Lawrence M. Berman – författare

Sometime in the early fourth century bc, an unknown Egyptian master carved an exquisite portrait in dark-green stone. The statue that included this remarkably lifelike head of a priest, who was likely a citizen of ancient Memphis, may have been damaged when the Persians conquered Egypt in 343 bc before it was ritually buried in a temple complex dedicated to the worship of the sacred Apis bull. Its adventures were not over, though: after almost two millennia, the head was excavated by August Mariette, a founding figure in French Egyptology, under a permit from the Ottoman Pasha. Returned to France as part of a collection of antiquities assembled for the inimitable Bonaparte prince known as Plon-Plon, it found a home in his faux Pompeian palace. After disappearing again, it resurfaced in the personal collection of Edward Perry Warren, a turn-of-the-twentieth-century American aesthete, who sold it to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Along the way, this compelling and mysterious sculpture, known worldwide as the Boston Green Head, has reflected the West’s evolving understanding of Egyptian art – from initial assertions that it was too refined to be the product of a lesser civilization, to recognition of the sophistication of the culture that produced it.

Glorious, sophisticated, and refined works of art produced in ancient Nubia, drawn from one of the richest museum collections in the world and presented in their cultural contexts. Ancient Nubia was home to a series of civilizations between the sixth millennium bce and ad 350 that produced towering monuments, including more pyramids than in neighbouring Egypt, and artifacts of enduring beauty and significance. Nubia’s trade network reached across the Mediterranean and far into Africa. At the time that Nubian kings conquered Egypt, in the middle of the eighth century bce, they controlled one of the largest empires of the ancient world.The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has the largest and most important collection of ancient Nubian art outside of Khartoum, mostly gathered during the pioneering Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in the first half of the twentieth century. The objects highlighted in this volume include refined early ceramics, monumental statues and relief carvings made for royal pyramids, exquisite gold and enamel jewelry, playful decorations for furniture and clothing, and luxury goods traded from around the Mediterranean world. Together they provide a fascinating introduction to a sophisticated cultural tradition and a rich history that are still being revealed today.