Akhenaten and the Birth of Monotheism

Renowned Egyptologist, Dr. James P. Allen, Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Vice-President of the International Association of Egyptologists, will present “Akhenaten and the Birth of Monotheism” at the first lecture offered by The Archaeology Center of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The presentation, in slide format, will take place from noon to 1:30 on Monday, April 28, 2003 at HUC-JIR’s Mayerson Auditorium, 3101 Clifton Avenue.

Dr. Allen, a graduate of the University of Chicago, served as epigrapher while on the University’s expedition to Luxor, Egypt. Since 1986 he has held a research appointment at Yale University, and has taught graduate seminars there and at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Allen’s specialties include ancient Egyptian language, texts and religion. He has written extensively about these subjects, and on the history of the Middle Kingdom and Amarna Period. Dr. Allen is the author of Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy o Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts and Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs.

The collection of ancient Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum, where Dr. Allen is Curator, ranks among the finest outside Cairo. In this esteemed position, Dr. Allen oversees approximately 36,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period (ca. 300,000B.C. to 4th century A.D.). These holdings reflect the aesthetic values, history, religious beliefs, and daily life of the ancient Egyptians over the entire course of their great civilization.

Founded in Cincinnati in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest institution of higher Jewish education in the Western Hemisphere and the academic and professional leadership development center of the Reform Movement. The College-Institute trains rabbis, cantors, religious school educators, and Jewish communal workers at its four campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem. In addition to training professional leadership to serve the Jewish community, HUC-JIR’s School of Graduate Studies awards Masters and Doctoral degrees to men and women of all faiths.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available and Mayerson Hall is handicap accessible. For further information please contact Dr. Nili S. Fox, the Archaeology Center’s director and Associate Professor of Bible and Ancient Near East at HUC-JIR, (513) 221-1875 ext. 268.