Snake busters and Egyptian tombs

On Friday, 10 June 2016, I attended a tribute held at the Manchester Museum for Professor Rosalie A. David (OBE, BA, PhD, FRSA who  is Emeritus Professor of Egyptology at The University of Manchester and until her retirement in 2012, she was Director of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester. She was formerly Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum. She is the author of over 30 books and many articles and was awarded the OBE for services to Egyptology. The event was a tribute to Professor David and epitomized her constant support of interdisciplinary research. In attendance for the tribute and presentation of a festschrift  in her honor were curators and specialists in dentistry, medicine, scientific analysis, experimental archaeology, and Egyptology.

I was honored to attend the event and to have published an article written with Dr. Richard Johnson (Materials Engineering): Szpakowska, K., and R. Johnston. “Snake Busters: Pilot Experiments in making and breaking ritual figurines.” In Mummies, magic and medicine. Multidisciplinary essays in Egyptology for Rosalie David, edited by Campbell Price, Paul Nicholson, Robert Morkot, Joyce Tyldesley, Andrew Chamberlain and Roger Forshaw, 459-73. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016.

Another interdisciplinary publication appeared last year: Booth, A. D., K. Szpakowska, E. Pischikova, and K. Griffin. “Structure of an Ancient Egyptian tomb inferred from GPR imaging of deflected overburden horizons.” Archaeological Prospection 22 (2015): 33-44.