Israeli Elections Come and Go, But Israel Remains an Outlaw State
A Palestinian family reacts after Israeli bulldozers demolished their home in the Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina, Feb. 5, 2013. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
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Richard H. Curtiss (1927-2013) Devoted His Life to Telling People Stories
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Then-Vice President Dick Cheney (l) and Likud chairman Benyamin Netanyahu, out of office at the time and serving as the official Israeli opposition leader, at a March 23, 2008 breakfast meeting at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Peace at Last in the Southern Philippines?
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Two Palestinian, Israeli Documentaries Depict Evils of Military Occupation
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January/February 2012, Page 48
Music & Arts
ARCE Lecture on Ancient Egypt Iconoclasm
Dr. Betsy Bryan speaks about Hatshepsut and Akhenaten. (Photo Courtesy Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies)
The Washington, DC chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) presented an Oct. 18 lecture on "Episodes in Iconoclasm in New Kingdom Egypt" at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in the nation's capital. Dr. Betsy Bryan, a specialist in the history, art and archaeology of Egypt's New Kingdom, ca. 1600-1000 B.C., from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, spoke about two of her favorite iconoclasts, Hatshepsut and Akhenaten.
Bryan began by remarking on how new audiences are taking an interest in this subject as people note the similarities between ancient iconoclasm and modern fundamentalism that tries to shut down the religious expression of others. For ancient Egyptians, the mutilation and destruction of images often focused on decapitation and dismemberment, as seen in the remains of both predynastic mummies and statues of 18th Dynasty pharaohs like Hatshepsut and Akhenaten. These attacks were motivated in part, Bryan explained, by the belief that removing the head, hands and feet would impede your enemies from coming after you even after death.
In some cases it was strikingly clear that these acts were not ordinary looting. Bryan showed a slide of a mummy with its head removed but a valuable necklace left untouched. The destruction of statues of Hatshepsut took place late in the reigns of Thutmose III and his son. Bryan showed a slide of Hattie's Hole, the nickname for the less prominent site where most artifacts related to her ended up. In the case of Akhenaten, his autocratic methods of eliminating other gods and imposing the worship of Aten paved the way for his successors to try to eradicate his legacy and revert to the old traditions.
ARCE is a national nonprofit educational organization that supports archaeology and preservation in Egypt and works closely with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) within the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.
—Anne O'Rourke
