Date: Saturday, April 14, 2012, 1:30 p.m.     

Wall painting in the Tomb of Menna

Presenter: Dr. Melinda Hartwig, Associate Professor, Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Art & Archaeology, Georgia State University

Chapter: Orange County, California; sponsored by Ian Chou and Debra Moore

Location: Bowers Museum, Norma Kershaw Auditorium, 2002 N. Main, Santa Ana, California

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Parking is $6, refundable with validation from Tangata Restaurant.

Description: Dr. Melinda Hartwig's much-anticipated talk is about the tomb chapel of Menna (TT 69), Superintendent of the estates of the King and Amun, Scribe of the estates in the North and the South (mid-18th Dynasty). This noble's iconic, much visited, gorgeously painted tomb has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Before Dr. Hartwig's project, the tomb had never been systematically recorded or fully documented. From 2007-2010, in a joint ARCE-Georgia State University-USAID project, our speaker directed the deployment of the most modern technology to analyze this tomb. The studies are so detailed, they reveal the brush strokes of different painters.

Because Menna's tomb shows his daily life and his working life, it reveals much about the time in which he lived, under Pharaoh Thutmose IV. If you've been to the Tomb of Menna, you will learn new information; if you haven't, the paintings are eye candy! Come and enjoy them.

About the Speaker: Dr. Hartwig received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, in Near Eastern Art and Archaeology with an emphasis on Ancient Egypt. In addition to serving as principal investigator and director for "The Tomb of Menna (TT 69) 2006-09 Conservation and Documentation Project." Dr. Hartwig has curated several exhibitions, including "Glories of Ancient Egypt" and "Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Egyptian Art from The British Museum."