Conference : In the Shadow of IMHOTEP – Discoveries in the Memphite Necropolis of Saqqara

Name: Conference : In the Shadow of IMHOTEP – Discoveries in the Memphite Necropolis of Saqqara
Start: 2024-12-12
End: 2024-12-12

Date: Thursday 12 December 2024
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Venue:SUAD Campus
Open to public

Abstract

Imhotep, the ‘inventor’ of stone architecture, is known as the outstanding architect of the Egyptian Old Kingdom who conceived and built on the site of Saqqara the first pyramid, known under the name of ‘Step Pyramid’, for the pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty, round 2700 B.C. The pyramid is included in a huge complex devoted to the post mortem jubilees of the king.

A man close to his sovereign, Imhotep was not only an architect, but had also prominent State positions. His memory survived in Egypt during all its history and even beyond the pharaonic period. His reputation was such that he became a kind of divine character, receiving a cult in particular sanctuaries, in Memphis and in different places. He was particularly revered as a healing god, and in the last centuries B.C., he had been assimilated to Asclepios, the Greek god of medicine.

The lecture will be shared in two parts, presented by two specialists of Saqqara. First Dr Bruno Deslandes, Architect and Director of the Latvian Archaeological Mission of Saqqara, will present his work and its thrilling results, directly connected with the Step Pyramid of Djoser and with Imhotep himself. Then Dr. Alain Zivie, Egyptologist and Director of the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion at Saqqara, will focus on the outstanding tombs of the New Kingdom which he discovered with his team. They are located in the precinct of the Bubasteion, a sanctuary devoted to the goddess Bastet or Bubastis, and it is worth noting that in the same surroundings was located the precinct of the Asclepieion : a sanctuary devoted to Asclepios, the Greek denomination of the healing god Imhotep…

About the Speaker

Dr. Bruno DESLANDES is a Conservation architect and an expert to UNESCO/World Heritage Center/ICOMOS. He is internationally recognized for his unique expertise in the field of Emergency documentation and diagnostic of built Cultural Heritage in danger, including when damaged by armed conflicts. He actively works in all Middle-East.

He is the Head of Latvian Scientific Mission in Saqqara, and has led extensive scientific researches within the Step Pyramid of Djeser since he has re-opened it in 2004, after it was closed and damaged on the occasion by the 1992 earthquake.

The Latvian Scientific Mission has collaborated with numerous foreign missions like the French archaeological missions of Bubasteion, of Southern Saqqara, of Karnak temples, as well as with the Leiden Archaeological mission, and many others The Latvian scientific mission has also shared its rare expertise in more than 15 Middle-East countries.under the umbrella of UNESCO and different inter-governmental programs.

Dr. Alain Zivie was a pupil in the Lycée Champollion, and then residing in Strasbourg where he commenced studying Egyptology with Prof. Jean Leclant at the age of 13. He continued his studies in Paris before being appointed in 1970 a Scientific Member of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO). In 1975, he was affiliated to the National Centre of Scientific Rearch (CNRS), Paris. as a Researcher, and the a Director of Research. He is now a Honorary Director of Research at the CNRS.

At the end of the 1970s, he began to work on the field on the site of Saqqara, in the frame the French Archaeological Mission of Saqqara (MAFS), prior to founding in 1986, in conjunction with the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, the French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteion at Saqqara (MAFB) under his direction. During more than thirty years of excavation at Saqqara, Alain Zivie and his team have discovered, brought to light, studied, restored and enhanced a group of important tombs, which expand, and sometimes revolutionize, our knowledge of the New Empire and more particularly the Amarnian period, not to speak about their artistic value of their paintings and reliefs, and of thefunerary material discovered.

Former Professor at the Ecole du Louvre, Alain Zivie has been also a Fellow in the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (in 2001 and 2002). Regularly invited to lecture throughout the world, he has been a William K. Simpson Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo (2008), and a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Harvard (2013-2016). Founding President of the non-profit Organisation Hypogées (www.hypogees.org), whose purpose is to support the work of the MAFB, he has also been Vice President of the Société Française d’Egyptologie, Paris (2000 – 2008).

Alain Zivie is the author of many scholarly publications, including the books La tombe de Pached à Deir el-Médineh (Cairo, 1979), which was awarded a prize in 1980 by the Academy des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres ; Découverte à Saqqarah. Le vizir oublié (Paris, 1990), which was awarded prizes by the Academie des Beaux-Arts and the Société des Gens de Lettres (Grand Prix de l’essai et du document) ; La Prison de Joseph. L’Egypte des pharaons et le monde de la Bible (Paris, 2004) ; The Lost Tombs of Saqqara, Toulouse, 2007 (English edition updated of Les Tombeaux retrouvés de Saqqara, Paris, 2003) ; La tombe de Maïa, mère nourricière du roi Toutânkhamon et grande du harem (Toulouse, 2009) ; and La tombe de Thoutmes, directeur des peintres dans la Place de Maât (Toulouse, 2013).

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