Lecture Videos

Lecture audience wearing 3D Glasses

The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East offers a free annual lecture series open to the public. This series showcases new research presented by world-renowned scholars of the ancient world. Below you will find several of our most recent lectures, presented in full and unedited. Check out our calendar to find out about upcoming lectures.

Lecture Videos

"The Mummies of Aswan: The Missing Link" - Patrizia Piacentini - 11/2/23

"The Living Dead in Ancient Egypt" - Julia Troche - 10/11/23

"Finding the God Osiris: Latest Excavations at Abusir and Saqqara" - Miroslav Bárta - 9/28/23

"The Power of Antiquity in the Making of Modern Egypt" - Wendy Doyon - 4/21/2023

"Divine Mortals: Royal Ancestor Worship in Deir el-Medina" - Yasmin El Shazly - 4/18/23

"The “Mummy Portraits” of Roman Egypt: Status, Ethnicity, and Magic" - Lorelei H. Corcoran - 10/6/22

"Exploring Egypt’s Middle Kingdom at the Site of Ancient Thebes" - Antonio J. Morales -3/31/22

"On the Literacy and Education of Ancient Egyptian Artists" - Dimitri Laboury - 2/24/22

"Reconstructing Queen Amanishakheto’s Musical Instruments" - Susanne Gänsicke - 11/18/21

"How Beer Made Kings in Early Egypt" - Matthew Douglas Adams - 10/12/21

"Performance and Ritual in Ancient Egyptian Funerary Practice" - Mariam Ayad - 4/29/21

"Black Is Queen: The Divine Feminine in Kush" - Solange Ashby - 3/25/21

"Decolonizing Meresankh at Giza" - Peter Der Manuelian - 3/30/21

"Apprenticeship in Ancient Egypt" - Willeke Wendrich - 9/16/20

"The Khufu Boat" - Bob Brier - 3/05/20

"Ancient Egyptian Culture and Its Continuity in Modern Egypt" - Fayza Haikal - 2/13/20

"Human Sacrifice and Power in the Kerma Kingdom" - Elizabeth Minor - 11/19/19

"Breaking the Noses on Egyptian Statues" - Edward Bleiberg - 9/26/19

"The Making of a Theban Tomb Chapel" - Melinda Hartwig - 4/3/19

See also: The Lost Chair

"Magic and Demonology in Ancient Egypt" - Rita Lucarelli - 2/21/19

"Giza Is My Classroom" - Peter Der Manuelian

"Photographing Tutankhamun: How the Camera Helped Create “King Tut"" - Christina Riggs - 11/7/18

"Memories of the Kings and Queens of Kush: Archaeology and Heritage at El Kurru" - Geoff Emberling - 10/18/18

"Creating a King for Eternity" - Florence D. Friedman - 09/25/18

"Fabricating the Giza Dream Stela of Thutmose IV" - Peter Der Manuelian - 4/20/18

"Analyzing Egyptian Pyramids in the Digital Age" - Yukinori Kawae - 04/05/18

"Ancient Egypt in Contemporary Africa: New Excavations at the Island Fortress of Uronarti" - Laurel Bestock - 03/19/18

"New Discoveries at Wadi al-Jarf" - Gregory Marouard - 02/12/18

"Egypt’s Old Kingdom: The Latest Discoveries at Abusir South" - Miroslav Bárta - 11/14/17

"Divine Creatures Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt" - Salima Ikram - 10/12/17

"Inside the Tombs of Saqqara: The Ancient Egyptian Burial Site Revealed" - Ramadan B. Hussein - 09/28/17

"Cracking Bones, Gnawing Flesh, and Pondering Hearts" - Ulrike Steinert - 09/19/2017

"Anxieties about Race in Egyptology and Egyptomania" - Donald Reid - 04/06/17

"W. E. B. Du Bois, Education, and Archaeology in Egypt" by Vanessa Davies - 03/28/17

"Epic of Gilgamesh" - Andrew George - 09/28/16

"Mystery Cults and Plagues in Egypt" - Francesco Tiradritti - 04/19/16

"Destroying Images: Current Iconoclasm in Context" - James Simpson - 03/01/16

"Collectors and Dealers: The Trade of Egyptian Antiquities" - Kim Ryholt - 04/21/15

"Breaking Iconoclasm" (Standing Committee on Archaeology Special Roundtable) - 12/02/15

"David Gordon Lyon and the Harvard Semitic Museum" - Peter Der Manuelian, Joseph A. Greene, and Adam Aja - 12/04/14

"Wine in the Ancient Near East" - Andrew Koh and Joseph A. Greene - 10/23/14

"A Short History of the Ten Commandments" - Michael Coogan - 04/22/14

"The Discovery of Pharaoh Senebkay" - Josef Wegner - 03/31/14

"The Sun Temple of Nefertiti" - Jacquelyn Williamson - 02/04/14

"Joseph, Potiphar's Wife, and the Jewish Colony in Egypt" - Bernd U. Schipper - 12/03/13

Joseph Potiphar's Wife and the Jewish Colony in Egypt

Bernd U. Schipper presents a new take on the biblical story of Joseph. How do we explain the story’s positive image of Egypt, when the Bible usually portrays it as a place of slavery and suffering? This lecture offers a new interpretation of the popular text, with insights from papyri recovered from the site of the Jewish colony of Elephantine in southern Egypt.

"Egyptomania" - Bob Brier - 11/19/13

"Discovering Nefertiti's Artist" - Alain Zivie - 10/17/13

"Memories of the Kings and Queens of Kush

"Memories of the Kings and Queens of Kush