Linking cultures: Sudan, Egypt and Nubia at the British Museum

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Linking cultures: Sudan, Egypt and Nubia at the British Museum

Anna Garnett, Amara West Project Curator, British Museum
The land of Nubia, the ancient name for the Nile Valley in the far south of Egypt and northern Sudan, was the vital link between the ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean worlds and the cultures and raw materials of sub-Saharan Africa. Although heavily influenced by Egypt over millennia, the Nubian and Sudanese cultures along the Nile were distinctly different from that of their northern neighbour, Egypt. During certain periods, Nubian states conquered parts of Egypt.
The Egyptian pharaoh Kamose, who reigned 1555–1550 BC, spoke of his struggle to reunify Egypt at the end of the Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC):
‘To what end am I to understand this power of mine, when a chieftain is in Avaris, and another in Kush, and I sit in league with an Asiatic and a Nubian, every man holding his slice of Egypt?’
Earlier this year, new displays in Room 65: The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Gallery of Sudan, Egypt and Nubia were created with the aim of showcasing the diversity of the Nubian and Sudanese civilisations, and to further highlight the great cultural and political flowerings in this region over more than six thousand years of history. As part of my role in the Future Curators programme at the British Museum, I worked closely on the initial planning stages of this refreshment project with Derek Welsby, Assistant Keeper of Sudan and Egyptian Nubia.
These displays include the first public exhibition of a number of objects excavated by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society in collaboration with the British Museum. Contextual images have been introduced to complement the objects, including panoramic views of Sudanese and Nubian landscapes, such as the Kushite royal pyramids at Nuri.

Kushite royal cemetery at Nuri, Sudan. (Photo © SARS Archive.)

The refreshed display is chronological. It begins with the story of Prehistoric Sudan with a focus on tools, weapons, pottery and items of personal adornment from the Neolithic period (4900–3000 BC). The oldest object in this display is a quartzite hand axe dating to around 100,000 BC (British Museum 1935,1109.208).
The narrative continues with the development of early food-producing societies in Sudan, known as the A-Group, C-Group and the Pan-Grave cultures, who lived along the Sudanese Nile Valley between around 3700 and 1070 BC. A selection of objects including jewellery, pottery and stone tools demonstrates the increasing sophistication of the material and funerary cultures of these distinct groups of people.

The Kingdom of Kush, the first urban society in sub-Saharan Africa, flourished from around 2500 to 1450 BC. Excavations at the site of Kerma, the ancient capital of the Kushite kingdom, have revealed residential and industrial areas, cemeteries, palaces and two huge mud-brick buildings (known as deffufa) which may have had a religious function, perhaps as temples. The most iconic objects of the Kerma culture are the delicate handmade pottery vessels, which highlight the technological sophistication of this period.

Western deffufa at Kerma (Photo © SARS Archive.)

Kerma Moyen period burial containing sacrificed goats/sheep and ceramic grave goods (Northern Dongola Reach Site P37) (Photo © SARS Archive.)

Another key aim of the refreshed displays is to draw visitors’ attention to the evolution of burial customs in Sudan: a reconciled tomb-group excavated from the A-Group cemetery at the ancient town site of Faras and dating to around 3000 BC, is presented alongside a showcase containing a reconstructed burial based on the typical layout of a Kerma Moyen period grave (see above). The grave, dating to around 2050–1750 BC, was excavated in the region of the Northern Dongola Reach in Sudan.

Kerma Classique period spouted beaker. British Museum EA 65577 (Photo © Trustees of the British Museum.)

Moving to more recent times, a display of weaponry and items of personal adornment from the period of the Kushite Empire includes objects dating from the late 1st century BC onwards when the Roman Empire increased contact and conflict with the Kingdom of Kush, a vast political entity extending from the Butana region in central Sudan to Lower Nubia. Due to the extraordinary level of preservation at Qasr Ibrim, a major religious centre and Roman garrison during the Kushite Period, we were able to richly illustrate the theme of everyday life and conflict during this period with a variety of objects including weaponry and leatherwork. A figure of a bound prisoner dating to the late 1st century BC (pictured below), preserving an inscription which calls him the ‘King of the Nubians’, also demonstrates how the Kushites typically represented their defeated enemies during this period.

Figure of a bound captive. British Museum EA 65222 (Photo © Trustees of the British Museum.)

It is hoped that these new displays will enable visitors to better understand the developments in Nubian and Sudanese history while also gaining a new appreciation of the beauty and diversity of the material cultures of those who lived and died along the Nile Valley in ancient Sudan.
You may also be interested in this upcoming event at the British Museum on 7th September.