Ancient Nubia and African Art Before 1400 CE Notes

Ancient Nubia and African Art Before 1400 CE

Nubia and the Kingdom of Kush

• Nubia is located in the area of approximately modern Sudan.

• The most famous civilization to emerge from Nubia was the Kingdom of Kush (ca. 1069 BCE – 350 CE).

Nubia, Egypt, and the Historiography of African Art

• Egypt was brought into the scope of biblical studies.

• Political reasons: Egyptology has long been dominated by French and English scholars due to:

  • Historical reasons: Napoleonic Wars and Egypt as a British protectorate.

  • Colonial agendas of these two empires.

• Cold War: Western European archaeologists continued excavations in Egypt, while Eastern Europeans excavated Nubia.

Artifacts

• Bone figure of a woman, ca. 3700-3500 BCE:

  • Associated with fertility and childbirth rituals.

• Winged Isis Pectoral, ca. 538–519 BCE (pectoral = ornament worn on the chest):

  • Isis = wife of Osiris, the ruler of the afterlife; maternal protector of the dead.

  • Left hand = sail, symbolizing breath.

  • Right hand = ankh, representing life.

  • This pectoral was placed on mummy wrappings of a Nubian king, and is too fragile to be worn.

• Hathor-headed crystal pendant, 8th century BCE.

• Collar, ca. 700 BCE (made from electrum, an alloy of gold and silver).

• Bracelet with image of Hathor, 3rd or 2nd century BCE.

Gebel Barkal and the Napatan Region/Culture

• Nubians believed natural features such as hilltops, caves, and rock outcroppings to be sacred.

• Ca. 1500 BCE: Egypt conquers northern Nubia, which becomes its province; Egyptians built temples across Nubia.

• Gebel Barkal becomes the center of the cult of Amen of Napata, Nubia’s new supreme god.

• Ca. 750 BCE: Nubia conquers Egypt, and Nubians portray themselves as the true upholders of Egypt’s ancient religion.

Map

• Map showing the topography of ancient and contemporary Nubia/Sudan, including locations like:

  • Jebel Barkal

  • Meroe

  • Aswan

Meroe

• Meroe (south of Gebel Barkal) remained the religious and administrative center of the Kingdom of Kush for centuries.

• Ca. 300 BCE: god Amen loses importance.

• Distinctly Nubian deities (e.g., the lion god Apedemak and the hunter god Arensnuphis) become more prominent.

• Adoption of cults from central Africa and the Mediterranean area (e.g., the god of wine Dionysios).

• Pyramids at Meroe, begun ca. 700 BCE:

  • Much later than the Egyptian pyramids.

  • Typically less than 100 feet tall.

  • Steeper slope.

  • No interior chambers (burial strictly underground).

Kandakes

• Kandake Amanitore, relief sculpture at Wad ban Naqa, 1st century CE.

• Kandake: title of the sister of the king, often a co-ruler of Kush.

• High status of women in Nubia:

  • Positions of power.

  • Experts on agriculture.

  • Viewed as givers of life – importance in religious rituals related to death and rebirth.

• Kandake Amanirenas: Queen of the Kingdom of Kush in the 1st century BCE successfully led the Nubian army against Roman troops after their conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE.

  • In one attack, Kushites destroyed a statue of Octavian Augustus.

  • Amanirenas lost an eye during the campaign led by the Roman governor of Egypt and has been called "one-eye Kandake."

  • Stories of her fierceness include using war elephants and feeding Roman captives to her pet lion.

Kingdom of Aksum

• Kingdom of Aksum: approx. 1st-7th century CE; essentially the territory of modern-day northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

• Contacts with the people of Egypt, southern Arabia, and Europe.

• Aksumites developed Africa’s only indigenous script, called Ge’ez.

• Described by a Persian writer as "one of the four greatest powers in the world."

• Served as a civilization that connected the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire with the lands to the south.

• Very little is known about Aksum, and little survived.

• Obelisk of King Ezenas, ca. 400 CE:

  • Stone obelisks/stelae used as grave markers of Aksumite kings were among the most common artifacts created, 78 to 108 ft tall.

  • Similar to the Egyptian custom of commemoration (importance of scale).

  • Many stelae had a carved tomb next to them.

• “Venus of Aksum” from the Tomb of Black Arches:

  • Contrapposto, sensual, relaxed pose.

  • Evidence of the influence of Hellenistic (Greek) culture.

  • Society enjoyed refined, luxurious, and beautiful objects, and had a wealthy elite that sustained skilled artists, craftsmen, and jewelers.

• A team of archaeologists uncovers the oldest Christian basilica in Ethiopia (and thus sub-Saharan Africa), 2019.

• Aksum was the first African kingdom to adopt Christianity, around the same time when Constantine did in the Roman Empire.

• Early Christianity in Aksum: some mixing of Christian and pagan beliefs and practices.

Lalibela

• The site of rock-cut churches at Lalibela: excavated out of tufa, a material which is relatively soft and easy to cut when fresh but hardens on exposure.

• Beta Madhane Alem, Lalibela: the largest of all rock-cut churches.

  • A nave + four aisles + a close-set colonnade of plain square pillars.

  • A basic plan of a basilica, the church modeled after the Cathedral of Mary of Zion in Aksum (*the original structure no longer exists; the current church on this site was built in the 17th c.).

  • Variety of designs of Lalibella churches reflects the diversity of cultural connections of Aksum.

Ethiopian Gospels

• Artist unknown, Canon Table page in the Gospels, Ethiopia, ca. 1450.

• Gospels = a manuscript that includes only the text of the four gospels from the New Testament.

• Canon Table = a list that allows a reader to compare the four gospels (i.e., which stories and passages are similar, which are different).

• Arches: both decoration and a device that helps to organize the page.

• Lively tradition of manuscripts in medieval Ethiopia, typically written in Ge’ez (the official language of the Ethiopian Church).

• Unlike in other places, manuscripts continue to be produced using the same methods to this day.

• The style of images in those manuscripts hasn’t changed much either (examples on this slide range from the 1400s through the 1900s).

African Kingdoms and Populations ca. 1400

• Trade moves to the south from Ethiopia.

• Adoption of Islam to the south of the Horn of Africa.

• Intercontinental trade via the Indian Ocean.

• Swahili = derived from an Arabic word for “coast.”

• Between 1000-1200 CE: foundations for prosperous kingdoms in the interior of the continent.

• Rhinoceros, from burial at Mapungubwe, South Africa, ca. 1000 CE, sheets of gold fastened to a wooden core, length 6 inches.

Great Zimbabwe

• Great Zimbabwe, Ancestral Shona, stone enclosures, ca. 1250-1400:

  • Populations related to the present-day Shona people.

  • zimbabwe = a term linked to royal residences and stone enclosures.

  • Several stone-walled, terraced sites built over the course of 500-600 years.

  • Each zimbabwe was the residence of a king; every king has a divine connection to previous divine rulers à source of power and political authority.

  • Each Zimbabwe also served as a sacred burial ground of the king.

• Royal Emblem in the Form of a Fish Eagle, from the Great Zimbabwe, Ancestral Shona, stone enclosures, ca. 1250-1400:

  • Found in a group of dwellings believed to be the palace of the king’s wife or the king’s sister.

  • Function: a large stone post.

  • Crocodile: associated with deep pools of water where the spirits of deceased rulers might rest.

  • Lines above the crocodile = lightning à the rapid descent of the eagle (*zigzags/chevrons are also a common motifs running alongside the walls of zimbabwe).

  • Round circles = eyes (possibly of an owl, a bird known to be vigilant).

  • A fish eagle at the top: capable of hurtling down from the sky, diving into the water, and catching a fish.

  • The eagle is an avatar for the king.

Precolonial Africa

• Map Showing:

  • Empire of Ghana

  • Mali Empire

  • Songhai Empire

  • Benin

  • Kingdom of Aksum

  • Great Zimbabwe Empire

  • And other Kingdoms and Empires of the time.

Middle Niger Civilization

• Unknown Artist (Middle Niger Civilization, present-day Mali), Seated Figure, 13th century, terracotta (clay).

  • Made in Jenne-jeno (the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa).

  • Suggestion of prayer? Tension & anxiety? Mourning?

  • Expressive, engaging face.

• Very little is known about the original meaning, usage, and scope of art produced in this region.

• What survived differs substantially in style and subject matter.