Date: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 1:30 p.m.

Presenter: Dr. Renee Friedman, British Museum; Director, Hierakonpolis Expedition

Chapter: Orange County, California, Sponsored by Steve and Karen Schultz

Location: Bowers Museum, Norma Kershaw Auditorium, 2002 N. Main, Santa Ana, California, Parking is $6, refundable with validation from Tangata Restaurant.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

Description: For the past fourteen years, the Hierakonpolis team has explored more areas of their site, including new plots in within the predynastic cemetery. Almost every year, they find burials of exotic animals, like giraffes and elephants. It is unclear if these were part of an ancient zoo, whether these animals were revered as being imbued with magical powers or ???

Hierakonapolis always delights, and Dr. Renée Friedman has a fun way of presenting her material. The ARCE-OC tour visited her on site in 2010, and we are thrilled to host her for this fascinating talk.

About the Speaker:Renée Friedman is an American Egyptologist who has studied at the University of California, Berkeley, where her thesis was on the Predynastic cemetery at Naga ed Der. She earned her Ph.D. in 1994 in Predynastic settlement ceramics. Since 1996, she has been the director of the American Hierakonpolis Expedition and Heagy Research Curator for the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, London.

Dr. Friedman is also co-author of "Egypt Uncovered," an important book about the story of Ancient Egypt rewritten in light of the latest findings and research to provide thought-provoking new ideas and concepts concerning this great civilization.