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You may already have read about the seminar we held on 7 March to mark International Women’s Day, The women who redrew Egypt, exploring the partnership of Amice Calverley and Myrtle Broom and their work at Abydos. It’s fair to say that the event was a great success and highly entertaining, too.
Making a rare book available again
But it was also the launch day for one of the most exciting book projects the EES has undertaken for some time. Professor Rosalie David, who was one of the speakers at the event, and the Society have agreed to publish a revised and expanded edition of her now classic book, A Guide to Religious Ritual at Abydos. Long out of print, it is hard to come by and even second-hand will cost you an arm and leg (and possibly some sacrifices to the gods).
This in itself would make the reprint worthwhile, but there’s more to it still: as part of their work at Abydos, Calverley and Broome had copied many images – in the form of line drawings as well as magnificent watercolours – from the temple of Seti I. These were published between 1933 and 1958 by the EES and the Oriental Institute in four volumes, or perhaps better, tomes of massive size and weight, and so expensive that their production required support from the Rockefeller family.
It is from these volumes – virtually unavailable in print outside institutional libraries – that we plan to include a number of images in Prof David’s book, bringing together her own work and that of Calverley and Broome. In this way, we hope to give the common Egyptological reader an opportunity to own material that has been inaccessible for too long.
Be a Rockefeller
To help us make this happen, we call on you to support this project financially through your sponsorship (a bit like Rockefeller did in the day…). Donations of any size will be warmly welcomed and will be acknowledged. Anyone donating £50 or more will be thanked in the book itself and donors giving £300 or more will also receive a complimentary copy. The current publication date is spring 2016.
If you would like to make a donation, please click here (please check 'Unrestricted / general funds' and let us know in an email), or download our sponsorship form for you to print out and return to our offices, or alternatively contact our Finance Manager, Maria Idowu.