Acquiring amethyst in Ancient Egypt was a tricky business.  But the cut raw amethyst, the amethyst mines, and the people in the desert all needed to be guarded.  As part of the mining procurement process, the Egyptians created massive stone settlements and networks of guard posts in the desert.  The settlements have often been compared to contemporary Egyptian forts in the Nile Valley, and the ones in the desert were supposedly built to protect from oncoming armies.  Liszka directs the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition whose team has been investigating these structures in the Eastern Desert since 2014.  In this talk, she will share recent archaeological work from the Wadi el-Hudi region in the Eastern Desert in order to scrutinize the location, design, and use of these so-called “forts” and address the purpose of their construction.  The talk will also investigate how the Egyptians protected these assets and expeditions with hundreds of soldiers, connecting roads, and watch posts strategically placed across the desert.

This lecture will also be available in American Sign Language. ASL interpretation will be provided by Trail Blazing Interpreters. Due to Zoom limitations on mobile devices and tablets, participants interested in accessing ASL interpretation should log in using the desktop version of Zoom.

Dr. Kate Liszka is the Benson and Pamela Harer Fellow in Egyptology and Associate Professor of History at California State University San Bernardino. She earned her doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania and from 2012 to 2015 was a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at Princeton University.  Her areas of specialization include Nubians in Egypt, the Medjay, ethnicity and identity in Antiquity, multicultural Interactions in frontier regions, the Pangrave Archaeological Culture, and large-scale mining expeditions in Antiquity.  Dr. Liszka is the Director of the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition in the Egyptian Eastern Desert.