Researchers to restore Egyptian murals

Daily Yomiuri Online

A research institute for cultural properties will begin a study on the conservation and restoration of deteriorating ancient murals at the Saqqara ancient burial site near Cairo on March 21.

The Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Properties (ICP) aims to study techniques on the conservation and restoration of ancient murals worldwide.

The institute hopes to use the research findings at the ancient Egyptian site in the preservation of murals in Japan and in the arid zones of China and Central Asia.

The Cultural Affairs Agency expects the institute's research will benefit the preservation of Japanese cultural properties.

The institute, established in January, comprises 15 experts in the conservation science of cultural properties, geotechnical engineering and other fields from three universities in the nation, including Kansai University and Osaka Institute of Technology, and two research institutes in Egypt.

The experts include Kosuke Takatori, a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture who was involved in the preservation of endangered murals in the Kitora and Takamatsuzuka tombs in Asukamura, Nara Prefecture, and Prof. Masaaki Sawada of Kokushikan University, a former member of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.

See the above page for the full story.

Talatat Block Bearing a Possible Image of Nefertiti Discovered

drhawass.com

With photograph.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced today that an archaeological team from the Vitelli Papyrological Institute of the University of Florence has discovered a talatat block from an Amarna Period monument reused in the construction of a Christian church at the site of Sheikh ‘Ibada (Antinoopolis).

The block (larger image) is carved in sunk relief with the image of a queen of the Amarna Period wearing the vulture headdress. Dr. Rosario Pintaudi, the mission’s director, believes that the queen depicted could be Nefertiti, the wife of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten. Although it is uninscribed, the style of the relief dates it to the Amarna Period.

The Italian mission is conducting a topographical survey of the site, and in addition to their excavation of two Christian churches, has been recording the remains of a nearby Ramesside temple. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the discovery of the talatat block is important, as it adds to the body of known records of the royal women of Amarna.

Ancient Cult Chapels, Egyptian Noblewoman's Tomb Found

National Geographic News (Andrew Bossone)

A 3,000-year-old noblewoman's tomb complex has been uncovered in Egypt, archaeologists announced Tuesday.

The tomb has been identified as belonging to a woman named Isisnofret—possibly the granddaughter of Pharaoh Ramses II, who reigned during the 13th century B.C.

Hieroglyphics on a sarcophagus in the tomb identify Isisnofret as a spst, or noblewoman—an honorific reserved for women of the royal family or of otherwise exceptional status.

Long hidden by sand and rubble on a rocky outcrop on the outskirts the ancient royal burial city of Saqqara, the complex measures 89 by 34 feet (27 by 10 meters).

The tomb complex includes the base of a pyramid, a monumental gateway, a colonnaded courtyard, and an antechamber with three cult chapels, according to the team from Japan's Waseda University that has been excavating the site since 1991.

See the above page for the full story.

The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections

UA News

The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, an electronic peer-reviewed journal, has been created out of a collaboration with UA faculty and the UA Libraries.

By University Communications
March 6, 2009

The University of Arizona Libraries and Regents' Professor Richard Wilkinson have jointly released a new electronic journal.

The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, or the JAEI, was created by Wilkinson, a UA classics and Near Eastern studies professor, and will be hosted on the UA Libraries' institutional repository site, also known as UAiR.

The digitially-based, peer-reviewed journal explores the relationship between ancient Egypt and its surrounding regions and helps develop an important new trend in Egyptological scholarship by taking an interdisciplinary approach.

The journal publishes full-length articles, which have been subjected to the same peer-reviewed, blind screening process used by traditional scholarly print journals. The JAEI will also include short research notes, reviews of published works, announcements and reports of relevant conferences and symposia.

The journal also examines the relationship between ancient Egypt and its neighbors through different lenses, ranging from history to technology to art and religion.

"This is going to be a very timely and important journal for this field, there is no doubt about it," Wilkinson said in a statement.

Interest in subscribing to the journal has already been widespread.

See the above page for more.

In the house of millions of years

Al Ahram Weekly

A lost tomb and a sphinx in Luxor, painted anthropoid coffins in Dahshour and a noble woman's tomb in Saqqara. Nevine El-Aref reports on the most recent discoveries in Egypt

It seems that the recent archaeological season has been very successful. Wherever archaeologists have dug, they have come up with amazing and important discoveries.

On Luxor's west bank, major discoveries have been uncovered in the noblemen's necropolis at Sheikh Abdel-Gourna and at Kom Al-Hittan, where the temple of the 18th-Dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III is located.

After almost 130 years of exploring the sands of the archaeological hill of Sheikh Abdel-Gourna, the tomb of Amenhotep, a deputy of the overseer of seal-bearers during the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III -- known among Egyptologists as "the lost tomb" -- has been found by a Belgian archaeological mission.

Amenhotep's tomb was previously discovered during the early 1880s by Egyptologist Karl Pieh, who also drew a sketch plan of its interior design. But unfortunately over the span of time it was re- buried in sand and its exact location was subsequently forgotten. In the early 2000s traces of the tomb were revealed during work on the tomb of Sennefer, the overseer of seal-bearers. Excavators found a remarkable sandstone statue dedicated to Amenhotep, and further excavations at the site revealed more about the lost tomb that early this year led to the mission's finding the main entrance to the tomb chapel.

Laurent Bavay, head of the Belgian mission, explained that the tomb was a T-shaped chapel with a transverse gallery oriented north and south and divided by a row of six pillars. Its southern half collapsed in antiquity and the space was entirely filled with debris that partially blocked the entrance and the passage leading into the gallery. The walls of the tomb are painted with the classical geometric motifs well known from the 18th Dynasty, along with bands of hieroglyphic texts showing the name, various titles and genealogy of the tomb's owner. According to these inscriptions, the tombs belonged to Amenhotep, the deputy of the overseer of seal-bearers. His father was Ahmes, director of the cattle of Amun and Neheh, and his wife, who was called Renena, was the daughter of the overseer of seal-bearers Sennefer.

"This is a very important discovery," said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. He said that determining the exact location of the tomb would provide a better understanding of the Egyptian administration echelon during the reign of Pharaoh Tuthmosis III.

Hawass pointed out that other objects from Amenhotep's tomb were already known in Egyptological literature. The most important was a granite false-door stela found reused in the floor of a chapel added to the north side of the Khonsu Temple at Karnak.

See the above page for the full story, with photographs.

Gone with the wind - Coptic Egypt

Al Ahram Weekly (Gamal Nkrumah)

The Coptic calendar, the oldest in history, had been in existence for at least three millennia before Christ. Indeed, what today is termed the Coptic Christian calendar is essentially derived from earlier models of ancient Egyptian measurements of time. Ironically, all the current names of the Coptic months retain something of their original ancient Egyptian meanings -- invariably associated with non-Christian Egyptian deities -- thereby betraying their pre-Christian origins.

The Coptic calendar harks back to the days when the vast majority of Egyptians lived off the land, tilling the fertile Nile Valley and harvesting an abundance of crops. Certain crops were associated with the months in which they were sown or harvested. The ancient Egyptian was engaged in agricultural production on a daily basis, and the changing seasons regulated agricultural activities. The measurement of time was closely associated with regulating farm-related activities. The measurement of time was also closely linked with astrology and mathematics. The division of the day into 24 hours was an ancient Egyptian concept, as were the concepts of a month and a year. And for the past five millennia at least, the Egyptian year has had 13 months.

Tradition ascribes the invention of the Coptic calendar to Imhotep, the supreme vizier, chief architect, physician, physicist and mathematician. Imhotep, whose name means the Harbinger of Peace, is accredited with conjuring up the concept of the Egyptian year. Unlike the Western, or Gregorian calendar, the Coptic calendar divides the year into three and not four seasons. The Egyptian months and seasons were inextricably intertwined with agriculture and the ebb and flow of the River Nile. The three seasons are the first, Inundation, or Akhet -- the first season which marks the beginning of the year; second, Peret, the Planting or Sowing Season (winter); and last but certainly not least, Shemu, the Harvest (summer). The Sowing and Inundation seasons each has four months, while the Harvest has five. And since time immemorial, Egyptian farming communities have organised agricultural activities on the basis of these three seasons and 13 months.

See the above page for the full story.

Exhibition: Napoleon in Egypt

syracuse.com (Katherine Rushworth)

It's been said, especially recently, that history has a way of repeating itself. Armies invade and wars are waged year after year and century after century. As much as advances in science and technology can propel us forward, the foibles of human nature can pull us backward.

When Napoleon Bonaparte stormed into Alexandria, Egypt in 1798, he was following in the footsteps of a long line of earlier occupiers. The Romans, The Crusaders and Alexander the Great all left their footprints on the history of Egypt. But Napoleon's occupation went beyond a mere military force. Among the 55,000 troops and 400 ships arriving near the shores of Alexandria, were 150 scientists, engineers and artists known as savants. It was their job to explore, describe and document every facet of Egypt. From the architecture to the country's flora and fauna, no stoneliterallywas to be left unturned.

An interesting, if not somewhat academic, exhibition on view in the SUArt Galleries illustrates how Napoleon's quest to document all-things-Egyptian informed Western views of the country and influenced painters, architects, photographers and decorative artists for centuries to follow. The show, titled "Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt," is on loan from the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York City and remains on view in the Shaffer Art Building until March 29.

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: Respite in Aswan

The Times, ZA (Stanley Stewart)

God invented Egypt for people hell-bent on sight-seeing. From the pyramids of Giza to the Valley of the Kings, the Nile is just one darned monument after another. Temples, tombs, pyramids, sphinxes: it can go on a bit.

But at the end of Egypt there is respite. Aswan is the loveliest town on the Nile, and the place where the river is at its most beautiful. For weary souls, who are beginning to overdose on antiquities, there is relatively little to see. In Aswan you can relax on the sun lounger without feeling you are missing one of the wonders of the ancient world. It couldn’t happen to a nicer place.

For millennia, Aswan was the end of the known world. Beyond lay Africa and the Land of Punt. Well into the 20th century, visitors to Aswan felt they had reached the limits of civilisation. That has always been part of its charm. Through the alleys of the bazaar, where one could find ivory and ebony and gum arabic, wafted odours from the heart of the continent.

Yet Aswan has none of the melancholy transience of a frontier town. It is a delightful and sophisticated place. Its inhabitants are tall dark-skinned Nubians with a reputation for honesty and loyalty. Best of all is the river. Threading its way through islands, the Nile narrows here towards the First Cataract between banks of yellow sand and smooth granite. It is the splendid views over the Nile that have made the terraces of the Old Cataract Hotel one of the world’s great venues for afternoon tea. Or for cocktails, as you watch the sun set into the desert on the opposite bank. For a glorious moment the Nile and the sails of the passing feluccas are stained pink.

Aswan is a town of boats. Everyone comes and goes on the water. Villages dot the islands and the opposite bank like riverine suburbs. Cruise ships arrive from Luxor, ferries chunter back and forth, and the feluccas spread their swallow wings to the north winds that have carried boats up the Nile, against the currents, since before the days of Cheops. They are the enduring image of Aswan.

I set off one morning with a boatman for a trip upriver to Sehel Island. Out on the Nile, Aswan vanished in a moment as we entered a labyrinth of islands and rocks. Sentinel herons stood watch on the shores. Here and there the currents quickened, an echo of the First Cataract that the High Dam had largely submerged. The boatman pointed out the local landmarks — the places where they used to tow the boats over the rapids, where the islanders crossed to the mainland with their camels, where a big market was held on Thursday mornings between two sand dunes.

We moored on the sandy shore of Sehel, beneath a stand of acacias. The boatman led me up a path past the village laundry where brightly coloured clothes were laid out to dry on the rocks. The houses were blue as the river.

See the above page for the full story.

Exhibition: The Louvre Presents Today - The Gates of Heaven

Art Daily

The Louvre presents today The Gates of Heaven - Visions of the World in Ancient Egypt, on view through June 29, 2009. In the ancient Egyptian language, “gates of heaven” referred to the doors on a sacred shrine holding the statue of a god. Opening these doors brought the divine world into contact with the human one, an act that enabled the Universe to perpetuate itself by renewing the process of creation. It also allowed humans to glimpse an image of an ineffable reality. Closing the doors was merely the prelude to another, future rebirth; in the meantime, the god returned to the shadowy Beyond, withdrawing his image from human sight.

Egyptians felt that certain places acted, in a way, as replicas of these shrines containing divine statues. These places were therefore endowed with doors—actual or false—which represented the transition between physical and mental realities. This exhibition focuses on four of these realities: the ordered Universe, the Beyond, the tomb chapel, and the temple forecourt. Objects designed to depict these worlds or to be placed within them reflect a complex logic that reveals the intricacy of Egyptian philosophy, far removed from our own rational, Cartesian way of thinking.

See the above page for more.

A new dedicated social network purely for archaeologists, has been launched this month

Live-PR

I haven't joined this because I am really not into the whole online social networking thing, (I'm not even on Facebook) but I noticed a lot of familiar faces there when I had a look at the home page. If anyone is using the site perhaps they could leave a comment about how they find it.

A new dedicated social network purely for archaeologists, and those with a passion for anthropology, has been launched this month. Archaeology Network has gotten off to a positive start with over 250 archaeologists joining the site to discuss with likeminded people from across the globe.

Archaeology Social Network (www.archaeology-network.com) is designed for members to have their own personal space purely dedicated to archaeology, where they can discuss topics, news and events on the forums, write blogs about their experiences, upload pictures and videos from field trips, and meet people who share the same passions as they do.

“I am very pleased with the reception Archaeology Network has received so far” says Ross Hutchings, Online Editor of Archaeology Network. “Members are extremely active on the forums, discussing interesting and relevant topics, and have really begun to form an important online archaeological community.”

Archaeologists find statues of ancient Egypt king

Reuters UK

A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists have discovered two statues of King Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt roughly 3,400 years ago, the Supreme Council for Antiquities said Thursday.

Chief Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawaas said in a statement the first statute was made of black granite, while the second depicts the king in the shape of a Sphinx, a figure with the head of a man and the body of a lion.

Amenhotep III presided over an era which saw a renaissance in Egyptian art. He was succeeded by his son Akhenaten, the sun-worshipping pharaoh credited by some for starting the world's first known monotheistic religion.

There are three photos of the statues on Google.

The Third Annual Feast of Archaeologists

drhawass.com (Zahi Hawass)

When I first became Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, I had the idea that there should be a special occasion each year to celebrate Egyptian archaeologists and their work. It took me two years to settle on the perfect date, but three years ago we decided to set January 14th aside as “Ahmed Pasha Kamal Day” in honor of the first Egyptian scholar of Egyptology.

Since then, each year, we have held a "Feast of the Archaeologists" on this day with a festive event at the Zamalek Opera House. We honor colleagues, both living and deceased, who have contributed to archaeology and heritage preservation in Egypt.

This year, in celebration of the third annual Feast of the Archaeologists, I decided that we should recognize past directors of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (known from 1971 to 1993 as the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, and since 1993 as the Supreme Council of Antiquities). I gave a speech about the progress that has been made in improving employment conditions for Egyptian archaeologists. I mentioned the fact that salaries are three times what they were only a few years ago, and that new monthly bonuses, unique among those available to government employees, are now awarded to our best archaeologists. Top SCA employees now travel abroad with exhibitions and receive generous stipends for this work. We are building a new social club for archaeologists, to give them a sense of community and identity, and we are making health insurance available to them for the first time. I know that our foreign colleagues have expressed concern in the past about the salaries and benefits available to SCA employees, and I hope that this will help to allay their worries.

See the above page for the full story.

Maritime Archaeologist at Helm of Modern Journey to Ancient Egyptian Land

PhysOrg

Ancient Egyptians may be best known for building pyramids, but internationally renowned maritime archaeologist Cheryl Ward wants the world to know that they were pretty good sailors, too.

She ought to know. Ward, an associate professor of anthropology at The Florida State University, and an international team of archaeologists, shipwrights and sailors recently built a full-scale replica of a 3,800-year-old ship and sailed it on the Red Sea to re-create a voyage to a place the ancient Egyptians called God’s Land, or Punt. Their expedition was financed and filmed as part of a French documentary that will air internationally and on an upcoming episode of “Nova.”

“This project has demonstrated the extraordinary capability of the Egyptians at sea,” Ward said. “Many people, including my fellow archaeologists, think of the Egyptians as tied to the Nile River and lacking in the ability to go to sea. For 25 years, my research has been dedicated to showing the scope of their ability and now, to proving their independently invented approach to ship construction worked magnificently at sea.”

The project grew out of the 2006 discovery of the oldest remains of seafaring ships in the world in manmade caves at Wadi Gawasis, on the edge of the Egyptian desert. The Egyptians used the site to assemble and disassemble ships built of cedar planks and to store the planks, stone anchors and coils of rope until the next expedition -- one that obviously never came. Civil unrest and political instability after the Middle Kingdom period (2040-1640 BC) likely put a halt to further exploration, and the caves were long forgotten, Ward said.

Sindh Today

An international team of archaeologists, shipwrights and sailors has recently built a full-scale

replica of a 3,800-year-old ship and sailed it on the Red Sea to re-create a voyage to a place the ancient Egyptians called God’s Land, or Punt.

Their expedition was financed and filmed as part of a French documentary that will air internationally.

According to maritime archaeologist Cheryl Ward, an associate professor of anthropology at The Florida State University, ‘This project has demonstrated the extraordinary capability of the Egyptians at sea.’

‘Many people, including my fellow archaeologists, think of the Egyptians as tied to the Nile River and lacking in the ability to go to sea. For 25 years, my research has been dedicated to showing the scope of their ability and now, to proving their independently invented approach to ship construction worked magnificently at sea,’ she added.

See the above pages for the full story.

Energy, wealth and peace to flow from Sudanese dam

New Straits Times (Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi)

THE 20,000-strong crowd of men in white robes, women in colourful wraps and children in Western clothes danced before the main platform on the Merowe desert in Sudan, in what looked like a massive rock concert under the baking sun.

Set against the foreboding backdrop of a warrant of arrest on their leader from the International Criminal Court (ICC), the people seemed more concerned with being set free from poverty.

Certainly, the desert dwellers -- farmers who had lived on and worked this land since the Pharaohs -- saw the US$2 billion (RM7 billion) Merowe Dam as a catalyst for change.

One of them, economics graduate Sarah Omer, 29, had returned to her hometown in Merowe after completing her studies in Khartoum to work with one of the engineering companies at the dam, Lahmeyer International.
Omer belongs to the Shaygia tribe. Her ancestors had once ruled northern Sudan and built pyramids along the Nile to mark their rule over Egypt for more than a century.

The "Black Pharaohs", as they were dubbed by Western archaeologists, were in no way inferior to the Egyptians when it came to intellect and technology, and had built more pyramids along the Nile than their neighbours.

Once a bustling kingdom, the area is today filled with mud-house villages.

Call for Papers for The Third International Congress for Young Egyptologists

Egittologia - Archaeogate

Call for Papers for The Third International Congress for Young Egyptologists "Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt" - Budapest (Hungary), September 25 – 27, 2009. Call for papers.

The "Third International Congress for Young Egyptologists – Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt" is to be held on September 25 – 27, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary.

The theme of the congress is "Commerce and Economy in Ancient Egypt".

Papers are invited on any aspect of the topic (archaeology, history, religion, language, literature, economic theory, etc.), reports and presentations about excavation projects pursued in Egypt are also welcome. The proceedings of the congress will be published.
We have the privilige to welcome Prof. Manfred Bietak, Prof. Jac. J. Janssen, Prof. Ulrich Luft, Prof. László Török, Dr. Edward Bleiberg, Dr. Ian Shaw, and Dr. David Alan Warburton who have already confirmed their intent to join the Academic and Advisory Committee of the congress. As a special guest, Dr. Alessia Amenta will be present as well.

Abstracts and registrations for speakers and poster presenters should be submitted no later than March 31, 2009. The Congress is open to visitors as well.

For more details on the Congress please visit our website at:
www.byblos.org.hu/index.php

Should you have any questions, remarks, enquiries please don't hesitate to contact the organisers:
András Hudecz (M.A.) Máté Petrik (M.A.)
Byblos Foundation
ICYE2009@gmail.com

Images of Egypt on display at Omega Photo

Bellevue Reporter

The "collision" of the ancient and modern world in Egypt is the subject of a photo exhibit by Robb Mitchell now on display through March 31 at Omega Photo in Bellevue.

Mitchell will be available Saturday, March 7, from 2-4 p.m. at Omega Photo to answer questions about his work.

An award winning photojournalist for the newspaper in Memphis, Tenn., Mitchell visited his hometown’s namesake, Memphis, Egypt and more. From the deserts of Sinai to Alexandria to Cairo and up and down the Nile River, he focused on the people and the places of both modern and ancient Egypt.

See the above page for more details.

Hawass on Manfred Bietak

Al Ahram Weekly (Zahi Hawass)

We as Egyptians believe that our monuments belong not only to us, but to everyone, all over the world. At the same time, the discipline of Egyptology was created by foreign scholars, and they solved many mysteries like the riddle of hieroglyphs. Many French, German, Italian, and American expeditions, among others, have worked in Egypt and published countless volumes that are very important and useful to this field.

Whenever we mention foreign expeditions, we must also talk about individual colleagues. We cannot remember all of them, but there are certain ones whose love of Egypt and Egyptians stands out -- people who have dedicated their lives to Egyptology, and lived among us for many years. One such scholar is Manfred Bietak, who is now working at the site of Tell Al-Dabaa in the northeastern Nile Delta. This site is the location of the ancient city of Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos, who occupied Egypt for more than 100 years. It is also near the site of Qantir, where the capital of Ramses II was located.

Bietak did careful, scientific work at Tell Al-Dabaa, a site that has been ruined by agriculture, with much of its history lost below the water table. Earlier work had also destroyed much of the historical sequence at the site. Bietak began, however, to excavate carefully using the best techniques, and he learnt and recorded the history from each level of this important site. I once visited his camp at Tell Al-Dabaa. I can say that his work may be among the most important scientific efforts underway in Egypt right now, and that he is one of the most important scholars here.

See the above page for the full story.

Travel: Egyptian passage

canada.com (Peter Wilson)

For those wanting a quieter stretch of Nile cruising, a three- or four-night cruise on Lake Nasser is the perfect way to discover the wonders of ancient Egypt. The world's largest man-made lake, Lake Nasser was formed by the construction of the Aswan High Dam, near the popular tourist destination of Aswan. Spread out deep into what was the ancient Nubian kingdom in Upper Egypt, the lake is some 550 km long and 35 km across at its widest point near the Tropic of Cancer.

The dam was an incredible 12-year construction project, but equally impressive was the major relocation program led by UNESCO teams that saw important archaeological sites dismantled block by block and moved to higher ground as the Nile waters began to rise.

Abu Simbel was probably the most significant and certainly the most impressive site to be rescued. Part of a Lake Nasser cruise itinerary includes a visit to the fabulous spot, along with visits to other rescued projects that are more remote and less visited, such as the temples of Dakka and Meharakka at Wadi El Seboua and the Temples of Amada and Derr and the tomb of Penout, all at Amada.

While a Lake Nasser cruise offers access to these important sites, the good news is that the massive lake has only a half dozen cruise ships working its waters. With those kind of numbers, it's not surprising that aboard the MS Kasr Ibrim you feel the lake and the surrounding desert landscape came straight out of the pages of an Agatha Christie novel.

See the above page for the full story.

Conference: Coptic Heritage - History and Creativity

SECOND ANNUAL COPTIC STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
COPTIC HERITAGE: HISTORY AND CREATIVITY
SATURDAY MARCH 21sT 2009

University College Auditorium - Room 140, 15 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3H7. Co-Sponsored by the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations University of Toronto

St Mark's Coptic Museum, Scarborough
University of Toronto Art Centre
Cost: $15/$10 for students, payable at the door (lunch included)
Pre-register before 14 March to reserve your place: r.boutros@utoronto.ca

8:30 – 9:00 REGISTRATION

9:00 – 9:15 OPENING REMARKS Prof. Linda Northrup: Chair, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilisations (NMC), University of Toronto

9:15 – 9:30 Fr. Marcos A. Marcos: Protopriest, St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church, Scarborough, Ontario

"Envisioning St. Mark's Coptic Museum in the Coptic Canadian Village, Markham"

FIRST SESSION: EARLY CHURCH SOURCES

CHAIR: Prof. James M. Robinson: Professor Emeritus of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California

9:30 – 10:00 Dr. Anne Moore: Senior Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary

"Locating the Kingdom of God within the Writings of Clement of Alexandria and Origen"

10:00 – 10:30 Prof. Pablo Argárate: Associate Professor of Patristics/Historical Theology / Director of the Eastern Christian Studies Program, Faculty of Theology. University of St Michael's College

"Fourth-Century Pneumatological Controversy in Alexandria: Athanasius's Epistulae ad Serapionem"

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee Break

SECOND SESSION: COPTIC COLLECTIONS

CHAIR: Prof. Sheila Campbell: Emeritus Fellow, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (PIMS), U of T.

11:00 – 11:30 Fr. Bigoul al-Suriani: Librarian of the Monastery of Deir el-Surian, Egypt

"Collection of Manuscripts of the Library of Deir el-Surian"

11:30 – 12:00 Heather Pigat: Collections Manager, U of T Art Centre

"Coptic Art and Artefacts in Canadian Collections"

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch Break

THIRD SESSION: HISTORIC SITES

CHAIR: Prof. Amir Harrak: Professor of Aramaic and Syriac languages NMC, U of T

1:30 – 2:00 Prof. Jitse H.F. Dijkstra: Assistant Professor and Head of Classics, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, U. of Ottawa

"Christian Graffiti from Late Antique Egypt: Christian or Egyptian?"

2:00 – 2:30 Dr. Ramez Boutros: Instructor, NMC – Research Fellow PIMS, U of T

"Recent Excavations in the Monastery of Bawit: Outcome and Perspectives"

2:30 – 3:00 Coffee Break

FOURTH SESSION: COPTIC ART AND LITURGY

CHAIR: Prof. Pablo Argárate

3:00 – 3:30 Prof. Amir Harrak

"A Syriac Inscription in the Church of St Menas, Fum El Khalig, Cairo"

3:30 – 4:00 Dr. Helene Moussa: Volunteer Curator, St. Mark's Coptic Museum, Scarborough

"The Synergy of Coptic Spirituality and Liturgy -13th Century Wall Paintings, St Anthony's Old Church, Monastery of St Anthony, Red Sea"

4:00 – 4:30 CLOSING SESSION

4:30 – 5:00 Dr. Helene Moussa and Dr. Ramez Boutros

"The Canadian Society for Coptic Studies"

Daily Photo by Bob Partridge (Ancient Egypt Magazine)

Apologies for the unplanned absence. Lots seems to have been happening in the world of Egyptology whilst I was away. I've added the cream of the crop above. There are other news items to come, but I thought that this was probably enough for one day.

I wouldn't have been able to backtrack without the email help from Kat, with additional contributions from Ben Morales-Correa, Diane Leeman, Tony Marson, Rhio Barnhart, Huib Bennekom and Pierfranco Dotti.

Special thanks to Francis for a small virtual kick when I needed one.

Nofret
Close up of the statue of Rahotep and Nofret in the Cairo Museum
Painted limestone. Old Kingdom, Fourth Dynaty.
From the mastaba of Rahotep in Meidum.

With many thanks to Bob Partridge, Editor of Ancient Egypt Magazine.
Copyright Bob Partridge