The objects on view are mostly from royal and aristocratic burials that vividly display the grandeur of ancient Nubian society.
Nubia—a region along the Nile River in present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan—was home to some of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa. It was a place of artistic, religious, and political innovation, and its legacy of personal adornment as an expression of power and identity continues to resonate today.
“The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has the most important collection of Nubian antiquities in the United States, including exquisite jewelry, metalwork, and sculpture,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle Director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Rivaling and at times ruling over the land of the pharaohs, Nubia’s rich and diverse culture is one of the most dynamic manifestations of the cross-influences and exchanges that characterized the Mediterranean, North Africa, and Near East in antiquity.”
Beginning around 2400 BC, a series of kingdoms flourished in ancient Nubia from successive capitals at Kerma, Napata, and Meroë. Collectively known as the Kingdom of Kush, they flourished during a period of nearly 3,000 years, skillfully making use of their rich natural resources such as gold and ivory, their location on key trade routes that reached Egypt, Greece, Rome, and central Africa, and their military strength.
During the Kerma period, which began around 2400 BC, trade relations were established with Egypt, the lands around the Red Sea, and northern Nubia, leading to increased exchanges of raw materials and finished products. On display in the exhibition are personal adornments, some of which had religious or symbolic associations, discovered in the burials at the site of Kerma, including semi-precious stones, bronze, ivory, faience (a glazed quartz-based ceramic), and shells from the Red Sea.
Desiring Nubia’s wealth and fearing its military power, the Egyptians invaded Kerma around 1550 BC and occupied the region for nearly five centuries. After the Egyptians withdrew around 1000 BC, the indigenous Kingdom of Kush revived, centered farther south along the Nile River at the city of Napata (in present-day Sudan). Napata grew very powerful, and around 725 BC King Piankhy invaded and seized Egypt. The Nubians ruled as pharaohs of Egypt until 653 BC, a period known as the 25th Dynasty, and maintained their capital at Napata for centuries thereafter.
On view are rich objects made of gold, silver, semi-precious stones, and faience found in royal burials near Napata. Nubian rulers were buried in tombs that often took the form of pyramids, although smaller and with different proportions than their Egyptian counterparts. The objects found, including those in the exhibition, frequently bear Egyptian imagery and hieroglyphic inscriptions, but many were crafted by Nubian artisans in a distinctive local style.
Soon after 600 BC, the Kushite kings of Nubia moved their administrative center from Napata to Meroë, farther south along the Nile River in present-day Sudan. Meroë was a cosmopolitan city connected to the vast trade networks of the Mediterranean, which were increasingly dominated by the Greeks and Romans. By around 300 BC, the city became the place for all royal burials.
The exhibition showcases works produced at Meroë, including jewelry and other ornaments of exceptional quality, which display a mix of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman influences but have their own vibrant Nubian character. Local jewelry makers were especially skilled at enameling, in which powdered glass was applied to metal and then melted to create colorful patterns. They also employed metalworking techniques such as filigree (fine wirework) and granulation (decoration with tiny gold spheres) to fashion intricate designs. Glass beads were frequently incorporated into necklaces, and cornelian was a particularly popular gemstone.
“Nubia was home to a rich cultural, religious, and artistic tradition, which is reflected in its high-quality jewelry from the Bronze Age to the first few centuries AD, but many people today are not familiar with this remarkable history, and it is rare to see Nubian material exhibited on the West Coast,” says Sara E. Cole, assistant curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum. “This exhibition provides an opportunity to introduce ancient Nubia to visitors at the Villa through the lens of their exquisitely crafted personal adornments and extraordinary royal burials.”
On view adjacent to the exhibition is a selection of four contemporary artworks by Melvin Edwards, June Edmonds, Lauren Halsey, and Umar Rashid, which are part of Adornment | Artifact, a multicultural and multimedia response to the exhibition Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan curated by jill moniz. Organized by a team of Diasporic women and presented at a number of sites around Los Angeles, the project connects the work of more than 60 local contemporary artists to millennia-old Nubian traditions. A series of exhibitions and programs across Los Angeles explores the images, impulses, and ideas dispersed beyond Africa through global trade routes and human migration. Visit the Adornment | Artifact website for more information on these sister exhibitions, including locations.
The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and curated by Sara E. Cole, assistant curator of antiquities at the Getty Museum. The objects displayed in the exhibition all belong to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and were excavated by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.