A Special Exhibition at the ISAC Museum

Opening April 16, 2026

Ancient Nubia, a region located along the Nile in what is today southern Egypt and northern Sudan, lived in symbiosis with animals. The Kushites were renowned throughout West Asia and North Africa as suppliers of animals and animal by-products, such as skins and ivory. They were also represented as such, whether in the context of bearing tribute or in scenes of presenting diplomatic gifts. Wild or domesticated, fantastic or realistic, hunted or feared, animals were depicted in temples and tombs, on the walls of palaces, on ceramics, and in the niches of houses. Companions of daily life, sources of artistic and religious inspiration, subjects of trade, familiar even in the afterlife, animals in the ancient world had their place at the top of society and power.

The upcoming ISAC Museum special exhibition A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia (April 16–August 16, 2026) will present a fascinating panorama of animals in ancient Nubia from the A-Group culture to the medieval period (3800 BCE–900 CE). From the lion to the crocodile, from the ibis to the ibex, from cattle to insects, the exhibition will be an original take on the history of the Nubian civilization, with unparalleled information and a keen sense of storytelling. This comprehensive anthology of Nubian animal art will be a world first, intended for all enthusiasts of Nubian civilization.

Exhibition Materials

• Download the press release for Bestiary of Ancient Nubia
• Download the exhibition brochure for A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia
• Download and purchase the exhibit catalogue A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia (ISACMP 4) (coming soon) 
• Download the children's activity booklet (coming soon) 

Exhibition Programming

(check back soon for links to more info and registration)

• Exclusive Exhibition Preview, April 15, 5:00–7:00pm CT (in-person) — Not yet a member? Become one today!
• Documentary film and ISAC Visiting Scholar lecture with Sarah Ahmed (prerecorded), "Nubia: The Forgotten Kingdom," May 1, 7:00–9:00pm
• ISAC Lecture with Bruce Williams, "The Challenge of Archaeology in Emergency," and Marc Maillot book signing, A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia, May 6, 7:00–9:00pm
• Documentary film series, African Empires, Part 1: South Africa, May 8, 6:00–8:00pm
• ARCE lecture and book signing with Rita Freed, Ancient Nubian Art: A History, May 9, 5:00–7:00pm
• ISAC Visiting Scholar lecture with Séverine Marchi: “Kerma-Dukki Gel: A Century of Archaeological Research in Northern Sudan and New Opportunities for Collaboration to Protect Heritage,” May 13, 7:00–9:00pm
• Documentary film series, African Empires, Part 2: Mali, May 15, 6:00–8:00pm
• ISAC Visiting Scholar lecture with Stuart Smith: “Kushite Internationalism and the Iron Age Phoenician Style (900-600 BCE),” May 20, 7:00–9:00pm
• Documentary film series, African Empires, Part 3: Burkina Faso, May 22, 6:00–8:00pm
• ISAC Visiting Scholar lecture with Vincent Francigny: “Sudan: A Cultural Heritage at Risk,” May 27, 7:00–9:00pm
• ISAC Visiting Scholar lecture with Artur Obłuski: “A Treasure Box Buried in Sand, Africana Byzantina from Nubia,” May 28, 7:00–9:00pm
• Documentary film series, African Empires, Part 4: Sudan, May 29, 6:00–8:00pm
• Youth & Family community event in Breasted Hall, LaSalle Banks Room and galleries: Performance by HERitage emBODYment, May 30, 1:00–4:00pm

Related Content

• Visit ISAC's Nubian Gallery
• Visit ISAC's Nubian Expedition project
• Download ISAC publications on Nubian Civilization
• Watch the ISAC lectures, "Highlights from the Robert F. Picken Family Nubia Gallery” with Emily Teeter (February 6, 2014); "The Oriental Institute Expedition to Beit El Wali, Nubia (1960); “Entangled Lives: Intercultural Interactions in the Nubian Borderlands,” with Stuart Tyson Smith (January 14, 2019); “The Decipherment of Meroitic” with Claude Rilly (March 14, 2024); “Old Dongola: New collaborative archaeology: Tackling paradigms in research on African past” with Artur Obluski (November 7, 2025).
• Watch the Getty Villa Museum lecture, "Understanding Ancient Nubia from Antiquity to Today” with Debora D. Heard (February 15, 2023)
• Watch the Walters Art Museum lecture, “The Kingdom of Meroë" with Solange Ashby (August 31, 2022)

This exhibition and its accompanying catalogue are dedicated to Bruce Beyer Williams and our Sudanese friends and colleagues; they are supported by Deborah and Philip Halpern, Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and ISAC Museum Visitors and ISAC Members.

This exhibition has been curated by Marc Maillot, and organized by the ISAC Museum: Susan Allison, Kate Ayres, Robert Bain, Denise Browning, Laura D’Alessandro, Kea Johnston, Tonya Lifshits, Helen McDonald, Kiersten Neumann, Madeleine Roberts-Ganim, Josh Tulisiak, Tasha Vorderstrasse, and Alison Whyte, with contribution by Patrick Dykstra. It reunites artifacts held in the ISAC Museum Nubian Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Royal Ontario Museum, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Chicago Library Special Collections, and a replica from the Worcester Art Museum.

Image Details: (left) Photograph of the Great Enclosure of Musawwarat, Sudan, by Olivier Cabon, 2017, Soleb Éditions; (center) Facsimile of Nubians with a giraffe and a monkey, Tomb of Rekhmire in Thebes, Egypt, by Nina de Garis Davies (1881–1965), Rogers Fund, 1931, Metropolitan Museum of Art 31.6.40; (right) Lion-shaped furniture leg from Egypt/Sudan, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 1948, Brooklyn Museum 37.42E.