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On this page you will find information on the events hosted by the Calgary Chapter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities from 2000 to 2010.
Date: Date: 4 June 2010
Title: Mendes 2001
Speaker: David George,
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David was the archaeological photographer for the Mendes dig with Donald Redford from 2000 through 2004. |
Mendes 2001 is a one-hour film.
The film follows students and staff through the 2001 season and reveals interesting finds as well as daily life on the dig.
Mendes was the capitol of the 16th nome of Lower Egypt and originally the sacred city of the fish-goddess of the Delta, Hat-Mehit.
In later times the city became centre of the cult of the four-faced ram god.
Date: 7 May 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Title: Egypt Rocks: Buildings, Statues and the Geology of Egypt
Speaker: Paul English
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Paul is the Vice-president of the Calgary Chapter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. Paul obtained a B.Sc. in geology from the University of Southampton (UK) and then moved to Alberta and completed an M.Sc. in geology at the University of Alberta. For most of the last 30 years he has been based in Calgary, working in the oil industry. Paul is a long-time member of the Chapter, currently serves as a Trustee of the SSEA and is also a member of the Egyptian Exploration Society. |
Paul talked about various aspects of the geology and rocks in Egypt.
Date: 5 March 2010
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Title: Horemheb & the genesis of 'Mithraism' in Ancient Egypt
Speaker: Rosalind Park
Madame Park has UK degrees in Archaeometry [B.Sc], & Cultural Astronomy [MA], with archaeology post grad field-work done in Israel. A member of the International Association of Egyptologists since 1998 and, from time to time, publishes and lectures on medicine and/or religious astronomy in Ancient Egypt. Gordon Falconer is a lawyer with an abiding interest in astronomy.
Rosalind Park talked about some speculations about Horemheb, and his 'tomb' at Saqqara not being a tomb, but a type of clandestine meeting place for his army generals. She will present arguments that the funerary texts of his later tomb in the Valley of the Kings show that an Egyptian style type of 'Mithraism' was practiced some 1,500 years before Roman soldiers took hold of the ideology. Madam Park was asssited by her husband Gordon Falconer. He began the talk by telling us about some aspects of astronomy related to the subject of the talk.
Date: 5 February 2010
Title: Coins of the Ptolemies
Speaker: Geraldine Chimirri-Russell
Location: Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary
Date: 13 November 2009
Title: A Tour of Ancient Thebes
Speaker: Julius Szekrenyes
This talk will be a tour of the ancient temples, palaces, towns and tombs in and around ancient Thebes (modern Luxor and surroundings).
Date: 2 October 2009
Title: Death on the Nile
Speaker: David George
David George will present the film Death on the Nile, a short video on Mendes, and the short version of his film Mendes 2000.
Date: 5 June 2009
Title: The British Museum Egyptian Collection
Speaker: Nicholas Wernick, University of Liverpool, England
Date: 1 May 2009
Title: Egypt in the European Imagination before Champollion.
Speaker: Jãnis Svilpis,
Jãnis Svilpis is Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary
Date: 3 April 2009
Event: Videotaped Lecture
Date: 6 March 2009
Egyptian Movie Night
Title: The Mummy
Date: 6 February 2009
Title: The Evolution of Mummification in Ancient Egypt
Speaker: Julius Szekrenyes
Julius Szekrenyes is a long time member of the Calgary SSEA.
Mummies are a common symbol of ancient Egypt but the practice changed considerably over the 3000 years of Egyptian history. In this talk, Julius will explore the evolution of mummies.
Date: December 5, 2008
Presentation: Mistress of the Evening - Mistress of the West. The Egyptian Goddess Hathor in the Near Eastern Context
Speaker: Katja Goebs
Katja is an Associate Professor in the Department of Near and Middle
Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She specializes in
Egyptian Religion and kingship and its iconography. She recently
published a book entititled: Crowns in Egyptian Funerary Literature. Royalty, Rebirth, and Destruction.
Date: November 7, 2008
Bad Egyptian Movie Night
Title: Bubba Ho Tep
Join us for something a little bit different.
Date: October 3, 2008
Presentation: The Geography and Chronology of Ancient Egypt Part 2
Speaker: Steven James Larkman
Steven continued his overview of the geography and chronology of ancient
Egypt. Steven is president of the Calgary chapter of the SSEA.
At this meeting we also had our first Annual General Meeting.We adopted new By-laws and chose a new vice president.
Date: September 12, 2008
Presentation: The Geography and Chronology of Ancient Egypt Part 1
Speaker: Steven James Larkman
Steven is president of the Calgary chapter of the SSEA. Steven will give an overview of the geography and chronology of ancient
Egypt.
Date: June 6, 2008
Presentation: Hatshepsut
Speaker: Hend Badawy
Hend Badawy has worked as an architect in Egypt, Algeria and Canada.
She recently moved to Calgary from Montreal. She recieved a Post Graduate Diploma in
Egyptian Civiliztion at Helwan Univeristy in Cairo and a guide permit for ancient sites in Egypt.
Hend will discuss the character of Hatshepsut, the composition of the Royal family and the the Royal family at the the
time of Hatshepsut.
Date: May 2, 2008
Presentation: From human origins to the origins of the Egyptian Civilization: fieldwork in Kharga Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt, in the 2006 7 2008 field seasons.
Speaker: Dr. Mary McDonald
Mary is Associate Prof in the Archaeology Dept, U. of Calgary. Her interests lie in the origins of agriculture and developments
towards civilization in Egypt and the Near East. She has done fieldwork in Turkey, Iran and Lebanon.
Since 1979, she has worked in Egypt as a member of the Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP), and since 2000, with
the Kharga Oasis Prehistoric Project (KOPP). In both projects,
she has studied the Late Prehistory of the area: from 10,000 to 4000 years ago, or about 9000 to 2200 BC.
Date: April 28, 2008
Presentation: An Overview of the Egyptian Temples
Speaker: John Gee - William (Bill) Gay Associate Research Professor of Egyptology Neal A. Maxwell Institute
for Religious Scholarship Brigham Young University.
Date: April 4, 2008
Presentation: The Entourages of Ancient Egypt
Speaker: Steven James Larkman
Date: March 7, 2008
Presentation: PseudoEgyptology: Pyramidiots and the ancient Egyptian Air Force
Speaker: Rebecca Bradley
Location: Room EA 1031 - Mount Royal College
Rebecca Bradley is a Calgary based archaeologist and writer of speculative fiction. She did field work at ancient Meroe. More recently
she worked on the Merowe dam salvage campaign at the fourth cataract.
In her talk, Rebecca will discuss how writers of best selling new age books misrepresent ancient Egypt and it artefacts.
Date: February 1, 2008
b>Presentation: Scribes and the Scribal Arts
Speaker: Steven James Larkman
Location: Room EA 1031 - Mount Royal College
Date: December 7, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.
Presentation: A Tour of Saqqara
Lecturer: Julius Szekrenyes
Location: Room EA 1031 - Mount Royal College
Julius Szekrenyes is well-known to most members of SSEA Calgary. He
has been a member since it first started here and was president for
many years. He is a retired pathologist and has given courses on
Ancient Egypt for University of Calgary Continuing Education for many
years.
Saqqara is the most attractive and interesting site in Egypt. It
began as the cemetery of the capital city, Mennefer (Memphis) in the
Old Kingdom, and continued to be used as a cemetery for almost every
dynasty for pharaohs, nobility, tradesmen and peasants, a history of
almost 3000 years. The presentation will be a slide-show tour of Saqqara, showing many
tombs and pyramids.
Date: November 2, 2007 - 7:00 p.m.
Presentation: A Very Special Tour in Egypt
Lecturer: David George
Location: Room EA 1031 - Mount Royal College
In 1995 intrepid photographer David George and his wife Lea
undertook a very special tour in Egypt. Almost accidentally, we found
we had our own guide, and a VIP suite on the newest Nile cruise boat.
We mostly ignored the standard tourist itinerary, and saw lesser
visited places such as El Kab, the Nobles tombs in Aswan, Meidum,
Medinet Habu, and Nefertari's tomb on the 7th day of its reopening to
the public. This was our third trip to Egypt together, and this
presentation will include many images digitized from slides and
negatives to recapture some of our excitement on this very special tour.
Date: Friday October 5, 2007
Presentation: To Die in Style; The Cemetery Site of Beni Hasan
Lecturer: Steven James Larkman
The site of Beni Hasan was a cemetery that contained a
large collection of burials.This site has been used to create
a picture of life that occurred during the early Middle
Kingdom. Providing some of the most important
information on the lives of the elite and non-elite
members of society lived and died. This presentation will
look at the history of the site, the internal chronology of
the site and the information that the site gives for the
time period that it was in use.
Date: Friday 04 May 2007
Presentation: Medinet Habu: its religious and historical significance
Lecturers: Mssrs. David George, long-time lecturer and member of the SSEA, and Steven Larkman,Vice-President of the Calgary Chapter SSEA
Come join us for a fascinating multi-media, first-hand exploration
(by aerial balloon, video and slides)of one of Egypt’s most
important and well reconstructed mortuary complexes, that of
User-ma‘at-ra Mery-amun (Ramesses III), who reigned between
1184-1153 BC during Dynasty XX of the New
Kingdom. Find out how else we believe it was used, who is represented
on the regimen of sculptural
panel reliefs and why, scenes of provocative imagery, and some of the
more controversial historical
claims ("did he really do that?").
Presentation: Ancient Egyptian Jewelry
Speaker: Julius Szekrenyes
Date: Friday, March 2, 2007
Jewelry in Ancient Egypt was worn by all, farmer to pharaoh, for
decoration, badge of rank, award, and amuletic protection, and was
often buried with the owner for use in the Afterlife. Most of the
valuable pieces were recycled back into the economy by tomb-robbers, so
it is fortunate that many spectacular finds have been made in modern
times, such as the jewels of King Tut.
Jewelry was made from a large variety of materials including gold,
lapis lazuli, turquoise, silver, calcite, glazed composite (faience),
soapstone, quartz such as carnelian, jasper and sard, and even bone and
glass.
This talk will show examples of jewelry from Predynastic times down to near the end of Pharaonic Egypt.
Date: Friday 02 February 2007
Presentation: The end of Meroë: A review of the literary and archaeological evidence
Co-Lecturers: Dr. Peter Shinnie, Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary;
and Dr. John Robertson, Instructor Emeritus, Mount Royal College
Prof. Shinnie recently received the distinguished award of The Order
of the Two Niles by the Ambassador of Sudan to Canada, two years after
the original award was made to him in the Sudan, in honour of his major
contributions to the archaeology of the Sudan, and for establishing the
first Department of Antiquities in the country. He is well known to all
members of the Calgary Chapter of the SSEA and as a distinguished
scholar on northern Africa from ancient times to the Medieval period,
having directed excavations and conducted research on cultures from the
Sudan to Ghana.
Dr. Robertson is also well known to the Calgary Chapter for his work
in the Sudan, and at Meroë as an excavation supervisor and the
ceramic specialist.
Join Calgary’s two most distinguished scholars of the Sudan as
they co-present the results of their research into the last days of the
Meroitic kingdom that Prof. Shinnie brought to life with his major
excavation project at Meroë, its capitol, during 1973-1984.
Date: Friday 01 December 2006
Presentation: Hot Topics on ancient Egypt: New and
exciting discoveries at KV 63, and ancient seafaring along
Egypt’s Red Sea Coast
Lecturer: Mr. Steven Larkman, Vice President of the Calgary
Chapter SSEA, & Sessional Instructor at Mount Royal College
(Archaeology of the Nile Valley)
Explore two original discoveries, and get the latest word on
implications and controversies! The newly discovered western Theban
tomb, now known as KV 63, is the first tomb top be discovered in over
80 years, and is just metres away from the Tomb of King Tutankhamun,
which previously was the last to receive a number (KV 62). It was
explored by Prof. Otto Schaden from Memphis University, USA in February
2006, and yielded some fantastic remains. Dr. Zahi Hawass now proclaims
those remains may belong to family members Tut’s family, others
think they may belong to members of the royal family of the Amarna
period.
The Wadi Gawasis is a branch of the Wadi Hammamat, ending at Mersa
Gawasis. This port enabled an overland connection running east of the
Coptos bend in the Nile to the Red Sea. Here, archaeologists found two
caves this past December in which were found the possible remains of
the ship that Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC), as a pharaoh during
Dynasty XVIII of the New Kingdom, sent to Punt.
Date: Friday 03 November 2006
Video Presentation: Queen of Sheba: Behind the Myth (Atlantic Productions, 2002)
Lecturer: Dr. William D. Glanzman, President, SSEA Calgary
Chapter & Instructor in Archaeology, Department of Behavioural
Sciences, Mount Royal College
By popular demand from our members—What do Gina Lolabrigitta
and the desert have in common? Come find out and join Dr. Glanzman as
he introduces this video and explores additional historical background
on this enigmatic queen who allegedly visited King Solomon! He will
also provide clarification on a few points that are
"made-for-Hollywood" exaggerations of archaeological and
historical data that have crept into popular culture.
Date: Wednesday 01 November 2006
Venue: The Glenbow Museum, Theatre
Presentation: Geography of the Afterlife
Lecturer: Mr. Peter Robinson, Master’s in Historical
Geography (1988) from Manchester University; Certificate of Egyptology
(1997), University of Manchester; Treasurer of the Poynton Egyptology
Group, Manchester, UK Time: 7:30 p.m.
Mr. Robinson, a geographer, cartographer and Egyptologist
specializing on the Middle Kingdom’s Coffin Texts, will examine
ancient Egypt’s coffins, burial customs and rituals from
Predynastic times on through Ptolemaic Egypt. Middle Kingdom traditions
will form a major focus of the presentation. Mr. Robinson is well known
in Egyptology circles, and has published extensively, including a paper
on the Ritual Landscapes of the Afterlife, and an in
press contribution, Journey through Egyptian Afterlife.
He is currently the Editorial Assistant for the magazine Ancient Egypt.
Date: Friday 06 October 2006
Presentation: In Search of Ancient Caravans: the results of the 2006 field season of the Wadi Raghwan Archaeological Project
Lecturer: Dr. William D. Glanzman, President, SSEA Calgary
Chapter & Instructor in Archaeology, Department of Behavioural
Sciences, Mount Royal College
Join our Chapter President as he recounts the trials, tribulations
and results of the first field season of his new expedition to Yemen.
Here are but a few highlights—turret tombs of the
Bronze Age and later; a cemetery unique in structure and arrangement;
ancient stone tools, some of which may be over 1 million years old;
irrigation structures that may be older than the Old Marib Dam;
connections with the early alphabetic scripts of the Phoenicians, the
Sinai and Egypt’s Wadi el-Hol; and the best discoveries
are always made on the last day!
Date: Friday 05 May 2006
Presentation: What was going an in Dakhleh Oasis
during Egyptian Predynastic and Old Kingdom times? The Sheikh Muftah
culture.
Lecturer: Dr. Mary McDonald, Department of Archaeology,
University of Calgary
The Sheikh Muftah culture in Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of
Egypt, spanned some 1,500 years until 2200 BC, overlapping with the
Predynastic and much of the Old Kingdom in the Nile Valley, Despite
its longevity, this culture was far from prosperous. After 5000 BC
the Eastern Sahara was drying out, and the Sheikh Muftah people were
confined to a shrinking oasis. There they lived as wandering herders,
their lives often marked by malnutrition -and hard work. Still, they
produced fine chipped stone tools, intriguing pottery and other
artefacts. In this talk we will look at some of the major Sheikh
Muftah sites explored so far, and what they reveal about these
hard-pressed but resilient oasis dwellers.
Date: Friday 07 April 2006
Presentation: Military Campaigns of Dynasty XIX:
Conquering the Chaos of the Amarna Period
Lecturer: Nicholas Wernick, MA in Egyptology
From the historical and artistic points of view, the infamous
Amarna Period begins with the change of the name of
Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten (ca. 1348 BC) and extends into the reign of
Tutankhaten until he changes his name to Tutankhamun (reign ca.
1336-1327 BC) during his reign. This short-lived period of the New
Kingdom greatly eroded Egypt's previous hold on foreign lands in the
Levant (Israel, Palestine, Jordan & Syria). This situation
represented a massive reversal in the political control that Egypt
previously exerted. For the new family line of kings from the eastern
Delta established by Rameses I Menpehtyra (reign ca. 1306-1305 or
1295-1294 BC) the founder of Dynasty XIX, it raised the question of
how they were to deal with their loss of international status.
Nicholas will take us through the propagandistic scenes of military
campaigns during Dynasty XIX, and will reveal how the reconquista by
the early Ramesside period kings became manifest in the region. He
will also compare the archaeological evidence derived from
excavations in the Levant to examine whether or not the term "empire"
used by various scholars for this dynasty can truly be attributed to
Egypt's role abroad.
Date: Friday 03 March 2006
Presentation: New Kingdom tombs
Lecturer: Dr. Valrie Angenot
Dr. Angenot comes to us from Toronto to speak on aspects of her
research into Dynasty XVIII tomb paintings. Dr. Angenot's research
has focused on the viewing scenes from the New Kingdom tombs.
Date: Friday 03 February 2006
Presentation: I Rule this Egypt.- Great Overlords
of the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom
Lecturer: Steven J. Larkman, M.A. Egyptology, University of
Liverpool
Steven J. Larkman is the SSEA Calgary Chapter, Vice President, and
Sessional lecturer at Mount Royal College. Great Overlords were
officials that competed with the Kings for control of Egypt during
the First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom. An
investigation into these officials provides large amount of
information of how they controlled the provinces of Egypt and created
the time period.
Date: Friday 13 January 2006
Presentation: Harpocrates, Bes, and Bastet, Recent
Evidence for Egyptian Deities at Petra
Location: Glenbow Museum
Lecturer: Prof. David Johnson, Professor of Anthropology at
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Dr. Johnson, who is Director of Brigham Young University's
Archaeological Expedition to Petra, is coming to Calgary a day
earlier to present on recent archaeological fieldwork at Petra. For
the SSEA he will present on his fabulous recent discovery at Petra.
In recent excavations of Nabataean burials and open air shrines at
Petra in the Wadi Mataha, a large number of votive offerings with
images of the Egyptian protective deities Harpocrates, Bes, Thoth and
Bastet have been found carved in stone, painted on pottery and bone,
and molded in plaster. This is further significant evidence of the
influence of the cult of Isis on Nabataean religion.
Date: Friday 04 November 2005
Title: Medicine, Health and Disease in Ancient Egypt
Lecturer: Dr. Julius Szekrenyes, ex-President of the Calgary Chapter of the SSEA
The ancient Egyptians, dwelling in a harsh semitropical river and
desert environment, were subject to a wide range of common and esoteric
diseases and injuries. They developed practical and magical means to
cope with these problems. The "physician-surgeon" (SNW,
pronounced "soonoo") was skilled in basic medical and
surgical techniques, useful and sometimes useless medicines, and a host
of spells and incantations to drive out evil influences. Yet, even the
spells and incantations were logical in terms of their beliefs in the
pharaonic age. Julius will use artwork, ancient papyrus texts and
mummies to illustrate the various pathologies depicted in tomb
paintings and statues, and to describe maladies and their treatments in
the ancient medical texts. Examination of mummies, from early
unwrapping efforts to modern forensic studies, will be used to further
demonstrate how well adept the SNW of Egypt was, and how accurately we
are able to reconstruct this fascinating realm of ancient Egyptian
society.
Date: Friday 07 October 2005
Title: Where was Alexander the Great buried, in Alexandria, or at the Siwa Oasis?
Lecturer: Dr. William D. Glanzman, President, SSEA Calgary Chapter & Instructor in Archaeology, Department of Behavioural
Sciences, Mount Royal College
One of the great, unsolved historical questions is where Alexander III of Macedon, the legendary Alexander the Great
(Μέγας Ἀλέξανδρος) was buried
following the equally mysterious causes of his death at Babylon in 323
BC. His exploits in Egypt are also well known, but the aftermath and
impact they had upon ancient Egyptian society were also of great and
lasting importance and directly related to how his body was treated
once he died, and where it would reside for all time. He began and had
named after him one of the greatest cities of antiquity, Alexandria,
and his famous journey into the desert to visit the oracle at Siwa
firmly established his prominence and role as legitimate king or
pharaoh of Egypt. Over the years both sites have been
argued as the location for the final resting place of Alexander, yet no
trace of his body or his tomb has been found. In 1995 a flurry of media
coverage pointed to Siwa, and then the fingers started pointing all
around. Dr. Glanzman will explore this mystery, the sources and the
debates, and the archaeological possibilities for both sites.
Date: Friday 01 April 2005
Title: Incense and incest: Yuya, Tjuyu and their family in the late Dynasty XVIII
Lecturer: Steven J. Larkman, MA in Egyptology, University of Liverpool
Steven is well known to many of the SSEA Calgary Chapter Members, and is also the Sessional Instructor for the
course on the Archaeology of the Nile valley here at MRC. One of his passions concerns the controversial roles of
royal family members during Dynasty XVIII (ca. 1550-1295 BC).
In February of 1905 the archaeologist James Edward Quibell, working on
behalf of the American entrepreneur Theodore M. Davis, discovered the well
equipped tomb (KV 46 in the Valley of the Kings) of the God’s
Father Yuya (or Yuia)
and his wife Tjuyu (or Tuyu/Thuiu),
who bore the prestigious title King’s Mother of the Great Royal
Wife. Yuya
also bore the title Master of the Horse. Yuya and Tjuyu appear in several documentary sources, especially the
commemorative scarabs, of King Amenhotep III Nebmaatra (who reigned ca. 1417-1379, or 1390-1352 BC) as
being the parents of his Chief Queen, the Great Royal
Wife Tiye (or Tiy;
ca. 1410-1340 BC). She bore Amenhotep III their son Amenhotep
IV (reign ca. 1379-1362, or 1352-1336 BC), who in his 5th regnal
year changed his name to Akhenaten. In all of their documentation Yuyu and Tjuyu are presented in
various ways that suggest this couple carried a great deal of importance on the
political landscape of Dynasty XVIII.
Steven will explore several pressing questions that the documentation
raises, such as their relationship to Amenhotep III,
why they were elevated in importance enough to enable Tiye
to acquire her titles, why they were permitted the otherwise restricted
privilege of being buried among royalty, and what their social and political
roles were in their family line that generated so much turmoil around the
middle of the 14th century BC, only to become extinguished at the close of
Dynasty XVIII.
Date: Friday 04 March 2005
Title: Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend: Jewelry in the Roman World
Lecturer: Susan Terendy, M.A. Graduate Student, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Susan will explore the jewelry depictions in the funerary artwork of two contemporary yet diverse stylistic
traditions, that of the Fayum mummy portraits of Roman Egypt, with Palmyrene funerary sculpture, as examples
of stylistic influence during the heyday of the Roman Empire . Susan will show how shared jewelry forms and
canons of artistic representation, as well as evidence for mummification, illustrate the network
of connections between these two disparate regions. She will reveal the importance of examining
the archaeological contexts, the chronological distribution and geographic
spread of specific artistic styles, and the influence that Imperial Rome
exerted upon its provincial holdings in funerary art, to demonstrate the
dynamic nature of those connections, and to address issues of gender. These latter include social roles, status and
familial descent as indicated by the inscriptions engraved and painted upon specific
examples of funerary art.
Susan’s MA Thesis research is a cross-cultural
comparison in funerary art between ancient South Arabia and the Palmyrenes (who inhabited the famous metropolis of Palmyra,
Syria), as cases in point for the transfer and cultural significance of styles
in ancient funerary art around the ancient Near East during the Hellenistic and
Roman periods. She has recently returned
from her travels and research in the prominent museums of the Middle East.
Date: Friday 04 February 2005
Presentation: Mendes Archaeological Project 2002-2004: A retrospective view
Lecturer: David George, Professional Photographer and Videographer for the Mendes Archaeological Project in Lower Egypt
David returns to show us the exciting discoveries made during the 2004 archaeological field season at Mendes,
which is directed by Prof. Donald B. Redford (Pennsylvania State University),
and showcase some of his most recent photographic documentation; he will also
highlight the most significant discoveries of the 2002 and 2003 field
seasons. The site of Mendes (ancient "Per-banebdjedet", modern Tell er-Rub‘a)
was the capitol of the 16th nome of Lower
Egypt and originally the sacred city of the fish-goddess of the Delta, "Hat-Mehit", who
is identified by her emblem as the goddess with the Nile carp (Lepidotus) upon her head. Her power here was eventually eclipsed by the
worship of her consort the ram-god "Banebdjedet", after whom the site was re-named. The span of the site’s occupation is
vast, covering Predynastic times through the Late Period, including the famous "naos" dated to the
reign of Ahmose II (570-526 BC) and some remains of Dynasty XXIX (399-380 BC).
Date: Friday 12 November 2004
Title: Nourishment for the Heart. Music and Dance in Ancient Egypt
Lecturer: Dr. Lyn Green, Vice
President of the SSEA, Toronto , University of Toronto
Dr. Green is well known for her work in the SSEA in Toronto as the current Vice President,
and her presentations and publications on women of the Amarna Period, which formed the topic of her PhD
Dissertation from the University of Toronto . In addition, she has worked for Education and
Public Programs Departments of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), organized various lecture series
& Symposia for both the SSEA and the ROM organizations since 1991.
Music and dance were an integral part
of ancient Egyptian life, from work-songs and harvest dances to temple hymns.
The latter were especially important because they not only honoured but
pacified gods and goddesses; both human and divine beings enjoyed music and
dance for their healing and transformative powers as well. "Musical"
deities such as Bes and Hathor
encouraged conception, attended birth, and protected Egyptians throughout life.
Musicians and dancers are well represented on tomb walls, reflecting the
contribution that these arts could make to the dead and the living. In this
lecture, we will look beyond the entertainment value of these arts and delve
into their transcendent power.
Date: Friday 05 November 2004
Title: The role of Cattle in ancient Egypt
Lecturer: Dan Bruce
Many different animals were pictured in tomb paintings and described in
agricultural treatises, legal documents and religious texts by the ancient
Egyptians; some were used in agricultural pursuits, while others were venerated
as zoomorphic representations of deities. Cattle served both purposes: as a
primary animal for food (meat, milk, butter & cheese) and for raw materials
(e.g., leather), as well as serving as a beast of burden; the cow was
envisioned as the zoomorphic version of the goddess Hathor,
whose worship was popular throughout Egypt especially from New Kingdom through
Ptolemaic times, and the bull as the god Apis, whose
cult was especially popular in Lower Egypt during the Ptolemaic period.
Domesticated cattle first appear in Egypt during the Neolithic period
(ca. 8800-4700 BC) in the area of Dakhleh Oasis.
Given their importance to the livelihood of everyday life in Egypt, cattle were
also used in the hesbet, or "cattle census", a form of tax assessment held biennially that involved a regular
parade of the beasts from throughout a given nome,
and which seems to be recorded on one of the principal historical documents for
early dynastic times, the Palermo Stone (dated to Dynasty V). Several Middle
Kingdom tomb model representations of the "cattle census" are well
known, the best being one from the Theban Tomb of Meket-Re,
an official during the reign of the Middle Kingdom king Amenemhat
I (r. 1985-1956 BC), the first ruler of Dynasty XII. Dan will discuss these and
other roles of cattle for Egyptians throughout pharaonic
times.
Date: Friday 01 October 2004
Title: Recent Archaeological Research in the Sudan
Lecturer: Dr. John "Jack" Robertson, Instructor Emeritus in Archaeology, Department of Behavioural Sciences, Mount Royal College
The government of the Republic of Sudan recently decided to build a dam at
the 4 th Cataract of the Nile, which will create a lake almost 300 kilometers long that will flood and
possibly destroy many of the antiquities along the Nile's course. The Sudanese
government thus invited the international community of archaeologists to
undertake rescue fieldwork to recover as many of the antiquities as possible.
As many of us heard in the media coverage in Calgary , Dr. Robertson and many other
colleagues responded to the call. The main supporter of this research is the
Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS), consisting of a team of
specialists from Sudan , Germany , England , Switzerland , Austria , Russia ,
USA , and Canada . The overall Director of the research is Dr. Derek Welsby
and the Field Director is Dr. Pawel Wolf.
Dr. Robertson's role in this research focused on the excavation and analysis of
human skeletons dating from about 5,000 to about 1,000 years ago, thus covering
the recent Neolithic, the Kenna, Napata and Meroitic Periods, the X-Group and the Christian
Period in the Sudan. Dr. Robertson will provide a brief review of Meroitic civilization,
and proceed to focus on his 4 th cataract research and the skeletons he and his colleagues
recovered. He will include a discussion of how the antiquities the SARS group has
recovered along the central portion of the Nile relate to ancient Egypt 's
past.
Date: Friday 02 April 2004
Title: The Mendes/al-Hiba excavations of 2003
Lecturer: David George, Professional Photographer and Videographer for the Mendes Archaeological Project in Lower Egypt
David returns to provide an update on the exciting discoveries made during
the 2003 field season at Mendes, which is directed by Prof. Donald B. Redford ( Pennsylvania State University )
and showcase some of David’s most recent photographic
documentation. The site of Mendes (ancient Per-banebdjedet,
modern Tell er-Rub‘a) was the capitol of the 16th nome of Lower Egypt and originally the sacred city of the
fish-goddess of the Delta, Hat-Mehit, who is
identified by her emblem as the goddess with the Nile
carp (Lepidotus) upon her head. Her power here was
eventually eclipsed by the worship of her consort the ram-god Banebdjedet, after whom the site was re-named. The span of
the site’s occupation is vast, covering Predynastic times through the Late Period, including the
famous naos dated to the reign of Ahmose
II (570-526 BC) and some remains of Dynasty XXIX (399-380 BC).
Date: Friday 05 March 2004
Title: Medieval Egypt and Maritime Voyaging: a View from the Cairo Genizah
Lecturer: Professor Emeritus David Kelley, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Prof. Kelley is well known to all residents of Calgary , and as a distinguished scholar on
numerous fields and disciplines related to archaeology. Besides being an expert
on ancient Mesoamerica , he has engaged in extensive research ranging from linguistics to geneaology
and recently the information from the Cairo Genizah.
The Cairo Genizah is an archive, most famous for
its huge cache of Medieval manuscripts, totaling over 140,000. The term genizah
in Hebrew technically refers to a receptacle for retaining discarded holy
books, usually placed within a synagogue. These texts were found within the
attic of the Synagogue of Abraham Ben Ezra, Rabbi of Jerusalem, located in Fustat (Old Cairo); the synagogue previously had been a
Coptic church for several centuries. The manuscripts were discovered during
repair work on the synagogue; between the mid-18th century and the 1890s access
was extremely difficult, and only after 1896-97 was the importance of some of
the fragments discovered when Shlomo Shechter, founder of the Conservative (Historical) Judaism
Movement, took ca. 100,000 fragments to Cambridge University
for further study. Later, numerous other fragments of the manuscripts were
dispersed around western libraries including Bodleian Library at Oxford University
and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New
York . Many of the fragments date around the 9th-10th
century AD; the earliest datable manuscript seems to be around AD 750. They are
quite diverse in character, and describe all facets of life in Medieval times in Egypt
and around the Mediterranean . Besides
important sacred and some heretical texts, of particular importance are those
of a mundane character, including letters, eye-witness accounts of the Crusades
in the Holy Land , and commercial transactions.
It is his extensive research on these latter that Prof. Kelley will discuss.
Date: Friday 06 February 2004
Title: Insight into the Civilisation of Meroe.
Lecturer: Professor Emeritus Peter L. Shinnie, Department of Archaeology, the University of Calgary
Prof. Shinnie is well known to all members as the Founder of the Calgary Chapter of the SSEA,
and as a distinguished scholar on northern Africa from ancient times to the Medieval
period, having directed excavations and conducted research on cultures from the
Sudan to Ghana . He is perhaps best known in Egyptological circles as one of the world's
foremost scholars on ancient Nubia and its unique Meroitic civilization, an expert on the various ancient languages
of Nubia, as the founder of the Sudanese Department of Antiquities, and as former
Director of the archaeological excavations at Meroe. Meroitic civilization is renown as a
unique adaptation of certain components of Egyptian culture by the African community, and Prof. Shinnie's
research has certainly borne this out. His illustrated presentation will be a
treat to all, granting us his in-depth insight acquired over many years of
research. It is timely, especially as archaeological fieldwork is currently
underway to salvage archaeological sites and monuments from flooding by the
construction of a new dam, and by those of us who recently enjoyed the
Discovery Channel’s coverage on ancient Nubia.
Date: Friday 03 October 2003
Presentation: A New Oasis and a New Project: the Kharga Oasis Prehistoric Project in Egypt
Lecturer: Dr. Mary McDonald, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Location: Earth Sciences, Room 162, University of Calgary
The Dakhleh Oasis Project’s Pleistocene (Ice Age) archaeologists have been working for several years in Kharga Oasis, located within Egypt’s
Western Desert between the Dakhleh Oasis and the Nile Valley. In Kharga they have now found deposits that extend
nearly half a million years back in time. They called upon Dr. McDonald when, unexpectedly, they began to find much younger artefacts and sites (ca.
9,000-5,000 years old), belonging to the Holocene epoch and assigned to the "Neolithic" ("New Stone Age").
The most intriguing finds show just how rich and varied the Kharga Neolithic sites are. Dr. McDonald will outiline
some of the most exciting discoveries for what has now been christened the Kharga Oasis Prehistoric Project.
Date: Friday 04 April 2003
Presentation: Meröe, the Ignored Civilisation.
Lecturer: Dr. John "Jack" Robertson, Department of Anthropology, Mount Royal College
The University of Calgary, under Professor Emeritus Peter Shinnie, excavated over 10 years at Meröe,
located on the east bank of the Nile in the Butana region of modern Sudan (ancient Nubia).
This city was once the center of a great yet little known civilisation, known
as the kingdom of Kush, during the 5th century BC. Meröe also gives its name to a later chronological
development within Nubia , known as the Meroitic period, spanning roughly 300 BC through AD 350.
The inhabitants of this region south of Egypt, the Kushites,
at a certain time played on the world stage and were active in world politics.
Dr. Robertson, who was Prof. Shinnie's Assistant
Director on the site, will delve into some of the mysteries of this city and
civilisation, and their major accomplishments.
Date: Friday 07 February 2003
Presentation: Video Presentation on the latest discoveries of the Mendes Archaeological Project
Lecturer: David George, Project Photographer and Videographer, for the Mendes archaeological project
The site of Mendes (ancient Per-banebdjedet, modern Tell er-Rub‘a) was the capitol of the
16th nome of Lower Egypt, and originally the sacred city of the fish-goddess Hat-Mehit
common in the Delta. Identified by her emblem as the goddess with the Nile carp (Lepidotus) upon her
head, her power here was eventually eclipsed by the worship of her consort the
ram-god Banebdjedet, after whom the site was re-named. Herodotus, who visited the site around 450 BC and changed its name to
the Greek Mendes, says he witnessed here the sacrifice of goats—probably a mistake for the ram.
The span of its occupation is tremendous: Predynastic through Late Period, including the famous naos dated to the reign of
Ahmose II (570-526 BC) and some remains of Dynasty XXIX (399-380 BC). The Mendes
Archaeological Project has been exploring these ruins and recently has made
some fascinating discoveries that David will reveal to all.
Date: Friday 01 November 2002
Title: Texts from Tut’s Tomb
Speaker: Mark Zender, PhD Candidate, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Mark will examine the life and reign of the most famous and perhaps the
least understood of all of Egypt's pharaohs, from the point of view of the inscriptions found in Tutankhamun's tomb. Mark will examine several vexing questions:
What do we really know of Tutankhamun from contemporaneous sources? How do texts from outside his tomb compare to those
commissioned by him? And how secure are the recent suggestions of foul play behind Tut’s death?
Date: Tuesday 15 October 2002
Title: What we now know from the Excavations at Musawwarat as-Sufra, Sudan
Speaker: Prof. Steffen Wenig, Seminar für Sudanarchäologie und Ägyptologie,
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Director of Excavations, Musawwarat as-Sufra, Sudan
Location: Science Theatre 129
Prof. Wenig will review the fabulous discoveries of the German expedition to Musawwarat as-Sufra, one of Sudan ’s
major archaeological sites located in the east central region in what was once part of Nubia, covering the later period of Egyptian influence through the Byzantine period.
Date: Friday 04 October 2002
Title: Some recent and unexpected connections between South Arabia and Egypt.
Speaker: Dr. W. D. Glanzman, Nexen Inc Professor of Middle Eastern Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary
Dr. Glanzman will discuss the latest of discoveries from Yemen that unveil a long and rich tradition of cultural connections between Egypt and South Arabia ,
including a few surprizes.
Date: Friday, February 8*, 2002
Title: Where and What was Punt?
Speaker: Bill Glanzman (Department Of Archaeology, University Of Calgary)
Dr. Glanzman has worked and travelled throughout the Middle East and Egypt. In this lecture, Bill will explore Where and What was Punt?.
A small and mysterious ancient kingdom, Punt is known to us only through Ancient Egyptian writings, which describe seagoing
trade and travel expeditions to this land. Punt was known as early as the Old Kingdom and was the source of several exotic commodities. Queen Hatshepsut
depicted her expedition to Punt on her funerary temple walls at Deir el Bahari.
Date: Friday, October 12, 2001
Title: Results of the Last several Field Seasons at Dakhleh Oasis.
Speaker: Mary McDonald
Mary McDonald (Department of Archaeology University of Calgary) has spoken to us several times regarding Her work on the prehistoric period of
Egyptian history.
Date: Friday March 2 2001
Title: The Dig at Mendes, Egypt
Speaker: David George
David, many of you may remember, shared his gorgeous slides of Egypt with us at the SSEA Christmas part a year ago. This time he will show slides(and perhaps a video) of The Dig at Mendes, Egypt.
David participated in the work at this Canadian dig last year, working with members of the Toronto SSEA. This talk is sure to be a visiual delight!
Date: Friday February 5
Title: Romance in the shadow of the Sphinx
Speaker: Lynne Nash
Ancient Egyptians were really not that different from us. They enjoyed having a good time, partying the night away and dressing
to the nines. Getting ready to go out for the evening was a complicated affair involving bathing, oiling, perfuming and adorning the body with make-up, wigs
and beautiful clothing. This lecture will look at "what was hot and what was not". How would stylish, male or female, upwardly mobile Egyptians
have entertained themselves and how would they prepare for a night out on the town.
Date: Friday November 3
Title: Cloth and Clay: An Archaeological Look at Meroitic Weaving
Speaker: Judith Klassen
Judith is a graduate student at the University of Calgary,Department of Archaeology.
Meroe was the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Kush is Nubia, modern Sudan, from the 8th Century B.C. to 300 A.D. Some of the pottery from that era has fabric impressions on it. Analysis of spindle whorls and these cloth impressions has opened a window as to what ancient Meroitic textiles looked like, as well as how they were made.
Date: Friday October 13
Title: A Critical Overview of Alternative Interpretations of Egyptian history
Speaker: Rebecca Bradley
Rebecca has a background in Egyptology and archaeology and has a PhD from Cambridge University. She teaches Egyptology at Mount Royal College.
Rebecca will present a closer look at some of those wild theories about the Great Pyramid being built by aliens, etc. This should be a fun Lecture.
Date: Friday May 5
Title: The Change in the Depiction of Gods on Egyptian Coins
Speaker: Geraldine Chimirr-Russell
Geraldine is a numismatic specialist who comes to us from the Nickle Arts Museum at the University of Calgary.
SThe Ancient Egyptians never actually had a money system of their own, goods being bartered rather than paid for. It wasn't until later times when the Greeks, and later the Romans, ruled Egypt that the use of money to pay for goods became widespread in Egypt. Both the Greeks and the Romans incorporated many elements of Egyptian religion and culture into their own beliefs. This will be a fascinating look at the way in which Egyptian, Greek and Roman ideas were melded together, as depicted for us in their coinage.
**NOTE: due to renovations being undertaken in Room 162 at this time, this lecture will take place in Room 859, Earth Sciences Building, 7:30 p.m.
Date: Friday February 4
Title: A Survey of the Valley of the Kings
Speaker: Julius Szkrenyes
Date: Friday March 3
Title: The Way of Horus
Speaker: Abdul Rahman Al-Ayedi
Hailing from Egypt, Abdul Rahman is Chief Inspector for the Sinai, and has excavated for several years in that area. He is currently in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto.
The Way of Horus is the ancient military road which connected Egypt and Palestine.If this name sounds familiar, it may be because this was the road the Egyptian soldiers took when heading off to the Battle of Megiddo, circa 1450 B.C.
Date: Friday APRIL 7
Title: Ancient Languages of the Nile
Speaker: Peter Shinnie
Peter is also very familiar to our group, being one of the founding members of the Calgary SSEA, as well as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calgary. Peter is a familiar - and always popular - speaker to our group.
He will give us a description of the several languages written (and presumably spoken) over the centuries and millennia along the Nile, from the Delta down into Nubia.
Although it is not known what the Ancient Egyptian languages sounded like when spoken, changes can most definitely be seen in the written languages over time. As well, the Coptic language, spoken by the Coptic Christians in Egypt even today, gives us a few insights into what the ancient language may have sounded like.
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