Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile and Beyond
Edited by Geoff Emberling and Suzanne Davis, with
contributions by Rebecca Benefiel, Ayman Damarany, Fawzi Hassan Bakhiet,
Jeremy Pope, Alexandros Tsakos, Bruce Beyer Williams, and Bogdan
Zurawski
Year of Publication: 2019
Graffiti — unsanctioned marks in public built spaces — are
increasingly recognized as worthy of study in contexts both ancient and
modern. For ancient societies, graffiti are personal expressions that
are otherwise rare in the archaeological and historical record.
This volume is focused around a group of ancient and medieval figural
graffiti found in 2015 by an archaeological project of the Kelsey
Museum, University of Michigan, at the site of El-Kurru. Located in
northern Sudan, El-Kurru was a royal pyramid burial ground of kings and
queens of Kush from about 850 to 650 BCE. Written in conjunction with
the exhibition Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile at the Kelsey Museum
(on view 23 August 2019–29 March 2020), essays by an international group
of seven scholars present the site of El-Kurru and its graffiti in
historical context. Chapters discuss the history of Kush, ancient
graffiti in a funerary temple and medieval graffiti on a pyramid at
El-Kurru, and graffiti at other sites in Kush and Egypt (Musawwarat
es-Sufra, Philae, and Banganarti) and beyond (Pompeii). Other chapters
discuss the rock art of Sudan and methods used for the conservation and
documentation of graffiti at El-Kurru. The volume concludes with an
annotated catalog of graffiti from El-Kurru and a photo essay of the
contemporary Nile Valley practice of “Hajj images” that commemorate
Muslim pilgrimage.
Written to engage non-specialist readers, the book will be of
interest to archaeologists, ancient and medieval historians, and art
historians working in the Nile Valley and beyond, and to a broader
community interested in these subjects.
* * * * * * * * * *
Graffiti as Devotion along the Nile and Beyond
Kelsey Museum Publications 16
Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9906623-9-6
Pp. xviii + 193, color illustrations throughout
Paperback, 7" x 10"
$39.00
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