What really happened to the Lost Army of Cambyses?
An answer from the recent excavations at Amheida, Dakhla Oasis
Presentation by Olaf Kaper, Leiden University
Friday, May 26, 3.30 pm
479 Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Herodotus relates a story of how a Persian army of 50.000 soldiers was sent into the Egyptian desert and disappeared in a sandstorm. This tale has always captured the imagination and many expeditions have searched for the remains of this army. Recent excavations at Amheida, Dakhla Oasis, have unexpectedly shed light on this mythical event. An Egyptian insurgency, led by a certain Petubastis, may have been much more important than was previously believed. It may be time to stop searching for the army buried in sand, and look for other evidence from this important time in Egypt's history.
Olaf E. Kaper is Professor of Egyptology at Leiden University and Associate Director of the mission of New York University at the site of Amheida, Dakhla Oasis. He is currently in LA as part of the Getty Scholars Program.
Sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, the Center for the Tebtunis Papyri and the Department of Near Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley
Contact information: rita.lucarelli@berkeley.edu
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