Meroitic Hathor bracelet, Sudan, 250-150 bce. She is literally holding the staff of Life (the Ankh).

The people of Kush were masters of goldwork, like the granulated beads, wire braids and cloissonée enamel of this bracelet showing Auset / Isis in the Double Crown. The act of beating her wings is closely associated with her (temporary) resuscitation of the dead Ausar / Osiris in order to conceive Heru / Horus.

Hathor suckles Harsomtou / Ḥr-sm3-t3wy at the Behdet Horus Temple. His title means "Unifier of the Two Lands". It is not uncommon for there to be confusion between Isis Lactans (as they called her in Latin, the nursing Isis) and Hathor. They often wear this same crown. But Hathor is the more ancient mother of Horus, a relationship reflected in their names. Her Kemetic name is HetHeru, "House of the Falcon," a kenning for the Sky. His name simply means Falcon. Auset seems to come in during the Old Kingdom to gradually displace Hathor as mother of Horus, but never entirely. We also see Heru as consort to HetHeru, who is already depicted as the Sky Cow in proto-dynastic times.

I love the strong Nubian flavor of this relief, in spite of the fact that the goddess was literally defaced, be it by Christians or Muslims—the fate of countless goddess images, and to a greater degree than the gods.

A different armlet of wing-beating Auset flanked by Kushite queens — kandakes — with ankhs atop their wings.

Meroitic ankh amulets. I should mention that Meroe was a late center of power, last centuries BCE to early centuries CE, that was quite far south. Well below the 5th cataract, and far below the ancient Napatan capital, even further than that from Kerma.

The Kushans were into Hathor! this gold and rock crystal icon came from the pyramid of one of the Meroitic queens.

Hathor earrings, with the flip coiffure that is diagnostic for this goddess, and flowerets.

Meroitic Hathors with cow-ears and rampant serpents, gold sheets fashioned by repoussée and chasing techniques.

Hathor medallion in rosette

Winged goddess, possibly Isis from the Double Crown and wings, although the breast-cupping is unusual.

Ear stud from West Cemetery at Meroe, around the year 10 CE.

Royal family signet, 2 cm. Note that the woman, left, and man are dressed nearly identically. The status of the kandake (queen) is very prominent in Kushan society, with numerous indicators of a matrilineal descent system that actually survived into the christian period and the middle ages. Queens (both the queen mother and the woman married to the king) are prominent in ceremonial scenes on temple walls as well in their tombs.

Nicolaus Damascenus, who I just found out was a Jewish historian from Syria, not a Greek, wrote this about 2000 years ago:

The Nubians hold their sisters in great honor, and their kings are succeeded by their sisters' sons, not their own.

Quoted in George Thomson's Studies in Ancient Greek Society, 1965: 141

Another indicator of this high female status is that the royal women are depicted being invested with authority by divinitiies, in this scene the ram-god Amun (who is especially associated with Nubia, from whence he was brought to the fore in Egypt's 18th dynasty long before Meroitic times). This queen, who I haven't been able to identify yet, has one arm raised and waving a long flaming censer before the god, who supports her by the elbow.