Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, 7:30 p.m.

Chapter: Oregon in cooperation with the Middle East Studies Center of Portland State University

Presenter: Robert Wenke, University of Washington, Professor of Anthropology (retired)

Location: Smith Memorial Student Union, Rm. 294, Portland State University

Lecture is free and open to the public. Free parking in PSU parking structures after 7:00 p.m.

Description: This presentation considers the relationship between Memphis, the Old Kingdom's (c. 2709-2170 BC) political and ideological center at Giza-Saqqara, and Kom el-Hisn, a small town in the western Egyptian Nile Delta. Kom el-Hisn is one of only a few known systematically excavated rural Old Kingdom settlements occupied during the "Great Pyramid Age." Its remains reflect the relationship of the central government to rural towns that supported the lavish mortuary cults and central government of the Old Kingdom. Old Kingdom Egypt's national settlement patterns are reconstructed and compared with those of other ancient "states." Numerous images are used to illustrate research at Kom el-Hisn and Giza.

Robert John Wenke received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1974. He taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, then at the University of Washington until he retired in 2002, as a Professor of Anthropology. He has done archaeological fieldwork in Turkey, the Netherlands, Mexico, Iran, Italy, Egypt, Michigan and Missouri. His recent books are Patterns in Prehistory, 5th edition (with D. Olszewski), Oxford University Press, 2006, and The Ancient Egyptian State, Cambridge University. 2009, among other publications. His main research interests are ancient Egypt and the application of multivariate quantitative methods to ancient Egyptian data.

Contact: For additional information, call (503) 725-4074.