We are pleased to be able to announce that Assistant Professor Dobrochna Zielińska has agreed to give the opening talk for the next international interdisciplinary Sudan Studies Research Conference in Warsaw on the 04 September 2021.
Medieval Nubia did not keep written archives for future generations and its history is mainly known from scattered inscriptions and summary records of foreign travellers. However, we can discover its culture through numerous mural decoration in various buildings, that once formed a colourful chronicle of medieval Nubian culture. On the walls of churches mainly, Nubian masters presented the most important theological visualisations that came with Christianity and characterised the first centuries of Christian art of Nubian kingdoms. But at a certain moment, among religious depictions of Nubian authorities occurred and this started a turn towards the expression of indigenous ideas that were important for Nubians before the arrival of Christianity. As a result of such an approach the monumental art offers an insight into the Nubian ideas concerning art, as well as some aspects of their life.
Dobrochna Zielińska is an archaeologist, nubiologist, and currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology of Egypt and Nubia, Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw. Her research interests include both immaterial and material aspects of ancient and medieval (especially Nubian) art.
Since 2001, she participated in excavations of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, in Naqlun (Egypt), Hawarte (Syria), Banganarti and Dongola (Sudan), working mainly on documentation and research concerning wall paintings. From this year she has started an interdisciplinary project in Miseeda (Mahas region).
Currently her research concentrates on reconstructing the past of medieval Nubia through its art, especially tracing indigenous aspects of Nubian culture.
