In 2012, Manchester Ancient Egypt Society celebrated its Silver Jubilee, making us one of the longest established Egyptology groups in the UK.
At the core of our activities are the ten monthly meetings we arrange each year, when leading Egyptologists visit Manchester specially to share with us the findings of their latest research.
We also organise Egyptology conferences and trips to museums with Egyptology collections – all part of a varied annual programme of activities aimed at anyone with an interest in this fascinating ancient culture.
Bookings are now open for the MAES online study day exploring the history of the Middle Kingdom, and recent excavations at Deir el-Bahri, Abydos and the fortress site of Uronarti in north Sudan.
With an international panel of Egyptology experts:
Wolfram Grajetzki: The History of the Middle Kingdom
Patryk Chudzik: Egyptian art at the dawn of the Middle Kingdom
Christian Knoblauch: Cult and community at Abydos in the early Middle Kingdom. Results of the University of Michigan’s Middle Cemetery Project
Luc Gabolde: The 11th and 12th Dynasties at Karnak
MAES members £15*; Guests £25 via Eventbrite here:
This Monday at the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society, we welcome Roger Forshaw, our Treasurer to tell us the history of the physician Hesyre.
Everyone welcome. Free to MAES members (link will be emailed). Guests welcome – £5 on Eventbrite here:
9 February: Roger Forshaw Zoom Lecture
Hesyre: Court Official, Scribe, and the World’s First Recorded Dentist
Hesyre served as a high court official under King Djoser around 2650 BC, early in Egypt’s Old Kingdom. He was chief of the royal scribes and held both religious and secular offices, and is also celebrated as the earliest recorded dentist in history. Our understanding of Hesyre derives chiefly from his richly decorated mastaba tomb at Saqqara, whose walls feature depictions of objects from daily life, including tools, furniture and board games.
Among the tomb’s most striking features are eleven exquisitely crafted acacia-wood relief panels that once lined the niches of a long corridor. Six of these panels have survived the ravages of time and show Hesyre in a range of elegant poses and garments, reflecting various stages of his career. Particularly notable is the earliest known depiction of a man seated before a table of bread, accompanied by a short offering list and inscriptions detailing his many titles. These panels are celebrated as some of the finest surviving examples of ancient wooden relief art, offering a vivid testament to the artistry and cultural refinement of third-millennium BC Egyptian court life.
Roger Forshaw is an Honorary Lecturer in Biomedical Egyptology at the KNH Centre, the University of Manchester – and a former dental surgeon. He studied Egyptology at the University of Exeter before completing an MSc in Biomedical Egyptology and a PhD at the University of Manchester. His doctoral research examined the role of lector in ancient Egyptian society, and his broader interdisciplinary work explores medical and dental practices in Pharaonic Egypt. Roger’s publications include Egypt of the Saite Pharaohs, and Medicine and Healing Practices in Ancient Egypt, co-authored with Professor Rosalie David.
Happy New Year! We start off with a cracking Manchester Ancient Egypt Society lecture on Monday! All welcome. Free to MAES members (by email) and guests can book (£5) via Eventbrite here:
12 January 2026: Dylan Bickerstaffe
The Great God MIN – Ancient Egypt’s Most Potent Deity
The Egyptian god Min stands proudly displaying the bold male attribute which has led to him being described as a ‘fertility deity’. Certainly, Min seems to be a very primitive god dating to the earliest times, but his attributes were taken up by the King of the Gods, Amen-Ra, and he retained his importance until the end of the pagan period. Apart from his ithyphallic pose, Min displayed a number of other characteristic attributes and accessories. He was also honoured by unusual ceremonies and elaborate festivals. Min is a god who rewards investigation.
A Geography graduate and teacher, Dylan gained archaeological experience digging on Romano-British sites in the 1970s – 80s. Since then, he has travelled widely in the Middle East and Europe, designing and leading tours – especially to Egypt, but also to Crete and Italy. Over the last twenty-five years, he has lectured extensively to Egyptology Societies, chiefly in the UK. A large number of his articles have been published in KMT, Ancient Egypt magazine, and online. His books concern the identification and burials of Royal Mummies, and he has appeared in TV programmes on related topics.
This Monday we have an extra meeting at the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society! Everyone welcome. Free to MAES members (link is emailed) and guests welcome via Eventbrite here: (£5).
22 December: Campbell Price
Facing Pharaohs: The Art and Imagination of Winifred Brunton
The South African born archaeologist and painter Winifred Brunton (1880-1959) is well-known to Egyptophiles for her series of watercolour miniatures of the kings, queens and elites of Pharaonic Egypt. Reassessment of her some of her personal correspondence held at the Griffith Institute, Oxford, has revealed Brunton’s attitude to her own work and its worth. This lecture uses this material to discuss her (re)imaginings of ancient Egyptian faces as a forerunner to more modern reconstruction techniques.
Dr Campbell Price is Curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester and European Museum of the Year 2025. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and was Chair of the EES Board of Trustees from 2021 to 2025. He is the author of several books, including Brief Histories: Ancient Egypt and (with Stephanie Boonstra) Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries. His current research focuses on interpretations of the ancient Egyptian face.
We have two MAES meetings in December! The first is next Monday. As ever, everyone welcome! Free to MAES members, guests welcome via Eventbrite here:
Doors open 7:30pm GMT and the lecture runs 8-9pm.
8 December: Maiken Mosleth King
The Commemoration of Women in Roman Egypt
Terenouthis was a town in the Western Delta that gained prosperity in the Roman period due to its economic role as a major exporter of natron. A new local elite emerged after the conquest, seeking to participate in Graeco-Roman culture whilst also maintaining their ancient religious traditions, centred on the worship of the goddess Hathor. The site is a fascinating case study for cultural change and continuity in the Roman world, and how the Roman conquest impacted ordinary people in the provinces. This lecture will look at the funerary images and epitaphs of women in Roman Terenouthis, and examine how these objects drew from Graeco-Roman artistic conventions whilst also facilitating the women’s identification with Hathor and their resurrection in the kingdom of Osiris.
Maiken Mosleth King is a heritage practitioner and Egyptologist, with a BA and MA in Egyptology from the University of Liverpool. She completed her PhD thesis, “Social Identity as Constructed and Expressed on Funerary Stelae from Terenouthis”, at the University of Bristol, and is currently working on turning this thesis into a monograph. Her research interests include gender and ethnicity in the ancient Mediterranean, material culture in Roman provinces, and reception studies.
This Monday, enjoy a luxurious armchair cruise down the Nile with Hilary Wilson! All welcome – free for MAES members – guests £5 via Eventbrite here:
10 November: Hilary Wilson
Egypt and How to See It 1911-1912
The pocket guide Egypt and How to See It 1911-1912 was written by the British artist Augustus Osborne Lamplough for the Egyptian State Railways. Unlike modern tourist guides, it has no photographic illustrations. Instead, Lamplough used his own somewhat impressionistic watercolours mostly of Nile views, and his few paintings of ancient remains give little information of interest to the Egyptologist. However, his descriptions of sites are, in themselves, historical records of the appearance and condition of Egyptian monuments in the years leading up to WW1. Remarking on their significance and purpose, speculating on their age and their builders’ motives, he provides a view of the state of Egyptology, and his commentary is indicative of contemporary Western attitudes towards the Egyptian people, both ancient and modern. Tourists escaping the European winter may not have been aware that some very well-known Egyptologists were working on some important sites in the 1911-12 season. This talk takes a snapshot view of Egypt as Lamplough’s readers would have experienced it and explores the exciting Egyptological developments and discoveries of the time.
A former Maths teacher, Open University Associate Lecturer and tutor of Adult Continuing Education classes, Hilary Wilson gained her MA in Egyptology from the University of Manchester in 2022. She has written several books on Egyptian topics, and has contributed articles to every issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine for more than twenty years. Currently she is working on developing the subject of this talk into a book, for the popular rather than the academic market.
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.
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.
The NEW MAES season kicks of this Monday with a fascinating lecture from Cannon Fairbairn! Everyone welcome!
Free to MAES members (via email link); guests may book through Eventbrite here:
The Role of Wet Nurses in the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom
Representations of and references to wet nurses appear often on the monuments and in the writings of the families they served and the children they nursed. Yet, little is known about the specific women depicted or their own experiences. Modern attempts to reconstruct their lives and roles often rely on comparisons with the Victorian and modern experiences of wet nurses and nannies. Nevertheless, when brought together, the evidence from this period reveals a unique and important role for these women, one that often places them in a role as kin and paid worker simultaneously. In this lecture, Cannon Fairbairn will present several depictions of wet nurses from the New Kingdom from differing contexts in order to explore what might be learned about these women and the roles they played in ancient Egyptian households and society.
Cannon Fairbairn recently completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham. Her research examined images of goddess’s nursing the ancient Egyptian king from the New Kingdom. She graduated with her Masters from the University of Memphis (USA). She has continued her research looking at images of nursing outside the royal sphere, focusing specifically on wet nurses.
Recent excavations in the tomb complex of queen Meret-Neith of the 1st Dynastywith E. Christiana Köhler
This Monday (14th July) is the final monthly lecture of our season!
For last 130 years, since the somewhat accidental discovery of the royal tombs of the 1st and 2nd Dynasties by the French Coptologist E. Amélineau, the site of Abydos Umm el-Qaab has fascinated scholars for its enormous value regarding early Egyptian history and material culture. Numerous British, French and German archaeologsist have excavated here, and each time discovered significant new details about this site. The tomb of queen Meret-Neith, however, has been very much neglected for a long time, which has probably many reasons. Its recent re-excavation, however, has produced an enormous amount of exciting new evidence about this queen, the dynasty and the early state she represented, as well as the people buried in the subsidiary graves around her. This lecture will give a brief overview of our current research.
Professor Köhler is Head of the Department of Egyptology at the University of Vienna with research interests in Egyptian archaeology, Pre-and Early Dynastic Egypt and ancient Egyptian society and social structures. She has published many papers covering her excavations at the Helwan necropolis in ancient Memphis, and is also involved in projects at Umm el-Qaab at Abydos and the University of Vienna Middle Egypt Project.
Everyone welcome! Free email link to MAES members; guests may book via Eventbrite here:
Our new season begins in September 2025 – keep an eye on the website for details of the new lecture programme!
Manchester Ancient Egypt Society 