New Kingdom Egyptian Colonialism in Nubia at the Third Cataract

Abstract

Buzon and Smith depart from some of the chapters in that they examine the relationship between indigenous groups and “more local” foreign powers that are not European but peoples from Ancient Egypt and Nubia in the Third Cataract of the Nile. They bring together mortuary analysis, strontium isotope indicators of geographic origins, biological affinities, skeletal evidence of traumatic injuries and activity patterns, evidence of nutritional deficiencies, and infectious disease from human remains that date before, during, and after the New Kingdom Egyptian occupation of Upper Nubia at the sites of Tombos and Kerma. They note that culture contact and colonial entanglements can be long-term, spanning many millennia and that the Quincentennial/First Contact models, while valuable, are insufficient to examine the transitions in social, political, and economic relations in these colonial contexts. Using the earlier burials from Kerma as the baseline, Buzon and Smith present a nuanced picture of cultural identity at Tombos during and after Egyptian rule, with evidence for the assertion and subsequent revival of Nubian identity, as well as hybridity and continuity of the Egyptian burial practices that predominated during the colonial period.