Northern California ARCE Sept. 10 Lecture: Old Kingdom Expressions of Power

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California Chapter, and the Near Eastern Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley, invite you to attend a lecture by Jessica Tomkins of Brown University Power in the Provinces: Old Kingdom Expressions of Power   Sunday, September 10, 3 pm NES Lounge, Room 254 Barrows Hall UC Berkeley Campus (Near the intersection of Bancroft Way and Barrow Lane) Please Note the Room Change! About the Lecture: Power in the Old Kingdom is epitomized by the Great Pyramids, those huge monuments which were, and remain to this day, symbolic of the sheer might and power of those Old Kingdom kings who dominate almost all surviving evidence. But what of those with lesser power, working underneath the king for the state at large - the men stationed throughout the provinces, running Egypt as local leaders and provincial administrators? This talk examines our modern understanding of ancient administrative practices and traces the types of power held by provincial governors and administrators, highlighting how they expressed their power at various regional sites throughout Egypt. An analysis of the dichotomy between the power of the central and regional governments, as well as between the different local governments themselves, highlights the degree to which Old Kingdom Egypt was, or was not, politically and ideologically united, and the extent to which the kings of the Old Kingdom were totalitarian leaders of a highly centralized state. About the Speaker: Jessica Tomkins is currently the Terrace Research Associate in Egyptian Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and is in the final year of her PhD in Egyptology at Brown University. She received her BA in Ancient History and Egyptology from University College London in 2009, and a Master of Studies in Ancient Greek History from the University of Oxford in 2011. She has worked on the Giza Archives Project at Harvard and the Naukratis Project at the British Museum, and has held a year-long internship in the Department of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She was also awarded a fellowship by the Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology and the Ancient World to be the Collections Proctor for the Egyptian collection at Brown University for the forthcoming year. For her PhD, Jessica is examining the relationship between regional and central power in the Old Kingdom. ---------- Parking is available in U.C. lots after 5 p.m. on weekdays and all day on weekends for a fee. Ticket dispensing machines accept either $5 bills or $1 bills, and credit cards. Parking is available in Parking Structure B on Bancroft between Hearst Gym and Kroeber Hall and just across the street from the University Art Museum. Parking is also available under the shops on Bancroft opposite Barrows Hall. There is a parking structure under the Student Union further west on Bancroft. A map of the campus is available online at http://www.berkeley.edu/map/ For more information about Egyptology events, go to http://www.arce-nc.org or http://www.facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARC.