The Calgary Chapter of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities

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Lecture: A virtual Geological Field trip to the Valley of the Kings with a detailed look at the trails of Ancient Egyptian geologists and engineers

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

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 04-Oct-2013

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

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The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Thebes West area showing

the geological units (shale and limestone) into which the temples and tombs were built.

Description:

The Valley of the Kings and its tombs and artifacts are known around the world and most people are familiar with at least some Ancient Egyptian History. As such, the Valley at the foot of Gebel Gurn (Mt. Gurna) was the burial center for kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom from the 16th to 11th century BC (the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient). This presentation will provide a different view of Ancient Egypt and what happened to the landscape including its original tombs over the last 3000 years. In fact, the journey of the presentation starts ~50 Mio years ago when the northern part of Egypt was part of a shallow sea where the limestone and shale units were deposited into which the Ancient Egyptian Tombs were built. An overview of the geological features of Gebel Gurn is presented and its development discussed. A close look will be given to the ancient and modern landscape features in and around the Valley of the Kinds and the Queens. Moreover, tomb constructions will be dissected in a geological manner in order to better understand the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptian geologists and engineers.

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Valley of the Kings looking north at the cliffs behind the tombs. The cliffs have several listric faults (displacements) due to the origin (uplift) of the mountains some 35 million years ago. The main valley is also the pathway for runoff water during flashfloods.

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Valley of the Queens looking southwest. The main rock type into which the tombs are built is part of a large blockslide from Gebel Gurn that occurred during the Proto-Nile development about 3-5 million years ago.

About the speaker:

Raphael Wust received his MSc in Geology in 1995 from the University of Bern, Switzerland and his PhD in Geology in 2001 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. From 2002 to 2009 he was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. End of 2009, Raphael Wust joined Trican Geological Solutions Ltd. as a Technical Advisor in Calgary. He remains an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at James Cook University.

Raphael Wust is author and co-author of over 40 scientific papers and numerous field-guides and technical reports. His MSc. thesis focused on the Quaternary of the area around the Gebal Qurn including the Valley of the Queens and Kings and was initiated by Prof E. Hornung and C. Schluchter. Between 1995-1999 he was involved with the Valley of the Kings Research Group around John Rutherford and Garniss Curtis to investigate the flash flood damages in the Valley of the Kings. Between 2006-2008 he was working with the Getty Conservation Institute and the SCA (Supreme Council of Antiquities) on the geological mapping and analysis of the Valley of the Queens.

Selected References:

Wüst, R.A.J. (1995): Geological and geotechnical investigations in the Thebes area, Part South, Thebes West, Luxor, Egypt. MSc thesis, Geology Department, University of Bern, Switzerland, 254 pp.

Wüst, R. and J. McLane (2000)Rock Deterioration in the Royal Tomb of Seti I, Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. Engineering Geology 58: 163-190.

Wüst, R. and C. Schluechter (2000) The Origin of Soluble Salts in Rocks of the Theban Mountains, Egypt: The Damage Potential to Ancient Egyptian Wall Art. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 27: 11620-1172.

McLane, J, Wüst, RAJ, Porter, B, Rutherford, J, 2003. Flash-Flood Impacts and Protection Measures in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt Association for Preservation Technology International Bulletin 34, Pp. 37-45.

Wüst, R.A.J. (2008), Geological assessment of the Hatshepsut cliff tomb excavation, report for SCA (Supreme Council of Antiquity, Luxor, Egypt, 8 pp.

Wüst, R.A.J. (2008), Valley of the Queens –Report of the geological investigations 2008 (Feb 11-18), 97 pp.

Wüst, R.A.J. and G. Curtis (2010): Valley of the Kings; Geomorphology and Hydrology. Final report for the California Academy of Science and the Valley of the Kings Research Group.

Wüst, R.A.J., Curtis, G., Rutherford, J. and B. Porter (2010): History of Flood Protection: Description and Recommendation of Current Tomb Flood Protection Measures. Final report for the California Academy of Science and the Valley of the Kings Research Group.

Location:

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

 

Guest Lecture: Reexcavating the Royal Tomb of Horemheb in the Valley of the Kings

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

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 13-Sep-2013

**Updated Location: Room 162, Earth Sciences Building, University of Calgary Campus**

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

Horemheb2

Description:

King Horemheb’s tomb was located in 1908 by Theodore M. Davis, an American investigator who made several spectacular discoveries in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was cleared under the supervision of a young Englishman Edward Aryton.  The results were published in Davis’ book The Tomb of Harmhabi and Toutankhamanou (1912). This volume was clearly incomplete. There is no mention of pottery, for example, and many objects found were not fully published or illustrated. Some problems were unresolved until recently, including the status of the well shaft located inside the tomb: there was no certainty that Davis had excavated it to the bottom.  In a large undecorated room behind the sarcophagus chamber a huge mound of debris awaited investigation. It seemed to consist of material deposited there by the excavator. A tomb of such importance and magnitude (it is one of the largest in the Valley) clearly needed further work to ensure that all the evidence was available for a complete publication of the artifacts found in it. Horemheb’s magnificent sarcophagus also demanded attention: skeletal material remained inside, and the lid, replaced and replaced after the discovery in 1908, was wrongly orientated.

 

The Cambridge Expedition to the Valley of the Kings was granted permission by the Egyptian authorities in 2005 to carry out the project, and by 2009 the monument was completely free of debris.  A complete catalog was made of the objects found by Davis (now in the Cairo Museum) and by the Expedition. During the recent work, important material came to light, including quantities of sherds from wine jars, part of the pharaoh’s funerary equipment.  A number bear year dates 13 and 14 of the king, and these have proved vital in establishing the true length of his reign, hitherto a controversial matter.  The new material eliminates twelve years form Horemheb’s reign, a finding that affects the chronology of the ancient Aegean and the Levant, and even further afield.

About the speaker:

Geoffrey Thorndike Martin is Edwards Professor of Egyptology Emeritus, University College London, and Fellow Commoner at Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he has responsibility for the College archives and plate. He was third Budge Research Fellow at the same College. He has directed excavations in Saqqara, the necropolis of ancient Memphis, where many interesting discoveries were made, including the tomb of the future pharaoh Horemheb. He has also worked in the Valley of the Kings, and has undertaken epigraphic work in the tomb of Akhenaten at Amarna and in many museums in Europe, the USA, and elsewhere.  A number of publications have resulted from his research, and he has published a general account for the public of his excavations in Saqqara under the title The Hidden Tombs of Memphis (1991).  His most recent monographs are a study of some of Egypt’s earliest inscriptions: stelae of courtiers, attendants, domestics, and others, whose graves in Abydos surrounded the tombs of Egypt’s first kings, ca. 3100 BC (Umm el-Qa’ab, VII) which appeared in 2011, and the Tomb of Maya and Meryt  (2012), the funerary monument of one of the most prominent officials in the reign of Tutankhamun and a close colleague of Horemheb.

GMartin_bioPic

Location: Updated

Due to high demand for this lecture, the venue has been changed to the Earth Sciences Building, Room 162.  For those of you who have been with the Calgary SSEA previously, it’s the old room we used to have across campus. 

 

Lecture: Aspects of the New Kingdom Egyptian Military in the Levant

Posted in 2012 - 2013, Event, Featured, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 03-May-2013

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

Description:

Warfare in the New Kingdom has been described as nothing short of a revolution . New Kingdom armies appear to have been, for the first time in Egyptian history, composed of a large body of soldiers who served full-time in the military and were organized on a state scale. The motivation for this change is thought to have been activated in the wars with the Hyksos and maintained its momentum throughout the 19th and early 20th Dynasties. Some scholars have argued that with the introduction of the chariot, scaled armour and composite bow, Egypt transformed itself into a cohesive military power and that the Egyptians held a tactical advantage over their Canaanite neighbours.

This lecture will look at the nature of the New Kingdom Egyptian presence in the Levant and its relationship with its residents. To examine this research question, this lecture will look at data from fortification sites in the Levant, in conjunction with data detailing the logistical considerations of the Egyptian military at this time and its weapon capabilities.

 

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: Death, Decay, and Dentists in Early Ancient Egypt

Posted in 2012 - 2013, Event, Featured, Guest Speaker, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00 pm, 05-Apr-2013

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

Description:

Dentists practised in ancient Egypt from at least as early as the Old Kingdom and developed a variety of treatments for toothaches, including the application of the still-warm body of a dead mouse to the offending tooth! But many of their treatments were ineffective: tooth decay is the most common pathological condition observed in ancient Egyptian skeletons, and medical papyri indicate that the resulting bad breath was a frequent complaint. Indeed, while the majority of individuals lost only their teeth to advanced dental decay, others may have lost their lives.

This talk will describe cases of severe tooth decay and other diseases of the teeth and jaws (such as “tartar” build-up and temporomandibular joint arthritis) that were prevalent in ancient Egyptian populations and will discuss these conditions in the context of food preparation and consumption. Particular attention will be paid to the Predynastic period and to the early stages of social stratification. In addition, a case will be described in which her teeth tell us that a woman at Mendes probably used her teeth as “tools” in the preparation of reeds for the construction of mats, baskets, or possibly coffins.

About the speaker:

Nancy Lovell joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in 1988, with four seasons of field experience at sites of the Indus Valley Civilization. But, after making her first trip to Egypt in 1989, she began bioarchaeological research on ancient Egyptians. In addition to directing the excavation of a Graeco-Roman period cemetery at Mendes during the 1990s, she has examined predynastic and archaic period human skeletons that were excavated by Petrie, Reisner, and other archaeological luminaries and that are now curated at museums and universities around the world. Her main research interests lie in the health of ancient Egyptians, particularly in the context of their social-cultural and physical environments.

Location:

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

Lecture: The Armoured Warrior – Military Technology and Armour in New Kingdom Egypt

Posted in 2012 - 2013, Event, Featured, Guest Speaker, Lecture

Date: 7:30 – 9:00pm, 01-Mar-2013

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

Description:

This presentation will examine the rise of the armoured warrior in New Kingdom Egypt. Significant social, political, and economic changes occurred between the Middle and New Kingdom periods that prompted the great changes to the military establishment in New Kingdom Egypt. In a response to the incursion of the Hyksos into Lower Egypt, a standing army was developed and new military technology was adopted, and adapted, perhaps from the Hyksos themselves. This presentation will look at the development and early use of a three-part technological system which involved chariots, composite bows, and organic body armour.

About the speaker:

Dr. Hulit began his studies in archaeology at the University of Lethbridge receiving his BSc in 1994, and continued on to an MA in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium in 1996. His research into the military economics, materials and manufacturing of the Ancient Near East continued at Durham University in northern England where he studied for several years, receiving his PhD in 2002. He has had a deep interest in armour, manufacturing, and experimental archaeology which caught the interest of both H.M. Royal Armouries museum in Leeds, England and the National Geographic. He was fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to Egypt in 2004 to participate in the filming of a National Geographic documentary where he was able to further test his hypotheses on the use of armour in New Kingdom Egypt. Dr. Hulit currently works as a Collections Technician and researcher with the Medicine Hat Museum at the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta and is conducting research for an upcoming 2014 exhibit on the First World War.

Location:

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