The story of the discovery of the monuments and relics of the Nubian black rulers of ancient Egypt and an photographic guide to them.
Nubian Pharaohs Black Kings on the Nile by Charles Bonnet and Dominique Valbelle (Foreword by Jean Leclant. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo, 2005.) discussed Bonnet's 2003 archaeological work at the Kerma site in Egypt near the third cataract of the Nile. There they uncovered statutes of Egyptian royalty verifying that in the second and first millenniums BCE black pharaohs ruled parts of Egypt.
These pharaohs were first referred to as "Ethiopian," but today are generally referred to as "Kushite." Since 1977, Bonnet, former president of the International Nubiology Association, has been director of this Kerma site. Valbelle is president of the French Egyptology Association and a Sorbonne professor.
The book looks at the topic from three different perspectives—discovery of the statues and related relics; the historical and ethnographic data they yield and the statues as art work; and thirdly, the history of this part of the ancient Near East as updated and modified by the statues' discovery.
The statues "attest to the important role played by the Kerma region in the history of Nubian-Egyptian relations [while also providing] unprecedented information about the physical appearance of the depicted kings and, more generally, about stylistic developments in statuary of that period."
The text is richly detailed from archaeological adventure to art appreciation. The co-authors, leading experts in Egyptology specializing in the Nubian area and historical period, avoid scholarly minutiae while nonetheless providing a handsome work for both scholars and general readers.
For its incomparable combination of diverse color photographs and its accessible text by the two experts, "The Nubian Pharaohs" is an outstanding addition to the field of Egyptology and ancient Near Eastern studies. 215 pages. $39.95 hardcover, 10" x 13-1/2", color photographs, maps, chronology, bibliography.
