Thirty years of putting together an 800-year-old coffin uncovered evidence of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
Edwin C. Brock, a Canadian archaeologist, has worked since 1982 to put the physical and informational fragments of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah’s sarcophagus — his marble coffin — back together. Now Brock is coming to share his findings with the University of Memphis.
The Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology is co-hosting the seventh annual William J. Murnane Memorial Lecture with the Department of History and the Tennessee Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt.
Brock worked for many years in the Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of the Nile River, where tombs of pharaohs and nobles from the 16th to the 11th century BC were placed.
What sparked his interest in Merneptah was the way the pharaoh was buried. Merneptah was the only pharaoh to have four sarcophagi, each one inside the other like a nesting doll, making the Egyptian king a rare discovery.
“This was the most interesting king,” Brock said. “He was unlike the other kings who had more than one or two sarcophagi — he had four set one inside the other.”
The highlights of Brock’s illustrated lecture include his evidence for the methods of lowering the granite sarcophagi into the tomb and how the sarcophagi were later destroyed.
“I worked for quite some time on this, so it’s nice seeing it all come together,” Brock said.
The lecture will take place tonight in the University Center Fountain View Room, room 360, at 7 p.m. with a reception at 6:15 p.m.
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