Date: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 7:00pm

Chapter: ARCE Northwest, co-sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Languages, University of Washington

Presenter: Cynthia Smith

Location: 105 Smith Hall, University of Washington Campus

Admission is free and open to the public.

Description: Ancient Egyptian stelae served many different purposes: boundary markers, commemorative monuments and tomb markers. Tomb stelae first appeared during the 1st Dynasty around 3000 BCE and continued through the Coptic period in the 7th century CE. The original purpose was the perpetuation of the name of the deceased. Over time, tomb stelae became much more expressive. In this lecture we will explore the information these stelae contain and how that information may relate to our modern social networking websites by looking at several examples of stelae.

About the Speaker: Cynthia L. Smith received her BS at UCLA, her MBA at Pepperdine University, and her MA in Egyptian Archaeology at University College London. She has participated in Native American archaeology excavations at various sites in southern California. Cynthia is a guest lecturer in Egyptian History and Archaeology at Bellevue College and will be teaching a 5-unit Introduction to Egyptian Archaeology course at Bellevue College Fall 2012.