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.

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.

A MAES online study day Saturday 25th October 9:30am-4:30pm GMT+1

An exploration of the landscape of ancient Egypt and the effects of geology and climate change on society, economics, politics and wildlife.

With Judith Bunbury, Piers Litherland, Colin Reader and Juliet Spedding.

Booking now open!

Guests via Eventbrite £25; MAES Members £15 via booking form (emailed to you)

For more details and how to book click here:

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 Dynasty with 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!

Monday 9th June 7:45pm (GMT+1)

This Monday we are going way way back in time for our monthly lecture!

Michelle Scott

Rethinking Predynastic Egyptian identity and embodiment through broken figurines and fragments.

Anthropomorphic figurines have long been seen to constitute an extraordinary class of material culture. They are iconic in their presentation and representation of the human form in miniature. Within museum displays, these figurines play an active role in producing and communicating ideas about the past. The conception of the Neolithic body recognises fragmentation as a regular and deliberate treatment of the dead. Yet museums typically prioritise completeness: the whole over the fragment. The breaking of the body is often obscured by its remaking through curatorial decision-making and compounded by reconstructive conservation. Drawing on case studies from Naqada and el-Ma’mariya, as well as the so-called ‘Painted Ladies’, this talk invites a rethinking of what it means to be whole. Framed by questions of difference, disability and identity, it asks: whose story it is that museums are telling?

Dr Michelle Scott is an archaeologist, researcher, and museum professional specialising in Predynastic Egypt and the politics of museum storytelling. They recently completed their PhD at the University of Manchester, which traced anthropomorphic figurines as sites of narrative, identity, and embodiment from antiquity to the present. Michelle brings an imaginative and socially engaged approach to museum practice, with a particular focus on identity, inclusion, and ethics of care. At Manchester Museum, they have led award-winning public engagement initiatives, co-curated exhibitions, and developed digital content that reimagines how the past is presented and performed.

All welcome! MAES members free (emailed link). Guests can book via Eventbrite here:

(Please note the slightly later start time.)

A Stitch in Time: new multidisciplinary research on ancient Egyptian textiles held in museums in North-West England

Saturday 14^th June 9:45am – 4:15pm (GMT+1)

Radisson Blu Hotel, Manchester Airport, Chicago Avenue, Manchester M90 3RA

A special in-person study day exploring the latest textiles research with lectures by Rosalie David OBE, Hilary Forrest, Angela Thomas, Jacky Finch, Joanne Robinson, Keith White and Bart van Dongen

In memory of MAES member Jill McKeown

MAES members £35 including refreshments & lunch; Guests welcome: £40 (plus Eventbrite fees) from Eventbrite here:

This study day is being subsidised thanks to a kind bequest from Chris and Rachel Naunton, on behalf of their aunt Jill, and by the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society.

**When booking please mention any dietary requirements**

This month, Dr Campbell Price brings us face-to-face with some amazing Middle Kingdom portraits!

Monday 12th May on Zoom – doors open 7:30pm (GMT+1).

Free to MAES members; guests welcome via Eventbrite here:

Late Middle Kingdom Royal Faces: Inspiration, Meaning, Reception

Among the most distinctive departures from what we think of as the ‘norms’ of Egyptian art are the striking faces of late 12th Dynasty royal sculptures. Variously characterised as reflecting internal psychology, political propaganda or accurate physiognomy, the faces still arrest our attention. Likely taking inspiration from much earlier sculptures, these faces went on to inspire sculptured visages some 1500 years later. This lecture reviews how Egyptologists have viewed the faces and what their questions can tell us about modern approaches to Pharaonic art.

Dr Campbell Price studied Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, where he is now an Honorary Research Fellow. Since 2011, he has been Curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester, one of the largest collections in the UK. Campbell is also Chair of Trustees of the Egypt Exploration Society and has published widely on ancient Egyptian material culture, including ‘Totally Chaotic History: Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly’ (with Greg Jenner) and ‘Brief Histories: Ancient Egypt’ (Orion Press, 2024).

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.