Nov. 13 Lecture Will Explore Life and Lineage of Tutankhamun

For release: October 22, 2008
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901/678-2843

Burial Mask of Tutankhamun
Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Dr. James P. Allen will explore the life and lineage of one of Egypt’s most famous rulers, the boy-king Tutankhamun, in an illustrated lecture at the University of Memphis. He will present "King Tutankhamun’s Father" Thursday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m. in the Fogelman Executive Center, Room 123. A reception at 6:15 will precede the lecture. The talk is free and open to the public.

Although King Tut is probably the most famous pharaoh from ancient Egypt, much about his personal life and childhood remains a mystery. Perhaps the son of an earlier king – the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaton – Tutankhamun came to the throne as a boy after the death of an ephemeral and little-known predecessor, Smenkhkara.

Using information drawn from works of art as well as objects of daily life, Allen will offer a new look at the evidence for Tutankhamun’s parentage and present the most probable solution it suggests.

Allen is the Wilbour Professor of Egyptology and chair of the Department of Egyptology and Ancient Western Asian Studies at Brown University. Before joining Brown in 2007, he was an epigrapher with the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey, Cairo director of the American Research Center in Egypt, and curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Allen also is president of the International Association of Egyptologists.

The third annual William J. Murnane Memorial Lecture is sponsored by the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the U of M. Parking is available in the parking garage on Innovation Drive, adjacent to the Fogelman Executive Center.

More information is available by phone at 901-678-2555 or online at http://academics.memphis.edu/egypt/events.html

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