Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 2:30 p.m. (Meeting), and 3:00p.m. (Lecture)

Temple of Philae

Chapter: Arizona (Tucson)

Presenter: Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, University of Arizona

Location: University of Arizona Book Store in the Student Union Memorial Center, 1209 E. University Blvd., Tucson, Az., 85721.  (Speedway Blvd. to Mountain Ave., south on Mountain Ave.  Student Union is straight ahead, and a parking garage to the left.).  Call 520-621-2814 for more information.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Description: Maritime archaeology is a multifaceted field that has long been practiced in Egypt, though often not recognized as such. Seeds of the discipline can be found in Egypt as early as 1798, when Napoléon’s expedition sought to locate an ancient canal that linked the Nile River and Gulf of Suez. Simply, maritime archaeology focuses on understanding sacred and secular human interactions with the water

Pearce Paul Creasman underwater

through excavation and interpretation, regardless of kingdom, period, or culture. With their longstanding and necessary reliance on the Nile, oases, Mediterranean and Red Seas, it should come as no surprise that inhabitants of Egypt regularly incorporated the life-sustaining waters in their material and spiritual worlds. Indeed, Egyptian, Greek and Roman ingenuity in ancient Egypt often circumvented natural geological barriers, resulting in the redirection of these bodies of water, if only partial or temporary (e.g., for irrigation). Archaeological investigations of maritime interaction during Egypt’s ancient periods abound and this presentation provides a brief history and review of many such projects (including topics as diverse as Dynasty I boat burials on land at Abydos, Ramessid tax levies on imported ship cargoes, and underwater excavations of the Ptolemaic harbor at Alexandria) and identifies possible avenues for future work.

About the Speaker: Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman is Curator and an Assistant Research Professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (http://ltrr.arizona.edu/) at (USA). He is Deputy Director of the university’s Egyptian Expedition (http://egypt.arizona.edu/) and Assistant Editor of the quarterly publicationJournal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections (https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/index). Dr. Creasman's research interests include the use of ship timber to understand human/environment interactions, maritime archaeology, dendrochronology, and Egyptian archaeology.