The Palace of Pharaoh Merenptah: Examining an Archaeological “Cold Case”

As part of his coronation ceremonies, Pharaoh Merenptah (reigned ca. 1213–1203 BCE) built a ceremonial palace complex at Egypt's political capital, Memphis. This building was excavated by Clarence Fisher for the Penn Museum between 1915 and 1920, but he never published his findings. Elements of this magnificent building brought back from Egypt by Fisher will form one of the centerpieces of the Penn Museum's upcoming Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries, currently being designed. This lecture will transport you to Egypt at the dawn of the Roaring 20s, as we examine archival documents and photographs in order to contextualize this great palace building and understand what it was and how it originally looked.

Kevin Cahail, Ph.D., is the Collections Manager of the Egyptian Section. He received his B.A. in Classics and Classical Archaeology in 2003 from San Francisco State University, and his Ph.D. in Egyptology in 2014 from Penn. He has been a part of the Penn Museum's South Abydos Project since 2008, and his dissertation was the result of three field seasons excavating tombs of royal and non-royal individuals. In addition to his current work on the Palace of Merenptah, his research interests also include funerary archaeology of the Middle and New Kingdoms.