SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : SPRING 2022 | ISSUE9
:
Updates on excavation, conservation, and research projects developing across Egypt
Dr. Louise Bertini
Executive Director
Celebrating the
Centennial
A fter two years of adapting and adjusting, we are thrilled
to resume hosting our most important programmatic
event of the year, the ARCE Annual Meeting in-person.
Warmest welcome to our members and attendees who
are joining us in California, as well as those continuing to tune in
from across the globe for our virtual component. I’d like to thank
our Annual Meeting sponsors:* Keynote Presentation Sponsor
National Geographic, President’s Reception Sponsor Getty
Conservation Institute, and our official Airline Sponsor EgyptAir.
Thank you as well as to our keynote speaker, George Herbert, 8th
Earl of Carnarvon, for helping us to mark this special centennial
year celebrating the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. In
addition to our regular programs and fieldwork, ARCE has been
rolling out a suite of Tutankhamun-themed content to celebrate
the 100-year anniversary, from lectures to a member tour.
SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : Fall 2022 | ISSUE 10
:
The Celebrations
Continue!
E
veryone interested in ancient Egypt knows of the events
being celebrated this year in Egypt and throughout the
world of Egyptology. It is of course the centennial of
Howard Carter’s amazing discovery of KV62, the tomb
of Tutankhamun, and also the bicentennial of Jean-François
Champollion’s demonstration that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
could once again be read and understood. ARCE has thus continued
rolling out its suite of events, bringing the celebrations to fruition!
Programs
In April, ARCE held its 73rd Annual Meeting in Irvine, California
where we celebrated these momentous events with our keynote
speaker, the current and 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Lord George
Herbert. To further mark the centennial, we kicked-off our national
chapter lecture tour in June with Dr. Marc Gabolde, who shared the
fascinating story of the fate of several missing artifacts ‘diverted’
away from Tutankhamun’s tomb.
The Virtual Annual Meeting also connected researchers and
members from around the world, to participate and share their
own research findings. Both virtual and in-person lectures were
recorded and are all now online, helping more members experience
the lectures at their own convenience. A sincere thank you to all
the ARCE staff and members who helped make both the virtual and
in-person Annual Meeting such a well-organized and successful event.
We also have a number of exciting events coming up including
the continuation of the Tutankhamun Centennial Chapter Lecture
Tour with Dr. Betsy Bryan, who will be travelling to Chicago, Kansas
City, North Texas, and Atlanta chapters between September 26th
and October 3rd. The special event Transcending Eternity: The
Centennial Tutankhamun Conference carried out in partnership
with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities will take
place in Luxor from November 4th-6th, 2022, and we are honored
to continue our partnership with National Geographic through our
collaboration with their Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience
project in providing content and partnership programming. See
their advertisement in this issue for a discount code to visit the
exhibition and stay tuned to ARCE.org for more information!
Fieldwork
In Luxor, the renovations of Howard Carter’s house continue thanks
to the generous donation by long-time ARCE board member Adina
Savin. In this issue of Scribe, ARCE’s Sally El Sabbahy and Nicholas
Warner review the fascinating history behind the construction of
Carter’s house and its use in the years following the discovery of
KV62. In the next issue coming out in early 2023, the team will
review the outcome of the conservation efforts and report on the
grand re-opening of the house scheduled for November of this
year, on the actual centennial of Carter opening the tomb on the
4th of November, 1922.
Media Tour
In June, ARCE hosted a special media tour to highlight ARCE
Antiquities Endowment Fund (AEF) projects, Research Supporting
Member projects, and past USAID-funded projects in Cairo. The
tour included a visit to the Great Pyramid to see the results of the
Ancient Egypt Research Associate’s (AERA) AEF-funded project
to record and better-protect Khufu’s Mortuary Temple. The most
visible change is the installation of a new access walkway encircling
the remains of the temple’s formidable black basalt pavement,
which should provide a more secure and less damaging path from
which to see the surviving monumental remains. The tour also
visited the Fatimid-era Bab Zuwayla gate, one of three surviving
entrances that controlled access to the fortified medieval city of
Old Cairo, where from 1998-2003, ARCE spearheaded an intense
conservation project, with support from USAID and under the
supervision of Nairy Hampikian, to remove, restore, and re-install
the Bab Zuwayla’s sizable wood and iron doors. The final site visited
was the Church of the blessed Virgin Mary, Saint George, and Abu
Sefein to see some of the many Coptic icons that that were restored
thanks to conservation efforts led by ARCE between 1998-2004.
It is so important to revisit these successful projects in
conjunction with the media and our colleagues from the Ministry
of Tourism and Antiquities. They show just how great an impact
the USAID grants, member donations, and endowments funds
have ‘in the field’.
SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : SPRING 2023 | ISSUE11
:
Updates on developments taking place in the United States and Egypt
Building a New
Foundation for Our
Future, 2023-2028
I n November of last year, the ARCE executive team presented an exclusive,
members-only virtual town hall webinar that set out ARCE’s new vision for the
future. Board of Governors President Dr. David Anderson, Executive Director Dr.
Louise Bertini, and US Director Liska Radachi presented ARCE's new strategic
plan, developed after many months of consultation with staff, chapter leaders, focus
groups, and nearly five hundred members and associates.
SCRIBE : The Magazine of The American Research Center in Egypt : Fall 2023 | ISSUE12
:
Updates on excavation, conservation, and research projects developing across Egypt
Dr. Louise Bertini
Executive Director
ARCE in action on
our 75th year
W elcome to the new issue of Scribe magazine! We
hope you had a great summer and are now ready
to hear the latest interesting news about ARCE’s
ongoing work in Egypt and about our plans for
the final months of our 75th anniversary.
Over the last six months, ARCE staff, officers, members, and
our partners have been organizing and hosting events, developing
our library and online resources, and working with excavators,
academics, conservation experts, officials, and heritage management
teams from Egypt and around the world.
In May, we hosted our 74th Annual Meeting in the Minneapolis
Marriot City Center hotel and conference venue, followed the
weekend after by the virtual online conference. Both events were
very successful. In addition to a slate of outstanding presentations,
attendees were treated to special panel sessions and an exclusive
museum workshop entitled ‘Engaging Egypt and Africa in Museum
Settings’. The keynote address was a joint presentation by Dr.
Betsy Bryan and Dr. Fayza Haikal, who recounted deeply personal
stories in their talk entitled “Women in Egyptology: Long Career
Reflections”. This was delivered at the magnificent Minneapolis
Institute of Art and surely left a lasting impression on all who were
in attendance. Next year, the 75th annual in-person meeting will
take place in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, from April 19th to 21st at the
Omni William Penn hotel.
In Egypt, ARCE hosted the Cultural Property Protection
conference with delegates attending from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq,
Yemen, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Palestine. This was
made possible thanks to generous funding from the U.S. Embassy in
Cairo, in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
(MoTA), the Council of American Overseas Research Centers
(CAORC), and the US Department of State. The conference focused
on “Sustainable Documentation and Inventories Management” and
ended on a promising note where recommendations were drafted
based on more than thirty presentations by regional experts. Rec-
ommendations included the formation of an “Arab World Heritage”
network, increasing collaboration through regional joint projects,
and the development of regional training initiatives.