Home to a large number of museums, universitites and learned societies, London boasts probably the most active program of public events relating to the Ancient Near East anywhere in the world.
Readers may be interested in subscribing to the London Diary for the Ancient Near East, a periodic mail-out detailing all fixtures and venues within the British capital relating to the Ancient Near East. For details, subscriptions and to submit new information, please contact Jan Picton, email: [email protected].
highlights
Until 14 August 2005
British Museum
Virtual Mummy
An extraordinary, virtual reality film narrated by Sir Ian McKellen and accompanying exhibition. For the first time, the unopened 3000-year-old mummy of Nesperennub, priest of Karnak, reveals its secrets. Data obtained using a CT scanner has been transformed into a unique ‘virtual mummy’. Look inside the mummy-case, under the wrappings, even travel inside the body, and wonder at Nesperennub’s recreated face. An unmissable and extraordinary opportunity to learn more about the life and death of the Ancient Egyptians.
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With the relative dearth of major exhibitions in Londonrelating to the Ancient Near East, why not (re)visit some “old friends”? London has been home for the last two centuries to fantastic examples of ancient Assyrian and Egyptian monumental sculpture, housed in the British Museum. Why not get along (admisssion free!) to the museum and use these as a point of departure for further explorations? You won’t be disappointed….. Highlights include Assurbanipal’s Lion Hunt Reliefs, Sennacherib’s storming of Lachish, the Rosetta Stone and Ramesses II’s “Younger Memnon” colossal bust.
public lectures
Thursday 28 April 2005
6.45 pm: Dr Neal Spencer, Current Research in Egypt, Egyptian Embassy, Education and Culture Bureau lecture, 4 Chesterfield Gardens W1J 5BG. Further details tel 020 7491 7720, fax 020 7408 1335, email: [email protected]
Thursday 5 May 2005
6.45 pm: Dr Renee Friedman, Elephants and Giraffes of Hierakonpolis, Egyptian Embassy, Education and Culture Bureau lecture, 4 Chesterfield Gardens W1J 5BG. Further details tel 020 7491 7720, fax 020 7408 1335, email: [email protected]
Thursday 12 May 2005
6.45 pm: Carol Andrews, A Priestly Community at Ptolemaic Thebes from the Demotic Documents, Egyptian Embassy, Education and Culture Bureau lecture, 4 Chesterfield Gardens W1J 5BG. Further details tel 020 7491 7720, fax 020 7408 1335, email: [email protected]
Thursday 26 May 2005
6.45 pm: Vivian Davies (British Museum), Recent Epigraphic Work in Edfu, Egyptian Embassy, Education and Culture Bureau lecture, 4 Chesterfield Gardens W1J 5BG. Further details tel 020 7491 7720, fax 020 7408 1335, email: [email protected]
Thursday 2 June 2005
6.45 pm: Dr Stephen Quirke (Petrie Museum), The Writers That Count: The Writers of the Lahun Papyri, Egyptian Embassy, Education and Culture Bureau lecture, 4 Chesterfield Gardens W1J 5BG. Further details tel 020 7491 7720, fax 020 7408 1335, email: [email protected]
Tuesday 12 July 2005
6.30 pm: Professor Gay Robins, Women, Sexuality and the Construction of Gender in New Kingdom Art, Friends of the Petrie Museum Summer Lecture, followed by a reception in the Petrie Museum in support of the Mummy Cartonnage Conservation Appeal, members £6, non-members £10. Cruciform Lecture Theatre, University College London. Tickets by application and payment to Friends of the Petrie Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, Malet Place WC1E 6BT, tel 020 7679 2369, email [email protected].
Wednesday 13 July 2005
6.00 pm: Dr Edgar Pusch (Römer und Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim), Piramesses – Capital of Ramses the Great and Portal to the Eastern Mediterranean, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Distinguished Lecture in Egyptology 2005, British Museum, London WC1. The lecture will be followed on 14 and 15 July by the Annual International Egyptological Colloquium, provisionally entitled Egypt and the Hittites. Tickets will be available after 1st June 2005 from Alison Cameron, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1N 3BG (Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope with each application)
study days
Saturday 13 November 2004
EES Study Day – Memphis: within the ‘White Walls’
Egypt Exploration Society
10.00 am – 4.30 pm: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG.
Speakers include Penny Wilson, Dorothy J. Thompson, David Jeffreys and Janine Bourriau.
Tickets £20,available from the EES. Bookings restricted to EES members until 1 October 2004, thereafter open to all. The study day will include a sale of selected EES publications.
exhibitions
(NB: exhibitions listed in order of date of closing)
2 July 2004 – 27 March 2005
British Museum
Virtual Mummy
An extraordinary, virtual reality film narrated by Sir Ian McKellen and accompanying exhibition. For the first time, the unopened 3000-year-old mummy of Nesperennub, priest of Karnak, reveals its secrets. Data obtained using a CT scanner has been transformed into a unique ‘virtual mummy’. Look inside the mummy-case, under the wrappings, even travel inside the body, and wonder at Nesperennub’s recreated face. An unmissable and extraordinary opportunity to learn more about the life and death of the Ancient Egyptians.
8 September 2005 – 8 January 2006
British Museum
Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia
The largest exhibition on Achaemenid Persia ever assembled will include some of the most famous and iconic pieces from that period. A loan of about 80 objects from Iran will be supplemented by important material from the Louvre and from the British Museum’s own collection.