The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston holds the finest collections of antiquities from ancient Nubia outside Egypt and Sudan, but the museum has only rarely displayed this material since its excavation by George Reisner in the early 20th century. The exhibition \u201cAncient Nubia Now\u201d (2019\u20132020) was a visually spectacular display that was in one sense a fairly traditional introduction to the history and visual cultures of Nubia. The survey began with the kingdom of Kerma (2400\u20131500 BCE), extended through the Egyptian occupation of the New Kingdom (1550\u20131070 BCE), and into the Napatan and Meroitic periods of the empire of Kush (750 BCE\u2013364 CE). The exhibition was also innovative, however, in its inclusion of a range of community voices and mild criticism of the museum itself. Noncuratorial voices included members of the Nubian diaspora and African-American scholars. The museum\u2019s self-criticism acknowledged the colonial history of the collection itself, Reisner\u2019s history of racist interpretations of the archaeological record, and the museum\u2019s responsibilities as stewards of the collection. This review walks readers through the exhibit in its multiple voices and highlights as well some of the absences in its presentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston holds the finest collections of antiquities from ancient Nubia outside Egypt and Sudan, but the museum has only rarely displayed this material since its excavation by George Reisner in the early 20th century. The exhibition \u201cAncient Nubia Now\u201d (2019\u20132020) was a visually spectacular display that was in one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[],"issues":[778],"region":[],"class_list":["post-1540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-museum-review","issues-778"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n