While The University of Memphis dig that recently discovered the new tomb in the Valley of the Kings continues, the Art Museum at The U of M and some members of the Amenmesse Tomb Project will be celebrating and exploring the art and culture of ancient Egypt this Saturday.
The Art Museum's Family Day is sponsored by the Institute for Egyptian Art and Archaeology and is a chance for children and adults to not only learn about Egyptian art but to create their own as well.
Family Day gives people the chance to do more than just look at The University's Egyptian art exhibit, according to Dennis O'Connor, an art history graduate student.
"It's an opportunity for the community to participate in the collection," he said.
The activities offered vary from hieroglyph writing and coloring masks of ancient Egyptian gods to tours of The University's Egyptian exhibit and a presentation of the ongoing excavation in Egypt.
The event comes just a week after some of the participants of the archaeological dig in Egypt returned to Memphis for the first time after their discovery of the new tomb in February.
And even though they just came home, Lorelei Corcoran, director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology and Amenmesse Tomb Project member, said they can't wait to get back to Egypt.
The discovery was "a joy we will never forget," she said at a press conference Monday.
In the month since the new tomb was discovered, the team now knows that there are seven coffins in the tomb instead five, as was originally thought, and the contents of the pottery vessels found in the tomb are being analyzed.
"The most important part now is the conservation and documentation of what's been found," she said.
The location of the new tomb in the Valley of the Kings and the age - late 18th Dynasty - are significant pieces of the find, but mysteries will remain until each coffin and pottery vessel has been opened and analyzed, Corcoran said.
Sharon Nichols, a U of M art history graduate student who has helped with the project in Egypt, said the discovery was the learning experience of a lifetime and came with unexpected responsibility.
"I felt very responsible for the individuals inside," Nichols said of entering the tomb. "We were opening something that was intended to be closed for eternity."
Nichols will also be helping with Family Day this weekend and said that just having been to Egypt gives her a new authority on the subject that could help spark other people's interest in Egyptian art.
"Now I can say that I have really seen the hieroglyphics on the walls," she said.
