Event: WEDS TALKS: Mirroring the Gods: Symmetrical Scenes in Kushite Royal Art

ABSTRACT: This presentation examines the frequent use of symmetrical offering scenes in Kushite royal art from the Napatan Period. In this artistic arrangement, a scene is divided in half vertically, and the section on the right reflects that on the left with mirrored symmetry. However, certain visual and textual elements are intentionally differentiated from their counterpart on the other side. I argue that this arrangement is intended to depict and describe the two complementary halves of each Kushite ruler and the kingdom itself, an idea arising during the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty’s control over both Nubia and Egypt as one “Double Kingdom.” These pieces suggest a new kind of dual kingship, where one Kushite ruler embodies both “ruler of Kush” and “ruler of Egypt” and envisions each land as equal constituent parts in one kingdom.

BIO: Christopher Cox is an Egyptologist and Nubiologist who studies the ancient Nubian Kingdom of Kush, Nubians in ancient Egyptian society, and the reception of ancient Egypt and Nubia by Black people since the 18th century. He obtained his PhD in Egyptology from Brown University in 2025, MA in Africana Studies from Brown in 2022, and BA from Whitman College in 2018. He is currently a President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.