Year 2, second month of the first season, fifteenth day, under the majesty of Horus... the King of Upper and Lower Egypt A'kheperka-Re, Son of Re Thutmose, living forever and ever... He has overthrown the Ruler of Kush, the Nubian is defenseless in his grasp... like a young panther among the fleeing cattle; the fame of his majesty blinded them.

In about 1500 BC, Pharaoh Thutmose I sailed down from Egypt in a major military campaign that destroyed the might of the Upper Nubian kingdom of Kush, conquering Egypt's first real African rival. A new UCSB archaeological expedition to the Dongola Reach in the Sudan examines the nature of the Egyptian-Nubian interactions before and after the Egyptian conquest. What was the effect of this violent intrusion on the native Kerma culture? Did they assimilate to Egyptian norms, as did their neighbors in Lower Nubia, or did they retain their native culture in spite of their absorption into the Egyptian New Kingdom empire?

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