Kate Rose Harvard University

MEMS Workshop Meeting

This seminar explores the complexity of identity and politics in the Kingdom of Kush, composed of conquerors of Egypt and Nubia from 760-656 BCE.  Archaeological scholarship continues to debate Kushite cultural identity. Missing from these studies are considerations of the complexity of identity politics within Kushite royal society.  This research investigates the intersection of Kushite kinship, gender identity, and social status through studies of their cemeteries.  Rose employs Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to photograph, map, and 3D model ancient cemeteries. The data from these models provides the basis for analyzing spatial patterns in cemeteries. Rose argues determining location and other characteristics of one’s tomb was a political act for Kushite royals. Queens negotiated limitations determined by their kinship to other kings, and status as women within a male hegemony to influence where they would be buried. Mortuary practices are highly politicized across cultures, but the ways that communities negotiate the social aspects of death are culturally specific. Archaeological studies of identity politics and mortuary practices in the past can be used in comparisons across time and space to explore the intangible dynamics of death and identity.