in English

Mapping the Looting and Trafficking of Egypt’s Cultural Heritage

Mødedato: Torsdag d. 14. november 2024 kl. 18  
Lokale: 15A.1.11 – evt. via Zoom og på storskærm sammen

Mapping the Looting and Trafficking of Egypt’s Cultural Heritage, v. Marcel Marée, British Museum

Marcel Marée is Assistant Keeper at the Department of Egypt & Sudan in the British Museum. He is in charge of the Museum’s Egyptian Sculpture Gallery and oversaw its recent renewal with updated interpretation. He has done epigraphic fieldwork at Elkab, Edfu and Aswan. He specialises in provenance research, with a particular focus on tracing artefacts to specific workshops, sculptors and painters.

In 2018, he initiated a project called Circulating Artefacts – CircArt in short. The project is designed to monitor, record and analyse the trade in cultural artefacts, to clarify provenance, and to detect irregularities. This has enabled the identification and recovery of thousands of illegally sourced antiquities in the trade. CircArt twice received generous grants from the Cultural Protection Fund, a scheme run by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The project is currently being prepared for adoption on a higher institutional level, under a new name. Marcel is a founding member of the Heritage Crime Task Force, created in 2022. It is being developed in partnership with the Organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). At venues across

Europe, the Task Force offers training to law enforcement and heritage professionals engaged in the fight against heritage crime. The Task Force also promotes and enables collaboration between OSCE member and partner states in tackling live criminal cases.

Marcel’s lecture looks more closely at how to map the looting and trafficking of Egypt’s cultural heritage.

 

– – – – – – – efterår 2024 – – – – – – –

The secrets under the isched tree

Mødedato: Onsdag d. 11. September 2024 kl. 19

Lokale: KUA – 23.0.49

The secrets under the isched tree, v. Dr. Andreas Effland, M.A. Seminar für Ägyptologie und Koptologie, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

During the excavations carried out by French and British missions in Umm el-Qaab at Abydos towards the end of the19th and the beginning of the 20th century and again in the course of the recent excavations by the German Archaeological Institute, numerous fragments of very specific, inscribed pottery sherds were found. They are belonging to a small corpus of characteristic heart-shaped vessels.

umm el-qaabThese vessels – used during regenerative rituals in the direct vicinity of the god’s resting place – were dedicated by the high priest and the vizier, in the end coming to rest as votive objects in the “Tomb of Osiris”. The hieroglyphic text on this votive pottery was composed during the reign of Ramesses II, when the interest in Umm el-Qaab flourished. It is cast as a speech by the king himself, as having entered upon his kingly rule following his father, probably to announce his accession to the throne to the oldest royal ancestors at Abydos. In spite of the fragmentary state of preservation of the text, it contains precious information on the ceremonies conducted at the Osirian sacred site during the regenerative rituals of what is known as the Khoiak Festival.

A Thousand Miles Up the Nile

Mødedato: Mandag d. 3/6-2024 kl. 18
Lokale: KUA1 23.0.49

A Thousand Miles Up the Nile with Amelia Edwards, v. Carl Graves, PhD, Director of the Egypt Exploration Society

A chance visit to Egypt in 1873 by Amelia B Edwards changed the future of British Egyptology forever. Her travelogue, A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, would inspire generations after her to take up her message to support and promote Egyptian cultural heritage.

Attendees will hear about Amelia’s life and relive Amelia’s 1873 journey up the Nile with Dr Carl Graves, Director of the Society that she set up in 1882. The presentation is illustrated with archival material held by the Egypt Exploration Society as well as original artwork by Amelia kept at the Griffith Institute and Somerville College, both University of Oxford, and the Peggy Joy Egyptology Library.

CGravesCarl Graves is Director of the Egypt Exploration Society. He completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham, and his research now focuses on ancient Egyptian settlement archaeology and the development of British Egyptology during the late eighteenth century. Carl is responsible for managing the Society’s day-to-day operations in its London and Cairo Offices and works closely with Board, Committees, volunteers, and staff to deliver the Society’s charitable activities, research, and publications programme.

FEST efter foredraget. Vi følges til frokoststuen i TORS.

One Tomb, Two Kings

Mødedato: Lørdag d. 9/3-2024 kl. 14
Lokale: 15A.1.11

One Tomb, Two Kings: Unlocking the Sequence of Construction and Decoration in Theban Tomb 110, v. JJ. Shirley, PhD, Director of the TT110 Epigraphy and Research Field School

Theban Tomb 110, well-known for its depiction of both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, presents a unique opportunity to examine the degree of personal involvement that the tomb’s owner, Djehuty, had in its decoration. In 2022 the epigraphic work of the TT110 Epigraphy and Research Field School completed the first full documentation of the tomb. The results of the work provide new information that allows for a more nuanced understanding of the timeline of the tomb’s design, and the owner’s career. In this talk I will present the findings of the field school, suggesting a chronology for TT110’s construction and decoration and highlighting Djehuty’s participation in the process.

 

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud

Mødedato: Onsdag d. 24/4 2024 Kl. 19

Lokale: KUA 23.0.49

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud, v. Daniela Picchi, Head or Curator of the Egyptian Collection, Archaeological Museum of Bologna

This study was promoted by the Bologna Archaeological Museum and Eurac Research, Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano (Italy), in the framework of the Bologna mummy project (BOmp). The mummy with a rare painted shroud (1st-2nd century A.D.) belonged to the collection of the Bolognese artist Pelagio Palagi (1875-1860), who offered over three thousand Egyptian antiquities to his hometown at a reasonable price through a bequest in his will.

Daniela mumie 2The aim of the project was to return the mummy, which had been stored in the museum’s storerooms since the late 1970s, to the scientific community and the public. This project requested an interdisciplinary diagnostic approach to acquire the tomography computed (CT) scans of the bodies, to obtain the radiocarbon date (14C), to reconstruct the biological (e.g., sex, age at death) and the paleopathological profiles, as well as to insight the embalming techniques. Additionally, the mummy underwent a complex restoration work before being displayed in the museum.

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud

Mødedato: Torsdag d. 25/4-2024 kl. 17.30– døren låses 17.20!

Antikmuseet på Aarhus Universitet,
Victor Albecksvej, Århus C, bygning 1414

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud, v. Daniela Picchi, Head or Curator of the Egyptian Collection, Archaeological Museum of Bologna

This study was promoted by the Bologna Archaeological Museum and Eurac Research, Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano (Italy), in the framework of the Bologna mummy project (BOmp). The mummy with a rare painted shroud (1st-2nd century A.D.) belonged to the collection of the Bolognese artist Pelagio Palagi (1875-1860), who offered over three thousand Egyptian antiquities to his hometown at a reasonable price through a bequest in his will.

Daniela mumie 2The aim of the project was to return the mummy, which had been stored in the museum’s storerooms since the late 1970s, to the scientific community and the public. This project requested an interdisciplinary diagnostic approach to acquire the tomography computed (CT) scans of the bodies, to obtain the radiocarbon date (14C), to reconstruct the biological (e.g., sex, age at death) and the paleopathological profiles, as well as to insight the embalming techniques. Additionally, the mummy underwent a complex restoration work before being displayed in the museum.

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud – og julefest

Mødedato: Mandag d. 4/12-2023 Kl. 18

Lokale: KUA1 23.0.49

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of a rare mummy with painted shroud, v. Daniela Picchi, Head or Curator of the Egyptian Collection, Archaeological Museum of Bologna

This study was promoted by the Bologna Archaeological Museum and Eurac Research, Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano (Italy), in the framework of the Bologna mummy project (BOmp). The mummy with a rare painted shroud (1st-2nd century A.D.) belonged to the collection of the Bolognese artist Pelagio Palagi (1875-1860), who offered over three thousand Egyptian antiquities to his hometown at a reasonable price through a bequest in his will.

Daniela mumie 2The aim of the project was to return the mummy, which had been stored in the museum’s storerooms since the late 1970s, to the scientific community and the public. This project requested an interdisciplinary diagnostic approach to acquire the tomography computed (CT) scans of the bodies, to obtain the radiocarbon date (14C), to reconstruct the biological (e.g., sex, age at death) and the paleopathological profiles, as well as to insight the embalming techniques. Additionally, the mummy underwent a complex restoration work before being displayed in the museum.

FEST efter foredraget. Vi følges til frokoststuen i TORS.

The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt – og sommerfest

Mødedato: Tirsdag d. 23. maj Kl. 18

Lokale: Aud. 9A.3.01 NB: der har vi ikke været før. Indgang fra Karen Blixens Plads 16. Se kort i nyhedsmailen.

The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt, v. Professor Aidan Dodson, University of Bristol

For a few decades during the 8th to 7th centuries BC, there was a remarkable reversal of the age-old imperial domination of Nubia by Egypt. In the wake of the fragmentation of the Egyptian state during the 8th century, the Kushite state that had evolved in Nubia since Egyptian withdrawal at the beginning of the 11th century expanded northwards, ultimately absorbing the south of Egypt, including Thebes itself. Having established themselves as overlords of the various regional rulers in Egypt, the Nubian pharaohs led a national revival in Egypt, until an Assyrian onslaught drove them back into Nubia, where their composite of Egyptian and Nubian culture would survive into the 4th century AD.

Aidan Dodson has taught Egyptology at the University of Bristol, UK, since 1996, and has been honorary full Professor of Egyptology since 2018. A graduate of Liverpool and Cambridge Universities, he is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and a former Chairman of the Egypt Exploration Society. The author of some 25 books and over 400 articles and reviews, The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: their lives and afterlives is due to be published by the American University in Cairo Press at the end of 2023.

FEST efter foredraget. Vi følges til frokoststuen i TORS.

Rescuing More of the Lost City of the Pyramids

Mødedato: Lørdag d. 4. marts kl. 14

Lokale: Online via Zoom og i  KUA 15a.0.13

Vi har lokalet, så vi kan se foredraget sammen på storskærm.
Zoom-linket er sendt ud til medlemmerne, så det også er muligt at se det hjemmefra.

Rescuing More of the Lost City of the Pyramids – Season 2023 Update, v. Mark Lehner, Director and President of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, Inc. (AERA)

For 35 years, teams from Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA) have been clearing, mapping and excavating in the Heit el-Ghurab (HeG) site of 4th Dynasty settlement (c. 2600 BC), about 400 meters south of the Great Sphinx, finding the houses, barracks, bakeries, workshops and cattle corral of the pyramid builders. Heit el-Ghurab, ‘Wall of the Crow’ in Arabic, is the name of the site, after the 200-meter long, 10 meter-tall, stone wall with a great gate that borders the site on the Northwest.

In the last two years the AERA team has been able to find major parts of the site that had been covered for more than 40 years by a sports club and soccer field, which were removed in 2021. The focus is on the Royal Administrative Building (RAB), which contained the central grains store for the pyramid builders’ city. AERA excavated the northern end of the RAB, protruding from under the soccer field, between 2002 and 2007. Now, the AERA team excavates rest of the building to the south, under the hypothesis that it was an important element of a wider palace city at Giza, the earlier parts of which are attested in the newly-discovered Wadi el-Jarf Papyri. I report to the Danish Egyptological Society the latest findings, fresh from the field, and from the work in progress.

Den svarta pyramiden

Norden Vue des Pyramides

Mødedato: Torsdag d. 16. 3 2023 kl. 18

Lokale: KUA – 15A.0.13

Den svarta pyramiden: Fakta och fiktion i nordisk tidigmodern egyptologi v. Joachim Östlund, docent och lektor i historia vid Lunds Universitet

I början av 1700-talet kom vetetenskapsresenärer från Sverige och Danmark att besöka Egypten i syfte att utforska dess fornhistoria. Dessa expeditioner genomfördes under en tid då nya vetenskapliga ideal kom att utmana äldre teorier om det forntida Egypten. Detta föredrag handlar om vilka teorier som överlevde, utmanades eller omvärderades samt vilken kunskap som producerades om det forntida Egypten i Norden.

Lørdagsseminar om Amarna

Mødedato: lørdag d. 25. marts 2023 kl. 11-16

Lokale: KUA – 23.0.49

Kl. 11 – Gravpladserne i Akhetaten, v. Ph.d. Sofie Schiodt, Postdoc Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen

Siden 2006 har et internationalt hold af forskere foretaget udgravninger af en række gravpladser i Amarna (oldtidens Akhetaten). Denne by blev grundlagt af farao Akhenaten, som kun regerede i 17 år, hvorefter byen blev forladt, og den giver dermed et enestående øjebliksbillede af Ægypten i det 14. århundrede f.v.t. I december 2022 færdiggjorde vi den sidste udgravningssæson ved gravpladserne, og mens der stadig ligger meget databehandlingsarbejde forude, har udgravningerne allerede givet os et fascinerende indblik i, hvordan livet så ud for den almene ægypter under Akhenaten. I dette foredrag vil jeg fortælle om de opdagelser, vi har gjort i løbet af det årelange arbejde, og hvilken ny viden det bidrager med.

Kl. 12.15 – Frokost (medbring selv mad og drikke)

Kl. 13 -The Great Aten Temple at Amarna: 2012-2022, v. Barry Kemp – zoom i lokalet

The Great Aten Temple at Amarna: 2012-2022, v. Barry Kemp, Director of the Amarna Project, Senior Research Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University

The Amarna Project commenced its work at the site of the Great Aten Temple in 2012 and has continued until now. The temple comprises a space measuring 750 x 270 m, surrounded by a thick mud-brick wall. Inside are the remains of two stone temples: the Long Temple towards the front (in the past identified with the building with the ancient name Gempa-aten) and the Sanctuary towards the back. This leaves the greater part of the space within the enclosure unaccounted for.

Most of the expedition’s work so far has been concentrated on the Long Temple and the ground in front. It had previously been excavated by the Egypt Exploration Society in 1932 (the director being John Pendlebury). In further pursuit of an answer, in 2021 and 2022 a new excavation was begun at the very back of the temple enclosure (carried out by Fabien Balestra, a member of the expedition). It began with a re-examination of a wide gateway flanked by buttresses attached to the enclosure wall, first identified in 1932. Beyond it and within the temple enclosure, two adjacent areas have been excavated.

The programme of the expedition includes the rebuilding of the outlines of the temple in new stone blocks once an area has been cleaned and recorded by drawing and photography. The costs of the stone blocks (purchased from a fine limestone quarry at El-Tura) are partly borne by public subscription.

For details of how to become engaged see:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/be-part-of-the-great-aten-temple

Reports on the work at the temple can be found (freely available) at:
https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/recent_projects/excavation/great_aten_temple/

The Amarna Project’s free newsletter, Horizon, can be found at:
https://www.amarnaproject.com/downloadable_resources.shtml

The digital reconstructions of the temple which appear in the lecture are the work of Paul Docherty.

Kl. 14.15 – Pause

Kl. 14.45 – Colours for the Aten: The Manufacture of Glass and Faience in the workshops of Amarna, v. Anna K. Hodgkinson

When the new capital city of Akhetaten was established, workshops and craftspeople were required to furnish and embellish the palaces, temples and the villas of the elite. Colourful inlays from faience, glass and stone were produced, and these would adorn architecture, wooden furniture and burial equipment, creating beautiful marshland scenes and images of royal power.
Jewellery, and cosmetic vessels from faience and glass, were popular throughout the population and produced in great numbers. Focussing on the results of recent fieldwork at Amarna site M50.14-16 and glass-working experiments, this lecture will discuss both how glass- and faience objects were made, and what role a domestic workshop had in the city of Amarna.

The Obelisks of the Caesars: Egyptomania in Ancient Rome v. Luigi Prada efterfulgt af auktion over Lises bøger og effekter

Mødedato: Tirsdag d. 18/4 2023 kl 18.00
Lokale: KUA2 10.3.28 (frokoststuen på TORS)

Først foredrag efterfulgt af auktion over Lises bøger og effekter

The Obelisks of the Caesars: Egyptomania in Ancient Rome v. Luigi Prada, Assistant Professor of Egyptology, Uppsala Universitet

Today, there are more obelisks standing in Rome than there are in any other city, including Egypt—with more to be found in other locations around Italy and what used to be the Roman Empire.

Starting with Augustus and for centuries since, the Romans removed from Egypt tens of obelisks to display them in their cities as monuments to their power. But the Roman interest in Egypt’s obelisks was not limited to their re-use as political propaganda. In several cases, the Romans themselves commissioned new obelisks, having them carved with unique and peculiar inscriptions.

Far from being spoils of war, such obelisks stand as ancient monuments of cultural appropriation, through which Rome’s emperors and notables claimed for themselves Egypt’s linguistic, religious, and artistic traditions.
This talk will present the story of Rome’s fascination with ancient Egypt and its obelisks, focusing on a number of particularly significant case studies. By integrating the study of their social and cultural context with newly prepared textual and epigraphic analyses of their inscriptions, it will show how Egyptian obelisks—commissioned by both emperors and private citizens—not only fitted in the Empire’s political agenda, but also constituted part of the cultural life of its elites.

Kharga routes

Mødedato: Onsdag d. 3/5 2023 kl 19.00
Lokale: KUA 22.0.11

Kharga routes, v. Professor Salima Ikram, American University in Cairo

Since 2001, the North Kharga Oasis Survey (NKOS) has been systematically exploring the northern portion of the Kharga Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert. NKOS has worked on identifying and locating new archaeological sites, assessing the extent of the visible sites, as well as recording evidence for desert travel along the paths connection the various sites.

By combining all this information, it clearly appears that Kharga was an important desert crossroad where the north-south caravan route (known as the Darb el-Arbain) met an east-west route, that connected to the neighbouring Dakhla Oasis, and ultimately to the Gifl el-Kebir area, as well as to Lower Egypt via the other Western Desert oases. Then importance of this east-west axis has hitherto been underestimated.

Textiles in Ancient Egypt: a view from the New Kingdom

Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi

Mødedato: Torsdag 22.9 2022 kl. 19.00

Lokale: KUA – 23.0.49

Textiles in Ancient Egypt: a view from the New Kingdom, v. Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi, Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoc at the Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen

Textiles in Ancient Egypt, as well as in other ancient societies, were used for multifold purposes: from dressing the people to furnishing the house, from religious ceremonies to wrapping and covering the bodies of the deceased.

In Pharaonic Egypt, textiles were made primarily of linen, and they still impress modern scholars with their extreme fineness and the high craftsmanship of their creators. There are no doubts that textiles and their production occupied a very important role of the Egyptian economy.

But what are the sources that we can use to understand the New Kingdom textile industry? Which objects have preserved, what can they tell us and how can we study them to learn as much as possible?

This presentation will give an overview of the available sources, archaeological and textual, that can offer a picture of the textile production in the New Kingdom. Furthermore, it will focus on a case study, Deir el-Medina, to highlight the potential of a complete approach on the topic but also the limits of the materials under study.