Our next MAES meeting will be on 14^th April with the welcome return of Eric Cline who will be exploring what happened following the Late Bronze Age collapse.

Doors open 7:30pm (GMT+1)and the lecture begins at 8pm.

All welcome! Free to MAES members. Guests welcome £5 via Eventbrite here:

The centuries following the Late Bronze Age Collapse, from 1176 to 776 BCE, was a time of rebirth and resilience — less of a Dark Age and more of a reboot for many of the civilizations in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. There are stories of resilience and transformation, but also of failure to thrive or even survive. In this lecture, we will focus on the people and places that emerged from the ashes, highlighting some of the events and developments that took place in Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant, including the establishment of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. We will end at the time of the first Olympic Games, one of the signs marking the date of the recovery of Greece. We will also consider whether there are any relevant lessons to be learned from this dramatic story of resurgence and revival, especially considering what is going on in our world today.

Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics, History, and Anthropology, the former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and the current Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University, in Washington DC. He has more than 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean area, and the author or editor of more than twenty books, including ‘1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed’ and ‘After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations’.

Manchester AE Society are holding a special online zoom study day on Saturday 22 March which is exploring the unusual links between Wales and Egypt!

Alan Lloyd explores why so many Egyptologists are Welsh in origin

Rosalie David investigates some amazing connections between pharaonic and Welsh Medieval medicine and looks at Sir John Gardner Wilkinson’s association with Wales.

Ken Griffin explores the treasure trove of ancient Egyptian objects held in Welsh collections.

Not to be missed! MAES members £15 via booking form (emailed to you).

Guests welcome £25 via Eventbrite. 

Our next MAES meeting is on Monday 10th March – welcoming back Penny Wilson! Doors open 7:30pm (GMT) and the lecture beings at 8pm.

All welcome – free to members (who will receive an email link). Guests pay £5 via Eventbrite

The Magical-Healing statues from New Kingdom Egypt and onward contain a wealth of texts to provide the precedents for magical power that could be harnessed to heal people from illnesses and, in particular, poisonous bites and stings. This talk will look at the cycle of Isis and the Scorpions with its links to Isis as a scorpion herself, the threat to Horus the child from the venomous companions of Seth, the dangers of not recognising the gods, and how you can protect yourself from dangerous beasties.

Penny Wilson is Associate Professor of Egyptian Archaeology in the Dept. Archaeology at Durham University where she has worked for the last 20 years and before then she was Assistant Keeper in the Dept. Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. She studied at Liverpool University, where she completed her PhD, now published as ‘A Ptolemaic Lexikon’. She is currently Director of the Delta Survey Project for the Egypt Exploration Society and field director of the Royal City of Sais Project. Her interests include religious life in Ancient Egypt, settlement archaeology and the Late Period to Late Antique Nile Delta. Her publications include field reports on the Sais excavations, and Delta survey work as well as ‘Sacred Signs’ an introduction to the role of hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt.

From Ancient Trash to Historical Treasure: What the Oxyrhynchus Papyri can tell us about the ordinary folk of Ptolemaic, Roman and late-antique Egypt

Join us as we welcome Richard Britton to the monthly MAES zoom lecture on Monday 9th December.

It is fitting that the Oxyrhynchus Papyri were found under big mounds of earth underground, because in this talk we take these texts to ‘ground level’, with an overview of these fascinating texts and their history but also, a look at the ordinary and seemingly mundane amongst them to provide some insightful portraits of the people who produced these pieces.  From mortgage deeds to schoolboy exercises, from sales records to horoscopes, and from private letters to magical spells; you will be left with a sense of familiarity with the hopes, fears, frustrations, joys, and dreams of ordinary people striving to live their lives in late ancient Egypt.

Richard J. Britton is an author and independent scholar. His research is focused on the ancient world of the New Testament and the many other Near Eastern traditions and texts. He is employed as a Probation Officer in his day job and is also an ordained Elder and Lay Preacher in the United Reformed Church.

All welcome. Doors open 7:30pm GMT. The lecture runs from 8 to 9pm. Free to MAES members (who will receive an email link). Guests welcome to join us for £5 via Eventbrite here:

Hi everyone! Another great Manchester Ancient Egypt Society lecture lined up for you this Monday!

11 November Michael Tunnicliffe

As in other ancient cultures such as Greece and Israel, there was not just one ‘creation Story’ in ancient Egypt. Rather each major temple claimed its god as the original Creator deity, and they told stories of how things came to be ‘in the beginning’. Often in comparison with the philosophies of Greece, or the sweep of Genesis 1, the Egyptian “myths” are seen as primitive, stories for children. Yet in their own way they are as deep and philosophical as any in the ancient world and as intriguing as the Big Bang story told by modern cosmologists. This lecture will examine four of the accounts, and try to get behind the complex theological arguments portrayed in story form.

Michael Tunnicliffe is a freelance tutor in Adult Education. He holds degrees in Theology from the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge and completed the Certificate in Egyptology at Manchester.  He is a long term member of MAES, and served for 6 years on the committee.

This is an online lecture – doors open 7:30pm (GMT) and the lecture begins at 8pm. Free to MAES members (you will receive an email link). Guests welcome (£5) via Eventbrite.