Date: Thursday, March 4 2010, Time: 6:30pm

Chapter: Northwest

Presenter: Dr. Rita Freed – the Norma-Jean Calderwood Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Easter Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Location:  University of Washington, Savery Hall 264

Description: In April 1915 the Harvard-Boston Expedition blasted its way into a tomb shaft at the Middle Egyptian site of Bersha, and what greeted them was a burial chamber filled with a helter-skelter mass of material. Its contents included some of the Middle Kingdom’s finest painted coffins and sculptures ever found, as well as some of its worst. The fascinating objects from the tomb of the Nomarch Djehuty-nakht and the questions they raise form the topic of this lecture and an exhibition currently at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Dr. Rita Freed is the John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille Chair of the Department of Art of the Ancient World and Adjunct Professor of Art at Wellesley College. She is chief curator for “The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000BC,” currently on view at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston. Freed has participated on archaeological excavations in Egypt, Cyprus, and Israel, and has published many books and articles.