In focus: Napatan coronation ceremonies

After this week’s DiverseNile Seminar by Patrizia Heindl on the mysterious fire dogs (for those who missed it: it was recorded and the video is available online), I am delighted to announce the upcoming seminar.

Our dear friend and colleague El-Hassan Ahmed Mohamed will be speaking about his long-time research on Napatan royal stelae and their inscriptions.

El-Hassan will address the most important ritual event in the kingdom of Kush: the coronation of the king, which generally took place first in a great public spectacle at Napata (Jebel Barkal).  We know that this ceremony was then repeated on  a smaller  scale at other Amun temples like for example at Kawa. Many questions about Napatan and Meroitic kingship remain unanswered, and the study of the most important ritual event is of great importance.

El-Hassan will review all the information concerning the royal coronation as described in the royal Kushite stelae, including questions about the royal succession.

I am very much looking forward to this DiverseNile seminar, which will present the research of a distinguished Sudanese colleague who carried out his work in exile in Cairo during the war. We must be grateful to him and so many others for continuing their work despite all the difficulties. And especially grateful that they share it with us. Don’t miss El-Hassan’s next lecture!

In focus: Kushite Thebes in Munich

The winter term of LMU Munich is already quite advanced and there a number of lectures coming up, introducing special topics to experts, students and also the interested public.

Today, the MUAFS team member Veronica Hinterhuber will present her ongoing research on Kushite festival architecture in Thebes which is the subject of her PhD thesis at Humboldt-University Berlin.

As usual we offer free entry in order to advertise Sudan archaeology here in Munich, the venue is the Egyptian Museum as our cooperation partner in the lecture series „The South Gate to the Ancient World“.

Do not miss this chance to get an introduction into the intriguing building activities by Kushites kings like Taharqa at Karnak and Luxor, the centre of the Egyptian cult of Amun. Veronica will focus in particual on the function of the architecture built by the Twenty-fifth Dynasty in Thebes – important aspects which are both relevant for Egyptian and Kushite temple architecture.