This talk took place at the March meeting of the Essex Egyptology Group. Click here to read the meeting review >>
Talk information
The image of a giraffe was added to both wheelmade and handmade pottery, faience plaques, temple walls and rock art in the Meroitic period of the Kingdom of Kush (c.570 BC-AD550), located in modern-day Sudan. However, giraffes do not appear in contemporary royal and elite art and architecture.
This talk explores the giraffe motif in Kush and compares this to its use earlier in Sudanese history as well as in neighbouring Egypt. The use of this motif on specific media suggests it was important in the symbolic language shared in the Middle Nile Region, but not in the elite canon, meaning it may be a window into understanding oral traditional practices of this time, that perhaps evolved and circulated over a long time period.
Dr Loretta Kilroe is Project Curator: Sudan and Nubia at the British Museum