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Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp joins Pete to talk about the upcoming event in Boston October 27th, plus women in sports, competing with the other big time promotions and sports.

Invicta FC President Shannon Knapp joins Hoff to talk about the upcoming event in Boston October 27th, plus women in sports, competing with the other big time promotions and sports.

What you'll learn in this episode: Why ancient Nubian jewelry is still significant today How the Kingdom of Kush rose and fell How ancient jewelry motifs, techniques and materials were shared and adapted between cultures Why the Museum of Fine Arts Boston has a significant collection of ancient Nubian art, and why it's being exhibited at the Getty Villa Why jewelry is often one of the only pathways to understand ancient cultures About Dr. Sara E. Cole Sara E. Cole is Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Villa). She holds a PhD in Ancient History from Yale University. At the Getty, she is part of the Classical World in Context initiative, which seeks to highlight cross-cultural interactions in antiquity and explore the diversity and interconnectedness of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East through a series of special exhibitions and related publications and public programs. She has curated or assisted with exhibitions of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Neo-Assyrian, Persian, and Nubian art. About “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan” from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston October 12, 2022 - April 3, 2023 Getty Villa Museum For nearly 3,000 years a series of kingdoms - collectively known as the Kingdom of Kush - flourished in ancient Nubia (present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan). The region was rich in sought-after resources such as gold and ivory and its trade networks reached Egypt, Greece, Rome, and central Africa. This exhibition presents highlights from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's extensive collection of Nubian objects and features superbly crafted jewelry, metalwork, and sculpture exhibiting the wealth and splendor of Nubian society. Learn more about the exhibit at https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/nubian_jewelry/ Photos available on TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: Nubian jewelry is often overshadowed by Egyptian and Greco-Roman jewelry, but the ancient Nubians were the world's first jewelry pioneers. Their influential work is currently on display at “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan,” an exhibit at the Getty Villa featuring pieces from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Dr. Sara E. Cole, assistant curator of the exhibit, joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how Nubians developed their own enameling techniques; why jewelry is the key to understanding ancient cultures; and how iconography was shared and adapted throughout the ancient world. Read the episode transcript here.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the second part of a two-part episode. If you haven't heard part one, please head to TheJewelryJourney.com. Today, my guest is Sara Cole, who's the Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. She's the curator of “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan,” an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston which showcases Nubian material. These finds were jointly executed early in the last century by Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit is now open until April 3. Welcome back. Can you look at a piece of jewelry and say, maybe not exactly where it came from, but the period? It's late; it's early? Can you look at one and know? Sara: To put it in a bigger perspective, something about this collection of material that makes it so special is that it is all from documented archaeological excavations that were carried out in the early 20th century. Jewelry can be quite challenging if you have no context for a piece other than by comparing it stylistically to other known examples. It can be quite difficult sometimes to try to approximate when and where something was made, or to say with 100% certainty that it's even ancient if you have no context for it. A lot of the same materials and techniques that were used in antiquity are used or can be mimicked today. But with all of this material, it came from documented archaeological excavation, so we know exactly where it was found. Thanks to that context, we are able to say approximately the time period in which it must have been made and used and placed in the tomb. I suppose you could compare other surviving examples with what we now know from the archaeological record, but with this material, we are able to be absolutely certain of its authenticity and the time period in which it was being made and used because we have that archaeological context. Because Nubia had such a close relationship with Egypt and they engaged in so much exchange, there are some pieces that are found in Nubian contexts that might have been made in Egypt and imported to Nubia. It's often very difficult to say precisely where something was made because they were using very similar techniques and materials and iconography. So, there are a number of pieces in the exhibition that we think might have been manufactured in Egypt and then imported into Nubia. But even where that's the case, those objects clearly have value to the Nubians because they speak to their cultural and religious beliefs and priorities. Sharon: So, people would wear this jewelry in life, the pectorals or amulets. Did they have the same thing in their grave? Were they buried with what they wore, or did they have something special for it? Is it something made just to be buried with? Sara: It's both, actually. These royal tombs contained rich assemblages of jewelry. Some of the items do appear, based on signs of wear, to have actually been worn in life and then placed in the tomb with the deceased. There are also pieces that appear to have been made specifically to go in the burial, things that are very, very delicate and seem like they would not have been able to work in real life, or certain objects that are made specifically for funerary contexts. There's one piece in the exhibition from the Napatan Period that's really exquisite. It's this large, gold repoussé image of the goddess Isis, who is kneeling and stretching her wings out in a protective gesture, but at the tips of her wings and below her legs are these little tabs that each have a hole punched in them. The piece is too delicate, it seems, to have been something that someone would wear in life. And because of those little tabs with the punched holes, we believe it was probably manufactured specifically for this king's burial, and that it was meant to be sewn into the linen mummy wrappings that were used to mummify his body. Often there were amulets, protective icons, pieces of jewelry that were incorporated into the wrappings during the mummification process. So, it's both. Some of these pieces were probably worn in life and then taken to the tomb, and some of them were made specifically for the burial context. Sharon: I'm surprised you can even tell the difference between Egypt and Nubia with the cross-pollination. You talk about Isis. Being an expert, how does somebody know it was Egyptian? The only thing I've heard is that earrings were Egyptian. There weren't earrings before that. Sara: It's actually the other way around. This is one of the areas where the Nubians may have influenced the Egyptians. Earrings appear in Nubia before they appear in Egypt, so it's possible the Egyptians got the idea for earrings from the Nubians. As I mentioned, too, the fly pendant ornament originates in Nubia and gets adopted by the Egyptians. So, there is influence going in both directions, and where the Nubians incorporate Egyptian religious ideas, religious iconography, protective icons, they're still adapting it. They're not directly copying it necessarily. They're adapting it to their local traditions, to the types of materials they work with, to the types of objects and ornaments they make. It's not necessarily just a direct copy. In some instances, it is hard to tell whether a specific piece was made in Nubia versus Egypt. But with the burials themselves, we know these are Nubians and not Egyptians because we're looking not just at the jewelry, but at the overall burial itself, the whole object assemblage, the types of materials they're being buried with. In addition to the jewelry, there would be things like vessels, pottery, tools, weapons, things that give us a bigger picture. The cultural identity is not just the jewelry, but also the way in which they're buried and the place in which they're buried. In the Kerma Period, they used a very distinctive type of burial. They used tumulus burials, these big, beehive-shaped mounds, which was a distinctive type of burial. Over time those mounds get larger and larger, and we can tell that some of them must have belonged to Kerma rulers. Even though there are now written records during that period, we're going strictly by the archaeological record. In the Napatan Period, they actually used Egyptian hieroglyphs for monumental inscriptions. We do start to get some written records that we can read, and when these kings' and queens' tombs were excavated, there were often items within the tomb inscribed with their names. So, we know who these tombs belonged to, and they belonged to Nubian and Napatan kings and queens. It's really looking at the big picture and not just at the jewelry specifically to identify who these items belonged to and whose burials they come from. Sharon: First, I want to know how anybody even knew these tombs were there. Everything you're describing, at least from the description of what was in the tombs, is what Carter found when he opened the tomb just a few years later, maybe 10 years later. I'm just wondering how they knew these tombs were there. How did they know that? Was it just the beehives that were standing on a farm? Sara: The material that's in the MFA Boston was all excavated in the early 20th century, from 1913 to 1932, by a joint Harvard/MFA Boston expedition led by an American archaeologist named George Reisner, who worked in both Egypt and Sudan. He took a team to Sudan that ended up excavating at Kerma, Napata and Meroë. He was tremendously successful in what he discovered, and he essentially rediscovered the city of Kerma. There have been excavations within the city itself, but they also discovered this vast cemetery outside of the city containing tens of thousands of these tumulus burials. Then at Napata and Meroë, they're utilizing pyramid burials, which are still visible on the landscape. You can walk up to them. He was really the first to do these rigorously documented, professional archaeological excavations of these places, and he found a tremendous amount of material. I should also mention the way it ended up in Boston is that, at the time, Sudan practiced the partage system, so he finds would essentially be split 50-50. About half the materials remain in Sudan, where it is now in the national museum in Khartoum, and about half the material was allowed to be taken back to Boston by Reisner, where it became part of the MFA collection. So, the MFA is now home to the largest and most significant collection of Nubian archaeological material in the world outside of Khartoum. Sharon: Did they suspect that there were these kingdoms, but nobody ever found them? Is that what happened? How did he start digging? Sara: To be perfectly honest, I would have to go back and double check how he determined exactly where he wanted to begin. Sharon: Why should we care about the Nubians? Why should we care about these kingdoms? You describe how it kept moving further south. That's usually because of agriculture. What caused them to move, besides invasion? Sara: That's a broad question. I don't know that we necessarily know for certain what was motivating them to move from one city to the next. In terms of the question of why we should care, that's something we could ask about any ancient civilization. It does raise this broader question about relevance that a lot of audiences are asking. I would say for Nubia especially, this is the region in northeastern Africa where some of the earliest civilizations of ancient Africa are arising. This is an incredibly important region that was also a real crossroads for international trade, given their connections to the Red Sea, into central Africa, into sub-Saharan Africa, and eventually out into the broader Mediterranean world. This was a very interconnected place with rich natural resources where some of the earliest complex civilizations of ancient Africa arise, so I think we absolutely should care about it. Speaking in terms of jewelry specifically, this is the place where some of the most exquisitely crafted, sophisticated pieces of ancient jewelry in the world were produced. They were incredibly skilled artisans who developed techniques for working with these materials that in some cases, like I mentioned with the enameling, were believed to have been invented in the modern era until recently. Sharon: That's amazing. I always have to think about the fact that they didn't have electric lights and they had to work by candlelight. They had to deal with sunlight only. I don't know exactly how to phrase this, but most of the time, if I were to take a piece from the little room of jewelry at the Getty Villa, and I want to take it out and put it on my wrists, nobody would know the difference. Would you say that's the same with a lot of this? Sara: I think so. It always strikes people how contemporary some of these pieces look. They look like things that could have been made today. Sharon: Were they going back or was this the start of it? Were they going back and building on what had been done before? Sara: They were really pioneers. They were developing new techniques and new styles for working with this material. In the pre-Kerma phase, in the archaeological record, there are items of personal adornment that are made from things like shell or imported faience sometimes, simple strings of beads, that kind of thing. But then as they develop kiln technology to make pottery, they're also able to apply that to making faience and eventually glass. They develop, as I mentioned, these very sophisticated techniques for working with different semiprecious stones, for working with gold, for working with glass and enameling. They're really not looking back to any existing precedent. They are developing these techniques for the first time. Sharon: That's amazing. You wonder why each civilization or each culture seems to have certain things that are ubiquitous, like a ram's head. You wonder, where did it start? What keeps your attention about all of this? Is it the cross-pollination? Sara: I don't even know where to begin answering that. I find this material endlessly fascinating. Every time you look at it, you see or appreciate something new, the intricacy of it, or as I mentioned, the ways in which this jewelry for the ancient Nubians is not just a status item. It's not just something beautiful to look at and wear. It's imbued with all of these layers of meaning. It reflects so many aspects of Nubian society and Nubian beliefs and Nubian practices. Because of the relative lack of written records from ancient Nubia, we are reliant on the archaeological record. So much of this jewelry helps us more broadly understand ancient Nubian society. I think you can come back to it and look at it over and over again and find new levels of meaning in it every time, as well as being able to appreciate how beautiful it is. Sharon: But you must have seen a lot of ancient jewelry. You've seen Greek and Roman and Egyptian and Nubian. What keeps your attention? What's so fascinating that it would keep your attention for so long? Sara: I think everything I just mentioned. The jewelry across ancient societies is fascinating for those same reasons, that it typically is not just about beauty and personal adornment. It's also reflective of cultural and religious beliefs, but I think it's the fact that this material is some of the earliest of its kind as well. As I mentioned, they're pioneers in developing new techniques or adopting techniques from other places and reengineering them as they did with faience, which was being made in Egypt prior to Nubia. They reengineered it, figured out how to make it for themselves. They were developing these unique techniques like the glazed quartz, the enameling techniques. It's incredible to think that 3,000, 4,000 years ago, people were making these items and developing these technologies and with handmade tools and natural light, and it would be very difficult to control temperatures of a kiln. It's incredible. Sharon: It is incredible. I know the Getty Villa is different than the Getty Center. The Getty Villa is a replica of a Roman villa, and it has a little room that has just jewelry. It's very small. It's a jewel box of a room, really. Do they have Nubian jewelry in there? Sara: We do not. We do not own any ancient Nubian jewelry in our permanent collection at the Villa. The Villa is a separate site from the Getty Center. We are home to the Getty Museum's Antiquities Collection specifically. Our permanent collection of antiquities is predominantly Greek, Roman and Etruscan. This Nubian exhibition is part of a broader initiative we've been engaged in in recent years, where we're trying to bring in special exhibitions featuring material from other ancient cultures and civilizations so our visitors can get a bigger picture of the ancient world. It's also so we're not perpetuating this idea that in antiquity, Greek and Roman are all there is. There's so much more than that. What's reflected in our permanent collection is Greek and Roman. So, through this special exhibition program, we're able to highlight other cultures. We also recently had a big exhibition on ancient Persia that included some stunning items of Persian jewelry. Sharon: I missed that one. Sara: We don't have any Nubian or Egyptian jewelry in our antiquities collection, so this is a unique opportunity. As I mentioned, this material is housed at the MFA Boston, so it's a unique opportunity for people on the West Coast to see a major exhibition of ancient Nubian material, but it is quite different. You can see some stylistic similarities like I mentioned with the Meroitic Period, when they have those trade connections to the Greco-Roman world. You can see stylistic similarities between some of our Greco-Roman pieces and some of the pieces in the Meroitic section of the exhibition, but it is very distinctive. It's a nice counterpoint. We have at the Getty a pretty significant collection of ancient, engraved gemstones as well as some Hellenistic gold jewelry and finger rings. You can see similarities. Finger rings with carved bezzles became very popular during the Meroitic Period as well, so you can see some similarities there with the rings being made in the Greco-Roman world. Sharon: If you haven't seen the little room with jewelry there, you could take any piece from the Greco-Roman era—and it's probably true of the Nubian era, too—and put it on, and nobody would know the difference if you went to the market. Sara: Yeah. Sharon: Something I came across mentioned the role of women in Nubia, that there was a stronger role. Can you tell us something about that? Sara: Yes, it seems throughout ancient Nubian history, in the Kingdom of Kush, royal women held particularly high status. We can see that in a few different ways. We can see that in their burials. We can see it some of their individual items of jewelry, which I'll mention, and we also see it in some of the practices that were being implemented, the roles that royal women had. In the Napatan period, there were a group of royal women who became associated with the god Amun and were sent to Thebes in Egypt, which was the Egyptian center of the worship of Egyptian Amun. These women were made into high priestesses of the god at his temple there. So, they held these very high-ranking, powerful positions, and these were royal women who were relatives of the Napatan kings who were also ruling in Egypt. They had great religious significance in this very important role, where they were sent to Egypt as god's wives of Amun, what we call them, or high priestesses of Amun. During the same period, there are some items of jewelry in royal women's tombs at Napata that speak to their importance. For instance, there's a piece in the exhibition that is easy to overlook because it's very small, but it's definitely worth taking the time to look at. It's a little silver pendant that shows the goddess Hathor, who I mentioned previously is the goddess of love and fertility and motherhood who gets adopted and becomes very important in the Nubian culture. It's an image of Hathor, and she is nursing a Nubian queen named Nefrukakashta. The item was found in her tomb. So, she is receiving, essentially, divine lifeforce from Hathor through being nursed by her. This is important because this was also a composition we see in Egypt,  but there it's only the kings who appear being nursed by Hathor. The king is embodying a divine role as pharaoh, so he receives divine lifeforce from Hathor. You never see royal women in ancient Egypt in this pose being nursed by Hathor, but in Nubia, we see it. The status of royal woman is higher there. They're considered worthy of being show in this position of being nursed by the goddess herself. By the time we get to the Meroitic Period, the final phase of the kingdom, there's actually a series of queens who take the throne for themselves and they rule as sole rules. These were very powerful women ruling over the Kingdom of Kush in its final phase, one of whom even famously fought off attempts at invasion by the Roman emperor Augusts. She signed a peace treaty with him to protect the border between Nubia and Egypt, which at that time had become a Roman province. So, royal women in ancient Nubia achieved very high status. Sharon: I think that's very interesting. I could talk to you for hours about the history of women and what happened after that. Thank you so much, Sara, for being with us today. I just want to remind you about the exhibit. I listened to a webinar and looked at the press release. It looks like it will be a very interesting exhibit. I look forward to seeing it in person live. It's through April 13. Dr. Sara Cole is the assistant curator. Thank you very much for being here today. Sara: Thank you so much for having me. We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. Thank you again for listening. Please leave us a rating and review so we can help others start their own jewelry journey.

What you'll learn in this episode: Why ancient Nubian jewelry is still significant today How the Kingdom of Kush rose and fell How ancient jewelry motifs, techniques and materials were shared and adapted between cultures Why the Museum of Fine Arts Boston has a significant collection of ancient Nubian art, and why it's being exhibited at the Getty Villa Why jewelry is often one of the only pathways to understand ancient cultures About Dr. Sara E. Cole Sara E. Cole is Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Villa). She holds a PhD in Ancient History from Yale University. At the Getty, she is part of the Classical World in Context initiative, which seeks to highlight cross-cultural interactions in antiquity and explore the diversity and interconnectedness of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East through a series of special exhibitions and related publications and public programs. She has curated or assisted with exhibitions of Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Neo-Assyrian, Persian, and Nubian art. About “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan” from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston October 12, 2022 - April 3, 2023 Getty Villa Museum For nearly 3,000 years a series of kingdoms - collectively known as the Kingdom of Kush - flourished in ancient Nubia (present-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan). The region was rich in sought-after resources such as gold and ivory and its trade networks reached Egypt, Greece, Rome, and central Africa. This exhibition presents highlights from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's extensive collection of Nubian objects and features superbly crafted jewelry, metalwork, and sculpture exhibiting the wealth and splendor of Nubian society. Learn more about the exhibit at https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/nubian_jewelry/ Photos available on TheJewelryJourney.com Transcript: Nubian jewelry is often overshadowed by Egyptian and Greco-Roman jewelry, but the ancient Nubians were the world's first jewelry pioneers. Their influential work is currently on display at “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan,” an exhibit at the Getty Villa featuring pieces from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Dr. Sara E. Cole, assistant curator of the exhibit, joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about how Nubians developed their own enameling techniques; why jewelry is the key to understanding ancient cultures; and how iconography was shared and adapted throughout the ancient world. Read the episode transcript here. Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week. Today, my guest is Sara Cole, who's the Assistant Curator of Antiquities at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California. She's the curator of “Nubia: Jewels of Ancient Sudan,” an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston which showcases Nubian material. These finds were jointly executed early in the last century by Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit is now open until April 3. Sara received her Ph.D. from Yale, which is amazing. She's an expert in ancient history and a specialist in material culture of Greco-Roman Egypt. She has studied the cross-pollination of cultures, and we'll hear a lot more about it today. Sara, welcome to the program. Sara: Thank you for having me. Sharon: So glad to have you. Tell us about your own journey. Did you come to jewelry through antiquities or archaeology, or the other way around? Sara: Yes, through my study of archaeology and Egyptology as a graduate student. That was primarily my introduction to this material. I became familiar with Nubia primarily through the MFA Boston's tremendous archaeological collection of Nubian material. When I was a graduate student at Yale back in, I think, 2011, I took a graduate seminar on Nubian archaeology with a Nubian specialist named Maria Gatto. In one of our classes, we took the train to Boston and got to spend a day going through the storerooms of the MFA looking at Nubian material. We were primarily looking at pottery that day, but we did get to see some other objects as well. In 2014, MFA put on its own small exhibition featuring their Nubian jewelry collection, so that brought that material a little bit more into public view. Then in 2019, the MFA did a big exhibition bringing out highlights of their full Nubian collection that was called “Ancient Nubia Now.” Since 2019, they very generously sent parts of this collection to different museums for exhibitions around the world. We're very fortunate at the Getty Villa that we were able to borrow some of these stunning pieces of jewelry and personal adornment from that collection for this current exhibition. Sharon: I have to ask you. When you were younger, you say you were interested in Egypt and ancient periods, but very few people go into archaeology. How is it that you stuck with it? Sara: Museums were really my entry point to the ancient world as a child, which I think is true for a lot of us. I grew up in a small town in Virginia and wasn't exposed to major museum collections as kid, but we had a small, local museum. It featured mostly local contemporary artists, but one summer they put on view a small touring exhibition of Egyptian material from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. I was probably 11 or 12 years old. That was my first exposure to ancient Egyptian material, and I just found it incredibly captivating and compelling, and I stuck with that interest. I ended up doing a bachelor's degree in classics and then my Ph.D. in ancient history, where I studied a combination of Egyptology, classics and art history. But I've always had a great passion for museums in particular because it was my personal entry point to the ancient world. We do have the opportunity, through putting on exhibitions like this, to reach such wide audiences and to bring this material to their attention, things they've maybe never seen or considered before. It's a really wonderful opportunity. Sharon: It really is. When you say Nubia, a lot of us haven't really thought about Nubia or Nubian jewels. That's the entry point or the foundation. What is Nubia? What do you mean by Nubian? Sara: That's a great question, because I think a lot of people have heard of Nubia but they're not quite sure what it is. Traditionally it has received a lot less attention than ancient Egypt, which is this huge, looming civilization. When we talk about ancient Nubia, we're really talking about a geographical region that was located immediately south of ancient Egypt. They were neighbors. In terms of modern-day geography, it reached essentially from Aswan in what is now southern Egypt down to about Khartoum in present-day Sudan. The contemporary political border between Egypt and Sudan cuts across part of what was ancient Nubia, when the border was located further north between Nubia and Egypt. So, it's essentially this geographical region going across part of what is today southern Egypt and northern Sudan. For parts of its ancient history, Nubia as a region was actually home to several different cultural groups. It wasn't always a single, unified culture. So, when we talk about Nubia, we're talking about the geographical area, and then there were different cultures that lived within Nubia. Around the third millennium B.C., a political institute called the Kingdom of Kush—because the region was known as Kush in antiquity—arose at the city of Karma in what is today Sudan. It eventually came to conquer essentially all of the region of Nubia. The Kingdom of Kush lasted on and off for a period of almost 3,000 years, and it moved to different capital cities in different phases. It first arose at Kerma in the third millennium B.C., then moved further south to a capital called Napata, which was also along the Nile River, around 750 B.C. Then in its final phase, starting around 350 B.C., it was centered at a city even further south on the Nile River called Meroë. So, when we talk about ancient Nubia, we're talking about that region, but for this exhibition, we're really focusing on items of jewelry that were worn by royalty and the elite of the Kingdom of Kush that were found at these three successive capital cities. Sharon: I was going to ask you if Napata and—is it Morocco? Sara: Meroë. Sharon: Meroë. I've heard so much about it, but did they all have jewelry? Did the royalty all have jewelry at all three of these sites? Sara: Yes, absolutely. Throughout human history, I think in all cultures we see personal adornment as a universal means of self-expression. It's a means of expressing status and power. But also in antiquity, much of this jewelry, either the materials themselves or the iconography incorporated into it, had symbolic religious significance. Items of jewelry were often amuletic and protective, or they could signify one's status in society, one's role. They reflect a lot about an ancient culture's social organization, religious beliefs, communities, etc. These items of jewelry speak to so much more than being aesthetically beautiful status items. So, yes, even very early in Kerma and even in pre-Kerma archaeology, we find items of jewelry in the archaeological record. Jewelry was very essential, especially for rulers and for individuals of high status, to express themselves in ancient Nubia. Sharon: Did both men and women have jewelry? Sara: Yes, they did. Men, women, children, and sometimes even very prized royal animals were adorned with jewelry. Sharon: Were these from tombs or graves? Sara: Yes, essentially all of the items in this exhibition were excavated from royal and wealthy burials. This was material that people valued in life but also chose to take with them to the grave. As a I mentioned, a lot of these pieces have iconography that is protective or amuletic, which would have particular significance in the context of the tomb. These are images that are going to protect you as you are making your transition to the afterlife. So, all of the material was excavated from burials. That is primarily where we find these high-status jewelry items still surviving. They survive because they were buried, and people didn't have the opportunity to reuse them or repurpose the materials. Sharon: First of all, I think I forgot to say that this exhibit is only on until April 3, which comes up quickly. I can't remember if I said that or not. Sara: Yes, two more months to go see it at the Villa. Sharon: When you say it's like a dynasty or the Kingdom of Kush lasted 3,000 years, I have this idea that it rose high and then it was—I don't want to say nothing, but they weren't reading. It was like the Dark Ages in a sense, really dark, and then it rose again in a different place. How did that work? Sara: The Kingdom of Kush went through fluctuations over that 3,000-year period. I wouldn't necessarily call it dark ages. The Nubians simply never developed the same tradition of extensive written records like we get from Egypt, so much of our knowledge of Nubia comes from the archaeological material. We just don't have extensive written historical documentation from this region. It wasn't part of the culture. They had a very complicated relationship with their neighbor to the north, Egypt, which is largely the reason for these periods of rise and fall. The Kingdom of Kush arose, like I mentioned, at Kerma in Sudan, during which time in northern Nubia, there were other cultural groups inhabiting that region who were in conflict with Egypt. The Kingdom of Kush eventually was able to take that region and unify Nubia under its rule. Kerma flourished for almost 1,000 years, from about 2,400 B.C. until roughly 1,550 B.C. But what happened around 1,550 was that Egypt entered into a very powerful period in its history, the New Kingdom, the rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and those kings invaded Nubia and took over. They occupied Nubia for about 500 years, during which time we don't have a tremendous amount of archaeological evidence for what was going on. But it seems like Nubians and Egyptians were essentially coexisting in Nubia during this period. As you can imagine, over 500 years, there's a huge amount of cross-cultural exchange as a result of the Egyptian presence in Nubia. Some Egyptian religious ideas get incorporated into local Nubian tradition, as does a lot of iconography. There are a lot of ways in which the Nubians start adapting some Egyptian concepts to their own local practices. Then the Egyptians get pushed out of Nubia around 1,000 B.C. approximately. The Kingdom of Kush starts to regroup and rebuild itself, and it reappears fully around 750 B.C., now at the capital city of Napata. What's interesting at the beginning of the Napatan phase is that the Nubians turn the tables on Egypt and invade them. They take over Egypt and rule for about 80 years. For that 80-year period, staring around 725 B.C., the Kingdom of Kush is at its greatest extent, going all the way from what is today Sudan up to the Mediterranean coast, ruling over both Nubia and Egypt. After that 80-year period, they get pushed out of Egypt but are still ruling the Kingdom of Kush from Napata. We see some really interesting ways in which the rulers of that 80-year period adapted an Egyptian mode of self-presentation. They're trying to present themselves as legitimate pharaohs in Egypt. They start presenting themselves in a way that is adapted from earlier pharaonic styles of self-presentation. Even though the Nubian kings are spending some time in Egypt, they choose to be sent back to Napata for their royal burials, and they start using pyramid tombs during this period. They start practicing mummification and incorporating some Egyptian-style object assemblages into their burials. We see some of those practices get adapted during this 80-year period, including the incorporation of a lot of Egyptian religious iconography into their jewelry. We see those trends continue later, even when they're no longer ruling in Egypt. Then during this Napatan phase, which lasts roughly 400 years, they start to gradually shift the capital further south to this third city of Meroë. By around 350 B.C., both the administrative capital and the royal cemetery have moved to Meroë, and this is the final phase of the Kingdom of Kush. This is a phase that lasts from roughly 350 B.C. to 350 A.D., when the Kingdom of Kush falls. It corresponds with the conquests of Alexander the Great throughout the eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near East, the rise of his successor kingdoms and then the rise of the Roman Empire. But throughout all of this, the Kingdom of Kush maintained its political independence. It never became part of Alexander's territories; it never became part of the Roman Empire, unlike Egypt, which did. They had a complex relationship with Rome, who at times tried to take Nubia unsuccessfully, but they were also connected to these vast trade networks that connected the Mediterranean and the Near East throughout the Roman Empire. It was a very cosmopolitan place, ancient Meroë. They were very closely connected through trade networks to the rest of the world. They were also producing some incredibly high-status pieces of jewelry with really exquisite craftsmanship. Then the Kingdom of Kush falls around 350 A.D. That's the big picture of what we're looking at here, with the history of the Kingdom of Kush and its different phases. Sharon: When you say Nubia, is that the same as the Kingdom of Kush? Do you mean the Kingdom of Kush or Nubia are one in the same, I guess? Sara: Nubia in antiquity was known as Kush, and then the Kingdom of Kush is the political entity ruling over that region. Sharon: Did the jewelry change over the years? Sara: It did, yes. We do see that even across these different phases, each one has a distinctive aesthetic. There is no single, unified Nubian look to the jewelry. Different fashions change over time. Different popular materials come in and out of fashion. In Kerma, in the earliest phases, we see jewelers making items out of locally available and imported organic materials. They're making use of things like hippo and elephant ivory to create cuff bracelets. They're making use of shells they imported from the Red Sea coast and fashioned into different items. They were also importing faience from Egypt. Ancient faience was a man-made, blue-green, glazed, quartz-based ceramic material that was very popular in Egypt. The Kermans were importing it initially, but then they developed their own faience-making technology and were able to produce their own. So, we start to see the use of this man-made material. They're using gold. Nubia in antiquity is known primarily as a land of gold because of their rich gold resources in the Eastern Desert. That was their main coveted natural resource. They had incredibly skillful techniques in working with gold. We see them using locally available semiprecious stones, things like carnelian and amethyst. They work with quartz in some really interesting ways. Quartz is found alongside gold, so it was probably symbolically associated with gold. Gold was valued not only because it was this very prized economic resource, but it was also an imperishable material. It was associated with immortality and the sun, and it was very highly symbolically valued. They would take quartz and do an interesting treatment that, as far as I am aware, is distinctive to ancient Kerma. They would take the quartz, either shaping it into spherical beads or taking chunks of it in its raw form to use as pendants, and they would put a blue-green glaze over it and fire it in a kiln to create a hard, shiny, translucent blue surface that creates this stunning, glass-like appearance when it's done successfully. It was a delicate technique. You had to be very careful, because if you raised the temperature in the kiln too quickly, the quartz would fracture and burst, and you would lose your item of jewelry you were making. They had to be very careful in this process, but again, as far as I know, this is a distinctive Kerman technique, a distinctive way of working with quartz. Those were the types of materials they were utilizing to make items of jewelry. There's also a particular ornament we start to see in Kerma that is really interesting and later gets adopted by the Egyptians, which is the fly pendant. They are these large pendants that were often worn in pairs strung around the neck, and they represent flies. We have an example in the exhibition where the head is made of gilded bronze and the wings are carved out of ivory. These are found in soldiers' tombs. They appear to have been given as a medal of honor to high-status members of the Nubian military. We can ask why they would choose a fly of all things to honor a member of the military, and we believe it's because if you go to Egypt, if you go to the Nile Valley, you will experience that the flies are very big and mean and aggressive. So, we think these fly pendants are a way of associating the aggression and the tenacity of the Nilotic flies with the aggression and the tenacity of Nubian warriors. Later these fly pendants actually get adopted in Egypt as well as a military medal of honor. So, those were the kinds of things we find at Kerma. As I mentioned, that period comes to an end with this big invasion of the Egyptians around 1,500 B.C. Then when the Kingdom of Kush rearises at Napata around 750 B.C., they invade Egypt. They take over, and we start to see how this 500-year period of intense cross-cultural interaction has resulted in the introduction of a lot of Egyptian iconography into the royal jewelry. We start to see a lot of images of goddesses like Hathor and Isis, who became very important in the Nubian pantheon. There is an Egyptian god called Amun who becomes introduced as the supreme god of ancient Nubia, but in his Nubian form specifically, he takes the form of a ram or a man with a ram's head. We believe that before this period, there was probably an indigenous ram god who Amun became assimilated with. So, we see a lot of ram iconography in the jewelry. There's a lot of iconography associated with the goddess Hathor, who was this Egyptian goddess of love, fertility, beauty and motherhood with whom Nubian queens and royal women became particularly associated. We see a lot of that kind of iconography. We see protective icons that have been introduced from Egypt, things like the Eye of Floridus, the scarab beetle, that kind of thing. They're working a lot in faience still. There are some queens' tombs from this period where these large faience plaques are very popular, again in the shapes of religious protective imagery, amuletic icons, gods and goddesses. They were big plaques that were strung on strings of beads and worn around the neck, essentially meant to sit over the chest to protect the pectorals. We see a lot of that kind of thing, this incorporation of new iconography, new religious ideas, sometimes a very Egyptian mode of self-presentation that they've adopted from the Egyptians. They're working in faience; they're working in gold. We do see some silver during this period. Silver was not locally available; it was an imported material, but we do see a lot of skilled gold work during this phase. They are developing some very sophisticated techniques for how to fashion items of jewelry, but also things like golden vessels. This is a phase where we start to see that Egyptian influence and some increasing sophistication in the techniques with which they're working, with both these man-made and locally available resources. In the Meroitic Period, we see those gold working techniques really hit their stride. There is some tremendously sophisticated gold work made during the Meroitic Period, where they're using techniques like granulation and filigree and very delicate wirework. At Meroë, they also start producing glass. Glass beads start to appear in the jewelry. Something that Meroë distinctively is also known for is the use of a wide range of enameling techniques. They would take powdered glass and apply it to the surface of items of jewelry, and then heat it to fuse it and create it a hard, shiny, colorful surface. There were multiple enameling techniques they developed at Meroë, some of which, prior to their discovery at Meroë, were thought to have not been invented until the modern era. There were techniques they developed at Meroë, and the knowledge of that technology was lost and rediscovered in modern times. This is also a phase during which we see, as I mentioned, a kind of cosmopolitan international style developing. We do see some Greco-Roman influences coming into play in the form of large, dangly pendant earrings and the development of new color schemes, for instance. There was a color scheme at Meroë that was especially popular, which was red, white and black. They would use cornelian, which was a popular material, to achieve the red and then import obsidian for black and travertine for white. Each phase has its own distinctive repertoire of objects and iconography and manufacturing techniques that were being used. Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please head to TheJewelryJourney.com to check them out. END OF PART ONE

A Benefit for Hair Cares . Avalon, Boston . October 1995 . Joe D'Espinosa

Sound Education is an educational audio conference for podcast creators and listeners. It's in Boston October 9th - 12th, 2019, and you should come! There are talks, panels, live podcast recordings, and free workshops. I'll be there on a panel October 11 talking about how to use podcasts in the classroom and giving a talk October 12th about how to use podcasts to teach media literacy, giving an ovverview of how I make my show and how you could make your own too! Find out more and get tickets at www.SoundEducation.fm

Full Court Press: Eric Is Mad About the Celtics and Tyronn Lue’s Lakers Birthday Cake 3 on 3: The Three Best and Worst Disney Channel Original Movies That Involve Basketball That Actually Happened: Klay Thompson Was Interviewed On Local News About Scaffolding And also: Chang Chang, Changity Change-a-bop, Boys… They’re Dogs, The All-Perfect People Team, Rocco Prefers Grass, If My Feet Get Funky, I Can’t Get Dunky   Live Shows We’re performing in Nashville (PodX, June 1-2), NYC (June 21) and Boston (October 10)! Head to http://multitude.productions/live for ticket info and onsale times.   Sponsor Shaker & Spoon is a subscription cocktail box that brings world-class cocktails into your kitchen once a month. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/horse!   Find Us Online - website: horsehoops.com - patreon: patreon.com/horsehoops - twitter: twitter.com/horse_hoops - instagram: instagram.com/horsehoops - facebook: facebook.com/horsehoops - multitude: multitude.productions   HORSE is hosted by Mike Schubert and Eric Silver. Edited and mixed by Eric Silver. Social Media by Mike Schubert. Theme song by Bettina Campomanes. Art by Allyson Wakeman. Website by Kelly Beckman.   About Us On HORSE, we don’t analyze wins and losses. We talk beefs, dig into Internet drama, and have fun. The NBA is now a 365-day league and it's never been more present in pop culture. From Kevin Durant's burner accounts to LeBron taking his talents anywhere to trusting the Process, the NBA is becoming a pop culture requirement. At the same time, sports can have gatekeepers that make it insular and frustrating for people who aren't die hard fans. We’re here to prove that basketball is entertaining to follow for all fans, whether you’re actively watching the games or not.

Full Court Press: Who To Root For In the 2nd Round of the Playoffs That Actually Happened: Did Aaron Carter Actually Beat Shaq? 3 on 3: The Three Funniest and Three Pettiest NBA Press Conferences And also: A Series of Grumpy Men, This Week On Serial, Making Fun of Aaron Carter to His Face, Mike’s Shower Press Conference, Properly Mixing Shaq’s Voice   Live Shows We’re performing in Nashville (PodX, June 1-2), NYC (June 21) and Boston (October 10)! Head to http://multitude.productions/live for ticket info and onsale times.   Sponsor Wix.com: Head to horsehoops.com/wix for 10% off your premium plan and make a website today.   Find Us Online - website: horsehoops.com - patreon: patreon.com/horsehoops - twitter: twitter.com/horse_hoops - instagram: instagram.com/horsehoops - facebook: facebook.com/horsehoops - multitude: multitude.productions   HORSE is hosted by Mike Schubert and Eric Silver. Edited and mixed by Eric Silver. Social Media by Mike Schubert. Theme song by Bettina Campomanes. Art by Allyson Wakeman. Website by Kelly Beckman.   About Us On HORSE, we don’t analyze wins and losses. We talk beefs, dig into Internet drama, and have fun. The NBA is now a 365-day league and it's never been more present in pop culture. From Kevin Durant's burner accounts to LeBron taking his talents anywhere to trusting the Process, the NBA is becoming a pop culture requirement. At the same time, sports can have gatekeepers that make it insular and frustrating for people who aren't die hard fans. We’re here to prove that basketball is entertaining to follow for all fans, whether you’re actively watching the games or not.

~On the raising of the the daughter of Jairius and on the healing of the woman with the issue of blood~ Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston October 29/November 11, 2018

Bo Bigelow made national news when he used Reddit and social media to find a diagnosis for the genetic disorder his daughter faces. Those same efforts led him to a researcher who is now investigating the disorder. Bo hosts another podcast “Stronger Every Day” and has written a book of the same name, as well as several novels. He co-founded Maine Rare. He was the State Leader for Rare Disease Day in Maine for NORD (the National Organization for Rare Disorders). He's also a lawyer. The film he produced, "Tess Is Not Alone: A USP7 Story" will be played during the Rare Disease Film Festival in Boston October 2rd through October 3rd. Learn more about USP7-Related Disorders on the Foundation for USP7-Related Disorders on their website. Keep up with Bo and his family by following @BoBigelow and @strongerpodcast on Twitter.

Disorder: The Rare Disease Film Festival will debut in Boston October 2 and 3 featuring a range of more than 30 films focused on topics of rare disease. The event will also include talks from filmmakers, patient advocates, and researchers as the organizers not only hopes to raise awareness about rare diseases, but also begin conversations and forge connections. We spoke to Bo Bigelow, one of the organizers of the event, about the film festival, his own search for answers about his daughter’s ultrarare condition, and why this festival is about more than just the films themselves.

In this episode we talk with wildlife expert Nicolas Paydos of Alpha Wildlife www.alphawild.com about how to keep mice and other critters out of your car and garage. We also review the2017 Hyundai Sante Fe Sport and play a little trivia with the prize provided by www.bustedknucklegarage.com

In this episode we talk with wildlife expert Nicolas Paydos of Alpha Wildlife www.alphawild.com about how to keep mice and other critters out of your car and garage. We also review the2017 Hyundai Sante Fe Sport and play a little trivia with the prize provided by www.bustedknucklegarage.com

Juston McKinney is our guest. We look at NewsBusters and of course, give you a heaping helping of Fake News. DATES: Juston McKinney is at the Revere Hotel in Boston October 12. More of Juston’s dates can be found here. LINKS: NewsBusters YouTube channel and website. The Jimmy Dore Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Real Time with Bill Maher SCTV clip with Brenda Vaccaro commercial and parody, plus some other bits. Follow P.F. on Twitter @PF66 and like this podcast on Facebook, PF’s Tape Recorder logo designed by Dan Koabel. Email the show here. PLEASE HELP CALEB MEDLEY! Caleb, as you may know, is a stand-up comic, who was severely injured in the movie theater shootings back in July. You can donate to help pay his medical expenses here. Hey, be a good egg and give us a review here and/or in iTunes. It really helps with rankings and such. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tell your friends, neighbors, your neighbor’s friends, and friends of people who used to be your neighbors, about us.

  Once again, Origination brings to Boston their annual evening of dance, music, and spoken word featuring performances by NIA Dance Troupe, Girlz of IMANI, IMANI jr., Aleye, and Omekongo! Presenting sponsor is the awesome State Street Foundation. Media sponsor is the always smooth Touch 106.1 FM. Radio. The event will take place at Roxbury Community School, and for further information contact 1.617.541.1875... Let's talk about this upcoming groove!