archaeology

RECENT EXCAVATIONS AT DEIR EL-BAHRI!

/ MAES Administrator
Deir el-Bahri by M. Jawornicki

Manchester Ancient Egypt Society Lecture on Zoom

Monday 10th February, doors open 7:30pm (GMT); lecture from 8pm

Free to MAES members; Guests welcome £5 via Eventbrite

This Monday we are pleased to present Patryk Chudzik who will be speaking about The history of Deir el-Bahri in light of recent excavations at the Hathor Cult Complex of Hatshepsut Temple.

The great rock amphitheatre of Deir el-Bahri was one of the most significant sacred areas of the Theban necropolis since at least the Middle Kingdom. Dominated by the three terraced temples built by Mentuhotep II, Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, the site was the cult centre of the goddess Hathor and the destination of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley – the most important annual festival of the Theban region. In the shadow of the monumental royal buildings, a necropolis developed for more than two thousand years, where members of the royal family, priests and priestesses were buried. This lecture will explore the transformation of the sacred space of Deir el-Bahri over the centuries, and present its most significant milestones through the lens of the results of the author’s latest excavations carried out at the Hathor Cult Complex on the south side of Hatshepsut’s temple. This lecture will open with the story of the tomb of an enigmatic prince, son of the founder of the Middle Kingdom, who was also instrumental in the construction of the temple of Hatshepsut, and will conclude with a presentation of a hitherto unknown part of the necropolis of the Roman elite.

Dr Patryk Chudzik is an Assistant Professor at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw. He studied Prehistory, as well as Oriental and Classical Archaeology at the universities in Poznań and Wrocław. He received his PhD on the topography and architecture of the Theban necropolis in the Middle Kingdom (2017). He is the director of the Polish-Egyptian archaeological and conservation expedition to Deir el-Bahri and the co-director of the Polish Archaeological Expedition to North Asasif.

Kinglists and the Writing of Egyptian History

/ MAES Administrator

This Monday we kick off the New Year with a lecture from Chris Naunton! Everyone welcome. Free to MAES members – you’ll receive an email link. Guests welcome – £5 via Eventbrite

13 January Chris Naunton

Kinglists and the Writing of Egyptian History

‘Dynasties’ form the backbone of ancient Egyptian history. We’re all familiar with dating people, events and objects to this or that Dynasty, and we know that the 18th was ‘great’ era, or, say, the 29th rather more obscure. Each Dynasty seems to have represented a coherent group of pharaohs – perhaps they were all related, or came from the same part of Egypt. And the end of one Dynasty and start of the next marked a clear change. Or did it? The archaeological evidence does not always support the idea. And would the ancient Egyptians have recognised the idea of these Dynasties? Maybe, or maybe not… It was the historian Manetho, writing in the early Ptolemaic Period who arranged Egyptian history this way; his system was adopted in modern times and now we’re stuck with it – warts and all. This lecture looks at Manetho’s history, the Aegyptiaca, how it sometimes seems remarkably close to the archaeological evidence, and at other times miles off. And we look at the Egyptians’ earlier records of their own history in the form of kinglists in particular.

Chris Naunton is an Egyptologist and author of several books including ‘Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt’ (2018) and ‘Egyptologists’ Notebooks’ (2020), and is currently making a meal of writing another one on ‘Dynasties’. He regularly appears in television documentaries on ancient Egypt, and lectures around the UK, overseas and online. He was Director (CEO) of the Egypt Exploration Society from 2012 to 2016, and President of the International Association of Egyptologists from 2015 to 2019, and is now Director of the Robert Anderson Trust.

AMARNA ZOOM STUDY DAY 23 MARCH

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Saturday 23rd March 9:30am – 3:45pm (GMT)

Tickets are now available for our Amarna online study day at £19 for MAES members (via booking form which is emailed to you) and for GUESTS (£30 via Eventbrite).

The second half of the14th century BC saw one of the most remarkable periods in Egyptian history – the so-called ‘Amarna Period’ and its aftermath. Over less than two decades, one man upended millennia of tradition in religion and art only to have his revolution reversed within perhaps weeks of his death. An ensuing ‘counter-reformation’ nominally returned matters to normal, yet actually re-set the Egyptian state for the coming centuries.

Professor Aidan Dodson will present two lectures giving an overview of the history of this period, from the reign of Amenhotep III down to the accession of Rameses I; Dr Anna Stevens, assistant director of the Amarna Project, will present the results of the 2022 season, held at the North Desert Cemetery, one of the most unexpectedly diverse of the Amarna cemeteries; and Paul Docherty will showcase 3D reconstructions of the temple and the early 3D reconstructions of the central city area.

We look forward to seeing you!