The American Research Center in Egypt, in collaboration with ARCE Chicago, Oriental Institute, ARCE Missouri, ARCE Georgia, the Michael C. Carlos Museum, and ARCE North Texas was pleased to present four evenings with Dr. Betsy Bryan in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun.  

The tour took place from September 26 to October 3, 2022. 

Thebes from Amenhotep III to Tutankhamun: Altered, Abandoned, Mutilated, and Rejuvenated

The fifty years between the reign of Amenhotep III and that of Tutankhamun (ca. 1375-1325 B.C.) transformed Thebes, the home of national god Amun-Re, several times. This talk will provide an overview of those changes and attempt to provide new insights into their political, religious, and cultural backgrounds. From Amenhotep III’s development of a newly conceived Thebes of Amun, to the origins and rise of Amenhotep IV’s Aten god, to the proscription of Amun and his divine family during Akhenaten’s reign, and then the return of Amun’s cult and the king’s patronage under the post-Amarna kings through the reign of Tutankhamun, the ways in which Thebes itself was a material display of deeply changing religious beliefs and power bases will be illustrated and discussed. 

Betsy Bryan Bio: 

Betsy M. Bryan is the Alexander Badawy Professor Emerita of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, where she has taught since 1986. Dr. Bryan specializes in the history, art, and archaeology of the New Kingdom in Egypt, ca. 1600-1000 B.C., with a particular emphasis on the 18th Dynasty, ca. 1550-1300 B.C. Dr. Bryan’s research interests include the organization and techniques of art production as well as the religious and cultural significance of tomb and temple decoration. She currently does fieldwork in the temple complex of the goddess Mut at South Karnak. Research there focuses on defining the earliest forms of the temple of Mut of Isheru.

Bryan is also interested in the presentation of Egypt’s visual history to the public and has curated two major loan exhibitions: one on the art of the reign of Amenhotep III entitled “Egypt’s Dazzling Sun” at the Cleveland Museum of Art; the other an exhibit of art illustrating the New Kingdom concepts of the afterlife entitled “The Quest for Immortality” at the National Gallery of Art.