Material Culture and Colonization in Ancient Nubia: Evidence from the New Kingdom Cemeteries

Can We Decolonize the Ancient Past? Bridging Postcolonial and Decolonial Theory in Sudanese and Nubian Archaeology

“…An exception to the rule is Stuart Smith's book Wretched Kush (2003). Even though the book is not explicitly treated as an example of postcolonial scholarship, it has set the foundations for later bottom-up explanations of the New Kingdom colonial period in Nubia from the perspective of local populations interacting with foreign cultural patterns (Lemos 2020;Lemos & Budka 2021;van Pelt 2013;Weglarz 2017). This interaction resulted in various experiences of colonization and included phenomena like adoption and adaptation of Egyptian-style material culture, as well as resistance to foreign patterns (Smith 2020).…”

“…4). However, this does not mean that imported Egyptian objects actually materialized standardization in New Kingdom colonial Nubia (Lemos 2020). On the contrary, imported shabtis (as well as other object categories) could be adapted to fit local expectations, a process which could result in completely transformed objects.…”

“…A postcolonial perspective on the ancient Nubian colonial past allows us to use imposed Egyptian patterns materializing foreign colonization in local contexts as evidence for local complexity and diversity in a context of imposed homogenization (Lemos 2020). Such a perspective draws mostly from Bhabha's contributions, even when not directly applying his concepts (e.g.…”