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SUMMARY: The first geological chronology of ancient Egypt and the antiquit
 y of man\, 1846–63 - Meira Gold (Department of History and Philosophy of
  Science)
DTSTART:20180129T130000Z
DTEND:20180129T140000Z
UID:TALK98587@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sebestian Kroupa
DESCRIPTION:The 1850s through early 1860s was a transformative period for 
 Victorian studies of the remote human past\, across many new and evolving 
 disciplines. Yet very little is known about the role of ancient Egypt as a
  focus of these discussions. Naturalists and scholars with Egyptological k
 nowledge fashioned themselves as authorities to contend with the divisive 
 topic of human antiquity and looked to the country's ancient monuments and
  written records to support their various claims. In a characteristic case
  of long-distance fieldwork\, British geologist Leonard Horner relied on T
 urkish-born\, English-educated\, Cairo-based engineer Joseph Hekekyan to m
 easure Nile silt deposits around pharaonic monuments at the ancient sites 
 of Heliopolis and Memphis. The excavations were jointly-funded by the Roya
 l Society of London and Egyptian government and contributed to a research 
 program\, championed by Horner and his son-in-law Charles Lyell\, to assig
 n absolute dates to the most recent geological period. Hekekyan meticulous
 ly recorded his field observations in hundreds of letters\, reports\, sket
 ches and maps\, which he sent to Horner for analysis. Their conclusion in 
 1858 that humans had existed in Egypt for over 13\,000 years was particula
 rly shocking to those who endorsed traditional biblical chronology and the
  work entered heated exchanges about man's place in nature and Scriptural 
 authority.\n\nThis talk will discuss these geo-archaeological investigatio
 ns\, the production and circulation of field records\, Hekekyan's role as 
 a go-between\, and lastly\, the publication's mixed reception by several g
 roups in Britain\, including Egyptologists\, geologists\, ethnologists\, a
 nthropologists\, Scriptual chronologists and German biblical critics. The 
 episode is indicative of the many practical attempts in this period to dea
 l with the growing anxieties of human antiquity. It further illuminates th
 e roles of local knowledge and ancient Egypt within debates about the age 
 of humans and highlights mid-Victorian attempts to reshape porous discipli
 nary boundaries.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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