egyptology

The World’s First Recorded Dentist

/ MAES Administrator

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.

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.

the treasures of tanis and archaising art – the third intermediate period

/ MAES Administrator

Manchester Ancient Egypt Society’s online study day this Saturday!

Piety, Archaism and Excavations: A Glimpse of Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period

with Roger Forshaw, Jennifer Turner and Robert Morkot

Join us as we explore the lesser known Third Intermediate Period – 400 years of politically divided rule following the end of the Ramesside kings – a period that saw significant developments in culture, in art and in religion.

Discover the ‘Treasures of Tanis’, find out how the ancient Egyptians communicated with the gods, explore the wonderful archaising ‘art’ of the Libyan and Kushite periods, and discover how Psamtek I reunified Egypt, ushering in the rule of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.

Everyone welcome – booking essential.

Saturday 26th October 9:30am – 4:30pm (GMT+1) Via Zoom      

MAES members £19 (via form emailed to you; Guests £30 via Eventbrite

God is his potter! disability in ancient Egypt

/ MAES Administrator

The next online meeting of the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society is next Monday, 14 October with Kyle Lewis Jordan:

“God is his Potter”: Disability in Ancient Egypt

Today, disability is broadly understood to be a category that applies to people with a wide array of complex health conditions and impairments, which also has many complex layers of social and cultural interaction. Many of these conditions and impairments have been around as long as humanity itself. So how did Ancient Egypt, one of the world’s oldest societies, recognise and react to individuals that we would today call disabled? In this talk, Kyle Lewis Jordan will provide an insight into new and rapidly developing studies in this area, sharing his own reflections as a disabled archaeologist and curator, and the reasons why he believes deeper studies of disability in the ancient past are integral to fully appreciating the richness of the tapestry that is humankind.

Kyle Lewis Jordan is an early career archaeologist and curator who specialises in the study of disability in antiquity, with a particular focus on Ancient Egypt and the Middle East. Upon completing his studies at UCL, Kyle went on to work as a curator for the Ashmolean Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, where he curated two displays based on his research. He is currently curating a temporary exhibition for the Verulanium Museum in St. Albans on health and disability in the Roman world. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Kyle has been passionate about Egyptology since the age of six, and has had the lifelong ambition of being Director of the British Museum since he was ten.

Free to MAES members (you’ll receive an email link). Guests welcome via Eventbrite

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

A glimpse of Egypt in the third intermediate period!

/ MAES Administrator

Manchester Ancient Egypt Society’s online study day in October!

Piety, Archaism and Excavations: A Glimpse of Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period

with Roger Forshaw, Jennifer Turner and Robert Morkot

We have an exciting online study day lined up in October, exploring the lesser known Third Intermediate Period – 400 years of politically divided rule following the end of the Ramesside kings – a period that saw significant developments in culture, in art and in religion.

Discover the ‘Treasures of Tanis’, find out how the ancient Egyptians communicated with the gods, explore the wonderful archaising ‘art’ of the Libyan and Kushite periods, and discover how Psamtek I reunified Egypt, ushering in the rule of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty.

Everyone welcome – booking essential.

Saturday 26th October 9:30am – 4:30pm (GMT+1) Via Zoom      

MAES members £19 (via form emailed to you; Guests £30 via Eventbrite