Saturday 10th September 2022
Subject: "Thebes: The City of 100 Gates"
​
Speaker: Dr Kenneth Griffin (Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Swansea University)
​
The city of Thebes (modern Luxor) is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. This UNESCO World Heritage site is home to some of the most well-known monuments from ancient Egypt, making it the largest open-air museum in the world. Thebes was the domain of the god Amun, whose expansive temples of Karnak and Luxor were constructed and expanded upon on the East Bank of the Nile. The West Bank was the city of the dead, containing the tombs of rulers such as Ramesses the Great, the “boy-king” Tutankhamun, and the female pharaoh Hatshepsut. Additionally, the Valley of the Queens houses the majestic tomb of Nefertari, often referred to as the Sistine Chapel of ancient Egypt because of its fine paintings.
This lecture will examine the history, development, and sites of ancient Thebes.
Saturday 8th October 2022
​
Subject: "The Sun-Disc is found : Gem-Aten, the site of Kawa in Sudan"
Speaker: Dr Robert Morkot
​
Kawa is a large site in northern Sudan that has been partially excavated and has a history extending from the Egyptian New Kingdom, if not earlier, to the late Meroitic period. The talk discusses the work of Akhenaten in Sudan, possible connection with Kawa, and the monuments of the post-New Kingdom and ‘25 th dynasty’ with continuing history into the Meroitic period. Many objects and monuments from Kawa can be found in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and other museums in Britain.
To be preceded by the AGM
Saturday 26th November 2022
Subject: "Tutankhamun’s Trumpet"
Speaker: Prof. Toby Wilkinson (Vice-Chancellor, University of Fiji)
​
Based on his new book, Tutankhamun’s Trumpet, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson takes a unique approach to a well-worn subject. Instead of concentrating on the oft-told story of the discovery or speculating on the (brief) life and (fractious) times of the boy-king, Wilkinson takes the objects buried with the king as the source material for a wide-ranging, detailed portrait of ancient Egypt – its geography, history, culture and legacy.
One hundred artefacts from the tomb, arranged in ten thematic groups, are allowed to speak again – not only for themselves, but as witnesses of the civilization that created them. Never before have the treasures of Tutankhamun been analysed and presented for what they can tell us about ancient Egyptian culture, its extraordinary development, its remarkable flourishing, and its lasting impact.
N.B This talk will be hosted as part of the Taunton Literary Festival, and marks the first centenary of the finding and opening of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Ticket Entry only – to obtain your tickets contact Jan Diamond on
Email: unearthingegyptology@gmail.com
Mobile: 07979 76 12 12
Saturday 10th December 2022
Subject: "Nebhepetre Mentuhotep: The Great Re-Unifier"
​
Speaker: Sarah Griffiths (Deputy Editor, ‘Ancient Egypt’ Magazine)
​
The Middle Kingdom, seen as Egypt’s classical period for art, history and literature, began with the rise of a small southern kingdom based at Thebes and the appearance of a warrior king who reunified Egypt, re-established the country’s prosperity and international standing, and whose stunning mortuary temple became the template on which the great temples of the New Kingdom were based. This illustrated presentation explores
the reign and legacy of a pharaoh revered by later kings as one of the greatest Egyptian rulers: Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II of the 11th dynasty.
​
Saturday 14th January 2023
Members' Annual Lunch – Cosy Club, Taunton
Saturday 11th February 2023
Subject: "The Cult of Hathor in Terenouthis"
Speaker: Maiken Mosleth King (University of Bristol)
​
Archaeological remains and textual sources attest to the existence of a temple dedicated to Hathor in the West Delta settlement of Terenouthis, where she was worshipped as the consort of Osiris and the mother of Horus.
This presentation examines the role of the temple as an important regional cult centre, and the role of Hathor as a local patron goddess who absorbed the function of other major goddesses such as Isis and Bastet. The talk will also present evidence of the syncretisation of Hathor with Greek goddesses such as Aphrodite and Nemesis in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
​Saturday 11th March 2023
Subject: "Reeves’ Hidden Queen: Might Nefertiti Yet Be Found Behind the Wall of Tutankhamun’s Tomb?"
Speaker: Dylan Bickerstaff
​
In 2015, when Dr Nicholas Reeves released a paper claiming to have found evidence that the beautiful Queen Nefertiti lay buried (as a king!) behind the wall of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber, it caused a sensation. However, when I shared some obvious flaws I’d found in Reeves’ case, I discovered that virtually everyone had dispensed with the task of reading it and moved straight on to demanding GPR wall-scans to solve the issue. After three separate sets of scans most people accepted that there was nothing there; but then, in 2019, Reeves issued another paper resurrecting the idea. An expert had reinterpreted the scan-data, and Reeves himself had found more clues in the wall paintings. Most seriously, he had also accused Howard Carter of digging in the painted wall, and of concealing the evidence with some painting of his own! Was it still possible that chambers lay behind the wall? Were the accusations against Carter true? Clearly these claims need to be examined in detail!
Saturday 15th April 2023
Subject: "The Temple of Amun at Medinet Habu: Birthplace and Burial Place of the Primordial Deities"
Speaker: Lucia Gahlin, UCL
​
Most people visit Medinet Habu to explore Ramesses III’s magnificent memorial temple, but the smaller, earlier temple to Amun within the 20 th dynasty mudbrick enclosure wall is arguably of far greater significance. In this lecture Lucia will explore the history of this temple from the Middle Kingdom through to the Roman Period, focusing on the reigns of the 18 th dynasty pharaohs Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. She will examine the significance of Amun as a creator god worshipped in this sacred place named by the ancient Egyptians the ‘True Mound of the West’.
Saturday 13th May 2023
​
Subject: "The Life of a Scribe"
​
Speaker: Dr Hana Navrátilová
​
A large part of our knowledge of ancient Egypt is mediated in its written culture. This written culture was made, maintained and communicated by ‘scribes’. People who bore this title were not just clerks, or just religious scholars, or just administrators with more or less responsibility for running the Egyptian society; they could be all of the above and also much more. Egyptian scribes left a large archive of texts, from accounts to poetry, which allow us to uncover ancient lives. But they also left us with a legacy of their own opinions and thoughts – not least a strong belief in the special role and importance of ‘being a scribe’. Understanding their world helps us to comprehend the traces and messages of the ancient Egyptian culture.
Saturday 10th June 2023
​
Subject: "Resurrecting the First Pharaohs"
​
Speaker: Prof. Aidan Dodson (University of Bristol)
Egypt was unified around 3000 BC, beginning the history of pharaonic Egypt, and setting the ground-rules for the nature and constitution of the state and kingship that would endure for three millennia. This lecture will explore the way in which the memories of the first pharaohs were maintained and used by their successors down to Roman times, and how, after millennia of oblivion, they were rediscovered by modern scholarship.
N.B All meetings will be held at our new venue at: St James Church, St James Street, Taunton TA1 1JS
Due to copyright and to protect the intellectual property rights of the presenter and privacy of attendees, the Society is unable to record and publish the presentations, or to allow others to do so.
To remain within The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as updated on 1 February 2021.
Please do not record, photograph or screenshot any part of the presentations.