ARCE Chicago Events:

Saturday, January 7, 2012
Brittany Hayden
Money Changes Everything: The Evolution of Money and Coins in Ancient Egypt Money

How are you going to pay for that? This question we hear so often from cashiers in our daily lives is not specific to modern America. In ancient Egypt, coined money was a relatively late arrival. For most of Egyptian history, these ancient consumers could pay for things with sacks of grain, bolts of cloth, or barter. When Greeks began arriving in the land of the Nile, bringing their coins with them, they changed Egyptian society in a fundamental way. Ultimately, money is not only an economic phenomenon, but also one with social significance; people act differently around each other when money is involved. This lecture will discuss the development of money in ancient Egypt from its earliest history until the Roman period, as well as how the introduction of coinage affected Egyptian society and politics.

Brittany Hayden is a PhD candidate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. She is currently writing her dissertation on the development and fluctuation of prices in Egypt under Ptolemaic rule.

Saturday, February 4
Nigel Strudwick
Two Lives in Epigraphy: Norman and Nina de Garis Davies

The names of Norman and Nina de Garis Davies are synonymous with the highest quality copying of ancient Egyptian tombs and other monuments. Norman had been working in Egypt since 1897 and in 1906 met Nina who was visiting friends in Alexandria. After their marriage in 1907, they began work for the Metropolitan Museum Egyptian Expedition in Thebes, and continued working there until 1939, with only a slight interruption for the war. This lecture will look at what we know of them as people, plus of course examining and evaluating their work and the legacy they left Egyptology.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibit “Picturing the Past: Imaging and Imagining the Ancient Middle East” on view at the Oriental Institute through September 2, 2012.

Nigel Strudwick is an Egyptologist who is currently teaching at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. He served as Assistant Keeper in the Egyptian Department of the British Museum. He has worked in the Tombs of the Nobles at Luxor since 1984, and he has written and lectured widely on Theban tombs and on the Old Kingdom.

Saturday, March 3, 2012
Brian Muhs
Law and Order in Ancient Egypt

Examples of petitions and trial proceedings will be discussed and used to reconstruct ancient Egyptian legal procedures. Legal proceedings usually began
with petitions to the appropriate authorities. Pharaoh’s representatives, such as the vizier and other high officials, usually dealt with serious personal injuries,
death, and crimes against the state, while local and regional courts handled issues relating to the Egyptian equivalent of property or contract law. Once the authorities accepted a case, trial proceedings could record their investigations and decisions.

Brian Muhs received his PhD in Egyptology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996, and taught at the Papyrological Institute of the University of Leiden for 14 years before joining the Oriental Institute and the University of Chicago in 2011.

Saturday, March 31, 2012
Graduate student symposium

April 27-29, 2012: Annual Meeting of ARCE in Providence RI

Saturday, May 5, 2012
Annual Meeting Recap

>> Hospitality Volunteers

We normally include a light reception after all lectures.  Typically this is provided on a volunteer basis from our members.

We have been very lucky that Dennis Kelley has been so generous in the past by donating food for our events.  We appreciate their continued support, although if you can help out by bringing any of the following items for a meeting please let Dennis Kelley know, thank you.

• wine
• soda
• coffee
• water
• cookies
• candy
• cheese and crackers
• chips and dip
• small sandwiches
• fruit
• other finger foods
• table clothes
• platesnapkins
• cups