Educational Media Reviews Online

An informational video from the Films for the Humanities and Sciences series, Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush is a fine introduction for students to an exploration of Ancient Egypt’s southern neighbor.

At 27 minutes, it is difficult for the film to deeply explore the larger archeological issues of a culture which certainly contributed to and, as the film expresses, dominated for a period the more well-known Ancient Egyptian culture, but Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush provides a good understanding of basic archeology and some of its principles overall and the importance of this arguably overshadowed political area. The film not only provides a solid, if somewhat brief, overview of what is known of Nubian culture, but highlights the importance of this ancient and largely independent society.

While a short film that might otherwise ignore not only the fundamentals of historical research or archeology and thus provide an unbalanced view for students, this film is truly quite “fair” in its examination of the history of Nubia itself, the frantic reclamation of its historical artifacts at the time of UNESCO’s Nubian Salvage Campaign in the 1960s upon the construction of the Aswan Dam, and chronicles logical points to the present.

Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush is, admittedly, somewhat “slight” in its depth, if not its scope, but the film has no pretentions otherwise. As it is, the documentary provides a useful foundation and introduction to Ancient Egypt’s relatively ignored southern neighbor, a kingdom in its own right. Providing a brief history of the region, the film highlights not only Nubia’s own, internal cultural significance, but also its viability as a competitive Nile culture (and one that outlasted Ancient Egypt, at that). Further, the film hints at contemporary archeology’s attempt to reconcile the “larger” pharaonic Egyptian culture with that of Nubia and, at Nubian’s “Golden Age”—Kush.

The interplay between the cultures might only be hinted upon, though the film makes manifest the XXV Dynasty conquest of Egypt by Nubian rulers and their impact upon Ancient Egypt as well as certain trade and cultural contact. Still, Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush makes it clear that Nubia maintained its own strong, and largely undeciphered on a linguistic level, identifiable culture.

The film examines, then, not only a brief history of the kingdom and its interplay with the more well-known Egyptian culture, but also its essential uniqueness. For example, several sites—Meroe and “The Great Enclosure,” particularly—are discussed and interesting cultural evidence is noted. Active archeologists discuss these sites from a variety of anthropological expertises. The film shows audiences examples of the (undeciphered!) Nubian language, intriguing ideas (based on documentary evidence) regarding the building of the more frequent and physically pronounced Nubian pyramids, and the most current research into certain structures which are unique to the African continent.

To elaborate upon these discoveries, audiences will be exposed to the fundamentals of linguistics (and bi-linguistic documents), pyramid building, pottery and potsherd evaluation, magnetronmy and other archeological techniques, and history overall. Surely introductions of any and/or all of these would be of interest to budding scholars!

The few concerns with this film include, of course, something of the quick overview of historical and archeological techniques—but this is certainly an unfair criticism of the film series. Otherwise, the film provides the trope of an African American teacher traveling to Northeastern Africa to discover “her roots”; and while this is increasingly viewed as “incorrect” cultural historical study or idealism, the fact remains that if students are interested in this overshadowed and rapidly eroding culture, a film like Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush, for some of its necessary glossing over in-depth facts or ideals, is still a solid piece for younger grade and secondary-school students interested in African history and anthropology.