2013 - 2014 Archives - Calgary SSEA

Lecture: Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and Beyond

Posted in 2013 - 2014, Event, Featured, Guest Speaker, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 02-May-2014

Cost: Meetings are Free to members, Guests $5 – Students with ID $2

Description:

Egypt’s interests extended far beyond its borders, most famously with civilisations of the Mediterranean and Near East, and south to Nubia. Its least appreciated connections are to the south-east through the Red Sea, to and past Punt and by Roman times reaching as far as the eastern coast of modern India. This lecture will outline ancient Egypt’s interests and relations in this direction from the Old Kingdom through the Roman period.

About the speaker:

Jacke Phillips, an SSEA member since 1984, graduated in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Toronto. She now is associated with the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and Cambridge University. One of her main interests can best be described as ‘Egypt outside of Egypt,’ particularly with Nubia, Ethiopia and Greece. She has worked and published extensively in all regions.

Location:

Room EDC 287 in the Education Block at the University of Calgary.

Lecture: Ramesses II and the 19th Dynasty

Posted in 2013 - 2014, Event, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 04-Apr-2014

Cost: Meetings are Free to members, Guests $5 – Students with ID $2

Description:

The 19th Dynasty in ancient Egypt was a period of great strength. During the foundation of this dynasty, Egypt would extend its influence to its greatest extent into the Levant. With large reserves of wealth, large architectural projects would be constructed that come to rival the pyramids in their size and splendor. Through this lecture, we will discuss the general political developments and take a close look at the artistic works that characterize the period.

About the speaker:

Julius Szekrenyes is the Calgary Chapter’s SSEA president. He has had a life-long interest in Ancient Egypt and has taught Ancient Egyptian history at U. of C. Continuing Education for 15 years.

Location:

Room EDC 287 in the Education Block at the University of Calgary.

Lecture: Ancient Egyptian Religion – An Overview

Posted in 2013 - 2014, Event, Featured, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 07-Mar-2014

Cost: Meetings are Free to members, Guests $5 – Students with ID $2

Description:

The worship of the gods and goddesses had an impact on the royal and private lives of those living in pharaonic Egypt. Have you ever wished to know a little bit more about these religious aspects?

This lecture is intended for a general audience who want to know the functions of ancient Egyptian religion during the pharaonic period. We will discuss how royal rule was intertwined with the concept of cosmic order (ma’at) and how this impacted daily ritual at temples. Also, this lecture will consider the roles of the gods and goddesses of pharaonic Egypt and how these ‘spheres of influence’ are sometimes blurred in literature. To gain a familiarity of the divine, attendees will be presented with the attributes and artistic forms of the most popular deities. To conclude, there will also be an analysis of the creation myths of the Egyptians.

Through this lecture, audience members will gain a better understanding of how religion managed to permeate many aspects of pharaonic culture and provide a resource for further inquiry into topics of ancient Egypt.

About the speaker:

Nicholas Wernick is a Calgarian completing his PhD in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. The topic of his thesis is ancient Egyptian militarism in the Late Bronze Age and what the nature of ancient Egyptian imperialism in the Levant was like during the New Kingdom. In addition to his PhD work, he has been published in academic journals and Ancient Egypt Magazine.

Location:

Room EDC 287 in the Education Block at the University of Calgary.

Lecture: The Amarna Period

Posted in 2013 - 2014, Featured, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 07-Feb-2014

Cost: Meetings are Free to members, Guests $5 – Students with ID $2

Description:

Continuing the History of Ancient Egypt brings us to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty, to Amenhotep III, his heretic Aten-worshipping son Akhenaten, and the Amarna Period. The Amarna Era was a time of dramatic changes in religion, culture and Egyptian art, and was followed by an equally wrenching reversion to the traditional Amon worship.

About the speaker:

Julius Szekrenyes is the Calgary Chapter’s SSEA president. He has had a life-long interest in Ancient Egypt and has taught Ancient Egyptian history at U. of C. Continuing Education for 15 years.

Location:

Room EDC 287 in the Education Block at the University of Calgary.

Lecture: Hero of Alexandria and the Roman Technological Revolution

Posted in 2013 - 2014, Featured, Guest Speaker, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 01-Nov-2013

Cost: Meetings are Free to members, Guests $5 – Students with ID $2

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Description:

Hero was a 1st-century-CE engineer and inventor who worked at the Library and Museum of Alexandria, established by the Ptolemaic dynasty three centuries earlier. Following in the footsteps of other notable technicians like Ktesibios, his inventive mind created a remarkable series of revolutionary machines using all the mechanical devices in the Hellenistic tool-kit (complex gears, compound pulleys, screws, and the like) and introduced a revolutionary power source—steam—all of which foreshadow the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. But this lecture is not a review of high-school physics. We’ll look at Hero’s creation of the first vending machine, the differential axle, a bottomless wine cup, a pipe organ, and a “miraculous” system that opened doors to a temple whenever a fire was lit on the sacrificial altar. With all this technology, and a railway to boot, why did the ancients not have an industrial revolution?

About the speaker:

John Humphrey is a professor in the Department of Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Calgary. He is a Roman archaeologist and historian who has excavated in Greece and Turkey and has written two books on the development of technology on the Greek and Roman worlds. Some SSEA members might know him as a scholar of Roman public toilets.

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Location:

Room EDC 287 in the Education Block at the University of Calgary.