Washington D.C.: Flooded Temples: Disaster, Omen, and Prevention

Lecture Information

We know from historical paintings and photographs that some ancient Egyptian temples frequently suffered flooding in modern times. But ancient texts and archaeological evidence indicate that a few temples were occasionally inundated already during the pharaonic era.

How did ancient kings and priests view those potentially disastrous events, and what are modern archaeologists and engineers doing to manage excess water at these sites?

Focusing mainly on Theban monuments, particularly the memorial temple of Amenhotep III, this lecture explores how Nile floods impacted religious monuments, what ancient Egyptians might have known and thought about the effects, and how they might have tried to avert catastrophic situations caused by especially high inundations.

Speaker Bio

Kei Yamamoto is an editor of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections and a collaborator of the international ScanPyramids Project. 

After earning his PhD in Egyptology at the University of Toronto, he was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow and subsequently Lila Acheson Wallace Research Associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he co-curated the exhibition entitled “Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom.” 

He also worked as a curatorial consultant at the Grand Egyptian Museum, where he advised Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in developing the museum’s permanent exhibitions. More recently, he has taught at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum.