17

Jun

ARCE-NY & the National Arts Club: Lanny Bell: An Egyptological Life

Registration is Required

Speakrs are Peter Lacovara, Sue D’Auria, and Sue Lezon

  • 6:30 P.M. EST.New York
  • In-PersonThe National Arts Club, which is located at 15 Gramercy Park South, in New York City.
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Lecture Information

Lanny David Bell (April 30, 1941 – August 26, 2019) was one of the most accomplished Egyptologists of his generation and his legacy has been celebrated in a volume of studies in his memory: From the Field of Offerings: Studies in Memory of Lanny D. Bell, edited by Sue D’Auria and Peter Lacovara. The book includes a biography of Dr. Bell along with contributions from eminent scholars on the topics of ancient art, archaeology, religion and philology.

This lecture will cover his extraordinary career from his first job teaching classes at the University of Pennsylvania and working in the Museum there as a curatorial assistant. In 1967 he joined the University Expedition to Abydos, and also instituted a field project to return to the site of Dra Abu el Naga in Western Thebes excavating the tombs of Ramesside officials including Nebwenenef (TT157) and Bekenkhons (TT35) working from 1967 to 1977. Impressed with his abilities, he was offered the position of director of the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey in Luxor headquartered at ‘Chicago House.’ During his tenure in Luxor from 1977 to 1984. As director he supervised the beginning stages of two major publications on the reliefs and inscriptions of Luxor Temple to the exacting standards that are a hallmark of the Oriental Institute’s publications. In addition, on his own he authored a number of important books and articles including studies on Theban temples, the cult of the deified Tutankhamun, Divine Kingship, the royal ka, and aspects of epigraphy.

In 1989 Lanny returned to Chicago as Associate Professor of Egyptology teaching courses in ancient Egyptian literature, the literature and politics of the Middle Kingdom, wisdom literature, Old Egyptian, Late Egyptian and Coptic.

Lanny took early retirement from Chicago in 1996 and as an independent scholar moved to Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He was then appointed a lecturer in Egyptology at Brown University and also taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and Columbia University. He also became an active member of the New York chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt. He will be remembered both for his scholarship and as an exceptionally generous and warm-hearted individual who was beloved by so many throughout the field of Egyptology.

Speakers Bio

Peter Lacovara (B.A. 1976, Boston University; Ph.D. 1993 The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago) is Director of The Ancient Egyptian Archaeology and Heritage Fund. He was Senior Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum from 1998 to 2014. Previously he has served as Assistant Curator in the Department of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Currently he is also Consulting Curator for the Egyptian Collection at the Albany Institute of History and Art and Visiting Research Scholar at the American University in Cairo. His archaeological fieldwork has included excavations at the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, the Palace city of Amenhotep III at Malqata in Western Thebes, Abydos, Hierakonpolis and at the Giza Plateau, and currently he is directing the survey and restoration of the site of Deir el-Ballas. His publications include studies on Daily Life and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Mortuary Traditions, and the Material Culture of Ancient Egypt and Nubia.

Sue H. D’Auria is an Egyptologist who worked for nearly two decades in the Department of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was Associate Curator at the Huntington Museum of Art. She has edited several books, including Nubian Gold: Ancient Jewelry from Sudan and Egypt.

Sue Lezon is an artist and educator who has worked throughout the Middle East on archaeological expeditions as a photographer and photo-archivist for over 45 years, primarily in Egypt. Her photographs have been broadly published and widely exhibited.