2011 Lectures
.Thursday, December 8th, 2011
6:30 PM
“The New York Obelisk: Trials and Tribulations”
Dr. Bob Brier, host of award-winning televisions specials for TLC, one of the world's foremost experts on mummies, author of several scholarly and popular books, and Senior Research Fellow at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University (to be introduced by Dr. Magda Saleh, Vice-President of Friends of New York Obelisk, former Prima Ballerina of the Russian-trained Cairo Ballet Company, recipient of scholarships, awards, honors and distinctions and the Senior Professor and Dean of the Higher Institute of Ballet and Founding Director of the New Cairo opera House – National Cultural Center).
Location: Alston & Bird LLP, 90 Park Avenue, (between 39th and 40th Streets), N.Y., N.Y., 15th Floor Lecture Room (Note: Photo ID Required to enter Building)
A holiday party will follow the Lecture
ABSTRACT: Recent discussions in the New York Times have claimed that New York's obelisk is deteriorating. This lecture will discuss the history of the New York obelisk from ancient to modern times. After a brief introduction about how the obelisk was quarried and transported in ancient times, some of its more recent history will be discussed, including the remarkable story of its journey from Alexandria to New York in 1881. The talk will conclude with an assessment of the condition of the obelisk, as it is today and a discussion about what should be done.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Bob Brier earned his bachelor's degree from Hunter College in New York and his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Senior Research Fellow at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and also Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Egyptology Today program. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on mummies and was the first person in 2,000 years to mummify a human cadaver in the ancient Egyptian manner.
Dr. Brier hosted several award-winning television specials for TLC, including "The Great Egyptians" and "Unwrapped, the Mysterious World of Mummies." He is the author of several scholarly and popular books including "Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians," "The Murder of Tutankhamen," and "Secret of the Great Pyramid."
Thursday, October 13, 2011
6:30 PM
“Neith and the Two Biblical Deborahs: Some Intriguing Parallels.”
Gary Greenberg, President of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York (BASNY) and the author of several books on biblical and ancient Near Eastern History.
Location: Alston & Bird LLP, 90 Park Avenue, (between 39th and 40th Streets), N.Y., N.Y., 15th Floor Lecture Room (Note: Photo ID Required to enter Building)
A wine and cheese reception will follow the Lecture
Abstract: The biblical book of Judges contains two versions of the story of the judge Deborah, who rallied Israelite forces against Canaanite oppressors, one poetic and one narrative. The poetic account, which differs in many particulars from the narrative version, is thought to be one of the oldest biblical passages in the bible and preserves some cosmological elements that suggest some sort of battle between ancient gods.
The bible also contains a second story about a different Deborah, who served as Rebekah's nurse. (Rebekah eventually married Isaac, father of Jacob.) The passage is one sentence long and contains some odd iconic references to this nurse.
Neith was an Egyptian goddess identified with the kingship of Lower Egypt. Like the Greek Athena she had martial characteristics and the Greeks identified Athena with Neith. In some Egyptian circles Neith was a Creation deity who also functioned as a judge and as a nurturer.
In this talk, Mr. Greenberg will examine the iconography associated with Neith and the two biblical Deborahs and compare them. The talk will reveal some intriguing parallels that will suggest a possible literary relationship between the Egyptian goddess and the two biblical characters.
About the Speaker: Gary Greenberg is President of the Biblical Archaeology Society of New York and the author of several books on biblical and ancient Near Eastern History, including "Manetho: A Study In Egyptian Chronology" and "The Moses Mystery: The Egyptian Origins of the Jewish People." He has presented papers at several ARCE conferences and has published articles in KMT, The Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, and Discussions in Egyptology. He maintains a web site at www.bibleandhistory.com.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
6:30 PM
“The Good Life on the Nile: Touring Egypt by Sail and Steam”
Susan J. Allen, Senior Research Scholar, Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Introduced by Ann Macy Roth, Clinical Associate Professor of Egyptology, Departments of Hebrew & Judaic Studies and of Art History, New York University).
ABSTRACT: People have been cruising the Nile now for more than 5000 years from the Predynastic Period to the present. The geography of the Nile Valley and river and its annual inundation have determined the development of Egyptian culture, civilization, history and economy and despite the advent of cars, trucks, trains and planes – travel by boat still remains part of everyday life. But for those of us visiting Egypt as tourists or scholars, a trip down the Nile has come to mean much more.
With the opening up of Egypt after the Napoleonic Expedition (1798-1801) and the rapid advances in transportation and communication in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Egypt became a destination for all those adventurers, artists, writers, and amateur travelers who had time, curiosity and the resources to venture down, or rather up then down, the Nile in small sailing vessels called dahabiyehs. With the invention of the package tour by Thomas Cook in the 1850’s, travel on the Nile shifted to small and large steamboats—the era of Agatha Christie and Death on the Nile. This lecture will present some the many ways people traveled, what they saw and how they recorded their trips in letters, journals, published accounts, drawings, watercolors and photographs. And surprisingly, ARCE’s link to this golden age of travel on the Nile.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Susan J. Allen is a Senior Research Scholar in the Department of Egyptian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, Brown University. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she is a specialist in ancient Egyptian ceramics and has worked with a French mission in the Temple of Karnak, the NYU-IFA excavations at Mendes in the eastern Delta, and at Giza, Memphis and Amarna. Since 1993 she has participated in the Met’s current expedition to the Pyramid Complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur where she is responsible for the study and documentation of the ancient pottery recovered and the preparation of this material for publication. In 2007 she curated the exhibition “Discovering Tutankhamun: the Photographs of Harry Burton” at the Museum and is the author of the accompanying book, Tutankhamun’s Tomb: The Thrill of Discovery (MMA/Yale University Press, 2006).
From 1978-1982 she lived in Cairo and during this time she had a unique opportunity—to live on a 1920’s vintage Thomas Cook tourist steamer on the Nile. As a result she became interested in the modern discovery of Egypt and the history of travel there and began to collect old travel accounts, guidebooks, photos, postcards and other ephemera from the 19th and early 20th centuries. She is also a member of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East.
Susan sorting pottery.
The American Research Center In Egypt, New York Chapter (ARCE/NY) presented the ARCE Chapters’ Visiting Tour 2011 Fall Series Lecture on September 14, 2011.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
6:30 PM
"Mysteries of Abydos: Excavating and Saving the Monuments of Egypt's Earliest Pharaohs"
Dr. David O’Connor, The Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; and Co-Director, Excavations, at Abydos, Egypt. (Accompanied by Dina Aboul-Saad, Director of Development, The American Research Center in Egypt and introduced by Stephanie Denkowicz, Secretary and Board Member of ARCE/NY and Partner, Alston & Bird, LLP.).
Location: Alston & Bird LLP, 90 Park Avenue, (between 39th and 40th Streets), N.Y., N.Y., 15th Floor Lecture Room (Note: Photo ID Required to enter Building)
A wine and hors d’oeuvres reception followed the Lecture
Abstract: When we think of ancient Egypt, we usually visualize pyramids, sphinxes and temples, all built by the Egyptian pharaohs over several thousands of years. However, long before the pyramids, Egypt’s earliest kings - literally, "the First Dynasty"- were provided with monuments that seem very alien to the ancient Egyptian world as we usually imagine it. The tombs of these earliest pharaohs are at Abydos, along with two for Second Dynasty kings, but nearby are much larger and much more mysterious structures dedicated to these same rulers.
These structures seem almost inscrutable to modern Egyptology. Why is their form so strange; for what unusual rites were they used; why are some surrounded by human sacrifices, and in one case, flanked by a fleet of ships, seemingly moored far out in the desert? These mysterious structures were the largest built at this time and amazingly one - the largest and most massive- still survives today, almost 5000 years later. Dedicated to the last king of the Second Dynasty, it occupies two and a half acres and in places stands close to its original height of about 33 feet. Nevertheless, today this unique structure is on the brink of collapse but is being saved thanks to massive financial support available only because of ARCE’s extraordinary conservation and restoration program, which has already preserved or enhanced many buildings testifying to Egypt’s unique cultural heritage.
In his lecture, David O’Connor will describe the revealing discoveries that are being made about these enigmatic monuments to Egypt’s earliest kings; their documentation and preservation; and the intensive conservation and stabilization program that will assure the survival of the greatest of them for the next 5000 years and more.
About the Speaker: Dr. David O’Connor studied Egyptology at University College, London and received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Since 1960, he frequently has excavated in Egypt, mostly at Abydos, but also at the palace site of Amenhotep III at Malkata. After 31 years as a professor and curator at the University of Pennsylvania and its museum, he was appointed Lila Acheson Wallace Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. His recent book, “Abydos: Egypt’s Earliest Pharaohs and the Cult of Osiris (Thames and Hudson), is the first comprehensive study of this major site to appear for many years. The paperback edition has just been published.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
6:00 PM
“Controversies in Egyptian Paleopathology: Who died of what? A second opinion.”
Dr. Miguel A. Sanchez , Chief of Pathology at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
Introduction by Dr. Suzanne Onstine, Assistant Professor of History, University of Memphis and Head of the Epigraphic Field Project at TT-16.
Location: ISAW, 15 East 84th Street, New York, New York
Abstract: Paleopathology studies of Ancient Egypt are a unique tool to understand not only the medical aspects of the time, but also provide a window to that society in general. Historians frequently accept medical analysis of mummified remnants or translation of medical texts at face value. However different explanations are seldom discussed and questionable findings reach the Egyptology literature as gospel. Sometimes it takes years for an alternative interpretation to reach the community of historians which may have pursued a line of research guided by the medical analysis.
A series of case studies will be used to highlight how epidemiology, radiography and histopathology can be a great asset and sometimes a hindrance. Venereal diseases in Ancient Egypt, accidents and theories of royal deaths will be discussed.
About the Speaker: Dr. Miguel A. Sanchez is Chief of Pathology at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center where he is also Director of the Leslie Simon Breast Care Center. He holds professorial appointments at both The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and NYU. A member for over 30 years of the Paleopathology Group of the International Academy of Pathology and the Paleopathology Association, he has lectured around the world on the role of the Humanities in the learning of Medicine, primarily on the topics of opera and disease and ancient Egyptian medicine. Next season he will be working with the University of Memphis team under the direction of Dr. Suzanne Onstein in the analysis of the mummified findings at TT 16.
Head of Tutankhamun, ca. 1336–1327 B.C.
MMA 50.6 (Rogers Fund, 1950)Thursday, May 19, 2011
6:00 PM
"Tutankhamun's Father"
Dr. James P. Allen, Wilbour Professor of Egyptology and Chair Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies, Brown University.
Introduction by Susan J. Allen, Senior Research Scholar, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Visiting Research Scholar, Brown University.
Location: ISAW, 15 East 84th Street, New York, New York
Abstract: One of the key questions of ancient Egyptian history is the relationship of the “boy-king” Tutankhamun to his predecessor, the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaten, and the Amarna royal family. Drawing on both well-established data and new findings from the study of DNA from the royal mummies, this talk presents one possible solution to the historical mystery.
About the Speaker: James P. Allen is the Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University and president of the International Association of Egyptologists. He has served as Cairo Director of ARCE and curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is the author of numerous books and articles on ancient Egyptian language, literature, religion and history.
VISITING GUESTS FROM EGYPT
The American Research Center In Egypt, New York Chapter is pleased to welcome Mansour Boraik, Director General of Upper Egypt and the Oases and John Shearman, Associate Director, EAC Luxor. Director General Boraik will give a brief update on Egypt after the “Question and Answer” period following Dr. James P. Allen’s lecture on May 19, 2011 at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU/ISAW).
Mansour Boraik, Director General of Upper Egypt and the Oases
Mr. Mansour Boraik is an Egyptologist and archaeologist with an extensive history of academic and field experience. At the present time, Mr. Mansour is the Director General of Upper Egypt and the Oases, a position to which he has been newly promoted. Prior to this appointment, he was Director General of Luxor Antiquities for five years. He has also held positions as an archaeological inspector with the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt including as the Chief Inspector of the Giza Pyramids Plateau project and Chief Inspector of Excavations in the Giza Inspectorate of Antiquities from
the mid 1990s to the mid-2000s.
Mr. Boraik has excavated at a number of sites in Egypt including Luxor, where he has been the Field Director of excavations in front of the Karnak temple, the Sphinx Avenue, Luxor Temple and the Tombs of the Nobles on the West Bank. He also served as Field Director of the archaeological monitoring team for salvage excavations during the dewatering project for Luxor and Karnak temples.
Several international organizations, universities and museums conducting archaeological expeditions and conserving and restoring Egyptian cultural monuments have worked with Mr. Mansour. American groups include ARCE, the Getty Foundation, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since the early 1990s, Mr. Mansour has lectured extensively on Egyptian archaeology both at home and abroad to audiences in such diverse locations as Cyprus, New Mexico, New York, London, Atlanta and Luxor. His publications range in scope from reports to articles for newsletters and journals.
John Shearman, Associate Director, EAC Luxor
John Shearman brings his extensive experience working with culturally diverse Middle Eastern staffs to his current position as Associate Director of ARCE’s many projects currently underway in Luxor. He has managed several projects associated with historic preservation.
With his record of managing large-scale projects, he brings considerable experience to the numerous conservation projects spanning the New Kingdom through the Late Period of Pharaonic rule in the Luxor and Karnak temple complexes. These projects are bringing to light new materials and inscriptions that will impact our understanding of these iconic sites.
Before joining ARCE full-time, his work in Egypt included providing oversight for the construction of the flood control prototype to protect the tombs of Rameses I and Seti I in the Valley of the Kings, researching the Tomb of Isis, and surveying the Valley of the Queens. He also served as a member of ARCE’s Oversight Committee for the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP). His company, Shearman International Industries, specialized in providing construction management, including management of archeologically sensitive projects.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
6:30 PM
"New Light on The Burial of The Overseer of The Builders of Amun, Amenhotep"
Dr. Nicholas Reeves is the Sylvan C Coleman and Pamela Coleman Memorial Fellow in the Department of Egyptian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was formerly GAD Tait Curator of Egyptian and Classical Art at The Myers Museum, Eton College.
Location: Alston & Bird, LLP
90 Park Ave, 15th Floor Lecture Room
New York (between 39th and 40th Streets)
Abstract: An archaeological trail: what we know about a fragmentary coffin lid in the Myers Collection at Eton College; how this led to the attribution of two anonymous mummy masks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and what those masks are now able to tell us about the burial and its funerary papyrus.
Wedesday, March 16, 2011
6:30 PM
"Fashion in Ancient Egypt: Clothing, Cosmetics, Coiffures" -- A Walk Through the Egyptian Galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dr. Phyllis Saretta, Education Staff Lecturer/Researcher -- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Location: Alston & Bird, LLP
90 Park Ave, 15th Floor Lecture Room
New York (between 39th and 40th Streets)
(Note: Photo ID Required to enter Building)
ABSTRACT: Cloth and garments in ancient Egypt were considered to be one of the most important components of a person's life. Clothing was not only functional, but was symbolic of a person's social position. Cloth was highly valued and appeared as a major feature in the list of tomb offerings. Cosmetics, jewelry and other accoutrements were not only ornamental, but were believed to have magical properties attached to them as well.
This talk examines transitions in ancient Egyptian fashion from the severe to the frivolous. Objects and images include shirts, dresses, sandals, mirrors, kohl tubes, razors, jewelry, wigs, and hair ornaments from the collection of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum, and beyond.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Phyllis Saretta received her Ph.D. from New York University in Egyptology and Ancient Near East Archaeology and Languages in 1997. Dr. Saretta was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in the Dept. of Egyptian Art at The Metropolitan Museum in 1994-95, where she completed research for her dissertation entitled, “Egyptian Perceptions of West Semites in Art and Literature during the Middle Kingdom: An Archaeological, Art Historical and Textual Survey,” which focused on cultural and social interconnections between Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Levant.
She has taught courses on Egypt and Mesopotamia as part-time faculty member of the New School University and is currently on staff in the Education Department of the Metropolitan Museum, where she lectures extensively.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
ARCE/ISAW
6:00 PM
"Belgians at Bersha - Recent fieldwork in the Old Kingdom necropolis and the intact tomb of Henu"
Marleen De Meyer, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Research Foundation – Flanders, Dayr al-Barsha Project, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Location: ISAW, 15 East 84th Street, New York, New York
ABSTRACT: Since 2002 Leuven University (Belgium) has been conducting excavations at the site of Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt. This place was used as a necropolis by the inhabitants of the nearby provincial capital Hermopolis throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Dayr al-Barsha is most famous for its Middle Kingdom nomarchs’ tombs, including the well-preserved tomb of governor Djehutihotep, but the site also contains a large Old Kingdom rock necropolis. This lecture will focus on the different types of Old Kingdom burials that are encountered here, and in particular on a number of tombs that preserve a restoration inscription dating to the late First Intermediate Period. What this restoration consisted of, became clear when the intact burial of Henu was found, an administrator serving under a governor named Djehutinakht at the end of the First Intermediate Period. This burial contained not only the perfectly preserved coffin and mummy of the deceased, but also a number of wooden tomb models portraying scenes of daily life in Ancient Egypt.
http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/egyptology/Henu.htm
Marleen De Meyer copying text on the coffin of Henu
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Marleen De Meyer is a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders and co-field director of the excavations of Leuven University at Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt. She investigates provincial administration in the 15th and 16th Upper Egyptian nomes based on a number of necropoleis dating from the late Old Kingdom to the First Intermediate Period. Part of this postdoctoral fellowship she spends as a visiting research scholar at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She received her PhD from Leuven University in Belgium in 2008, with a dissertation about the rock tombs of the late Old Kingdom at that site, where she has been excavating since 2002.
Prior to her work at Dayr al-Barsha, she spent several seasons in Egypt between 1997 and 2001, copying reliefs in the Roman period temple of Shenhur, some 20 km north of Luxor. This resulted in the publication of the inscriptions of the interior of the temple that appeared in 2003. In 2010 a final field campaign to this temple was undertaken to finish the recording of the inscriptions, and the publication of the outer walls of this temple is underway.
Old Kingdom rock tombs on the south hill of Dayr al-Barsha
All images of Dayr al-Barsha are copyrighted by the Belgian Archaeological Mission to Dayr al-Barsha
(photographer: Marleen De Meyer)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
"Haremhab: The General Who Became King"
Dr. Dorothea Arnold, Lila Acheson Wallace Chair of the Department of Egyptian Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Location: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW/NYU) 15 East 84th Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues) New York, New York
A reception followed the lecture.
ABSTRACT: The talk is an introduction to the exhibition “Haremhab, the General who Became King” at present on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The focus of this exhibition is the Metropolitan’s statue of Haremhab as a Scribe, the best-known three-dimensional image of this important historical figure, created while he was commander in chief of the army under Tutankhamun but showing him as a scribe and thus an administrator and wise man. About 70 objects – predominantly from the Metropolitan’s collection – are displayed around the statue as visual means to understand its multi-layered character. The talk will explain why these objects were chosen and how they relate to the statue.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dorothea Arnold was educated in Germany (Universities of Tuebingen and Munich) and worked for many years as an archaeologist with the German Institute of Archaeology. Since 1985 she is curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in charge of the department since 1991, chairman since 2005. With her colleagues in the department of Egyptian art she has organized numerous exhibitions and written or co-written catalogues for them. She has also overseen substantial new installations in the Metropolitan’s Egyptian galleries.
Copyright © - American Research Center in Egypt / New York
Eton College coffin lid (top).
Eton College coffin lid (undersurface).
Yuny and His
Wife, Renenutet,
19th Dynasty
Metropolitan Museum
of Art
The intact burial chamber of Henu.
Old Kingdom burial with cattle offering.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. V. Everit Macy, 1923 (23.10.1) Statue of Haremhab
as a scribe .
CAT scan of the mummy of Nesi-Amun. Metropolitan Museum of Art from the Catalogue of:” The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt”.
Obelisk being erected in Central Park.
Obelisk standing in Alexandria (As it was being removed).
Neith with shield,
Wikipedia.
Neith with crown,
Wikipedia.
