Spring 2008: Of Note

Nubian bed

Some kings were buried in tombs the size of football fields, on beds inlaid with ivory.

Courtesy the Michael C. Carlos museum

The Lost Kingdom of Nubia

By Mary J. Loftus

Exhibit Information

The traveling exhibition Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will be at the Carlos Museum until August 31, 2008. More information at carlos.emory.edu.

Tutankhamun comes to Atlanta

The awe of ancient Egypt promises to lure many thousands of inquisitive viewers to Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, brought to Atlanta by the Michael C. Carlos Museum. Read more

In the valley of the Nile, an ancient civilization flourished during a span of more than six thousand years, leaving behind impressive pyramid tombs filled with royal treasures.

“Egypt wasn’t the only great African civilization,” said Peter Lacovara, curator of ancient Egyptian arts and artifacts at the Carlos Museum, who led the opening tour of the traveling exhibition, Lost Kingdoms of the Nile: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Boston collection is augmented by pieces from the Carlos Museum’s own Nubian collection.

Nubia, which is today southern Egypt and the northern Sudan, was rich in gold, and the region flourished from 6,000 BC to AD 350. The show consists of more than 250 objects, from some of the earliest pottery in the world to a golden royal diadem (an elaborate jeweled crown) reconstructed in its entirety for the first time.