Full Description
Graffiti—unsanctioned marks in public built spaces—are increasingly recognized as worthy of study in contexts both ancient and modern. For ancient societies, graffiti are personal expressions that are otherwise rare in the archaeological and historical record.
This volume is focused around a group of ancient and medieval figural graffiti found in 2015 by an archaeological project of the Kelsey Museum, University of Michigan, at the site of El-Kurru. Located in northern Sudan, El-Kurru was a royal pyramid burial ground of kings and queens of Kush from about 850 to 650 BCE. Written in conjunction with the exhibition "Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile" at the Kelsey Museum (on view 23 August 2019-29 March 2020), essays by an international group of seven scholars present the site of El-Kurru and its graffiti in historical context. Chapters discuss the history of Kush, ancient graffiti in a funerary temple and medieval graffiti on a pyramid at El-Kurru, and graffiti at other sites in Kush and Egypt (Musawwarat es-Sufra, Philae, and Banganarti) and beyond (Pompeii). Other chapters discuss the rock art of Sudan and methods used for the conservation and documentation of graffiti at El-Kurru. The volume concludes with an annotated catalog of graffiti from El-Kurru and a photo essay of the contemporary Nile Valley practice of "hajj images" that commemorate Muslim pilgrimage.
Written to engage non-specialist readers, the book will be of interest to archaeologists, ancient and medieval historians, and art historians working in the Nile Valley and beyond, and to a broader community interested in these subjects.
Illustrated in colour and b&w throughout.
Contents
Contents
List of Contributors
Overview Map
Timeline of Kush and Nubia
List of Abbreviations
Foreword. Graffiti in Ancient Kush and Medieval Nubia: An Introduction
Geoff Emberling and Suzanne Davis
1. A Cultural History of Kush: Politics, Economy, and Ritual Practice
Geoff Emberling
Excursus: Meroitic Graffiti at the Great Enclosure at Musawwarat es-Sufra
Suzanne Davis
2. Graffiti at El-Kurru: The Funerary Temple
Suzanne Davis and Geoff Emberling
3. Boat Graffiti on the El-Kurru Pyramid
Bruce Beyer Williams
Excursus: Terms for Boats and Navigation in Old Nubian
Alexandros Tsakos
4. Conservation and Documentation of Graffiti at El-Kurru
Suzanne Davis
5. Figural Graffiti from the Meroitic Era on Philae Island
Jeremy Pope
6. Discourses with the Holy: Text and Image Graffiti from the Pilgrimage
Churches of Saint Raphael the Archangel in Banganarti, Sudan
Bogdan ?urawski
7. An Overview of Nubian Rock Art in the Region of the 4th and 5th Cataracts
Fawzi Hassan Bakhiet
8. Graffiti at Pompeii, Italy
Rebecca Benefiel
Epilogue. Hajj Paintings in El-Araba and El-Ghabat, Egypt: A Photo Essay
Ayman Damarany
Catalog of Selected Graffiti from El-Kurru
Suzanne Davis, Geoff Emberling, and Bruce Beyer Williams
Introduction
Funerary Temple Ku. 1500
Pyramid Ku. 1
References
Concordances
