Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women Originalveröffentlichung in: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 38, 2001, S. 61-76 Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women ANGELIKA LOHWASSER In the ancient Mediterranean world, the ex­ 3) archaeological: tombs and associated burial ceptional status of queens in the Kingdom of goods in the cemeteries of El Kurru, Nuri, Meroe inspired comment in the works of Greco­ Meroe, and Abydos. Roman writers. These women, and the kandake in particular, continued to attract the attention In Meroitica 19, these data are presented in cata­ of travelers and scholars down into modern logue form, providing the basis for the con­ times. By comparison, the role and status of their clusions which are summarized below. A second predecessors, the royal mothers, wives, sisters, catalogue lists all those royal women whose names and daughters, from the Kushite 25th Dynasty are known; each entry includes variant orthog­ down through the Napatan Period to the reign raphies for the name in question, the titles, 1 of Nastasen, remained little known. epithets and filiation of the woman, her docu­ Beginning with George A. Reisner's excava­ mentation and a commentary. Analysis of these tions of the royal cemeteries at El Kurru and varied sources demonstrates the crucial role Nuri and Francis LI. Griffith's work at Kawa, a played by queenship as the indispensable coun­ steadily increasing body of material has become terpart of male kingship in Kushite ideology. available for the study of Kushite "queenship." These sources fall into three categories: Royal Women in Society 1) inscriptional, ranging from lengthy royal A royal woman's epithets and filiation, as well texts on stelae from Napata and Kawa to the as her costume and regalia, provide information labels accompanying representations of royal about uniquely Kushite features of her status. women and inscriptions on objects (primarily The titles and epithets documented for Kush­ burial equipment); ite royal women are few, especially in compari­ 2) representational, viz. the depictions of son to the wealth of such designations borne by 2 royal women on stelae and temple walls; their pharaonic Egyptian counterparts, Titles which document a sacral role include hmt ntr (priestess), jhjjt (sistrum player)', shmjjt (sistrum player), hnw (sistrum player), and hmt ntr (God's 1 This background information is expanded upon and Wife). None of these sacral titles is specified by documented in "Die koniglichen Frauen im antiken Reich von Kitsch," Meroitica 19 (2001), the full publication of my the addition of a deity's name, by contrast to dissertation entitled "Die koniglichen Frauen von Kusch (25. ancient Egyptian practice. Even in those cases Dynastie bis zur Zeit des Nastasen)." The most important where it is clear that the god served was Amun theses and conclusions of that work are presented here. Many recent studies have dealt with aspects of Kushite and Meroitic queenship in various contexts; they are duly con­ 2 For convenience's sake, I have adopted the English ren­ sidered below. But none of them has been devoted in its derings employed by Troy (1986) for all but a few titles and entirety to investigating the phenomenon of Kushite queen­ epithets below. For detailed discussion of specific terms, see ship per se, the goal of my monograph. Meroitica 19. 61 62 JARCE XXXVIII (2001) (as, for example, in the case of the sistrum the origin of the women who bear the epithet, 3 player Matiqen ), this association is not explicit but since it is also associated with women who in the title. have Kushite names, its effective meaning re­ Some titles imply a specific status at court: mains unclear. c jrj-p tt (noblewoman); tpjt n hm.f (first great wife of his majesty), rht njswt (king's acquaintance), Kushite Queens as Represented in Art hnwt hmwt nbwt (lady of all the women). Others are analogous to king's titles expressing domin­ As a rule, pharaonic Egyptian costume and ion: hnwt tDivj (tm)lnbt t3wj (lady/mistress of the regalia were adopted for the depiction of Kush­ c [entire] Two Lands), hnwt sm w mhw (lady of ite kings, although certain specifically Kushite c the south and the north), nbt hjs'wt/tj j t hSs'wt features make identification of them as Kush­ 5 (mistress/the great one of the foreign coun­ ites unproblematic. Kushite queens, however, tries), hnwt kmt/kSs/tS s'tj (lady of Egypt/Kush/ look much less "Egyptian" than their male coun­ c 6 Nubia), sit r (daughter of Re, as the feminine terparts. Except for the vulture headdress, the counterpart of "son of Re" designating the double­feather crown, and the double­feather king). These titles were used in parallelism with crown with sun disc and cow horns (which was al­ those of the king. Royal women are defined as ready modified and "Meroiticized" in the early sharing the power to rule, the feminine equiva­ Napatan Period), there are no Egyptian elements. lent of the king. Effective influence associated A large shawl was wrapped around the body with such titles should not be over­rated, but they below the armpits or around the hips. A second do express the ideal of complementarity (for shawl which could be fringed or decorated with which, see below). Since the titles s3t ntr (daugh­ woven stripes was worn over the first. Sometimes ter of the god) and mwt ntr (mother of the god) women draped a sash over the shoulder. A small are both documented only a single time, their tab­like element hangs below the hem of a dress import remains unclear. to reach the ground (fig. 1). This diagnostic ele­ The majority of epithets borne by royal women ment has been described as a "little tail." Some­ express the esteem in which they were held, or times there are fine ridges on its surface; the refer to agreeable characteristics. Most such epi­ cases are few where it simply resembles a line. thets go back to the Old Kingdom in pharaonic Hofmann (1971: 49­51) interpreted the "little Egypt, and they are especially common in the tail" as a kind of "badge of honor" first associ­ New Kingdom and in Dynasties XXV and XXVI. ated with Taharqa's mother; she also believed it They include wrt hsjw (great of praises), bnrt mrwt identified a woman as a kandake in later times. (sweet of love), wrtlnbljSmt (great one/mistress of However, this iconographic feature is not re­ 7 loveliness). (Epithets documented only a single stricted to depictions of royal women. Granted, time for Kushite royal women are s'htp njswt n hrt the bull's tail of kingly regalia was inappropriate hrw (one who satisfies the king with [his] daily for a woman; nevertheless, the "little tail" is in­ needs), s'ndm jb hr m ddt.s nb (one who sweetens deed reminiscent of an animal's tail. The bushy the heart of Horus [i.e., the king] with all her shape, which occurs in most depictions, and the c words which are said), hnmt h ntr (one who is 5 united with the limbs of the god), jSm hr jb hr.s See Russmann 1974: 11-44; Kushite features include a ram's-head amulet, rams' horns, double uraeus, and "south­ (beloved in the heart of her Horus [=lord]), hkrt c ern" physiognomy. njswt w t (sole ornament of the king), sps't njswt 6 c Contra Hofmann, 1971: 49; for detailed consideration w t (sole noblewoman of the king).) The expres­ of the costume and regalia of Kushite queens, see Lohwasser sion rmt n knit, "inhabitant of Egypt" (sometimes 1999. abbreviated simply rmt?) would seem to refer to Examples of non­royal women with this attribute in­ clude: stela Louvre E 13073 (Munro 1973: pi. 28, fig. 101; 3 So in the text of the Adoption Stela of Henuttakebit stela Leiden XIV, 13 (van Wijngaarden 1932: pi. TV. 13); (Schafer 1895). coffin of Kheriru from the Asasif (unpublished; I am in­ 4 Note that Priese (1968: 190-91) believes the word in debted to Dr. E. Haslauer for providing access to photo­ question is not to be read rmt, but tjore, the Meroitic word for graphs of this piece); stela of Pasalta (Dunham 1963: fig. king/queen. 220). QUEENSHIP IN KUSH 63 •LJ 21) »S! r: V. L3 em Ik!! <&3> is. A 52^ rtS Fig /. Dream Stela of Tanwetamani (after Grimal 1981a: pi I). ridges, which could have been intended to imi­ skeletons excavated there had fringe tied to the 12 tate the appearance of fur, can be cited in favor knees. Nowadays among various African peo­ of this proposal. ples—for example, the Nuba—there is the cus­ In ancient Egypt, animal tails tied around the tom of wearing feathers and parts of pelts, arm at the elbow were considered typical for perhaps also animals tails, below the knee. 8 depictions of Nubians. In officials' tombs of the Possibly Kushite women tied an animal tail, as New Kingdom, Nubian chieftains in tribute scenes an amulet insuring fertility, to their knee or calf, are depicted with animal tails suspended from and it hung down below the dress worn over it. I their arms or waist. Paintings in the tomb of suggest that the animal in question was a fox. Kenamun (TT 93) include the depiction of a Fox tails are universally associated with eroticism statue of Amenhotep II as a Nubian wearing and fertility. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic 9 animal tails at his elbow. Nubian women, too, sign used to write words associated with birth 13 wore animal tails: in the tomb of Tutankhamun's depicted fox pelts bound together.
Recommended publications
  • Submission to the University of Baltimore School of Law‟S Center on Applied Feminism for Its Fourth Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference
    Submission to the University of Baltimore School of Law‟s Center on Applied Feminism for its Fourth Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference. “Applying Feminism Globally.” Feminism from an African and Matriarchal Culture Perspective How Ancient Africa’s Gender Sensitive Laws and Institutions Can Inform Modern Africa and the World Fatou Kiné CAMARA, PhD Associate Professor of Law, Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, SENEGAL “The German experience should be regarded as a lesson. Initially, after the codification of German law in 1900, academic lectures were still based on a study of private law with reference to Roman law, the Pandectists and Germanic law as the basis for comparison. Since 1918, education in law focused only on national law while the legal-historical and comparative possibilities that were available to adapt the law were largely ignored. Students were unable to critically analyse the law or to resist the German socialist-nationalism system. They had no value system against which their own legal system could be tested.” Du Plessis W. 1 Paper Abstract What explains that in patriarchal societies it is the father who passes on his name to his child while in matriarchal societies the child bears the surname of his mother? The biological reality is the same in both cases: it is the woman who bears the child and gives birth to it. Thus the answer does not lie in biological differences but in cultural ones. So far in feminist literature the analysis relies on a patriarchal background. Not many attempts have been made to consider the way gender has been used in matriarchal societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Contagious Faith- Talking About God Without Being Weird.Key
    Acts 8:26–30: 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. Acts 8:31–35: 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” 34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. Acts 8:36–40: As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water.
    [Show full text]
  • The Matrilineal Royal Succession in the Empire of Kush: a New Proposal Identifying the Kinship Terminology in the 25Th and Napatan Dynasties As That of Iroquois/Crow
    2015 Varia Kumiko Saito The matrilineal royal Succession in the Empire of Kush: A new proposal Identifying the Kinship Terminology in the 25th and napatan Dynasties as that of Iroquois/Crow Introduction1 Various theories about the patterns of royal succes- sion in the 25th and Napatan Dynasties have been proposed. Macadam proposed a fratrilineal successi- on in which kingship passed from brother to brother and then to the children of the eldest brother.2 Török integrated the patrilineal, matrilineal, and fratrilineal succession systems.3 Kahn and Gozzoli4 take the position that the succession pattern in the 25th and in which some royal women held both the titles of Napatan Dynasties was basically patrilineal. It is snt nswt “king’s sister” and sAt nswt “king’s daughter”, noteworthy that, in Macadam’s and Török’s theories and this ground is regarded as decisive. However, this as well as the patrilineal succession, it is supposed that ignores the fact that it has been suggested that sn(t) all kings were sons of kings. I doubted this father- in its extended meaning may mean “cousin,” “aunt,” son relationship when I started inquiring into the “uncle,” “nephew,” or “niece.”5 If so, a daughter of matrilineal tradition in Kush. the previous king who had the title snt nswt could One of the textual grounds for accepting the be a cousin of the reigning king. It is also possible father-son relationship of the kings is the indirect one that the Kushite kingdom was a matrilineal society using a kinship terminology that was different from 1 This article is a revised version of my paper originally that of Egypt.
    [Show full text]
  • Nubia: Treasures of Ancient Africa
    Audio Guide Transcript Nubia: Treasures of Ancient Africa April 18–August 22, 2021 Main Exhibition Galleries STOP 1 Introduction Gallery: Director’s Welcome Speaker: Brent Benjamin Barbara B. Taylor Director Saint Louis Art Museum Hello, I’m Brent Benjamin, Barbara B. Taylor Director of the Saint Louis Art Museum. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the audio guide for Nubia: Treasures of Ancient Africa. The exhibition presents the history and artistic achievements of ancient Nubia and showcases the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through magnificent jewelry, pottery, sculpture, metalwork, and more. For nearly 3,000 years a series of Nubian kingdoms flourished in the Nile River valley in what is today Sudan. The ancient Nubians controlled vast empires and trade networks and left behind the remains of cities, temples, palaces, and pyramids but few written records. As a result, until recently their story has been told in large part by others—in antiquity by their more famous Egyptian neighbors and rivals, and in the early 20th century by American and European scholars and archaeologists. Through art, this exhibition addresses past misunderstandings and misinterpretations and offers new ways of understanding Nubia’s dynamic history and relevance, which raises issues of power, representation, and cultural bias that were as relevant in past centuries as they are today. This exhibition audio guide offers expert commentaries from Denise Doxey, guest curator of this exhibition and curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The guide features a selection of objects from various ancient Nubian kingdoms and shares insights into the daily life of the Nubians, their aesthetic preferences, religious beliefs, technological inventiveness, and relations with other ancient civilizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Ninth International Conference of the Society for Nubian Studies, 21
    Originalveröffentlichung in: Mitteilungen der Sudanarchäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin e.V. 9, 1999, S. 58-62 58 TAGUNGEN ANGELIKA LOHWASSER NINTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR NUBIAN STUDIES, 21. - 26. AUGUST 1998 IN BOSTON Die 1972 gegründete International Society for Organisatoren der Tagung ist es zu verdanken, Nubian Studies widmet sich vorrangig der För­ daß das Relief des Arikankharor, das normaler­ derung der Erforschung des antiken Sudan (siehe weise im Worcester Museum of Art ausgestellt die Informationen über die Society in MittSAG ist, für die Dauer des Kongresses in Boston zu 1, 1994: 20­21). Alle vier Jahre versammeln sich besichtigen war (Africa in Antiquity I: 15). Für die Nubiologen, um einen Kongreß abzuhalten jeden Nubiologen ist der Besuch der schön prä­ und dabei die neuesten wissenschaftlichen sentierten "Nubian Gallery" ein Leckerbissen ­ Ergebnisse auszutauschen. 1994 fand die 8. eine Möglichkeit, die die Kongreßbesucher Internationale Nubiologenkonferenz in Lille gerne nutzten. Ebenso wurde von der Möglich­ (Frankreich) statt; dort wurde beschlossen, die keit Gebrauch gemacht, den 12 Tonnen schwe­ 9. Konferenz im Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ren Sarkophag des Aspelta (MFA 23.729), der (USA) abzuhalten. wegen seines Gewichts nur im Magazin im Kel­ Zu Boston haben all diejenigen, die sich inten­ ler stehen kann, zu besichtigen. Dieser Sarko­ siver mit Nubien und dem antiken Sudan phag und der nahezu identische des Anlamani beschäftigen, eine besondere Beziehung: Der (National Museum Khartoum 1868) sind die ein­ Ausgräber George Andrew Reisner ­ den mei­ zigen Steinsärge, die wir von den kuschitischen sten Ägyptologen durch seine Grabungen in Königen haben. Die darauf geschriebenen Texte Giza bekannt ­ war der Leiter der großen archäo­ sind ähnlich denen der Könige der 18.
    [Show full text]
  • Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
    Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Past and present members of the staff of the Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Stelae, Reliefs and Paintings, especially R. L. B. Moss and E. W. Burney, have taken part in the analysis of this periodical and the preparation of this list at the Griffith Institute, University of Oxford This pdf version (situation on 14 July 2010): Jaromir Malek (Editor), Diana Magee, Elizabeth Fleming and Alison Hobby (Assistants to the Editor) Naville in JEA I (1914), pl. I cf. 5-8 Abydos. Osireion. vi.29 View. Naville in JEA I (1914), pl. ii [1] Abydos. Osireion. Sloping Passage. vi.30(17)-(18) Osiris and benu-bird from frieze. see Peet in JEA i (1914), 37-39 Abydos. Necropolis. v.61 Account of Cemetery D. see Peet in JEA i (1914), 39 Abydos. Necropolis. Ibis Cemetery. v.77 Description. see Loat in JEA i (1914), 40 and pl. iv Abydos. Necropolis. Ibis Cemetery. v.77 Description and view. Blackman in JEA i (1914), pl. v [1] opp. 42 Meir. Tomb of Pepiankh-h. ir-ib. iv.254 View. Blackman in JEA i (1914), pl. v [2] opp. 42 Meir. Tomb of Pepiankh-h. ir-ib. iv.255(16) Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Stelae, Reliefs and Paintings Griffith Institute, Sackler Library, 1 St John Street, Oxford OX1 2LG, United Kingdom [email protected] 2 Group with calf from 2nd register. Petrie in JEA i (1914), pl. vi cf. 44 El-Riqqa. Finds. iv.87 Part of jewellery, temp.
    [Show full text]
  • Historian Kit: Kush
    HANDOUT Historian Kit: Kush PART 1 → Examine: Closely observe the map, quote, architectural remains and artifacts. → Discuss: What might you conclude about this kingdom based on its remains and geography? “Then the ships were laden with silver, gold, copper, clothing, and everything of the Northland, every product of Syria and all the sweet woods of God’s-Land. His majesty sailed upstream [south], with glad heart, the shores on his either side were jubilating. West and east were jubilat- ing in the presence of his majesty.” — Piankhi, ancient Kushite king who ruled Kush was a kingdom in northern Africa in the Egypt from 744–714 BCE region corresponding to modern-day Sudan. See: http://bit.ly/2KbAl8G This large mud brick temple, known as the Kush pyramids and royal tombs were used for Western Deffufa, was part of the ancient city of the burial of kings and queens in the wealthy Kerma (in today’s Sudan). These remains from city of Meroe, on the Nile River. They date as the Kush Empire are from about 2500 BCE. far back as 500 BCE. See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/waltercallens/3486244425 See: http://bit.ly/3qhZDBl 22 HANDOUT Historian Kit: Kush (continued) This stone carving (1st century BCE) is from the temple of Amun in the ancient city of Naqa. It depicts a kandake (female leader) This piece of gold jewelry was found in the from Meroe. Named Amanishakheto, she tomb of Nubian King Amaninatakilebte stands between a god and goddess. (538–519 BC). See: http://bit.ly/3oGqWFi See: https://www.flickr.com/photos/menesje/47758289472 IMAGE SOURCES Lommes and National Geographic.
    [Show full text]
  • Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 April 29, 2018
    Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras The Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8:26-40 April 29, 2018 My big sister in Belgium called me last week crying because her doctor informed her that she might not have children. She experienced two miscarriages. My sister and her husband are having fertility issues. Both of them are heartbroken. Infertility is never easy on women and men. It is harder for men because they usually suffer in silence. But women can express themselves and find more help than men. The Ethiopian official, who met Philip on the road to Gaza, was a eunuch. "Eunuchs were excluded from participation in Temple rituals and full admittance, as proselytes, into Israel's community."1 “The Law had proscribed men with crushed, mutilated, or missing genitalia from full participation in Israel’s worship (Leviticus 21:20; Deuteronomy 23:1).”2 The Ethiopian official was infertile. He suffered in silence. He struggled emotionally and physically. He grew up without experiencing puberty. He began his work in the Ethiopian Queen royal court. He longed to have his own children, but he was unable. He was sick often and grew fragile because he lacked 1 testosterone. He also experienced discrimination on the basis of his sexually ambiguous. The Ethiopian official enjoyed wealth and a high status in his community. He was in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”) (v.27). His position and wealth did not make him happy or comfort his heart. He felt inferior because he was a eunuch, infertile. The Holy Spirit led Philip to meet him while he was reading about the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53.
    [Show full text]
  • Nubian Queens in the Nile Valley and Afro-Asiatic Cultural History
    Ninth International Conference for Nubian Studies August 20-26, 1998 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston U.S.A Alyssa Dido(n), the Phoenician princess and Nubian Queens in the Nile founder of the city of Carthage (c. 980 BCE); the Valley and Afro-Asiatic Tuareg leader Nugaymath al-Tarqiyya (the “star of the Tuareg archers” in Arabic) who led an Cultural History Almoravid siege of Valencia (Norris 1982, 20); Queen Zobeida founder of the city of Tauris in Arabia in 800 AD (Jones 1996, 20-21). In modern Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban times, past patterns continued with the Ashanti Queen Mother Yaa Asantewa who led several successful battles against British colonialism in Professor of Anthropology, Rhode Island 1900-01(Aidoo 1981, 75). Oral traditions of College, Providence, RI 02908 USA women as powerful figures or clever strategists in Email: [email protected] their roles as queens, as warrior queens, or as romantic figures have had great appeal in times Introduction past, and continue to do so in this present era of feminist or humanist interest in the subject. This The "Kandakes/Candaces" of Meroë (Meroitic paper offers a brief historical review of selected Kdi-go meaning “great woman”) have inspired Afro-Asiatic queens, with a focus on the Nubian more curiosity or legend than systematic cultural- queens. The paper offers some possible cultural- historical study since they entered world history historical patterns and, more importantly, it raises through Strabo's account of the “one-eyed questions for further study. Candace” in 23 BCE in his Geography. Biblical references not only to a “Candace” (New 1 Testament, Acts 8:26) , but also to the account of SURVEY OF AFRO-ASIATIC RULING the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon in QUEENS Jerusalem (Book of Chronicles 2, 9) have served to add adventure and romance to the "legendary queens" of the East.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Obelisks and Empire
    Of Obelisks and Empire Royal monuments and ancients accounts recall the lost glory of an African kingdom BY MARK ROSE N THE FIRST CENTURY A.D., an unknown he had uncovered remains of Sheba’s 10th-century Imerchant recorded details of the Red Sea trade, B.C. palace and possibly where Menelik placed the and mentioned Adulis, the harbor of “the city of the Ark. Headline writers produced breathless, Indiana people called Aksumites” to which “all the ivory is Jones—inspired copy: “German ‘raiders’ on trail of brought from the country beyond the Nile.” The the Ark.” But other German scholars, from the same ruler of Aksum, he wrote, was Zoskales, who was university, quickly poured cold water on the story. “miserly in his ways and always striving for more, Their terse statement noted, “The members and the but otherwise upright, and acquainted with Greek head of the Ethiopian Studies Research Unit of literature.” Just two centuries later, the philosopher Hamburg University consider the published identi- Mani (ca. A.D. 210–276) included Aksum as one of fication as not scientifically proven.” the four great empires, along with Rome, Persia, and Sileos (possibly China). And in 274, envoys The site of these controversial excavations is from Aksum took part in the triumphal procession on the western side of Aksum, where in the 1960s a staged by the emperor Aurelian when he paraded French team dug a large residential complex dating the captured Queen Zenobia of Palmyra fettered to around A.D. 600–640. It has traditionally been with gold chains, through Rome.
    [Show full text]
  • Persuasion, Emotion, and the Letters of the Alexander Romance
    Persuasion, Emotion, and the Letters of the Alexander Romance JACQUELINE ARTHUR-MONTAGNE Stanford University Mixture is the letter, the epistle which is not a genre, but all genres, literature itself. Jacques Derrida, The Postcard (48) The presence of over thirty letters embedded in the Greek Alexander Romance has garnered frequent attention from scholars of epistolography, novels, and fiction.1 These letters are widely distributed throughout the three books of the Romance, attributed to various characters in the plot. What is most striking about the deployment of letters in the narrative is the mixture of different epis- tolographical types. From battle briefs, boastful barbarian epistles, and lengthy letters of marvels, it is clear that the epistolary frame here operates in very different capacities. I know of no other work of ancient fiction that in- corporates so many different epistolary forms. If it is fair to regard epistolog- raphy as a spectrum of genres,2 then the Alexander Romance spans the full register from functional to philosophical. Sorting the sources and interrelationships of these letters has been a chal- lenge for critics, further complicated by the tangled transmission history and the multiple recensions of the Alexander Romance. Reinhold Merkelbach’s seminal study in 1954 made a crucial and intuitive distinction between the lengthy ‘Wunderbriefe’ and the novel’s shorter letters: he claimed that the lat- ter category represents the remnants of a lost epistolary novel about the life of ————— 1 Hägg 1983, 126 regards the incorporation of letters as the ‘most important innovation’ on the part of the author. For the most recent treatments, see Konstan 1998, Rosenmeyer 2001 (ch.
    [Show full text]
  • The Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe
    The Archaeological Sites of The Island of Meroe Nomination File: World Heritage Centre January 2010 The Republic of the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums 0 The Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe Nomination File: World Heritage Centre January 2010 The Republic of the Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums Preparers: - Dr Salah Mohamed Ahmed - Dr Derek Welsby Preparer (Consultant) Pr. Henry Cleere Team of the “Draft” Management Plan Dr Paul Bidwell Dr. Nick Hodgson Mr. Terry Frain Dr. David Sherlock Management Plan Dr. Sami el-Masri Topographical Work Dr. Mario Santana Quintero Miss Sarah Seranno 1 Contents Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………. 5 1- Identification of the Property………………………………………………… 8 1. a State Party……………………………………………………………………… 8 1. b State, Province, or Region……………………………………………………… 8 1. c Name of Property………………………………………………………………. 8 1. d Geographical coordinates………………………………………………………. 8 1. e Maps and plans showing the boundaries of the nominated site(s) and buffer 9 zones…………………………………………………………………………………… 1. f. Area of nominated properties and proposed buffer zones…………………….. 29 2- Description…………………………………………………………………………. 30 2. a. 1 Description of the nominated properties………………………………........... 30 2. a. 1 General introduction…………………………………………………… 30 2. a. 2 Kushite utilization of the Keraba and Western Boutana……………… 32 2. a. 3 Meroe…………………………………………………………………… 33 2. a. 4 Musawwarat es-Sufra…………………………………………………… 43 2. a. 5 Naqa…………………………………………………………………..... 47 2. b History and development………………………………………………………. 51 2. b. 1 A brief history of the Sudan……………………………………………. 51 2. b. 2 The Kushite civilization and the Island of Meroe……………………… 52 3- Justification for inscription………………………………………………………… 54 …3. a. 1 Proposed statement of outstanding universal value …………………… 54 3. a. 2 Criteria under which inscription is proposed (and justification for 54 inscription under these criteria)………………………………………………………… ..3.
    [Show full text]