The topic

From the modern city of Aswan, travelers often gaze across the Nile at the ruins on Elephantine Island. Few make a trip to the site, though, and most would never guess that it preserves more than 4,000 years of extraordinary archaeological and textual remains, from impressive temples dedicated to the ram-headed god Khnum and the local goddesses Satet and Anuket to rich evidence for a Jewish community built around a temple of Yahweh.

A visit to Elephantine reveals an archaeologist’s delight: Well-stratified temples, houses, workshops, and public buildings surrounded by massive walls, largely represented in deposits that provide meaning and context to layer upon layer of human activity. The site has been masterfully excavated and partially reconstructed over the course of more than 50 years by scholars from the German and Swiss Archaeological Institutes.

In this talk, Egyptologist Stephen Harvey will take us on a virtual tour of Elephantine, employing his decades of experience leading groups of interested non-specialists throughout Egypt. Highlights include a fortress used by Egypt’s earliest kings to watch over Nile traffic, and Egypt’s southernmost royal pyramid. Whether you’re an armchair traveler or a seasoned visitor to Egypt, seeing this site through Dr. Harvey’s expert eyes will enhance your appreciation of one of the country’s most important ongoing modern excavation sites.

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The speaker

Dr. Stephen Harvey received his B.A. in Archaeological Studies from Yale University in 1987 and his Ph.D. in Egyptian Archaeology in 1998 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Since 1993 he has been Director of the Ahmose and Tetisheri Project, which centers on excavation of the pyramidal complex of King Ahmose (ca 1550-1525 BC) at Abydos, under the aegis of the Pennsylvania-Yale-Institute of Fine Arts, NYU Expedition to Abydos. His fieldwork there has resulted in major discoveries, including several previously undiscovered temples, the identification of the pyramid of Queen Tetisheri, and the analysis of thousands of fragments of the temples’ decorative program.

He has also held teaching and curatorial positions at leading Egyptological institutions, has collaborated on many international television documentaries, and has been a popular lecturer and host on many tours to Egypt and the Near East.