In addition to the exhibition, “Journey to the Beyond: Ancient Egyptians in the Pursuit of Eternity), ancient Egypt will be in focus at RAFFMA for 3 weeks in October, in celebration of the International Archaeology Day.

Part 1: This presentation explores the interplay of old records from museums and excavations with newer technologies, not only for research purposes but also in service of cultural heritage preservation, appreciation, and education. The Giza Project is a collaborative international initiative based at Harvard University. Its goals include the collection, electronic organization and preservation, scholarly study, and public presentation of data on Giza: the pyramids, their surrounding cemeteries, and their associated settlements. The Project has assembled and interlinked the largest electronic archive of Giza archaeological records ever created. Digital Giza, the Project’s website (currently under construction), aims to integrate this more than 100 years of Giza documentation with Giza 3D, the Project’s virtually reconstructed Giza environment. Together, the Giza Project’s archival database, Giza 3D, and Digital Giza are the foundations for developing new interactive ways to experience the archaeology of Giza, including virtual and augmented reality apps, 3D printing of ancient artifacts, and online educational initiatives.

PART 2: How was Osiris’s body “reclaimed” from the Nile? How was his severed head re-attached and resuscitated? Why did priests stimulate Osiris post mortem with gustatory and sexual enticement? Why did they maliciously threaten and torture figures representing his brother Seth, his murderer. Inquiring minds want to know, so join
us on a fascinating journey through ancient Egyptian culture and religion, discovering the “secrets” that everyone in ancient Egypt talked about. The ancient Egyptians believed that the divine ruler Osiris was murdered by his jealous brother Set, a god often associated with chaos. In the story, Set chopped him into thousands of pieces. Osiris’s sister and his goddess wife Nut tried to collect them all to resurrect him so that he could conceive an heir, Horus. Osiris entered the underworld and became the ruler of the dead. Once grown, Horus fought and defeated Set to become king himself. Set’s association with chaos, and the identification of Osiris and Horus as the rightful rulers, provided a rationale for Pharaonic succession and portrayed the Pharaohs as the upholders of order. At the same time, Osiris’s death and rebirth were related to the Egyptian agricultural cycle, in which crops grew in the wake of the Nile inundation, and provided a template for the resurrection of human souls after death.The ancient mysteries celebrated to revive the god Osiris during festivals held at his tomb in Abydos were a secret kept by the priests of Ancient Egypt for almost 2000 years.

PART 3: During the Nineteenth Dynasty (ca. 1292-1191), King Ramses II tried to reestablish Egyptian control over the Syrian city of Kadesh, which the Hittites of Anatolia had conquered in the late Eighteenth Dynasty. He recorded the epic battle that he fought at Kadesh against the Hittite Empire and its allies in a series of reliefs, which he had carved onto temple walls throughout Egypt. These reliefs preserve multiple textual and pictorial accounts of Ramses’ struggle. In this lecture, I will consider how the Egyptians portrayed the Hittite king and his coalition in the Kadesh texts and images in order to shed light on both the Egyptian conception of foreigners and the purpose of these reliefs inside the Egyptian temple.