200 Stuart Tyson Smith
between Egypt and Nubia and within Nubia itself (Trigger 1976; Adams 1977; Morkot
2001; O’Connor 1993; Smith 2003). During periods of Egyptian expansion, Nubia rep-
resented an external frontier, although in the south it was only marginally less complex
than the Egyptian core.
During the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2050–1650BC), Egypt conquered Lower Nubia,
installing an elaborate group of fortresses and colonial communities from the first to the
second cataract. This move secured direct access to the rich Wadi Allaqi gold fields and
eliminated a middle man in the long-distance exchange of other exotic goods from farther
south, such as ebony and ivory (Zibelius-Chen 1988; Smith 1995). At the same time, a
polity known as the kingdom of Kush developed a highly sophisticated, centralized state
at the site of Kerma in Upper Nubia just south of the third cataract (Edwards 2004;
Bonnet and Valbelle 2006). In 1650BC, they took control over Lower Nubia, dominat-
ing Egypt for 100 years (V. Davies 2003), but still working through the old Egyptian
colonial communities, who now served the king of Kush instead of the Egyptian Pharaoh
(Smith 1995).
Between 1550 and 1070BC, the Egyptians reoccupied their old colony and con-
quered the kingdom of Kush, establishing control at least through the fourth, and per-
haps the fifth cataract (Morkot 2001). New Kingdom colonial policy actively promoted
assimilation in Lower Nubia, and the local C-Group culture had largely, but not com-
pletely, disappeared within a generation (Säve-Söderbergh and Troy 1991; Smith 1998).
A new group of Nubian rulers turned the tables on their conquerors and became kings
of the Egyptian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty with Piankhi’s consolidation of power after his
campaign of 727BC. These Nubian Pharaohs ruled Egypt for about 100 years until
the final defeat of the last Nubian to rule Egypt, Tanutamun, at the hands of Assyrian
king Ashurbanipal. Although they lost control of Egypt, Tanutamun and his successors
continued to rule an extensive state for nearly 1,000 years that stretched from the sec-
ond to at least the sixth cataract, creating a vibrant new culture that blended elements
from both Egyptian and Nubian traditions (Smith 1998; Morkot 2000; Edwards 2004;
Török 2009).
Hekanefer, New Kingdom Nubian Prince
The tomb of the viceroy of Kush Huy, New Kingdom Egypt’s chief colonial administra-
tor in Nubia, contains a remarkable depiction of the ceremonial presentation ofInu,or
tribute, to King Tutankhamen (ca. 1325BC; N. Davies and Gardiner 1926: Pl. XXVII).
The scene names one of the Lower Nubian princes who grovel before the viceroy and
his pharaoh, a man named Hekanefer, prince of Miam (see Figure 13.3). Dark skinned,
with a distinctive Nubian hairstyle that includes ostrich plumes, wearing Nubian jewelry
and a leather belt and sash, he appears, along with his companions, as the embodiment
of the Nubian ethnictopos. Yet, in his Nubian tomb, he appears completely Egyptian,
and his grave goods are those of a member of the Egyptian elite who believed in all the
intricacies of an Osirian afterlife (Simpson 1963). I have argued that Hekanefer’s change
from Egyptian official to Nubian prince represents an instrumental shift in ethnic iden-
tity made in order to meet the demands of an imperial ideology that required him to
represent thetopicalNubian “other” pacified by the pharaoh (Smith 2003).