Foreign Objects in Local Contexts: Mortuary Objectscapes in Late Colonial Nubia (16th–11th Centuries BC)
type: CreativeWork
description: From the 16th to 11th Century BC (in this thesis referred to as the Late Colonial Period), the ancient Egyptians colonised Nubia—the geographical area which today comprises Egypt south of Aswan and the north of Sudan as far as the 5th Nile cataract. In the Late Colonial Period, the material culture from various Nubian sites started to follow foreign, Egyptian standards. Colonial towns housing temples dedicated to Egyptian deities and pharaohs were founded, and large cemeteries developed in association with those places. Their material culture consisted, overall, of Egyptian-style objects, including imports and local versions of these objects—e.g. various pottery types, coffins, masks, shabtis, heart scarabs, jewellery items, cosmetic utensils, tools, weapons, and seals etc. Scholars have traditionally interpreted the substitution of Nubian material culture for Egyptian-style objects, especially in cemeteries, as an expression of the acculturation or Egyptianisation of local populations. Today, Late Colonial Nubia is under renewed scholarly scrutiny, with alternative theoretical frameworks (such as cultural entanglements) guiding new excavations at various areas in Sudan. Such approaches emphasise Nubian agency in contexts of cultural interaction, which resulted in ‘entangled’ cultural phenomena and material culture. This thesis follows a different path; it emphasises the social role of foreign objects in the constitution of local social relations. Based on extensive data sets comprising thousands of objects from dozens of sites in Late Colonial Nubia, either previously published or analysed by the author in museums, this thesis aims to answer the following questions: (1) What does the overall spread of Egyptian-style material culture across Nubia mean? (2) Were the standardising/global Egyptian-style sets of material culture adopted equally by different groups in various regions within Nubia in the Late Colonial Period? (3) If standardising objects were not adopted …
abstract: From the 16th to 11th Century BC (in this thesis referred to as the Late Colonial Period), the ancient Egyptians colonised Nubia—the geographical area which today comprises Egypt south of Aswan and the north of Sudan as far as the 5th Nile cataract. In the Late Colonial Period, the material culture from various Nubian sites started to follow foreign, Egyptian standards. Colonial towns housing temples dedicated to Egyptian deities and pharaohs were founded, and large cemeteries developed in association with those places. Their material culture consisted, overall, of Egyptian-style objects, including imports and local versions of these objects—e.g. various pottery types, coffins, masks, shabtis, heart scarabs, jewellery items, cosmetic utensils, tools, weapons, and seals etc. Scholars have traditionally interpreted the substitution of Nubian material culture for Egyptian-style objects, especially in cemeteries, as an expression of the acculturation or Egyptianisation of local populations. Today, Late Colonial Nubia is under renewed scholarly scrutiny, with alternative theoretical frameworks (such as cultural entanglements) guiding new excavations at various areas in Sudan. Such approaches emphasise Nubian agency in contexts of cultural interaction, which resulted in ‘entangled’ cultural phenomena and material culture. This thesis follows a different path; it emphasises the social role of foreign objects in the constitution of local social relations. Based on extensive data sets comprising thousands of objects from dozens of sites in Late Colonial Nubia, either previously published or analysed by the author in museums, this thesis aims to answer the following questions: (1) What does the overall spread of Egyptian-style material culture across Nubia mean? (2) Were the standardising/global Egyptian-style sets of material culture adopted equally by different groups in various regions within Nubia in the Late Colonial Period? (3) If standardising objects were not adopted …
author: Lemos, Rennan
language: eng
keywords: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Nubia, Archaeology of Colonialism
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/47642e15-a23a-4ae9-8af4-8028fb22043c/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2020-09-22
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:23Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.71911