LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Archaeologist and author Brian Fagan will discuss the beginnings of Egyptology in a free, public talk, “The Rape of the Nile,” at the University of Louisville Sept. 18.
His talk will focus on the archaeologists and adventurers who discovered ancient Egypt, from Napoleon Bonaparte, who plundered much of the country’s treasure, to Howard Carter, who found King Tut’s tomb.
It will be “an Indiana Jones-like tale of high adventure and great discoveries, of tomb robbing and downright villainy,” The Liberal Studies Project in UofL’s College of Arts and Sciences, event sponsor, said in a flyer promoting the talk.
Now professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Fagan taught archaeology there from 1967 to 2003 before retiring to write full-time. His books include “The Adventure of Archaeology,” “The Great Journey,” “Floods, Famines and Emperors” and “Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind.”
His 1975 book about early Egyptology, “The Rape of the Nile,” has been translated into nine languages.
Fagan also has done archaeological field work, museum work and monument conservation in Africa and helped excavate a series of 1,000-year-old farming villages in Zambia.
He will speak at 5 p.m. in the University Club Ballroom. Parking is available in the University Club lot and the Floyd Street parking garage.
For more information, contact Janna Tajibaeva at 502-852-2247 or janna@louisville.edu