The Weston History & Culture Center (Weston Historical Society) and the Friends of the Weston Public Library are co-hosting an author talk and book signing with Egyptologists, John and Colleen Darnell, for their new book, Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 3pm.

The event, which will take place in the Center’s exhibit hall, is free and open to the public. Their book will be available for purchase at the event. Space is limited – register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-talk-book-signing-egypts-golden-couple-tickets-525866128747 or www.westoncthistory.org. Address is 104 Weston Road Weston, CT. Parking and entrance is on High Acre Road. Event takes place in red building adjacent to parking lot. If there is inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled to Sunday, February 26.

Akhenaten has been the subject of radically different, even contradictory, biographies. The king has achieved fame as the world’s first individual and the first monotheist, but others have seen him as an incestuous tyrant who nearly ruined the kingdom he ruled. The gold funerary mask of his son Tutankhamun and the painted bust of his wife Nefertiti are the most recognizable artifacts from all of ancient Egypt. But who are Akhenaten and Nefertiti? And what can we actually say about rulers who lived more than three thousand years ago? In this lecture, John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Darnell will explain how step-by-step, from the jubilee of his father, Amunhotep III, to Amunhotep IV’s constructions at Karnak, to the move to his new capital Akhet-Aten, Akhenaten developed his solar religion alongside his queen–and goddess consort–Nefertiti.

About the presenters: John Coleman Darnell is Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University, Director of the Elkab Desert Survey Project, and Curator of Anthropology at the Yale Peabody Museum. His most recent book is Egypt and the Desert (Cambridge University Press), and in 2017, his expedition discovered the earliest monumental hieroglyphic inscription, one of the top ten discoveries of that year in Archaeology. Colleen Darnell teaches art history at Naugatuck Valley Community College and has recently appeared in several episodes of National Geographic’s “Lost Treasures of Egypt.” In 2018, they published The Ancient Egyptian Netherworld Books (Writings from the Ancient World), the first complete English translation of the texts in the New Kingdom tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

The Weston Historical Society D/B/A The Weston History and Culture Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The Center would like to thank its annual sponsors: Fairfield County Bank and KMS Team at Compass as well as the Daniel E. Offutt, III Charitable Trust. For more information and how to donate, visit www.WestonCTHistory.org or email: info@westonhistoricalsociety.org or call: 203-226-1804.

The Friends of the Weston Public Library is voluntary organization that provides programming, activities, and services for the benefit of the community. To learn more and to donate visit: https://www.westonlibraryfriends.org.