We’re going botanical for our next MAES meeting! The wonderful Hilary Wilson – author of the Per Mesut features in Ancient Egypt Magazine – will be here on Monday 11th February!

Amarna Marsh Scene from the Louvre

Gifts of the Nile: Water Plants in Egyptian Culture

Along the banks of the Nile and Egypt’s many canals and irrigation channels grew a wealth of plant resources which were exploited from earliest times for a multitude of purposes. The common reeds, rushes and sedges, including papyrus, provided the raw materials for building, making furniture and even for clothing, and many of them assumed symbolic value within the Egyptian belief system. This talk explores the practical and cultural significance of these humble plants and their continuing importance for Egypt’s ecology.

Retired Maths teacher and Chairman of the Southampton Ancient Egypt Society, Hilary Wilson is now a free-lance lecturer and writer. She is author of several Egyptological books and articles as well as the Per Mesut pages in Ancient Egypt Magazine and, under the name Hilary Cawston, she writes fiction with an Egyptian theme.