Egyptologist talks cultural origins at Hierakonpolis

Daily Vanguard (Caitlin Loughran)

"It sounds like a bad joke. Eight Dogs, six cats and a baboon walk into a bar…."

These are the words of Egyptologist Renee Friedman, describing her experience excavating a burial site in Hierakonopolis, Egypt, containing multiple animals that some believed served as guardians and protectors of the site.

Friedman gave a lecture last night in the Smith Memorial Student Union to talk about the most recent discoveries in Hierakonopolis--a city about 400 miles south of Cairo that is often associated with the origins of Egyptian society.

The city is the site of the first pharaohs, as well as the development of structures which the Egyptian pyramids were deliberately modeled after.

Friedman is not your typical Egyptologist, however during the presentation she cracked some jokes, and called Hierakonpolis "the Milwaukie of upper Egypt."

Friedman and a team of archaeologists spent the last 25 years investigating the site, which before 3100 B.C. (what is known as the Predynastic period in Egyptian history) was called Nekhen.

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