fortress of Askut (c. 1850-1070 BC).
The article concludes with a consideration of
the often divergent economic and ideological roles
of Egyptian imperialism in the financing and legitimization
of the Pharaonic state.
Nubia and Egypt:
Interaction,
Acculturation, and Secondary State Formation from
the Third to First Millennium BC.
As an example of culture contact, the long history
of Egypt and Nubia provides evidence of many aspects
of extended interaction, including not only conquest,
resistance, and collapse, but also aspects of
acculturation, growth and complexity, and transculturation
or ethnogenesis in the periphery.
The nature and consequences of contacts between
Egypt and Nubia offer a different view than that
provided by European-New World recent scenarios
of contact, demonstrating that Quincentennial
models of culture contact cannot be extrapolated
as “universals."
