Human Sacrifice and Power in the Kerma Kingdom

Public lecture by Elizabeth Minor, Visiting Assistant Professor in Anthropology, Wellesley College

The Kerma Kingdom was an ancient Nubian civilization located in present-day Sudan. Its capital, the city of Kerma, had monumental architecture and religious art depicting deities in the form of lions, scorpions, and hybrid figures such as winged giraffes and hippopotamus goddesses. During the Classic Kerma Period (1700–1550 BCE), funerary monuments of Kerman kings could be up to one hundred meters long and included hundreds of sacrificed individuals. Elizabeth Minor will discuss the complexity of Kerman culture and its practice of human sacrifice as a means to negotiate social hierarchies.

Recorded November 19, 2019