By: Alyssa Rosenthal (Class of 2013)
From The Trinity Tripod, 21 February 2012

“Trinity welcomed one of the world’s foremost Egyptologists to campus on Wednesday, Feb. 15 to speak about her recent discoveries at Abydos, one of the most ancient cities in Upper Egypt. Associate Professor of Classics Martha Risser introduced Dr. Janet Richards, who was “deliriously happy to be back in New England.” The program was organized by Trinity’s Classics Department and the Hartford Society of the Archeological Institute of America. Richards is currently an Associate Professor of Egyptology in the Near Eastern Studies Department and Associate Curator for Dynastic Egypt at the Kelsey Museum at the University of Michigan. She has been the Field Director at the Abydos Middle Cemetery Project in Egypt since 1995, where her most notable achievement was the discovery of the lost tomb of Weni the Elder, one of the king’s officials, and his lengthy biography. Richards has published books about architecture, art, and society in ancient Egypt. Her most recent publication is titled Order, Legitimacy, and Wealth in Ancient States. Before diving into her presentation, titled “People, Politics, and Piety in Ancient Egypt,” Richards told her listeners she wanted to “bring [them] into the process of discovery.” She situated her findings from the sixth dynasty of ancient Egypt, around 2300 B.C., during the reign of King Pepi I. The great pyramids were built at Giza about a century earlier, during the fourth dynasty.”

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