Lectures
Windows into the Vanished World of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun – Ray Johnson
info@museitorino.it
011 44 06 903
From Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
On Thursday 13th June 2024, at 6.00 pm, in collaboration with ACME (Amici e Collaboratori del Museo Egizio) we will host the lecture held by Ray Johnson (University of Chicago, Luxor).
Small limestone and sandstone talatat blocks three hand-lengths long were favored by Akhenaten and Nefertiti for the quick construction of their enormous temples to the sun’s disk, the Living Aten. The Torino Museo Egizio houses one of the largest collections of these blocks in Europe. Some of them are from Akhenaten's earliest Aten temple complex at Karnak, and many are from the ‘Horizon of the Aten’ Akhetaten, Tell el-Amarna, established by the royal family as a new cult center for the sole worship of the Aten. All of the monuments of Akhenaten were demolished and recycled after his death, but many blocks have been recovered in modern excavations. The beautifully carved blocks presented in this lecture preserve elaborate details of the daily life of the royal family and court as well as the nonroyal population, and are an extraordinary window into Akhenaten's, Nefertiti's, and Tutankhamun's long-vanished world.
Dr. Ray Johnson, is former Director of the Epigraphic Survey/Chicago House, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago, and is presently a Visiting Scholar at the Museo Egizio studying the Museo's collection of Amarna talatat reliefs. Raymond Johnson received his doctorate in Egyptian Archaeology from the University of Chicago in 1992, and has participated in excavations on the coast of Maine, USA; at Chogha Mish, Iran; at Quseir Al-Qadim on the Red Sea coast of Egypt; and at Carthage, Tunisia. In 1979 Ray joined the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute (now the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures), University of Chicago, based at Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt and worked as epigraphic draftsman while he wrote his dissertation. He served as Epigraphic Survey Director from 1997 to 2022, and is currently an Associate of the ISAC. Ray specializes in the reconstruction of fragmentary sculpture and wall reliefs from late 18th and early 19th Dynasty stone monuments of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Sety I, and Ramesses II. He is honored to be a Visiting Scholar at the Museo Egizio Torino where he is focussing on the study and publication of the museum’s collection of Akhenaten-period blocks and sculpture fragments.
The event will be held in English, admission is free with a reservation on Eventbrite. Click HERE to book your place.
The lecture will be broadcast via streaming on the Museum's Facebook page and Youtube channel
Small limestone and sandstone talatat blocks three hand-lengths long were favored by Akhenaten and Nefertiti for the quick construction of their enormous temples to the sun’s disk, the Living Aten. The Torino Museo Egizio houses one of the largest collections of these blocks in Europe. Some of them are from Akhenaten's earliest Aten temple complex at Karnak, and many are from the ‘Horizon of the Aten’ Akhetaten, Tell el-Amarna, established by the royal family as a new cult center for the sole worship of the Aten. All of the monuments of Akhenaten were demolished and recycled after his death, but many blocks have been recovered in modern excavations. The beautifully carved blocks presented in this lecture preserve elaborate details of the daily life of the royal family and court as well as the nonroyal population, and are an extraordinary window into Akhenaten's, Nefertiti's, and Tutankhamun's long-vanished world.
Dr. Ray Johnson, is former Director of the Epigraphic Survey/Chicago House, Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago, and is presently a Visiting Scholar at the Museo Egizio studying the Museo's collection of Amarna talatat reliefs. Raymond Johnson received his doctorate in Egyptian Archaeology from the University of Chicago in 1992, and has participated in excavations on the coast of Maine, USA; at Chogha Mish, Iran; at Quseir Al-Qadim on the Red Sea coast of Egypt; and at Carthage, Tunisia. In 1979 Ray joined the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute (now the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures), University of Chicago, based at Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt and worked as epigraphic draftsman while he wrote his dissertation. He served as Epigraphic Survey Director from 1997 to 2022, and is currently an Associate of the ISAC. Ray specializes in the reconstruction of fragmentary sculpture and wall reliefs from late 18th and early 19th Dynasty stone monuments of Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, Sety I, and Ramesses II. He is honored to be a Visiting Scholar at the Museo Egizio Torino where he is focussing on the study and publication of the museum’s collection of Akhenaten-period blocks and sculpture fragments.
The event will be held in English, admission is free with a reservation on Eventbrite. Click HERE to book your place.
The lecture will be broadcast via streaming on the Museum's Facebook page and Youtube channel
info@museitorino.it
011 44 06 903
From Monday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
