North East Ancient Egypt Society: lecture by Dr Penny Wilson

Dr Penny Wilson, Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, Durham University will speak on three topics over the afternoon.  The main talk will be: 

Fifty Shades of Orange: Aesthetics, Function or Cultural Change from pottery at Sais in the Late New Kingdom.

A mass of broken pottery that may be a foundation layer for a large wall at Sais at the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period is being painstakingly reconstructed in the current work at the site. This talk will discuss the colour scheme of the Egyptian and Levantine vessels as a way of understanding what the pottery says about the culture and dating of the material at this critical time in Egypt's history.

This will be followed by two short talks focused on the collections in the Oriental Museum: 

Isis and the Seven Scorpions: fragments of a statuette in the Oriental Museum

The statuette has part of the story of Isis and the seven scorpions that can be compared to a papyrus in the British Museum and Horus-stelae. 

Akhenaten at Buhen from objects in the Oriental Museum

Akhenaten's reign is usually seen as being peaceful and his interests confined to Akhetaten. The recently reconstructed stela from Buhen and other objects in the OM collection suggest that Nubia was also of interest - what do the objects tell us about his campaigns and reasons for activity in Nubia?

Dr Penny Wilson

Penny is a specialist in Egyptology with a particular focus in areas of both hieroglyphic texts as well as field archaeology.  After reading Oriental Studies (Egyptian with Coptic) at Liverpool University (BA 1985), she continued to develop her interest in the Egyptian language.  Penny’s specialist research for her PhD was a lexicographical study of the hieroglyphic texts in the Ptolemaic period Temple of Edfu (1991).  Evolving out of this study, she has continue to research the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system, temple ritual practice and the interweaving of mythical stories into Egyptian religious practice as a whole.  Penny worked for seven years as Assistant Keeper in the Department of Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1992-1999), where she developed a wider passion for material culture of Egypt, the Classical World and the Near East.  Since 1999, Penny has been employed as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Egyptology at the Department of Archaeology - Durham University.

This is a hybrid event. Please visit the NEAES website for more information on how to join the event online.