25 Feb 2012 - 11:00
London WC1N 2PG
London Seminar: Programmes on the Past: ancient Egypt on television
Event Info
Host: EES
Type: Education – Workshop
Time and Place
Start Time: Saturday, 25th February 2012, 11:00 am
End Time: Saturday, 25th February 2012, 4:00 pm
Location: The Egypt Exploration Society
Street: 3 Doughty Mews
City/Town: London WC1N 2PG
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Contact Details
Email: contact@ees.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7242 1880
Link: http://www.ees.ac.uk/events/index/114.html
Description
The effective use of mass media has been centrally important to the work of the Society since its beginnings, when Amelia Edwards regularly re-cast the letters sent by Petrie from Egypt as dig reports for The Times. In the last half century television has played an important role in helping to ‘spread the word’, and for several years during the 1970s the Society regularly arranged showings of the latest Egyptology-related films for members. For this it was indebted to Paul Johnstone, the creator of the ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral’ series now widely regarded as having been the first in a line of iconic, archaeology-related BBC series, along with ‘Chronicle’ (which he also produced), ‘Timewatch’ and ‘Discovery’. Many of these featured the Society’s work and are now a valuable record of the way in which archaeology has been presented to the public, and an important source for the study of the history of our discipline. With the Society’s recent use of online video to promote and disseminate its work in mind we decided it was time to revive the practice of the 1970s by showing excerpts from a series of films featuring EES work as part of our seminar series. We will also be inviting several of those who appeared in the films on behalf of the EES to Doughty Mews to discuss their involvement, and share their thoughts on the way their work was portrayed.
The films will include: Discovery: The Fortress on the Nile (Qasr Ibrim), Chronicle: Father of Pots (Petrie), Chronicle: For the Love of Egypt (dramatisation of Amelia Edwards’ work for the EEF), Chronicle: Memphis.
Guests will include Dr Robert Anderson (Fortress), Dr David Jeffreys (Memphis), John J Johnston (For the Love of Egypt), and Prof Geoffrey Martin (Memphis).
All proceeds from ticket sales go towards the continuation of the Society’s work in Egypt and the UK.