About the lecture
After a series of conflicts, starting with ca. 1550 BCE, Egypt slowly but surely defeated the kingdom of Kush with its capital in Kerma and conquered Nubia. Very early on, the Egyptian state sponsored the foundation of a number of settlements known as “temple-towns”. These were populated by first generation settler Egyptians, but also local Nubians and later on deportees from the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean. Over the following centuries the demographics of the region changed considerably, now also including second and later generation Egyptians, people of local Nubian descent, people of mixed descent etc. The region was administrated based on the Egyptian state model and from early on local elites were part of this administration often described as “colonial”.
Whereas early to mid-20th century scholars largely projected their own colonial experiences onto New Kingdom in Egypt and Nubia, recent debates inspired by postcolonial and decolonial theory took a critical stance towards this. The focus is now on local agency, complex entanglements of identities and material culture, ambiguity, and mimicry, as a local response to colonization.
Dress and adornment play an important role in this discussion. However, their gender aspects have so far not been highlighted. There is a difference in the way Egyptians, Nubians, and Nubians in Egyptian service or administration dressed and adorned. Furthermore, Nubian women are attested as dependents in Egyptian households in Egypt and there is also evidence that Nubian men were desirable palace personnel (e.g., fan-bearers) in Egypt and the Near East.
Therefore, this paper considers the possibility that Egyptian colonization of Nubia also had consequences on how gender was understood in different contexts. Starting from the fact that dress and adornment are often means to fulfil certain norms of gender, this paper examines how these could have been contested in a colonial setting. Last but not the least, this paper will deal with the question if it is possible to postulate a notion of “colonial desire” in the Late Bronze Age.
About Dr. Matić
Uroš Matić is a lecturer at the Universities of Graz and Innsbruck in Austria. His research focus is on war and violence in ancient Egypt, gender studies and settlement archaeology. He obtained his PhD from the Institute for Egyptology and Coptic Studies of the University of Münster in 2017 and received two prizes for his dissertation (Philippika prize of Harrassowitz in 2018 and Best Publication Award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2020).
Since 2018 he conducted several postdoctoral projects dealing with cosmetic substances and utensils in New Kingdom Nubia (DAAD P.R.I.M.E fellowship), ancient Egyptian lists of spoils of war (Foundation for Postgraduates of Egyptology in Vienna) and pottery from Egyptian settlement in Kom Ombo (Austrian Archaeological Institute). He conducted fieldwork and museum studies in Egypt, Sudan and Lebanon. He is currently also conducting research in historical archaeology for Technical Museum in Vienna, focusing on the Egyptian workforce behind the construction of the Suez Canal.
Since 2009 he is a member of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) and the community Archaeology and Gender in Europe (AGE) His most recent publications are Violence and Gender in Ancient Egypt (Routledge, 2021) and Beautiful Bodies. Gender and Corporeal Aesthetics in the Past (Oxbow, 2022).
Digital event - how to participate
The seminar will be held digitally. If you wish to attend a lecture, you need to register in advance.
A zoom link will be sent to you before the event.
You can download Zoom or use your browser: https://zoom.us/download
This lecture is part of the lecture series Anncient Adornment
Suggestions for further Reading
- Budka, J. and Lemos, R. 2021. Alternatives to colonization and marginal identities in New Kingdom colonial Nubia (1550–1070 BCE). World Archaeology 53.3: 401-418.
- Lugones, M. 2008. Coloniality of Gender. Worlds and Knowledges Otherwise (Spring 2018): 1-17.
- Matić, U. 2020. Ethnic Identities in the Land of the Pharaohs. Past and Present Approaches in Egyptology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Van Pelt, W. P. 2013. Revising Egypto-Nubian Relations in New Kingdom Lower Nubia: From Egyptianization to Cultural Entanglement. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23.3: 523-550.
- Smith, S. T. 2003. Wretched Kush. Ethnic Identities and Boundries in Egypt's Nubian Empire. London and New York: Routledge.
- Young, R. 1995. Colonial Desire. Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London and New York: Routledge.
About the lecture series
A Digital Lecture Series on strategies of body adornment in ancient Mediterranean cultures
With this lecture series, we wish to reflect on different kinds of body adornment such as jewellery, headdresses, seals, staffs, weapons, tattoos, and cosmetics. It is our aim to investigate aesthetics and strategies of adorning bodies in ancient Mediterranean cultures, and to explore how body adornment relates to gender, hierarchy, and power.
Seven excellent international researchers, experts on the material cultures and texts of the ancient Mediterranean, will present a 30-minute lecture, followed by amble time for questions and discussion.
We are interested in mapping body adornment as broadly as possible and therefore we encourage our speakers to consider this topic from a multi-sensorial perspective and to give thought to both touch, smell, taste, hearing and vision.
Organizers
The lecture series is organized by Professor Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme and hosted by The Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo and the Faculty’s research group Biblical Texts, Cultures and Receptions.
Ancient Adornment Programme - Fall 2024
- Friday September 13 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Uroš Matić: “Dress, Adornment and Coloniality of Gender and Desire in New Kingdom Egypt and Nubia”
- Friday September 27 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Sarah Hollaender: “Notorious Cross-Dressers? (Re)styling Hercules and Omphale in Roman Antiquity”
- Friday October 11 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Bruno Biermann: “Levantine Seals between the Material, Sensory, and the Social: Archaeological, Iconographic, and Exegetical Perspectives on Beauty, Power, and Dress”
- Friday November 1 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Susannah Rees: “Eye-paints in the Hebrew Bible: Looking for Meaning”
- Friday November 15 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Melanie Wasmuth: “Blossoms for eternity – floral jewellery in ancient Egypt”
- Friday December 6 at 3pm (Oslo): Dr. Laurence Darsigny-Trépanier and Dr. Anne Létourneau: “Bejeweled Biblical Animals: Constructing Gender with Non-Human Bling”