Podcast Season 3, Episode 7 – Do Not Afflict the Widow: the Women of Ancient Nubia with Jacke Philips

Headshot of Dr. Jacke Philips who has brown and red hair and wears a black t-shirt.
Dr. Jacke Philips

Jacke Philips is a Research Associate at the Centre of African Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and an Affiliated Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto is in Egyptian Archaeology, but broadened her research interests to many of the surrounding civilisations that interacted with Egypt. She has been conducting fieldwork in Greece since 1981, in Sudan since 1985, and in Ethiopia since 1993. Her interests focus on comparative typologies and cross-acculturations within Northeast Africa, the East Mediterranean and beyond the Red Sea, and has published extensively on these and other topics. 

Listen in, as Dr. Philips introduces us to her work on women in ancient Nubia, including the lives of rulers, royals as well as everyday women, through an examination of their graves, tattoos, statues, and the historical sources that make reference to women. 

Interested in learning more? Check out these related works by Dr. Philips:

Phillips, J.S. (2016). Women in Ancient Nubia. In S.T. Budin and J.M. Turfa (eds.), Women in Antiquity, pp. 280-98. Routledge.

Lohwasser, A. and J.S. Phillips (2021). Women in Ancient Kush, in G. Emberling and B.B. Williams (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Nubia, pp. 1014-1042. Oxford University Press.

Looking for a transcript of this episode? Click here.
Line map of ancient Nubia showing its boundaries within modern Egypt and Sudan.
Map of Nubia, showing geographic & LN/UN subdivisions.  Adams, William Y.  1977.  Nubia  Corridor to Africa.  Princeton:  Allan Lane, 25 Fig. 5.
Incised drawing of a women slaying a lion on the exterior of a pylon.
Relief of Queen Amanitore smiting enemies, sandstone, reign of Natakamani and Amanitore (1/2 1 c. AD), Naga, North side of entrance pylon to ‘Lion Temple’ of Apedemak (her husband, King Natakamani, is on South side).  Photo: Chris Naunton.
Black stone with a faded image of Queen Sakhmakh sitting on a throne flanked by two individuals.
Stela of Queen Sakhmakh, granite, Napatan, reign of Nastasen and Sakhmakh (335-315 BC), H 60.1, W 37.9, Th 9.0 cm, from Jebel Barkal, Temple B500, in front of the first pylon (B 551), Khartoum 1853.  Note she wears the Red crown with feathers (of Amun) and the royal curled beard, and carries the royal mace and sceptre (all continued from Egyptian iconography during this period), and she is referred to as ‘king’ twice on this stela.  Catalogue:  Wildung, Dietrich, ed. 1997  Sudan:  Ancient Kingdoms of the Nile, Paris/New York:  Flammarion, 239-240 cat. 268.
Detail of Nubian procession to Huy. A number of Nubian figures move from left to right in this scene, carrying a variety of offerings towards Tutankhamun, who is outside of the picture.
Detail of Nubian procession to Huy (& Tutankhamun, out of picture to R), Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun, Tomb of Huy (TT 40) at Qurna, left rear wall.  Facsimile.  Lepsius, Karl-Richard 1849-1859, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien : nach den Zeichnungen der von seiner Majestät dem Koenige von Preussen Friedrich Wilhelm IV nach diesen Ländern gesendeten und in den Jahren 1842-1845 ausgeführten wissenschaftlichen Expedition / herausgegeben und erläutert von C.R. Lepsius. Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Abtheilung III, Pl. 117.
Qore and Queen Nawidemak with winged Isis behind her and with Prince Etareteya censing her and a number of offering bearers in front of her.
Qore and Queen Nawidemak with winged Isis behind her and with Prince Etareteya censing her and a number of offering bearers in front of her, original coloured drawing of now destroyed wall painting, 1st half of 1st c. AD, from her pyramid Bar. 6, Jebel Barkal.  Drawing by Ernst Weidenback in 1844 for Karl Lepsius, Karl-Richard  1849-1859, Denkmäler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien : nach den Zeichnungen der von seiner Majestät dem Koenige von Preussen Friedrich Wilhelm IV nach diesen Ländern gesendeten und in den Jahren 1842-1845 ausgeführten wissenschaftlichen Expedition. Berlin:  Nicolaische Buchhandlung, Vol. V, Pl. 19.
Additional Materials Related to this Podcast

Eide, T., T. Hägg, R.H. Holton–Pierce and L. Török, eds. (1994-2000). Fontes Historiae Nubiorum: Textual Sources for the History of the Middle Nile Region between the Eighth Century BC and the Sixth Century AD. (4 vols.). Department of Classics, University of Bergen.

Espinel, A.D. (2013). A newly identified Old Kingdom execration text. In Decorum and experience. Essays in ancient culture for John Baines. Eds. E. Frood and A. McDonald, pp. 26–33.

Haynes, J. and M. Santini-Ritt (2012). Women in Ancient Nubia. In: Ancient Nubia. African Kingdoms on the Nile, eds. M.J. Fisher, P. Lacovara, S. Ikram and S. D’Auria. American University in Cairo Press, pp. 170–185.

Kahn D. (2005). The Royal Succession in the 25th Dynasty, Der antike Sudan (=MittSAG) 16: 143-163.

Kendall, T. (1989).  Ethnoarchaeology in Meroitic Studies, in: S. Donadoni (ed.), Studia Meroitica 1984. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference for Meroitic Studies, Rome 1984 (Meroitica 10): 625–745.

Lohwasser, A. (2001). Queenship in Kush: Status, Role and Ideology of Royal Women.  Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 38: 61-76.

Morkot, R. (1999). Kingship and Kinship in the Empire of Kush.  Meroitica 15: 179-229.

Reavis, K. (2014). Skeletal analysis: Investigating senescence in ancient NubiaJournal of Purdue Undergraduate Research 4: 40–47.

Smith, S.T. (2003). Wretched Kush. Ethnic identities and boundaries in Egypt’s Nubian Empire.  Routledge.

Tassie, G.J. (2003). Identifying the Practice of Tattooing in Ancient Egypt and NubiaPapers from the Institute of Archaeology 14: 8–101.

Van Pelt, P. (2013). Revising Egypto–Nubian Relations in New Kingdom Lower Egypt: From Egyptianization to Cultural Entanglement. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23: 523–550.

Published by Peopling the Past

A Digital Humanities initiative that hosts free, open-access resources for teaching and learning about real people in the ancient world and the people who study them.

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