Talk: Revisiting North Saqqara: From Archives to Soundscapes with Dr Sergio Alarcón Robledo
Date: Sunday 4 October 15.00
Location: Online on Zoom
Tickets
Members: Free for full and online members. No booking necessary.
Guests: £7. Please book in advance via Eventbrite [link coming soon]
Event information
Saqqara was the main elite cemetery of Memphis during much of Egyptian history. It is one of the first Egyptian sites where monumental structures were built, and thus a strong case study for inquiring about the relationship between the birth of the state and the emergence of such architectural practices. The first part of this talk will explore the potential of combining archival work and topographic survey to complement the very fragmentary available publications. The speaker will then move on to provide an overview of some of these structures, arguing that they may have been much more than tombs: the evidence suggests that they were repeatedly used before the burial took place, indicating that the funeral was only one part of a larger ritual program than is usually assumed. The final part of the talk will present the first steps of an innovative research avenue that seeks to clarify how these structures could have been used. A study of their acoustic properties offers a means to assess the agency of spaces in shaping oral communication.