Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Thursday's lecture to complement DMA King Tut exhibit

University News

With perfect timing, the University of Dallas Art Department has invited a world-renowned Egyptologist to lecture on Akhenaten, father of the most famous Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamen, or, as we know him today, King Tut. Dr. James Hoffmeier is a professor specializing in Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity International University, which is based in Deerfield, Illinois.

The lecture promises to be particularly interesting as it comes just before the Dallas Year trip to the Dallas Museum of Art, where the King Tut exhibit is being held temporarily. According to the art department's press release, Dr. Hoffmeier will be discussing "the significant amount of material from the Amarna period uncovered since 1999 at Tell el-Borg in North Sinai. The Amarna period began when Pharaoh Akhenaten moved his capital city and changed the state religion to a form of monotheism. This revolutionary period only lasted briefly; King Tutankhamen (King Tut), a successor to Akhenaten, died at the young age of eighteen." Those who attend Dr. Hoffmeier's lecture will undoubtedly have a historical framework with which to view the Tut exhibit.

The lecturer, Dr. Hoffmeier, was actually born in Egypt, where he lived until he was 16. According his profile, found on the Trinity International University webpage, he received his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College, going on to the University of Toronto to earn his masters and Ph.D. in philosophy. He has returned to Egypt several times on archaeological digs in Sinai, where he not only studies the civilization of Akhenaten and Tutankhamen, but also attempts to uncover parts of the Old Testament story of the Jewish people. Sinai is the location where Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, as recorded in the book of Exodus.

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