Tomb 72: A New Elite Predynastic burial at Hierakonpolis, Egypt
Renée Friedman, Director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition and Heagy Ressearch Curator of Early Egypt, the British Museum
Friday, October 30, 2015, 3:00 p.m.
Pick Hall 016; 5828 S. University Ave. Chicago, IL 60637
(across University Avenue from the Oriental Institute)
On-going work in the elite Predynastic cemetery at Hierakonpolis (HK6) has revealed the tombs of a regional elite who expressed their power not only in the size of their graves, and the architecture they built over them, but also with the people and animals, both domestic and wild, they buried around them. While these remains have given insight into the physical reality behind early power symbolism, the actual nature of these high status burials could only be assumed. However in March 2014, the discovery of a nearly intact tomb (Tomb 72) has provided a tantalizing glimpse of the complex rituals that must have surrounded them. Even more remarkable, evidence of restoration of the tomb structure in the First Dynasty indicates the continued memory of and respect paid to the early Predynastic ancestors some 500 years later.
This lecture is sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Renée Friedman is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley in Egyptian Archaeology (1994) and has worked at many sites throughout Egypt since 1980. With special interest in the Predynastic, Egypt’s formative period (4000-3100BC), in 1983 she joined the team working at Hierakonpolis, and has been director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition since 1996. Renee is currently the Heagy Research Curator of Early Egypt at the British Museum.
