July 2016
Saturday, August 13, 2016, 5 P.M.
“Akhenaten and the Origins of
Monotheism”
3460 SOUTH BROADWAY, LOS ANGELES, CA 90007
WWW.EGYPTEXPLORATION.ORG
EMAIL: [email protected]
Dr. James K. Hoffmeier, Professor of Near Eastern
Archaeology and Old Testament at Trinity
International University, Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Dr. James K. Hoffmeier
Dr. James K. Hoffmeier received his B.A .at
Wheaton College and his M.A .in Egyptian
Archaeology at the University of Toronto in 1975.
He completed his Ph.D. from Toronto in 1982 in
Ancient Near Eastern Religions. Dr. Hoffmeier
participated in excavations in Egypt in 1975 and
1977 with the Akhenaten Temple Project, and he
was on the faculty at Wheaton College until
1999, when he joined the faculty of Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School as professor of Near
Eastern Archaeology and Old Testament. He has
engaged in fieldwork and research in Egypt on a
regular basis, and since 1994, he has directed
the
North
Sinai
Archaeological
Project
researching Egypt’s eastern frontier, leading to
excavations at Tell el-Borg between 1999 and
2008. Dr. Hoffmeier has authored and edited a
number of books, most recently Excavations in
North Sinai: Tell el-Borg I (2014) and Akhenaten
and the Origins of Monotheism (2015).
Few figures from ancient Egyptian history have stimulated as much
interest as Akhenaten. This 14th century B.C. pharaoh is one of the
most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most
fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in
representations he commissioned and his preoccupation with
worshiping the sun disc, or Aten, has stimulated a vast amount of
academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. This
talk will focus on Akhenaten’s religion, exploring questions such as
how did Akhenaten’s religion develop? What prompted his program of
persecution against Amun who had been the imperial god of Egypt in
the centuries prior to Akhenaten? Did politics and power motivate his
actions? Was he a monotheist? If so, what if any influence did his
religion have on the origin of Israel’s religion? Dr. Hoffmeier provides
insight from his re-examination of numerous texts and reliefs from
Akhenaten’s reign to answer the question: Was Akhenaten a genuine
convert to the worship of Aten, the sole creator God, based on his
own testimony of a theophany, a divine encounter?
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NOTE: This 5 p.m. meeting will be held in the Community
Room of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, 15301 Ventura Blvd.,
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
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June Lecture Sparkled With Tales
of Ancient Egyptian Gold and
Amethyst Miners
Ancient Egypt in the News
July 7, 2016 - Egypt’s XXIII and XXV
royal dynasties built tombs on the
upper terrace of the ruins of the temple
of Hatshepsut
Full article
Speaker Dr. Kate Liszka (center) poses with EEO/SC
President Ken Ragland (left) and Member David Orr.
During her June 25 lecture, we discovered just
how lucky we are to have Dr. Kate Liszka nearby
as the new assistant professor of history at
California State University, San Bernardino. She
spoke with passion, clarity and a storyteller’s flair
about her many exciting finds as director of the
Wadi el-Hudi Expedition in the barren desert east
of Aswan.
Accompanied by plenty of detailed site photos
and Google Earth satellite images, Dr. Liszka
painted a vivid picture of life around the largescale mining operations that supplied amethyst
and gold to Egyptian royal courts. For example,
soldiers bored at their posts while guarding the
mines scrawled surprisingly literate graffiti on
their rock overlooks. Supervisors closely watched
hoards of gems piled in a storage room near
mine headquarters. Egyptian and Nubian workers
lived in small, stone rooms among the disarray
one might imagine from a group of young men
camped out for months in the remote settlement.
June 9, 2016 - Timbers from the ancient
Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu’s second
solar boat discovered on the Giza
Plateau
Full article
Dr. Liszka generously agreed to return soon for
another lecture on a different topic—a must-see
for all EEO/SC members. Watch our calendar!
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Get Your Checkbooks Ready!
September is Membership Renewal Month.
It’s up to YOU to keep our great events coming!
Wait for the official notice in August…
Our Organization
The Egypt Exploration Organization of Southern
California (EEO/SC) is a nonprofit organization that
hosts Egyptologists from all over the world to give
public lectures.
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Save These Dates!
Requested donation for attending a lecture is $15 for
EEO/SC members and $20 for nonmembers. Light
snacks and beverages are served at the meetings.
September 10, 2016, Dr. Diana Patch, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Topic TBD
For additional information about our organization or
events, please visit our website at
www.egyptexploration.org or contact one of the
following:
October 15, 2016: Dr. David Anderson University
of Wisconsin La Crosse, "Faunal Remains from
the Predynastic Settlement at al-Mahasna
Revisited"
November 12, 2016: Dr. Renee Friedman,
Director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition, topic
TBD
Susan Spohr
(213) 792-0832
Stephen Schimpf (310) 951-8128
Join EEO/SC!
•
•
•
•
December 10, 2016: Dr. Melinda Hartwig, The
Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University,
topic TBD
Meet top Egyptologists from all over the world.
Be invited to exclusive, members-only events.
Save with discounted member prices and tickets.
Help support the work of professional
Egyptologists and Egyptology students.
Coming in 2017!
To join or learn more, go to:
http://www.egyptexploration.org
January 2017: TBD
February 11, 2017: Dr. Ellen Morris, Barnard
College, Topic TBD
March 11, 2017: Dr. Nadine Moeller, The
Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, “The
Ahmose Tempest Stela”
April 2017: TBD
May 13, 2017: Dr. Laurel Bestock, Brown
University, will speak on the role of imagery of
violence and power in the ideology of early Egypt.
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