09
NovARCE-NT: From Amarna’s Maru-Aten to Dallas, TX: Tracing the Travels of a Cartouche Fragment in Bridwell Library Special Collections, SMU
Presented by Dr. Shelby Justl
Free and open to the public.
- 7:00 CSTNorth Texas
- In-PersonSouthern Methodist University, Fondren Science Hall (not library), Rm 123. Park west of Heroy Hall and enter through that building and into Fondren.
Lecture Information
This research project began when I was a first year undergraduate at SMU and visiting the Bridwell Library ancient artifact collections taught by ARCE North TX’s very own Melissa Barden Dowling and has finally come full circle to completion! There I became intrigued by a red quartzite cartouche fragment with limited records just identifying it was inscribed with hieroglyphs, was donated by a man named A.V. Lane, and was dated to 3000 BCE. This talk translates the hieroglyphs, identifies the origin of the artifact from Tell el-Amarna, its original location in the site and its actual date, almost 1500 years later than the records presumed.
I trace the object’s journey from discoveries in excavations of the early 1900s and into the hands of Dr. Alvin Valentine Lane, an influential Dallas business-man and Egypt Exploration Society member, donor, and office holder to the exact date Lane donated it to the A.V. Lane Museum on campus. A combination of evidence from original excavation reports, Egypt Exploration Society records, and SMU newspapers reveal a fascinating history of origins and acquisition explaining how and why it landed in SMU’s collections.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Shelby Justl is a lecturer in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania and a Consulting Scholar for the Penn Museum. She has an MA with distinction in Egyptology from the University of Liverpool and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Pennsylvania. Her PhD research concentrated on the administration and control of the ancient Egyptian semiprecious stone industry; from quarrying and processing to distribution. Other current research interests include on ancient Egyptian beekeeping, and honey, Overall, she enjoys researching everyday life, social status, luxury goods, and the administration of industries.
Dr. Justl’s writing seminars at the University of Pennsylvania focus on archaeology and the ancient world including themes such as “Egyptomania”, pseudo-archaeology, and world mythology. Shelby is also an active educator and program developer at the Penn Museum teaching interactive virtual and on-site workshops on ancient Egyptian daily life, archaeology, experimental archaeology, and cultural heritage to schools, retirement communities, and rehabilitation programs. Shelby participated in several University of Pennsylvania expeditions to Abydos, Egypt and has published her research and translation of an unearthed ostracon (an artifact with ancient writing) in the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt.
About ARCE-NT:
North Texas ARCE is a chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt. The chapter a product of the strong interest engendered by the 1988-89 Ramses the Great exhibit at Fair Park; NT-ARCE was formally founded and received its ARCE accreditation as a chapter in 1993.
For more information, follow the chapter on Facebook, or visit https://nt-arce.org