Northern California ARCE Zoom Lecture June 22: The non-elite community of Deir el-Ballas

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. Victoria Jensen, UC Berkeley: In the Shadow of the Palace: The non-elite community of Deir el-Ballas as revealed by the settlement remains and tombs Sunday, June 22, 2025, 3 PM PDT This virtual lecture will be recorded for later posting on the chapter's YouTube channel. Register in advance for this lecture: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Mr2bNJKXQu2YtfoJt4pTLw After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture: * Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to "Register in advance for this lecture" you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm.  This is a security measure. * If you haven't already installed Zoom, I recommend that you download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you're using. * For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, "Joining a Zoom Meeting" should show you what you need to do to join our lecture. * All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. "Everyone" is the default chat option. If you have any questions, please email arcencZoom@gmail.com. About the Lecture: The site of Deir el-Ballas played a major role in the birth of the New Kingdom as a royal campaign headquarters of the Theban kings during their ultimately successful wars to expel the Hyksos. For several generations afterwards (c. 1550-1450 BC), a non-elite population lived in the shadow of the abandoned palace in this provincial town. Deir el-Ballas was excavated on behalf of the University of California in 1900-1901 by George Reisner under the sponsorship of Phoebe Apperson Hearst, but was never published. Drawing on archival research and examination of hundreds of artifacts from the site that are held in the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, Jensen has reconstructed the excavations of the Hearst Expedition at the site, particularly the cemeteries. Her research examines the community's funerary practices and considers the cultural memory the residents held of their town's illustrious past. About the Speaker: Victoria Jensen is a Senior Research Scholar in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a past President of the Northern California Chapter of ARCE. Victoria earned her B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in International Relations at the University of Chicago and had a career in grant administration before returning to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Egyptology at the University of California Berkeley, which she received in 2019.  Her dissertation research has just been published as a two-volume monograph in the Harvard Egyptological Studies series, entitled "The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Deir el-Ballas: The non-elite cemeteries of the 17th–19th Dynasties." About ARCE-NC: For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE, https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaArce, https://arce-nc.org/, or http://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.