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For release: March 2, 2010
For press information, contact the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, 901/678-2555
Date: Thursday, March 4, 2010
Location: Manning Hall Auditorium, room 201 University of Memphis main campus
Reception: 6:30 p.m.
Lecture: 7 p.m.
The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Cheryl Ward, associate professor of history at Coastal Carolina University and
director of the CCU Center for Archaeology and Anthropology, will bring to light archaeological
finds related to ancient Egyptian seafaring and place them in their wider social and
historical context. She will also introduce her recent reconstruction of a seagoing
ship and its voyage, and discuss the impact of this "experimental archaeology" on
our understanding of ancient Egypt as a seafaring nation.
Dr. Ward is a maritime archaeologist with an active research program in the history
and construction of wooden ships and archaeobotany. She currently serves as co-principal
investigator for maritime artifacts at the pharaonic seaport at Wadi Gawasis on the
Red Sea in Egypt. Much of her research targets the oldest existing ships and boats,
including those buried in the deserts of Egypt between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago.
Her recent projects include participating in remote surveys of both the ancient coastline
and the deep anoxic layer in the Black Sea for INA (Institute of Nautical Archaeology);
helping to reconstruct one of the world's oldest planked boats at Abydos, Egypt, and
directing an underwater archaeological survey off the coast of Turkey in the region
where Roman pirates operated and were later settled. In addition, she directed the
excavation of the 18th-century Sadana Island shipwreck in Egypt¹s Red Sea, with its
cargo of coffee, coconuts, and frankincense for INA.
Her published works include "Sacred and Secular: Ancient Egyptian Ship Construction"
(2000, AIA Monographs series), and "The Philosophy of Shipbuilding: Conceptual Approaches
to the Study of Wooden Ships" (2004, Texas A&M University Press)
For more information, contact the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the
University of Memphis, 901-678-2555.
Her presentation is sponsored by the Mississippi-Memphis Chapter of the Archaeological
Institute of America and co-sponsored by the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology
at the University of Memphis.
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