Tonight we have a wonderful Manchester Ancient Egypt Society lecture by Nancy Arthur Hoskins who has recreated the materials worn by gods and kings in New Kingdom tomb scenes!

 Everyone welcome – doors open 7:30pm GMT+1 and the lecture runs 8-9pm.

Free to MAES members. Guests £5 via Eventbrite        

Ephemeral Fabrics from Egypt and the Aegean: Before and After Tutankhamun

Minoan maidens and men, and pharaohs, gods, and goddesses wear costumes of extraordinary patterned fabrics in Aegean frescoes and Egyptian tomb paintings. These elegant, but ephemeral textiles survive only in Late Bronze Age artworks. Were they imaginary? If not, what materials and methods were used to form the colour-rich cloth? The handsome bands on the Tunic of Tutankhamun and a belt fragment from his tomb are crucial clues to the method of weaving the patterned fabrics on the ancient costumes in the frescoes and tomb paintings.

Nancy Arthur Hoskins, a former college weaving teacher, has researched Pharaonic, Coptic, and Early Islamic textile collections in over eighty museums and has presented lectures and workshops for national and international guilds, conferences, universities and museums. She is the author of three books, over a hundred articles, and has contributed chapters about Egyptian textiles to five other books. Hoskins’ art fabrics have been in solo, group, and invitational exhibits. She was the guest teacher on five Textile Tours of Egypt.