A KINGDOM MISPLACED : Historically, Egypt Has Gotten All the Glory--but Who Knew About Nubia?

Nubia has languished in Egypt’s shadow for much of history, but in the last few years scholars have started to see the ancient Nile civilization in a new light.

“Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa,” an exhibition that opened in 1992 at the University of Pennsylvania, has helped bring public attention to those changing views. National magazines from Newsweek to Smithsonian have weighed in on the subject, digging into the sometimes thorny reasons that Nubian culture was downplayed in the first place--reasons that some say include implicit racism among past scholars.

The exhibit opens Friday at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, and with it comes discussion of the sometimes-controversial issues that have followed the show since the beginning. While those issues are important ones, curator David O’Connor says, he hopes they won’t cloud appreciation of the objects themselves.

In addition to being “wonderfully made,” O’Connor said, the artifacts on display--including a wide array of ceramics and also funerary objects, jewelry, tools and weapons--demonstrate clearly the ways in which the culture of Nubia differed from that of its neighbor to the north.

In viewing the works, he said, “you realize that you’re looking at a very different culture than Egypt.” O’Connor is curator-in-charge of the Egyptian Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and a professor of Egyptology.

“I think that the exhibit is making the public aware of Nubian civilization and culture in a way that wasn’t possible before, unless you happened to live near one of the big, permanent collections,” O’Connor said. “This is the most impressive way people can learn about (Nubia). It just makes a very tremendous impression that can’t be equaled by even the most beautifully illustrated art book.”

Nubia stretched for almost 900 miles along the Nile in what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It was long seen by scholars as peripheral to ancient Egyptian civilization, dependent on it for cultural stimulation and inferior to it in political organization.

“When you’re talking about ancient Nubia, Egyptologists tended to take their view from ancient Egyptian literature, which tends to depict all other civilizations as dependent on Egypt,” O’Connor said.

There was an unspoken assumption at work as well: “For quite a long time, scholars tended to think that Africa couldn’t really produce substantial civilization or substantial culture.” By this reasoning, Egypt was seen as more of a Mediterranean culture than an African one.

Scholars are now finding that Nubia had a much more sophisticated culture than was earlier presumed and that it deserves to be evaluated as a civilization on its own terms.

“Nubia has picked up as an area of interest,” O’Connor said. “This interest in Nubia keys in with a growing interest in the ancient kingdoms of Africa, particularly among African Americans.”

Revisionists believe that large kingdoms arose in Nubia much earlier than previously thought, well back into the Bronze Age. The exhibit includes a wide variety of artifacts from this period, including eggshell-thin painted bowls and jars from the early Bronze Age (3100 to 2200 BC), and other ceramics and funerary goods from Kerma, an important capital of Upper Nubia in the period from 2500 to 1500 BC.

Artifacts in the exhibit represent an Egyptian colonial period (1550 to 1100 BC) and the Napatan and Meroitic periods of Nubian history (900 BC to AD 350, named for the two capital cities of the time). Influences moved both north and south during this period; in fact, the kings of the 25th Dynasty in Egypt (712 to 657 BC) were Nubians. The Meroitic monarchy was replaced by smaller kingdoms from AD 320 to 550; after 600, a series of Christian kingdoms arose throughout Nubia before the region’s conversion to Islam in the 16th Century. “Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa” includes more than 300 artifacts tracing a 3,500-year history.

Many of the artifacts in the University of Pennsylvania’s collections were gathered in “salvage” operations at sites that were later inundated by Lake Nassar after periodic raising of the Aswan Dam. Unlike in Egypt, which has been well-excavated, there remains room for significant discoveries in Nubia--discoveries that may change the nature of the continuing debate over the level of Nubian civilization.

* What: “Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa.”

* When: Opening Friday, May 13, and continuing through Aug. 14. Museum hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Thursdays until 9 p.m.).

* Where: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: Take Interstate 5 to the Main Street exit in Santa Ana. Drive south to the museum (parking adjacent on 20th Street).

* Wherewithal: $4.50 for adults, $3 for seniors and students, $1.50 for children ages 5 to 12 (under 5 free).

* Where to call: (714) 567-3600.

MORE ART

IN LAGUNA BEACH: CONSUMER CULTURE

“Commodity Image,” organized by the International Center of Photography, New York, explores the role of photography in consumer society with works by 37 artists. It opens Friday, May 13, and runs through July 24 at the Laguna Art Museum. (714) 494-6531.

IN LONG BEACH: L.A. & ART

“Love in the Ruins: Art and the Inspiration of L.A.,” at the Long Beach Museum of Art through May 22, explores the effects of divergent aspects of life in Los Angeles on 23 artists working in painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video and audio. (310) 439-2119.

IN LOS ANGELES: URBAN PLANNING

“Urban Revisions: Current Projects for the Public Realm,” opening Sunday, May 15, (and running through July 24) at the Museum of Contemporary Art, spotlights 18 innovative transportation and neighborhood planning projects for U.S. cities. (213) 621-2766.

So, Nubia-Related Activities

The following educational events are offered in conjunction with “Ancient Nubia: Egypt’s Rival in Africa” at the Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. Events are free with museum admission ($1.50 to $4.50), unless otherwise noted. For those events with an admission fee, prices include museum admission. For more information, call (714) 567-3600.

* David O’Connor of the University of Pennsylvania, curator of the exhibit, will speak about the show Saturday, May 14, at 2 p.m. $5 for museum members and $10 for others.

* “The Nile,” a film history of the great river, will screen May 26 at 7:30 p.m.

* A Nubian feast will be re-created by John Sharpe, Topaz chef, on May 27 at 6 p.m. at the restaurant, situated in the museum building. Sharpe will also give a lecture on Nubian and African food. $35.

* “Pharaoh’s Rule: Egypt, the Exodus and the Myth of Osiris,” a film narrated by Joseph Campbell, will screen June 2 at 7:30 p.m. It explores the mythical and historical roots of the Exodus and the effect of Egypt on Western civilization.

* The film “Nubia ‘64: Saving the Temples” explores the moving of entire temples at the time of the building of the Aswan Dam; “Before the Alphabet” offers a brief account of the development of writing and decipherment of cuneiform and hieroglyphics. They will screen June 9, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

* In an all-day symposium June 11, scholars will explore issues of ancient life in Nubia and Egypt, and the interactions between North Africa and the Greco-Roman world. From 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. $5 for museum members, $7.50 for others.

* “This Old Pyramid,” a film in which varied theories about the building of the pyramids are put to the test, will screen June 23 at 7:30 p.m.

* Cultural anthropologist Anne Jennings will discuss fieldwork among the people of a modern Nubian village, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. $5 for museum members and $7.50 for others.

* Two films, “The Curse of King Tut” and “Who Was Cleopatra?,” will screen July 7, beginning at 7:30 p.m.