The world in between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa ∙Telling the story through museum artifacts
2025-04-14 16:30 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Princeton University, East Pyne Building 010, East Pyne Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544
Homer A. and Dorothy B. Thompson Lectureship

What Do We Owe To Already-Looted Objects?
2025-04-14 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Cornell University, G22 Goldwin Smith Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lectureships

The Past in the Past: Traditionalism in Archaic Crete
2025-04-14 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York)
The Barbara Tsakirgis Memorial Lecture
Co-sponsored by the Department of Classics, Yale University

Archive Archaeology: The Invisible Hands of Colonial-Era Excavations in the Middle East
2025-04-15 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York)

11th Century Turkey Management in the Mimbres Valley
2025-04-15 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Denver) | Lisbon, Lisbon, 1000004, Portugal
Lecture. Sean Dolan (Los Alamos Laboratories). For nearly two millennia, people in the US Southwest and Mexican Northwest have maintained a significant relationship with turkeys, a bird they domesticated for their feathers, meat, and other resources. Recent archaeological studies reveal diverse regional and temporal patterns in turkey management, but how and why did people in the Mimbres Valley of southwestern New Mexico from CE 1000-1130 manage and interact with these birds? In this presentation, Sean Dolan incorporates Mimbres pottery iconography, bone isotope analysis, and ancient DNA to explore the role and treatment of turkeys in this region.

The Hidden Dead: Bioarchaeology of Ancient Maya Cave Ritual
2025-04-16 17:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Rhode Island Hall, Brown University, 60 George Street, Providence, RI, 02912, United States
Doris Z. Stone New World Archaeology Lectures

Funerary Dining or Offerings for the Dead? Archaeobotanical Evidence from the Shaft Tombs at Petra, Jordan
2025-04-16 19:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, 44106, United States
The Frederick R. and Margaret B. Matson Lectureship for Near Eastern Archaeology and Archaeological Technology

Exploring Human Origins at Kenya’s Lake Turkana
2025-04-17 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Free Public Lecture – Online & In Person
2025 Hallam L. Movius, Jr. Lecture Series
Louise Leakey, Director, Koobi Fora Research Project; Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University; National Geographic Explorer at Large
Kenya’s fossil-rich Turkana Basin has been—for over five decades—a cornerstone in unraveling the story of human origins in Africa. In this lecture, renowned paleoanthropologist Louise Leakey will delve into the groundbreaking discoveries at Lake Turkana, including hominins and fossil fauna that have reshaped our understanding of human ancestry. She will discuss the challenges of early exploration, and the impact of the Koobi Fora research camp, the National Museums of Kenya, and the Turkana Basin Institute, in advancing paleoscience. In closing, she will address opportunities to enhance research, collections care, and capacity-building at Lake Turkana through innovative funding, collaborations, and citizen science projects.
Advance registration recommended for in-person and online attendance. Free event parking at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.
Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, and the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.
Louise Leakey is a third-generation Kenyan paleoanthropologist who is carrying on the legacy of the famed Leakey family in the search for human origins in Kenya’s fossil-rich Turkana Basin. A National Geographic Explorer at Large, Leakey, daughter of Meave and Richard Leakey, and granddaughter of Louis and Mary Leakey, all renowned paleoanthropologists, became actively involved in fossil discoveries at age five when she was proclaimed the youngest documented person to find a hominid fossil. Educated in the UK, she earned a PhD in Biology from University College London in 2001. Leakey also serves as a research professor in Anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya. Louise directs the paleo-anthropological expeditions of the Koobi Fora Research Project in northern Kenya. New discoveries by her team in recent years include multiple hominin fossils, as well as the 1.5 million-year hominin trackway published in Science in 2024. A new species discovered at Lake Turkana in 1999 extended human fossil diversity back to 3.5 million years and, according to the New York Times, “overturns the prevailing view that a single line of descent stretched through the early stages of human ancestry.” Additional fossils recovered from this time period in recent years have contributed to the understanding of the diversity in the hominin fossil record. In addition to her long-term field studies in the Turkana Basin, Leakey also works closely with local communities and alongside wildlife authorities to preserve Kenya’s unique plants and animals of Kenya’s north. A lively lecturer, she gives talks and distributes science stories to Kenyan school children as part of the outreach efforts of her research project through her organization Leakey Journeys and Expeditions. Born and brought up in East Africa, she has travelled widely throughout the continent. Her family has been involved in the field of human origins for several generations and has contributed enormously to the understanding of our African origins through their work in both Kenya and Tanzania. Her family has been involved in politics and government, national museums, and wildlife conservation. Her husband, Emmanuel de Merode, is Director of Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s oldest national park and home to endangered mountain gorillas. His team has worked tirelessly to secure the future of this protected area through significant investments in renewable energy in this war-torn region. Louise is a mother of two adult daughters, a pilot, and an educator. She has many colorful experiences and insights to share.

Dr Eleanor Breen, "Buried Beneath the Waterfront: The Ships That Built Alexandria"
2025-04-17 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
Dr Eleanor Breen, Alexandria Archaeology
Founded in 1749, Alexandria, Virginia, is a vibrant city just seven miles south of Washington, D.C. In recent years, the City of Alexandria has embarked on a major revitalization of its historic waterfront, integrating new development with park and infrastructure improvements. With a nearly 50-year-old Alexandria Archaeology program and a pioneering Archaeological Protection Code, the city remains deeply committed to preserving its buried history. The code ensures that archaeological review and excavation are factored into the development process.
As plans to transform the waterfront took shape, archaeologists launched an intensive exploration of some of the most historically significant sites within the National Register Historic District. Over the past decade, excavations have uncovered the remnants of wharves, warehouses, industries, houselots, privies, and four ship hull remnants—preserved in the waterlogged soil along the Potomac River’s edge. This talk will trace the remarkable journeys of these four ships: from their time at sea to their reuse as landfill, their rediscovery centuries later, and the efforts to preserve them for future generations.

Repair and Restore: Embracing Change, Preserving Memory, and Building Community through the Conservation of Cultural Heritage
2025-04-22 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Though often understood as a purely technical or aesthetic pursuit that focuses on restoring historical objects to their former splendor, the conservation of cultural heritage is a profoundly human and complex endeavor. Objects and places gain significance from the people who make, value, and care for them. Change is inevitable and becomes part of the history of any object or place. Thus, heritage conservation is a collective undertaking that involves collaboration and community to understand both what is to be safeguarded and how to pass the object on to future generations.
Through case studies on conservation projects dealing with the Tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt and archaeological mosaics in the Mediterranean region, this presentation by architectural conservator Jeanne Marie Teutonico will highlight the fundamentally collaborative nature of cultural heritage conservation and how it engages and builds community.
Speaker: Jeanne Marie Teutonico, Architectural Conservator
Free admission, but seating is limited and registration is encouraged. For more information and to register, please click on the Event Website link noted below.

Monumental Queens in the Hellenistic World
2025-04-23 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | University of Buffalo, Goetz Library, Academic Center 320, 155 Lee Rd, Amherst, NY, 14228, United States

Kush and the Roman World: Warrior Queens along the Nile
2025-04-26 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | University of North Florida, Building 51 (Social Sciences), 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, FL, 32224, United States

New Archaeologica Discoveries in Oman - Sinbad, Pirates, and Treasures
2025-04-26 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Auditorium at the St. Louis Public Library, Olive Street, St. Louis, MO, 63103, United States
Lecture by Dr. Derek Kennet, Professor of Arabian Peninsula and Gulf State Archaeology at the University of Chicago.

Teaching Ma'at in Prison
2025-05-04 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE Egyptology Lectures Room 56 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Dr. Rita Lucarelli, UC Berkeley:
“Teaching Ma’at in Prison”
Sunday May 4, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Room 56 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required.
The lecture will be recorded.
About the Lecture:
The lecture will discuss the innovative experience of teaching a course on Ancient Egypt at San Quentin State Prison, focusing on the engagement of incarcerated students with the subject matter. Dr. Lucarelli will detail the significance of discussing concepts such as Ma’at, justice, and ethics within the context of both ancient Egyptian culture and the contemporary experiences of the students. The results indicate that the study of Egyptology offers meaningful insights for rehabilitation and education, breaking the boundaries of the prison environment and facilitating a unique learning atmosphere.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Rita Lucarelli is an Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Culture, and the Class of 1939 Chair of Undergraduate Education. She is the Faculty Curator of Egyptology at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and a Fellow of the Digital Humanities at UC Berkeley. She is presently working at a project aiming at realizing 3D models of ancient Egyptian coffins, the Book of the Dead in 3D. She is also completing a new monograph on demonology in ancient Egypt entitled Agents of punishment and protection: ancient Egyptian Demonology in the First Millenium BCE. Dr. Lucarelli teaches, lectures and researches Egyptomania and the reception of ancient Egypt in the contemporary world, in particular on the representation of ancient Egypt in Afrofuturism. She also teaches courses of Egyptology, Comparative Religion and Interdisciplinary Writing at San Quentin State Prison through the Mount Tamalpais College (https://www.mttamcollege.org/).
Dr. Lucarelli studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Italy, where she received her MA degree in Classical Languages and Egyptology. She holds her Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her Ph.D. thesis was published as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC. She worked as a Research Scholar and a Lecturer at the Department of Egyptology of Bonn University, where she was part of the team of the “Book of the Dead Project”.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE/, https://arce-nc.org/, https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://khentiamentiu.org and https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

The cemeteries of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif in the early Middle Kingdom: Recent work by the University of Alcalá expedition to Luxor
2025-05-10 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Saturday, May 10
3:30 pm EST
Penn Museum, Classroom L2
In-person; no registration required
Speaker: Dr. Antonio Morales, Associate Professor of Egyptology, University of Alcala
Title: The cemeteries of Deir el-Bahari and Asasif in the early Middle Kingdom: Recent work by the University of Alcalá expedition to Luxor
Abstract:
The reunification achieved during the reign of king Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II signified the emergence of a pristine Egyptian state built upon a culture of traditions and transformations centralized at Thebes. The city became a melting-pot of political, religious, and cultural decisions, mostly aiming at the reconstruction of the administrative system, the control of the land and its resources, and –more importantly– the boosting of kingship and the new dynasty. In this setting, the role of the high officials became pivotal.
In the last ten years, the University of Alcalá Expedition and its Middle Kingdom Theban Project (thebanproject.com/en/) have set up a multidisciplinary and international team of experts that is conducting archaeological excavation, epigraphic work, and conservation in the tombs of some of these officials from the late Eleventh and early Twelfth dynasties. The documentation and study of the tombs of the viziers Dagi (TT 103) and Ipi (TT 315), the hight steward Henenu (TT 313), and the overseer of prisons Djari (TT 366), among others, will no doubt allow scholars to have a better understanding of the role of Thebes in the construction of the classical age in pharaonic history: the Middle Kingdom. The ARCE-PA lecture will cover the major questions posed by this research, the major lines of investigation of the project, and the results of this expedition after ten years working in the areas of Asasif and Deir el-Bahari (2014-2024).
Speaker Bio:
Antonio Morales is Associate Professor in Egyptology in the Seminar of Ancient History at the University of Alcalá (UAH). This past January, he joined the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University as Fulbright Visiting Scholar for one semester. In 2022, he was visiting professor at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. Previously, he was Research Associate in Egyptology at Freie Universität Berlin, postdoctoral researcher at Heidelberg Universität, and research collaborator at the Department of Egypt and Sudan in the British Museum (London). He obtained his PhD in Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia 2013) with a dissertation dealing with the transmission of the Pyramid Texts from the Old to the Middle Kingdoms. Antonio Morales has participated in various expeditions to Egypt (Abydos, Dra Abu el-Naga, El-Amra, Qaw el-Kebir, Qubbet el-Hawa, Saqqara), and is currently the director of The Middle Kingdom Theban Project. He has published multiple articles in scientific journals and contributions to books, including a recent co-edition (with Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano) on Middle Kingdom archaeology and history in the Harvard Egyptological Studies (Brill 2022), and a monograph on the transmission of Pyramid Texts of Nut (Hamburg, Buske Verlag, 2019).
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Lectures are FREE to ARCE Members, $7 for University of Pennsylvania Museum Members and UPenn Staff and Faculty, $5 for Students with ID, and $10 for the general public.
Light refreshments served starting at 3pm.
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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1948 by a consortium of educational and cultural institutions to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. The ARCE Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA) is the local branch of the national institution. We host monthly events including scholarly lectures, Egyptian-themed workshops, social events, and guided tours of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian galleries. For more information or to learn about the perks of membership, please send an e-mail to info@arce-pa.org, or visit our website at www.arce-pa.org.

SAIG 2025 Dissertation Lecture: "Burial Practices, Chamber Tombs, and Non-Palatial Communities in the Mycenaean Argolid" with Sophie Cushman
2025-05-14 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York)
Please join the Student Affairs Interest Group for their annual Dissertation Lecture featuring Sophie Cushman, PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, for her talk, “Burial Practices, Chamber Tombs, and Non-Palatial Communities in the Mycenaean Argolid” on Wednesday, May 14th at 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT. The lecture will be held on Zoom – please register here.

Abstract:
With over 4,000 documented examples, rock-carved chamber tombs were by far the most common type of tomb in Late Bronze Age Greece (ca. 1600-1070 BCE). In the Argolid in particular, over 650 chamber tombs are known. However, previous interpretations of Mycenaean burial practices in this region have focused on the same, limited number of “wealthy” cemeteries and tombs, primarily located around the Argive plain. This talk instead considers Mycenaean burial practices from a bottom-up perspective based on a comprehensive study of all known cemeteries and tombs in the Argolid, tracing developments in chamber tomb use from the adoption of the type by select groups at the transition to the Late Bronze Age to the adaptation of existing burial practices in the second half of the period. First, I analyze the chronological and geographical distribution of chamber tomb cemeteries, proving that the type was adopted throughout the entire Argolid before the institutionalization of the palatial system. In fact, very few sites adopted chamber tombs for the first time during the palatial period. This conclusion challenges existing top-down narratives that see mortuary developments in the Argolid as imposed by or radiating out from the palatial centers of Mycenae and Tiryns. Next, I identify a change in secondary burial practices at the start of the palatial period. Drawing on a wide body of anthropological and archaeological theory, I argue that local burying groups actively adapted their mortuary behavior to emphasize local, kin-based claims to resources–both material and immaterial–in response to the increasing political and economic authority of the palace centers. I ultimately suggest that the chamber tomb took on new, and potentially subversive, meanings within the context of the palatial period. By shifting focus from wealthy tombs and the palace to the decision making processes of local burying groups, this project offers a fresh perspective on Mycenaean burial practices and social structure and contributes to our knowledge of those beyond the center of Mycenaean society.

About the speaker:
Sophie Cushman is a PhD candidate in Classical Archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley. Sophie specializes in Aegean prehistory, especially the second millennium BCE. Her research focuses on burial practices, sociopolitical organization, and pottery and material culture. An active field archaeologist, Sophie has excavated on Crete and throughout the Peloponnese. She is currently a senior staff member of the Nemea Center for Classical Archaeology’s excavation and publication projects at the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, the multi-period cemetery of Aidonia, and Petsas House, Mycenae. Her dissertation offers the first comprehensive study of chamber tombs in the northeast Peloponnese, examining developments in burial practices from the perspective of small local communities as they responded to the increasing authority and subsequent collapse of regional centers during the Mycenaean period.

Environmental Histories Of The Ancient Mediterranean In Ten Objects
2025-05-17 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Auditorium at the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, 63103, United States

Rediscovering Turtle Island - A first People's Account of the Sacred Geography of America.
2025-06-14 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Auditorium at the St. Louis Public Library, 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, 63103, United States
Lecture by Taylor Keen, Instructor at Creighton University and is a member of both the Omaha Nation and the Cherokee Nation. A lecture discussing his insights into Pre-Contact North America that have been presented in his recently published book “Rediscovering Turtle Island.”

In the Shadow of the Palace: The non-elite community of Deir el-Ballas as revealed by the settlement remains and tombs
2025-06-22 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/in-the-shadow-of-the-palace-the-non-elite-community-of-deir-el-ballas-as-revealed-by-the-settlement-remains-and-tombs/
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. Victoria Jensen, UC Berkeley:
In the Shadow of the Palace: The non-elite community of Deir el-Ballas as revealed by the settlement remains and tombs
Sunday, June 22, 2025, 3 PM PDT
This virtual lecture will be recorded for later posting on the chapter’s YouTube channel.
Register in advance for this lecture:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/register/Mr2bNJKXQu2YtfoJt4pTLw
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture:
* Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to “Register in advance for this lecture” you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm. This is a security measure.
* If you haven’t already installed Zoom, I recommend that you download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you’re using.
* For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, “Joining a Zoom Meeting” should show you what you need to do to join our lecture.
* All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. “Everyone” is the default chat option.
If you have any questions, please email arcencZoom@gmail.com.
About the Lecture:
The site of Deir el-Ballas played a major role in the birth of the New Kingdom as a royal campaign headquarters of the Theban kings during their ultimately successful wars to expel the Hyksos. For several generations afterwards (c. 1550-1450 BC), a non-elite population lived in the shadow of the abandoned palace in this provincial town. Deir el-Ballas was excavated on behalf of the University of California in 1900-1901 by George Reisner under the sponsorship of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, but was never published. Drawing on archival research and examination of hundreds of artifacts from the site that are held in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, Jensen has reconstructed the excavations of the Hearst Expedition at the site, particularly the cemeteries. Her research examines the community’s funerary practices and considers the cultural memory the residents held of their town’s illustrious past.
About the Speaker:
Victoria Jensen is a Senior Research Scholar in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a past President of the Northern California Chapter of ARCE. Victoria earned her B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in International Relations at the University of Chicago and had a career in grant administration before returning to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Egyptology at the University of California Berkeley, which she received in 2019. Her dissertation research has just been published as a two-volume monograph in the Harvard Egyptological Studies series, entitled “The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Deir el-Ballas: The non-elite cemeteries of the 17th–19th Dynasties.”
About ARCE-NC:
For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaArce, https://arce-nc.org/, or http://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Just How Extra is that Virgin (Olive Oil).” A lecture plus tasting of 8 different olive oils
2025-07-26 14:00 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | Carnegie Room at the St. Louis Public Library, Olive Street, St. Louis, MO, 63101, United States
26 July 2025, Saturday at 2 PM (Central Standard Time Zone). Lecture by Dr. Peter Warnock, Adjunct faculty member in Anthropology at Muskegon Community College.

Pakhet of Speos Artemidos: An exercise in divine and demonic ontologies
2025-08-24 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE Egyptology Lectures Room 254 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a lecture by Beatrice De Faveri, UC Berkeley
“Pakhet of Speos Artemidos:
An exercise in divine and demonic ontologies”
Sunday August 24, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Daylight Time
MELC Lounge, Room 254 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required. The lecture will be recorded for publication on the chapter’s YouTube channel.
About the Lecture:
The lioness goddess Pakhet, worshiped inside the Middle Egyptian rock-cut sanctuary known as the Speos Artemidos, is renowned within the ancient Egyptian pantheon for her fearsome qualities. Usually depicted as a lion-headed woman, her theonym can be translated as “The Slasher”, a vivid image alluding to her aggressive nature. Despite her various theological associations with more benevolent deities the likes of Hathor and Isis, most of Pakhet’s titles and epithets consistently emphasize the inherent violence of her figure, along with her animal features. While this is rather common for the divine lionesses taking on the role of guardians of the sun god, Pakhet’s attributes allow for an argument about her standing at the intersection between the category of the divine (nTry) and the elusive notion of the demonic. The identification of demonic ontologies within the ancient Egyptian religious thought remains a famously daunting task, mostly due to systemic discrepancies between emic and etic definitions of what can be described as a “demon”. Nevertheless, the analysis of textual sources of the Middle and New Kingdom related to the goddess offer some valuable insights for reconstructing Pakhet’s individual position with respect to the taxonomy of the divine and the demonic. This paper attempts to discuss some previously overlooked aspects of her conceptualization, examined through the lens of the relation between Pakhet and the sphere of ancient Egyptian magic.
About the Speaker:
Beatrice De Faveri, CPhil, a fourth-year PhD student in Egyptology, received her BA in Classical Archaeology from the University of Padua, Italy. She then graduated from the University of Bologna, Italy with an MA in Civilizations and Cultures of the Ancient World focusing on Egyptology. Since 2019, she has been the second leading archaeologist of the IFAO (Cairo) – Museo Egizio (Turin) excavation in the Upper Egyptian site of Coptos (Quft).
As for her current research interests, she specializes in ancient Egyptian magical texts, and harbors a special interest in collections of spells for which a ritual purpose can be identified. Her research extends to the relation between magical and ritual texts and the material culture they generate. As an adjacent interest, she has engaged in the investigation of the category of the ‘demonic’ in ancient Egyptian religious texts and practices.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

Echoes of the Ancestors: Uncovering Medieval Burials in Kenya’s Central Highlands
2025-09-10 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Cleveland Museum of Art, 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, 44106, United States
What can ancient graves tell us about the lives, beliefs, and bodies of people who lived centuries ago? In the Central Highlands of Kenya, archaeologists have uncovered a rare and intriguing find: three double burials dating back to the Medieval period. This talk explores the unfolding story behind these burials and what they reveal about a little-known chapter of East African history. Through the lens of bioarchaeology, this talk examines how the physical remains—bones, teeth, and burial arrangements—offer clues about the biology and cultural practices of these early communities. For example, the proportions of the skeletons suggest how these individuals adapted to their environment, while the deliberate removal of front teeth points to a striking form of cultural expression. The presence of paired burials raises compelling questions about social relationships, ritual, and identity before the arrival of modern Bantu-speaking groups. Join us as we piece together the lives of these long-gone individuals and reflect on how burial practices can illuminate the values and worldviews of past societies.

Lecture - Virtual Egypt: 3D Teaching with Museum Collections
2025-09-17 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States
Speaker: Rita Lucarelli, Associate Professor of Egyptology, Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures; Faculty Curator of Egyptology, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
University museums hold rich yet often underutilized resources for teaching about ancient Egypt. With the growing availability of 3D and virtual reality technologies—such as photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and immersive modeling—educators now have powerful tools to enhance object-based learning beyond the traditional classroom.
In this lecture, Rita Lucarelli will explore innovative strategies for incorporating 3D and VR technologies into teaching with university collections, using case studies from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She will demonstrate how digital replicas, immersive applications, and collaborative projects can deepen student engagement with Egyptian material culture, from archaeological context to artifact function and curatorial interpretation. The presentation also considers the benefits and challenges of integrating these technologies into Egyptology and Art History curricula.

AIA Archaeology Hour September 2025: Beer in Mesopotamia
2025-09-17 20:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/aia-archaeology-hour-2025-26-beer-in-mesopotamia/
Join the AIA for a fascinating evening with Tate Paulette as he kicks off this season of AIA Archaeology Hour with “Beer in Ancient Mesopotamia.”
This presentation will be given at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central/6pm Mountain/5pm Pacific.

Register here!

The Iconographic and Spatial Role of Gate Guardian Demons in Deir el-Medina Tombs
2025-09-21 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | ARCE Egyptology Lectures Room 254 Social Sciences Building, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, 94720, United States
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) invite you to attend a lecture by Jess Johnson, UC Berkeley
“The Iconographic and Spatial Role of Gate Guardian Demons in Deir el-Medina Tombs”
Sunday September 21, 2025, 3 PM Pacific Daylight Time
MELC Lounge/Rm 254 Social Sciences Building (formerly Barrows Hall), UC Berkeley
Because of nearby construction, please allow extra time to find a place to park.
This is an in-person lecture and is not virtual. No registration is required. The lecture will be recorded for later publication on the chapter’s YouTube channel.
About the Lecture:
Material culture from Deir el-Medina [DeM] contains multiple representations of demons. Yet there exists little study on how demons fit into religion in the settlement. While the broader scholarly definition of demon remains fluid, conceptual ideas include aspects of protection, liminality, and the relationship between location and capability. Gate guardian demons (Book of the Dead [BD] 144-147), in particular, are often cited because of their frequent textual and visual representation in papyri and, notably, Deir el-Medina tombs. These artisans equipped themselves with BD 144-147 in their tombs, including text and wall paintings of the gate guardians, thus prompting questions about the function of the visual representations (wall paintings), the function of gate guardians in the BD, and the location of the scenes within the architectural space of the tomb. This talk uses materiality theory to study the relationship between text, visual representation, and architecture within the burial chambers in seven DeM tombs, and considers how these factors influence DeM artisans’ visual representation and conceptualization of demons. Through this study, we can better understand patterns of artistic production and preference, and how and why texts and scenes were mapped onto tomb walls.
About the Speaker:
Jess Johnson is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures department at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Art History from New York University in 2013 and her M.A. in Egyptian Art History and Archaeology and a Graduate Certification in Museum Studies from the University of Memphis in 2016. Her dissertation takes advantage of the commonly overlooked vignettes and tomb wall paintings of the Book of the Dead and the intriguing demonic entities mentioned within it. Jess is also interested in the museological well-being of Egyptian collections. She has over ten years of experience working in museums within university settings, galleries, and auction houses. She hopes to continue both her Egyptological and Museum Studies passions interchangeably through pursuing a career as a Curator.
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Parking is available in UC lots all day on weekends, for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept debit or credit cards. Parking is available in lots around the Social Sciences Building, and in lots along Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ .
About Northern California ARCE:
For more information, please visit https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://arce-nc.org, https://bsky.app/profile/khentiamentiu.bsky.social, and https://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select “Berkeley, CA” as your chapter when you sign up.

A Deep Dive into Deep Time: Archaeology, Underwater
2025-09-23 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture, 2316 W 1st Ave, Spokane, WA, 99201, United States
The phrase “underwater archaeology” conjures up notions of shipwrecks, ships lost at sea, and the dramatic catastrophes that sank them; however, archaeology underwater can also reveal details about ancient landscapes that contain a record of past human occupations. Many of these sites are on the earth’s continental shelves where vast stretches of shallow, coastal land were exposed at the end of the last Ice Age. These once dry landscapes supported life for plants, animals and humans for thousands of years. Learn about these ancient submerged sites, the role they play in the global archaeological record and what unique data they have about the past. The talk will provide a general overview and then focus on 9,000-year-old submerged sites in the North American Great Lakes.
This lecture is graciously supported by an R.J. Webster Lectureship grant.

New Approaches to Roman Urbanism: The Excavations of the Falerii Novi Project (Lazio, Italy)
2025-09-25 17:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | University at Buffalo, Academic Center 320 (Goetz Library), 155 Lee Rd, Buffalo, NY, 14228, United States
Martha Sharp Joukowsky Lecture

Kentucky Society Lecture with Anne Duray
2025-09-25 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Transylvania University., Lexington, KY, 40508
Time TBD

Play Again: Combining Archaeological and AI Methods to Study Ancient Games
2025-09-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Phoenix) | https://www.archaeological.org/event/play-again-combining-archaeological-and-ai-methods-to-study-ancient-games/
Play Again: Combining Archaeological and AI Methods to Study Ancient Games
with
Walter Crist, PhD
Lecturer
Faculty of Humanities
Centre for the Arts in Society
New Media & Digital Culture
Leiden University
The archaeology of ancient play has recently undergone a renaissance, as researchers have couched previous culture-historical research on ancient games in anthropological and archaeological theory, demonstrating the importance of play in ancient life. Further advances in AI technology allow for new applications of this technology in the study of ancient games, and the possibilities of such methods are only beginning to be explored. This research explores two case studies where AI-simulated play, when combined with traditional archaeological methods, provide new insights about ancient games.
Biography
Walter Crist is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University. His PhD dissertation (Arizona State University, 2016) examined the archaeological context of Bronze Age game boards in Cyprus to explore the intersection between gaming activity and social complexity. He is the lead author on the book Ancient Egyptians at Play, and has researched ancient games in Cyprus, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Greece, Turkey, and the Netherlands. As a postdoctoral researcher on the ERC Digital Ludeme Project, he constructed the Ludii Games Database, which documents the knowledge of the rules for traditional board games globally over the past 5000 years. Recent explorations on the ways that AI can inform archaeological research on games continue through his position as Vice Chair of the COST Action GameTable: Computational Techniques for Tabletop Games Heritage.
Registration is required. Follow this link to register: https://asu.zoom.us/meeting/register/KMQBlfk-TYCqAMr0j6l21w#/registration

Politics of Placement: The Development of the 18th Dynasty Theban Necropolis
2025-09-27 15:30 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Penn Museum, 3260 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
Saturday, Sept. 27
3:30 PM EST
Penn Museum, Anthro Classroom 345
In-person; no registration required
Speaker: Dr. JJ Shirley, Managing Editor, Journal of Egyptian History; Director, TT110 Project; ARCE-PA Vice President
Title: Politics of Placement: The Development of the 18th Dynasty Theban Necropolis
Abstract:
In the 18th Dynasty the Theban Necropolis became a preferred location for elite burials, witnessing an explosion of tomb construction. But how did officials decide where to place their tombs? What were the determining factors? Rock quality, location on the mountain, spatial relationship to royal mortuary temples, status, some combination of these?
This talk focuses on the development of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna during the 18th Dynasty to examine the changes and shifts that took place both in tomb location and in which officials were able to build tombs. Certainly, a major purpose of a tomb was to enhance one’s afterlife, and thus having a good view to the royal mortuary temples and access to royal and sacred festival processions would have played a role in where a tomb was placed. However, there are also clear indications that a tomb served as a reflection of one’s place in the living world. As such, a tomb owner’s family and career could help to determine a tomb’s location in the necropolis. By examining the tombs from the perspective of the officials’ lives, it becomes clear that who one was, both in terms of family and career – which after all is how an ancient Egyptian defined himself – seems to have been a dominating factor in tomb placement within Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, but likely carried through into other parts of the necropolis as well.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. JJ Shirley received her PhD from The Johns Hopkins University, and has taught Egyptian Art, Archaeology and Language at the University of Michigan, University of Wales, Swansea, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bryn Mawr College. Since 2007 she has been the Managing Editor for the Journal of Egyptian History, published by Brill. She has been ARCE-PA’s Vice President for many years, and also serves on several ARCE National committees. In 2014 Dr. Shirley founded the TT110 Field School, which focuses on epigraphic, illustration, and research training for Egyptian Ministry officials, and for which she has received three Antiquities Endowment Fund grants from the American Research Center in Egypt.
Dr. Shirley’s research interests include Late Second Intermediate Period and Early New Kingdom socio-political history and administration, power dynamics in the ancient world, manifestations of social status in art and architecture, Theban Tombs, and landscape archaeology. Her published work to date has largely focused on the intersection of prosopography and the socio-political history of Dynasty 18. She is currently working on a full publication of TT110 utilizing the new drawings produced by the field school students.
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Lectures are FREE to ARCE Members, $7 for University of Pennsylvania Museum Members and UPenn Staff and Faculty, $5 for Students with ID, and $10 for the general public.
Light refreshments served starting at 3pm.
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The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1948 by a consortium of educational and cultural institutions to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster broader knowledge among the general public, and strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. The ARCE Pennsylvania Chapter (ARCE-PA) is the local branch of the national institution. We host monthly events including scholarly lectures, Egyptian-themed workshops, social events, and guided tours of the Penn Museum’s Egyptian galleries. For more information or to learn about the perks of membership, please send an e-mail to info@arce-pa.org, or visit our website at www.arce-pa.org.
