Ancient Nubia Lessons & Resources

Ancient Nubia Lessons & Curriculum

Nubian Queens Past and Present: a short Powerpoint that introduces 7 Meroitic Queens and 1 present “queen” named Alaa Salah for her revolutionary role in toppling Omar El Bashir in 2019. A great  resource to celebrate Women’s History Month.

Lessons from Archeology in the Community with videos that explain the relationship between Egypt and Nubia, and featuring scholars Deborah Heard and Solange Ashby, among other great scholars who speak about archeology in lay language. Great for 4th-5th grade and up.

Gebel Barkal and Sites of the Napatan Region, Sudan: A beautiful Google Arts experiment “storymap” style of resource that covers the range of sites of ancient Napata. A great place to start to visualize Napata as a whole.

Explore Sudan’s Pyramids of Meroe: An impressive Google Arts experiment that “brings” students up close to the pyramids and inside of them. An AI augmented exhibit, ending with case studies of Kings and Queens, Meroitic Language and street views.

Archeological Sites of the Island of Meroe, Sudan: A beautiful Google Arts experiment, “story map” type of resource that covers the range of sites of ancient Meroe. A great place to start to visualize Meroe as a whole.

Storymap about Ancient Nubia by the Badè Museum of Biblical Archeology in Berkeley, CA. The map presents interactive “hot spots” with videos and images to engage students.

The Kush In Ancient Nubia and Egypt , PBS Learning Media, grades 6-12, background information and student activities.

Art of Ancient Nubia Teaching Resources, Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection of Nubia artifacts, lists of pictures, and classroom activities.

Google Earth Visit through the Nile Valley: Looking for an resource to introduce the geographies of the ancient Nile Valley societies? Use this Google Earth presentation to lead your students onto a tour.

Webinars and Videos

Introduction to Ancient Nubia and the Kingdoms of Kush– A good introductory video for grades 2-6 detailing the cultural and political powerhouse of Kushite kingdoms which influenced events in the ancient Near East as well as those of the Roman Empire. 

Kingdom of Kush – History of Africa with Zeinab Badawi, BBC documentary (45 min). Journalist Zeinab Badawi is Sudanese-British, so this episode is particularly interesting as she explores her own contexts.

Africa: Episode 1: Basil Davidson (53 min).

New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, a presentation by Denise Doxey for ARCE

Ancient Nubia: Art and Insight, a webinar in collaboration between Primary Source and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The presenter is Denise Doxey, curator of the exhibit Ancient Nubia Now!

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston collection of videos on Nubia on youtube

Ancient Nubia: History, Location, and Facts. Study.com’s basic introduction, useful to present some brief facts.

King Ergamenes and the Meroitic Empire, Ancient.EU video

Amazing Drone Footage of Nubia Pyramids, Ancient. EU video, with a short but important commentary on the relevance of ancient Nubia to Nubians today.

Deborah Heard on Sensing Inequalities and Ancient Nubia, a presentation on how inequality and racial differentiation, as new concepts, shape our view of the Nubian past.

Solange Ashby on Sacred Dancers – Nubian Women as Priestesses of Hathor, a presentation at UC Berkeley.

Teaching About Nubia in the K-12 Classroom, Dr. Stuart Smith’s presentation at the 2020 African Studies Association Teachers’ Workshop. His presentation slides are available here.

Episode 1 of BBC Four’s television documentary series  “Lost Kingdoms of Africa” narrated by cultural historian Augustus (Gus) Casely-Hayford.

Ancient Nubia Podcasts

What Teachers Need to Know: Africa Edition – Episode 9: Nubia on the Nile: African Civilizations and the Politics of Memory. Hear researcher Deborah Heard and our very own Teaching Africa teacher Stephen Guerriero talk about their work on Nubia.

Undark: Finding Nubia

Podcasting Nubia

Other Resources

Nubia — History and Antiquities Research Guide Open Source Material from the BU African Studies Library. Scroll down the page to find both “history” and “antiquities” lists.

The Kingdom of Kush. Ancient.Eu, a useful background article on Kush with some photographs.

Meroe, Ancient.Eu article with some photographs.

Relics from the Kingdom of Kush and Ancient Nubia, Ancient.Eu’s image gallery

Museum of Fine Arts Boston Nubian Art and Nubian Jewelry image galleries

Interrelations of Kerma and Pharaonic Egypt, Ancient.Eu article.

Aspelta: A Nubian King’s Burial Chamber at the National Center of Afro-American Artists

Nubian Music

Nubian Music Culture, Experience Nubia, includes descriptions of instruments, key artists, and the Nubian national song.

Hamza El-Din songs on Spotify

Ali Hassan Kuban songs on Spotify

Slides show (2 min) with accompanying music Al Kartch, by Aswan Troupe for Folkloric Arts, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Alsarah and the Nubatones songs on Spotify

Aïda composed by Verdi, sung by Leontyne Price and Placido Domingo 

Leontyne Price sings Aïda

Alsarah, Guardian Newspaper article gives a succinct description of her work, with an interview about the Nubian-ness of Alsarah’s  music, and a 5 min YouTube clip of her singing with her briefly describing the lyrics to the song.

Books for Adults

Nubia: ancient kingdoms of Africa by Joyce L. Haynes.

Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms of the Nile edited by Marjorie M. Fisher, Peter Lacovara, Slima Ikram, and Sue D’Auria

Ancient African civilizations: Kush and Axum edited by Stanley Burstein 

Ancient civilizations of Africa by UNESCO, edited by G. Mokhtar 

Ancient Nubia by P. L. Shinnie 

Nubia: ancient kingdoms of Africa [exhibition catalog] by Geoff Emberling 

The Kingdom of Kush: The Napatan and Meroitic Empires by Derek A. Welsby 

Nubian ethnographies by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea 

The poem: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes.

NUBIA: The Rise and Fall of African Empires by Andre Antonio Samuels

Jewels of Ancient Nubia by Yvonne Markowitx and Denise Doxey

Unearthing Ancient Nubia: Photographs from the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition by Lawrence Berman. This book is a good resource to discuss the relationship of archeology, museums, and heritage plundering and in particular, the role of George Reisner.

Juvenile Books

As Nubia is usually taught at grades 5-7, most of these books reflect that orientation. 

  • Aïda by Leontyne Price (picture book)
  •  Rise of the Golden Cobra by Henry T. Aubin (young adult novel that received the Children’s Africana Book Award. 
  • Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbor: an activity guide by Marian Broida

This is an activity-based book on the Nubians, Egyptians & 2 other nations. 

  • Egypt, Kush, Aksum: northeast Africa by Kenny Mann 
  • A Glorious Past: ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, and Nubia by Earnestine Jenkins 
  • The Nubians: people of the ancient Nile by Robert Steven Bianchi 
  • Nubian Kingdoms by Edna R. Russmann 
  • Nubia (Lost Worlds and Mysterious Civilizations) by Adam Woog

Periodicals

  • For grades 4-8: Calliope: “Ancient Nubia,” 1996 
  • For grades 4-8: Dig! Magazine of archeology (general articles on Africa) 
  • For grades 4-6: The African Voice: Nubia’s Candace Strikes Again! a 4-page mock newspaper of ancient Nubian news; published by Time (as part of a small box on African kingdoms), now out of print. 
  • For adults:

Present Connect

Egypt’s Nubians continue their long wait to ancestral lands (PRI)

Nubian Queen becomes Sudans’ Protest Symbol (BBC) Kandaka, dubbed “The Nubian Queen” in April 2019, leading chants protesting Omar Al-Bashir.

Biblical References to Nubians 

  • Moses had a Nubian wife: Numbers 12:1
  • Isaiah described the people of Nubia “Ethiopia” as a “great” and “formidable” nation.
  • Taharqa, Nubian king, and son of the King Piye, who conquered Egypt and beat off the Assyrians: in the Bible he is referred to as “Ethiopian”: 2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9