Denise Doxey, Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Her field work includes excavations at Abydos and Saqqara in Egypt. She has curated or co-curated several major exhibitions, including Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC, Gold and the Gods: Jewels of Ancient Nubia, and the seminal Ancient Nubia Now (2019), a reckoning of the problematic legacies of racial prejudice and partage in Egyptology.
Some of the most spectacular, though enigmatic, objects in the Nubian collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, come from the tombs of royal women of the eighth century BCE. These women lived during the reign of King Piankhy (Piye), the ruler who subdued Egypt and unified the Nile Valley from the confluence of the Blue and White Niles to the Mediterranean Sea. They were buried at the site of el-Kurru with exceptional jewels and vessels of bronze, stone, and precious metal. Many of the items demonstrate the exchange of funerary beliefs and artistic styles between the kingdom of Kush and its neighbors to the north, while others are distinctively Nubian.
This visit is generously supported by the UVA Page-Barbour Endowment, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Interdisciplinary Archaeology Program.