An Interview with Bruce B. Williams

A few blogs ago I asked if anyone anywhere could give me information on Bruce B. Williams and/or his publications. His groundbreaking work opened the eyes of myself and others about the positive impact ancient Nubia had on Egypt, it's phaoronic culture and the development of the First Dynasty.

I actually got a chance to meet with him at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. I was sitting at a back table with a few of his books in front of me when he entered the archives and came straight up to me and asked if we could step outside and talk for a few minutes.

Below are my notes from this interview:

MB: I have been an avid follower of your findings and I wonder how your theories about Nubia and the development of the First Dynasty is working out.

BBW: More and more people are coming to view the development of the First Dynasty the same way I do.

MB: Menes, according to much of my research, was a Nubian pharaoh in Egypt before the First Dynasty.

BBW: Menes is also known as Narmer. There is no real proof of his existence. Nowhere is he mentioned in the Egyptian literature.

MB: I've been writing a blog about Nubia and its impact on the phaoronic system in Egypt. I have been trying to show how Nubia influenced its development.

BBW: I never said the A-group from Nubia developed the phaoronic system independently. Individuals from Egypt and Nubia had a common purpose and worked together.

MB: Can you give me additional resources for my research?

BBW: (He gave me a list of individuals and websites.) A lot of the material you have to go through and decide on your own what is true, probably true, or not true at all. You're going to have to use a lot of your own common sense in making these decisions.

MB: What about Adam's book, NUBIA--THE CORRIDOR TO AFRICA?

BBW: Some of it is worth knowing, some of it is not. You will have to read it to make your own decisions.

In the next few blogs I hope to give evidence on the development of Nubia and its importance in ancient Egypt from what I was able to learn at the Oriental Institute--including the incense burner Bruce Williams utilizes as evidence that Nubia had a royal leadership that predated Egypt's pharaohs.