This is an online event.
Sponsored by: American Research Center in Egypt, Orange County and Northern California chapters
The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California and Orange County chapters, together with the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. Dieter Kurth, Prof-Dr. Emeritus, Hamburg University:
“The Upper Egyptian Temple of Edfu – Its Architecture as an Image of the World”
Sunday, October 15, 2023, 1:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PlarekpZQYWPSTj1GdyGYg
* After registering, you will receive an email invitation containing a link or button. Save the email, because you will click on that link or button to join the meeting when it starts. ARCE Northern California members should note that this Zoom meeting will be hosted by the Orange County chapter of ARCE, and will start at 1:30 PM instead of the usual 3 PM.
* If you haven’t already installed Zoom, we 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 Meeting” should show you what you need to do to join this lecture.
If you have any questions before you register, please send email to arcencZoom@gmail.com.
About the Lecture:
Since the early days of Egyptology it has been a commonplace that the Egyptian temple was conceived and decorated by the ancient Egyptians as an image of the world. Every visitor of any Egyptian temple would agree at once after a look at the ceiling covered with yellow stars on blue field and after a look at the columns with the floral design of their capitals. This is also true for the temple of Edfu.
The impression, however, that the temple was imagined to be an image of the world is not only gained by the outer appearance of the building and its decoration, which strike the eye and cannot be unnoticed.
There are several other elements of the temple’s architecture and decoration which don’t catch the visitor’s eye immediately because they need some previous knowledge and some elucidation. This concerns the texts in particular.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Dieter Kurth, Prof-Dr Emeritus of Hamburg Univ, is the director of the Edfu Project, which he founded in 1985 with the aim of translating all the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the Temple of Edfu. From 1981 to 1982 he was a professor of Egyptology in Heidelberg, acting for Prof Jan Assmann, and from 1982 until his retirement in 2007 he was professor of Egyptology at the University of Hamburg.
He studied pedagogics in Bonn from 1962 until 1965. Afterwards, until 1967, he worked as a teacher at a primary school and a secondary school in Cologne, finally teaching technical English at a vocational school. From 1968 until 1975 he studied Egyptology (main subject), Classical Archaeology, Ancient Oriental Languages and Prehistory at the University of Cologne. After the promotion (PhD) he habilitated in the 1980s (venia legendi in Egyptology). In the years 2000 and 2004/5 he taught Egyptology as a visiting professor at the Egyptian Universities of Cairo (Ain Shams) and Qena (New Valley).
The AIA is North America's largest and oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to archaeology. The Institute advances awareness, education, fieldwork, preservation, publication, and research of archaeological sites and cultural heritage throughout the world. Your contribution makes a difference.
