‘Crocodiles & Kings: Hellenistic Egypt Recycled’, The King’s School, Canterbury

On Monday 10^th February, 7-8pm, Dr Dorothy J. Thompson will deliver the following talk at The King’s School, Canterbury:

‘Crocodiles & Kings: Hellenistic Egypt Recycled’

When Greeks and Romans visited Egypt as tourists what did they find there? The evidence of papyri, preserved in the dry desert sands, can introduce us to life in both the cities and the countryside of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt. In Alexandria royal patronage was responsible for the preservation of earlier Greek literature while in the countryside agriculture continued as earlier, barely affected by the new settlers who had arrived following the conquest of Alexander in 332 BC.

Dorothy Thompson is a Fellow of the British Academy and Honorary President of the International Society of Papyrologists. During her career, she has won numerous awards and fellowships, including a Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust. At Cambridge, she held the post of Newton Trust Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics and was Director of Studies in Classics and Senior Tutor at Girton College. Her book on Memphis under the Ptolemies (ed.2, 2012) won the James H. Breasted Prize of the American Historical Association in 1989. “It is no exaggeration to say that her work has had a profound impact upon the study of Greco-Roman Egypt” (The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri, University of Berkeley). Since retiring in 2006, the demand for Dr Thompson’s expertise in her field has taken her to deliver courses and lectures in Egypt and at Yale University.

The talk will take place in The Gateway Chamber, St Augustine’s, Monastery Street, The King’s School, Canterbury, CT1 1NN. Refreshments will be available and there is no charge for this event.

Please email Harmony Johnson () by Monday 3^rd February if you would like to attend the talk.