Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 7:00pm

Chapter: Atlanta, Georgia

Speaker: Dr. Gay Robins - Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Art History at Emory, and Dr. Melinda Hartwig - Associate Professor of Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Art & Archaeology at Georgia State University

Location: Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University, Reception Hall (3rd Floor), 571 South Kilgo Circle, Atlanta, GA 30322

For more information please email Arcegaevents@aol.com

Description: In a talk titled Meals for the Dead, Dr. Robins discusses one of the images most frequently found on ancient Egyptian funerary monuments— the image of the deceased seated before a table of offerings laden with food and drink. What appears to be a very simple image, in fact, has multiple layers of meaning and depends on living performers of the offering ritual to complete the image and "activate" it.

Dr. Hartwig’s talk, Banqueting for Life or Death, explores banqueting scenes in ancient Egyptian tombs from the 18th Dynasty. These scenes may be connected to s specific burial, a festival, or both. The participants may be a mixture of living and dead relatives, colleagues, and friends. Dr. Hartwig examines how these scenes functioned, and the role of banqueting for the tomb owner and the larger Egyptian culture.