The Third British Egyptology Congress (BEC3)
Event Info
Host: EES
Type: Education - Lecture
Time and Place
Start Time: Saturday, 11th September 2010, 9:00 am
End Time: Sunday, 12th September 2010, 5:00 pm
Location: The British Museum
Street: Great Russell Street
City/Town: London WC1B 3DG
View Map
Contact Details
Email: bec3@ees.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880
Link: http://www.ees.ac.uk/userfiles/file/BEC3Programme01.pdf
Description
The Third British Egyptology Congress (BEC3), organised by the EES, The Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum and University College London, is now upon us. During this two-day gathering over seventy Egyptologists, archaeologists and other researchers will present the results of their most recent work and furthermore, five senior Egyptologists have been specially invited to address the Congress: one from each of the three sponsor organisations, and two colleagues based in Egypt who will provide added perspective and rare insights into the work of their institutions.
The full programme is now available online at http://tinyurl.com/2w98sjq and abstracts at http://tinyurl.com/37dft4l. Details of the plenary lectures including the keynote lecture by Mark Lehner are as follows:
Patricia Spencer (Director of the EES), 'Living in interesting times: the EES in the 21st century'.
For the first century since its foundation in 1882 the Egypt Exploration Society was the dominant British player in archaeology in Egypt, running several major expeditions, largely financed by a UK government grant. In 2006 we learned that our government funding would be ending and, as a consequence, the last four years have seen many changes at the Society - in all areas of our activity from fieldwork and research, through our publications programme to major changes in governance and personnel. The Society that will emerge from this ongoing process will need to be a very different organization from that founded by Amelia Edwards almost 130 years ago - one fitted to face the challenges of the twenty-first century. This talk will describe the journey on which the Society is now engaged and look forward to an exciting future with new fieldwork projects, better and wider dissemination of the results of our research and a repositioning of the Society at the heart of British Egyptology.
John Tait (Edwards Professor of Egyptology, UCL), 'The written and the remembered'.
Work on Demotic narrative texts has accelerated in recent years, with much progress made in various aspects of their study: recognition of genres, discussion of the ancient context, and of the language and structure of narrative, and consideration of a wide variety of issues prompted by developments in the general field of literary studies over the second half of the 20th century. A question that repeatedly arises - but has received no precise or generally agreed answers - is the relation of our surviving written material with oral traditions. An assumption that stories were told in ancient Egypt at all periods without the aid of written texts is surely reasonable, but all such activity is to a surprising degree hidden from us. Any attempt to examine the surviving texts for traces of orality must depend upon some conjecture as to the nature of the oral traditions with which they are supposed to interrelate. We might speculate on that, as best we can, informed by what we know of Egyptian culture, or we might explore the situation in other societies and periods where not just oral material, but the actual interconnections between literate and oral traditions are more open to investigation. This contribution reports on work in the latter direction, using data from the Near East and Europe, and discusses how this may advance our study of the Demotic narratives.
John Taylor (Assistant Keeper in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum), 'Recent work of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan'.
The British Museum's collection of material from Egypt and Sudan is a vital resource for continuing research, and departmental staff and other scholars are engaged in studies of particular areas of the collection, which are extending our understanding of ancient Egyptian history, culture and technology. The Museum also makes a substantial contribution to excavation and research throughout Egypt and Sudan and Dr Taylor will provide an overview of recent work undertaken by staff in the field. Furthermore, a new exhibition of the papyrus rolls entitled 'the Spells of Coming Forth by Day', now known as the Book of the Dead, offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the finest illustrated funerary papyri from the British Museum, together with key pieces from other major collections - including the longest Book of the Dead in existence. Dr Taylor will explain the aims and content of the show.
Michael Jones (Associate Director, American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Egyptian Antiquities Conservation Project), 'Zones of Transition: conserving cultural heritage sites in the living environment of Egypt today'.
Critical issues in cultural heritage management in Egypt are its sustainability in the face of the inevitable challenges that constantly affect the historic environment, and the people's modern priorities. Both involve concerns about ownership, stewardship, display, presentation and use. ARCE has been privileged to work at some of the highest profile cultural sites in Egypt, from the Pharaonic and Roman in Luxor, the Coptic in Sohag, to the mediaeval and more recent in Cairo. Lessons learnt include the awareness that everyone plays an active role in the cultural processes determining preservation, and the need to accept widely differing interests as a crucial aspect of conservation. These raise important and connected questions such as whose heritage is it and why are we conserving it?
KEYNOTE LECTURE and RECEPTION*
Mark Lehner (Director, of the Ancient Egypt Research Associates), 'Khentkawes of Giza: New Light on a Well-Known Site'.
Four seasons of work (www.aeraweb.org) at the monumental tomb and town of Khentkawes I at Giza has shed new light on the place of this queen's giant mastaba tomb in the quarry and construction sequence of the necropolis, and has revealed a heretofore unknown valley complex. The AERA team has cleared and re-mapped a second approach ramp and valley complex excavated by Selim Hassan in 1932 at the interface between the Khentkawes Town and Menkaure Valley Temple. As the features and details of this interface come into greater focus, they shed new light on the relationships between the two royal layouts, and on a possible hiatus and reoccupation of the Khentkawes Town. Evidence from this interface, the houses of the Khentkawes Town, and AERA's main excavation site, HeG, south of the Heit el-Ghurob, may contribute to the discussion of climate change and the Old Kingdom.
*Dr Lehner's keynote lecture and the reception following it are included in the fee for the Congress, for speakers and non-speakers alike. If you would like to book a ticket for Dr Lehner's lecture and the reception ONLY please see http://www.ees.ac.uk/events/index/36.html
Please note that there will also be a reception hosted by UCL / The Friends of the Petrie Museum on the Friday evening (10 September), at which delegates will also have the chance to register and collect their conference packs so as to avoid queuing on the Saturday morning. We are also intending to make it possible for delegates to register at the EES offices in Doughty Mews at any time during the week leading up the event (Monday 6 September onwards). Further information about this will be circulated in due course.